Maintaining a healthy body weight is important for all patients. But, this is especially true for women with a breast cancer diagnosis, as an analysis of the California Teachers Study has shown a correlation between breast cancer deaths and body mass index (BMI).
Obesity (defined as BMI ≥30 kg/m²) increased a woman’s risk of dying of their breast cancer by 69%, compared with women with a BMI <25. For patients who were overweight at 18 years of age (defined as BMI 25-29), a similar increased risk in breast cancer mortality was detected.
Short-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for 4 months before and during radiotherapy increases overall survival rates and decreases disease-specific mortality rates in men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, according to an interventional phase 3 study.
Continuous use of aspirin for 5 years or more reduces the risk of cutaneous melanoma by almost half, according to results of a case-control study. Continuous use of nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) also reduces risk, but only by 25%.
Patients diagnosed with high-grade non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer are not receiving guideline-recommended care, according to an analysis of data from the SEER-Medicare Linked Database.
The combination of everolimus and trastuzumab shows promise against metastatic breast cancer in pretreated, HER2-positive patients with trastuzumab resistance, according to results of a phase 1/2 study. This targeted, nonchemotherapy regimen provided partial responses in 7 of 47 patients and persistent stable disease (lasting 6 months or longer) in 9 of 47 patients. The regimen produced a clinical benefit rate of 34%, and median progression-free survival was 4.1 month.
First-line treatment with erlotinib prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and increased the response rate compared with treatment with chemotherapy in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations, according to an interim analysis of this phase 3 randomized European Tarceva vs Chemotherapy (EURTAC) trial presented at the 14thWorld Conference on Lung Cancer.
This past Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 2 drugs that could help our patients: fentanyl nasal spray (Lazanda, Archimedes Pharma) and rivaroxaban (Xarelto, Janssen Pharmaceuticals).
Use of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) for the detection of lung cancer reduced the rate of death over use of the more traditional chest radiography (CXR), according to the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). The NSLT found that, with a rate of adherence to screening was more than 90%, LDCT exhibited a positive screening rate of 24.2%, whereas CXR exhibited 6.9%. Both techniques produced a high rate of false positives.
After 2 days of hearings, the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) confirmed the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) earlier decision to remove bevacizumab’s (Avastin, Genentech) indication in combination with paclitaxel chemotherapy for previously untreated (first-line) HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.
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