Articles

While incidence rates of some cancers are declining, Mayo Clinic is experiencing a dramatic rise of skin cancer, especially among people under 40. According to a study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Mayo Clinic researchers claim the incidence of melanoma has soared, with young women the hardest hit.

Researchers claim doctors often can’t see potentially dangerous precancerous lesions when patients don’t sufficiently prep for colonoscopy by cleansing their colons.

Doctors often missed at least 1 precancerous growth in about one-third of patients who did not properly prepare for their colonoscopy, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The report, published recently in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, states that the discovery of those polyps occurred months later when patients had their next colonoscopy.

A new study from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has found that very few young women, and only certain groups of young women, with cancer attempt to preserve their fertility while undergoing cancer therapy. The study, published early online in Cancer, suggests that counseling on fertility preservation is needed for reproductive-aged women diagnosed with cancer.

A new blood test is twice as sensitive and can detect breast cancer recurrence a full year earlier than current blood tests, according to Daniel Raftery, PhD, who reported on the test at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Dr Hansen provides a thorough review of adherence in cancer therapy and the growing use of oral therapies. These agents may provide patient convenience, but they also present significant adherence issues. As Dr Hansen reported, it cannot be assumed that a patient will adhere to the prescribed medication doses and schedules simply because he or she is facing a potentially life-threatening illness. Read More ›

In laboratory experiments, we can nearly guarantee that the intervention being tested is received, short of human error. We cannot control whether the patient arrives at the clinic, but when we prescribe medications that are given intravenously, we can very accurately record whether the medication was administered. With oral medications, however, there are many black holes both in research and clinical settings, and despite the best efforts to measure adherence, the impact of nonadherence is largely unknown. Read More ›

In an era when oral drugs are increasingly becoming a part of our approach to care for patients with cancer, adherence to prescribed therapy is essential. Yet the statistics cited by Dr Hansen are a stark reminder that despite our best intentions, cancer patients do not and will not always take oral medications the way in which they are directed. For the clinician, this poses a challenge as to how best to confront this troublesome issue in order to improve outcomes for the patients entrusted to our care. The details of such an effort may vary from cancer center to cancer center. Read More ›

Results from a phase 3 study of women with HER2-positive early breast cancer showed that administering Herceptin (trastuzumab) by subcutaneous (SC) injection leads to efficacy comparable to the current intravenous (IV) Herceptin treatment. Due to its less invasive administration and quicker administration time (5 minutes vs 30-90 minutes), Herceptin SC may allow greater convenience for patients versus the traditional IV method. This is important in the early breast cancer setting, as Herceptin is usually prescribed for 1 year.

Postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer treated with aromatase inhibitors prior to surgery may be able to have breast-conserving surgery rather than a mastectomy, according to the results of a national clinical trial.

A daily low dose of aspirin could be effective, not just as a preventive measure, but as an additional treatment for those with cancer, according to 3 studies led by Oxford University researchers.

According to Professor Peter Rothwell of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “What we have now shown is that aspirin also has short-term effects, which are manifest after only 2-3 years.” He continues, “In particular, we show that aspirin reduces the likelihood that cancers will spread to distant organs by about 40-50%.”