Women with high-grade ovarian cancer involving tumors with BRCA2 mutations live longer and have a better response to platinum-based chemotherapy, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Institute for Systems Biology report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
There is a new biotechnology that may assist with the detection of prostate cancer and the reduction of unnecessary prostate cancer biopsies along with subsequent overtreatment. Due to the discovery of specific prostate cancer DNA fusions, a new urine test for prostate cancer was developed by researchers at the University of Michigan.
Years after treatment, 45% of cancer survivors in Northern Ireland suffer from physical and mental health problems, according to new research from Macmillan Cancer Support and Queen’s University Belfast.
Prostate cancer developed more often in men who took 400 international units (IU) of vitamin E daily compared to men who took a placebo, according to an updated review of data from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Updated results appeared October 12, 2011, in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A combination of chemotherapy and Herceptin significantly increases survival in women with early-stage aggressive breast cancer, according to a study by UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center published in the October 6, 2011, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Also, anthracyclines aren’t required to treat early-stage breast cancer successfully, and the associated toxicities can and should be avoided, said study lead author Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, whose basic laboratory and clinical research led to the development of Herceptin.
According to new research, advanced imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) scans demonstrates great potential to determine which patients with inoperable lung cancer possess more aggressive tumors and require additional treatment beyond standard chemotherapy/radiation therapy.
“We can expect a dramatic increase in the number of older adults who are diagnosed with or carry a history of cancer,” said Julia Rowland, PhD, director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). “Cancer is largely a disease of aging, so we’re seeing yet another effect of the baby boom generation and we need to prepare for this increase.”
For non–small cell lung cancer that has metastasized to the lymph nodes, a higher dose of radiation (74 Gy) does not increase overall survival compared to the standard radiation dose (60 Gy), according to an interim analysis of a randomized study presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
It may become easier for cancer patients to understand and feel comfortable enrolling in cancer clinical trials thanks to a newly created Internet-based multimedia informed consent tool, according to a recent study. The resource has the potential to increase the low percentage of adult cancer patients who participate in clinical trials (2%-4% nationwide), says the research group from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who conducted the survey.
Recent study findings defy the perception that older cancer patients do not have access to or are not comfortable using Web-based technology. When given the choice, cancer patients are significantly more likely to use Web-based technology, compared to a paper survey, when answering questions about their quality of life 6 months after treatment, according to a study presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
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