High dose of Nexium® with aspirin reduces risk of developing esophageal cancer

A Phase III randomized trial has demonstrated that taking a high dose of the acid-reducing medicine esomeprazole (Nexium®) with low dose aspirin for a minimum of 7 years can reduce the risk of developing esophageal cancer, a pre-cancerous lesion termed high-grade dysplasia or delay death from any cause in people with Barrett’s esophagus. This rare condition increases the risk of esophageal disease by 50-fold.

 A new cancer care dilemma: Patients want immunotherapy even when evidence is lacking

Immunotherapy is a source of great hope in cancer care. It has rescued some patients from the brink, while giving others a reason to believe that they, too, could beat the long odds.

But these therapies are also creating a vexing dilemma for doctors: Their patients, citing television add and media accounts of miraculous recoveries, are pushing hard to try them, even when there is little to no evidence the drugs will work for their particular cancer.

Doctors want to give their patients every shot at survival, but can they justify prescribing a drug when it hasn’t been tested for that patient’s type of cancer? Many of these treatments bring risks of painful — even life-threatening— side effects and carry total price tags pushing $1 million. In some cases, insurers won’t pay.

https://www.statnews.com/2018/06/04/cancer-care-dilemma-immunotherapy/

Systematic review and meta-analysis confirm evidence for oral nutritional intervention on nutritional and clinical outcomes during chemo(radio)therapy

Cancer-related malnutrition frequently develops, with prevalence ranging from 30% to 90% depending on tumor site, stage of disease and treatment. Major causes are cancer-induced metabolic alterations and/or cancer-induced symptoms (e.g. anorexia, nausea, pain) resulting in decreased food intake. Malnutrition can be exacerbated by the side-effects of anticancer drugs such as fatigue, anorexia, altered hedonic input and a wide range of GI symptoms, and/or by physical inactivity resulting from physical and psychosocial distress, which may lead to further loss of muscle mass. Malnutrition impairs tolerance to anticancer treatments including chemotherapy and is associated with decreased response to treatment, decreased quality of life (QoL) and shorter survival

Driven by reduced intake and metabolic alterations, cancer-related malnutrition negatively impacts clinical outcomes. A systematic review suggests an overall positive effect of nutritional interventions during chemo(radio)therapy on body weight. Subgroup analyses showed effects were driven by high-protein n-3 PUFA-enriched oral nutritional supplements (ONS), suggesting the benefit of targeting metabolic alterations. Dietary counseling and/or high-energy ONS were less effective, likely due to cumulative caloric deficits despite interventions.

https://academic.oup.com/annonc/article/29/5/1141/4975730

The viruses that are most likely to cause cancer in people with HIV are:

• Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), also known as human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), which causes Kaposi sarcoma and some subtypes of lymphoma
• Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which causes some subtypes of non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma
• Human papillomaviruses (HPV), high-risk types of which cause cervical cancer, most anal cancers, and oropharyngeal, penile, vaginal, and vulvar cancer
• Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), which both cause liver cancer

People w/HIV are 70x more likely to get non-Hodgkin lymphoma, & women are 5x more likely to get cervical cancer.

Tumor Agnostic Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Exploring a new era of cancer research at this year’s ASCO event

I am proud to share my last blog for the ASCO 2018 done toguether with Dr Forrest Antony supported by IQVIA. ASCO is the biggest medical congress in cancer which is attended by 30.000+ oncologists all over the world.

https://www.iqvia.com/blogs/2018/05/tumor-agnostic-immune-checkpoint-inhibitors