Glasgow, UK: The global burden of breast cancer remains immense in 2013, with over 1.6million new cases being diagnosed annually. This burden has been increasing at a rate of 3.1% per year, and while the majority of new cases are diagnosed among women in developed countries, the 450,000 deaths per year from the disease are […]
Category: Cancer
Radiotherapy after mastectomy benefits women with breast cancer that has spread to just a few lymph nodes
Glasgow, UK: Women whose breast cancer has spread to just a few lymph nodes under their arm are less likely to have their disease recur or to die from it if they have radiotherapy after mastectomy, according to new research presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-9) and published in The Lancet. [1] Dr […]
Genetic testing may improve selection of women with ER+ breast cancer for ten rather than five years of hormonal therapy
Glasgow, UK: Genetic analyses of results from 1125 postmenopausal women being treated for oestrogen responsive breast cancer have shown that some of them are more likely than others to have a late recurrence of their cancer and might benefit from ten years of hormone therapy rather than five. Prof Mitch Dowsett told the opening press […]
Freezing semen doubles the chances of fatherhood for men after treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma
Men with Hodgkin lymphoma who want to become fathers after their cancer treatment have greatly increased chances of doing so if they have frozen and stored semen samples beforehand, according to research published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. In the first study to investigate the impact on fatherhood of freezing […]
Teenagers and young adults diagnosed with cancer are at increased risk of suicide
Teenagers and young adults are at increased risk of suicide after being diagnosed with cancer according to a study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1]. A study of nearly eight million Swedes aged 15 and over found that among the 12,669 young people diagnosed with cancer between the age of 15 […]
Variations in death rates after surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancers prompt European initiative to improve patient outcomes
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A pilot study has shown large variations between European countries in patient survival after surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancers. The 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] heard on Tuesday that the reasons for these differences are not clear and cannot be explained simply in terms of the volume of patients treated […]
Biological therapy with cediranib improves survival in women with recurrent ovarian cancer
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Women with ovarian cancer that has recurred after chemotherapy have survived for longer after treatment with a biological therapy called cediranib, according to new results presented on Monday at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1]. Cediranib, which is taken in pill form, is an inhibitor of a cell signalling process involved […]
The State of Oncology 2013 – new report draws attention to urgent need to tackle disparities in cancer care worldwide
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A proposal for a new financing model to tackle the major disparities that exist in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of cancer in countries worldwide has been presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECCO 2013). While much progress has been made against cancer over the last century, a new report […]
New research shows how aspirin may act on blood platelets to improve survival in colon cancer patients
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Researchers believe they have discovered how aspirin improves survival in patients diagnosed with colon cancer, the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] heard on Monday. Although previous research has shown that taking low dose aspirin after being diagnosed with colon cancer improves patient outcome, the reasons why this happens remain unknown. The […]
First estimate of amount of radiotherapy dose wasted in compensating for tumour growth between treatments
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: For the first time, researchers have estimated the daily dose of radiotherapy that could be wasted in compensating for cancer cell growth that occurs overnight and during weekends in patients with early breast cancer. In research presented to the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] on Monday, Professor John Yarnold said that, […]