A team of researchers from nine leading academic hospitals and research centers have published a paper in the journal Cancer that describes pulmonary outcomes among childhood cancer survivors. The study also evaluates the impact of complications such as asthma, chronic cough, emphysema, and...
A collaborative modeling study evaluating outcomes for various screening intervals for women over the age of 50 based on breast density and risk for breast cancer has found that average-risk women with low breast density undergoing triennial screening and higher-risk women with high breast density...
The U.S. health-care system is characterized—on a global level—by its unsustainable spending, which does not necessarily correlate to better outcomes in patients with cancer. With $2.9 trillion spent in 2013, the United States ranks first in health-care spending among the world’s...
A phase II study has found venetoclax (Venclexta) to be clinically active in patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) or those unfit for intensive chemotherapy, with an overall response rate of 19% and a tolerable safety profile. The study results, which were...
As reported by Esselen et al in JAMA Oncology, cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) tests and computed tomography (CT) scans for surveillance in women with ovarian cancer continue to be used routinely, although their benefit has not been proven and the practices have significant quality-of-life and economic ...
Although a majority of states are still missing important opportunities to pass and implement legislative solutions proven to prevent and fight cancer, there is progress being made to move the nation closer to ending cancer as we know it, according to a report recently released by the American...
Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy and open radical retropubic prostatectomy yielded similar domain-specific quality-of-life or pathologic outcomes at 12 weeks in men with newly diagnosed, clinically localized prostate cancer, according to the results of a randomized phase III trial reported ...
In a phase III noninferiority trial (NRG Oncology RTOG 0415) reported by Lee et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, W. Robert Lee, MD, MS, Med, of Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues found that hypofractionated radiotherapy was not inferior to conventional hypofractionated...
Men with testicular cancer who were uninsured or on Medicaid had a higher risk of death from what is normally a curable disease than insured patients, a new study found. The findings, published by Markt et al in Cancer, add to growing evidence that differences in health insurance status can affect...
July 2009 was the start of the worst 5-year period of my life, and I’m just grateful I am still here to tell you about it. I was preparing for brain surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma on the right side of my brain when I noticed a lump on my left thigh. Thinking I had pulled a muscle while...
Screening for colorectal cancer should start at age 50 and continue until age 75, according to the updated recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).1 “Exactly what screening gets done is something that doctors and patients should decide together,” USPSTF Chair Kirsten...
In an updated recommendation statement, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) continues to strongly recommend screening for colorectal cancer for asymptomatic adults aged 50 through 75; but rather than emphasize specific screening strategies, it notes there are multiple screening...
Receiving an invitation to get screened for cervical cancer is associated with a greater likelihood of getting screened, according to a study published by Tavasoli et al in Preventive Medicine. The study explored the impact of invitation and reminder letters on cervical cancer screening...
On July 16, 1975, at 26 years of age, after almost 6 months of observing a left epididymal mass slowly enlarge, with workup for epididymal tuberculosis, I finally underwent a left inguinal orchiectomy and resection of what proved to be a pure seminoma. A subsequent lymphangiogram was reported to...
BookmarkTitle: The Gene: An Intimate HistoryAuthor: Siddhartha Mukherjee, MDPublisher: ScribnerPublication date: May 2016Price: $32.00; hardcover, 608 pagesOn February 28, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick entered The Eagle, a favorite watering hole for researchers working at the University of...
On July 7, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Roche cobas HPV Test as the first test for human papillomavirus (HPV) that can be used with cervical cells obtained for a Papanicolau (Pap) test and collected in SurePath Preservative Fluid. The FDA approves HPV tests to be...
The addition of the anti–CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4) checkpoint inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) to etoposide/platinum did not improve overall survival in the first-line treatment of patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to a phase...
Active pharmacovigilance in detecting and assessing the safety signals related to drugs and devices, and disseminating those findings to relevant stakeholders, is an important component in delivering safe, high-quality care in the cancer setting. To reach a better understanding of this issue,...
In a retrospective study analyzing patients' medical records, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) found that race significantly affected longevity by increasing the likelihood of death after receiving androgen-deprivation therapy. These findings were published by Kovtun et al in...
Recent years have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scientific literature questioning the effectiveness of mammography screening in decreasing breast cancer mortality.1-4 This article explores how the Israeli experience has demonstrated the efficacy of organized national...
In an analysis of the observational database of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nilanjan Ghosh, MD, PhD, of Levine Cancer Institute, Carolinas Healthcare System, Charlotte, North Carolina, and colleagues found that...
The global economic crisis has been associated with increased unemployment and reduced public-sector expenditure on health care. In a study reported in The Lancet, Mahiben Maruthappu, MA, of Imperial College London, and colleagues found that the global economic crisis beginning in 2008 was...
Integrated care, a focus on prevention and screening, and acknowledgment of comorbidities on the impact of treatment all play a critical role in the cancer survivorship of older patients, according to Martine Extermann, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida....
