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The burnout epidemic in oncology, highlights form ASCO 2020

“Burnout is universal and no one is immune. We are all in this together and together we can come up with solutions”. Tara Sanft, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven (U.S.A.), came to these conclusions in a poster discussion during the (virtual) annual meeting of the American Society of […]

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Cancer drugs, costs and clinical benefits are not aligned

According to an international study just published in Lancet Oncology,  the cost of new cancer drugs is not associated to the clinical value of the therapy: “In the USA and European countries, prices of cancer drugs should be better aligned with their clinical importance, such as by prioritising drugs with low or uncertain benefit for […]

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A global registry for children with cancer and COVID-19

While a deeper knowledge about the impact of COVID-19 disease on cancer patients is essential, sharing information is likewise important. For these purposes, a number of registries, which gather different data including patients’ outcomes or treatment, are being set up around the world. The first global COVID-19 registry dedicated to children with cancer was launched recently […]

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Hormone therapy for prostate cancer may shield from COVID-19

Prostate cancer patients treated with androgen-deprivation therapies (ADTs) seem to have a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 complications compared to patients not treated with ADTs and compared to other cancer patients. If confirmed, a short term treatment with ADT may be considered in male individuals at high risk of severe COVID-19. The protective […]

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The misuse of “noninferiority” in presenting trials is often misleading

When researchers have the opportunity to present their trials at medical meetings, they tend to use not-negative conclusions to discuss formally negative results. A research published in JAMA Oncology by a group of Italian oncologists from the University of Turin and the National Cancer Institute – “Fondazione G. Pascale”, Naples, shows that one third of […]

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Artificial intelligence might help improve the classification of colorectal polyps

Deep neural networks are as good as practicing pathologists in classifying colorectal polyps, according to an experiment by a computer science and clinical research team led by Saeed Hassanpour, from the Dartmouth Cancer Center in Lebanon (New Hampshire). The team trained one such model on data from a single-center, and then checked its abilities in […]

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Gender equality in cancer research is still far away

Despite a positive trend toward equality in the past 3 decades, a substantial gendered difference is now persisting in oncology publications, favouring male first and last authors. “The academic medicine pipeline poses a significant challenge for workforce development, with disproportionately low female representation in high-ranking positions” wrote the authors – all women – of a […]

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European heavy weights share their wisdom on how to deal with COVID-19 and cancer

The consortium Cancer Core Europe has collected, elaborated and shared the steps top experts have taken, while scientific evidence is still in the making Several top cancer centres from all around Europe have just published the results of their in-depth analysis of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, that imposes a new way of […]

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The prevalence of vaping among cancer survivors is worrying

The use of electronic cigarettes, or vaping, seems to be particularly common among young cancer survivors: according to a survey on a sample of nearly 1,500 young adult (YA) cancer survivors, just published as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, almost half have ever used e-cigarettes and more than one quarter are current users. Notably, […]

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What we know, and ignore, of pediatric palliative care

In discussing palliative care, it has often been asked whether quality of time was important like quantity of life, if not more. And, when patients are children, the answer can become very complex. «If the goal of palliative care is not simply to choose quantity vs quality but instead to help patients live their best […]