MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Rahul Potluri
Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology
School of Medical Sciences, Aston University
Birmingham UK;
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Potluri: Study was conducted by a retrospective analysis of more than 1 million anonymous patient records across the UK between 2000 and 2013 using the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality (ACALM) protocol.
There were 664,159 women and of these, 22 938 had hyperlipidaemia and 9 312 had breast cancer. Some 530 women with hyperlipidaemia developed breast cancer. A statistical model to study the association between hyperlipidaemia and breast cancer. They found that having hyperlipidaemia increased the risk of breast cancer by 1.64 times (95% confidence interval 1.50-1.79).
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Robert Foote MD
Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Foote: Charged particle therapy (mainly protons and carbon ions) provide superior overall survival, disease-free survival and tumor control when compared to conventional photon therapy. In particular, it appears that proton beam therapy provides superior disease-free survival and tumor control when compared to the state of the art intensity modulated radiation therapy using photons.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Katja Pinker MD
Department of Radiology
Medical University of Vienna ·
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pinker: We hypothesized that by imaging multiple key processes involved in cancer development and growth with multiparametric PET/MRI an improved non-invasive diagnosis of breast tumors is possible. To test this hypothesis, we conducted this first clinical feasibility study.
Mutliparametric PET/MRI allows an improved non-invasive differentiation of benign and mailgnant breast tumors than currently used contrast-enhanced MRI alone. By its use unnecessary breast biopsies in benign tumors can be avoided without missing cancer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with Sai-Ching Jim Yeung, MD, PhD, FACP
Professor of Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Emergency Medicine
Department of Endocrine Neoplasia & Hormonal Disorders
Houston, Texas 77230-1402
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Yeung: We believe that this study has bridged a significant gap in knowledge between epidemiological data (the association of obesity and poor breast cancer prognosis) and biological mechanisms mediating the impact of obesity on cancer. This study provides an important mechanistic insight into the causal relationship between obesity and breast cancer growth.
Direct evidence for the links between obesity-associated changes in the biological processes and hallmarks of cancer in human estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer.
It is well known that obesity is associated epidemiologicaly with decreased survival in ER+ breast cancer patients. Although a body of experimental literature exists to suggest important roles for estrogen, insulin/IGF-1 and adipokine signaling and inflammation in the mechanisms mediating the impact of obesity on cancer, direct evidence for these mechanisms and their importance relative to one another is lacking in cancers from obese humans.
Functional transcriptomic analysis of a prospective observation cohort with treatment-naïve ER+ breast cancer samples identified the insulin/PI3K signaling and secretion of cytokines among the top biological processes involved. Many of the obesity-associated changes in biological processes can be linked to cancer hallmarks. Upstream regulator analysis identified estrogen (?-estradiol), insulin (INS1), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1), and adipokines [vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), tissue necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL6), oncostatin-M (OSM), chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5), leptin (LEP), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin (ADIPOQ), and interleukin-10 (IL10)] in mediating the impact of obesity on human ER+ breast cancer.
Experimental evidence that obesity causes accelerated oncogene-driven ER+ breast cancer carcinogenesis.
While it is not possible to conduct a human experiment to prospectively examine the causal relationship between obesity and breast cancer, we created a transgenic mouse model with genetically induced obesity and oncogene-driven breast cancer. With this model we found strong in vivo evidence using both longitudinal experiments and cross-sectional experiments that obesity accelerated oncogene-driven breast carcinogenesis.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kaspar Truninger, MD, FMH
Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine
Langenthal, Switzerland
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Truninger: In our study, we investigated the effect of lifestyle exposure on DNA methylation. We measured genome-wide promoter CpG methylation in 1092 normal colon biopsies from 546 healthy females. We observed that fewer CpGs acquired age-dependent methylation in users of aspirin and hormonal replacement therapy compared with nonusers, whereas more CpGs were affected in smokers and individuals with a body mass index > 25 compared with nonsmokers and less obese females. Half of the CpGs showing age-dependent methylation gain were hypermethylated in tissue of colorectal cancer. These loci gained methylation with a higher rate and were particularly susceptible to lifestyle exposure compared to age-only methylated CpGs. In addition, these CpGs were enriched for polycomb regions. Finally, all effects were different according to the anatomic location along the colon.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. John A. Copland, PhD
Associate Professor of Biochemistry/Molecular Biology
Professor of Cancer Biology
Cancer Basic Science
Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Copland: In our study we identified a pro-cancerous role for a novel protein- neuronal pentraxin 2 (NPTX2). This protein, normally found expressed in brain and nervous system tissues, is highly overexpressed in kidney tumors at all stages of disease. It has never previously been associated with kidney cancer, nor has it been associated with an oncogenic function in any other cancer. NPTX2 appears to play a significant role in not only tumor cell survival, but it also promotes tumor cell migration through activation of the ionotropic glutamate receptor 4 (GluR4). GluR4, also commonly associated with nervous system tissues, appears to be manipulating the flow of calcium into the tumor cell. Both NPTX2 and GluR4 are not components of normal kidney cell function. Because calcium is an important co-factor for many signaling pathways controlling cell growth, survival, and mobility, unconstrained calcium levels in a cell can promote malignancy. We show that calcium calmodulin kinase and AKT, two oncogenic signaling pathways are activated by NPTX2 via calcium influx.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview WithDorothy N. Pierce, DNP, MSN, RN, NP-C, CRN, OCN, CBCN
Advanced Practice Nurse
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: The main findings from the study were:
Nineteen patients out of 24 (79%) reported lymphedema (LE) symptoms. Majority reporting symptoms received chemotherapy and were 50 years of age and older.
