Articles
Trastuzumab (Herceptin) has greatly improved survival odds for women with HER2-positive breast cancer, but treatment resistance remains a problem for at least 50% of patients. A new study by a team of researchers with University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center indicates that the novel agent saracatinib might offer a solution. Saracatinib inhibits SRC, a proto-oncogene.
This week Hospira, Inc (Lake Forest, Ill) announced approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for docetaxel, a generic form of Sanofi Aventis’s drug Taxotere. The drug is already available in Europe and Australia and will be the first generic version available in the United States.
Patients with lung cancer who received daily fish oil supplements experienced greater tumor shrinkage during chemotherapy and longer overall survival (OS) and were less likely to lose weight than patients taking placebo. The study was led by Vera Mazurak, PhD, an expert in nutrition and metabolism with the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional science at the University of Alberta in Canada.
A retrospective analysis of Medicare claims for women with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) found that only 39% of patients received optimal therapy as outlined by national treatment guidelines. Data were presented at a plenary session at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, taking place in Orlando this week. Discussant Michael Carney, MD, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, described the report as "disappointing, shocking, and sad."
Every physician has a preferred way of writing prescription instructions, and pharmacists differ in how they translate those instructions to the pill bottle. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Wolf and associates found that the lack of a universal medication schedule (UMS) to standardize how prescriptions are written and filled contributes to poor patient adherence and increases safety concerns. Read More ›
ORLANDO, FL— The news was promising regarding several drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer at the recent ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium held February 17-19, 2011 An extension-phase study of degeralix, approved by the FDA in 2008, confirmed the efficacy of this drug versus leuprolide. Other positive studies focused on drugs in various stages of development, including abiraterone, cabozantinib, and MDV3100.
Degarelix (Firmagon, Ferring)
Read More ›The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to hold a two-day hearing to give Genentech an opportunity to convince the agency not to revoke Avastin's (bevacizumab's) indication in breast cancer. Controversy raged among patients, medical professionals, and politicians from the moment the FDA announced last year that it was considering withdrawing its approval of Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer.
In a randomized trial of patients with cancer and vertebral compression fractures (VCFs), balloon kyphoplasty was associated with greater pain relief and better of quality of life than nonsurgical care. According to the authors, patients who received kyphoplasty relied significantly less on pain medication, bed rest, and walking assistance 1 month after the procedure.