“Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.”

I wish all followers of Doctor Mendoza Cancer News Blog a very peaceful Merry Christmas

The use of biomarkers to target treatment improves patient outcomes by making earlier and more appropriate treatment selections, and the number of markers has increased dramatically in the past decade.  Breast cancer was highly segmented even in the early 2000s, but the addition of the BRCA 1/2 genetic marker further isolates responders to specific treatments.

 

Smoking causes more deaths each year than Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) + illegal drug use + Alcohol use + Motor vehicle injuries + Firearm-related incidents (combined!)

Interesting discovery: A dye will help neurosurgeons to get complete resection surgeries for brain tumors.

A new study in 99 patients with suspected high-grade (fast-growing) gliomas were colored after given a drink containing 5-ALA before surgery. "The beauty of 5-ALA is that neuro-surgeons can see where high-grade glioma is, while they're operating.". The use of 5-ALA  will help to get complete resection of the brain tumors and increase the chance of cur in these patients.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46073972#

Challenges of patients participating in clinical trials

 

A most recent comprehensive review found stronger evidence in support of corticosteroids to decrease "early treatment failure" in addition to the mortality benefit for severe pneumonia in adults. This was a controversial topic for years leading to the discontinuation of steroids in this setting. Although, this practice remained in Spain and there is a large number of oncologists using the steroids to treat complex lung infections with great outcome in immunoc-ompromised cancer patients.  

Preseentation of a data about 3000+ glioblastoma multiform at the european Medical Society Oncology 2018