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The American Cancer Society (ACS) is launching a 20-year cancer epidemiology study of 500,000 cancer-free adults across the United States. Cancer Prevention Study 3 (CPS-3) will enroll geographically and ethnically diverse participants at 64 of the 4,800 ACS-sponsored Relay for Life events taking place across the country in 2007, and it will continue the accrual process at select Relay events through 2011.

Therapy via radioembolization improves outcomes in some patients with primary or metastatic liver tumors that are unresectable or refractory to chemotherapy, and research is helping to better identify these patients upfront

A group of leading scientists and hedge fund managers have announced the annual $1 million Gotham Prize for Cancer Research, which is being launched to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer by fostering collaboration among top researchers in the field.

Rising costs are not the biggest challenge facing our healthcare system, but rather the need to improve the dollar-related value of the services being delivered

Xoft, Inc.'s Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System for accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) recently had its first clinical use in two lumpectomy patients treated at WellStar Kennestone Hospital.

Merck & Co., Inc. announced that it has received an approvable letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the company's New Drug Application (NDA) for Emend (fosaprepitant dimeglumine) for Injection, also known as MK-0517, an investigational intravenous therapy for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Martin D. Abeloff, MD, Charles M. Balch, Lodovico Balducci

There's nothing new about the value of eating lots of fruits and vegetables, but the effect of this diet on cancer risk has been difficult to show.

In a randomized phase III trial, patients with advanced, previously untreated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with sorafenib (Nexavar) lived 44% longer than those treated with placebo and had a 73% prolongation in time to progression.

The fundamental principle behind this book, as stated by the publisher, The Oncology Group (also publisher of the journal ONCOLOGY and news magazine Oncology News International) was to provide a truly integrated, multidisciplinary approach to the management of cancer patients. For this updated 10th edition, the editors have enlisted 114 medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists, whose contributions provide an excellent overview of the important principles of cancer management.

The effective use of cancer chemotherapy requires a thorough understanding of the principles of neoplastic cell growth kinetics, basic pharmacologic mechanisms of drug action, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variability, and mechanisms of drug resistance.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of hematologic malignanciesof the pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells. These disorders arecharacterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, including abnormalities inproliferation, differ­entiation, and apoptosis.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a clonal malignancy that results from expansion of the mature lymphocyte compartment. This expansion is a ­consequence of prolonged cell survival, despite a varied cell turnover. The affected lymphocytes are of B-cell lineage in 95% of cases, and the remaining cases involve T lymphocytes, representing a distinct disorder. CLL is the most common leukemia in adults in Western countries, accounting for approximately 25%-30% of all leuke­mias. The proportion of cases diag­nosed with the early stages of the disease (Rai stage 0) has risen from 10% to 50%, probably because of earlier diagnosis (routine automated blood counts).  

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disor­der resulting from the neoplastic transformation of the primitive hemato­poie­tic stem cell. The disease is monoclonal in origin, affecting myeloid, mono­cytic, erythroid, megakaryocytic, B-cell, and, sometimes, T-cell linea­ges. Bone marrow stromal cells are not involved.

Head and neck cancers encompass a diverse group of uncommon tumors that frequently are aggressive in their biologic behavior.

The use of multidrug chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation in cancer treatment has made the utilization of reliable, long-term venous access (LTVA) an essential component of cancer therapy. The placement of LTVA devices not only permits the delivery of these complex therapeutic regimens but also drastically improves patients’ quality of life.

Psychiatricdisorders are common in the setting of malignant disease, occurring inalmost 50% of patients.

The Oncology Group, a division of CMPMedica, publisher of the journal ONCOLOGY and the news magazine Oncology News International, as well as the comprehensive cancer website, cancernetwork.com, is pleased to bring you the 10th annual edition of Cancer Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach.

