- This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Patients with advanced ovarian cancer had significantly better survival if they took beta-blockers, particularly the noncardioselective agents.
- Note that the survival difference more than doubled to a median survival of almost 8 years in the subgroup of patients treated with nonselective beta-blockers.
Friday, March 15, 2013
open access: Receiving Palliative Treatment Moderates the Effect of Age and Gender on Demoralization in Patients with Cancer
PLOS ONE
"...... In conclusion, the present study shows that existential distress (or crisis) in terms of demoralization is (a) frequent in cancer and (b) depends on a complex interaction of demographic and medical patient characteristics. One explanation to the latter is that existential challenges related to palliative treatment bring age- and gender-specific vulnerability and protective factors of existential distress into sharper relief. Moreover, these results provide a new perspective on the limited or inconsistent simple effects of palliative treatment, age, and gender on existential distress in previous research; future studies should consider that the effects of these variables depend on their sample-based distribution, which is to a large extent determined by the tumor site of the patients studied. Further improvement of knowledge about subgroup resources and vulnerabilities in the context of existential threat would provide valuable input for interventions focusing on the individual experience of existential challenges among cancer patients
Reference (to ovarian cancer = 1 citation)
Arden-Close E, Gidron Y, Moss-Morris R (2008) Psychological distress and its correlates in ovarian cancer: a systematic review. Psychooncology 17 (11): 1061–1072.
Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 66th Annual Cancer Symposium (selected articles)
Medscape Oncology
Conference News
- In US, Even More DCIS Is Coming: What Should Be Done?
- General Surgeons Perform Most Cancer Operations in US
- 4D-CT Bests Sestamibi SPECT for Primary Hyperparathyroidism
- Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy Boosts Operative Risks
- Power Outages, Fire Drill Interrupt Surgical Oncologists
- Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy Is Option for BRCA Carriers
- FOLFIRINOX Useful in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Too
Breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) predict clinical outcome in platinum- and toxal-based chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients: a system review and meta-analysis
Abstract
The recent studies have evaluated the relationship between BRCA1 expression and clinical outcome of chemotherapy (mainly focused on platinum-based and toxal-based treatment) in NSCLC patients, but the results were inconclusive and controversial. Our aim of this study was to evaluate this association by literature based system review and meta-analysis.PubMed, EMBASE and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were used to retrieve the relevant articles. The interested outcome included objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS). The pooled odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) ware estimated.After specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, 23 studies fulfilled the criteria and were included in our analysis. In 17 platinum-based studies, low/negative BRCA1 was in favor of better ORR (OR = 1.70, 95%CI = 1.32-2.18), longer OS and EFS (HR = 1.58, 95%CI = 1.27-1.97, and HR = 1.60, 95%CI = 1.07-2.39 for OS and EFS, respectively). In 4 toxal-based chemotherapy studies, the patients with high/positive BRCA1 had better ORR (OR = 0.41, 95%CI = 0.26-0.64), OS and EFS were not evaluated as the insufficient data available.Overall, BRCA1 might be a useful biomarker to predict clinical outcome for personal chemotherapy in NSCLC patients in the future.
Acute Kidney Injury and Bisphosphonate Use in Cancer: A Report From the Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) Project (AERS)
Abstract
Purpose: To determine whether acute kidney injury (AKI) is identified within the US Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Events and Reporting System (FDA AERS) as an adverse event resulting from bisphosphonate (BP) use in cancer therapy.
Conclusion: AKI was identified in BP cancer clinical trials, although a safety signal for BPs and AKI within the FDA AERS was not detected. Our findings may be attributed, in part, to clinicians who believe that AKI occurs infrequently; ascribe the AKI to underlying premorbid disease, therapy, or cancer progression; or consider that AKI is a known adverse drug reaction of BPs and thus under-report AKI to the AERS.
Evaluation of Treatment Benefit in Journal of Clinical Oncology
Blogger's Note: also speaks to the issues of rare cancers
Evaluation of Treatment Benefit in Journal of Clinical Oncology
REFERENCES
Experience of Risk-reducing Salpingo-oophorectomy for a BRCA1 Mutation Carrier and Establishment of a System Performing a Preventive Surgery for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome in Japan: Our Challenges for the Future.
