Expert Perspective on Cancer News

Being diagnosed and treated for cancer is a complex process, often filled with many tests, procedures, and treatments that may not be familiar to you. Learning more about these tests and treatments can help you understand what to expect when having them, but how do you know which ones actually increase your chance of recovering from cancer and maintaining the best quality of life and which ones increase side effects without improving quality of life?

To help doctors give their patients the best possible care, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) issued an endorsement of a guideline recently developed by Cancer Care Ontario. The guideline evaluates the benefits and risks of ovarian ablation as a treatment option for women with early-stage, invasive breast cancer who have not gone through menopause.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued a provisional clinical opinion on using epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) testing to help predict the benefit of treating patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer with an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. A provisional clinical opinion offers direction to doctors and others who treat people with cancer after the publication or presentation of information that could change testing or treatment decisions.

A report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project released today concluded that one in three Medicare patients with advanced cancer spend their final days in the hospital and intensive care units. In these settings, patients can receive aggressive, even unwanted, cancer treatment that does not cure the cancer and lowers their quality of life. The study also found that fewer than half of these patients received hospice services, which addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the person with cancer and their caregivers.