PSA Bounce Affects Races Differently in Prostate Cancer

RICHMOND, VA -- African American men have historically had poorer prostate cancer biochemical and survival outcomes than Caucasians. The question is why? So asked a new study suggesting that emerging data point to nononcologic factors for much of this disparity. The...

Racial Disparities Found in BRCA Testing, Counseling

DURHAM, NC—Despite increases in BRCA mutation testing, racial/ethnic disparities in counseling and testing have persisted for decades, a study argued. The review published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities said its purpose was to summarize recent...

Pre-Treatment Cognition Associated with Lung Cancer Survival

CHICAGO—Among geriatric patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer, pre-treatment cognition provides crucial information for “prognostication, decision making, and treatment planning,” according to researchers at the San Francisco VAMC and their colleagues. The...

Ketogenic Diet Might Be Helpful for VA’s Cancer Patients

CHICAGO—Researchers at the Pittsburgh VAMC reported a five-patient case series which indicates that a ketogenic diet may help patients with solid tumor cancers. They presented the cases at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting held in Chicago.1...

VA Shows Precision Oncology Feasible, Even in Rural Areas

CHICAGO—The rapid proliferation of targeted therapies has revolutionized cancer care, bringing truly personalized treatment ever closer. Limited access to and use of genomic sequencing, however, has kept many patients from using new medications that could work well...

Overcoming Radiation Resistant Prostate Cancer

LOS ANGELES—For nearly half of the patients with localized advanced prostate cancer, radiation therapy is the primary intervention and standard of care for recurrent disease following surgery. The problem is that nearly 30% to 50% of patients undergoing radiotherapy...

JAK Enzymes Can Treat Leukemia, Lymphoma

NASHVILLE, TN—Precision oncology prescribes the use of molecularly-targeted therapy directed by identification of genomic alterations. A new study suggested the approach is particularly applicable to neoplasms that are resistant to standard cytotoxic chemotherapy,...

Response of Veterans to PD-1 Checkpoint Inhibitors

RENO, NV—The clinical outcomes and the incidence of adverse events for programmed death-1 checkpoint inhibitors in cancer patients at a VA clinic were different from the data that have been published, according to a new study. Researchers from the pharmacy service at...

An Article

This is an upcoming special issue of U.S. Medicine, to be published in June 2019. You are reading an article from this special issue of the magazine that is available online.