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Chemo + Radiation Best for Bladder Cancer, Study Finds

Posted 18 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, April 18 – The addition of two well-tolerated chemotherapy drugs to radiation therapy led to significantly longer survival rates among patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. In a new study splitting 360 patients into groups receiving radiation alone or radiation plus chemotherapy, British researchers found that those undergoing combined therapies had a 67 percent rate of local disease-free survival after two years, compared with 54 percent in the radiation group. Five-year overall survival rates were 48 percent in the chemo-radiation group, compared with 35 percent in the radiation-only group. "Overall, the results establish that the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy should become standard practice for organ-preserving treatments of bladder cancer," said Dr. Manish Vira, director of the fellowship program in urologic oncology at the Arthur Smith Institute for ... Read more

Related support groups: Fluorouracil, Bladder Cancer, Mitomycin, Mutamycin, Adrucil

Gene Mutation Linked to Chemo-Resistant Colon Cancer

Posted 4 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4 – Some people with advanced colorectal cancer are resistant to some types of chemotherapy, and a mutation in the so-called TFAP2E gene may play a part in that resistance, German researchers report. Knowing which patients carry the mutation might help doctors tailor treatments or develop new targets for therapy, the researchers said. "In our study, we identified a gene which is frequently altered in colorectal cancer," said lead researcher Dr. Matthias P.A. Ebert, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Magdeburg. "This genetic alteration is associated with increased resistance to chemotherapy and radiation in colorectal cancers." The findings appear in the Jan. 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. For the study, Ebert's team analyzed how the TFAP2E gene functioned in colorectal cancer tumors. Overall, they looked at more than 200 ... Read more

Related support groups: Fluorouracil, Colorectal Cancer, Oxaliplatin, Camptosar, Irinotecan, Eloxatin, Adrucil

Cancer Patients Should Ask Doctors to Use Simple Terms

Posted 28 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28 – Cancer patients are often faced with many difficult-to-understand treatment choices that can have serious side effects and even mean the difference between life and death. That's why it's crucial that patients insist doctors use plain language in explaining the options, advised Angela Fagerlin, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a researcher at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. "People are making life and death decisions that may affect their survival and they need to know what they're getting themselves into. Cancer treatments and tests can be serious. Patients need to know what kind of side effects they might experience as a result of the treatment they undergo," Fagerlin said in a university news release. She and her colleagues outlined a number of tips to help patients get the information they need ... Read more

Chemo Combo May Help Stave Off Pancreatic Cancer Death

Posted 11 May 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 11 – A four-drug chemotherapy regimen for deadly pancreatic cancer nearly doubled patients' survival time compared to standard chemotherapy, a new study suggests. In late-stage trials, French researchers split a group of 342 patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the most common form of the disease, into two groups. Half received gemcitabine, the standard treatment, while the rest received FOLFIRINOX, a four-drug combination of oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin and fluorouracil. The median survival time improved from 6.8 months for those in the gemcitabine group to 11.1 months in the FOLFIRINOX group, according to the study, which is published in the May 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Those in the combination group did suffer greater side effects from treatment, however. "We explain to the patients the advantages and toxicities of both ... Read more

Gene Alteration May Affect Breast Cancer Therapy

Posted 28 Apr 2009 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, April 28 – Certain gene alterations improve breast cancer patients' response to anthracycline therapy, Canadian researchers say. They found that women with tumors that carried topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A) gene alterations had 65 percent better relapse-free survival and 67 percent better overall survival when treated with an anthracycline-containing regimen (cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and 5-fluorouracil [CEF]) than when treated with a non-anthracycline-containing regimen (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil [CMF]). Women whose tumors were TOP2A-normal, however, had a similar response to both therapies. The increased responsiveness to CEF seen in women with TOP2A gene alterations is similar to that seen in breast cancer patients with an amplification of the HER2 gene, said Dr. Kathleen I. Pritchard, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues. The study was ... Read more

Related support groups: Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer -- Adjuvant, Cytoxan, Adrucil, Ellence

FDA Medwatch Alert: Fluorouracil Injection 50mg/mL, (500 mg/10mL Single Dose Vial)

Posted 27 Sep 2005 by Drugs.com

[Posted 09/27/2005] American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. and FDA notified healthcare professionals about a nationwide recall of Fluorouracil Injection 50 mg/mL (500 mg/10ml Single Dose Vial) because of the potential for invisible glass particles containing silica and aluminum in vials of the product. The company states that only Product code 101710 is susceptible to this type of glass breakdown. Read more

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Cancer, Stomach Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer -- Palliative