The most commonly reported symptoms were limb tenderness (n=10), swelling (n=9), firmness/tightness (n=8), numbness (n=6), heaviness (n=5), impaired movement of the shoulder (n=5), and finger (n=4).
Overall, the participants had low to moderate lymphedema knowledge. The mean knowledge score was 11.9 with a range from zero to 20.
Patients beginning radiation therapy for breast cancer often had not received any lymphedema information from health care providers prior to therapy; Lymphedema knowledge is moderate to weak.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Xuemei Sui, MD, MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Exercise Science
Division of Health Aspects of Physical Activity
Arnold School of Public Health
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Sui: In the present study, cancer survivors who reported performing resistance exercise (RE) at least 1 day of the week had a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with individuals who did not report participation in resistance exercise. Further, there was an inverse relationship between resistance exercise and all-cause mortality in those who were physically active, but not in those who were physically inactive. Although leisure-time physical activity was not associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, the present results support the benefits of resistance exercise and physical activity was during cancer survival.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Colin R. Cooke, MD, MSc, MS;
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine
Faculty, Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Cooke: There were three primary findings from our study.
First,we determined that between 1992 and 2005 there was almost a 40% increase in the number of admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU) among patients with lung cancer who were hospitalized for reasons other than surgical removal of their cancer.
Second, most of this increase was because doctors were admitting these patients to intermediate intensive care units. These are units that provide greater monitoring and nurse staffing than typically available in general hospital wards, but usually also have less ability to provide life support measures than full service ICUs.
Third, over the same period the reasons for ICU admission have changed. Although the most common reason for admission continues to be for problems related to the patients’ lung cancer, problems such as breathing difficulties requiring a ventilator and severe infections are increasingly common.
These findings suggest that although overall use of the ICU for patients with lung cancer is increasing over time, providers may be shifting some of the intensive care for lung cancer patients toward less aggressive settings such as the intermediate care unit.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Oncology and Surgery
Gastrointestinal Cancer Program
Division of Immunology
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and
Department of Oncology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
The Bunting-Blaustein Cancer Research Building (CRB1)
Baltimore, MD 21231
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Zheng: This study shows for the first time that treatment with a vaccine-based immunotherapy directly re-programs the pancreatic cancer microenvironment, allowing the formation of lymphoid aggregates, which are organized, lymph node-like, functional immune structures and which convert an immunologically quiescent tumor into an immunologically active tumor. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with Daniel Rocke, MD
Duke Medicine
Department Otolaryngology
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Rocke: I think the main point is that, to quote the paper, "end-of-life decision making by patients with cancer and their caregivers is significantly affected by their preference for quality of life or quantity of life, but OHNS physicians’ decision making is not." This is important because physicians counseling patients making end-of-life decisions are coming at these decisions from a different perspective that may not line up with their patients. If physicians recognize this, I think that these end-of-life discussions can be more productive
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dalliah Black, MD F.A.C.S.
