Articles

When blood clots develop in cancer patients, 78% of the time they occur when a person is out of the hospital, while on chemotherapy. This remarkable fact comes from a study of nearly 18,000 cancer patients by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC).

The use of antiestrogen supplements in women with breast cancer may decrease the risk for melanoma, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Data from 7360 women with breast cancer between 1980 and 2005 were analyzed by Christine Bouchardy, MD, PhD, professor at the University of Geneva and head of the Geneva Cancer Registry, and colleagues. Antiestrogen therapy was given to 54% of these women.

Recently, the European Commission approved Avastin (bevacizumab) as a front-line treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer when used in combination with standard chemotherapy.

Approximately 220,000 women are diagnosed and 140,000 women die of ovarian cancer each year globally. Prior to the approval of bevacizumab, ovarian cancer treatment had been limited to surgery and chemotherapy.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has revised its guideline development process. The new methods align with new principles from the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) by:

When breast cancer patients’ doctors comanage their care with other specialists, the patients report greater satisfaction with their care. However, not all specialists are likely to share decision making with other physicians, according to a new study in Health Services Research.

 “Breast cancer is typically a condition that is managed by multiple specialists. Often a surgeon is involved as well as a medical oncologist, radiologist and primary care physician,” said Katherine Kahn, MD, and senior author of the study.

The systemic amyloidoses are a group of complex diseases caused by tissue deposition of misfolded proteins that results in progressive organ damage.¹ The incidence of immunoglobulin light chain (AL) amyloidosis (also referred to as primary amyloidosis) is approximately one-tenth that of multiple myeloma,¹ a more common cancer of the bone marrow plasma cells.

Patients may not understand the information medical care providers give them for a number of reasons, but significant among them is poor healthcare literacy, which is the ability to understand health information and to use that information to make good decisions about health and medical care. Unfortunately, about 33% of the adult population in the United States has limited healthcare literacy. Yet, the need for this proficiency is greater than ever because medical care has become progressively more complex. Let us take a look at healthcare literacy facts and figures:

Bortezomib Median Overall Survival Update for Previously Untreated Multiple Myeloma
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental new drug application for Velcade (bor tezomib) for Injection (Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company) that updates the label to include additional longterm (median follow-up 60.1 months) overall survival (OS) data from the VISTA trial. The VISTA trial examined the use of bortezomib-based therapy in patients with previously untreated multiple myeloma (MM).

Due to the tremendous physical, psychological, and economic burdens of end-stage diseases, there now is an increasing need for palliative care as an integral part of the treatment plan in the management of radiation oncology patients, according to Marilyn Haas, PhD, nurse practitioner at CarePartners Supportive and Palliative Services, Asheville, North Carolina. In addition, she said that integrating palliative care earlier rather than later may be especially important in those patients with metastatic disease.

Incorporating nurse practitioners and physician assistants into oncology practices appears to be an effective strategy for dealing with an impending shortage of oncologists and at the same time improving productivity and achieving both patient satisfaction and provider satisfaction, according to a recent study.¹