Cancer Research
21 Dec Breast Cancer Risk: Effects of Tomato and Soy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Adana A.M. Llanos, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
RBHS-School of Public Health
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Piscataway, NJ 08854
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Llanos: Our longitudinal study examined the effects of both tomato-rich and soy-rich diets in a group of 70 postmenopausal women who participated in the study at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. For 10 weeks, women ate tomato products containing at least 25 milligrams of lycopene daily. For a separate 10-week period, the participants consumed at least 40 grams of soy protein daily. Before each test period began, the women were instructed to abstain from eating both tomato and soy products for two weeks. We examined the dietary intervention effects on hormone biomarkers known to be associated with obesity, namely adiponectin and leptin. After the tomato-rich diet participants' levels of adiponectin climbed nine percent. The effect was slightly stronger in women who had a lower body mass index.
20 Dec Breast Cancer: PIK3CA Mutation to Predict Chemotherapy Resistance
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Dr. med. Sibylle Loibl MD Unit Head of Medicine & Research Member of Management Board Associate Professor University Frankfurt GBG Forschungs GmbH Neu-Isenburg MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Loibl: We could demonstrate that patients with a HER2+ primary breast cancer harbouring a PIK3CA mutation are less likely to achieve a pathological complete response after treatment with an anthracycline/taxane containing therapy in combination with trastuzumab and lapatinib, than patients whose tumours does not harbour the mutation (so called wild type). This difference was largest in the group with HER2+, HR + tumours. The pCR rate in this cohort was as low as 6.3%. Looking at the differences in another study with either trastuzumab or lapatinib anti-HER2 treatment is seems as patients with a PIK3CA mutated tumour have a low pCR rate irrespective of the antiHER2 treatment, whereas the patients with a wild type tumour benefit from trastuzumab and the double blockade.16 Dec Chemotherapy: Adherence Increased with Generic, Lower Cost Medications
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dawn L. Hershman, MD MS
Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Leader, Breast Cancer Program
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Columbia University Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hershman: We have found in the past that compliance to 5 years of hormone therapy for the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer is low. While toxicity is a main reason, other factors are also important. Recent studies suggest out of pocket costs are high among cancer patients. We evaluated the change in adherence to hormone therapy after the introduction of generic Aromatase inhibitors. We found that discontinuation decreased and adherence increased with generic aromatase inhibitors compared to brand name. we found that higher co-payments were associated with decreased adherence and increased discontinuation. We also found that patients in the highest income group were more likely to be adherent to hormone therapy.
11 Dec Prostate Cancer: Potential Biological Factor Contributing to Racial Disparities
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr David P. Turner PhD
Assistant Professor, Director of shRNA Technology
Medical University of South Carolina
Dept of Pathology & Lab Medicine
Charleston SC 29425
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Turner: Our research has identified a potential mechanistic link between sugar derived metabolites and cancer associated pathways which may be a biological consequence of the socioeconomic and biological factors that are known to drive cancer health disparity. African Americans develop and die more frequently of cancer than any other population in the US. We examined the levels of reactive metabolites known as advanced glycation end-products, or AGEs for short, in serum and tumor samples from African American and Non-Hispanic White prostate cancer patients. In both the serum and tumor tissue, the levels of AGE metabolites were consistently higher in the African American prostate cancer patients than their White counterparts. AGE functions as a ligand for the receptor for AGEs, or RAGE for short. We also identified that RAGE protein levels were higher in African Americans with prostate cancer.
10 Dec Hepatitis C: Does Chemotherapy Cause Viral Relapse?
Posted at 13:18h
in Author Interviews, Chemotherapy, Gastrointestinal Disease, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, MD Anderson
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Harrys A. Torres, MD, FACP
Assistant Professor, Director of Hepatitis C Clinic
Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Torres: The main findings of the study were that patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who were successfully treated with antivirals and attained sustained virologic response (SVR) did not have a relapse of HCV infection after receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy for cancer. Patients in the study received different chemotherapeutic agents, including rituximab and systemic corticosteroids. Durability of SVR was maintained up to 14 years after chemotherapy in cancer patients.
06 Dec Breast Density Associated with Increased Breast Cancer Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Nicholas M Perry MD
London Breast Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of your study?
Dr. Perry: The main findings from the study were that automated density readings outperformed radiologists, and that women under the age of 50 had a more significant risk of breast cancer from higher breast density.
