Articles

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a higher, more efficacious dose of fulvestrant (Faslodex, AstraZeneca) injection for treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The newly approved dose of 500 mg replaces the previously approved monthly dose of 250 mg for the treatment of hormone receptor–positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following antiestrogen therapy.

 

Deaths from ovarian cancer could drop by as much as 50% in the next 20 years if surgeons remove the fallopian tubes of women undergoing a hysterectomy or tubal ligation, according to a team of gynecologic oncologists from Vancouver General Hospital and the British Columbia Cancer Agency.

                                    

Multivitamin use during and after adjuvant chemotherapy did not reduce the risk of cancer recurrence or mortality in patients with stage III colon cancer, according to recently released findings of Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 89803. Multivitamin use, however, also did not impact patients’ health negatively.

 

Researchers have developed a tool for predicting individualized risk of local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The tool integrates 10 clinicopathologic variables to assist patients and their healthcare professionals decide among various treatment options with the goal of reducing over- and undertreatment of noninvasive breast cancer.

 

Radiation therapy after local surgical therapy should be considered in patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the breast who are otherwise eligible for radiation therapy, concluded a group of researchers from the University of California-Davis.

 

For men with localized low-risk prostate cancer, there is no rush to decide on a treatment option, according to the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden Follow-up Study published online in the Journal of Urology. This suggestion is based on findings that after median follow-up of 8 years, men who underwent prompt radical prostatectomy had no significant difference in the presence of one of three adverse pathology features or in prostate cancer–specific mortality than men who deferred surgery for up to 19 months.

 

Choice of adjuvant chemotherapy based on a histocultural drug response assay (HDRA) proved useful in improving survival in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLS) who have undergone surgical resection, according to a new study in the September issue of Journal of Thoracic Oncology.

 

Risk-reducing surgery reduced the risk for breast and ovarian cancer in a study of women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. Prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy also reduced all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in these high-risk women.

 

Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables may protect smokers against lung cancer, according to new data from a multicenter cohort study.

 

The inverse relationship between variety in vegetable consumption and lung cancer risk was independent of quantity and restricted to current smokers.

 

The US Department of Health and Human Services has expanded coverage of evidence-based tobacco cessation counseling for Medicare beneficiaries, making it possible for all smokers to receive counseling from a qualified physician or other Medicare-recognized practitioner who can help them quit smoking.

 

Previously, Medicare covered tobacco cessation counseling only for individuals with a diagnosed tobacco-related disease or with signs or symptoms of such a disease.