Olanzapine With or Without Fosaprepitant for Preventing Chemotherapy Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Patients Receiving Highly Emetogenic Chemotherapy: A Phase III Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial (ALLIANCE A221602).

Purpose: A protocol was developed to evaluate the value of an NK-1 receptor antagonist for preventing nausea and vomiting resulting from highly emetogenic chemotherapy when an olanzapine-based antiemetogenic regimen was used.

Materials And Methods: A221602, a prospective double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, was developed to compare 2 -olanzapine-containing antiemetic regimens, one with an NK-1 receptor antagonist (aprepitant or fosaprepitant) and one without. Trial patients had a malignant disease for which they received intravenous highly emetogenic chemotherapy (single day cisplatin ≥ 70 mg/m2 or doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide on 1 day).

Modified Docetaxel, Cisplatin, and Fluorouracil (mDCF) as a Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Non-metastatic Esophageal Cancer (nMEC).

Perioperative chemotherapy can potentially downstage esophageal cancer, reducing the risk of early systemic dissemination. One recommended neoadjuvant regimen for managing gastroesophageal junction and esophageal cancer is docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (DCF). To address the high toxicity profile of DCF, modifications in dosages and treatment intervals have been studied.

Association of Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medications With Physical Functional Impairments in Older Adults With Cancer.

Background: Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) are prevalent in older adults with cancer, but their associations with physical function are not often studied. This study examined the associations of polypharmacy and PIMs with physical function in older adults with cancer, and determined the optimal cutoff value for the number of medications most strongly associated with physical functional impairment.

Methods: This cross-sectional analysis used baseline data from a randomized study enrolling patients aged ≥70 years with advanced cancer starting a new systemic cancer treatment.

Principles of Immunotherapy in Melanoma.

Advanced/metastatic melanoma is an aggressive cancer with a low survival rate. Traditional cytotoxic chemotherapies do not appreciably extend life and systemic cytokine/chemokine administration produces toxic side effects. By harnessing the surveillance and cytotoxic features of the immune system, immunotherapies can provide a durable response and are proved to improve disease outcomes in patients with advanced/metastatic melanoma and other cancers.

Randomized controlled trial of cryotherapy to prevent paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (RU221511I); an ACCRU trial.

Purpose: This pilot trial aimed to assess if cooling hands and feet with crushed ice during receipt of paclitaxel helps prevent peripheral neuropathy.

Methods: This prospective, randomized trial compared cryotherapy to standard care in patients initiating paclitaxel weekly x 12. For those on cryotherapy, hands and feet were cooled starting 15 min prior to and ending 15 min after each paclitaxel dose.

Linagliptin-associated bullous pemphigoid treated with rituximab.

Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are increasingly used these days in management of diabetes. There has been reported in a few case reports of increasing association between DPP-4 inhibitor use and bullous pemphigoid (BP). We report a case of association between linagliptin use and BP and subsequent treatment with rituximab.

Improving breast cancer risk prediction by using demographic risk factors, abnormality features on mammograms and genetic variants.

The predictive capability of combining demographic risk factors, germline genetic variants, and mammogram abnormality features for breast cancer risk prediction is poorly understood. We evaluated the predictive performance of combinations of demographic risk factors, high risk single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and mammography features for women recommended for breast biopsy in a retrospective case-control study (n = 768) with four logistic regression models. The AUC of the baseline demographic features model was 0.

Differentiated thyroid cancer: millions spent with no tangible gain?

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) has rapidly increased worldwide over the last decades. It is unknown if the increase in diagnosis has been mirrored by an increase in thyroidectomy rates with the concomitant economic impact that this would have on the health care system. DTC and thyroidectomy incidence as well as DTC-specific mortality were modeled using Poisson regression in New South Wales (NSW), Australia per year and by sex.

Discriminatory power of common genetic variants in personalized breast cancer diagnosis.

Technology advances in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has engendered optimism that we have entered a new age of precision medicine, in which the risk of breast cancer can be predicted on the basis of a person's genetic variants. The goal of this study is to evaluate the discriminatory power of common genetic variants in breast cancer risk estimation. We conducted a retrospective case-control study drawing from an existing personalized medicine data repository.

Biochemical Testing of the Thyroid: TSH is the Best and, Oftentimes, Only Test Needed - A Review for Primary Care.

Disorders of thyroid function are common, and screening, diagnosis, and management are often performed by primary care providers. While management of significant biochemical abnormalities is reasonably straight forward, laboratory tests only slightly outside, or even within, the normal range are becoming more difficult to appropriately manage. A large part of this increasing difficulty in appropriate management is caused by patients requesting, and even demanding, certain tests or treatments that may not be indicated.

The McGill Brisbane Symptom Score in relation to survival in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a validation study.

Purpose: The McGill Brisbane Symptom Score (MBSS) is a clinical score for pancreatic cancer patients upon initial presentation that takes into account four variables (weight loss, abdominal pain, jaundice, and history of smoking) to stratify them into two MBSS intensity categories. Several studies have suggested that these categories are strongly associated with eventual survival in patients with resectable (rPCa) and unresectable (uPCa) pancreatic cancer. This study aimed to validate the MBSS in a cohort of patients with pancreatic cancer from a single institution.

Sexual health assessment and counseling: oncology nurses' perceptions, practices, and perceived barriers.

Background: Cancer-related sexual dysfunction has a negative impact on patient quality of life.

Objective: To describe oncology nurses' perceptions, practices, and perceived barriers regarding sexual health assessment and counseling.

Methods: In 2005, a 31-item questionnaire was mailed to 56 oncology nurses employed at 6 regional cancer care centers in northern, central, and western Wisconsin.

