May 27th, 2022 - When Jane Cooke Wright, MD, entered the medical profession in 1945, the notion that toxic drugs could target tumors struck many physicians and patients as outlandish. How could one poison be weaponized against another poison — a cancerous tumor — without creating more havoc? Let alone a combination of two or more chemicals? Yet by the time Wright retired in 1987, chemotherapy treatments that sh...

May 27th, 2022 - MADRID, Spain — Researchers discussed an update on the latest evidence regarding the cancer-lifestyle link as part of the Precision Health session: Oncology, held during the 7th International Congress of the Spanish Society of Precision Health (SESAP). The role that certain nutrients can have on tumor development was analyzed, along with the most recent data justifying the idea that the prescri...

May 26th, 2022 - The biggest cancer conference in the world is back in person after 2 years online during the COVID pandemic. And it appears many are eager to attend the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in person now that they can. By early May, ASCO already had 30,000 registrations, of which 80% were in person — there were 27,000 hotel reservations. "That's almost identical to where ...

May 24th, 2022 - Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80%-85% of all lung cancers and nearly 25% of all cancer deaths, with adenocarcinoma, the predominant subtype. Patients with NSCLC often have no symptoms, and unfortunately often present initially with advanced disease, with only 20% of lung cancers presenting with localized disease. Thus, early detection through lung cancer screening in asymptoma...

May 24th, 2022 - When Melissa Boughton complained to her OB-GYN about dull pelvic pain, the doctor responded by asking about her diet and exercise habits. The question seemed irrelevant, considering the type of pain she was having, Boughton thought at the time. But it wasn't unusual coming from this doctor. "Every time I was in there, she'd talk about diet and exercise," said Boughton, who is 34 and lives in Du...

May 23rd, 2022 - It is the end of August 2019. I wheel a cart piled high with the contents of my office out through the clinic's sliding glass doors. Interspersed between the textbooks and files and boxes are multiple bouquets of flowers, creating an oddly festive jumble. I reflect on my last patient of the day. Maybe the last patient I will ever see in this clinic. But that is uncertain at this point. Everythi...

May 23rd, 2022 - The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued a new guideline on exercise, diet, and weight management during active cancer treatment in adults. The main endorsement was for oncology providers to recommend aerobic and resistance exercise to patients who are undergoing active treatment with curative intent, in order to mitigate side effects associated with therapy. Clinicians may a...

May 19th, 2022 - Among patients with stage II or stage III rectal adenocarcinoma, organ preservation is achievable in up to half of patients who undergo total neoadjuvant chemotherapy (TNT), according to the results from a new randomized phase 2 trial. The study included 324 patients from 18 centers who were randomized into one of two groups: induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy (INCT-CRT) or ch...

May 18th, 2022 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In patients with multifocal intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), hepatic arterial infusion pump (HAIP) floxuridine chemotherapy may be an effective alternative to surgery, a cohort study suggests. "We believe that these findings are practice-changing," Stijn Franssen and Dr. Bas Groot Koerkamp, both of Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in Rotterdam, told Reuters Health ...

May 17th, 2022 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. Lidia Schapira, MD: Hello. I'm Dr Lidia Schapira, and I want to welcome you to Medscape InDiscussion: Breast Cancer. Today, we'll be talking about treatment and follow-up care for premenopausal women with breast cancer, a topic that is challenging for all clinicians — not only oncologists but also obstetricians, gynecologists, primary care clinicians...

May 17th, 2022 - The study was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaways Among the various chemotherapy options for metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), FOLFIRI + bevacizumab is the most likely to cause acute kidney injury (AKI). Prognostic factors for AKI include old age, low body mass index (BMI), proteinuria at baseline, as well as regimens containing beva...

May 17th, 2022 - The study was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaway Having sarcopenia almost doubles the risk that women with hormone receptor (HR)–positive breast cancer will stop receiving endocrine therapy early owing to side effects. Why This Matters It is known that sarcopenia is associated with a reduction in chemotherapy adherence and is predictiv...

May 16th, 2022 - More than 70% of cancer patients do not know that they are at greater risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) than the general population. It is up to their physician to discuss this with them. This link is explained by the authors of an article in Cancer Treatment and Research Communications that reports results of a survey carried out by the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC). "The aim of th...

May 13th, 2022 - A comprehensive meta-analysis shows that patients with cancer and COVID-19 have a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than their cancer-free peers. And contrary to some individual studies, younger age was associated with worse outcomes from COVID-19, with the risk of mortality decreasing in patients with cancer and COVID-19 as age increased. When considering cancer types and treatments, patients...

May 12th, 2022 - We have a half-forgotten Indian immigrant to thank – a hospital night porter turned biochemist –for revolutionizing treatment of leukemia, the once deadly childhood scourge that is still the most common pediatric cancer. Dr Yellapragada SubbaRow has been called the "father of chemotherapy" for developing methotrexate, a powerful, inexpensive therapy for leukemia and other diseases, and he is ce...

May 11th, 2022 - The observation that women with lung cancer seem to live longer than men can be explained by known prognostic factors, a new study suggests. “In this first Australian prospective study of lung cancer survival comparing men and women, we found that men had a 43% greater risk of dying from their lung cancer than women,” comments lead author Xue Qin Yu, PhD, the Daffodil Centre, the University of ...

May 11th, 2022 - Many patients face emergency department (ED) visits and hospital readmissions following chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, according to a new report in JAMA Oncology. Researchers found that nearly 40% of patients were rehospitalized at least once within 12 months of treatment, and about 1 in 5 visited the ED at least once. "Primary disease and infections in the context of myelosupp...

May 11th, 2022 - With an abundance of targeted therapies transforming the treatment landscape for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), picking the optimal drug or drug sequence for the right situation can be a challenge, but emerging data is helping guide clinicians facing the "agony of choice," a new review reports. "Targeted therapies have outnumbered chemoimmunotherapy-based treatment approaches, demonstratin...

May 10th, 2022 - Two major medical groups strengthened their recommendations for active surveillance (AS) for patients with low-risk prostate cancer and for the first time recommended the approach for some patients with favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Experts hailed the new guidelines, released May 10 by the American Urological Association (AUA) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTR...

May 6th, 2022 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. New data shed light on the durability of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and the impact of booster doses for patients with cancer undergoing systemic therapy or who have received a stem cell transplant (SCT). In a cross-sectional study of 453 such patients, anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protei...