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Women who survive breast cancer may be at a lower risk of developing coronary artery disease compared with women without a history of breast cancer.
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There has been some controversy on the role of taxanes in combination with platinum for the treatment of ovarian cancer. In the current report, patients who relapsed after a disease-free interval of 6 months or more were randomized in 2 large, multicenter trials conducted in Europe to receive either platinum (or typical platinum-based regimens) or paclitaxel plus platinum.
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In a retrospective tumor registry (SEER) analysis of outcomes for rectal-cancer patients treated over a 14-year period with either presurgical or postsurgical radiation therapy, the importance of pathological lymph node status was found to be significantly more adverse for patients who had presurgical treatment. These patients define a subgroup for whom aggressive post-surgical treatment would seem warranted.
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Statin and niacin increase HDL-C, omeprazole reduces effectiveness of clopidogrel, darbe-poetin increases risk of stroke, statins decrease risk of gallstone disease, FDA Actions.
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This meta-analysis revealed overall increased mortality of up to 25% in patients experiencing depressive symptoms after cancer diagnosis, and a 39% higher risk in patients diagnosed with major or minor depression after cancer diagnosis, based upon 25 independent studies. Given the low number of studies available to date, the effect of depressive symptoms on cancer recurrence did not reach a level of statistical significance.
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In a large population-based, prospective cohort study, it was found that spending less than 50% of the day in a sedentary position, and increasing amounts of physical activity (e.g., walking or bicycling) appear to be associated with reduced rates of prostate-cancer development.
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A long-term longitudinal assessment of quality of life among patients treated for early-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma reveals that, with the exception of fatigue, there is general improvement over time. Factors that influence the rate of improvement include age and sex, but do not include the type of treatment received (radiation vs. chemotherapy).
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Chromosome banding analysis (CBA) of marrow metaphase cells is the standard method to assess response in CML. The authors compared CBA to interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (I-FISH) in 664 samples where both methods were performed.
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In a retrospective review of 71 patients treated in either a second- or third-line setting for small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) at a single institution, three orally administered drugs (lomustine, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide) were shown to be effective in producing responses (overall response rate 38%) but had little effect on overall survival (median survival 19 weeks).
