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Among women with early-stage squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva, sentinel node biopsy is a reasonable alternative to inguinal femoral lymphadenectomy. Histological ultrastaging is an important adjuvant to sentinel node assessment for metastatic disease.
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A 62-year-old Caucasian woman returns to her primary care physician for a follow-up visit after routine colonoscopy and is accompanied by her 63-year-old husband. The gastroenterologist had resected three adenomatous polyps and suggested a repeat colonoscopy in 1 year.
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In a multicenter, Phase 3 trial, perioperative chemoradiotherapy with capecitabine proved safe and equivalently effective as fluorouracil in reducing local recurrence. In fact, post hoc analysis demonstrated better disease-free and overall survival for those treated with capecitabine. This is a finding that will resonate in the offices of community-based oncologists.
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Lorcaserin for weight loss; statins and fatigue; treatment-resistant gonorrhea; hydrocodone classification changes; USPSTF recommendations; and FDA actions.
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In this single-institute pilot study, 30 subjects with hepatocellular cancer were randomized to transarterial chemoembolization with or without bevacizumab. Bevacizumab use significantly improved progression-free survival at 16 weeks but no significant difference was seen with respect to the primary outcome (vessel count) or in the overall survival.
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A 57-year-old retail pharmacist presented to his primary care physician because of progressive headaches, blurry vision, hearing loss, and episodes of confusion. He had not had night sweats, fever, or weight loss. On physical examination he was found to be pale and there were ecchymoses over his upper and lower extremities that he reported occurred spontaneously over the past 3 months. He had attributed these to his current medications including both aspirin (81 mg/day) and clopidogrel (75 mg/day), although he had been taking these medications for more than 5 years without noticing ecchymoses in the past. He did not have palpable lymphadenopathy nor was there splenomegaly.
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Results of this well-done trial strongly suggest that CoQ10 administration over 24 weeks' time does not help relieve the treatment-related fatigue experienced by a significant proportion of women with newly diagnosed breast cancer.
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Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy has become the standard approach for patients with locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma. For patients who achieve a complete response determined preoperatively, less than maximally aggressive surgery has been contemplated. However, improved accuracy of the preoperative assessment needs to be established. In the current prospective evaluation, assessments of response were made with and without the use of PET/CT in a consecutive series and it was found that the additional scans were useful adjuncts to comprehensive clinical examination.
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A 78-year-old female had been generally well with no known chronic medical conditions and was taking no medications when she presented to her primary care physician with lower abdominal pain and urinary frequency of one month's duration. Physical examination at the time revealed a well-appearing woman with normal vital signs and no abnormal physical findings except a palpably enlarged uterus by bimanual pelvic examination. CT scan confirmed the presence of a uterine mass suspicious for malignancy. She was referred to a gynecologic oncologist and had a total abdominal hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy with partial infracolic omentectomy and pelvic debulking of what appeared to be a large (15 cm) tumor mass. Final pathology was high-grade leiomyosarcoma with microscopic invasion of the colon and bladder.