Developing a utility decision framework to evaluate predictive models in breast cancer risk estimation.

Combining imaging and genetic information to predict disease presence and progression is being codified into an emerging discipline called "radiogenomics." Optimal evaluation methodologies for radiogenomics have not been well established. We aim to develop a decision framework based on utility analysis to assess predictive models for breast cancer diagnosis.

Comparing Mammography Abnormality Features to Genetic Variants in the Prediction of Breast Cancer in Women Recommended for Breast Biopsy.

Rationale And Objectives: The discovery of germline genetic variants associated with breast cancer has engendered interest in risk stratification for improved, targeted detection and diagnosis. However, there has yet to be a comparison of the predictive ability of these genetic variants with mammography abnormality descriptors.

Materials And Methods: Our institutional review board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant study utilized a personalized medicine registry in which participants consented to provide a DNA sample and to participate in longitudinal follow-up.

Prognostic significance of full-length estrogen receptor beta expression in stage I-III triple negative breast cancer.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype for which there is a need to identify new therapeutic targets. Full-length estrogen receptor beta (ERβ1) may be a possible target given its antiproliferative effects on breast cancer cells. The prognostic significance of ERβ in breast cancer subtypes has remained elusive, and disparate results observed across previously published reports might be due to the detection of multiple ERβ isoforms, the lack of specific antibodies and the use of different cutoffs to define ERβpositivity.

Leveraging Interaction between Genetic Variants and Mammographic Findings for Personalized Breast Cancer Diagnosis.

Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a number of genetic variants associated with breast cancer which showed great potential for clinical translation, especially in breast cancer diagnosis via mammograms. However, the amount of interaction between these genetic variants and mammographic features that can be leveraged for personalized diagnosis remains unknown. Our study utilizes germline genetic variants and mammographic features that we collected in a breast cancer case-control study.

Validation of the CoRE Questionnaire for a Medical Journal Peer Review.

If a peer review instrument asks concrete questions (defined as items that can only generate disagreement if reviewers have different degrees of expertise), then questionnaires could become more meaningful in terms of resolving subjectivity thus leading to more reviewer agreement. A concrete item questionnaire with well-chosen questions can also help resolve disagreement when reviewers have the same level of expertise. We have recently created the core-item reviewer evaluation (CoRE) questionnaire for which decision-threshold score levels have been created, but which have not been validated.

Navigating the Needs of Rural Women with Breast Cancer: A Breast Care Program.

We describe the development and establishment of a breast care program (BCP) with service for rural breast cancer patients. Our program is a comprehensive program serving rural communities in Wisconsin. Our BCP is committed to breast health throughout the continuum from breast cancer risk assessment and prevention, advanced diagnostics, and screening tools to genetic testing and state-of-the-art surgical techniques.

Treatment differences between urban and rural women with hormone receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer based on 21-gene assay recurrence score result.

Background: Women who live in rural and urban settings have different outcomes for breast cancer. A 21-gene assay predicts 10-year distant recurrence risk and potential benefit of chemotherapy for women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer.

Objective: To assess differences in scores and cancer therapies received by rural versus urban residence.

New genetic variants improve personalized breast cancer diagnosis.

Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a number of new genetic variants associated with breast cancer. However, the degree to which these genetic variants improve breast cancer diagnosis in concert with mammography remains unknown. We conducted a case-control study and collected mammography features and 77 genetic variants which reflect the state of the art GWAS findings on breast cancer.

Developing a clinical utility framework to evaluate prediction models in radiogenomics.

Combining imaging and genetic information to predict disease presence and behavior is being codified into an emerging discipline called "radiogenomics." Optimal evaluation methodologies for radiogenomics techniques have not been established. We aim to develop a clinical decision framework based on utility analysis to assess prediction models for breast cancer.

Overview of recent trends in diagnosis and management of leptomeningeal multiple myeloma.

Neurological complications related to multiple myeloma (MM) are not uncommon; however, direct involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) is extremely rare and represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Significant survival difference has been noted with the introduction of novel therapy in patients with MM, but their effect on the incidence and their use for management of leptomeningeal myeloma (LMM) is uncertain. Analysis of published data demonstrates its recent increased incidence, median time to CNS presentation, and slight improvement in median survival after diagnosis of LMM.

Survival Comparisons for Breast Conserving Surgery and Mastectomy Revisited: Community Experience and the Role of Radiation Therapy.

Objectives: Evidence suggests superiority of breast conserving surgery (BCS) plus radiation over mastectomy alone for treatment of early stage breast cancer. Whether the superiority of BCS plus radiation is related to the surgical approach itself or to the addition of adjuvant radiation therapy following BCS remains unclear.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of women with breast cancer diagnosed from 1994-2012.

Diastolic function improves after resolution of takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

Background: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) is a condition of reversible left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction. However, the diastolic function (DF) manifestations of TTC have not been widely investigated. We performed a bicentric study with retrospective analysis of DF in patients with TTC, during onset and at follow-up.

Cardiovascular toxicity associated with adjuvant trastuzumab therapy: prevalence, patient characteristics, and risk factors.

Before the advent of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeted monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, HER2-positive breast cancers were difficult to treat and had a poor prognosis. Adjuvant trastuzumab is now an important part of the treatment regimen for many women with HER2-positive breast cancer and has undoubtedly resulted in a significant improvement in prognosis, but it is associated with a risk for cardiotoxicity. In this review, we describe the prevalence, patient characteristics, and risk factors for cardiotoxicity associated with use of adjuvant trastuzumab.