Sep 30th, 2022 - PARIS — "I thought I was as exhausted, and isolated, and neglected as I could get, and then he came home." Those were the words of Kate Washington, PhD, from Sacramento, California, as she gave a moving account of the immense burden she felt as caregiver to her husband with cancer. She was taking part in the session, "I am FINE: Frustrated * Isolated * Neglected * Emotional," at the European So...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Updated guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer were published on September 10, 2022 by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.[1] Treatment options for elderly patients (age >70 years) and/or those with comorbidities are as follows: Intravenous (IV) paclitaxel, 135 mg/m2 plus IV carboplatin, area under the curve...

Sep 29th, 2022 - While efficacy and quality-of-life outcomes are similar across commonly used treatments for endocrine-refractory or triple-negative metastatic breast cancer, the costs of these agents vary widely, a recent analysis reveals. Notably, the authors found that using standard chemotherapy agents in specific sequences can help reduce overall costs and improve the value of care. Given "razor thin" diff...

Sep 26th, 2022 - The study covered in this summary was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaway Use of an extract of the ancient perfume frankincense — the hardened resin from trees of the Boswellia genus — decreased breast cancer cell proliferation in a small clinical trial. Why This Matters Boswellic acids, the active component in frankincense, have demons...

Sep 26th, 2022 - Cancer cachexia is a syndrome of weight loss that frequently occurs during cancer treatment. Consequences can include skeletal muscle loss, fatigue, functional impairment, worse quality of life, and worse survival. On the other hand, weight gain during cancer treatment has been tied to better survival. A new study shows that, among patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), weight gain o...

Sep 23rd, 2022 - An incredibly old way of making drugs is now an incredible new way to make drugs. Scientists have genetically reengineered a yeast fermentation process in order to produce chemotherapeutics instead of beer. Vinblastine is the most complex compound produced with engineered yeast so far, the researchers say. Its naturally occurring ingredients are normally harvested from an endangered plant in Ma...

Sep 23rd, 2022 - Multiple drug companies have recently withdrawn their respective PARP inhibitors for heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients, citing data showing an increased risk for death. In a September 14 letter to healthcare professionals, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced the voluntary withdrawal of niraparib (Zejula) for fourth-line treatment in adults with advanced ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary ...

Sep 23rd, 2022 - Approximately 1.9 million Americans are diagnosed with a potentially lethal cancer each year. That number is in addition to the approximately 3 million who are diagnosed with basal and squamous cell cancers, the vast majority of whom survive. Approximately 600,000 Americans experience progression of a potentially lethal cancer to beyond standard of curative care each year. About 280,000 are fem...

Sep 22nd, 2022 - (Reuters) - The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Fennec Pharmaceuticals Inc's intravenous therapy to prevent chemotherapy-induced hearing loss in children, according to the health regulator's website. The approval, posted on the regulator's website late Tuesday, for Pedmark allows it to be used to reduce the risk of ototoxicity in children aged over one month who have undergone chem...

Sep 22nd, 2022 - Postoperative radiotherapy is a mainstay in the treatment of uterine cancer, but the typical 5-week regimen can be time-consuming and expensive. A pilot study found that delivery of approximately the same dose over just 2.5 weeks, known as hypofractionation, had good short-term toxicity outcomes. It isn't yet clear if the protocol will be as effective as the standard course, and long-term side ...

Sep 22nd, 2022 - Using artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have developed an algorithm that can help improve the prediction of colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence. The QuantCRC algorithm can identify patients with CRC who might be able to skip chemotherapy, given a low probability of recurrence, and identify those patients at high risk for recurrence who may benefit from more intensive treatment or follow-...

Sep 20th, 2022 - PARIS — Patients with untreated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who could not withstand the rigors of platinum-based chemotherapy regimens had significantly better overall survival when treated with the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq), compared with their counterparts treated with either vinorelbine or gemcitabine in a phase 3 randomized trial. Among 353 patients with tr...

Sep 20th, 2022 - Sperm banking is not being offered to many young men who are about to undergo a cancer treatment that could render them infertile, experts say. Sperm banking is fast and relatively inexpensive. But misconceptions that it could delay treatment or that it comes with an exorbitant price tag seem to keep healthcare providers from referring patients, according to a new review. "Once a man has no spe...

Sep 19th, 2022 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. It's Mark Kris, continuing my discussion of new therapies for patients with early-stage lung cancers. I've talked about the questions posed to me by the members of the tumor board at Hartford Hospital. The third question they asked me was, for stage III patients who are resectable and potential candidates for either surgical resection or definitive c...

Sep 16th, 2022 - As abortion bans go into effect across a contiguous swath of the South, cancer physicians are wrestling with how new state laws will influence their discussions with pregnant patients about what treatment options they can offer. Cancer coincides with roughly 1 in 1,000 pregnancies, most frequently breast cancer, melanoma, cervical cancer, lymphomas, and leukemias. But medications and other trea...

Sep 15th, 2022 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. Jacob Sands, MD: Hello. I'm Dr Jacob Sands, thoracic medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Welcome to Medscape's InDiscussion series on lung cancer. Today, we'll be discussing immunotherapy and lung cancer treatment. First, let me introduce my guest, Dr Jared Weiss. Dr Weiss is a professor of medicine at UNC's Lineberger Comprehensive C...

Sep 15th, 2022 - Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancers and is divided histologically into adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma. In the United States, Canada, and many European countries, squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common histologic subtype...

Sep 14th, 2022 - PARIS — There are no approved systemic therapies for the treatment of desmoid tumors, but there may be soon — another drug with the novel mechanism of targeting the Notch signaling pathway has shown promising clinical efficacy. Desmoid tumors are rare, with a peak incidence around 30 years of age and a variable and unpredictable clinical course. Patients are predominantly female and often exper...

Sep 14th, 2022 - At 32 years old, the world was at Larry Unger's feet. He was vice president at one of Wall Street's most successful investment management firms, selling mutual funds to more than 1,000 brokers across New York. His clients relied on him for good advice, great jokes, and superlative Yankees tickets. His recent memories included fraternity days at Cornell University and a Harvard law degree. His c...

Sep 12th, 2022 - Something was gnawing at Manish Agrawal, MD. Every day, the oncologist treated patients with standard cancer therapies, but his care could never touch their deepest pains: their despair about death. "In 20 years, I've had close to 100,000 patient encounters," Agrawal says, "and the one thing I know we don't do well is dying." Hospitalist Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, was also troubled by the care h...