‘Hot Spots of Death’; Reconsidering Brachytherapy; The ‘Taste’ of Cancer

New research focuses on why fit, younger Black men living in “hot spots of death” are dying of colon cancer at a faster rate than in the general population. (STAT)

“What’s with the tie?” An oncologist considers the melancholy, the anticipation, the challenges, and the pleasant surprises of a mid-career relocation. (Journal of Clinical Oncology — Art of Oncology)

Merck announced that adding pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to platinum-containing chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival and progression-free survival as initial treatment for persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer.

The FDA “may require” drug companies to conduct postmarketing studies to evaluate long-term effects of breast cancer therapy in pre- and postmenopausal women — studies previously required only for postmenopausal patients. (Regulatory Focus)

Do oncologists need to rethink how they use brachytherapy? (The Lancet Oncology)

A group of cancer survivors had reduced taste sensitivity as compared with people who never had cancer. (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Patients enrolled in the U.S. military healthcare system had better colon cancer survival as compared with the general population. (American Association for Cancer Research)

Longtime Texas A&M University football coach R.C. Slocum announced that he has Hodgkin lymphoma. (Dallas Morning News)

Onkos Surgical announced FDA clearance of BioGrip collars to support bone ingrowth after surgery for musculoskeletal cancers.

Clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines should prioritize enrollment of patients with cancer, according to a statement from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Friends of Cancer Research.

Immunotherapy that targets CTLA-4 may stimulate an unwanted response that limits the drugs’ anticancer activity. (University of California Irvine, Cell)

Inherited risk of early-onset cancer disproportionately occurs in minorities. (University of Southern California, eLife)

Racial and ethnic disparities in childhood cancers are even greater when age at diagnosis is analyzed on a year-by-year basis as opposed to age groups. (Cancer)

Drugs commonly used in fertility treatment do not increase the risk of breast cancer. (King’s College London, Fertility & Sterility)

Over the next decade patients should have increased access to gene therapies for cancer, which offer the potential to cure and eliminate the need for additional treatment. (GlobalData)