Oncology research continues to better understand and quantify the role that social determinants play in the development of cancers to help find ways to reduce the burden of cancer on society and individuals.
Targeted therapies have vastly improved survival in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), despite not offering a cure for many patients. More problematically, patients often develop resistance to the drugs.
While most men with non-metastatic prostate cancer respond to androgen-deprivation therapy initially, many later experience rising prostate-specific antigen levels that indicate they have developed castration resistance.
Every year, 60,000 women in the United States receive a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a noninvasive form of breast cancer. Accounting for one in five breast cancer diagnoses, DCIS has increased with the adoption of routine mammography, but it is far more than just an artifact of imaging.
Oncologists balance the most effective treatment against the likelihood of adverse effects for every patient with cancer. Generally, the assumption is that older patients and those with more comorbidities and poorer performance status will experience more negative effects, including potentially fatal toxicity, from aggressive treatment. A study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in June calls into question this assumption for at least some patients and specific malignancies.