Patients aged 65 years and older represent 12% of the US population yet account for approximately 56% of cancer cases and 69% of all cancer mortalities. The overall cost of cancer in 2005 was $209.9 billion—$74 billion for direct medical costs and $118.4 billion for indirect mortality costs. This paper considers the direct, indirect, and out-of-pocket expenditures incurred by cancer patients ‚â • 50 years of age. Several major empirical studies on supportive care for older patients and cancer-related costs were reviewed. Insurance coverage, hematologic malignancies, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, and cancers of the breast, prostate, colorectum, and lung were evaluated. Major sources of direct medical expenditures covered by third-party insurers for patients aged 65 years and older include extended length of hospital stay, home health assistance following hospital discharge, adjuvant prescription medications, lower-risk treatment (for prostate cancer), and advent of new pharmaceuticals (for colorectal cancer). The mean total direct medical cost for breast cancer is $35,164, and the cumulative cost for prostate cancer is $42,570. Emerging targeted cancer drug costs range from $20,000 to $50,000 annually per patient. Additional clinical trials and cost-effective treatments are needed for older patients to ameliorate the disproportionate economic burden among older individuals with cancer. Additional research about cancer costs may also lead to reforms in cancer care reimbursement, and therefore provide access to affordable health care for older patients.

Over the past 50 years, great strides have been made in diagnosis, treatment, and survival of childhood cancer. In the 1960s the probability of survival for a child with cancer was less than 25%, whereas today it may exceed 80%. This dramatic change has occurred through significant and steady progress in our understanding of tumor biology, creation of specialized multidisciplinary care teams, incremental improvements in therapy, establishment of specialized centers with research infrastructure to conduct pivotal clinical studies, and the evolution of a cooperative group mechanism for clinical research. Most children with cancer in the United States, Europe, and Japan receive appropriate diagnosis and treatment, although access is limited in developing countries. The price of success, however, is the growing population of survivors who require medical and psychosocial follow-up and treatment for the late effects of therapy. Here we review the progress made in pediatric oncology over the past 3 decades and consider the new challenges that face us today.

Patients aged 65 years and older represent 12% of the US population yet account for approximately 56% of cancer cases and 69% of all cancer mortalities. The overall cost of cancer in 2005 was $209.9 billion—$74 billion for direct medical costs and $118.4 billion for indirect mortality costs. This paper considers the direct, indirect, and out-of-pocket expenditures incurred by cancer patients ‚â • 50 years of age. Several major empirical studies on supportive care for older patients and cancer-related costs were reviewed. Insurance coverage, hematologic malignancies, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, and cancers of the breast, prostate, colorectum, and lung were evaluated. Major sources of direct medical expenditures covered by third-party insurers for patients aged 65 years and older include extended length of hospital stay, home health assistance following hospital discharge, adjuvant prescription medications, lower-risk treatment (for prostate cancer), and advent of new pharmaceuticals (for colorectal cancer). The mean total direct medical cost for breast cancer is $35,164, and the cumulative cost for prostate cancer is $42,570. Emerging targeted cancer drug costs range from $20,000 to $50,000 annually per patient. Additional clinical trials and cost-effective treatments are needed for older patients to ameliorate the disproportionate economic burden among older individuals with cancer. Additional research about cancer costs may also lead to reforms in cancer care reimbursement, and therefore provide access to affordable health care for older patients.

Approximately one-third of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) present with locally advanced disease, the majority of whom are treated with concurrent chemotherapy and thoracic radiation therapy. Concurrent chemoradiation therapy is superior to sequential chemotherapy followed by thoracic radiation therapy or thoracic radiation therapy alone.

This paper provides an overview of several prominent articles and empirical studies on supportive care and cancer-related costs faced by older cancer patients. It focuses primarily on individuals 65 years of age and over and reviews several types of cancer.

The huge cost of modern day cancer drugs hurts everybody, from the patients who cannot afford them to the pharmaceutical companies who spend millions to develop them

Last month, ONI launched a new interactive feature: an electronic Reader Poll located on The Oncology Group website

In the era of pay-for-performance in cancer care, the electronic medical record (EMR) is a "must-have" for maximizing practice efficiency.

With increased referrals to the outpatient department, hospitals must monitor outpatient revenues to remain financially competitive in today's market,

Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Dr. Mina Bissell, Lance Armstrong