Articles
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed form of cancer. Yet, according to a recent study, men diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to die from largely preventable conditions such as heart disease. The new study, from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), is the largest study to date that examines causes of death among men with prostate cancer. The data suggest that 1 important aspect of prostate cancer management should be the promotion of healthy lifestyle changes.
New research shows that depression symptoms in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic kidney cancer are related to patient survival. Researchers believe inflammatory gene regulation may explain this association. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, explores the relationship between patient psychological condition, stress hormone regulation, and the role of inflammatory gene expression.
The FDA recently approved Zaltrap (ziv-aflibercept) for combination use with a FOLFIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil, and irinotecan) chemotherapy regimen to treat adults with colorectal cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and also the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. An estimated 143,460 Americans will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and 51,690 will die of the disease in 2012, according to the National Institutes of Health.
In the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, scientists report on experiments in which beverage alcohol made several medications more readily available to the body and essentially multiplied the original dose.
Results from a large 6-year study of individuals at high risk for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) support the developing belief that BCC is a chronic disease that often repeatedly affects older people. According to researchers, major predictors of BCC include high sun exposure before the age of 30 along with a history of eczema. Study findings were published online July 19 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
A recent study of adults aged 50 to 85 years showed that a majority of these patients facing a chronic condition do not embrace healthier behaviors. In fact, only 19% of study participants diagnosed with lung disease quit smoking within 2 years. Study findings are presented in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.
A University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) analysis suggests that early detection and the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test can prevent up to 17,000 cases of metastatic prostate cancer per year. In fact, projecting incidence rates from age-specific pre-PSA era to the present day would result in tripling the number of men whose cancer had already spread at diagnosis.
Before surgery, many patients with breast cancer receive neoadjuvant therapy to reduce the size or extent of the disease. Complete response of the tumor to such treatment signifies an improved overall prognosis. At this time, no marker is applied to identify tumors that will respond to such treatment.
Afinitor (everolimus) was recently approved by the FDA for use in combination with Aromasin (exemestane). The drug combination is intended to treat some postmenopausal women with advanced hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who experience cancer recurrence or progression following treatment with Femara (letrozole) or Arimidex (anastrozole).
A woman’s breast cancer risk more than doubles as a result of delivering a high-birth-weight infant, according to research published recently in PLoS ONE. Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston suggest that a large infant is linked to a hormonal environment during pregnancy that promotes future breast cancer development and progression in the mother.