Cancer

To clarify the supposed higher risk of cardiac events provided by aromatase inhibitors compared with tamoxifen for early breast cancer, a literature-based meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials was performed. Even if it was significant, the absolute difference was relatively low, and from 160 to 180 patients were required to produce 1 cardiac event.

In the current study, the authors performed a prospective study to examine the long-term risk of carotid artery stenosis after supraclavicular irradiation for breast cancer. No increase in carotid artery stenosis or altered carotid artery flow was noted ≥8 years after supraclavicular radiotherapy for breast cancer.

The distribution of carcinoid tumors in Taiwanese patients differed from that in patients from the United States. Rectal carcinoids (60.5%) and thymic carcinoids (6.6%) were significantly more common in Taiwanese patients. Associated noncarcinoid malignancies were noted in 14% of patients with carcinoids, mainly in the gastrointestinal tract (52.9%), lung, and genitourinary system.

Distance matrix analysis was applied to define relations between individual toxicities noted in cycle 1 therapy for patients with colorectal cancer. This new technique demonstrated nonrandom relations that suggest common pathogeneses between toxicity clusters.

In a large cohort of 1998 Medicare beneficiaries, only 25% of patients received guideline-recommended colorectal screening in follow-up. Follow-up screening was more common in patients who received prior screening.

The results from this study indicated that the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway is active in colon adenomas and is lost in the majority of colon carcinomas. Loss of BMP signaling was found to be correlated significantly with the progression of adenoma to cancer and occurred relatively early during cancer progression.

The likelihood of treatment failure, patterns of care, and outcomes after salvage therapy among men with prostate cancer who initially either received radiation therapy or underwent surgery were evaluated. After failing primary therapy, the majority of men received androgen-deprivation therapy, and the response was similar between both groups.

Assessment of the number of altered biomarkers in the cystectomy specimen improves the prediction of bladder cancer recurrence and survival in patients with pTa-3N0M0 disease. Prospective evaluation of alteration in these biomarkers can help identify patients who would benefit from adjuvant treatment after radical cystectomy.

Intermittent chemotherapy in patients with androgen-independent prostate cancer results in a clinically significant duration of chemotherapy holidays and can be offered to a minority of patients. At the time of retreatment, the majority of patients again respond to treatment or have stabilized prostate-specific antigen values.

Based on the array of mechanisms of action offered by thalidomide and topotecan and their antiangiogenic properties, the authors hypothesized that the combination of these 2 drugs would be more effective in the treatment of recurrent or persistent epithelial ovarian cancer than topotecan alone. The results indicated that thalidomide improved the response to topotecan therapy in women with recurrent ovarian cancer, and the authors concluded that this apparent improvement in response rates warrants study through larger phase 3 trials.

The natural history of salivary gland cancer remains uncertain. This study demonstrates that a significant proportion of patients who are presumed to be cured of their disease at 5 years after initial treatment for salivary gland cancer will develop late recurrence with additional follow-up.

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was used to evaluate survival in 6791 patients with stage I and II (T1-T2N0M0) squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity. Five-year overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) were significantly lower for patients who had SCC of the oral tongue compared with patients who had SCC of other oral cavity subsites (OS: hazard ratio, 1.24; P < .0001; CSS: hazard ratio, 3.04; P < .0001). The CSS for patients who had stage I and II SCC of the oral tongue also was unfavorable compared with the CSS for stage-matched patients who had SCC of other head and neck sites.

Many liver staging systems have been proposed for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who are undergoing transarterial chemoembolization. However, in the current study, the Cancer of Liver Italian Program system provided the best prognostic stratification for a cohort of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent transarterial chemoembolization.

Histomorphologic studies of colorectal liver metastases were performed after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. After a partial response to chemotherapy, liver metastases shrank in a generally concentric fashion. This provides a rationale for resection of less liver after a response to chemotherapy.

The study demonstrates that cigarette smoking promotes the level of iNOS/NO but suppresses the activity of caspase-3, which may lead to the proliferation and growth of lung cancer cells.

The authors demonstrated a trend toward the increasing use of chemotherapy and combined-modality therapy in elderly with resected nonsmall cell lung cancer during the decade from 1992 to 2002. Being younger, married, having advanced-stage tumor or adenocarcinoma histology, having a later diagnosis year, receiving radiation, and seeing an oncologist were predictors for the receipt of chemotherapy.

Within a low-income population of medically underserved women, the authors found low rates of colorectal cancer screening across all women. The authors also found that African Americans were less likely than whites to report knowledge of colon cancer tests and were less likely to have had a screening colonoscopy within the past 10 years. White women were more likely to report embarrassment and bother as barriers to screening tests, whereas African American women reported trouble with insurance coverage.

Immigrants living in the United States were less likely to report a family history of cancer than nonimmigrants. This has the potential to impact rates of secondary prevention and use of genetic testing among immigrants.

Leukemia is the leading cause of disease-related death in children, despite significant improvement in survival and modern risk stratification. Data demonstrate that ALC is a simple, statistically powerful measurement for patients with de novo AML and ALL.

A modest, nonsignificant increase in the incidence rate of all pediatric malignancies was observed in the U.S. between 1992 and 2004 (annual percent change of 0.4%; 95% confidence interval, −0.1%–0.8%); increases were detected in select malignancies and shifting trends in others. These trends reinforce an ongoing need for population-based surveillance and further etiologic studies.

The authors investigated the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors VEGFR-1 and R-2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and by laser microdissection combined with QRT-PCR in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The most soluble VEGF isoform, VEGF₁₂₁ and its receptor VEGFR-1, but not R-2, were more expressed on epithelial and stromal cells of RCC as compared to nontumoral kidney. By immunofluorescent labelling VEGF and VEGFR-1 colocalized on RCC tumor epithelial and stromal cells.