Tag Archives: american

Cancer-fighting cocktail demonstrates promising results as treatment for advanced cervical cancer

The cancer-fighting cocktail, which combines the chemotherapy drug cisplatin with pemetrexed — an agent that stops cancer cells from dividing — showed promising results for advanced, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer. “We found that pemetrexed combined with cisplatin is less toxic, well tolerated, and should be developed for further treatment of cervical cancer,” said gynecologic oncology specialist Dr. …

Five radiation oncology treatments to question — ScienceDaily

• Don’t recommend radiation following hysterectomy for endometrial cancer patients with low-risk disease. Patients with low-risk endometrial cancer, including no residual disease in hysterectomy despite positive biopsy, grade 1 or 2 with <50 percent myometrial invasion and no additional high-risk features such as age >60, lymphovascular space invasion or cervical involvement have a very low risk of recurrence following surgery. …

UT Southwestern one of two institutions to offer innovative four-flap microsurgery approach to breast reconstruction — ScienceDaily

The technique, known as a four-flap breast reconstruction, uses fat and skin from the back of each leg and from two spots on the stomach to reconstruct natural breast materials. “It reaches a new height in breast reconstructive surgery, using your own tissue,” said Dr. Sumeet Teotia, Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery, who performs the procedure along with Dr…

Study reveals profile of patients most likely to delay hospice enrollment until final days of life

“Waiting until the final days of life to begin hospice can shortchange patients and their families — skipping over many benefits of hospice care and limiting the opportunity to improve patients’ quality of life during this stressful time,” said study co-author David Casarett, MD, a professor of Medicine and director of Hospice and Palliative care at Penn Medicine. “Our findings point to some reasons why patients may seek hospice care so late in the course of their illness, which we hope will enable us to improve transitions to hospice at a more beneficial point in their care.” The team examined de-identified data from electronic medical records of 64,264 patients in 12 hospices in the Coalition of Hospices Organized to Investigate Comparative Effectiveness network from January 2008 to May 2013. …

Prostate Cancer: Watchful waiting isn’t right for everyone — ScienceDaily

“We know that African American men have more aggressive prostate cancer than Caucasian men,” says Kosj Yamoah M.D., Ph.D., Chief Resident, Department of Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University. “Our study shows that African American men who are diagnosed with a low-grade cancer at first — the cancers that are sometimes watched rather than treated — are more likely to develop aggressive disease sooner than Caucasian men.” Dr. Yamoah, together with Timothy Rebbeck and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, looked at patients whose cancers were low to intermediate grade and who underwent surgery to remove all or part of their prostate. The surgery was important because often men are given a so called “biopsy” Gleason score of cancer severity based on 12 needle biopsies of the prostate gland…

African American women receive less breast reconstruction after mastectomy

“We wanted to understand whether the racial disparity observed in breast reconstruction among women with breast cancer was related to where women received care, independent of race,” said Tracy Onega, PhD, Associate Professor of Community & Family Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. “This study fills an important gap in addressing whether racial disparities in breast reconstruction are due — at least in part — to disproportionate use of hospitals with services available.” Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is associated with better quality of life and other benefits — in fact insurance coverage for reconstruction is legislatively mandated. …

Radiation therapy, concurrent chemotherapy after surgery is effective treatment for high-risk endometrial cancer

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy. Patients with early-stage disease are typically treated with surgery alone; however, patients with advanced endometrial cancer have higher instances of local or distant recurrence. Concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy after surgery is used to reduce the rate of recurrence in patients with advanced disease. This study, “A Phase 2 Trial of Radiation Therapy With Concurrent Paclitaxel Chemotherapy After Surgery in Patients With High-Risk Endometrial Cancer: A Korean Gynecologic Oncology Group Study,” evaluates the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiation with weekly paclitaxel in patients with stage III and IV endometrial cancer. …