Also, and quite surprising was the appearance of a completely different age- density pattern in women with breast cancer. Whereas the women in the study without cancer showed a normal and steady decline in breast density with age, those with cancer showed a completely different curvi-linear pattern, which was evident in women as young as 30.
The message is that breast density remains an important factor for both the current breast screening methodologies, and for future research into investigation and management.
01 Dec High Fat Diet: Pubertal Effect on Breast Cancer Development
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor, Associate Dean for Graduate Academic and Student Affairs College of Natural Science Michigan State University
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-4320
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Schwartz: The main finding is that exposure to a high fat diet from the age of puberty onwards hastened the development of chemical carcinogen-induced breast cancer in absence of weight gain. We also found that prior to the appearance of any tumors, we could detect changes in the mammary gland that included increased cellular proliferation, increased vascularity, and changes in immune function.
25 Nov Ulcerative Colitis: Black Raspberries May Decrease Progression to Colon Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Li-Shu Wang, PhD
Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is frequently an intermediate step to colon cancer. The interleukin-10 knock-out (KO) mouse is a genetic model of this progression. We have now shown that KO mice fed 5% black raspberries (BRBs) had significantly less colonic ulceration as compared to KO mice that consumed the control diet. Dysfunction of the Wnt signaling pathway is a key event in UC-associated colon carcinogenesis. We investigated the effects of BRBs on the Wnt pathway and found that the BRB-fed KO mice exhibited significantly decreased promoter methylation of Wnt antagonists and a significantly lower level of β-catenin nuclear translocation. Our results suggest that BRBs inhibit colonic ulceration partly through inhibiting aberrant epigenetic events that dysregulate Wnt signaling.
24 Nov HER2-positive Breast Cancer and Adjuvant Chemotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Kelly K. Hunt, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Professor, Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery
Chief, Breast Surgical Oncology Section, Department of Surgical Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hunt: The primary endpoint of the Z1041 trial was the proportion of patients who had pathological complete response in the breast, defined as the percentage of women who started the neoadjuvant treatment with no histological evidence of disease in the breast at surgery. We found that high pathologic response rates were observed in both treatment groups with similar cardiac safety profiles in both arms of the trial. Specifically, 56.5% of patients in the sequential group (fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide on day one of a 21-day cycle for four cycles followed by paclitaxel plus trastuzumab weekly for 12 weeks) had a complete pathological response versus 54.2% of the patients who received the concurrent regimen (paclitaxel and trastuzumab weekly for 12 weeks followed by fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide on day one of a 21-day cycle with trastuzumab on days one, eight and 15 of the 21-day cycle for four cycles). The difference in pathologic complete response rates between the treatment arms was not statistically significant. Cardiac safety was a secondary endpoint of the trial and we found that both regimens had acceptable cardiac safety profiles.
24 Nov Thyroid Cancer: Increase in BRAF, RAS Mutations
MedicalResearch.com Interview
Yuri E. Nikiforov, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology, Vice Chair for Molecular Pathology
Director, Division of Molecular & Genomic Pathology
Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Nikiforov: This is examined temporal changes in mutational profiles and standardized histopathologic features of thyroid cancer in the U.S. over the last four decades. It showed a significant change in molecular profiles of thyroid cancer during the past 40 years as it determined two major trends in changing the mutational make-up of thyroid cancer: a rapid increase in the prevalence of RAS mutations, particularly for the last 10 years, and continuous decrease in frequency of RET/PTC rearrangement. The rising incidence of RAS mutations points to new and more recent etiologic factors, probably of a chemical or dietary nature. The decreasing incidence of RET/PTC rearrangements, a known marker of high-dose environmental and medical radiation, suggest that the impact of ionizing radiation, at least as related to high-dose environmental exposures and historical patterns of radiation treatment for benign conditions, is diminishing.
23 Nov Pancreatic Cancer: Frequent Nut Consumption May Reduce Risk
Posted at 11:13h
in Antioxidants, Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Medical Research Centers, Nature, Nutrition, Pancreatic
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ying Bao, MD, ScD
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bao: Frequent nut consumption is inversely associated with risk of pancreatic cancer in women, independent of other potential risk factors for pancreatic cancer.
22 Nov Burkitt’s Lymphoma: Effectivenss of Low-Intensity Therapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Kieron M. Dunleavy, M.D.
Metabolism Branch
Lymphoma Therapeutics Section
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Dunleavy: We found that low-intensity therapy was highly effective in Burkitt's lymphoma and cured over 95% of patients with the disease.
