The Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries (GTF.CCC), made up of global health and oncology experts, works toward developing and implementing strategies to provide poorer countries with cancer prevention and treatment. Discussion of the task force’s agenda to expand cancer care in low and middle-income countries was recently published in the journal The Lancet.

Among women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, prophylactic mastectomy (preventive removal of the breasts) reduces the risk of getting breast cancer. Prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy (preventive removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries) reduces the risk both breast and ovarian cancer. These results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Some of the elevated risk of prostate cancer among those with a family history of the disease may be due to increased prostate cancer testing and detection in this population. These findings were recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Among patients with previously treated non-small cell lung cancer, the combination of Sutent® (sunitinib) and Tarceva® (erlotinib) delays cancer progression but does not improve overall survival compared with Tarceva alone.

Although alcohol is a well-established risk factor for breast cancer, it may be more strongly linked with lobular breast cancer than with ductal breast cancer. These results were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Although still relatively uncommon in young people, the incidence of rectal cancer appears to be increasing in this population. These results were published in the journal Cancer.

Palliative care is care that is focused on symptom management, psychosocial issues, decision-making, and quality of life. Among patients with newly diagnosed, metastatic, non-small cell lung cancer, the addition of early palliative care to standard cancer treatment resulted in better quality of life and mood and longer survival than standard treatment alone. These results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Final results from a Phase II clinical trial provide additional evidence that Istodax® (romidepsin) is active against refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. These results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Among postmenopausal women, hormone therapy with estrogen alone does not appear to increase the risk of getting or dying from lung cancer. These results were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Among patients with early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a favorable prognosis, it may be possible to reduce the number of chemotherapy cycles and the dose of radiation therapy without adversely affecting outcome. The results of this study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.