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Volume 3, Number 12 (December 2006) | |||||||
Letter from the Editor |
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737 |
Translating treatment to community practice Wilshire Oncology Medical Group, Inc., La Verne, CA Even with the holidays and the year winding down, practitioners stay busy and always welcome practical information that can help them in clinic. This month’s Community Translations features a review of key literature on cetuximab (Erbitux) for locally advanced head and neck cancers. Also in this issue are two new columns (Cases in Community Oncology and Adverse Events Alert) and a disturbing investigation commissioned by the journal, which illustrates the huge disparities in the price of oral cancer drugs purchased by seniors through the Medicare Part D program.
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Community Translations |
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745 |
Targeted therapy combined with radiotherapy for squamous cell head and neck cancer The publication of a study by Bonner et al has been met with much enthusiasm by community oncologists: cetuximab prolongs the duration of locoregional disease control and survival when added to radiotherapy without causing mucositis. The standard of care had been to give concurrent chemotherapy, usually a combination of cisplatin and 5-FU with irradiation of the head and neck. But this is a challenging regimen for patients. Concomitant cetuximab with radiation therapy seems to offer a dramatic improvement in disease and progression-free survival compared with radiation therapy alone, with a more manageable toxicity profile. | ||||||
FROM THE COMMUNITY ONCOLOGIST'S PERSPECTIVE Pacific Hematology and Oncology Associates, San Francisco, CA | |||||||
FROM THE NURSE'S PERSPECTIVE Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute at Northwest Hospital Center, Randallstown, MD
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Controversies in Patient Care |
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753 |
Medicare’s drug plan: huge price disparities for common cancer drugs Center for Practical Health Reform, Atlantic Beach, FL, and Coalition to Advance Prescription Drug Education (CARxE), San Francisco, CA The editors of Community Oncology chose seven oral cancer drugs and asked the authors to analyze differences in pricing among the drugs within three communities, each market a different size. The drugs are anastrozole (Arimidex), exemestane (Aromasin), imatinib (Gleevec), sunitinib (Sutent), erlotinib (Tarceva), temozolomide (Temodar), and thalidomide (Thalomid). The markets are Chicago, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. The results of this small study offer a stark illustration of the difficult nature of Medicare’s Part D program.
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Original Contribution |
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759 |
The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced prostate cancer Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Historically, patients with locally advanced prostate cancer have had poor rates of disease control regardless of which treatment modality they received. Although the optimal management approach for these patients remains to be determined, the addition of androgen suppression to radiotherapy has been shown to improve both biochemical control and overall survival rates. Data from randomized and retrospective studies support the importance of local control and radiation dose in treating patients with locally advanced disease. Recent data suggest that radiation dose remains important when radiotherapy is used concurrently with androgen suppression.
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Challenging Cases/Rare Cancers |
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776 |
Treatment of a Jehovah's Witness using a transfusion-free autologous stem cell transplant protocol Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA High-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (APBSCT) is the standard treatment for multiple myeloma and relapsed or high-risk lymphomas. To avoid bleeding complications and to treat profound anemia posttransplant, as a rule, patients are given transfusions after APBSCT. But Jehovah's Witnesses decline transfusions based on religious convictions, making the treatment of these patients a special challenge. The authors describe a transfusion-free APBSCT protocol with acceptable morbidity and mortality used on 48 Jehovah's Witnesses. | ||||||
FROM THE PATIENT'S PERSPECTIVE
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Washington Update |
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767 |
Balancing patient assistance programs and physician reimbursement Two companies recently announced financial assistance programs designed to limit the amounts patients have to pay for expensive new therapies. It’s unclear how these pricing arrangements will affect relatively new Medicare rules on reimbursement.
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Cases in Community Oncology |
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769 |
Newly diagnosed metastatic gastric cancer US Oncology, Cancer Centers of Florida, Orlando, FL This new column is based on the format of an Elsevier textbook entitled Hematology and Oncology Pearls, by Dr. Danso and Ethan Basch.
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Adverse Events Alert |
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772 |
Counterfeit epoetin alfa products Feinberg School of Medicine, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL This new regular feature is designed to help protect your patients with important updates.
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Legal Matters |
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774 |
Dissolving partnerships: when a physician retires The partners in one practice want to look ahead and anticipate the issues they’ll need to deal with.
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2006 Index |
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782 |
Author and subject indices
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© 2006 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. |
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