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A new observational study, appearing early online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provides additional support for a potential benefit of daily aspirin use for cancer mortality, but the authors say the size of the benefit is undetermined.

For patients with breast cancer that spread to the bones, skeletal-related events were reduced when patients received treatment with denosumab compared to zoledronic acid during a phase 3 study. The data, published in Clinical Cancer Research, also shows that health-related quality of life was maintained with denosumab.

New research shows that prescribing calcium and vitamin D supplements for men at risk of bone loss from hormonal treatment for prostate cancer did not prevent bone loss. In fact, the research suggests the supplements can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and aggressive prostate cancer for these patients. The study from epidemiologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center was published online in the July issue of the journal The Oncologist.

Recent studies have shown that patient response rates in phase 1 trials of new-generation targeted drugs are approximately 2-fold higher compared with previous trials. Yet, the risk of side effects to patients participating in early-stage trials of targeted drugs has been unknown.

Now, researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, and The Royal Marsden (RM) NHS Foundation Trust report that patients in early clinical trials of targeted cancer therapies appear to have a much lower risk of the most serious side effects compared with traditional chemotherapy.

A new treatment option that lengthens patients’ lives is now available to postmenopausal women with the most common type of metastatic breast cancer, according research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed form of cancer. Yet, according to a recent study, men diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to die from largely preventable conditions such as heart disease. The new study, from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), is the largest study to date that examines causes of death among men with prostate cancer. The data suggest that 1 important aspect of prostate cancer management should be the promotion of healthy lifestyle changes.

New research shows that depression symptoms in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic kidney cancer are related to patient survival. Researchers believe inflammatory gene regulation may explain this association. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, explores the relationship between patient psychological condition, stress hormone regulation, and the role of inflammatory gene expression.

The FDA recently approved Zaltrap (ziv-aflibercept) for combination use with a FOLFIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil, and irinotecan) chemotherapy regimen to treat adults with colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and also the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. An estimated 143,460 Americans will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and 51,690 will die of the disease in 2012, according to the National Institutes of Health.

In the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, scientists report on experiments in which beverage alcohol made several medications more readily available to the body and essentially multiplied the original dose.

Results from a large 6-year study of individuals at high risk for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) support the developing belief that BCC is a chronic disease that often repeatedly affects older people. According to researchers, major predictors of BCC include high sun exposure before the age of 30 along with a history of eczema. Study findings were published online July 19 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.