Volume 17, Issue 12, December 2012

The manuscript by Qian and colleagues published in this issue of The Oncologist is reviewed.

Results of a first-line analysis of the Avastin® Registry: Investigation of Effectiveness and Safety (ARIES) study, a prospective, community-based observational cohort study assessing the impact of chemotherapy choice and treatment duration on outcomes in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, are reported.

This article describes a phase I dose-escalation study that assessed the toxicity and safety of combining daily lapatinib with radiation therapy for patients with unresectable and locally recurrent or chemotherapy-refractory and locally advanced breast cancer.

The role of adjuvant therapy in the treatment of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is debated.

Association between the pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and outcome of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with ketoconazole was assessed. The pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and prostate-specific antigen doubling time, and prior response to androgen-deprivation therapy, were associated with the progression-free survival interval in these patients.

Borderline ovarian tumors remain a controversial issue. This review informs readers about the recent data concerning this topic.

A retrospective review at two institutions was conducted to document the frequency and contributing factors to the emergence of chronic kidney disease among patients receiving long-term treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer.

Occurrences of oral squamous cell carcinoma in patients who received long-term pegylated liposomal doxorubicin for ovarian cancer are reported.

The mortality rate of chronic myelogenous leukemia patients in Japan and the U.S. was estimated prior to and after the introduction of imatinib in these two countries. The mortality rate in both countries declined over this period, which may be related to the introduction of imatinib.

Thirteen tag SNPs at the CASP8 and CASP10 loci in patients with advanced NSCLC were genotyped in a two-stage analysis consisting of a discovery set and an independent validation set. These SNPs were evaluated for their association with toxicity outcomes with platinum-based chemotherapy.

This review examines emerging molecular targets and novel therapeutic agents in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In particular, it discusses whether stratifying therapy for DLBCL using molecular features is merited by current preclinical and clinical evidence.

The proportion of cancer patients who received palliative care at a comprehensive cancer center and the predictors of palliative care referral were determined. The majority of cancer patients did not access palliative care before they died.

Evidence regarding the effectiveness of multidimensional rehabilitation programs for cancer survivors and the cost-effectiveness of cancer rehabilitation in general were systematically reviewed.

Two cases of squamous cell carcinoma possibly related to exposure to pegylated liposomal doxorubicin are presented.

An instance of squamous cell carcinoma resulting from long-term treatment with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in a woman with no risk factors for this malignancy is reported.

A case of primary buccal squamous cell carcinoma arising in a patient with uterine papillary serous carcinoma after long-term pegylated liposomal doxorubicin treatment is presented.

This study aimed to critically appraise translational research models for suitability in performance assessment of cancer centers. Process models, such as the Process Marker Model and Lean and Six Sigma applications, seem to be suitable for performance assessment of cancer centers. However, they must be thoroughly tested in practice.

The complexities that smartphones have introduced into the patient–doctor relationship are considered.

Confusion between topoisomerase IIα gene amplification and topoisomerase mRNA overexpression is proposed as possibly leading to misinerpretation in a study by Glynn et al. published in an earlier issue of The Oncologist.