Department of Surgical Oncology
The University of Texas
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Black: This is a retrospective study from 2002 - 2007 using the SEER/Medicare database of over 31,000 women with node negative breast cancer evaluating the utilization of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) as it transitioned from an optional method for axillary staging to the standard of care instead of complete axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). We found that SNB use increased each year in both white and black breast cancer patients throughout the study period. However, SNB was less often performed in black patients (62.4%)compared to white patients (73.7%) and this disparity persisted through 2007 with a 12% difference. Appropriate black patients more often had an ALND instead of the minimally invasive sentinel node biopsy which resulted in worse patient outcomes with higher lymphedema rates in black patients. However, when black patients received the minimally invasive SNB, their rates of lymphedema were low and comparable to white patients who received SNB.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John L. VandeBerg PhD
Southwest National Primate Research Center
Texas Biomedical Research Institute
San Antonio, TX 78245-0549
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. VandeBerg:Despite the increasing use of sunscreen in recent decades, the incidence of melanoma continues to rise by 3% annually, leading to concerns that sunscreen may not be effective in preventing melanoma despite its efficacy in preventing sunburn. Our results established in the laboratory opossum, which is the only natural mammalian model of UVB-induced melanoma, that SPF 15 sunscreen applied to infants prior to low dose UVB radiation leads later in life to a 10-fold reduction in pre-melanotic lesions, which are known to progress to malignant melanoma.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nynne Nyboe Andersen, MD, PhD student
Department of Epidemiology Research
Statens Serum Institut
2300 Copenhagen, Denmark
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Andersen: Previous studies evaluating the risk of cancer associated with the use of TNF-α antagonists are mainly based on data from randomized clinical trials with a short follow up time. Consequently, we used the national Danish registries to conduct a nationwide population-based cohort study assessing the risk of cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) exposed to these drugs from their introduction in 1999 until 2012. We included more than 56.000 patients with IBD and among those 4500 were exposed to TNF-α antagonists, contributing with almost 20.000 person-years of follow-up.
Our main results revealed that the risk of overall cancer was significantly increased in the analysis adjusted for propensity score and potential confounders except for azathioprine, however, when we additionally adjusted for azathioprine use the relative risk decreased markedly leaving no significant increased risk of cancer. Given the upper limit of the confidence intervals, this study could rule out a more than 36% relative increase in the risk of overall cancer over a median follow-up of 3.7 years among TNF-α antagonist-exposed patients with 25% of these followed for 6 years or longer. We also did some stratified analyses according to cumulative number of TNF-α inhibitor doses, and time since first TNF-α inhibitor dose, but these results did not reveal any significantly increased risk of cancer nor did the analyses on site-specific cancers.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yosuke Uchitomi, MD, PhD
Professor and Chairman,
Department of Neuropsychiatry,
Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Okayama, Japan
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Uchitomi: This study demonstrated the effect of communication skills training (CST) consisted of didactic lecture, role-plays, and peer discussion for oncologists with extensive experience in comprehensive cancer center hospitals in improving the psychological distress of cancer patients as well as oncologist performances and confidence in communicating with patients, using a randomized design. Reasons for this positive result might include that the communication skills training program had been developed based on patient preferences regarding the communication of bad news and oncologists’ needs.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jack Cuzick PhD
Centre for Cancer Prevention
Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine
Queen Mary University of London,
London UK
Dr. Cuzick offers the manuscript below to put the results of the Anastrozole for prevention of breast cancer in high-risk postmenopausal women (IBIS-II): an international, double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial in focus for MedicalResearch.com.
The Prevention of Breast Cancer
The first human evidence that drug treatment might reduce the incidence of breast cancer was reported in 19851, where it was found that use of tamoxifen in a trial of women with breast cancer to reduce recurrence of existing tumours also had a major impact on new tumours in the opposite breast, reducing them from 10 to 3. That observation has subsequently been confirmed in several other adjuvant trials and an overview of all such trials indicates that after an average of about 8 years of follow up, 5 years of tamoxifen reduced new contralateral tumours by 39%, with similar effects in years 0-5 and 5-10 in women with oestrogen receptor positive or unknown primary tumours2. These observations and positive results from animal studies3, led to the evaluation of 5 years of tamoxifen in women without breast cancer, but at high risk in 4 large trials. A recent overview4 indicates a 33% reduction in all breast cancer after a 10 years follow up, with a larger reduction in years 0-5 (48%), when treatment was given, and a continuing (22%) effect in years 5-10. Reductions were seen for oestrogen receptor positive invasive cancer (44%) and DCIS (28%), but no effect was seen for both oestrogen receptor negative invasive cancer, where in fact a non-significant 13% (P=0.4) increase was observed. Somewhat larger effects were seen for these other selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) – raloxifene, lasofoxifene and arzoxifene – in trials of osteoporotic women, where the primary endpoint was fracture reduction4. A subsequent head-to-head trial of raloxifene vs tamoxifen, showed tamoxifen to be about 20% more effective, but raloxifene had fewer side effects5. Lasofoxifene not only showed benefits for breast cancer reduction but also reduced fracture rates and heart disease6, and this multi-dimensional set of benefits makes it an attractive candidate for prevention.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Richard D. CarvajalMD
Director, Developmental Therapeutics; Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn Chair for Junior Faculty
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Carvajal: This is the first study to show that a systemic therapy provides significant clinical benefit in a randomized fashion to patients with advanced uveal melanoma, a population of patients who have very limited treatment options. This clinical benefit has never previously been demonstrated with other agents, both conventional or investigational.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview withDr. Stuart Gordon MD
Gastroenterologist
Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, MI 48202.
