Categories: Breast Cancer
High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell transplantation does not improve overall survival when used as consolidation therapy after response to induction therapy in women with metastatic breast cancer, Canadian researchers report.
One small controlled trial has suggested there are improvements in overall survival after two courses of high-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous stem-cell transplantation, compared with standard-dose chemotherapy, the authors explain in the January 1st issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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Categories: Prostate Cancer
The addition of androgen suppression therapy to radiation therapy for treatment of prostate cancer fails to improve survival among men with serious co-existing illness, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association for January 23.
Recent evidence suggests that androgen suppression therapy increases the risk of cardiovascular events in men of advanced age, lead author Dr. Anthony V. D’Amico of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and his associates note.
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Categories: Breast Cancer
Statin use is not associated with an increased or decreased risk of breast cancer, according to a population-based, case-control study published in the January 1st issue of Cancer.
“Findings that statins inhibited the proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro and in rodents have raised interest in whether the use of statins might decrease a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer,” Dr. Gaia Pocobelli, of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues write. Conversely, other studies in which rodents were exposed to high doses of statins showed increases in several types of cancer.
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Categories: Cancer Treatment
The treatment and survival of adults with soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities varies widely by race and ethnicity. Compared with whites, the disease-specific mortality rates are significantly higher in blacks and significantly lower in Asians, according to authors of a paper in the March 1st issue of Cancer.
To examine the effects of race and ethnicity on tumor characteristics and outcomes, Dr. Steve R. Martinez, of University of California at Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento, and colleagues used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to identify 6406 patients with extremity soft-tissue sarcoma treated between 1988 and 2003. Included were 4636 whites, 773 blacks, 696 Hispanics, and 411 Asians.
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Categories: Breast Cancer
Requiring even a small co-payment dramatically reduces the likelihood that women will get regular mammograms to detect breast cancer, researchers reported on Wednesday.
Screening rates from 2001 through 2004 were nearly 11 percent lower for women who had to contribute a co-pay as low as $12, compared to women whose breast X-rays were free, researchers from Brown and Harvard universities found.
They surveyed more than 366,000 women aged 65 to 69.
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Categories: Prostate Cancer
Digital rectal examination (DRE) should not be excluded from prostate cancer screening protocols, according to a report in the December issue of Urology.
“To offer the patient a better evaluation of his prostate gland, the physician should perform the DRE as well as the PSA test,” Dr. William J. Catalona from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, said.
Dr. Catalona and colleagues compared clinical variables and survival outcomes between patients diagnosed with prostate cancer by DRE alone versus those diagnosed by PSA level, regardless of DRE findings.
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Categories: Cancer Treatment
Adolescents and young adults with cancer appear to have less access to clinical trials and, therefore, the latest treatments, than their younger counterparts, according to a report in the December issue of the Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
“Research has shown that patients who are enrolled in clinical trials offering the most advanced cancer treatments do better than patients who receive conventional treatment,” lead author Dr. Peter H. Shaw, from the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, said in a statement.
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Categories: Uncategorized
The expression of microRNAs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is closely associated with disease prognosis and cytogenetics, according to a study by American and Italian researchers published online in the January 10th issue of Blood. The study also found that a small subset of microRNAs (miRNAs) correlates with AML survival.
MiRNAs are small (19-25 nucleotides long), non-coding RNAs that down-regulate gene expression. Their expression has been linked over the past 5 years or so to hematopoiesis and to cancer in both humans and mice.
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Categories: Colon Cancer
Elderly patients with metastatic colon cancer, those between 76 and 80 years of age, have response and survival rates similar to their younger counterparts when given a treatment approach that includes stop-and-go oxaliplatin.
Elderly patients with metastatic colon cancer are generally excluded from randomized clinical trials, but were included in the OPTIMOX1 trial, led by Dr. Arie Figer of Beth Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. OPTIMOX1 was an evaluation of FOLFOX7, a simplified leucovorin (LV) and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) regimen (sLV5FU2) with high-dose oxaliplatin, in a new oxaliplatin stop-and-go strategy.
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Categories: Cancer Prevention
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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