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In young women with early-stage breast cancer, coupling the GnRH analogue triptorelin with chemotherapy led to a 17% reduction in the occurrence of early menopause, according to a report in the July 20 issue of JAMA.

The phase III study results showed:

With 2 treatment regimens for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma equivalent in their long-term effectiveness, one regimen’s less severe side-effect profile may play a role in treatment choice, according to study results from the Gruppo Italiano di Terapie Innovative nei Linfomi and the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi.

Maintaining a healthy body weight is important for all patients. But, this is especially true for women with a breast cancer diagnosis, as an analysis of the California Teachers Study has shown a correlation between breast cancer deaths and body mass index (BMI).

Patients with HER2+ breast cancer who develop resistance to trastuzumab may soon have an alternative therapy, according to recent findings published in Clinical Cancer Research.

Short-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for 4 months before and during radiotherapy increases overall survival rates and decreases disease-specific mortality rates in men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, according to an interventional phase 3 study.

Continuous use of aspirin for 5 years or more reduces the risk of cutaneous melanoma by almost half, according to results of a case-control study. Continuous use of nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) also reduces risk, but only by 25%.

Patients diagnosed with high-grade non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer are not receiving guideline-recommended care, according to an analysis of data from the SEER-Medicare Linked Database.

The combination of everolimus and trastuzumab shows promise against metastatic breast cancer in pretreated, HER2-positive patients with trastuzumab resistance, according to results of a phase 1/2 study. This targeted, nonchemotherapy regimen provided partial responses in 7 of 47 patients and persistent stable disease (lasting 6 months or longer) in 9 of 47 patients. The regimen produced a clinical benefit rate of 34%, and median progression-free survival was 4.1 month.

First-line treatment with erlotinib prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and increased the response rate compared with treatment with chemotherapy in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations, according to an interim analysis of this phase 3 randomized European Tarceva vs Chemotherapy (EURTAC) trial presented at the 14^thWorld Conference on Lung Cancer.

This past Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 2 drugs that could help our patients: fentanyl nasal spray (Lazanda, Archimedes Pharma) and rivaroxaban (Xarelto, Janssen Pharmaceuticals).