Thursday, March 11, 2010
Future Oncology-full text: DNA methylation-based fecal biomarkers for the noninvasive screening of GI cancers
"The next obvious question is “Are we there yet?”
Mortality among contraceptive pill users: cohort evidence from Royal College of General Practitioners' Oral Contraception Study -- Hannaford et al. 340: c927 -- BMJ
Objective: To see if the mortality risk among women who have used oral contraceptives differs from that of never users.
Design: Prospective cohort study started in 1968 with mortality data supplied by participating general practitioners, National Health Service central registries, or both.
Setting: 1400 general practices throughout the United Kingdom.
Participants: 46 112 women observed for up to 39 years, resulting in 378 006 woman years of observation among never users of oral contraception and 819 175 among ever users.
Results:
....1747 deaths occurred in never users of oral contraception and 2864 in ever users. Compared with never users, ever users of oral contraception had a significantly lower rate of death from any cause (adjusted relative risk 0.88, 95% confidence interval 0.82 to 0.93). They also had significantly lower rates of death from all cancers; large bowel/rectum, uterine body, and ovarian cancer; main gynaecological cancers combined; all circulatory disease; ischaemic heart disease; and all other diseases...cont'd
National Osteoporosis Foundation - new article of interest on Bisphosphonates
click on the title to view the pdf file:
"Special Concerns About Bisphosphonates"
Patient Advocate Programs at the ASCO Annual Meeting deadline is Apr 28thth
Reduced Registration Rate for Patient Advocates (for non-exhibitors)
If you represent a patient advocacy organization, you may be eligible for the discounted patient advocate registration rate of $255 per person on or before April 28, 2010, and $330 per person beginning April 29, 2010. Up to two representatives per organization may register at this discounted rate. The discounted registration rate for patient advocates is reserved exclusively for advocates who work or volunteer for not-for-profit patient advocacy organizations that provide programs, services, and support for people with cancer. People that register under this category may be asked to provide a curriculum vitae or resume, outlining their advocacy roles and experience. Please download a patient advocate registration form if you are a patient advocate and meet the registration criteria.
Radiation Therapy for Brain Cancer: Facts About Brain Cancer
ASTRO has just completed a new section on radiation therapy for brain metastases.
We’d love any feedback from patient educators or patients on how we can make it better.
http://www.rtanswers.com/treatmentinformation/cancertypes/brainmets/index.aspx
Katherine Egan Bennett
Director of Communications
American Society for Radiation Oncology
703-839-7330
703-839-7331 fax
http://www.astro.org
http://www.rtanswers.org
When treatment ends, patients with cancer combat challenges - STLtoday.com
"Many patients find themselves asking: What now?
"When you lose the security of knowing that you're acting toward curing your cancer, it's really scary," said Barbara Platzer, 72, of Chesterfield, who finished treatments for ovarian cancer three years ago. "Every time I'd go for chemotherapy, I'd have a doctor looking at me and doing lab tests where I'd see that my (cancer antigen-125) numbers were improving. And that made me feel secure, like I had control over what was happening. I felt like we were actively killing the cancer.""
Mar 2010 abstract: Incidence and management of (Avastin) bevacizumab-associated gastrointestinal perforations in patients with recurrent ovarian carcinoma
METHODS: We identified all patients who received bevacizumab off protocol from August 2004-August 2008. We examined their medical records for reports of confirmed GI perforation, associated clinicopathological factors, treatment, and outcomes. RESULTS: Six (4%) of 160 patients with ovarian carcinoma who had been treated with bevacizumab developed GI perforation.
The Soy - Breast Cancer Controversy - Cancerwise | Cancer blog from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
"These studies provide further information that regular dietary soy as part of a normal diet is probably safe and, in fact, may be beneficial for women with breast cancer. These studies, as well as others, create a growing body of evidence that the current advice that all soy foods should be removed from the diet of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer is probably untrue.
The role of non-dietary soy products such as soy supplements, powders or pills and the use of heavily processed soy items such as soy cheese, soy hot dogs or soy turkey remain unclear and should be avoided.
As the research to date is observational in nature, future randomized trials are needed to verify if a beneficial effect truly exists for the use of dietary soy."
Study Questions Benefits of Elective Removal of Ovaries During Hysterectomy
Note: this is not new news but has been reported over the past few years
PHILADELPHIA -- March 10, 2010 -- An article published in the March/April issue of The Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology suggests that bilateral oophorectomy may do more harm than good.
Deficiency of knowledge of genetics and genetic tests among general practitioners, gynecologists, and pediatricians: A global problem
Conclusion: The overall knowledge levels of genetics in many nongeneticist health care providers show clear deficiencies. This is in line with reports from other countries, showing that these deficiencies are a global problem.
The Missing Voice of Patients in Drug-Safety Reporting - New England Journal of Medicine
The Missing Voice of Patients in Drug-Safety Reporting
Ethan Basch, M.D.
A patient wants to know about symptoms she may have from a prescription drug she is taking. Consulting the label’s “Adverse Reactions” section, she finds a wealth of data. Little does she realize that this information, largely collected during clinical trials, is based almost entirely on clinicians’ impressions of patients’ symptoms — not on patients’ own firsthand reports of their experiences with the drug.
The current drug-labeling practice for adverse events is based on the implicit assumption that an accurate portrait of patients’ subjective experiences can be provided by clinicians’ documentation alone. Yet a substantial body of evidence contradicts this assumption, showing that clinicians systematically downgrade the severity of patients’ symptoms, that patients’ self-reports frequently capture side effects that clinicians miss, and that clinicians’ failure to note these symptoms results in the occurrence of preventable adverse events.1,2...continued
A patient wants to know about symptoms she may have from a prescription drug she is taking. Consulting the label’s “Adverse Reactions” section, she finds a wealth of data. Little does she realize that this information, largely collected during clinical trials, is based almost entirely on clinicians’ impressions of patients’ symptoms — not on patients’ own firsthand reports of their experiences with the drug.
The current drug-labeling practice for adverse events is based on the implicit assumption that an accurate portrait of patients’ subjective experiences can be provided by clinicians’ documentation alone. Yet a substantial body of evidence contradicts this assumption, showing that clinicians systematically downgrade the severity of patients’ symptoms, that patients’ self-reports frequently capture side effects that clinicians miss, and that clinicians’ failure to note these symptoms results in the occurrence of preventable adverse events.1,2...continued
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