Adding androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) to dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer improves biochemical failure-free survival but not overall survival (OS), according to a retrospective study. Researchers from Emory University School of Medicine and the Atlanta Veterans Administration in Georgia conducted the study. Read More ›
Extravasation is always a risk when administering medicines intravenously. This is when the infused drug infiltrates the tissue surrounding the injection site. The resulting injury can range from mild to lifethreatening, depending on whether the drug involved is classified as an irritant or a vesicant.
The Infusion Nurses Society (INS) defines a vesicant as “an agent capable of causing injury when it escapes from the intended vascular pathway into the surrounding tissue.”1
A call came from a nurse attending to 3 patients in the infusion clinic. One patient had received a full dose of doxorubicin (60 mg/m2) via the vein in the dorsum of her hand. Afterward, the nurse detected a trace of blood in the infusion tube. While administering post-dose hydration, she noticed that the patient’s hand was completely swollen.
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center is a public hospital with 167 beds. Despite our hospital’s cost-conscious approach to formulary management, it was one of the first in the area to add the dexrazoxane for injection (Totect) emergency treatment kit to its formulary. This addition predated the On cology Nursing Society guidelines on managing anthracycline extravasation and followed a long process involving presentations to 4 hospital committees.
Vandetanib (Zactima) received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today for adults with nonresectable or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). Vandetanib was initially approved under the FDA's orphan drug program, making it the first medical treatment for MTC.
Following up the combination regimen of gemcitabine (Gemzar) and FOLFOX with drugs designed to boost the immune system significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Pierpaolo Correale MD, PhD, Siena University School of Medicine, Italy, noted that the benefits observed in the experimental arm of the trial led a monitoring committee to halt the trial early. Preliminary data were reported at the 102nd annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research being held in Orlando, Florida.
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