18 Nov Colon Cancer: Racial Disparities in Metastatic Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
James Murphy, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, Center for Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies ,UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
La Jolla, CA 92093
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Murphy: This study evaluated racial disparity in metastatic colorectal cancer. In a large population-based cohort we found of over 11,000 patients we found that black patients were less likely to be seen in consultation by a cancer specialist, and were less likely to receive treatment with chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation. Furthermore, we found that this disparity in treatment accounted for a substantial portion of the race-based differences between black and white patients.
11 Nov Breast Cancer: Intraoperative vs Whole Breast Radiotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof Jayant S Vaidya PhD
Clinical Trials Group, Division of Surgery and Interventional Science
University College London, London, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Vaidya: The main findings are
- a) these are longer term results that have confirmed our original publication in 201
- (b) We found that when TARGIT intraoperative radiotherapy is given at the time of lumpectomy for breast cancer, the local control and survival from breast cancer is similar to several weeks of whole breast radiotherapy
- c) we also found that with TARGIT there are significantly fewer deaths from other causes - i.e., fewer deaths from cardiovascular causes and other cancers
09 Nov IVF: No Increased Risk of Cancer in Children after In-Vitro Fertilization
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Alastair Sutcliffe M.D., Ph.D.
From the Institute of Child Health
University College London
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sutcliffe: Good NEWS for couples who need assisted conception. All the births (106,000) from Great Britain over 18 years were linked to the National Childhood Cancer Registry from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (which has recorded all births sine 1991 by law.)Those children who showed up on both registries, had IVF conception and childhood cancer.
We predicted the number we would expect from the known national childhood cancer rates. We found ALMOST IDENTICAL rates 108 in our group and 109 predicted. NO INCREASED RISK OF CANCER AFTER IVF CONCEPTION IN OFFSPRING.
07 Nov Breast Cancer: Breast-Conserving Treatment With or Without Radiotherapy for Ductal in-Situ Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mila Donker, MD
Resident in Radiation Oncology
Study monitor EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial
The Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam, Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Donker: Results of EORTC trial 10853 which were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that breast conserving treatment combined with radiotherapy reduces the risk of local recurrence in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).
Between 1986 and 1996, this phase III EORTC trial 10853 randomized 1010 women with complete local excision of DCIS to no further treatment (503 patients) or radiotherapy (507 patients). The risk of any local recurrence was found to be reduced by 48% in the patients who also received radiotherapy. The 15-year local recurrence-free rate was 69% for the group of patients receiving breast conserving surgery alone, but this increased to 82% for the group of patients who also received radiotherapy, and the 15-year invasive local recurrence-free rate was 84% versus 90%, respectively.
06 Nov Gastric Cancer: Second Line Chemotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Shuichi Hironaka, MD Clinical Trial Promotion Department, Chiba Cancer Center 666-2 Nitona-cho Chuo-ku Chiba-shi Chiba, 260-8717 Japan MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Hironaka: This is the first randomized phase III trial comparing paclitaxel and irinotecan in second-line chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer. This study showed that no statistically significant difference was observed between paclitaxel and irinotecan for overall survival. However, both are reasonable second-line treatment options for advanced gastric cancer.01 Nov Proton Therapy Radiation: Decreased Need for Feeding Tubes in Oropharnygeal Cancer Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Steven J. Frank, M.D., associate professor of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center discusses the findings of his latest study, “Gastrostomy Tubes Decrease by Over 50% with Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy during the Treatment of Oropharyngeal Cancer Patients.”
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Frank: The study found that the use of feeding tubes in oropharyngeal carcinoma (OPC) cancer patients treated with intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) decreased by more than 50% percent compared to patients treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). This suggests that proton therapy may offer vital quality of life benefits for patients with tumors occurring at the back of the throat.
Of the 50 OPC patients enrolled in the study:
- Twenty-five patients were treated with IMPT and 25 received IMRT.
- Five patients treated with IMPT required the use of feeding tubes (20%) compared to 12 patients treated with IMRT (48%).
- IMPT patients were spared from serious side effects, usually a result of IMRT, such as loss of taste, vomiting, nausea, pain, mouth and tongue ulcers, dry mouth, fatigue, and swallowing difficulty.
- IMPT patients could better sustain their nutrition and hydration levels, often leading to faster recovery during and after treatment.