Jpn J Clin Oncol. 2013 Mar 13;
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy is currently regarded as the most certain primary method for preventing ovarian cancer among BRCA1/2 mutation carriers with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome. However, risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy has rarely been performed in Japan.
open access: What is lacking in current decision aids on cancer screening?
What is lacking in current decision aids on cancer screening?
Recent guidelines on cancer screening have provided not only more screening options but also conflicting recommendations. Thus, patients, with their clinicians' support, must decide whether to get screened, which modality to use, and how often to undergo screening. Decision aids could potentially lead to better shared decision-making regarding screening between the patient and the clinician.
Science and Society: Why You Should Care About The Increasing Amount Of Fraud In Scientific Research
Science and Society article
"Yet despite the severity of the problem and the great stakes at play, there is no centralized database to track these retractions — although new resources have emerged, like Retraction Watch, a blog run by two health journalists keeping tabs on the ongoing drama."
open access (young cancer survivors) JCI - Eliminating malignant contamination from therapeutic human spermatogonial stem cells
JCI
Introduction
Over 12,000 children are diagnosed with cancer every year in the US, and it has been estimated that a male infant has a 1 in 300 chance of being diagnosed with a malignancy by the age of 20 (1). Fortunately, success rates in treating childhood cancer have increased dramatically over the past few decades, and now approximately 80% of children survive following treatment (2, 3). Given this growing cohort of adult survivors of childhood cancers, emphasis is now being placed on quality of life issues following successful treatment. Many therapies to treat cancer are gonadotoxic and can lead to infertility, and fertility potential has an important impact on quality of life according to cancer survivors (4–7). In fact, the American Society of Clinical Oncology now recommends that the reproductive risks of cancer therapies and fertility preservation options should be routinely discussed with patients before beginning treatment (4, 8)..........
(Gene) Patents for All | The Daily Scan | GenomeWeb
Genome
"The American Medical Association stands with healthcare providers, labs, researchers, and cancer patients who say that gene sequences isolated from the body should not be patentable, but not all doctors agree with this position.....
Founder mutation in well-defined breast and/or ovarian cancer families and unselected ovarian cancer cases of French Canadian descent
Blogger's Note: study included major ovarian cancer cell types/LMP
open access
PALB2 c.2323C>T [p.Q775X]
Conclusion
The PALB2 c.2323C>T [p. Q775X] mutation confers increased risk for breast cancer in the French
Canadian population of Quebec. The contribution of PALB2 c.2323C>T [p. Q775X] to the causation of breast cancer in French-Canadians appears
to be lesser than that attributable to the most common founder alleles in BRCA1 and BRCA2, but the young age at diagnoses and associated familial history of breast cancer
suggest that this variant should be added to the panel of deleterious mutations screened
for assessing breast cancer risk in this unique population. Indeed during the preparation
of this manuscript another PALB2 carrier harboring the p.Q775X variant was identified in the Hereditary Cancer Clinics
affiliated with McGill University Health Centre. The carrier had bilateral breast
cancer at ages 34 and 42 years and a strong family history of breast cancer further
supporting the notion that PALB2 p.Q775X carriers are at increased risk for breast cancer.
Malignant tumors with clear cell morphology: a comparative immunohistochemical study with renal cell carcinoma antibody, Pax8, steroidogenic factor 1, and brachyury (includes ovarian)
Abstract
This
study aimed to identify an immunohistochemical panel to aid in the
differential diagnosis for tumors with clear cell morphology.
Twenty-five clear cell renal (Kidney) cell carcinomas (CCRCCs), 19 clear cell
ovarian carcinoma (CCOCs), 20 cases of adrenal cortical
carcinomas(ACCs), and 10 chordomas were stained for renal cell carcinoma
marker (RCC Ma), Pax8, brachyury, and steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1).
Carcinoma of the fallopian tube: Results of a multi-institutional retrospective analysis of 127 patients with evaluation of staging and prognostic factors
Abstract
The
aim of this study was to determine the impact of prognostic factors in
primary fallopian tube carcinoma (PFTC). All cases of PFTC diagnosed
between 1990 and 2010 were retrieved from the files of 6 academic
centers.
Non-inferiority cancer clinical trials: scope and purposes underlying their design
Definition: Non-inferiority trials are a type of clinical trial performed to see if a new drug or treatment is "not inferior" to a current treatment (an active treatment). The active treatment is often considered the "standard of care" or the "gold standard." Another way to describe these trials is that they are used to determine if a new treatment is "at least as good as," or "not unacceptably worse than," the active treatment.
