Articles
Primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) sited outside the gastrointestinal (GI) tract carries a poorer prognosis than primary GIST within the GI tract, according to a study presented at the recent ASCO GI Symposium in January 2012.
The previous installment in this cancer care series examined the growing importance of oral therapies for the treatment of cancer and the implications of patient adherence on its success. At the present time, more than 20 oral medications are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for first-line treatment of cancer.
As many as 1 in 5 cancer patients may experience obstacles in their care, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These obstacles include communication issues between patients and their healthcare providers, along with traditional medical errors.
Independent of hepatitis markers, a family history of liver cancer increases the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), according to study results published in the May issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Researchers also discovered a 70-fold increase in risk of HCC for those patients with family history of liver cancer and markers for hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV).
Nordion Inc. announced an additional randomized, multicenter phase 3 clinical trial for TheraSphere, a treatment for liver cancer.
The trial, YES-P, will focus primarily in Europe and is aiming for enrollment of about 350 patients. The trial will continue to evaluate the safety and efficacy of TheraSphere in the treatment of patients with portal vein thrombosis (PVT) associated with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.
While the presence of PVT is a contraindication for most embolic therapies, TheraSphere represents a safe alternative.
According to a new study published in the current issue of European Urology, robot-assisted surgery is far more successful than radical “open” surgery in the treatment of prostate cancer in the United States.
The research is the first nationwide comparison of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) results with the standard, open radical prostatectomy (ORP) results, using a 20% population sample.
Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital’s Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI) found that:
A new analysis has found that Hispanic lung cancer patients are at a survival advantage over white or black patients. The study suggests that, along with several other types of cancer, certain undefined genetic and/or environmental factors allow Hispanic patients with lung cancer to live longer than patients of other ethnicities. Results were published April 23 online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Researchers determined pain is undertreated in more than one-third of patients with invasive cancer, with minorities twice as likely to not receive analgesics, according to a study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is the largest evaluation of cancer pain and related symptoms ever performed in an outpatient setting.
When prescribing medicines, oncologists often don’t consider the cost. In other words, they don’t require any more benefit, or months of survival, from an expensive drug when compared with a less expensive one, according to a new research study appearing in the April issue of Health Affairs.