TON - February 2012 VOL 5, No 1

It is one of the most contentious issues in U.S. politics today: the federal health-care law’s requirement that everybody have health insurance or pay a penalty.

Supporters of the mandate—which is the central issue in the case before the Supreme Court challenging the law—argue that it’s the key to making health care more affordable and accessible to everyone. By expanding the pool of insured, the thinking goes, the burden of paying for the sick is covered by all.

In a randomized phase 2 study of patients with metastatic breast cancer, peripheral neuropathy was less likely to occur in patients receiving eribulin mesylate than with ixabepilone.

“Peripheral neuropathy is a big problem in the treatment of breast cancer. Across the spectrum, patients have it, and we don’t know how to treat it,” said Linda T. Vahdat, MD, Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who presented the study at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

A quality-of-life analysis of the large randomized NCIC MA. 27 trial shows that symptoms of endocrine therapy can be severe and have a negative effect on quality of life. The study also found that women with side effects from previous chemotherapy or radiotherapy before they start taking endocrine therapy are at higher risk for early discontinuation.

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Take the chill out of winter with the nutrient-packed goodness of lentils. These tiny members of the legume family may be small in size but are big on nutrition. Lentils are loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein. They also contain antioxidants and phytonutrients—naturally occurring plant compounds that help prevent damage to cells throughout the body. Lentils are so versatile that they can be made into a variety of different dishes, from appetizers and side dishes to main meals and desserts.

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In 2011, the American Cancer Society projected there would be 20,520 cases of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) and 10,610 deaths from the disease that year.¹ MM is an incurable hematologic cancer marked by great heterogeneity, in terms of its biology and clinical course. Morbidity and survival rates vary widely, even in the age of novel, molecularly based targeted therapies. Many factors account for differences in prognoses among patients with MM, including genomic aberrations in the plasma cells of the myeloma neoplasm. Read More ›