Don't Tell Me Anything Negative
May 15th 2013I looked after one of my partner’s patients who is approaching death from advanced, refractory ovarian cancer. She asked me not to talk about anything negative with her. We can’t really make any decisions without discussing negative things. Should I just remain silent about them at her request?
Rising PSA Level in a 46-Year-Old Man
May 15th 2013A 46-year-old man sought consultation for an abnormal prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level of 9 ng/mL and one prior negative biopsy. Five months ago, while traveling, he had presented to an urgent care facility with a 24-hour history of fever, chills, nausea, and vomiting.
I Can’t Talk to You With a Gun in My Face
May 3rd 2013How many times have you been killed for being the messenger with the bad news? You can often tell who is going to be angry when the CT scan shows recurrent disease. It is one of many things that are so stressful about being an oncologist. Let’s be honest; over the course of our career, we give a lot of bad news.
In Mouse Model, Imaging Strategy Follows Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis Response to Cabozantinib
April 22nd 2013A mouse model of bone metastasis can be used to follow real-time response to therapeutics in preclinical development, such as cabozantinib, according to results presented in the poster session of the 2013 AACR annual meeting.
ASCO 2013 Prostate Cancer Intro
April 22nd 2013Cancer Network and the journal ONCOLOGY present exclusive prostate cancer coverage from the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Check out the stories below for write-ups of the most important information to come out of this year's event.
Zoledronic Acid Did Not Prevent Bone Metastases in High-Risk Prostate Cancer
April 19th 2013The use of zoledronic acid (Zometa) had no effect on the prevention of bone metastases in patients with high-risk prostate cancer, according to the first results of the Zometa European Study, or ZEUS, presented at the European Association of Urology 28th Annual Congress in Milan, Italy.
Is Hypofractionation the Solution? The Financial Implications of Breast Cancer Treatments
April 15th 2013Hypofractionated external beam WBI seems like a great option until the APBI data mature from NSABP 39/RTOG 0413. In the meantime, we will have to see whether the ACA’s mission to bend the cost curve in the face of added demand for cancer care will succeed and how our treatment decisions will be affected by this new healthcare model.
Accelerated Partial-Breast Irradiation: Does the Evidence Stack Up?
April 15th 2013APBI is a technique that offers women with early-stage breast cancer a choice. The preponderance of evidence supports the efficacy and safety of this technique, and it should continue to be offered to appropriately selected patients on and off protocol.
Financial Toxicity, Part II: How Can We Help With the Burden of Treatment-Related Costs?
April 15th 2013Just as high-quality research has focused on limiting the physical toxicity resulting from successful treatment, future research should focus on mitigating the negative effects of financial toxicity without affecting disease-related outcomes.
Accelerated Partial-Breast Irradiation: The Current State of Our Knowledge
April 15th 2013Accelerated partial-breast irradiation is a shorter, alternative radiation technique for select patients with favorable early-stage breast cancer. We review here the different modalities of delivery and discuss the possible benefits and harms associated with these treatments.
AACR: Triple-Negative Breast Cancer-Utilizing Biomarkers for Better Therapeutic Strategies
April 8th 2013Washington, DC-“Triple-negative breast tumors are composed of mosaic cancer cells with distinct genetic aberrations,” said Jorge S. Reis-Filho, MD, PhD, a surgical pathologist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who combines traditional pathology, gene expression profiling, and genomics techniques to understand rare breast tumor types, including triple-negative diseases.
Conflicts of Interest in Medicine: What About Ties to Payers?
April 5th 2013Recently, the US government released new “Sunshine” standards requiring more rigorous disclosure of potential financial conflicts of interest in medicine. Such new standards are driven by revelations of misdeeds on the part of pharmaceutical and device manufacturers.