ONCOLOGY Vol 25 No 11

This article will review current management trends for women with classical lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS).

Locoregional recurrences are a major source of morbidity and mortality for patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (HNSCC).

A case report is followed by a review of the diagnosis and treatment of other cutaneous paraneoplastic syndromes that are associated with hematologic malignancies.

The aim of this article is to review the preclinical data and rationale for PARP inhibitor use in the aforementioned settings, as well as the current status of the clinical development of these agents in the treatment of breast cancer, along with future directions for research in this field.

In this review, we describe the evidence linking obesity to breast cancer recurrence, discuss the potential biological mechanisms through which weight could impact breast cancer prognosis, and review the weight-loss intervention studies that have been performed in breast cancer populations to date.

The review by Jennifer Ligibel, MD, approaches a topic of increasing importance-namely the role of obesity in breast cancer incidence and clinical outcome-in a comprehensive and up-to-date fashion, focusing on obesity and its influence on breast cancer recurrence and associated survival.

The opening chapters in the investigation of poly(adenosine diphosphate [ADP]–ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors as cancer therapeutics have been interpreted by some as a quantum leap forward in targeted and personalized medicine and by others as another example of disappointment following a flurry of promising preclinical and early clinical trials based on elegant biology.

Oppong and King present a clear and concise review of the current data regarding lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) and discuss the rationale behind the current management recommendations for this disease.

In this issue of ONCOLOGY, Drs Oppong and King provide an organized and comprehensive summary of guidelines for the clinical management of patients with lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS).

Obesity rates in the United States have increased twofold in adults and threefold in children during the past 30 years.[1] Beyond its detrimental effects on cardiovascular health, obesity increases the risk of several cancers, including postmenopausal breast cancer,[2] and it is also associated with a higher risk of recurrence and death in those who develop breast cancer.[3]

Poly(adenosine diphosphate [ADP]–ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are designed to exploit the “synthetic lethality” concept for cancer therapy.

During the 1970s and 80s, several researchers in Canada and in the United States, including those at the National Cancer Institute, studied Essiac. All failed to find any evidence of effectiveness.

In an online-first article in Nature Chemical Biology (DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.695), Sebastian Nijman of the CeMM–Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and his colleagues describe the development of a chemical genetic approach that has identified mechanisms that can lead to resistance to PI3K inhibitors used as cancer treatments.

In spite of screening recommendations that now begin only at 50 years of age, breast cancer is often diagnosed in women under the age of 40, and there are specific challenges to management of the disease in this younger population.

Triple-negative breast cancers represent a challenge for patients and clinicians, with poorer prognosis and fewer treatment options than other breast cancer subtypes. Recently, though, there have been suggestions that targeting pathways that repair DNA within tumor cells could provide benefit beyond the currently available treatments.

A recent case report in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the promising potentials of adoptive T-cell immunotherapy by redirecting them, through chimeric antigen receptors, as a novel and effective therapeutic modality for cancer.

Though there is still disagreement, a new study presented at the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco suggests that annual mammography and palpation of breast masses remain critical tools in early breast cancer diagnosis.

A new study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco shows that there is no survival difference between having a mastectomy or breast conservation therapy in women under the age of 40.

Researchers have identified that “maintenance of global heterochromatin integrity” is a novel function of BRCA1 gene, and propose that this DNA-silencing function is linked to the role of BRCA1 as a tumor suppressor, in an article published in Nature.

As a medical oncologist who entered the field when there were perhaps 50 or so active drugs, I have become increasingly disturbed by the rising costs of cancer care. Of course, I am not alone in worrying about this.