ONCOLOGY Vol 13 No 9

All of the talk about a potential Medicare drug benefit has overshadowed the question of what can be done to lower drug costs for non Medicare patients, who, after all, constitute the majority in this country. With this in mind, Rep. Bernie Sanders

Paclitaxel (Taxol) provides a nearly 40% improvement in survival with good quality of life in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to a landmark study led by James F. Bishop, MD, director of the Sydney Cancer Centre and Professor of

Jane Henney, MD, commissioner of the FDA, says that the agency is going to crack down on Internet sales of unapproved new drugs, health fraud (eg, where a site claims some drug will cure cancer), and drugs sold without a valid prescription.

Single-agent, intratumoral gene therapy that targetsthe p53 gene is well tolerated and shows evidence of antitumor activity in patients with recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, according to the preliminary results of phase II clinical

Cancer patients who suffer from the debilitating side effect of oral ulcers as a result of chemotherapy can be effectively treated with Zilactin-B, a nonprescription analgesic gel containing hydroxypropyl cellulose and benzocaine, according to an article

The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation, along with the American Hospital Association, has declared September 1999 the first annual Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month. Each year, 82,000 women in the United States (ie, 1 in every 25 women) are

The “Chemotherapy Experiences” national patient survey was conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide on behalf of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and Amgen between December 3, 1998, and January 7, 1999. The survey was designed

Chemoradiation is effective in controlling anal and rectal cancers but causes significant side effects and complications, according to three independent teams of colorectal surgeons in Australia and the United States.

Anyone who remembers the bruising political battle in 1997-1998over how Medicare would develop “resource-based” practice expenses can breathe a sign of relief over what is likely to be the painless shift to resource-based malpractice

The long-term, worldwide trend of rising breast cancer mortality has apparently been reversed in several countries, with significant declines reported in the 1990s in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. These are the findings of a study

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

Radiation therapy not only destroys prostate cancer in patients with early disease but keeps it from returning, a very large study of patients from six medical centers has found.

Nutritional Oncology provides acomprehensive review of the current scientific literature on nutritional factors affecting the prevention and treatment of cancer. The book’s primary objective is to detail findings in the new field of nutritional oncology,

Scientists fear that existing genetic techniques will be misused before the consequences of altering the human blueprint on personal, generational, and societal levels are fully realized. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee,

A treatment for patients with advanced colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver has been found to increase life expectancy, said Dr. Nancy Kemeny, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. This treatment combines

Research conducted at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, suggests that the most serious and costly side effects of high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer, including long-term hospitalization and severe inflammation of the

Drs. Pirl and Roth describe various problems that complicate efforts to accurately diagnose and appropriately treat depression in cancer patients. These include the subjective nature of symptoms, multiple possible diagnoses within the spectrum of mood

Pirl and Roth synthesize well the rich literature that now exists on the prevalence, causes, and treatment of depression in patients with cancer. Their review focuses attention on: (1) those factors-patient- as well as disease- and treatment-related

Despite a recent decline in incidence and mortality, breast cancer currently develops in one of eight North American women who live to 85 years of age, and remains the major cause of death in American women between the ages of 15 and 54.[1,2]

Patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer benefit mainly from chemotherapy using cisplatin (Platinol)-based combinations. Platinum compounds, however, due to their toxicity profile, have limited use in combination

The development of effective and well-tolerated combinations of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is of great importance to improve disease-free survival in patients treated for non–small-cell lung cancer. Studies

The two general treatment approaches for esophagel cancer include primary treatment (surgical or nonsurgical) or adjuvant treatment (preoperative or postoperative). Due to differences in the patient populations selected for

Many physicians have questioned whether the additional survival benefit gained from the use of combination chemotherapy in non–small-cell lung cancer has been offset by chemotherapy-induced toxicity, particularly with

Combined-modality approaches integrating carboplatin (Paraplatin) and low doses of weekly paclitaxel (Taxol) with thoracic radiation therapy for prolonging survival in patients with locally advanced non–small-cell lung cancer

New treatment strategies for small-cell lung cancer patients are required, as there have been few developments in the past 20 years. Paclitaxel (Taxol) has been shown to be effective in non–small-cell lung cancer when given in

Despite the availability of combination chemotherapy, response rates are poor in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer. Recently, phase II trials have been undertaken with single-agent paclitaxel (Taxol). Good results have

Despite a response rate of only 9%, single-agent carboplatin (Paraplatin) produced the best 1-year survival rate with the lowest toxicity in a five-arm Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study of cisplatin (Platinol)

The combination regimen of paclitaxel (Taxol) and cisplatin (Platinol) for non–small-cell lung cancer has shown improved response rates in some phase II trials, and because of its safety profile, it could offer patients with this

Despite growing evidence that patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer have improved survival and better symptom control with modern systemic therapy, there is still resistance to the use of chemotherapy because

The effectiveness of paclitaxel (Taxol) in a range of tumors has been established in a large number of trials. In non–small-cell lung cancer, paclitaxel combined with cisplatin (Platinol) has been shown to be highly effective.