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Early Palliative Care Improves Quality of Life, Increases Survival in Patients with Metastatic NSCLC
Patients with metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received early palliative care as well as standard care had a better quality of life (QoL), improved mood, and, despite receiving less aggressive end-of-life care, lived longer than patients who received standard care alone, a new study shows.
In women with BRCA mutations, increased mammographic breast density is not associated with a higher risk of breast cancer and should not be a factor in making decisions about treatment, Canadian researchers report.
Increased mammographic breast density is a known breast cancer risk factor in the general population but it was not known whether that would hold true in women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
A novel prognostic model makes it possible to stratify the majority of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) into two prognostic groups with significant implications for the therapeutic strategy.
As reported in the August issue of Blood, use of the additive model, which integrates the well-established cytogenic risk system, allowed stratification of elderly AML patients with intermediate-risk karotype into good intermediate risk and adverse intermediate risk groups with distinctly different prognoses.
Reimplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue, a technique that has been used successfully in women with lymphoma or solid tumors, may cause disease recurrence in women with leukemia, a new study indicates.
Reduced-intensity therapy may be just as effective but less toxic than a more intense regimen for patients with early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma, German researchers report.
Four cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) followed by 30 Gy of involved-field radiation therapy is widely regarded as the standard of care for patients with early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma with a favorable prognosis.
Read More ›Researchers at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, report that they have achieved greater than 90% accuracy in distinguishing high-grade from low-grade prostate cancers using computer analysis of magnetic resonance (MR) images and spectra of the patient’s prostate gland. The findings may help determine which patients need aggressive treatment and which may be better served by watchful waiting.
The use of oral bisphosphonates was not found to be significantly associated with incident esophageal or gastric cancer, according to a retrospective analysis of patients from the UK General Practice Research Database. Based on their findings, Cardwell and colleagues concluded that, for patients in which they are clinically indicated, bisphosphonates should not be withheld solely on the basis of possible esophageal cancer risk.
On July 20, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced shortages of leucovorin for injection. One manufacturer, Bedford, has not supplied a reason for the shortage or a date when supplies will be available. The other manufacturer, Teva, has cited manufacturing delays and provided an estimated release date in the fourth quarter of 2010.
For cancer patients in dispersed urban and rural areas, telephone-based care management and home-based automated symptom monitoring may provide an effective means of managing pain and depression.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new one-vial formulation of docetaxel injection concentrate (Taxotere, sanofi-aventis). This new formulation eliminates the initial dilution step, as well as the second vial containing the diluent. With the one-vial formulation, the pharmaceutical ingredients and the 1-hour intravenous infusion administration remain unchanged.