01 Nov Prostate Cancer: Obesity at Diagnosis Increases Mortality Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Reina Haque, PhD, MPH Research scientist, Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main study findings are that men who are overweight or obese when they are diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to die from the disease than men who are of healthy weight. In patients with more aggressive forms of prostate cancer, the researchers also found an even stronger correlation between obesity and mortality. The study was restricted to patients undergoing surgical treatment for prostate cancer, rather than other treatments such as radiation or hormone therapy.30 Oct Lung Cancer: Breath Test Detection
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Peter Mazzone MD, MPH Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine Cleveland Clinic Main Campus Cleveland, OH 44195 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study? Dr. Mazzone: There were 2 parts to this study: In the first part we looked at how the breath collection instrument and sensor were performing and made...
22 Oct Melanoma: Nivolumab with Vaccine in IPI Refractory Melanoma
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jeffrey Weber, M.D, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher, Moffitt Cancer Center
Tampa, Florida
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Weber: That the PD-1 blocking antibody nivolumab has a 25% ORR with long duration of response in ipilimumab refractory patients, and that patients with prior grade 3-4 ipilimumab related immune related side effects may be safely treated with nivolumab without reproducing the prior IPI related side effects.
16 Oct Cancer Risk from Imaging Radiation in Ischemic Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com:
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Brix
Division of Medical and Occupational Radiation Protection
Federal Office for Radiation Protection
Institut für Med. Strahlenhygiene
85764 Neuherberg
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We investigated the cumulative radiation exposure and cancer risk of more than 1200 patients with ischemic heart diseases (IHD) from diagnostic and therapeutic imaging procedures performed 3 month before and 12 month after the date of diagnosis. The major findings were:
- 87% of patient exposure resulted from heart catheter procedures.
- The average cumulative effective dose was 13.3 mSv in males and 10.3 mSv in females. The highest dose was nearly 100 mSv.
- The estimated average attributable life-time risk of male and female patients to develop a radiation-induced cancer in their remaining life was 0.09 % and 0.07 %, respectively. This correspond to 1 excess cancer in about 1100 male and 1400 female IHD patients. The highest risk was 0.9 %.
- The effective dose is inadequate to characterize individual radiation risks, since neither the age nor the sex of the patient is taken into account. According to our results, cancer risks can vary by a factor of more than 10 for comparable values of the effective dose.
11 Oct Thyroid Cancer: Incidence on the Rise, Cause Unknown
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
David Goldenberg MD, FACS
Professor of Surgery and Oncology
Director of Head and Neck Surgery
Associate Director of Surgical Services- Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute
Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
The Pennsylvania State UniversityThe Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Goldenberg: The incidence of thyroid cancer is on the rise and has nearly tripled in the last thirty years.
Some authors have attributed this increase in incidence to improved sensitivity of diagnostic techniques and imaging allowing for diagnosis of small insignificant thyroid cancers. Others do not agree and state that is a real rise in this disease.
Many patients have their cancer discovered by accident when they undergo a diagnostic study for some other reason- such as trauma, neck pain, or carotid artery studies (for clogged arteries).
We aimed to compare incidentally discovered versus non incidentally discovered thyroid cancers to determine whether the thyroid cancers in both groups harbor different characteristics.
11 Oct Breast Cancer Mortality: Multivitamin and Mineral Use
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. S. Wassertheil-Smoller PhD
Distinguished University Professor Emerita
Department of Epidemiology & Population Health
Principal Investigator, Women's Health Initiative
Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
1300 Morris Park Avenue Bronx, NY 10461
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We studied 7728 older women who developed invasive breast cancer during their participation in the Women’s Health Initiative, known as WHI. This study found that women with invasive breast cancer who are users of multivitamin and mineral supplements had a 30% lower risk of dying from their breast cancer compared to non-users. This protective effect was observed to be independent of a large number of factors which affect breast cancer outcomes and which account for differences between users and non-users. The women we studied were ages 50-79 when they started the WHI.
