Predicting neutropenia risk in patients with cancer using electronic data.

Objectives: Clinical guidelines recommending the use of myeloid growth factors are largely based on the prescribed chemotherapy regimen. The guidelines suggest that oncologists consider patient-specific characteristics when prescribing granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) prophylaxis; however, a mechanism to quantify individual patient risk is lacking. Readily available electronic health record (EHR) data can provide patient-specific information needed for individualized neutropenia risk estimation.

The Relationship Between Education and Prostate-Specific Antigen Testing Among Urban African American Medicare Beneficiaries.

Purpose: We examined the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) cancer screening among older African American men.

Methods: We analyzed baseline data from a sample of 485 community-dwelling African American men who participated in the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration Trial. The outcome was receipt of PSA screening within the past year.

Effect of Patient Navigation on Breast Cancer Screening Among African American Medicare Beneficiaries: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: There is growing evidence that patient navigation improves breast cancer screening rates; however, there are limited efficacy studies of its effect among African American older adult women.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of patient navigation on screening mammography among African American female Medicare beneficiaries in Baltimore, MD.

Design: The Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration (CPTD), a multi-site study, was a randomized controlled trial conducted from April 2006 through December 2010.

Effect of patient navigation on colorectal cancer screening in a community-based randomized controlled trial of urban African American adults.

Purpose: In recent years, colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates have increased steadily in the USA, though racial and ethnic disparities persist. In a community-based randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effect of patient navigation on increasing CRC screening adherence among older African Americans.

Methods: Participants in the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration were randomized to either the control group, receiving only printed educational materials (PEM), or the intervention arm where they were assigned a patient navigator in addition to PEM.

Multiple myeloma in the very old: an IASIA conference report.

Multiple myeloma (MM) in patients aged greater than 80 years poses an increasingly common challenge for oncology providers. A multidisciplinary workshop was held in which MM-focused hematologists/oncologists, geriatricians, and associated health-care team members discussed the state of research for MM therapy, as well as themes from geriatric medicine that pertain directly to this patient population. A summary statement of our discussions is presented here, in which we highlight several topics.

Activity of topotecan 21-day infusion in patients with previously treated large cell lymphoma: long-term follow-up of an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study (E5493).

The purpose of this study was to determine the activity of topotecan given by 21-day continuous infusion in patients previously treated with one prior therapy for a diffuse large-cell lymphoma or immunoblastic lymphoma. Patients with appropriate histology and measurable disease who had been treated with one prior chemotherapy regimen were eligible for study. Slides of tumor biopsies were submitted for central review of pathology.

Phase I/II study of vinorelbine and exisulind as first-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer in patients at least 70 years old: a wisconsin oncology network study.

Introduction: Exisulind is an apoptotic agent with preclinical activity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Vinorelbine is safe and effective in older patients with advanced NSCLC. We assessed these agents together as palliative treatment for older patients with advanced NSCLC.

A randomized trial of a representational intervention to decrease cancer pain (RIDcancerPain).

Objective: Based on theories regarding cognitive representations of illness and processes of conceptual change, a representational intervention to decrease cancer pain (RIDcancerPain) was developed and its efficacy tested.

Design: A two-group RCT (RIDcancerPain versus control) with outcome and mediating variables assessed at baseline (T1) and 1 and 2 months later (T2 and T3). Subjects were 176 adults with pain related to metastatic cancer.

Phase II trial of daily oral perillyl alcohol (NSC 641066) in treatment-refractory metastatic breast cancer.

Purpose: Perillyl alcohol (POH) is a naturally occurring lipid with preclinical activity against mammary carcinomas. We conducted a phase II multi-institutional study of oral POH administered four times daily in women with advanced treatment-refractory breast cancer.

Methods: Eligible women were treated with POH four times daily at 1,200-1,500 mg m(-2) dose(-1) on a 28-day cycle.