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Gordon: In a large American cohort of Hepatitis B patients, those who took antiviral therapy had a significantly lower risk of developing liver cancer than those who did not take such therapy.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Benjamin D. Smith MD
Associate Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77030
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Smith: Although use of needle biopsy to diagnose breast cancer increased during the time period we studied, it remained lower than targeted benchmarks. The patient’s surgeon seemed to exert a major influence on use of needle biopsy.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gabriella Johansson
Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Lund University Hospital
Lund, Sweden
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Answer: Our main focus was to study hairdressers’ exposure to carcinogenic aromatic amines. We found that the concentrations of the carcinogenic compound o-toluidine in blood increased with the number of treatments per week of light color permanent hair dyeing and hair waving treatments. Another aromatic amine, m- toluidine (assessed as not classifiable as carcinogenic to humans owing to a lack of data) in blood, increased with the number of treatments per week of light color hair dyeing and all other hair dyeing.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview withDr. Maryam Farvid MSc, Ph.D.
Takemi fellow, and Associate Arofessor
Senior author: Prof Walter Willett
Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston, MA,
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Farvid:Compared to women who had one serving per week red meat, those who consumed 1.5 serving per day red meat had a 22 percent higher risk of breast cancer. Red meat intake is associated with breast cancer risk in a dose-response manner. Each additional serving/day increase in total red meat was associated with a 13% increase in risk of breast cancer. Furthermore, each additional serving/day of poultry was associated with a 25% lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Substituting one serving/day of legumes for one serving/day of red meat was associated with a 15% lower risk of breast cancer, substituting one serving/day of poultry for one serving/day of red meat was associated with a 17% lower risk of breast cancer overall, and substituting one serving/day of combined legumes, nuts, poultry, and fish for one serving/day of red meat was associated with a 14% lower risk of breast cancer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Juliet A. Usher-Smith
Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care
The Primary Care Unit, University of Cambridge
Strangeways Research Laboratory
Cambridge, United Kingdom
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr Usher-Smith: Our systematic review identified 25 risk models that have the potential to identify individuals at higher risk of developing melanoma. Comparison between the different models was difficult due to the lack of validation studies and heterogeneity in choice and definition of variables. We were, however, able to show that most include well established risk factors and that, despite including a range of different variables, there is very little heterogeneity in the discriminatory ability of the models. There was also little difference in model performance between those scores suitable for self-assessment and those requiring a health care professional, suggesting potential for use at a population level to identify people at higher risk of melanoma.
