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Advances in Breast Cancer Care May Not Be Reaching Older Women

Posted 8 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 8 – New research finds older U.S. women have higher odds of dying from breast cancer than younger women, suggesting that older patients may not be benefiting as much from advances in breast cancer care made over the past three decades. Researchers analyzed U.S. government data from 1980 to 2007. They found that breast cancer death rates were stable throughout the 1980s for women aged 20-64 but rose for women 65 and older. Between 1990 and 2007, the largest decrease in breast cancer death rates occurred in women aged 20-49 (2.4 percent per year), helped by widespread availability of mammography and the use of hormonal therapy and adjuvant chemotherapy, according to the researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. At the same time, the smallest decrease in breast cancer deaths was seen among women aged 75 and older (1.1 percent per year). "Given the ... Read more

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

Fewer Cancer Patients May Be Depressed Than Thought

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 20 – The rate of depression among cancer patients may be lower than previously believed, a new study indicates. An international team of researchers analyzed 94 studies involving more than 14,000 patients and found that about one-sixth of cancer patients suffer depression and about one-third have a more widely defined mood disorder. Only modest rates of depression and anxiety occurred in cancer patients in the first five years after diagnosis, which suggests that depression is not inevitable in these patients, the researchers said. Only when it was combined with other mood disorders was depression common, occurring in 30 percent of hospitalized cancer patients. The study is published online Jan. 19 in The Lancet Oncology. Rates of depression and anxiety were not significantly different between patients receiving palliative care (care designed to ease pain and increase ... Read more

1 in 5 Cancer Survivors Suffers Chronic Pain, Study Finds

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19 – More than 40 percent of cancer survivors experience pain, and the risk is highest among black and female patients, finds a new study. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System surveyed nearly 200 U.S. cancer survivors and found that 43 percent had experienced pain since their diagnosis, and 20 percent suffered chronic cancer-related pain at least two years later. Among white patients, the most significant source of pain was cancer surgery (53.8 percent), and among black patients the greatest source of pain was cancer treatment (46.2 percent), according to the report. In addition, the study found that compared to men, women had more pain, more pain flare-ups, more disability due to pain and were more depressed because of pain. The authors also noted that black patients were more likely to report greater severity of pain and more pain-related ... Read more

Demand for Radiation Therapy Predicted to Exceed Supply

Posted 21 Oct 2010 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 21 – Over the next decade, the growth in demand for radiation therapy in the United States will be 10 times greater than the increase in new radiation oncologists, a difference that could affect cancer patients' access to treatment, according to a new study. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of patients requiring radiation therapy will increase 22 percent but the number of full-time radiation oncologists entering the workforce will increase just 2 percent, said researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues. They based their predictions on projections that this year 3,943 radiation oncologists will treat an estimated 470,000 patients in the United States. The large increase in demand for radiation therapy will be partly due to growing numbers of older adults and minorities, groups in which certain types of cancers are more ... Read more

Cancer Patients' Secondary Symptoms Need Attention: Study

Posted 11 Oct 2010 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Oct. 11 – Many cancer patients with pain or depression also experience physical symptoms, such as fatigue, dry mouth and nausea, that can cause disability, a new study shows. Doctors need to recognize and treat these symptoms in order to improve quality of life for cancer patients, said Dr. Kurt Kroenke, of the Richard Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indiana University, and Regenstrief Institute Inc. in Indianapolis, and colleagues. They analyzed data from 405 cancer patients who had either pain or depression and found that all the patients had at least one of 22 physical symptoms examined in the study. More than half of patients reported 15 of the 22 symptoms. The most common symptoms were fatigue (97.5 percent), difficulty sleeping (about 79 percent), pain in limbs or joints (78 percent), back pain (nearly 75 percent) and memory problems (72 percent). The patients also reported ... Read more

