Lisbon, Portugal: Taking part in regular exercise can reduce fatigue and pain, and improve cardiovascular health and quality of life in women being treated for advanced breast cancer, according to new research presented at the Advanced Breast Cancer Fourth International Consensus Conference (ABC 4). Hundreds of thousands of women around the world are being treated […]
Category: Cancer
Deterioration of patients’ quality of life is delayed if progression of advanced or metastatic breast cancer is delayed
Lisbon, Portugal: Patients with advanced breast cancer have a better quality of life for longer if the progression of their disease can be delayed, according to new results presented at the Advanced Breast Cancer Fourth International Consensus Conference (ABC 4) in Lisbon. Professor Nadia Harbeck, head of the Breast Cancer Centre at the University of […]
Oral sex and smoking increase men’s risk of head and neck cancer. But the risk is still low, making screening for the disease a challenge
Men who smoke and have five or more partners with whom they perform oral sex have the highest risk of developing a type of head and neck cancer that is triggered by exposure to the human papilloma virus – known as HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer – according to research published in the leading cancer journal Annals […]
Increasing the age limit for Lynch syndrome genetic testing may save lives
Copenhagen, Denmark: Raising the age limit for routine genetic testing in colorectal cancer could identify more cases of families affected by Lynch syndrome, a condition that accounts for around 5% of all colon cancers, according to new research presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics. Professor Nicoline Hoogerbrugge, head of […]
Open-access genetic screening for hereditary breast cancer is feasible and effective
Copenhagen, Denmark: Ashkenazi Jewish women are known to have a predisposition to the inherited breast cancers BRCA1 and BRCA2, but currently genetic testing in this group is limited to women affected by breast and ovarian cancers and those who are unaffected but have a family history of the disease. Ms Sari Lieberman, a genetic counsellor […]
Brachytherapy rather than surgery is a good option for cancer of the penis
Vienna, Austria: Results from the largest group of men treated for cancer of the penis by a single institution have shown that treatment with brachytherapy (a type of radiotherapy) is a good option that can be used instead of surgery in many cases. The study was presented at the ESTRO 36 conference and is important […]
Watching movies can replace general anaesthesia for children with cancer having radiotherapy
Vienna, Austria: Children with cancer could be spared dozens of doses of general anaesthesia by projecting a video directly on to the inside of a radiotherapy machine during treatment, according to research presented at the ESTRO 36 conference. Although cancer is rare in children, worldwide there are approximately 215,000 new cases in the under 15s […]
Study suggests a role for radiotherapy for extending the lives of pancreatic cancer patients
Vienna, Austria: Patients with early stage pancreatic cancer could be given longer to live if they receive radiotherapy at a high enough dose, according to research presented at the ESTRO 36 conference. Pancreatic cancer already affects around 338,000 people worldwide annually and this figure is increasing [1]. It is notoriously difficult to treat and consequently […]
Giving a single, high dose of radiation directly to the site of a prostate tumour is safe and results in high patient satisfaction
Vienna, Austria: Doctors have found that treating prostate cancer with a single, high dose of radiation delivered precisely to the site of the tumour results in good quality of life and fewer trips to the hospital, with adverse side effects that are no worse than if the radiation treatment had been given in several lower […]
Adaptive radiotherapy reduces pneumonitis while controlling lung cancer
Vienna, Austria: Lung cancer patients who are treated with radiotherapy can develop an inflammation of the lung tissue called pneumonitis; this can limit the dose of radiation they can receive and severe forms of pneumonitis, if left untreated, can be fatal. Now researchers have found that it is possible to adapt radiation treatment so that […]