Investing in some colorectal cancer screening programs could cut future, more expensive treatment costs in half, according to a new study published online September 24 in theJournal of the National Cancer Institute. The only screening program found not to be cost-saving was colonoscopy. Governments and insurance companies may invest more in colorectal cancer screening programs-some of which have proven to reduce colorectal cancer mortality-if the cost-savings were known, especially as more expensive cancer drugs continue to hit the market. Iris Lansdorp-Vogelaar, Ph.D., of the Department of Public Health, Eramus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues used a microsimulation model,known as the MISCAN-Col...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Higher levels of environmental chemicals in breast milk are linked to a higher incidence of testicular cancer, researchers in Denmark found. Konrad Krysiak-Baltyn and colleagues in Denmark, Finland and Germany measured levels of 121 chemicals in 68 breast milk samples from Denmark and Finland to compare exposure of mothers to environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals. There is a worldwide increase in testicular cancer, but the cause remains unknown, Krysiak-Baltyn said. In some countries, such as Denmark the prevalence of this disease and other male reproductive disorders is conspicuously high, while in Finland the incidence are markedly lower, Krysiak-Baltyn said. "We were very surprised...

Mary Foust knew something was wrong eight years ago. She was feeling bloated, fatigued and had pain in her abdomen. "They're all things that women have, so it's real easy to ignore them," Foust said. Foust, uneasy about the symptoms she felt, scheduled a doctor's appointment, but first planned to go to Ohio to visit family. Her two-week vacation there turned into a six-week stay and a battle to live. At her daughter's urging, Foust saw a doctor one Tuesday in April 2001. The look on the doctor's face said it all; something was terribly wrong, she said. Foust had a CAT scan the next day, followed by surgery the day after. Surgeons in Ohio removed a tumor the size of a grapefruit from her abdomen. Then came the news that the...

"The ThinPrep Imaging System (TIS) was implemented at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in February 2006 and has been a crucial part of the ability of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Services ability to improve efficiency and turnaround times for Papanicolaou (Pap) test reporting. The increased detection rate of squamous abnormalities, specifically high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), has been well documented by many studies," scientists in the United States report. "In addition, the TIS has increased productivity for many laboratories. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of implementing the TIS at BAMC, a tertiary military medical center. Specifically, the following were assessed: 1) whether...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today cleared the OVA1" Test, the first blood test that, prior to surgery, can help physicians determine if a woman is at risk for a malignant pelvic mass. OVA1 is the first FDA-cleared laboratory test that can indicate the likelihood of ovarian cancer with high sensitivity prior to biopsy or exploratory surgery, even if radiological test results fail to indicate malignancy. The test was developed by Vermillion, Inc. , a molecular diagnostics company, in cooperation with Quest Diagnostics, the world's leading provider of cancer diagnostics. Quest Diagnostics, which is a long-time investor in research and development of the OVA1 technology, has exclusive rights to offer the test to the clinical ref...

"The uptake of risk-reducing surgery in women at increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer is highly variable between countries and centers within countries. We have investigated the rate, timing, and age of uptake of surgery in the northwest of U.K. to report the results after up to 7 years in a Regional Genetics center," scientists in Manchester, the United Kingdom report. "Uptake was documented in 211 known unaffected BRCA1/2 mutation carriers from 509 families and in 3,515 women at >25% lifetime risk of breast cancer without known mutations. Of the 211 mutation carriers, 40% opted for bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy (BRRM) and 45% underwent bilateral risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (BRRSPO). Uptake of BRRM was significantly...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared a test that can help detect ovarian cancer in a pelvic mass that is already known to require surgery. The test, called OVA1, helps patients and health care professionals decide what type of surgery should be done and by whom. OVA1 identifies some women who will benefit from referral to a gynecological oncologist for their surgery, despite negative results from other clinical and radiographic tests for ovarian cancer. If other test results suggest cancer, referral to an oncologist is appropriate even with a negative OVA1 result. OVA1 should be used by primary care physicians or gynecologists as an adjunctive test to complement, not replace, other diagnostic and clinical procedures....

BERLIN & DARMSTADT -- Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced that Erbitux(R) (cetuximab) demonstrated a significant improvement in overall survival (OS) when added to standard 1st-line chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with KRAS wild-type tumors. This is the first time an OS benefit has been demonstrated with an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-inhibitor in this disease setting. These results from the pivotal CRYSTALa trial were presented at the joint 15th Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) and 34th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) held in Berlin, Germany this week. "Overall survival is a critically impor...

BERLIN -- The Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group Present Data Which Highlight Benefits of Adding capecitabine to epirubicin and docetaxel in the Neoadjuvant Setting Data from the ABCSG-24 study presented today at the joint 15th ECCO and 34th ESMO congress in Berlin, Germany, show that adding capecitabine (Xeloda(R)) to anthracycline- and taxane-containing regimens prior to surgery (neoadjuvant therapy) completely eradicated the tumour in 24% of women with HER2-positive or HER2-negative early breast cancer. This is an impressive finding since the proportion of women achieving total tumour eradication with standard chemotherapy[*] for HER2-positive or HER2-negative early breast cancer is less than 20% (rang...

THOUSAND OAKS, California -- Amgen today announced detailed results from the Phase 3 '203' trial evaluating Vectibix(R) (panitumumab) administered in combination with FOLFOX (an oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy) as the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In this trial, Vectibix significantly improved median progression-free survival (PFS) by 1.6 months (9.6 versus 8.0 months for patients treated with FOLFOX alone, (hazard ratio 0.80; p=0.02)) in patients with KRAS wild-type mCRC (primary endpoint). The results were presented at the 2009 ECCO 15 - ESMO 34 European Multidisciplinary Congress in Berlin, Germany (Abstract Number 10LBA). Further, the addition of Vectibix to chemotherapy also improved r...