Articles

Controlling the pain related to bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer can be difficult. Researchers have now discovered a single dose of a bisphosphonate drug is as effective for pain relief as single-dose radiotherapy, the standard treatment for bone metastases, according to a large randomized phase 3 trial presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress.*

Postmenopausal women with breast cancer benefit significantly from using zoledronic acid as an aid to chemotherapy, according to trial results presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress* and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.¹ Could this be the key to unlocking the breast cancer recurrence process as well as advancements toward new breast cancer therapy options? Researchers believe so.

Fear, anxiety, and isolation could all play a role in the etiology of breast cancer aggressiveness, especially for minority patients, according to study results presented at the 4th American Association for Cancer Research Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities.

It was announced on September 19, 2011, that two new indications for Prolia^® (denosumab) were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One indication allows for building bone mass in women receiving adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy for breast cancer and with an increased likelihood of fracture. The other indication is for increasing bone mass in men being treated with androgen deprivation therapy for nonmetastatic prostate cancer and at great risk for fracture. Read More ›

Monroe Township, NJ. September 15, 2011—Green Hill Healthcare Communications, LLC, a privately held medical communications firm, announced today the launch of a ground-breaking first-of-its-kind journal, Personalized Medicine in Oncology (PMO),the official publication of the Global Biomarkers Consortium (GBC) in Oncology (www.globalbiomarkersconsortium.com).

Patients diagnosed with cancer are living longer than ever before as a result of greater awareness, earlier detection, and improvement in therapies. However, living longer also means facing the symptoms of cancer survivorship, which may have a considerable impact on quality of life for many patients. One such symptom is chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain, a neurotoxic effect of some chemotherapeutic agents. Unfortunately, currently approved pain medications can have unbearable side effects that preclude the use of effective doses.

Breast and cervical cancer cases and deaths are rising in most areas of the world, and this is especially true in developing countries where more women are dying at younger ages, according to a new global analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The new study, “Breast and cervical cancer trends for 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis,” is published in The Lancet.

The analysis shows:

On September 15, 2011, GE and several financial partners announced a healthymagination open innovation challenge to discover ideas and create products that will assist in the fight against cancer, beginning specifically with breast cancer.

One effective way to manage the projected oncology workforce shortage is to increase the role of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in oncology practices, according to a new American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) study, “Study of Collaborative Practice Arrangements” (SPCA), published September 15, 2011 in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

Golf balls may be small, but if struck by one, you would know that they have tremendous impact. So it was in the beginning of the Play for P.I.N.K. (PFP) organization when a small group of women proved to make a huge impact on funding for breast cancer research.