The end of another year usually inspires us to interesting if not profound reflections, but in my case I am just trying to remember any rainbows of wisdom that appeared to me during 2011. Those who care for cancer patients cannot help but learn new insights about life and death, and since aphorisms are valuable only if spread, why not share a few?

Two recent reports show that the prognosis of MDS patients after secondary failure of hypomethylating drugs is poor, and switching from one failing hypomethylating drug to another cannot induce clinically significant responses.

As insurers, clinicians and the U.S. government attempt to slow the increasing rise of health care costs, many experts have identified the tool entitled “clinical pathways” as a solution. Oncologists who adhere to such pathways are thought to improve patient care and reduce expenses.

Nationally, the number of drug shortages has tripled since 2005. Other generic drug shortages in our clinic have included paclitaxel, leucovorin, and doxorubicin. We have had limited ability to order fluorouracil (5-FU) and mitomycin.

We are seeing a revolution in cancer care in this country, not just due to advances in chemotherapy and biological therapy, but also in how we communicate and connect with our patients.

There has been an ongoing debate about the role of ATG in reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) HSCT, and there are still bone marrow transplant centers that use ATG in the RIC setting, and their main argument is that ATG could help with engraftment and reducing the risk of GVHD.

I believe cancer doctors have a duty to be accessible to patients as much as possible. Taking treatment for cancer is to say the least an intense experience, sometimes an ordeal, and oncologists must be diligent in keeping everyone up to date on test results, logistics, complications, on good news as well as bad.

A recent case report in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the promising potentials of adoptive T-cell immunotherapy by redirecting them, through chimeric antigen receptors, as a novel and effective therapeutic modality for cancer.

Equine ATG has been used for the treatment of severe aplastic anemia since the 1980s. Rabbit ATG is used in many parts of the world including South America, Japan, and European countries. The results of a randomized study of equine versus rabbit ATG showed that rabbit ATG was inferior to equine ATG.

Humor has been ranked among the ten highest “hope giving” behaviors demonstrated by oncologists. So, is it possible to write about the topic of humor in oncology without seeming cynical and uncaring? Obviously I think it is.

Is it time to revisit the therapeutic role of interferon alfa2 (IFN-α-2) in early myelofibrosis (MF) since new data show promising results?

As a medical oncologist who entered the field when there were perhaps 50 or so active drugs, I have become increasingly disturbed by the rising costs of cancer care. Of course, I am not alone in worrying about this.

Medicine has entered a phase of fateful transformation. Many of the policies implemented in the near future will endure for the remainder of our careers and simply working harder will not provide a true solution. Your voice needs to be heard now.

When I heard about the FDA’s dramatic new step in the anti-smoking fight, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would really make a difference. The new measure requires tobacco companies to add gruesome images to cigarette packages.

The current dogma considers CMV seropositivity being associated with inferior outcomes HSCT. However, there has been a notion of “virus-versus-leukemia” effect since the 1980s.

Researchers measured the rate of bankruptcy after a first cancer diagnosis and identified factors that increased bankruptcy risk among people with common cancers.

Because there has been little empirical evidence to back up patients’ stories, chemobrain has been met with skepticism by the medical community and has been a painful puzzle for many patients who couldn’t quite put a name to what they were feeling.