Chemotherapy Chosen By More Older Women With Early Stage Breast Cancer

A new study examining treatment decision-making by older women with early stage breast cancer shows that 45 percent of women would choose to get chemotherapy after surgery — a figure higher than the national average of women getting the additional treatment.

“This was an unexpected finding,” says the study’s lead investigator, Jeanne Mandelblatt, MD, MPH, associate director for population sciences at GUMC’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of oncology and medicine at GUMC. “While these numbers are in contrast with the uniformly high use of chemotherapy in younger early-stage breast cancer patients, they suggest that older women are learning more about their disease and may be weighing the risks and benefits more thoroughly.”

MRI: Effective Tool For Determining Pathologic Stage Of Prostate Cancer

In patients with prostate cancer undergoing prostatectomy, MR imaging plays an important role in determining if the cancer is restricted to the prostate gland or if it has spread beyond the capsule, according to a study performed at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

The study included a review of 119 patients who were referred for prostate MRI prior to prostatectomy. “Results showed that MRI correctly identified 87/92 (95%) of patients with T2 and 6/8 (75%) of patients with T3 disease (T2 means the disease is organ confined and T3 means the disease has locally spread beyond the prostate),” said Timothy McClure, MD, lead author of the study. Steven Raman, MD, worked with Dr. McClure on this study.

Early Stage Colon Cancer Characterized By Inactivation Of Gatekeeper Gene, Singapore Scientists Report In Journal Cancer Cell

The absence or inactivation of the RUNX3 gatekeeper gene paves the way for the growth and development of colon cancer, Singapore scientists report in the Sept. issue of the journal Cancer Cell. Previous studies have shown that RUNX3 plays a role in gastric, breast, lung and bladder cancers.

The inactivation of RUNX3 occurs at a very early stage of colon cancer, according to the Singapore scientists’ studies with human tissue samples and animal models.

Early Stage Colon Cancer Characterized By Inactivation Of Gatekeeper Gene, Singapore Scientists Report In Journal Cancer Cell

The absence or inactivation of the RUNX3 gatekeeper gene paves the way for the growth and development of colon cancer, Singapore scientists report in the Sept. issue of the journal Cancer Cell. Previous studies have shown that RUNX3 plays a role in gastric, breast, lung and bladder cancers.

The inactivation of RUNX3 occurs at a very early stage of colon cancer, according to the Singapore scientists’ studies with human tissue samples and animal models.