As survivability of many cancers increases, so does the opportunity to help survivors live the lives they’d imagined. Manda Miller thought bouts of Hodgkins Lymphoma at 19 and 27 had taken her chance to have children, but Jennifer Mersereau, MD, at UNC Fertility offered an innovative option for the
UNC Lineberger researchers led by Dr. Timothy R. Gershon report preclinical findings showing promise for targeting a gene linked to microcephaly in infants as a treatment for medulloblastoma.
In the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers report that uninsured women under age 65 who received their mammogram at community screening clinics in North Carolina were less likely to get follow-up within a year of a positive mammogram, and had higher odds of missing a 60-day window for follow-up care.
In the study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, UNC Lineberger researchers report that nearly a third of a group of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and who have federally-funded Medicare health insurance, did not start treatment within six months of diagnosis with any of three targeted drugs that have led to dramatic improvements in survival for the disease.
In an analysis of survival data for a population of patients with a particular type of head and neck cancer, UNC Lineberger researchers confirmed that a particular strain of HPV, a virus linked to multiple cancers, resulted in better overall survival for patients with oropharyngeal cancer than patients with other strains of the virus.
A UNC Lineberger study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment drew upon surveys that assessed health-related quality of life issues for women aged 20 to 74 years who lived in North Carolina and had breast cancer. The analysis was part of the third phase of the Carolina Breast Cancer Study.
UNC Lineberger researchers, led by Aaron Mitchell, MD, found a high prevalence of financial relationships among authors who helped develop a leading set of cancer care guidelines in the United States in a study published in JAMA Oncology. They say the work lays the foundation for future studies of whether the payments influenced clinical practice or guideline recommendations.
In a paper published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association, UNC Lineberger physician-researchers led by Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, raised concerns that there are inconsistencies between the five reference guides, or compendia, that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services uses to determine which drugs it will reimburse for off-label uses in cancer care.
A national survey found that parents were more likely to agree that laws requiring students to be vaccinated against HPV for school entry are a “good idea” when there is an opt-out clause.
Findings published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute show that immune cells do not respond the same way to all tumor types. The study, led by UNC Lineberger researcher Benjamin Vincent, MD, could lay the foundation for the discovery of biomarkers to determine which patients might respond to certain immune-stimulating cancer treatments.
Nigel Key, director of the UNC Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, led a national initiative to prioritize research in studying the prevalence and mechanisms of venous thrombosis in cancer patients.
