October 9, 2008 Alexandria, VA- A study published October 1, 2008 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that evidence of past hepatitis B infection was twice as prevalent in patients with pancreatic cancer as in healthy people.
September 10, 2008 Alexandria, VA- A study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology September 8, 2008, showed that computer models commonly used to decide who might benefit most from genetic testing under predicted the number of Asian-American women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
August 20, 2008 Alexandria, VA - A multicenter, Phase III study conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center showed that the osteoporosis drug zoledronic acid (Zometa) prevents bone loss at 12 months in premenopausal women undergoing chemotherapy following surgery for early-stage breast cancer.
August 13, 2008 Alexandria, VA--Summaries of three studies being published online August 11, 2008 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology show people with cancer are more likely to commit suicide or contemplate taking their own lives, compared to the general population.
July 9, 2008 Alexandria, Va.—A study conducted in Sweden found that more than 40 percent of widowers in that country whose wives died from cancer four or five years earlier reported they were either never told that their spouse’s cancer was incurable, or they heard this information during the last week of her life. Eighty-six percent of widowers believed next-of-kin should be told immediately when a wife’s cancer is incurable, including 71 percent of the men who did not recall being told this information. The study, which is the largest to explore this topic, is being published online July 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
March 10, 2008
Alexandria, Va.—A multicenter phase III clinical trial has reported that the drug letrozole cuts the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 63 percent and the risk of cancer spread by 61 percent in postmenopausal women with early-stage disease who completed five years of tamoxifen therapy one to seven years earlier. The study is being published online March 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
April 6, 2007 Alexandria, VA—A new study shows that partners of cancer survivors are susceptible to the same stresses as cancer survivors themselves over the long term, and in some cases, suffer more quality of life-related effects than survivors. The results of the study, which examined partners of cancer survivors who had undergone blood and marrow transplant (BMT) as part of their treatment, are being published online April 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
April 3, 2007 Alexandria, VA—A new study shows that recent declines in breast cancer mortality rates have been most significant among women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumors and women younger than 70. The results of the study are being published online April 2 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
March 19, 2007 Alexandria, VA—A new study shows that among men treated for breast cancer, African-American men are more likely to die of the disease compared with white men. The results of the study are being published online March 16 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
February 16, 2007 Alexandria, VA—Two new studies have found that the use of trastuzumab (Herceptin), in combination with standard anthracycline-based chemotherapy following surgery (“adjuvant therapy”) for early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, is cost effective, despite the high price of the drug. Trastuzumab has been in use as a treatment for advanced breast cancer since 1998, and in 2006 was proven to increase survival when used after surgery in women with early-stage breast cancer. Adjuvant trastuzumab costs $50,000 – $65,000 for a one-year course of treatment.
