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2024 APR 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators discuss new findings in lung cancer. According to news reporting out [...]

2024 MAR 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Fresh data on osteosarcomas are presented in a new report. According to [...]

2023 APR 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Researchers detail new data in small lymphocytic lymphoma. According to news reporting [...]

2023 APR 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Research findings on Oncology - Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer are discussed in [...]

2023 APR 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Current study results on Oncology - Prostate Cancer have been published. According [...]

2023 JAN 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Researchers detail new data in Oncology - Thoracic Oncology. According to news [...]

2023 JAN 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators publish new report on gastric cancer. According to news originating from [...]

2022 DEC 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Current study results on solid cancer have been published. According to news [...]

2022 NOV 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- A new study on gastric cancer is now available. According to news [...]

2022 MAY 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Current study results on Oncology - Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma have been published. According [...]

2022 APR 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators publish new report on Cancer. According to news reporting out of [...]

Cookson, professor and chair of urology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, is co-editor in chief of Urology Times[R]. This issue of Urology Times[R] provides [...]

This month's cover feature on current and future treatments in the non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer space is a fascinating look at an area within urology that had long been dormant but [...]

Background The 5-year survival rate for individuals with neuroblastoma is approaching 70%. Few data exist, however, on the long-term outcomes of these patients, who are often treated at a very young age. Methods Outcome data were obtained for 954 5-year neuroblastoma survivors who were diagnosed in 1970-1986 and enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS). Late mortality, second malignant neoplasms, and chronic health conditions were analyzed in relation to treatment factors using Poisson regression models and their modification with generalized estimating equations. Neuroblastoma survivors were compared with a cohort of 3899 siblings of CCSS participants for risk of chronic health conditions and selected sociodemographic outcomes. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results Six percent of patients died more than 5 years after their diagnosis (standardized mortality ratio = 5.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.4 to 6.9). The most common causes of death were disease recurrence (n = 43) and second malignant neoplasms (n = 13). The cumulative incidence of second malignant neoplasms was 3.5% at 25 years and 7.0% at 30 years after diagnosis. Compared with the sibling cohort, survivors had an increased risk of selected chronic health conditions (risk ratio [RR] = 8.3; 95% CI = 7.1 to 9.7) with a 20-year cumulative incidence of 41.1%. The most prevalent outcomes involved the neurological, sensory, endocrine, and musculoskeletal systems, with 20-year cumulative incidences of 29.8%, 8.6%, 8.3%, and 7.8%, respectively. Neuroblastoma survivors who were treated with multimodality therapy were more likely to develop a chronic health condition than survivors treated with surgery alone (RR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.6 to 3.0). Neuroblastoma survivors were less likely than siblings to have ever been employed (P = .04) or to be married (P< .001) and had a lower personal income (P = .009). Conclusions Neuroblastoma survivors have an increased rate of mortality and second malignant neoplasms, relative to the age- and sex-comparable US population, and of chronic health conditions, relative to their siblings, which underscores the need for long-term medical surveillance.

The authors argue that, in order to provide the best care for cancer patients in Australia in the 21st century, it is necessary to develop a more systematic method to evaluate the outcomes of ongoing research. Among their suggestions is the need for explicit guidelines for research, based on independent evidence and monitored regularly through links to existing databases.

Background The primary objective of phase II cancer clinical trials is to determine whether a new regimen has sufficient activity to warrant further study, with activity generally defined as tumor shrinkage. However, oncology drug development has been limited by high rates of failure (lack of efficacy) in subsequent phase III testing. This high failure rate may reflect the process by which antineopiastic agents are usually evaluated in phase II trials, i.e., via single-arm studies in which the primary efficacy measure is the proportion of patients who achieve a complete or partial response to the treatment. This design may efficiently eliminate truly ineffective therapy but may not reliably indicate whether subsequent phase III testing is warranted. Methods We describe the design of a randomized phase II clinical trial of sorafenib in combination with erlotinib for the treatment of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer using change in tumor size, measured on a continuous scale, as the primary outcome variable. For the purpose of determining the sample size of the trial, we made assumptions as to the likely magnitude of treatment effect and the variability in tumor size changes based on data from four previous trials using these agents. Results The study design includes two different dosage arms and a placebo group with a total sample size of 150 patients and is powered to detect a modest reduction in the mean tumor size burden in the high-dose sorafenib arm compared with a slight increase in the placebo group. Conclusions Clinical trial designs that treat change in tumor size as a continuous variable rather than categorizing the changes are feasible, and by inclusion of a prospective control group they offer advantages over conventional single-arm trials.

'Functional foods,' 'nutraceuticals,' 'designer foods' and 'medicinal foods' are terms that describe foods, and key ingredients isolated from foods, that have non-nutritive or tertiary functional properties. Researchers, healthcare practitioners, laypersons, [...]

Keywords: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Chinese medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, gastroenterology, constipation, diarrhea ********** Irritable bowel syndrome is a common research topic for clinical trials in the People's Republic of [...]