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MedicalResearch Interview with: Ayal A. Aizer, MD, MHS
Harvard Radiation Oncology Program
Boston, MA
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Aizer: We studied Americans between the ages of 20-40 using the SEER Database (a national cancer registry) and found that patients who had insurance were more likely to present with localized (curable) versus metastatic (generally incurable) cancer. Patients with localized tumors were more likely to receive the appropriate treatment and, most importantly, survived longer than patients without insurance. Our analysis accounted for demographic and socioeconomic differences between patients who were insured versus uninsured. Our results indicate that insurance status is a powerful predictor of outcome among young adults with cancer. The Affordable Care Act, which will likely improve insurance coverage nationally, may yield improved cancer outcomes among Americans.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Christian S Hinrichs MD
Assistant Clinical Investigator
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, MD 20814
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Hinrichs:Objective tumor regression occurred in 3/9 patients with metastatic cervical cancer. Two responses were complete and are ongoing 22 and 15 months after treatment with a single infusion of T cells targeting the HPV oncoproteins.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview InvitationDr. Barbara Pockaj, MD
Professor of Surgery
Mayo Clinic, Arizona
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Pockaj: The study analyzed 515 triple negative breast cancer samples using a multi-platform approach including whole genome mRNA expression, protein expression, gene copy number changes and gene sequencing for immune markers. The study found that a cohort of the triple negative breast cancer patients had high expression of PD-L1 (program death ligand) and other immune regulators such as CTLA-4 (Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte Antigen) and IDO-1 (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase). High PD-L1 expression was found in patients whose tumors were triple negative and androgen receptor negative. High PD-L1 expression was related to DNA repair gene abnormalities including BRCA1.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Adetunji Toriola, MD, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor Division of Public Health Sciences
Department of Surgery
Washington University School of Medicine
Siteman Cancer Center St. Louis, MO
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Toriola: Very little is known about the impact of vitamin D in prognosis among cancer patients. This knowledge is of importance because of the increasing number of people living cancer and the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among cancer patients. We conducted a systematic review of studies published to date on the association of circulating vitamin D (25-OHD) levels with prognosis among cancer patients. This review suggests that higher circulating vitamin D levels may improve overall survival among breast and colorectal cancer patients but there is paucity of information on the role of circulating vitamin D levels in prognosis among patients with other cancer types.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Sean C. Dowdy, MD, FACS
Professor and Chair, Division of Gynecologic Surgery
Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Co-Leader, Women’s Cancer Program
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Dowdy: This study was a collaboration between four groups in 3 countries to determine if a genetic “signature” could predict which patients with ovarian cancer benefit from Bevacizumab (a very expensive drug with marginal benefit in patients with ovarian cancer). We hypothesized that while benefit may be marginal in a large group, patients with specific genetic changes could derive significant benefit from it. Using gene expression arrays (analyzing over 18,000 genes) we separated patients into four subgroups as described by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We show that patients in the proliferative and mesenchymal groups had a 8-10 month improvement in outcome compared to a 3 month improvement for the other two groups (immunoreactive and differentiated).
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Wai-Nang Paul Lee, M.D.
Division Chief, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism
Professor of Pediatrics
Director of Biomedical Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
Harbor-UCLA
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Wai-Nang Lee: The study reports that EGCG, the active biologic constituent in green tea, changed the metabolism of pancreatic cancer cells by suppressing the
expression of an enzyme associated with cancer, LDHA.
The researchers also compared the effects of EGCG with those of an enzyme
inhibitor, oxamate, which is known to reduce LDHA activity, and found that
they both operated in a similar manner by disrupting the pancreatic cancer
cells metabolic system.
Scientists had believed they needed a molecular mechanism to treat cancer,
but this study shows that they can change the metabolic system and have an
impact on cancer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Olivia Pagani
Institute of Oncology of Southern Switzerland
Ospedale San Giovanni, Switzerland
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Dr. Pagani: The studies show that also in premenopausal women (as already proven in postmenopausal women), aromatase inhibitors (AIs) (in this case Exemestane) given as adjuvant treatment are more effective than Tamoxifen in women with hormone receptor positive early breast cancer who are given concomitantly ovarian suppression to lower estrogen production. The 28% improvement in disease free survival is comparable to that seen in postmenopausal women. In particular, outcomes in women who did not receive chemotherapy (43% of the entire population, 29% of whom with node positive disease) were strikingly good (<97% were breast cancer free at 5 years).
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Frank van Hees MSc
Erasmus University Medical Center
Rotterdam, the Netherlands and
Ann G. Zauber PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?Answer:The main finding of our study is that colorectal cancer screening of individuals without previous screening is worthwhile well beyond age 75, which is the recommended age to stop screening in individuals with an adequate screening history. The exact age up to which screening should be considered in unscreened elderly depends on an individual's health status: in healthy individuals screening remains worthwhile up to age 86, whereas in individuals with a severe illness, such as heart failure, screening remains worthwhile up to age 80. (more…)
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Rahul Potluri
Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology
School of Medical Sciences, Aston University
Birmingham UK;
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Potluri: Study was conducted by a retrospective analysis of more than 1 million anonymous patient records across the UK between 2000 and 2013 using the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality (ACALM) protocol.
There were 664,159 women and of these, 22 938 had hyperlipidaemia and 9 312 had breast cancer. Some 530 women with hyperlipidaemia developed breast cancer. A statistical model to study the association between hyperlipidaemia and breast cancer. They found that having hyperlipidaemia increased the risk of breast cancer by 1.64 times (95% confidence interval 1.50-1.79).
(more…)
