Category Archives: In the News

What Patients Can Learn from Breast Cancer Staging

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Yolanda Bryce, MD

Yolanda Bryce, MD. Photo: Richard DeWitt

In a recent Insider article, MSK’s Dr. Yolanda Bryce discusses the benefits and drawbacks of breast cancer staging.

As Dr. Bryce explains, staging informs treatment plans and helps doctors educate patients about their diagnosis. But the clinical picture for each individual is much more complicated than overall breast cancer stage survival statistics, especially in an era of rapid medical advancement. Dr. Bryce also notes that different cancers progress at different rates.

Read the article to learn more about breast cancer stages, and visit the Library’s Patient and Health Care Consumer Education Guide to find out how the Library can help provide resources to supplement the information from your health care team.

Bacterial Based Cancer Immunotherapy, Prostate Cancer and Diet, and More

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  • Australian researchers conducted animal studies and a phase 1 clinical trial on human cancer patients by administering dead bacteria directly into the tumor so that the body’s immune response to bacteria helps kill cancerous cells. The injected substance contained dissolved killed mycobacteria. Once the immune response has been triggered, the immune system starts attacking both cancer cells at the injection site (e.g., the tumor itself) and metastases. This treatment, if implemented, may require only a few injections, cause minimal side effects and be cheaper than most current therapies. The idea of such treatment is not new, but this was the first human study based on it. Phase 2 clinical trial is pending. The research was published in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
  • A similar approach was taken by a group of scientists from the U.K. and China. They injected, into solid tumors, a common parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which they modified to limit its growth ability. They tried this approach on several cancer types in animals. These direct intra-tumoral injections boosted anti-tumor immunity in the case of so-called cold tumors (tumors that are not typically associated with strong immune response) by increasing the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibition therapy. The study was also published in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
  • Researchers from Cleveland Clinic used data from a randomized clinical trial to analyze the relationship between prostate cancer, diet, and the gut microbiome. The study found associations between prostate cancer’s aggressiveness and three metabolites – phenylacetylglutamine, choline, and betaine, – which are found in some common foods or are amino-acids’ products broken down by gut bacteria. As in any epidemiological study, while having established the association, this research does not prove causation. Nevertheless, this study contributes to the knowledge of the interplay between diet, gut microbiome, and prostate cancer. The study was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
  • Yet another study looked at the association between gut bacteria and prostate cancer. It established that gut bacteria might drive androgen production and contribute to prostate cancer resistance to treatment. The study lays a foundation to explore the role of such microbes as potential therapeutic targets. The study was published in Science
  • A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified an RNA molecule that suppresses prostate cancer. This finding is especially important for fighting the drug resistance propensity of prostate cancer. The study was published in Cancer Research
  • João Pedro de Magalhães, a microbiologist from the University of Liverpool in the UK, conducted the research into the body of publications related to genes in the context of cancer. By researching the related content in PubMed, he found that most genes (nearly 9 in 10 human genes) have been mentioned in association with cancer in the published studies. The author offers his opinion to the biomedical community not to scatter their attention by focusing on every gene’s association with cancer, as some of such associations could be more casual than not, but to focus on the most important genes that truly drive cancer development. The article was published in Trends In Genetics.

What Patients Think About Telemedicine

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A team of MSK researchers recently published a study in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network comparing patient satisfaction of pre-COVID in-person visits to satisfaction with telemedicine during the pandemic. Both Chief Healthcare Executive and Healthday reported on the study.

Erin Gillespie, MD, consults with a patient using telemedicine.

Radiation oncologist and study co-author Erin Gillespie, MD, consults with a patient using telemedicine. Photo: Richard DeWitt

The researchers compared patient satisfaction survey answers from MSK radiation oncology patients. They found no substantial differences in satisfaction between the in-person and telemedicine groups.

Patients with video visits reported a better understanding of their treatment plans than those with telephone-only visits. Two out of three patients reported lower costs with telemedicine, and patients who were unmarried or had lowered ability to perform activities of daily living were more likely to prefer telemedicine, likely because it did not require travel.

While the authors call for long-term study, they conclude that the data supports post-pandemic continuation of telemedicine use in radiation oncology.