Articles

CHICAGO—A fentanyl pectin nasal spray provides analgesia faster than immediate-release morphine in the treatment of breakthrough cancer pain, said Andrew Davies, MD, MSc at the 46th American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

 

Breakthrough cancer pain is a transient exacerbation of pain that occurs despite relatively stable and adequately controlled background pain and has a significant impact on quality of life.

 

CHICAGO—A risk stratification schema can be used to identify older patients who are at risk of grade-3 to -5 toxicity from chemotherapy. The schema includes risk factors based on cancer type, patient age, upfront dose of chemotherapy, the chemotherapeutic regimen used, and history of falling, among others, said Arti Hurria, MD at the 46^th American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

 

“We wanted to develop a predictive model for tolerance to therapy in older adults with cancer,” she said.

 

CHICAGO—Bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy followed by maintenance bevacizumab monotherapy improves progression-free survival (PFS) over chemotherapy alone in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancers, said Robert A. Burger, MD at the 46^th American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

 

CHICAGO—Denosumab delayed or prevented more skeletal-related adverse events than zoledronic acid in men with hormone-refractory prostate cancer and bone metastases.

 

The superior efficacy of denosumab on this end point along with its ease of administration—subcutaneous rather than intravenous—gives it an edge over zoledronic acid, said Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, lead investigator of a study comparing the two treatments, at the 46^th American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

 

CHICAGO—Twice-daily dosing of naproxen can reduce the incidence and severity of bone pain in cancer patients being treated with pegfilgrastim, according to data presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

 

CHICAGO—In a phase 1 study in advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) deemed worthy of a presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 46^th annual meeting plenary session, a multinational group of investigators reported improved survival with an oral investigational agent still unfamiliar to most oncologists.

 

Researchers at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, report that they have achieved greater than 90% accuracy in distinguishing high-grade from low-grade prostate cancers using computer analysis of magnetic resonance (MR) images and spectra of the patient’s prostate gland. The findings may help determine which patients need aggressive treatment and which may be better served by watchful waiting.

 

 

The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced $159.1 million in grants to healthcare workforce training programs, with the largest share— $106 million—going to support nursing education.

 

The rest of the funds will be spent on training geriatric specialists and improve the performance and recruitment of underrepresented minority students.