Possible New Combination Chemotherapy for Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer

A role for combination therapy using two or more chemotherapy agents at the same time has not been well studied. This week, however, results of a clinical trial may change the perspective on a role for combination chemotherapy in advanced disease.

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Risks of whole brain radiation therapy added to radiosurgery outweigh benefits for patients with limited brain metastases

Whole Brain Radiation Therapy (WBRT) is associated with significantly worse cognitive function than radiosurgery, and should no longer be used in the adjuvant setting after radiosurgery to treat cancer patients with brain metastases, according to a large study.

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Gene therapy, surgery could mean eight more months for sickest brain cancer patients

As the most malignant of primary brain cancers, glioblastomas are frustratingly difficult to treat. Surgery is often risky and cannot remove all of the tumor, and chemotherapy eventually becomes ineffective for most patients. Median survival is around 15 months for patients with this tumor, and the quality of life in the last five months is often quite poor.

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Doctors' checklist could help decrease length of COPD patients' hospital stay

Patients with worsening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease spend less time in hospital when their doctors manage their care by using a checklist of steps called order sets.

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Practice-changing study offers new option for tough breast cancer cases

A new phase 3 study in some of the most difficult-to-treat patients, women with endocrine-resistant disease, showed that the newly approved drug, palbociclib, more than doubled the time to cancer recurrence for women with hormone-receptor (HR+) positive metastatic breast cancer.

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Targeted drug can ‘diminish the suffering’ of myelofibrosis

Use of the targeted agent pacritinib significantly reduced the symptoms and burden of advanced myelofibrosis in patients, says a researcher who co-led PERSIST-1, the worldwide phase 3 clinical trial that tested the therapy. Specifically, pacritinib substantially reduced severe enlargement of the spleen, a typical feature of advanced myelofibrosis, in more than 20 percent of patients and alleviated debilitating side effects in more than 46 percent.

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Removing more tissue during breast cancer surgery reduces by half the need for second procedure

Removing more tissue during a partial mastectomy could spare thousands of breast cancer patients a second surgery, according to a Yale Cancer Center study.

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