Total darkness at night key to success of breast cancer therapy, study shows

Exposure to light at night, which shuts off nighttime production of the hormone melatonin, renders breast cancer completely resistant to tamoxifen, a widely used breast cancer drug, says a new study. Melatonin by itself delayed the formation of tumors and significantly slowed their growth, researchers report, but tamoxifen caused a dramatic regression of tumors in animals with either high nighttime levels of melatonin during complete darkness or those receiving melatonin supplementation during dim light at night exposure.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/1407...

My doc has recommended Melatonin, too. Several colleagues who work night shift have had docs recommend Melatonin - for sleep quality, not cancer.... Of course, I think that sleep quality is significannt for all of us.

Utah health plan covers pharmacy tourism for some public employees

Utah's public employee health insurance plan will cover plane tickets to San Diego and transportation to a contracted clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, and pay $500 to patients who need one of about a dozen drugs for multiple sclerosis, cancer or an autoimmune disorder.

https://www.sltrib.com/pb/news/2018/10/28/fight-hi...

{I don't see any BC drugs on the list but this is a rather amazing turn of events. If SQ Herceptin were on the list, I wonder....}

ESMO 2018: Overall Survival With Palbociclib Plus Fulvestrant

Interview with Timothy J Pluard MD Interview by Bradley McGregor MD

This was a trial in second-line endocrine therapy in advanced breast cancer comparing fulvestrant with palbociclib vs fulvestrant and placebo in a phase III trial, showing a significant prolongation of progression-free survival from 4.6 months to just over 11 months... this was the first look at overall survival data from that study.

https://www.practiceupdate.com/C/75354/56?elsca1=e...

FDA approves pegfilgrastim biosimilar for cancer patients

Coherus BioSciences' Udenyca, or pegfilgrastim-cbqv, has gained FDA approval as a pegfilgrastim biosimilar of Amgen's Neulasta. Udenyca is indicated as a treatment for infection in cancer patients and will be priced 33% less than Neulasta, or $4,175 per unit, when it is launched Jan. 3.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-coherus-biosimi...

Opioid Screening Practices in Cancer Patients

—Tighter opioid prescribing guidelines from leading health organizations would benefit patients with cancer by reducing the potential for abuse.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/resource-centers/focu...

A Cancer "Kill Switch" Has Been Found In The Body – And Researchers Are Already Hard At Work To Harness It

"...a team from Northwestern University has discovered a seemingly foolproof self-destruct pathway that can be used to destroy any type of cancer cell.

The mechanism involves the creation of small RNA molecules (siRNAs) that interfere with multiple genes essential to the proliferation of fast-growing, malignant cells, but have little effect on normal, healthy cells."

https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/a-c...

CD95/Fas ligand mRNA is toxic to cells

"We now report expression of full-length CD95L mRNA itself is highly toxic to cells and induces a similar form of cell death. We demonstrate that small (s)RNAs derived from CD95L are loaded into the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC) which is required for the toxicity and processing of CD95L mRNA into sRNAs is independent of both Dicer and Drosha. We provide evidence that in addition to the CD95L transgene a number of endogenous protein coding genes involved in regulating protein translation, particularly under low miRNA conditions, can be processed to sRNAs and loaded into the RISC suggesting a new level of cell fate regulation involving RNAi."

https://elifesciences.org/articles/38621

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38621.001

"Please Help Me See the Dragon I Am Slaying": Implementation of a Novel Patient-Pathologist Consultation Program and Survey of Patient Experience

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Lowell, MA

Context.— Pathologists evaluate human disease and teach medical students, residents, and clinicians. Historically recognized as the "doctor's doctor," pathologists are well suited to be a direct patient resource of individualized, accurate information.

Objective.— To develop and implement a pathology consultation service whereby patients review their tissue slides directly with the pathologists.

Design.— A pathologist conducted patient consultations, reviewing biopsy or surgery findings on a multiheaded microscope or computer screen. The pathologist evaluated patients' understanding of their disease and invited patients to ask specific questions. We recorded patient demographic data and assessed utilization with a short patient satisfaction survey using 6 questions with a 5-point Likert scale and 2 questions for open response.

Results.— A total of 31 patients came for consultation; 39% (12 of 31) were accompanied by a friend or family member. Patients' median age was 59 years, with a strong female predominance (90%; 28 of 31). The majority of patients had breast cancer (58%; 18 of 31) or hematologic malignancy (19%; 6 of 31). Of the 31 patients, the survey response rate was 58% (18 of 31). Top-box scoring demonstrated program support, with 89% (16 of 18) of respondents strongly recommending the experience to another patient. Additionally, 78% (14 of 18) strongly agreed that they felt more empowered after seeing their disease. Mean scores for Likert-based questions all were higher than 4.0.

Conclusions.— To our knowledge, this study is the first report of direct patient-pathologist consultation. Early data suggest that the program may provide effective patient-specific education. The high response rate and favorable assessment of the program suggest that it may be a valuable resource for some patients.

http://archivesofpathology.org/doi/abs/10.5858/arp...

https://doi.org/10.5858/arpa.2018-0379-OA