The environmental causes of lung cancer have been the focus of intense epidemiologic and other research for > 50 years. The resulting evidence causally associates lung cancer with active and [...]

Background: Loss of retinoic acid receptor beta (RAR-[beta]) expression in the bronchial epithelium is considered a biomarker of preneoplasia. Retinoids can restore expression of this receptor and, presumably, halt the progression of carcinogenesis. This study was designed to investigate whether either of two retinoid-based regimens, 9-cis-retinoic acid (RA) or 13-cis-RA plus [alpha]-tocopherol (AT), could reverse RAR-[beta] expression loss in former smokers after 3 months of treatment. Methods: Individuals (n = 226) who had smoked at least 20 pack-years and had ceased smoking for at least 12 months were randomly assigned to receive 3 months of daily oral 9-cis-RA (100 mg), 13-cis-RA (1 mg/kg) + AT (1200 IU), or placebo. Bronchoscopy and biopsy at six predetermined sites of the bronchial tree were performed before treatment and at 3 and 6 months thereafter. Specimens were evaluated for squamous metaplasia, dysplasia, and RAR-[beta] expression. McNemar's test was used to test changes in RAR-[beta] expression and squamous metaplasia within each treatment group, and a generalized estimating equations model was applied to model the treatment effect, adjusting for covariates. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: A total of 177 assessable subjects completed at least 3 months of therapy and underwent at least the baseline and 3-month bronchoscopic evaluations with biopsies. RAR-[beta] was detected in 69.7% of all baseline biopsy samples, and metaplasia was evident in 6.9% of all baseline samples from 240 subjects. Restoration of RAR-[beta] expression (P = .03) and reduction of metaplasia (P = .01) were found in the 9-cis-RA group. After adjustment for years of smoking, packs/day smoked, and metaplasia, treatment with 9-cis-RA, but not with 13-cis-RA + AT, led to a statistically significant increase in RAR-[beta] expression compared with placebo (P = .03). Conclusion: 9-cis-RA treatment can restore RAR-[beta] expression in the bronchial epithelium of former smokers, raising the possibility that this retinoid has potential chemopreventive properties in former smokers.

Background: Altered cyclin D1 expression in advanced pre-invasive lesions of the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer and histologic progression during and after combination biochemopreventive therapy (13-cis-retinoic acid, [alpha]-interferon, and [alpha]-tocopherol). Both alleles of the adenine (A)/guanine (G) cyclin D1 polymorphism located at nucleotide 870 encode two alternatively spliced transcripts, but the A allele preferentially encodes a protein with an extended half-life. We investigated whether the cyclin D1 genotype at nucleotide 870 was associated with baseline levels of cyclin D1 protein, post-treatment modulation of cyclin D1 protein levels, histologic response to treatment, and the outcome for subjects with preinvasive UADT lesions after biochemopreventive therapy. Methods: UADT tissue biopsy samples were obtained before and 6 and 12 months after biochemopreventive treatment from 31 individuals with advanced preinvasive UADT lesions. Tissues were examined for cyclin D1 genotype (by DNA single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis), for cyclin D1 protein expression (by immunohistochemistry), and for cyclin D1 gene copy number (by fluorescence in situ hybridization). Associations of cyclin D1 genotype with histologic response to therapy and time to progression to a higher degree of dysplasia or invasive cancer were investigated. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The A allele was associated with increased baseline cyclin D1 expression in the parabasal epithelial layer (16 of 18 AA/AG subjects versus four of nine GG subjects; P = .02), decreased histologic response to biochemopreventive treatment (six of 21 AA/AG subjects versus four of 10 GG subjects; P = .70), decreased favorable modulation of cyclin D1 expression by the treatment (seven of 18 AA/AG subjects versus eight of nine GG subjects; P = .02), and shorter progression-free survival (P = .05). Conclusions: The cyclin D1 A allele was associated with a diminished modulation of normal physiologic and treatment-induced decreased expression of cyclin D1, a decreased likelihood of response to biochemopreventive intervention, and an increased rate of progression to cancer development, findings that require validation in a larger cohort.

Roll out the barrel: It's time to talk beer and cancer research Oktoberfest is already under way in Munich and what better way for Outliers to celebrate it than to [...]

The Cancer Research of United Kingdom has presented the influences on risk of breast cancer and the lifestyle factors that would help in its prevention.

Andrea M. Denicoff, RN, MS, ANP, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland Pamela J. West, The EMMES Corporation, Rockville, Maryland Bethesda, Maryland-Each year the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the [...]

Several issues raised in the article by Cianfrocca and Wolff and the accompanying reviews in the January issue of ONCOLOGY (21:63-80, 2007) deserve further comment. First, all authors address American [...]

Macmillan Cancer Relief, an organization that aims at improving the equity in access to cancer services determined the hindrances that make it difficult to receive support while experiencing cancer. The different barriers to access cancer services, such as the physical, professional, and attitude barriers were identified, along with the strategies to minimize these barriers.

Although high dose chemotherapy followed by bone marrow transplantation has been haled in recent years as a promising new approach to treating advanced breast cancer, a new series of clinical [...]