Harmonized recommendations for surveillance of premature ovarian insufficiency in female survivors of childhood, adolescent, and young adult (CAYA) cancers have been published by van Dorp et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on behalf of the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer...
In an analysis from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bhakta et al found a high cumulative burden of cardiovascular morbidity among pediatric, adolescent, and young adult survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma. Study Details The study involved data from 670 survivors of...
There has been an ongoing debate about which type of radiation therapy is preferable in the treatment of localized prostate cancer: hypofractionation (larger fractions given over 4–5 weeks) or conventional radiotherapy (given over 8–9 weeks). A new study presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting...
The dismal accrual rates in cancer clinical trials are well known: Just 3% to 5% of adults with cancer enroll in clinical trials.1 The reasons patients are reluctant to participate in clinical trials are equally well known: fear of reduced quality of life, concern about receiving a placebo, and...
Women were less likely to have breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy if they had Medicaid or Medicare rather than private insurance or if they lived 10 or more miles from a plastic surgeon’s office, a University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center study has ...
The immunotherapy ipilimumab (Yervoy) has revolutionized the treatment of malignant melanoma and resulted in durable responses in 20% to 25% of patients with the cancer. A study by Theurich et al investigating the benefits of combining ipilimumab with local peripheral treatments, such as...
In a prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Shu et al found that risk for serous/serous-like endometrial carcinoma appeared to be increased after risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) without hysterectomy in women harboring the BRCA1 mutation. The overall risk of uterine cancer...
Physicians from Carolinas HealthCare System's Neurosciences Institute and Levine Cancer Institute are among the authors of a study published by Brown et al in JAMA. The study showed how among patients with one to three brain metastases, the use of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone, compared...
Crinò et al found that ceritinib (Zykadia) was active overall and in central nervous system (CNS) metastases in patients with ALK-rearranged advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) previously treated with crizotinib (Xalkori) and chemotherapy, according to the ASCEND-2 phase II...
A new study indicates that delirium is relatively frequent and underdiagnosed by physicians in patients with advanced cancer visiting the emergency department. Delirium was similarly common among older and younger patients, which suggests that in the setting of advanced cancer, all patients should...
Treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced response in two-thirds of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of both autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) and brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris),...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chagtai et al of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) Renal Tumours Study Group found that chromosome 1q gain was associated with poorer event-free survival in patients with Wilms tumor treated with preoperative...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Niedzwiecki et al found that the ColDx gene-expression signature assay identified high-risk stage II colon cancer among patients in the phase III Alliance C9581 trial. This assay has been shown to be independently prognostic for...
When I was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) at the age of 2 in 1974, not much was known about the cancer or the side effects of its treatment. Too young to understand what was happening to me, the burden fell to my parents and older sibling to protect and care for me. For more than...
Among women undergoing fertility treatment in the Netherlands between 1980 and 1995, the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) compared with non-IVF treatment was not associated with increased risk of breast cancer after a median follow-up of 21 years, according to a study published by van den...
In a long-term follow-up of a European trial reported by Isabelle Demeestere, MD, PhD, of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist treatment during chemotherapy in young women with lymphoma was...
The National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences took up the issue of lung cancer screening at its mid-June workshop. Greta Massetti, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and chair of ...
The 5-year survival rate of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer remains stubbornly fixed around 5%. Even in the 20% of cases in which surgical resection is undertaken for curative intent, the 5-year survival rate after surgery is 20% to 30%. As we make progress in other cancers with decreasing...
A new study from the University of Illinois confirms a link between Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screenings and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer in women over age 65. However, most American health guidelines discourage women in that age range from receiving screenings unless they have...
The cumulative incidence of endocrinopathies steadily increased over time in aging survivors of childhood cancers, according to an analysis of data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study reported by Mostoufi-Moab et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study included...
A large observational study examining the variation in breast density assessment among radiologists in clinical practice has found a wide variation—from 6.3% to 84.5%—in the percentage of mammograms rated as showing dense breasts, which persisted after adjusting for patient...
A nationwide project is enlisting patients with breast cancer to share their tumor samples and clinical information. Launched in October 2015, the Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) Project has enrolled more than 2,000 patients from all 50 states and is yielding information that will be shared with...
The success of using social media to push forward causes for social good was a driving factor in the launch this past October of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Project (MBC project), which aims to accelerate the understanding of what makes patients with metastatic breast cancer genetically unique....
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has endorsed human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the principal source of guidance on U.S. immunization policy. The ACS's...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, focusing on clinical trials on therapeutics in different types of leukemia, multiple myeloma, follicular lymphoma, and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit...
In patients with low-grade serous carcinoma, maintenance hormonal therapy reduced the risk of recurrence by 77%, compared with surveillance, in a retrospective cohort from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study was reported by David Marc Gershenson, MD, at the 2016 ASCO...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schmitz et al have developed and validated a risk score for CNS relapse—the Central Nervous System International Prognostic Index (CNS-IPI)—in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan]...