Articles

In the longest-running trial comparing tamoxifen with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole, results reveal that letrozole continues to prevent breast cancer recurrences and lower the risk of death in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer.

Men with hormone therapy resistant metastatic prostate cancer endure less fatigue when treated with a combination of abiraterone acetate and prednisone, according to results from an international phase 3 clinical trial.

In response to the increasing costs facing cancer patients, a study recently identified areas for improvement in both the cost and quality of cancer care. The new study. Benchmarks for Value in Cancer Care: An Analysis of a Large Commercial Population, was reported by one of the nation’s largest networks of community-based oncologists dedicated to advancing cancer care in America, the US Oncology Network. The study was published in the State of Oncology supplement of the peer-reviewed Journal of Oncology Practice.

Controlling the pain related to bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer can be difficult. Researchers have now discovered a single dose of a bisphosphonate drug is as effective for pain relief as single-dose radiotherapy, the standard treatment for bone metastases, according to a large randomized phase 3 trial presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress.*

Postmenopausal women with breast cancer benefit significantly from using zoledronic acid as an aid to chemotherapy, according to trial results presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress* and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.¹ Could this be the key to unlocking the breast cancer recurrence process as well as advancements toward new breast cancer therapy options? Researchers believe so.

Medication effectiveness is dependent on whether the drug is taken in the correct dosage, at the right time, and as prescribed by healthcare providers. The World Health Organization estimates that 50% of patients take their medications incorrectly, thus costing the U.S. healthcare system and consumers approximately $300 billion each year. In a recent article in Nursing Clinics of North America, University of Missouri researchers suggest a personal systems approach when confronting medication nonadherence. Read More ›

The FDA has approved crizotinib (Xalkori; Pfizer) to treat patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who express the abnormal anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene. Crizotinib has been approved with a companion diagnostic test that will help determine if a patient has the abnormal ALK gene, Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit (Abbott Molecular).

Crizotinib blocks protein kinases, including the protein produced by abnormal ALK. This oral agent is designed to be taken twice daily as a single-agent treatment.

More than 60% of hospital staff uniforms are colonized with potentially pathogenic bacteria, according to a new study (Am J Infect Control. 2011;39:555-559). The findings suggest that physicians and nurses may be transferring pathogens that could cause clinically relevant infection.

Interestingly, the findings may have significant implications for oncology pharmacists. The investigators found antibiotic-resistant bacteria isolated from samples from 14% of nurses’ uniforms and 6% of physicians’ uniforms.

CHICAGO—Most end-of-life costs ac - crued by patients with cancer are related to health services rather than the use of drugs, according to an analysis of claims from a large health plan (UnitedHealth).

“The bottom line is that most of the costs were not related to drugs but to healthcare services plus the inpatient hospitalizations,” said April Teitelbaum, MD, coinvestigator and a practicing oncologist and Senior Medical Director, Life Sciences, Hematology/ Oncology, Innovus, Eden Prairie, Minnesota.