Susan London | Authors

September 29, 2009

In patients with resected pancreatic cancer, adjuvant cisplatin, 5-FU, and interferon chemoradiation produces a median survival of 27 months, according to initial results of the ACOSOG Z05031 trial. However, nearly all patients experience grade 3 or 4 toxicities.

September 21, 2009

Current evidence does not support the routine use of breast MRI in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, according to Monica Morrow, MD, chief of the breast service, department of surgery, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

December 15, 2008

Patients with operable triple-negative breast cancer are at increased risk for recurrence if their tumor has higher levels of a protein-encoding gene implicated in migration, proliferation, and other cellular processes, reported Joseph A. Sparano, MD, from the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.

December 15, 2008

Neoadjuvant therapy that includes trastuzumab (Herceptin) prolongs event-free survival and has an acceptable safety profile in women with HER2-positive locally advanced breast cancer, based on results from the largest trial testing such therapy in this setting.

December 11, 2008

Insight into the molecular workings of HER2-positive breast cancer has paved the way for targeted agents that are showing great promise in clinical trials, according to a presentation at SABCS 2008. José Baselga, MD, from Barcelona, offers a primer on pertuzumab, trastuzumab-DM1, heat shock protein 90, and other agents that will provide “tremendous opportunity” in HER2-positive cancer treatment.

December 11, 2008

Combining endocrine therapy with signal transduction inhibition is an effective means of overcoming endocrine resistance in at least some populations of patients with breast cancer. Stephen R.D. Johnston, MA, PhD, director of clinical research and development at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, discussed the data on this emerging strategy during an SABCS plenary lecture.

December 11, 2008

Women with breast cancer who have isolated tumor cells or micrometastases in their sentinel lymph nodes are at increased risk for recurrence, even if their cancer otherwise has favorable features. Adjuvant systemic therapy, however, can attenuate that elevated risk, according to the findings of a major Dutch study.

December 02, 2008

CHICAGO-The combination of cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone is associated with high rates of response and manageable toxicity among patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, according to results from a single-arm phase II trial.

November 01, 2008

About 80% of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and 89% of those who undergo radiation therapy, experience fatigue during their treatment. But about 30% of cancer patients continue to feel fatigued for years aft er treatment. A phase III study demonstrated that the eugeroic agent modafinil (Provigil) reduces severe fatigue and sleepiness among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

October 02, 2008

WASHINGTON-Loss of HER2 positivity is common among women with initially HER2-positive breast cancer who do not have a pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy with trastuzumab (Herceptin), according to a report at the ASCO 2008 Breast Cancer Symposium (abstract 150).