ONCOLOGY Vol 13 No 8

The NCI will face some of the difficulties related to insurance coverage that discourage clinical trial participants as the institute ratchets up its prostate cancer research program. NCI director Richard Klausner, MD, told Congress in June that the NCI

According to the results of a landmark phase III, multicenter, Southwest Oncology Group clinical trial (SWOG 9509), the use of paclitaxel (Taxol) plus carboplatin (Paraplatin) can be considered a standard regimen for non–small-cell lung cancer

Regular mammography screening combined with timely and appropriate treatment can reduce mortality from breast cancer by 30% in women ages 50 to 69 years and by 16% in women ages 40 to 49 years. A physician’s recommendation has

The City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute received the largest individual gift in the cancer center’s 86-year history from Irwin Helford, chairman of Viking Office Products and vice chairman of Office Depot. The

Peaceful Dying is a work of considerable effort and organization. Dr. Tobin has painstakingly analyzed his experience as a physician caring for patients with terminal illness and compiled a step-by-step guide to help both patients and their families

Doctors have suspected that radiation therapy helps prevent patients from dying of prostate cancer, but they had little scientific evidence to support that theory. Now, Richard Valicenti, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Jefferson

Since its approval by the FDA in 1992, paclitaxel (Taxol) has been widely used in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Surgical debulking has also been proven to increase survival in women with this disease.

An innovative clinical trial to be conducted at Columbia University in New York City forpeople diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer is now recruiting patients. The volunteer patients will test the effectiveness of what is called “the Gonzalez

The Cord Blood Registry, in collaboration with the Cord Blood Donor Foundation, is participating in a Breast Cancer Study at Stanford University School of Medicine. The study, funded by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, will

Marks, Hardenbergh, and Prosnitz provide an excellentoverview of the role of postmastectomy radiation therapy for node-positive breast cancer patients. Their review not only summarizes the most recent literature supporting the clearly established

The most frequent pattern of pain related to cancer and cancer treatment consists of continuous pain punctuated by episodes of worsening pain. The cancer pain guidelines developed by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR)

The malignant lymphomas are among the most responsive of neoplastic disorders. Objective tumor shrinkage has been seen after therapy with virtually all classes of chemotherapeutic agents, including alkylating agents, antimetabolites, vinca alkaloids,

This article on the management of breakthrough pain by Simmonds is one of a number of excellent reviews on the palliative aspects of cancer care published in ONCOLOGY over the last 2 years. Breakthrough pain is a frequent, poorly understood

Gordon and Vokes present a comprehensive review of the management of locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). They summarize historical data on sequential and concurrent chemoradiation, as well as altered radiation

The article by Drs. Gordon and Vokes provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the treatment of locally advanced unresectable non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The authors

Although a substantial number of women will suffer and die from breast cancer during the upcoming years, we clearly have made stepwise progress in treating patients with this cancer over the last 3 decades. Each of these steps of progress has led to

Breakthrough pain is defined as the transient exacerbation of pain occurring in a patient with otherwise stable, persistent pain. Breakthrough pain is relatively common among cancer patients, particularly those with moderate

The optimal therapy for locally advanced, unresectable, stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continues to evolve. The critical determinants of overall survival include local tumor control and the

Recombinant interferon-alfa (Intron A, Roferon-A) has been under investigation as a therapeutic agent for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) for 25 years. It has antitumor efficacy in a number of histologic subtypes but has not

Postmastectomy locoregional radiation therapy markedly reduces the risk of locoregional recurrence. Several randomized trials, including two recently updated studies with 10- to 15-year follow-up, demonstrate an

Drs. Haase-Statz and Smalley review the role of interferon-alfa (Intron A, Roferon-A) in the treatment of lymphomas. As they point out in the introduction to their article, lymphoma is a very heterogeneous disease with more than 10 different entities and

Predicting the survival of terminal cancer patients is a difficult task. To better understand this difficulty, we divide prognostication into two distinct elements: foreseeing and foretelling. Foreseeing is a physician’s silent cognitive

The ability to predict short- and long-term outcomes for cancer patients has become increasingly important. Changes in the way care is provided and paid for, along with a more consumerist attitude on the part of patients, have made this a more prominent issue.

The claim that physicians make substantial, systematically optimistic errors in prognostication undergirds the article by Lamont and Christakis. This claim seems to contrast with our experience in the Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for

You’ve got to accentuate the positive,Eliminate the negative,Latch onto the affirmative,Don’t mess with Mister In-between.-Johnny Mercer, 1944

The recommendations derived from the existing clinical trials of postmastectomy adjuvant radiation therapy seem to parallel the lessons learned from the trials of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy conducted during the previous 20 to 30 years. From

TRICARE, the health plan for active duty military personnel (formerly known as CHAMPUS), expanded its cancer clinical trials demonstration so that beneficiaries could enter cancer prevention trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute