Barcelona, Spain: Delivering radiotherapy directly to cancer of the cervix using 3-D imaging techniques is effective at controlling the return and spread of the disease and, in most cases, avoids the need for hysterectomies, according to research presented at the World Congress of Brachytherapy [1 & 2]. Dr Renaud Mazeron said that a review of […]
Stem cell sparing radiotherapy for head and neck cancer may avoid salivary gland damage
Barcelona, Spain: Researchers believe they may have found a way to avoid damaging salivary glands during radiotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer – a discovery that could improve the quality of life of 500,000 patients a year worldwide with the disease. Presenting their findings to the 31st conference of the European Society for Radiotherapy […]
Intrauterine devices (IUDs) provide the most effective emergency contraception
Intrauterine devices (IUDs) should be used routinely to provide emergency contraception, according to the authors of the first systematic review of all available data from the past 35 years. They found that IUDs had a failure rate of less than one per thousand and were a more effective form of emergency contraception than the “morning […]
Alcohol in moderation reduces deaths in men who have survived a heart attack
Men who are moderate drinkers and who have survived a first heart attack have a lower risk of death from heart disease or any other cause than non-drinkers, according to the results of a study of nearly 2000 men in the USA. The latest findings from the US Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a prospective study […]
Ultrasound-guided surgery is the best way to remove breast tumours and should become the new standard of care
Vienna, Austria: The use of ultrasound-guided surgery to remove tumours from women who have palpable breast cancer is much more successful than standard surgery in excising all the cancerous tissue while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible, according to the results of a randomised controlled trial. As a consequence, researchers told the eighth European […]
Everolimus plus exemestane improves bone health in post-menopausal women with advanced breast cancer
Vienna, Austria: Results from a phase III clinical trial evaluating a new treatment for breast cancer in post-menopausal women show that the combination of two cancer drugs, everolimus and exemestane, significantly improves bone strength and reduces the chances of cancer spreading (metastasising) in the bone. Professor Michael Gnant told the eighth European Breast Cancer Conference […]
Overweight and obese women at greater risk of breast cancer recurrence even after chemotherapy dose adjustment
Vienna, Austria: Women who are overweight or obese when they are diagnosed with breast cancer are at higher risk of cancer recurrence or related death than are leaner women, according to a new study presented to the 8th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8). This finding held true even though the study mandated that chemotherapy dosage […]
Understanding individual genetic variation can help predict chemotherapy side effects
Vienna, Austria: The largest study ever on the effect of genetic variability on the toxicity of chemotherapy in breast cancer shows that it is possible to predict which patients are most likely to suffer serious side effects, a researcher told the 8th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8). Dr. Christof Vulsteke, from the Catholic University of […]
New genomic test spares patients chemotherapy with no adverse effect on survival
Vienna, Austria: Testing a breast cancer tumour for its genomic signature can help identify which patients will need adjuvant systemic therapy (additional chemotherapy) after surgery, and spare its use in those for whom it is not necessary, according to the results of a study presented to the 8th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8). Dr. Sabine […]
Radiotherapy for DCIS still protects against recurrence after fifteen years
Vienna, Austria: Radiotherapy treatment (RT) after surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) [1] still has a major protective effect against recurrence more than 15 years later, according to the results of an international trial. Researchers found that the use of RT in addition to surgery could reduce the chances of a local recurrence (the […]