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In this case-control study, dietary lignan intake was inversely associated with risk of breast cancer in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Also noted were more favorable prognostic characteristics associated with lignan intake, especially in premenopausal women.
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Four large data sets were analyzed to evaluate the effect of adjuvant treatment on survival in patients with stage III colon cancer diagnosed after age 75. While adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a survival benefit, oxaliplatin-based regimens offered no more than a small incremental benefit over non-oxaliplatin-containing regimens.
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Side effects of finasteride; new ruling on pharmaceutical companies paying generic manufacturers; and FDA actions.
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A multi-institutional study examined the addition of a purine analog, either cladribine or fludarabine, to the standard induction regimen ("7 & 3") in adult patients 60 years of age and younger with acute myelogenous leukemia, and found improved outcomes for those receiving cladribine. The added benefit from cladribine appears to be the result of a reduction in the incidence of resistant disease. The study arm containing cladribine, daunorubicin, and cytaribine yielded an overall survival at 3 years of 45% while conventional "7 & 3" therapy was only 33% at 3 years. Cladribine added to daunorubicin and cytarabine during remission induction improves leukemia control and patient survival for those 60 years of age and younger.
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In this Phase 2 trial, 11 patients with relapsed/refractory primary central nervous system lymphoma after high-dose, methotrexate-based regimen were treated with pemetrexed 900 mg/m2 every 3 weeks, dexamethasone 4 mg bid, folate, and B12 supplementation. The treatment had an overall response rate of 55%, disease control rate of 91%, median progression free survival of 5.7 months, and median overall survival of 10.1 months. Toxicities were more than expected with the standard pemetrexed dose (500 mg/m2) and were primarily hematologic and infectious, which were easily managed. Although single-agent activity of pemetrexed in this study is novel and promising, optimal dosing and efficacy need to be studied further.
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By examining a large series of patients who had PET/CT scans obtained within 2 months of diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, it was discovered that site-specific SUV correlated with survival. This was most apparent and statistically significant when comparing survival for patients with bone metastases, although similar but not statistically significant data also were presented for patients with liver, lung, or lymph node involvement.
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This retrospective cohort study of 12,500 women with breast cancer, treated in the community, compared the incidence of congestive heart failure in those who received trastuzumab-containing adjuvant chemotherapy regimens with those who did not. There was a four-fold increase in the risk of heart failure in women who received trastuzumab alone and a seven-fold increase in those who received anthracycline plus trastuzumab.
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Uterine (papillary) serous cancer is a genomically unstable cancer associated with poor survival even in stage i. it is also frequently associated with a secondary malignancy, particularly breast cancer. Comprehensive surgical staging is recommended since extrauterine disease can be present without other high-risk uterine features, like myometrial invasion. However, an optimal adjuvant treatment protocol remains to be defined.
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Menopausal hormone therapy and risk of VTE and AD; patients' understanding of chemotherapy benefits; and FDA actions.
