November 2013

Men who experience hot flashes because they are undergoing androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer are not significantly helped by two treatments that alleviate that symptom in menopausal women, the results of a study show.

The investigational cancer medications being developed by Stemline Therapeutics attack only a tiny percentage of all tumor cells. But those few cells-the stem cells that resist most treatment and drive tumor growth-may just be the most important ones.

As we approach the end of the year, it is a reasonable time to reflect on what has been accomplished in cancer research and therapeutic development.

Interventional oncology is an emerging field in cancer care that is intended to complement existing treatment modalities. We sat down with Dan Brown, MD, the new chief of Interventional Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, to discuss the burgeoning field and its potential effect on cancer care moving forward.

The addition of albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel; Abraxane) to standard treatment with gemcitabine significantly lengthens survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, researchers report.

Both men and women report a significant decline in sexual satisfaction after hematopoietic cell transplantation that is sustained at 3-year follow-up.

Ramucirumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets VEGFR-2, significantly prolonged survival in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma following progression on first-line therapy, according to results from the phase III REGARD study published in The Lancet.

Quest Diagnostics, a business founded 46 years ago in a medical resident's two-room apartment, has parlayed the exponential subsequent growth in medical testing into an operation worth $8.5 billion.

Immunotherapy can induce regressions of even advanced stage cancers, and many of these patients can have prolonged disease remissions.