In people with HIV and cancer, antiretroviral therapy is often used during cancer treatment to mitigate complications of HIV progression. However, questions regarding long-term effects of cancer treatment in this patient population remain, such as the immunosuppressive effects on HIV RNA level and CD4 count, which are indicators of a patient's morbidity and mortality. Therefore, scientists sought to measure the link between these biomarkers and associated mortality after cancer treatment. They p...
Oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy, while effective, can cause peripheral sensory neuropathy (PSN)—an incurable, debilitating condition in which peripheral nerve damage occurs and causes muscle weakness, pain, and pins and needles sensation, among other symptoms—in patients with stage III colon cancer. However, researchers recently discovered that a shortened three-month course of adjuvant oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy reduces the risk of PSN in patients with stage III colon cancer. For this study,...
Studies have shown that unmarried patients with cancer are less likely to receive surgery and radiotherapy than their married counterparts; they are also less likely to survive their cancer. In a research-based perspective essay published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Joan DelFattore, PhD, MS, a survivor of stage IV gallbladder cancer, suggests that contrary to assumptions made by a number of researchers, the disparities in cancer treatment for individuals who are single may stem not f...
The most common type of pancreatic cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has limited treatment options and a low survival rate. Traditionally, patients whose disease is resectable—able to be removed by surgery—have been treated with a post-operative adjuvant approach, consisting of surgery followed by chemotherapy or radiation. In recent years, however, there has been a heightened interest in perioperative treatment, in which patients receive chemotherapy or radiation both before and a...
In older women with early breast cancer, standard adjuvant chemotherapy is superior to capecitabine for recurrence-free survival.These results come from the 10-year follow-up of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 49907 trial, which focused on patients age 65 and older. For this study, 633 patients were randomized to receive either standard adjuvant chemotherapy, consisting of physician's choice of cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/fluorouracil or cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin, or capecitabine. T...