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News for Patients from the Journal of Clinical Oncology
Below are summaries of research advances in clinical oncology. The information presented in Cancer Advances is the same information the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) provides to cancer physicians, in consumer terms.
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August 15, 2002
For most patients with Hodgkin's disease, very effective therapies offer the promise of long-term survival or cure. But scientists know that survivors of Hodgkin's disease may be at increased risk for other cancers later in life. These "second cancers" are partly related to the long-term effects of the Hodgkin's disease treatment.
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August 1, 2002
Men with prostate cancer generally have several treatment options. Many men initially undergo surgery to try to cure the cancer before it has spread outside of the prostate. Patients may also receive external beam radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy to control the cancer or lower their risk of cancer recurrence, or receive no treatment at all. These treatments can cause side effects that may affect a man's quality of life, including fatigue, sexual complications, and insomnia.
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July 1, 2002
More than half of lung cancer patients learn they have the disease after it has spread outside the lung. In some cases, people with lung cancer experience either no symptoms or nonspecific symptoms (e.g., cough, fatigue, or weight loss), and their cancer is not discovered until their doctor uses an x-ray or CT scan for some other reason.
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June 15, 2002
Patients with esophageal cancer often don't learn they have the disease until after it has progressed, since symptoms frequently do not become apparent until the disease is already at an advanced stage.
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May 15, 2002
Myelodysplastic Syndrome, or MDS, is a group of disorders resulting in the failure of bone marrow to adequately produce blood cells. People with MDS often have low blood counts, which increase their risk of developing potentially serious or fatal infections or episodes of bleeding. Most patients with high-risk MDS - whose disease has progressed - experience bone marrow failure causing hemorrhage or infection. Approximately one-third of patients with MDS eventually develop acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML.
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April 1, 2002
After a cancer diagnosis, a patient's first priority is to get the best treatment possible. An essential first step in this process is for patients to see a cancer specialist, called an oncologist.
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March 1, 2002
According to a new study by researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, genetic counseling and testing increase surveillance efforts among women at high-risk for breast and ovarian cancer, resulting in the diagnosis of early-stage tumors.
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February 15, 2002
According to a new study, a common reproductive procedure can successfully find sperm in two-thirds of men who have undergone chemotherapy, and when used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization, allows nearly one-third of men to produce biological offspring.
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January 15, 2002
According to a new study by researchers at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, standard-dose chemotherapy can negatively impact the cognitive functioning of cancer survivors up to 10 years after treatment. Cognitive functioning is associated with mental abilities, such as judgment, memory, learning, comprehension, and reasoning.
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December 1, 2001
Cancer patients are not achieving adequate pain relief because many do not adhere to their pain medication regimens and do not receive adequate pain medication prescriptions, a new study finds. The study was conducted by researchers at the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, and Pharmacy at the University of California at San Francisco.
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November 15, 2001
Patients with early-stage Hodgkin's disease can greatly benefit from a novel treatment regimen. According to a study by the Southwest Oncology Group, a short course of chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy significantly lengthens the amount of time before patients experience a relapse of their Hodgkin's disease, and minimizes the side effects of treatment.
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October 15, 2001
According to a new study from the Cancer and Acute Leukemia Group B, brief, intense cycles of high-dose chemotherapy produced long-term, disease-free survival in more than half of patients treated for Burkitt's lymphoma and Burkitt's leukemia.