Cancer Research Lab

In vitro fertilization (IVF) may be safely undertaken in women conservatively treated for well differentiated endometrial carcinoma, according to a report in the December Fertility and Sterility.

“Fertility preservation is a rapidly developing field, and it is important that the different available options for fertility preservation be known worldwide for every woman facing cancer treatment,” Dr. Shai E. Elizur from McGill Reproduction Center, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, said. “Young women facing gonadotoxic treatment should be referred as soon as possible to a fertility specialist to consider fertility preservation options.”

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Treatment with high-dose methotrexate leads to complete response in a substantial proportion of patients with primary CNS lymphoma, according to long-term follow-up of a phase II trial.

Dr. Tracy T. Batchelor, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues treated 25 HIV-negative adult patients with newly diagnosed primary CNS lymphoma with IV methotrexate 8 g/m² every 2 weeks for up to 8 weeks or until a complete response was achieved. Complete responders were given two additional consolidation cycles of methotrexate and 11 maintenance cycles.

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The survival of patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer is significantly longer after treatment with docetaxel every 3 weeks with prednisone (D3P) compared with other regimens, according to the follow-up of a major study.

The update of the TAX 327 study, which compared D3P to a weekly docetaxel treatment with prednisone (D1P) and with mitoxantrone plus prednisone (MP), was published in the January 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Chewing gum beginning the day after radical cystectomy with urinary diversion hastens the return of bowel motility by about half a day, researchers report.

“We currently start patients (chewing gum) on the day after surgery, chewing one stick three times per day,” Dr. Raj S. Pruthi said. “The outcome, a return of bowel function, was faster in the gum-chewing group, perhaps due to reflexes in our body, such as orogastric and orocolic reflexes, that may stimulate gastrointestinal activity with chewing.”

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Surgeon characteristics, such as gender or country of training, appear to influence whether a women with breast cancer will receive adjuvant radiotherapy, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute for February 6.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality considers radiotherapy after breast conservation surgery (BCS) as a quality of care indicator, yet many do not receive this treatment, comment Dr. Dawn L. Hershman and colleagues from Columbia University in New York. The goal of the present study was to determine whether surgeon-related factors play a role in the receipt of post-BCS radiotherapy.

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A bladder sparing protocol is feasible in a selected population of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who decline radical surgery, Italian researchers report in the January issue of Cancer.

“Our findings support the safety and effectiveness of multimodality treatment,” senior investigator Dr. Ricardo Autorino said. “We found complete response, bladder-intact survival and overall survival rates to be similar to those determined in previously published series.”

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Surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer can have a substantial impact on long-term health-related quality of life, results of a study published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggest.

“Although surgery for early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is known to have a substantial impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), there are few published studies about HRQOL in the longer term,” Dr. Patricia Kenny, of the University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues write.

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Nexavar (sorafenib), used to treat kidney cancer, has shown promise in treating a small number of people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Nexavar (Bayer AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals) dramatically reduced the percentage of circulating leukemia cells in 16 subjects with a mutation in the FLT3 gene, which occurs in about one third of AML patients.

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The highly attenuated modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) induces an antibody response as robust as that induced by the conventional smallpox vaccine Dryvax, scientists report in the January Journal of Virology.

Because it has been attenuated through passage in chicken embryo fibroblasts, MVA replicates poorly in nonavian cells. Its safety profile indicates that it may be a useful alternative to Dryvax for immunocompromised individuals, individuals with atopic dermatitis, children, and pregnant women, for whom Dryvax is contraindicated. It is also being considered for immunization prior to Dryvax administration to reduce Dryvax reactogenicity.

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Altered patterns of microRNA expression in colon adenocarcinomas are associated with treatment response and prognosis, scientists report in the Journal of the American Medical Association for January 30. Dr. Aaron J. Schetter and Dr. Curtis C. Harris and colleagues identified one particular microRNA – miR-21 – that appears to actively promote tumor progression.

“Our findings show a systematic change in microRNA expression in colon tumors, suggesting a role for microRNAs in this process,” Drs. Schetter and Harris, at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, said. “High miR-21 expression has also been found in 11 other cancer types, indicating that these findings may be relevant to other cancers.”

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