Opinion | ‘Colonoscopy Is Not Effective if You Don’t Do It’: What We Heard This Week
“Colonoscopy is not effective if you don’t do it.” — George Chang, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, responding to findings from a European colonoscopy trial that suggested potentially less benefit from colon cancer screening than expected. “Our country was founded on a philosophy of individual liberty, and in many spheres of life […]
Extra Pounds May Blunt Benefit of Aspirin in Advanced Colorectal Cancer
The association between aspirin use following an advanced colorectal cancer diagnosis and better survival was only significant among patients with a normal body mass index (BMI) prediagnosis, a cross-sectional study found. In the large single-center analysis of patients diagnosed with stage IV disease, those with prediagnosis obesity had a higher risk for death compared with […]
Abortion Bans and Cancer Care; Melanoma Vaccine in the Works; New Cancer Epidemic?
Ohio’s 6-week abortion ban has forced women with cancer to seek out-of-state abortions so they can receive cancer treatment. In at least two cases, women were refused cancer treatment until they had abortions. (The 19th) CT and MRI may miss some pancreatic tumors, reducing the potential for early detection and a chance at life-saving surgery, […]
Sneaky Signs Of Breast Cancer That Have Nothing To Do With Lumps
Breast cancer impacts hundreds of thousands of people every year in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, annually, “about 264,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in women and about 2,400 in men.” The thought of finding a lump in your breast is terrifying, but it’s important to be […]
If You Invite 455 People to Colonoscopy, You’ll Stop One Case of Cancer
Individuals invited to undergo screening colonoscopy had a lower risk of colorectal cancer compared with those who did not undergo screening, a European randomized trial found, though the reduction was lower than researchers had expected. In the Northern-European Initiative on Colorectal Cancer (NordICC) trial, an intention-to-screen analysis demonstrated that the risk of colorectal cancer at […]
Survival No Better With Intensive Surveillance in Endometrial Cancer
An intensive surveillance regimen for endometrial cancer did not improve overall survival (OS) over a minimalist regimen, even in high-risk patients, results from the randomized TOTEM trial showed. After a median follow-up of 69 months, the 5-year OS rate was 90.6% with the intensive approach versus 91.9% with the minimalist approach, which mainly included physical […]
Lung Cancer Declining in People With HIV, but Still High
Lung cancer rates declined for people living with HIV but remained higher than the general population and, in older individuals, even higher than other cancers normally considered to be associated with HIV/AIDS, a population-based registry linkage study showed. The overall outlook for lung cancer improved for HIV-positive people during the study period from 2001-2016, decreasing […]
Katie Couric’s Breast Cancer
In 2000, 2 years after the death of her husband, Jay Monahan, from colon cancer, Katie Couric underwent a colonoscopy live on “The Today Show,” leading to a 20% jump in national colonoscopy screening rates, something the University of Michigan dubbed the “Couric Effect.” Now, Couric is once again advocating for cancer screening. On September […]
SABR for Oligometastatic Cancer Turns in ‘Acceptable’ Rates of Toxicity
Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) treatment for oligometastatic or oligoprogressive cancer appeared to come with “acceptable” rates of toxic effects, according to SABR-5 study results. Among a population of 381 patients in the phase II trial, and with a median follow-up of 25 months, rates of grade 2 or greater toxic effects were observed in 18.6%, […]
Non-Chemo Regimen Led to High Response Rates in Cisplatin-Ineligible Bladder Cancer
PARIS — Nearly two-thirds of patients with untreated cisplatin-ineligible advanced urothelial cancer responded to an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and immunotherapy, a small randomized study showed. Overall, 49 of 76 patients responded to frontline enfortumab vedotin (EV; Padcev) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda), including eight complete responses. An additional 17 patients had stable disease, resulting in a clinical […]