Cancer

Multivariate logistic regression was used to test for an interaction between hormone therapy use and survey year controlling for a range of measurable factors in data from the 2000 and 2005 National Health Interview Surveys. The results indicate that the change in hormone therapy use was associated with the drop in mammography use for women ages 50 to 64 years but not for women aged ≥65 years.

Although several large, randomized trials established the benefits of adjuvant trastuzumab with chemotherapy, the benefit for women with small, node-negative HER2-positive (HER2+) disease is unknown, as these patients were largely excluded from these trials. This retrospective, single-institution, sequential cohort study indicates that women with small, node-negative, HER2+ primary breast cancers likely derive significant benefit from adjuvant trastuzumab with chemotherapy.

Bothersome musculoskeletal symptoms affect about half of women with early stage breast cancer treated with aromatase inhibitors. In this pilot clinical trial, treatment with duloxetine appeared to significantly improve pain and functioning, and was relatively well tolerated.

In this retrospective study, the authors examined enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) expression in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) tumors and evaluated the relation between EZH2 expression and patient survival. The results indicated that positive EZH2 status can be used to identify a subset of patients with IBC who have a relatively worse prognosis, and targeting EZH2 may provide a novel way to improve clinical outcome in patients with IBC.

Being African American or Caucasian did not appear to impact treatment adherence in inflammatory breast cancer. However, African American patients tended to have poorer response to standard multimodality treatment and worse outcome than Caucasian patients.

The role of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage II colon cancer remains unclear. In an investigation based on data from the California Cancer Registry, the authors observed that patients with AJCC stage II colon cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy had improved survival.

Urothelial cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract was a rare, aggressive urologic cancer with a propensity for multifocality, local recurrence, and metastasis. Adjuvant postoperative chemotherapy had a minimal effect on overall survival in these patients.

In this study, the authors investigated the association between the functional polymorphism reference single nucleotide polymorphism (rs) number rs2660 in 2′-5′ oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1) and prostate cancer. The results suggest that the rs2660 AA genotype is associated significantly with prostate cancer, whereas the GG genotype protects against prostate cancer.

Chemotherapy-resistant CD44⁺ ovarian cancer stem cells express claudin-4 (ie, the high-affinity Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin [CPE] receptor) at significantly higher levels when compared with matched autologous CD44⁻ ovarian cancer cells and died minutes after exposure to CPE in vitro. Intraperitoneal administrations of CPE in SCID mice harboring established xenografts of chemotherapy-resistant CD44⁺ ovarian cancer stem cells had a significant inhibitory effect on tumor progression leading to the cure and/or long-term survival of all treated animals. CPE may represent an unconventional, potentially highly effective strategy to eradicate chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem cells.

Thrombocytopenia is very common in myelodysplastic syndrome and constitutes a relevant clinical problem in a significant fraction of these patients. Severe thrombocytopenia identifies a subgroup of very poor prognosis patients within the low/intermediate-1 International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) risk groups. These patients should be considered for treatment alternatives capable of altering the natural history of the disorder earlier than their IPSS score would indicate.

It is known that Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) survivors experience an increased risk of developing nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, compared with patients who had de novo NSCLC, HL survivors had a significant 1.3-fold to 1.7-fold reduction in survival after an NSCLC diagnosis.

A phase 1b study of concurrent sunitinib 37.5 mg and radiation therapy was performed in patients with primary and metastatic central nervous system malignancies. An acceptable toxicity and adverse event profile was observed with no grade 3-5 hypertensive events or intracerebral hemorrhages, and 6-month neurologic progression-free survival was 58%.

Human papillomavirus vaccine coverage among young adult women was low in 2008, and was lower among the uninsured than among the insured. Primary reasons for lack of interest in the vaccine were belief that it was not needed, not knowing enough about it, concerns about safety, and not being sexually active.

Large racial differences exist in where black and white patients tend to receive care and in the treatment of localized prostate cancer. Regardless of race, men who receive care at hospitals with a high proportion of black patients were significantly less likely to receive active treatment for localized prostate cancer compared with men seen at hospitals with fewer black patients.

A Cancer and Leukemia Group B multicenter phase 2 trial was performed to assess toxicity and efficacy of combination of external beam radiation therapy and transperineal prostate brachytherapy boost with androgen deprivation therapy for intermediate-risk prostate cancer. With >6 years median follow-up, this therapeutic regimen resulted in excellent disease-free survival with acceptable toxicity.

In this study, the influence of race on biochemical disease-free survival (BDFS) was examined among men who received prostate brachytherapy. African American race appeared to be an independent, negative predictor of BDFS after prostate brachytherapy and may highlight the need for more aggressive therapy in this patient population.

The authors identified a significant negative relation between transforming growth factor beta levels in conditioned media from colorectal carcinoma cell lines and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) levels in endothelial cells. This effect appeared to be ALK5-dependent, and in colorectal xenografts may account for heterogeneous VEGFR2 and phospho-Smad2 vessel phenotypes in combination with other microenvironmental factors.

Less than one quarter of girls 9-17 years old initiate human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Efforts to increase HPV uptake should focus on vaccinating the target age group, encouraging providers to give parents vaccine information, and promoting access to reduced-cost vaccines and well-child check-ups.