Articles

Patients with metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received early palliative care as well as standard care had a better quality of life (QoL), improved mood, and, despite receiving less aggressive end-of-life care, lived longer than patients who received standard care alone, a new study shows.

 

In women with BRCA mutations, increased mammographic breast density is not associated with a higher risk of breast cancer and should not be a factor in making decisions about treatment, Canadian researchers report.

 

Increased mammographic breast density is a known breast cancer risk factor in the general population but it was not known whether that would hold true in women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

 

A novel prognostic model makes it possible to stratify the majority of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) into two prognostic groups with significant implications for the therapeutic strategy.

 

As reported in the August issue of Blood, use of the additive model, which integrates the well-established cytogenic risk system, allowed stratification of elderly AML patients with intermediate-risk karotype into good intermediate risk and adverse intermediate risk groups with distinctly different prognoses.

 

Reimplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue, a technique that has been used successfully in women with lymphoma or solid tumors, may cause disease recurrence in women with leukemia, a new study indicates.

 

Reduced-intensity therapy may be just as effective but less toxic than a more intense regimen for patients with early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma, German researchers report.

 

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.