Abstract
Conclusion Cancer NIFCT harbor serious methodological and ethical issues. Many use large NIFm and nearly one-fifth did not state a clear purpose for selecting a non-inferiority design.
Functional Analysis of Genes in Regions Commonly Amplified in High-Grade Serous and Endometrioid Ovarian Cancer
Abstract
Purpose: Ovarian cancer
has the highest mortality rate of all the gynecologic malignancies and
is responsible for approximately 140,000
deaths annually worldwide. Copy number
amplification is frequently associated with the activation of oncogenic
drivers in
this tumor type, but their cytogenetic complexity
and heterogeneity has made it difficult to determine which gene(s)
within
an amplicon represent(s) the genuine oncogenic
driver. We sought to identify amplicon targets by conducting a
comprehensive
functional analysis of genes located in the regions
of amplification in high-grade serous and endometrioid ovarian tumors.
Beta-Blockers Boost Survival in Ovarian Ca
Medpage
Action Points
"....The study provides "provocative information" regarding potential novel therapeutic applications of beta-blockers in the treatment of ovarian cancer, said invited discussant Laura Havrilesky, MD, of Duke University. In particular, the findings pertaining to nonselective beta-blockers warrant further study.
However, Havrilesky emphasized several limitations of the retrospective chart review, including the absence of a comparison of demographic and clinical variables for users of nonselective versus selective beta-blockers. Moreover, the investigators did not perform a multivariate analysis to identify factors that might have explained the results.
"There remains a significant risk of selection bias and other confounders that may have accounted for some of the survival differences observed," Havrilesky said."
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Troubles continue for Intuitive Surgical as shares keep falling - da Vinci devices
Media
"T roubles continued for robotic surgeon maker Intuitive Surgical Inc., as shares took another tumble Thursday following the company’s explanation of recent federal scrutiny over its da Vinci devices.....
BRCA1 expression and improved survival in ovarian cancer patients treated with intraperitoneal cisplatin and paclitaxel: a Gynecologic Oncology Group Study : British Journal of Cancer
British Journal of Cancer
Conclusion:
Decreased BRCA1
expression is associated with a 36-month survival improvement in
patients with EOC treated with IP chemotherapy. Although these results
merit validation in future studies, the results suggest that decreased
BRCA1 expression predicts for improved response to cisplatin-based IP
chemotherapy with cisplatin and paclitaxel.
Data Misleading for HRT, Breast Cancer Link
Blogger's Note/Opinion: having attended numerous medical conferences/scientific analyzes at the time of, and subsequent to, the WHI publication, the flaws were apparent (and acknowledged) then as they are now; media hype and poor communications led to a form of 'mass' hysteria amongst women including unneeded suffering; the debates and research will continue
Medpage
Action Points
- The evidence as to whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) plays a causal role in breast cancer is insufficient to support that hypothesis, and there are major flaws in studies analyzing the data, these researchers contend.
- Point out that aspects of the two ecological studies that violated the principles of causality were time order, detection bias, and lack of adjustment for potential confounders.
"The evidence as to whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) plays a causal role in breast cancer is insufficient to support that hypothesis, and there are major flaws in studies analyzing the data, researchers stated.
In the years immediately following the publication of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) in 2002, the use of HRT plummeted, but rates of breast cancer have not consistently followed that pattern, explained Samuel Shapiro, MB, of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and colleagues.
Moreover, two initial studies assessing the effect on breast cancer incidence following that decline -- often cited as providing strong evidence for an association -- do not hold up under scrutiny, Shapiro's group argued online in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.
Those studies, one based on data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries and the other drawn from Kaiser Permanente's Northern California health system database, are limited by their ecological design, which simply examines trends in the population without individual-level data, according Shapiro and colleagues.
Ecological studies can suggest a temporal association between an exposure and a disease, such as cigarette smoking and lung cancer during the 20th century, but do not necessarily prove causation, the researchers explained.............
" Moreover, if HRT was the cause of the decline in breast cancer incidence after 2002, declines should have continued in the ensuing years, the researchers argued. But between 2003 and 2007 rates increased in young women and changed little in other age groups.....
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