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 27th, 2022 - Increasing social services spending by 10% led to improved survival for non-Hispanic Black adults with cancer, according to new research. Five-year overall survival increased among non-Hispanic Black patients by 2.02% in conjunction with a 10% increase in spending. In addition, there was a decrease in racial disparities in survival between non-Hispanic Black patients and White patients for many...

May 27th, 2022 - Learning that a family member has cancer can be devastating enough. Waiting to find out whether a loved one can afford their treatment takes the concern to another level. That was the case for health policy expert Stacie B. Dusetzina, PhD, when her mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. "There is this period where you are waiting to learn more about the cancer type and treatment op...

May 27th, 2022 - The COVID pandemic pushed telemedicine forward as a safe, accessible, and more widely reimbursed approach to care delivery for patients with cancer, but uptake of telemedicine was plagued by inequities, a retrospective study suggests. Before March 2020, only a very small percentage of patients with cancer used telemedicine services. By November 2021, nearly 16% of patients initiating cancer tre...

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 26th, 2022 - Obstetrician Beverly Gray, MD, is already seeing the effects of the Roe v. Wade abortion debate in her North Carolina practice. Dr Beverly Gray The state allows abortion but requires that women get counseling with a qualified health professional 72 hours before the procedure. "Aside from that, we still have patients asking for more efficacious contraceptive methods just in case," said Gray, res...

May 26th, 2022 - Trishna Bharadia has multiple sclerosis and works as a patient engagement consultant and is often asked to participate in clinical trials. Mostly, though, she turns them down. She has to; a resident of rural England, Bharadia lives hours away from most clinical trial sites. Even if one were closer, the medical care typically requires time off work, which is hard for her to get. Bharadia partici...

May 25th, 2022 - "We only want to hear positive information." "Don't tell him about his prognosis." "We don't want to hear any doom or gloom." This is what it's like to be a cancer physician in America. As a medical oncologist, I spend much of my time helping people navigate the (for many) uncharted waters of uncertainty and bad news. Even and especially when it's not what people want to hear. But over the past...

May 25th, 2022 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gastroesophageal cancer patients with locally advanced disease and high baseline tissue expression of PD-L1 may benefit from the addition of pembrolizumab to standard neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery, researchers suggest. "Adding immunotherapy concurrently to neoadjuvant chemoradiation shows promise for improving outcomes of some patients with this disease and ...

May 25th, 2022 - In the largest investigation into the issue to date, metformin did not improve survival of patients with high-risk, operable breast cancer when added to standard adjuvant treatments. Metformin, a common option for patients with type 2 diabetes, had previously been shown in observational studies to be associated with improved survival of cancer patients, as reported by Medscape Medical News. Tho...

May 25th, 2022 - SAN DIEGO – Video and text messaging may not increase the proportion of people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who get influenza vaccinations. Although patients who received the messages expressed greater intention to get the vaccinations in a trial of the two methods, they didn't follow through and get the shots, said Keren Appel, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Children's Hospital...

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 24th, 2022 - The first ever head-to-head comparison of two biomarker tests for grading prostate cancer came out a draw, suggesting that clinicians can use either assessment with confidence, particularly in the setting of low-risk tumors.   The study found that the Prostate Health Index (phi) test (Beckman Coulter) and the 4Kscore (OPKO Health) are equally effective at assessing the likelihood that a patient...

May 24th, 2022 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Delays in surgery for advanced esophageal cancer, such as those implemented in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, result in significantly worse outcomes, a new analysis found. Delayed surgery did not appear to affect survival for patients with stage I esophageal cancer, however, according to an analysis of data collected in National Cancer Database from 2010-...

May 24th, 2022 - Sarah Coughlin, MD Genetic testing has been a game changer in cancer care and prevention, but could we be doing more? Could we use multigene panel testing more broadly to identify both more precise treatments and cancers earlier in patients and their family members? In the study, "Multigene Panel Testing Yields High Rates of Clinically Actionable Variants Amongst a Large Colorectal Cancer Cohor...

May 23rd, 2022 - LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies including Novartis and Roche have teamed up with global cancer organisations in an alliance aimed at getting more oncology medications to poorer countries. Currently, fewer than 50% of the cancer drugs on the World Health Organization's (WHO) essential medicines list are available in low and middle income countries, and the disease burden is growing. ...

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...