Ed Susman

BARCELONA -- Monitoring circulating tumor cells in women with breast cancer may be help guide treatment and refine prognoses, according to preliminary data from German investigators.

ATLANTA -- A prostate cancer diagnosis should be a cardiovascular wake-up call, said researchers here.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Sleep specialists here reviewed the problems and alternatives for treating insomnia.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Despite disappointing performance in clinical trials, anti-insomnia drugs that improve short-wave sleep may still have a role in helping people get a good night's rest, a specialist predicted here.

NEW ORLEANS -- Cardiovascular risk is not static and intermediate risk patients may be on their way toward high risk, although that migration might be avoided or slowed by aggressive management.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Radiation and androgen deprivation appears to bestow survival times for prostate cancer patients that are similar to the life expectancies of men of the same age who did not have cancer, researchers here reported.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- After definitive prostate cancer therapy, there is little value in imaging studies when patients with biochemical failure are asymptomatic and have PSA levels less than 5 ng/mL, researchers here reported.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Fusion imaging with the capromab pendetide (ProstaScint) imaging agent allows for more precise placement of radioactive seeds for brachytherapy, researchers here reported.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Docetaxel (Taxotere)-based combination therapy using is being investigated in a dozen trials for hormone refractory prostate cancer, investigators reported here.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- A test that tallies the number of androgen receptors in a single prostate cancer cell may be an effective predictor of disease metastasis, researchers here reported.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Prostate cancer patients taking sildenafil (Viagra) or its ilk reported improved sexual functioning and interest following radiation therapy and radical prostatectomy, researchers here reported.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Aerobic or resistance exercise improved quality-of-life measures among men undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer, researchers here reported.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Men who undergo external-beam radiation treatment for rectal cancer appear to have a long-term reduced risk of prostate cancer.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Dutasteride (Avodart), a drug used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, may also prevent the development of prostate cancer by inducing genetic changes at the cellular level, researchers reported today.

ORLANDO -- In gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), the central -- and potentially initiating -- oncogenic mechanisms can be identified in virtually all cases, a pathologist said here.

ORLANDO -- Adding Eloxatin (oxaliplatin) to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy mix for rectal cancer did not affect radiation dosing nor limit the ability to perform surgery, researchers here reported.

ORLANDO -- Epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFR) vary in their efficacy in gastrointestinal cancers, researchers here reported.

ORLANDO -- Gemzar (gemcitabine) plus Eloxatin (oxaliplatin) adjuvant chemotherapy, followed by chemoradiation ,can improve one-year post-resection recurrence-free survival in pancreatic cancer, suggests a small French study.

ORLANDO -- Treatment of gastrointestinal cancers can be improved with a more thorough understanding of tumor biology, researchers here reported.

ORLANDO -- Treatment-refractory advanced gastric cancers may respond to combination therapy with Erbitux (cetuximab) and Camptosar (irinotecan), researchers reported here.

ORLANDO -- Adjuvant chemotherapy with S-1, an oral prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), improved survival compared with surgery alone, according to results of a phase III trial of 1,059 gastric cancer patients here reported here.