The immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been granted an accelerated approval from the FDA for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) whose disease progresses after platinum-based chemotherapy.
When I was diagnosed over six years ago with stage IV anal cancer I loved my job. Very quickly, my work and career took a back seat in my life. But ten months later there I was easing myself back into my job.
Research is pointing to a connection between cisplatin-based chemotherapy and hearing loss in testicular cancer survivors across a wide age range, and the findings may have implications for survivors of other tumors treated with cisplatin as well.
What do patients think about being tested for many genes that may impact their hereditary risk for breast or ovarian cancer, beyond the well-known BRCA mutations?
The health benefits of yoga are many, but in the oncology setting, studies of the approach have focused primarily on women with breast cancer. However, a small, first-of-its-kind study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is exploring how yoga may also improve treatment-related symptoms in men who are undergoing radiotherapy for their prostate cancer. And the results, thus far, are promising.
A study involving women with a BRCA mutation who had risk-reducing surgery to lower their risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer found that many of these individuals have surgical procedures such as oophorectomy or mastectomy without a full understanding of how they will affect their sexuality and other aspects of their lives.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) released the star ratings on its Hospital Compare website on July 27, 2016. The goal of the site is to enable healthcare consumers to locate information on hospital quality, conduct side-by-side comparisons of hospitals, and review the data on quality presented.
Caregivers of patients with advanced cancer often put their own needs aside to care for a loved one, but working to help improve this is Nick Dionne-Odom, a PhD, MSN, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing.
The field of breast cancer has evolved from the days of defaulting to chemotherapy for every patient, yet much work remains to individualize treatment. Though more promising novel regimens have become available, an expert urges clinicians to carefully weigh whether a particular new agent will provide a significant enough benefit to offset its associated toxicities, cost, and the time and commitment by the patient it requires.
A new study has found that as women age, they are actually less like to have baseline bone density testing before embarking on aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy after breast cancer treatment, even though both increasing age and AI therapy increase fracture risk in postmenopausal women.
Many risk factors for breast cancer have been identified. One suspected risk factor is in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment; however, several studies have been inconclusive because of limited follow-up.
Melissa Andres, BSN, RN, OCN, discusses the growing role of nurse navigators and the rewards she has found in this specialty.
Despite some advances in treatment options for patients with sarcomas, researchers are still actively seeking to improve outcomes for pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients, a group particularly impacted by this diagnosis.
To help patients decide whether active surveillance or a more aggressive approach is best to treat their localized, low-risk prostate cancer, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University created an online decision-support tool that relies on a trained nurse educator to help patients better understand their treatment options.
A greater likelihood of developing most types of cancer was found to be associated with type 2 diabetes, according to findings of a large Canadian study published recently online in the journal Cancer.
Our immune system’s successful detection and destruction of abnormal cells is the hallmark of our body’s ability to either stop a malignancy from occurring or halt it once it has begun.
Patients undergoing chemotherapy prescribed a formal exercise program experienced less chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), and the finding held true across all chemotherapy regimens tested.
Although paradigms for treating older patients with head and neck cancer are not well defined, advancements in targeted and immunotherapies and less toxic radiation regimens suggest that physicians can aim for a more individualized approach to treating this patient population.
A study of women treated with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus plus exemestane for their advanced breast cancer found that daily use of an alcohol-free, steroid-based mouthwash markedly decreased the incidence and severity of stomatitis, and the researchers recommend that this preventive regimen become standard of care in this setting.
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine explored the use of the Vulnerable Elders Survey (VES-13) in predicting functional decline and death within 1 year of breast cancer treatment.
Newly published research has found that acupressure, a derivative of traditional Chinese medicine that puts pressure on Qi points using thumbs or devices, may provide breast cancer survivors with some much-needed relief for fatigue, one of the most common, and long-lasting, aftereffects of their anticancer treatment.
A decade after the FDA approved the first vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV), a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the incidence of HPV-associated cancers is rising, with the number of HPV-associated cancers diagnosed annually between 2008 and 2012 increasing by approximately 16% compared with the previous 5-year period.
A lighter and more convenient version of the tumor-treating field device Optune for patients with glioblastoma multiforme received FDA approval July 13 for the treatment of this aggressive type of brain tumor.
Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, most commonly linked with breast and ovarian cancers, are now gaining wider recognition for being associated with pancreatic cancer as well.
Older Americans represent a rapidly growing segment of the US population in what some have termed a “silver tsunami” with important implications for the delivery of healthcare services.
