Drugs to treat anemia in older cancer patients increased their risk of blood clots and didn’t reduce the need for blood transfusions.

Among over 56,000 cancer patients 65 and older treated in community settings from 1991 through 2002, 27 percent received an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA).   Fifteen percent of those who got ESAs developed a blood clot (venous thromboembolism) compared to 10 percent of patients who didn’t have ESA treatment.

Although the goal of ESAs was to reduce the need for blood transfusions, the percentage of transfusions remained steady at 22 percent each year from 1991 through 2002.  Overall survival didn’t differ between the patients who received ESAs and those who didn’t.

Read the rest of this entry »

Briefly: African Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer at later stages and have surgery less often which contributes to their poorer survival.  Women have a greater risk of a missed or early colorectal cancer after a negative colonoscopy.

If you can’t have a loved one with you during a painful procedure, just looking at your partner’s picture may make it hurt less.

The American Society for Radiation Oncology has a new website for patients, and open enrollment for Medicare plan coverage begins on November 15 and extends through the end of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

Deciding whether small colon polyps were adenomas or less dangerous hyperplastic ones can be done safely during the colonoscopy exam itself.  Avoiding the need for an additional pathology test could make diagnosis faster and less expensive.

Adenomas have the potential to develop into colorectal cancer, but not all colon polyps are adenomas.  Standard procedure is to remove all polyps seen during a colonoscopy and send them to the pathology lab for testing.   However, doctors in London were able to accurately predict which polyps were adenomas more than 9 out of 10 times with colonoscopy alone. Read the rest of this entry »

Colorectal cancer patients whose CEA blood tests rise at the beginning of chemotherapy and then fall (CEA flare) do better than patients with a consistently rising CEA.   CEA flares don’t necessarily predict worsening cancer.

Compared to patients with consistently rising carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), patients who had a CEA flare had more tumor shrinkage, longer time before their cancer got worse, and longer survival time. Read the rest of this entry »

Briefly

Patients with diabetes aren’t any more likely to develop neuropathy in hands and feet when treated with oxaliplatin.

Learn more about  current colorectal cancer prevention and treatment at a Memorial Sloan Kettering CancerSmart workshop on November 12.  NIH has a downloaded booklet on palliative care, and Oncology on Canvas is looking for artwork from cancer patients and their families and caregivers. Read the rest of this entry »