2016 editions
- December 2016
Joao Incio on mechanisms to explain why obesity promotes cancer. - November 2016
Mike Stratton on how mutational changes in a cancer genome can point to the cause of the cancer. - October 2016
Ruth Muschel on a new target for treatments for colorectal cancer. - September 2016
Freddie Hamdy on the effectiveness of treatments for prostate cancer. - August 2016
Moshe Oren discusses the effects of the microenvironment on cancer cells. - July 2016
Richard Gilbertson on the 'bad luck hypothesis' for the cause of cancer. - June 2016
Key advances in clinical trials. - May 2016
Mark Lemmon on the underlying biochemistry of cancer. - April 2016
Roger Stupp on using alternating electric fields as treatment. - March 2016
Charlotte Vrinten on public perception of deaths from cancer. - February 2016
Guillermo Garcia-Manero on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). - December 2015/January 2016
Nazneen Rahman on germline genetic screening in ovarian cancer.
EJC News Focus – May 2014
Radiotherapy after mastectomy 'benefits women with 1-3 positive nodes'
Women whose breast cancer has spread to just a few lymph nodes benefit from radiotherapy after mastectomy, according to new work from the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group (EBCTCG). A session at the European Breast Cancer Conference (19-21 March 2014; Glasgow, UK) heard that in women who had 1-3 positive nodes, radiotherapy after mastectomy reduced recurrence by 32% at 10 years, and breast cancer mortality by 20% at 20 years.
The EBCTCG meta-analysis included individual patient data from almost 4000 women in 14 trials. It throws light on a current grey area: what treatment to offer women with 1-3 positive nodes. The findings also back the current guidelines which, first, do not recommend radiotherapy after mastectomy for women with no sign of cancer in their lymph nodes and second, suggest substantial benefit from radiotherapy in women with four or more nodes affected.
In this month's EJC News Focus, radiotherapist Carolyn Taylor and statistician Paul McGale, both at the Clinical Trial Service Unit in Oxford, UK, describe to Helen Saul the implications of their findings in the constantly evolving field of breast cancer treatment.