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Anna Azvolinsky

Articles by Anna Azvolinsky

Researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have parsed the large and heterogeneous triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) category of patients into 6 molecularly distinct subgroups. This may be an important step towards delineating these patients as specific genetic subtypes to channel them to appropriate targeted therapy trials.

A study published online on May 10, 2011 in the British Journal of Cancer has shown evidence for a new prognostic factor in breast cancer: an increase in cancer stem cell population after primary systemic therapy. The study results indicate that putative cancer stem cells may be chemoresistant to conventional anthracycline-based chemotherapy and may have a role in disease progression following chemotherapy treatment.

One of the highlights of the released abstracts is “Cervical cancer risk for 330,000 women undergoing concurrent HPV testing and cervical cytology in routine clinical practice” (J Clin Oncol 29: 2011 (suppl; abstr 1508). The large-scale study showed the effectiveness of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing alone or in combination with cytology testing for identifying women at high-risk for cervical cancer development.

A study published in the journal Cancer on May 9 has now specifically examined the outcome of cancer survivorship of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual population. The study authors found that cancer outcomes differ based on sexual orientation.