TOP - Daily

As breakthroughs in personalized cancer treatment continue, delivering the specialized therapies in the most cost-effective manner has grown increasingly important. In a paper published in the British Journal of Cancer, University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers have identified new ways for allowing more patients to benefit from this revolution in cancer care.

A new approach involving billions of clones of patients’ own tumor-fighting cells in combination with a specific form of chemotherapy is showing promise in the fight against advanced melanoma. The results of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study are published in the March 5 Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine may help explain why identifying biomarkers for personalized cancer treatments through single biopsies have not been more successful.

To better inform physicians and patients and increase their understanding of the benefits of colorectal cancer screening, the American College of Physicians (ACP) has issued a new guidance statement for colorectal cancer screening. The guidance statement appears in the March 6 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers have discovered a potential treatment option for clinically advanced metastatic tumors. The novel treatment involves combining 2 drugs previously administered to a patient that are no longer effective. Together, the 2 drugs boost one another’s efficacy while at the same time breaking down the patient’s resistance to each of the drugs individually. The treatment study, lead by the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

When a patient is facing a serious condition, such as cancer, diagnosing depression becomes complicated. The psychological and somatic symptoms medical professionals are trained to look for are often attributed to the primary medical condition, which means depression may go undiagnosed in cancer patients. In fact, it is thought that more than half of depressions are overlooked in medical settings.

The rates of new breast cancer decline as soon as women quit hormone therapy, according to a report published online in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. This supports the hypothesis that stopping hormones can lead to tumor regression.

In 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative published that breast cancer rates were higher in women taking estrogen and progestin than in those taking either a placebo or only estrogen. Since then, research has shown a rapid decline in new breast cancers, the use of hormone therapy, and in mammography screening.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) recently announced an expansion of its Code of Practice. This code regulates company interactions with healthcare professionals, medical institutions, and patient organizations. As a representative of the research-based pharmaceutical industry, IFPMA requires all member companies and member associations to accept and apply this new Code.

Recent economic challenges resulted in cutbacks in personal healthcare spending among continuously insured Americans, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. These insured patients underwent fewer screening colonoscopies, a cost-effective, recommended preventive service, during the recession.

The study appears in the March issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Researchers have found that a new drug for metastatic melanoma nearly doubles the median survival time for patients with a common genetic mutation.

The data come from an international phase 2 study of the drug Zelboraf (vemurafenib). More than half of the 132 patients who were treated with the novel agent responded to treatment and experienced a median overall survival of almost 16 months. Patients with this advanced form of melanoma, in which the cancer has spread to other organs, typically survive about 9 months.