Cancer
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A study was undertaken to determine the survival benefit of postoperative chemoradiation therapy for elderly patients with resected gastric adenocarcinoma. ⋯ The authors did not detect a survival benefit, suggesting that some elderly patients with resected gastric adenocarcinoma may not gain a survival benefit from the administration of adjuvant chemoradiation. The analysis had limitations, and the results are hypothesis generating. Future gastric cancer trials should enroll more elderly patients and stratify patients by age to better understand the impact of treatment regimens on older patients.
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Robotic surgery has been widely adopted for radical prostatectomy. We hypothesized that this change is rapidly shifting procedures away from hospitals that do not offer robotics and consequently increasing patient travel. ⋯ Over the past decade, the number of radical prostatectomies performed has risen substantially. These procedures have been increasingly centralized at high-volume centers, leading to longer patient travel distances. Few prostatectomies are now performed at hospitals that do not offer robotic surgery.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Omitting elective nodal irradiation and irradiating postinduction versus preinduction chemotherapy tumor extent for limited-stage small cell lung cancer: interim analysis of a prospective randomized noninferiority trial.
Controversies exist with regard to thoracic radiotherapy volumes for limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). This study compared locoregional progression and overall survival between limited-stage SCLC patients who received thoracic radiotherapy to different target volumes after induction chemotherapy. ⋯ Preliminary results indicated that irradiated postchemotherapy tumor extent and omitted elective nodal irradiation did not decrease locoregional control in the study arm, and the overall survival difference was not statistically significant between the 2 arms. Further investigation is warranted.
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Disclosure of conflicts of interest in biomedical research is receiving increased attention. The authors sought to define current disclosure policies and how they relate to disclosure statements provided by authors in major oncology journals. ⋯ Disclosure policies and the very definition of conflict of interest varied considerably among journals. Although most journals had some policy in this area, a substantial proportion did not publish disclosure statements consistently, with deficiencies particularly among editorials and commentaries.