NCI Cancer Bulletin: Training Providers and Patients to Talk about End-of-Life Care

March 23, 2010 - NCI: Fatigue: Is it Normal or Pathological? And How Can We Best Treat It?

"Despite years of scientific study of cancer-related fatigue (CRF), questions related to its definition, measurement, underlying mechanisms, and effective interventions remain unanswered. Yet, the high prevalence of CRF and its negative effects on quality-of-life outcomes, including work and family functioning, make it a critical problem for cancer patients and survivors. Clearly, more research is needed to reduce morbidity associated with this symptom.

To address this, on April 13 and 14, NCI’s Symptom Management and Health-related Quality of Life Steering Committee will convene a closed-attendance state-of-the-science meeting on CRF, which I will chair. During this meeting, we will summarize the science, address gaps in knowledge that require further study, and develop a focused agenda for future research......

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the urgent need to better understand and treat CRF is from the perspective of cancer patients and survivors who have experienced it. In discussing CRF, invariably they talk about their inability to get out of the house, work, cook meals and do dishes, get up the stairs to go to bed, or do half the things they did before. It is for these reasons that scientists need to fill the gaps in our knowledge of CRF."

(free) Registration page: Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Genetic Risk and Treatment Updates - U of Michigan/Sunnybrook Toronto

April teleconference on triple-negative breast cancer risk and updates

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Genetic Risk and Treatment Updates

Join Living Beyond Breast Cancer and The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation for our next free teleconference, Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Genetic Risk and Treatment Updates, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Thursday, April 15.

SGO: Targeting Platelets May Help Ovarian Cancer - in Meeting Coverage

MedPage Today Action Points

• Explain to patients that abnormal platelet levels or activity may play a role in ovarian cancer.


• The findings are based on a retrospective cohort study and laboratory experiments involving a preclinical model of ovarian cancer.


• Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Stanford University Researcher and Hemispherx Biopharma Consultant Present New Integrative Immunotherapy Approach - news item

"PHILADELPHIA, Mar 23, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. announced today the publication of an editorial entitled "TLR3 agonists as immunotherapeutic agents," published in the March 15, 2010 edition of Immunotherapy (2010) 2(2), 137-140, co-authored by Jonathan S. Berek, MD, Chairman, Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Christopher F. Nicodemus, MD, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Immune Therapeutics, Inc., and HEB Consultant.
Drs. Berek and Nicodemus have collaborated for more than a decade seeking to identify novel strategies to mobilize immunity to treat cancer and have conducted and published numerous preclinical and clinical studies, most notably in the field of ovarian cancer. Their long standing research interests form the basis for an active collaboration with the Company to evaluate the potential for Ampligen(R) (rintatolimod, Poly I : Poly C12U) and TLR3 agonists as cancer immunotherapeutics...."

Sexuality and intimacy after gynecological cancer

"The essential part of success is the providers appreciation of this serous problem and willingness and comfort in addressing it."

Doubling time of serum CA125 is an independent prognostic factor for survival in patients with (early stage) ovarian cancer relapsing after first-line chemotherapy

"There is a lack of data in early-stage ovarian cancer on the pattern of CA-125," said Chan. "Previous studies generally had no comprehensive staging and no central pathology review."
The Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) 157 trial provided an opportunity to examine the change in CA-125 and its relationship to outcomes in women with early-stage ovarian cancer. The trial involved 427 women with stage I-II epithelial ovarian cancer. They were randomized to receive three or six cycles of chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel.
All patients had detailed surgical staging before randomization. Chan said detailed information about CA-125 levels was available for 350 participants in the trial.

Phase II trial of the histone deacetylase inhibitor belinostat in women with platinum resistant epithelial ovarian cancer and micropapillary (LMP) ovarian tumours

Phase II trial of the histone deacetylase inhibitor belinostat in women with platinum resistant epithelial ovarian cancer and micropapillary (LMP) ovarian tumours.

CONCLUSIONS: Belinostat is well tolerated in both patient groups and shows some activity in patients with micropapillary (LMP) disease.

Endometrial and ovarian carcinomas with undifferen... [Mod Pathol. 2010] - PubMed result

"Carcinomas of the endometrium and ovary with undifferentiated components are uncommon neoplasms that are likely underdiagnosed.
They are important to recognize as they have been shown to be clinically aggressive.....Most patients (58% of endometrial and 83% of ovarian carcinomas with undifferentiated components) presented at advanced stages (FIGO III-IV).. ... The tumors were frequently misdiagnosed; they received a wide range of diagnoses, including FIGO grade 2 or 3 endometrioid carcinoma, carcinosarcoma, high-grade sarcoma including endometrial stromal sarcoma, neuroendocrine carcinoma, lymphoma, granulosa cell tumor and epithelioid sarcoma.... They were predominantly negative for neuroendocrine markers, smooth muscle markers and estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor. Mismatch repair protein expression by immunohistochemistry was evaluated in 17 cases, and 8 (47%) were abnormal (7 with loss of MLH1/PMS2 and 1 with MSH6 loss)....Endometrial and ovarian carcinomas with undifferentiated components have a broad histologic differential diagnosis, but they show specific histologic features that should enable accurate diagnosis.
These tumors can occur in young women, may be associated with microsatellite instability and behave in a clinically aggressive manner."
J Modern Pathology

Canadian Medical Association Journal: Opinion 'No more Dithering on e-health"

No more dithering on e-health: let’s keep patients safe instead
March 1, 2010

"Our slow progress on electronic health records should act as a call to action. An electronic health record system with access for everyone — family physicians, consultants, pharmacists, hospitals, managers and researchers — will save lives and improve health outcomes. Canadians deserve nothing less."