Articles

SAN ANTONIO—A re-analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)—which found an increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease in women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT)—suggests that estrogen alone, without progesterone, may actually be protective against breast cancer. 

SAN ANTONIO—In a trial involving women with stage II/III breast cancer (N = 3360), adding zoledronic acid (ZA) to standard adjuvant chemotherapy did not prolong overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS) after a median follow-up of 59 months, contrary to some previous reports. However, older, postmenopausal women did see a benefit when ZA was added, according to results from the Adjuvant Zoledronic Acid to Reduce Recurrence (AZURE) trial reported at the 33rd annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. 

ORLANDO—Patients often do not understand the terms clinicians use to describe their hematologic malignancies, such as myelodysplastic syndrome, which may lead to misunderstandings about their disease. 

ORLANDO—Low doses of alemtuzumab were effective in preventing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in leukemia patients receiving sibling and matched unrelated hematopoietic cell transplants. 

A small, prospective study from Greece found alemtuzumab 10 mg effective in reducing GVHD among patients receiving stem cell transplants to treat acute leukemias. Alexandros Spyridonidis, MD, PhD, presented the results at the 52nd American Society of Hematology annual meeting and exposition.