Many Docs Deliver Cancer Diagnosis Badly: Study

Posted 7 Jul 2010 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, July 7 – One patient found out he had cancer by reading his radiology report. Another got the news when her neurologist called to say he had arranged for her to see a neurosurgeon. When she asked why, the doctor told her she had a brain tumor and hung up. A third learned she had breast cancer listening to her answering machine with her grandson sitting on her lap. A new study about how people learn of cancer diagnoses finds that many doctors have poor communication skills and often leave patients stranded with devastating information about a deadly illness, sometimes in a public setting. One-third of the cancer patients in the U.S. National Cancer Institute study recalled being told on the phone, in an emergency room, radiology department or other public hospital setting that they had cancer, most often leukemia, lymphoma or brain tumors. "It's really dismaying to think that ... Read more

Cost-Conscious Cancer Survivors Skip Care

Posted 14 Jun 2010 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, June 14 – Millions of Americans with a history of cancer, particularly people under age 65, are delaying or skimping on medical care because of worries about the cost of treatment, a new study suggests. The finding raises troubling questions about the long-term survival and quality of life of the 12 million adults in the United States whose lives have been forever changed by a diagnosis of cancer. "I think it's concerning because we recognize that cancer survivors have many medical needs that persist for years after their diagnosis and treatment," said study lead author Kathryn E. Weaver, an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences & Health Policy at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. The report was published online June 14 in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society. Cost concerns have posed a threat to cancer ... Read more

Pain Relief Often Delayed for Cancer Patients

Posted 16 Mar 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, March 16 – Palliative care services, which help people who are seriously ill relieve symptoms such as pain, are now found at most U.S. cancer centers, but many programs don't interact with patients until it's too late, study findings show. Dr. David Hui, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and his colleagues surveyed 71 U.S. National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers and randomly surveyed 71 other cancer centers. They received responses from 71 percent of 142 executives and 82 percent of 120 program leaders. The researchers also found that the NCI cancer centers were more likely to have palliative care programs and physicians. A report on the survey was published in the March 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Palliative care outpatient clinics, inpatient consultation teams, palliative care units and hospices ... Read more

U.S. Cancer Cases, Deaths Continue to Drop

Posted 8 Dec 2009 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Dec. 7 – Better screening, healthier living and new treatments have all continued to help cut the annual number of cancer cases and deaths in the United States, a new report says. The findings showed that new cancer cases and deaths from cancer have declined significantly for both men and women and for most racial/ethnic populations. These decreases were largely due to decreased incidence and death from lung, prostate and colon cancer among men and a drop in two of the three leading cancers in women (breast and colon cancers). New diagnoses for all types of cancer in the United States declined almost 1 percent per year from 1999 to 2006 and cancer deaths dropped 1.6 percent per year from 2001 to 2006. The report, which appears in the Dec. 7 online edition of Cancer, was compiled from data by the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the ... 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

Yale Plans Closer Look at Exercise and Cancer

Posted 6 Apr 2009 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 6 – A Yale professor has received $7 million in federal grants for two studies into whether exercise affects ovarian and breast cancer recovery. The U.S. National Cancer Institute funding will go to test theories that exercise along with traditional courses of treatment can improve survival rates as well as cancer patients' mental and physical health. "Currently, after patients complete treatment for breast or ovarian cancer – or any cancer, for that matter – few if any rehabilitation or survivorship programs are available to help them get back to their activities of daily living," Melinda L. Irwin, an associate professor in the division of chronic disease epidemiology at Yale's School of Public Health, said in a university news release. "An exercise program may not only help alleviate side effects of treatment, but may also confer benefits to overall and cancer-related ... Read more

Related support groups: Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Breast Cancer -- Adjuvant

Experts Release Guidelines on Use of Breast MRI

Posted 16 Feb 2009 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Feb. 16 MRI should supplement and enhance current screening and diagnostic for breast cancer, not serve as a substitute for it, according to newly released physician guidelines. The guidelines, published Monday in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, give needed direction for using breast MRI, a relatively new clinical tool. "Health care policy decisions regarding the use of important but expensive technology must be based upon evidence that these tools are providing measurable benefit to patients," study co-author Dr. Benjamin Anderson, a professor of surgery at the University of Washington, said in a news release issued by one of the research facilities behind the project. "This study provides that evidence for breast MRI." The research, authored by teams at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., calls for ... Read more

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