Changes in Technical Equipment and Patient Perspectives Navigating Towards Enhanced Digitalization in Breast Cancer Across Pre-COVID-19 and Early COVID-19 Eras.

Introduction: The potential benefits of eHealth support in enhancing patient care, satisfaction, and cancer outcomes are well-established; however, its integration into routine care has been gradual. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 dramatically affected cancer patients, imposing multifaceted challenges that impede traditional doctor-patient interactions. Consequently, there has been a surge in the adoption of eHealth for supporting oncological therapies.

Biologically Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Breast Cancer Patients and Possible Drug-Drug Interactions.

Purpose: Biologically based complementary and alternative medicine (BB-CAM) is gaining importance. Cancer patients in particular are at risk of interactions between the prescribed medications (intravenous or oral anticancer therapy, concomitant medication, medication for pre-existing illnesses) and BB-CAM. This investigation aims to identify potentially clinically relevant interactions between both BB-CAM and conventional medicine and two BB-CAM products in breast cancer patients ( = 47).

Clinical relevance of potential self-medication drug interactions in antineoplastic and immune-modulating therapy among online pharmacy customers.

Background: Modern oral antineoplastic and immune-modulating drugs offer an array of therapeutic advantages, and yet pose challenges in daily use for patients, physicians and pharmacists. In contrast to intravenous administration, these drugs are not subject to direct medical control. Recently, we have seen a huge rise in sales of non-prescription over-the-counter (OTC) medicines the internet without any advice from a healthcare professional.

EHealth Acceptance and New Media Preferences for Therapy Assistance Among Breast Cancer Patients.

Background: Electronic health (eHealth) and mobile communication-based health care (mHealth) applications have been increasingly utilized in medicine over the last decade, and have facilitated improved adherence to therapy regimens in patients with chronic conditions. Due to the long duration of breast cancer therapy, and the long course of disease in metastatic breast cancer, a need for more intensified physician-patient communication has emerged. Various support mechanisms, including new media such as mHealth and eHealth, have been proposed for this purpose.

eHealth in Modern Patient-Caregiver Communication: High Rate of Acceptance Among Physicians for Additional Support of Breast Cancer Patients During Long-Term Therapy.

Background: Lack of adherence and compliance with drug regimens among breast cancer patients represent substantial problems in oral therapies, leading to significant impacts on mortality. Where other systems have failed, electronic health (eHealth) could be a possible solution to improve medication intake, along with the doctor-patient relationship. Initial results from studies concerning new interventions for therapy support are promising, but reports suggest that general acceptance of new treatment support tools is needed among patients and physicians alike.

WSG ADAPT - adjuvant dynamic marker-adjusted personalized therapy trial optimizing risk assessment and therapy response prediction in early breast cancer: study protocol for a prospective, multi-center, controlled, non-blinded, randomized, investigator initiated phase II/III trial.

Background: Adjuvant treatment decision-making based on conventional clinical/pathological and prognostic single molecular markers or genomic signatures is a therapeutic area in which over-/under-treatment are still key clinical problems even though substantial and continuous improvement of outcome has been achieved over the past decades. Response to therapy is currently not considered in the decision-making procedure.ADAPT is one of the first new generation (neo)adjuvant trials dealing with individualization of (neo)adjuvant decision-making in early breast cancer and aims to establish early predictive surrogate markers, e.

Eradication of minimal residual disease with alemtuzumab in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) patients: the need for a standard method of detection and the potential impact of bone marrow clearance on disease outcome.

The introduction of new therapeutic agents, such as fludarabine phosphate (Fludara) and alemtuzumab (MabCampath, Campath), has made it possible to treat B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) more effectively, compared with alkylating agents. However, although an increasing number of patients are able to achieve complete remission (CR), relapse is almost inevitable, because of the re-emergence of the malignant clone from small numbers of residual malignant cells. This phenomenon has introduced a need for a more sensitive assessment of low-level disease which, in turn, has encouraged the development of therapies aimed at the eradication of all residual disease in CR patients.