February 2011

New findings indicate that prereferral care does not conform to clinical practice guidelines in nearly half of patients with head and neck cancer who are referred to a tertiary care center with persistent or recurrent disease, new findings indicate.

New data suggest that unrealistic optimism is common in patients who participate in early-phase cancer clinical trials and may interfere with their ability to provide informed consent.

Researchers are calling for prostate cancer survivors to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine.

The results of a systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that the mortality risk for colon cancer patients begins to increase with any avoidable delay in adjuvant chemotherapy beyond 4 weeks.

New data demonstrate that older adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) can be cured using risk-adjusted intensive chemotherapy without prophylactic cranial irradiation or routine stem cell transplantation.

Data from a large randomized trial showed that treatment with the targeted agent everolimus was associated with a 65% improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs).

Articles on cancer as a chronic condition often include an account of a patient's journey from diagnosis to present day.

A false-positive result on a mammogram may trigger anxiety and decrease quality of life, and the effects may remain apparent a year later, new data suggest.

For women who have survived childhood cancer, breastfeeding may help counter some of the long-term complications that occur as a result of their prior cancer treatments, researchers say.

In reviewing the therapeutic category of blood modifiers, there are 3 areas of focus

To get the right drug in the right amount at the right time to the patient in the most cost-effective manner

The risk of colorectal cancer declined by 33% among postmenopausal women taking oral bisphosphonates for osteoporosis

In situ hybridization (ISH) yields the best results for assessing HER2 expression in gastric cancer, according to a multilaboratory analysis of testing methods.

An analysis of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database showed that advanced gastric or esophageal cancer confers a poor prognosis

Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) had stable plasma concentrations of imatinib during long-term treatment, reported Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

The results of a large, multicenter trial showed that the addition of bevacizumab to adjuvant chemotherapy failed to improve disease-free survival (DFS) compared with chemotherapy alone.

At the 2011 symposium in San Francisco, California, Oncology & Biotech News spoke with the author of one of the featured presentations at the meeting

Few cancers have a bleaker outlook than pancreatic cancer.

The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC), part of the University of Miami Health System, first opened its doors in 1992. Over the years, the SCCC has become the hub of cancer research in the region.