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According to a first-ever report by the American Cancer Society in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the number of Americans with a history of cancer, currently estimated to be 13.7 million, will grow to approximately 18 million by 2022. The report, Cancer Treatment & Survivorship Facts & Figures, 2012-2013, and the accompanying journal article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, used data from the NCI-funded Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program.

In an effort to address current cancer survivorship concerns, leading experts in the United States convened recently for the Cancer Survivorship Research Conference: Translating Science to Care, a conference jointly sponsored by the American Cancer Society’s Behavioral Research Center, the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Cancer Survivorship, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the American Cancer Society, basal cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 80% of all diagnosed non-melanoma skin cancers. Although the most common type of skin cancer, in its advanced stages, basal cell carcinoma has the potential to become disfiguring and life-threatening.

Research has shown that women who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy are more likely to achieve breast conservation than those receiving chemotherapy after surgery. Therefore, women with breast cancer often undergo chemotherapy prior to surgery.

Now, a new study published online in the journal Radiology points to the fact that MRI provides an indication of a breast tumor’s response to presurgical chemotherapy significantly earlier than clinical examination.

Each year throughout the world, between 2 and 3 million nonmelanoma skin cancers develop, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States alone, it is estimated that 1 in 5 will develop the disease at some point in their lives.

Recently, researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine 2012 Annual Meeting announced that a customized patch treatment for basal cell carcinoma has been developed that entirely destroyed facial tumors without surgery or major radiation therapy in 80% of patients studied.

Previous studies suggest that taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which include aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, as well as a variety of other nonprescription and prescription drugs, can decrease an individual’s risk of developing some types of cancer. New study findings, published early online in Cancer, indicate that these drugs may specifically protect patients from skin cancer.

With low participation rates in clinical trials, researchers are constantly seeking new methods to alter cancer patients’ perceptions and negative attitudes toward clinical trial involvement. In a recent study, researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center offered 2 different kinds of intervention to 2 groups of adults with cancer who had not yet been offered participation in clinical trials.

The FDA recently approved Perjeta (pertuzumab) in combination with trastuzumab and docetaxel chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) who have not received prior anti-HER2 therapy or chemotherapy for metastatic disease.

Selumetinib, the first targeted therapy to benefit patients with the most common genetic subtype of lung cancer, performed well across many measures in an international study led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The clinical trial included 87 non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with tumors harboring a mutation in the KRAS gene. These tumors account for approximately 20% of all NSCLC cases. Selumetinib, the drug under investigation, interferes with a protein called MEK.

The antioxidant supplement beta-carotene is safe for use during radiation therapy treatments for prostate cancer. It does not escalate the risk of prostate cancer death or metastases, despite previous safety concerns, according to a study published in the May issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics.