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Radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery may help prevent a future mastectomy for the majority of older, early-stage breast cancer patients, according to a study conducted by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and published in the journal Cancer.

The findings are contrary to current national treatment guidelines, which forgo radiation therapy postsurgery and instead recommend that older women with early-stage, estrogen-positive breast cancer be treated with lumpectomy followed by estrogen blocker therapy alone.

A large study published in the British Journal of Cancer showed that for women who smoked about 20 cigarettes a day the risks of Hodgkin lymphoma and some bone marrow cancers were doubled. The risks of other types of blood cancer also increased among smokers, but to a lesser degree.

The study included 1.3 million middle-aged women from the Million Women study. Leukemia developed in 9000 women during a 10-year study period. For every 1000 women who never smoked, 6 developed 1 of these cancers. Yet, almost 8 in every 1000 women smokers developed leukemia.

The University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) in Tucson is 1 of 41 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States. Called a “high-performing” center by US News & World Report, the center has 29 beds on a dedicated oncology wing, plus beds in surgery, gynecology, and pediatric units. The total number of beds in the facility is 487.

Many foods can have an effect on the uptake and elimination of drugs used for cancer treatment. In a study performed by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine and published in August in Clinical Cancer Research, data show that 8 ounces a day of grapefruit juice can slow the body’s metabolism of sirolimus, a drug that may help patients with cancer.

A new prostate cancer screening method combines drug therapy and changes in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels over time to identify men with a high PSA who are more likely to have aggressive prostate cancer despite negative biopsies.

In a study published in the Journal of Urology, researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center show that PSA can be a much more effective marker for prostate cancer when an additional drug therapy is added than when PSA is used as a single test.

A new observational study, appearing early online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provides additional support for a potential benefit of daily aspirin use for cancer mortality, but the authors say the size of the benefit is undetermined.

For patients with breast cancer that spread to the bones, skeletal-related events were reduced when patients received treatment with denosumab compared to zoledronic acid during a phase 3 study. The data, published in Clinical Cancer Research, also shows that health-related quality of life was maintained with denosumab.

New research shows that prescribing calcium and vitamin D supplements for men at risk of bone loss from hormonal treatment for prostate cancer did not prevent bone loss. In fact, the research suggests the supplements can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and aggressive prostate cancer for these patients. The study from epidemiologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center was published online in the July issue of the journal The Oncologist.

Recent studies have shown that patient response rates in phase 1 trials of new-generation targeted drugs are approximately 2-fold higher compared with previous trials. Yet, the risk of side effects to patients participating in early-stage trials of targeted drugs has been unknown.

Now, researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, and The Royal Marsden (RM) NHS Foundation Trust report that patients in early clinical trials of targeted cancer therapies appear to have a much lower risk of the most serious side effects compared with traditional chemotherapy.

A new treatment option that lengthens patients’ lives is now available to postmenopausal women with the most common type of metastatic breast cancer, according research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.