Patient Page: BRCA Genes and Breast Cancer — JAMA

PROGNOSIS With screening mammograms and breast MRIs, timely treatment, and/or prophylactic surgery, the life expectancy in BRCA carriers approaches the life span of noncarriers.

Editorial/link to paper: The Use and Misuse of ICU Telemedicine — JAMA

"....A large, multicenter study published recently showed no demonstrable clinical benefit, 4 and a recent meta-analysis found no beneficial association between ICU telemedicine and in-hospital mortality. 5 These results have left clinicians, hospital administrators, and policy makers wondering how to best use this technology, if at all."

extract only: A New Frontier in Patient Safety - McCannon and Berwick — JAMA Partnership for Patients

Note: this is a pay-per-view article ($$$)

Comparison of Effect Sizes Associated With Biomarkers Reported in Highly Cited Individual Articles and in Subsequent Meta-analyses — JAMA

Context Many biomarkers are proposed in highly cited studies as determinants of disease risk, prognosis, or response to treatment, but few eventually transform clinical practice.

Objective To examine whether the magnitude of the effect sizes of biomarkers proposed in highly cited studies is accurate or overestimated.................

Conclusion Highly cited biomarker studies often report larger effect estimates for postulated associations than are reported in subsequent meta-analyses evaluating the same associations. 

conference announcement: (UK) Molecular Diagnostics for Cancer Drug Development

Author Insights: Beware of Overestimating Biomarker Validity - JAMA

press release - UK - Targeted testing offers treatment hope for ovarian cancer patients

Public release date: 30-May-2011

Targeted testing offers treatment hope for ovarian cancer patients 
 
Women with ovarian cancer could be helped by a new test that identifies the specific type of tumour they have, a conference will hear this week.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh hope this improved diagnosis will help doctors to personalise treatment programmes so that patients receive the most effective drugs.
The Edinburgh team worked with scientists from Ireland to identify six subgroups of the disease, each of which had a different genetic signature.
To do this, they analysed tissue samples from more than 350 ovarian cancer patients and compared this information with the patients' medical records.
The results show how genetic profiling of ovarian cancers might predict a person's response to drug treatments.
Researchers say the development may be particularly helpful for women with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer, which is typically caught late by current diagnostic tests.
This type of aggressive – or 'high grade' – cancer can respond well to a recently-developed drug that targets the blood supply of the cancer cells. (blogger's note - it is not clear from this press release  if this is specific to serous cell type)
The team hopes that by identifying the women with this type of cancer at the earliest opportunity, they could use the drug more effectively and help to improve survival rates.
The findings will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, being held in Chicago this week.
Dr Charlie Gourley of the University of Edinburgh, who led the study, said: "This research shows that by conducting a detailed analysis of the genes of ovarian cancers we may be able to identify those patients who will respond well to new drug treatments. This could bring valuable improvements in survival rates for the disease and would help us to personalise a patient's care to ensure the greatest possible success."
Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women, with around 6,800 women being diagnosed every year in the UK.
Of these, nearly two-thirds will not live beyond five years of their diagnosis.
Chemotherapy and surgery can be effective treatments, but women could have a greater chance of surviving the disease if it is identified earlier on.
The findings will be presented at ASCO on Saturday 4th June.

Initiatives and Resources | Psychosocial Oncology Education Opportunities Directory | Cancer View Canada

Note:  

this program includes providers, volunteers and students but does not include patients/families/caregivers
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Psychosocial Oncology Education Opportunities Directory

This directory connects you with information relating to psychosocial oncology education opportunities available throughout Canada.

These include:

• courses
• field/clinical placements and field/clinical training opportunities
• research training opportunities
• other opportunities such as conferences, workshops, retreats

Canadian Cancer Statistics 2011

Canada - Ovary - incidence  2,600
Canada - Ovary - deaths      1,750
est. 5 yr survival rate ovarian cancer (all stages) 42%
est. 5 yr survival rate breast cancer 88%

* see table 2.2 for provincial stats

* see table 6 for lifetime probability of developing and dying from
ovarian cancer (1 in 69 ;  1 in 92)


(important note regarding stats - to put this in perspective,  overall incident rates of ovarian cancer is relatively low (2,600 est. women annually/national basis)  as a comparison to other cancers, however, as we know there still is no early detection test)