10 Oct Breast Cancer: 7 Triple-Negative Subtypes and Chemotherapy Response
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hiroko Masuda MD
Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic; Departments of 2Breast Medical Oncology, 3Bioinformatics and Computational Biology The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas;
W. Fraser Symmans, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Pathology, Unit 85, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030-4009;
Naoto T. Ueno, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Unit 1354, Houston, TX 77030.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) could be classified into 7 subtypes: basal-like 1 (BL1), basal-like 2 (BL2), immunomodulatory (IM), mesenchymal (M),mesenchymal stem-like (MSL), luminal androgen receptor (LAR), and unstable (UNS). Using cluster analysis, Lehmann and Bauer et al. identified these TNBC subtypes in 21 public mRNA gene expression profiles of breast cancer. However, the clinical relevancy of these novel molecular subtypes has not been established. To establish the clinical relevancy, we determined if the subtypes of TNBC have different rates of pathological complete response (pCR) to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens. In this study, we confirmed that TNBC is heterogeneous and that pCR differs by TNBC subtype using the algorithm proposed by Lehmann and Bauer et al. The BL1 subtype had the highest pCR rate (52%), and BL2 and LAR had the lowest pCR rates (0% and 10%, respectively). TNBC subtype was an independent predictor of pCR status (P=0.022) via a likelihood ratio test. To our knowledge, this was the first study to show that the TNBC subtype can serve as an independent predictor of pCR status in patients who received standard chemotherapy regimens. This confirms the possible clinical relevance of the 7 molecular subtypes, and these subtypes may lead to innovative clinical trials of personalized medicine for patients with TNBC.
10 Oct Prostate Cancer: PSA Changes in Patients Treated with Treated With Second-Line Chemotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Susan Halabi, PhD
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC 27710
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Halabi: The purpose of assessing surrogate endpoints is to allow for a more rapid and efficient determination of whether a given therapy provides clinical benefit to patients by prolonging their life.
We sought to evaluate PSA kinetics as surrogate endpoints for overall survival (OS) in mCRPC patients who were receiving second line chemotherapy (cabazitaxel or mitoxantrone) following progression after docetaxel. Using different analytical approaches, we found that PSA declines within the first three months of treatment are not appropriate as surrogate markers of clinical benefit in men who were receiving second line chemotherapy.
This analysis has important clinical care and study design implications: it has become common to use ≥30% decline in PSA as a clinical trial endpoint for all patients with metastatic CRPC, based on the original front-line docetaxel data. The data presented in this study suggest that this is erroneous. Further we believe these data are important because they demonstrate that there are different disease states within the group of patients with “metastatic CRPC". To make the assumption that the same surrogate endpoint can be used across the board may seem like an obvious mistake, but permeates the literature.
09 Oct Teenagers: What are the Psychosocial Problems if Parent has Cancer?
Posted at 13:47h
in Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics, Social Issues
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Elisabeth Jeppesen MPH, PhD-fellow
National Resource Center for Late Effects after Cancer Treatment, Department of Oncology, Oslo University, Hospital, The Norwegian Radiumhospitalet, Oslo, Norway
mobil +47 951 05271
Wisit: Ullernchaussen 70 (Radiumhospitalet)
www.oslo-universitetssykehus.no
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background of this study?
Answer: Each year a considerable number of parents with children younger than 18 years of age are affected by cancer in a parent. Cancer in one of the parents might represent a potentially traumatic event and thereby may be a risk factor for psychosocial problems in the offspring. So far, teenagers’ psychosocial responses to parental cancer have only been studied to a limited extent in controlled trials. Using a trauma theory perspective many studies have shown significant direct associations between parental cancer and psychosocial problems in teenagers. However, the literature also indicates that most children and teenagers have normal stress reactions to such events. In order to identify the need for eventual prevention and intervention among teenagers exposed to such a stressor, we need more empirical knowledge of their psychosocial situation.
08 Oct Ovarian Cancer and Cardiovascular Comorbidity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Anil K. Sood MD
Department of Gynecologic Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Unit 1362, PO Box 301439, Houston, TX, 77030
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sood: For women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer, high heart rate at diagnosis (tachycardia), venous thromboembolism (VTE) occurring after diagnosis and pulmonary hypertension post-diagnosis are independently related to reduced survival after controlling for tumor stage, grade, and extent of cytoreduction. Women with tachycardia lived an average of 4.0 years after diagnosis compared with 5.9 years for women without tachycardia, a 32% reduction in duration of survival. Patients who experienced VTE lived a median 4.1 years after diagnosis, compared with 6.4 yrs for patients who did not experience VTE.
08 Oct Node-Positive Breast Cancer: SLN after Chemotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kelly K. Hunt, MD F.A.C.S.
Professor, Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery
Chief, Breast Surgical Oncology Section, Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hunt: We found that 40% of women who had node positive disease at initial presentation (confirmed by needle biopsy) had no evidence of residual cancer in the lymph nodes after chemotherapy.
We performed sentinel lymph node (SLN) surgery followed by axillary lymph node dissection in all of the patients and found a false negative rate of 12.6% with the SLN procedure.
The false negative rate was lower when surgeons used two mapping agents (blue dye and radioisotope) to identify the sentinel nodes and when they removed more than 2 sentinel nodes.