Oncology

Oncologists are slightly less satisfied with their specialty than they were a few years ago, according to the fifth consecutive annual Medscape report.

The diabetes drug metformin is being used in some cancer treatment trials, but study results show the use of metformin does not improve survival of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Adoption of draft United States Preventive Services Task Force breast cancer screening recommendations would result in thousands of additional and unnecessary breast cancer deaths each year, the American College of Radiology said.

The total number of breast cancer cases in the United States is forecast to be 50% greater in 2030 than it was in 2011 driven mostly by a marked increase in cases of estrogen receptor-positive tumors.

Measuring value in cancer care matters, but so does creating a structure that makes sense to stakeholders who use it. The current issue of Evidence-Based Oncology features an article on how a regional consortium of providers, payers, patient partners and researchers developed a set of metrics together, from the bottom up.

Women with an average risk of breast cancer should have screening mammography every 2 years during ages 50 to 74, according to updated recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center found combining 2 immunotherapies to be safe and elicit a clinical response in patients with metastatic melanoma.

One of the hot new cancer immunotherapy drugs, Merck & Co's Keytruda, strongly benefited patients with melanoma, lung cancer and mesothelioma, according to 3 studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference.

In the usual cancer biopsy, a surgeon cuts out a piece of the patient's tumor, but researchers in labs across the country are now testing a potentially transformative innovation. They call it the liquid biopsy.

An experimental lung cancer pill from AstraZeneca delays disease progression by more than a year, according to new data presented at European Lung Cancer Conference.

The study, in more than 250,000 women, found that combining Pap test with HPV screening works best in identifying women with cervical cancer and reduces the possibility of false negatives.

While the effect of pregnancy on melanoma has been debated for several years, a study at the Cleveland Clinic has provided evidence that women who were pregnant or recently pregnant at the time of melanoma diagnosis were 5.1 times more likely to die of the disease than those who were not.

An accompanying editorial by a Fred Hutch researcher says, "The demanding cancer patient looks less like a budget buster and more like an urban myth."