Metastatic breast cancer 7
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Maintenance treatment in NSCLC 11
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VOLUME 2, ISSUE 15
Hot chemotherapy debate 41
OCTOBER 15, 2011
ASCOPost.com
Editor-in-Chief, James O. Armitage, MD
2011 Breast Cancer Symposium
Studies Validate Safety of Breast-conserving Surgery in Young Patients with Breast Cancer
Health-care Policy: A Three-act Play
By Caroline Helwick
Y
oung age is not a Breast-conserving Therapy vs Mastectomy reason, in itself, to in Young Women recommend mastectomy for early breast cancer in ■■ In women aged 40 and younger, two studies found no difference in women aged 40 and undisease-free and overall survival between breast-conserving surgery and der, according to two studmastectomy. ies presented at the 2011 ■■ Young age alone is not a reason to recommend mastectomy. Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco. While younger women have been pegged as that young women who have breast cancer really having more aggressive disease, the results sugneed to have mastectomy,” Dr. Seidman commented. gest that contemporary management—including genetic testing, improved imaging techniques, and Retrospective Review more effective treatment—helps to ameliorate the In the first study, Julliette M. Buckley, MD, adverse factors associated with worse outcomes, a breast surgery fellow at Massachusetts Gensuggested Andrew D. Seidman, eral Hospital, Boston, led a retrospective review MD, of Memorial Sloan-Ketterof 628 patients aged ≤ 40 years (median age, 37) ing Cancer Center, who moderdiagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer between ated a press briefing. 1996 and 2008. Of these women, 71% had breast“This is an important revisitaconserving therapy.1 SEE PAGE 48 tion of the conventional wisdom continued on page 3 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress
International Prostate Cancer Studies Report Inroads in Managing Bone Metastases By Alice Goodman
T
reatment and prevention of bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer is coming of age, according to several studies presented at the European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (ECCO/ESMO/ESTRO). Among the most impressive studies reported was an international phase III trial of radium-223, an investigational
radiopharmaceutical, evaluated in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer and symptomatic bone metastases. For the first time, a survival advantage was seen in the treatment arm receiving radium-223 along with delayed time to first skeletalrelated event (Fig. 1 on page 10).1 A separate phase III study demonstrated that denosumab (Prolia, Xgeva) delayed the development of bone metastasis in men with prostate cancer,2 and a third This is the first drug study found that ibandronate was as [radium-223] targeted effective as radiotherapy in treating pain related to bone metastasis in to bone metastases in prostate cancer.3
prostate cancer that has been shown to improve survival.
– Chris Parker, MD
By Richard Boxer, MD, FACS
T
he health of Americans, the economy, the debt crisis, and the action or inaction in Washington are all seriously interrelated. Decades ago, the bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robs banks. His famous answer, “Because that’s where the money is,” succinctly describes the approach that Washington has taken toward the health-care economy.
Affordable Care Act The last time Congress and the President balanced the budget, when President Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich were in power, the economy was balanced on the back of health care, specifically nursing homes, home health, and reimbursement to hospitals and physicians. Since physician services account for only 20% of the health-care dollar, all patient services had to be reduced in order to balance the budget. Hospitals, nursing homes, home health devices, and pharmaceuticals were then (and will be again) drastically affected. This new round of debt recontinued on page 2
Dr. Boxer is Professor of Clinical Urology at the University of Miami, and Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Medical College of Wisconsin.
MORE IN THIS ISSUE Oncology Meetings Coverage 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium ������� 3, 7, 8 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress 2011 �������������������������9, 10 Best of ASCO® Annual Meeting ‘11 �� 31–34 Direct from ASCO ��������������������������������������� 22 Letters to the Editor ������������������������������������� 48
Radium-223 “Radium-223 chloride improved survival and time to [skeletal-related events] and was very well tolercontinued on page 9
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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