Cancers – Page 6 – OncWonk – Dr Bier's Oncology Research Reviews

Breast cancer patients enrolled in the Swiss mammography screening program “donna” demonstrate prolonged survival

December 13, 2025

| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram

Comment: While this data from the ‘donna’ program shows a statistically significant survival advantage for screened patients, we can’t conflate ‘survival’ with ‘reduced mortality.’ The study design focuses on women already diagnosed with breast cancer, which inherently makes the results susceptible to lead-time bias—where earlier detection creates an illusion of longer survival without necessarily changing […]

The multitargeted drug ivermectin: from an antiparasitic agent to a repositioned cancer drug

December 13, 2025

| No Comments

| Cancers, Miscellaneous, Repurposed Drugs - Anti-parasitics, Metformin

Comment: While the mechanism of repurposing ivermectin is mechanistically sound, we must be careful not to conflate “safe for occasional parasitic use” with “safe for chronic oncologic use.” The authors rely on a safety profile established at low, intermittent doses (150–200 mcg/kg). However, achieving the antitumor concentrations cited here likely requires sustained dosing up to […]

A systematic review of elastography, electrical impedance scanning, and digital infrared thermography for breast cancer screening and diagnosis

December 13, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram

Comment: While the appeal of ‘radiation-free’ screening is undeniable, the evidence presented in this review should give anyone recommending thermography pause. The extreme variability in diagnostic accuracy—with sensitivity swinging wildly from 25% to 97%—makes these tools clinically unpredictable. Crucially, the complete absence of data on asymptomatic women means we are effectively flying blind if we […]

Digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI) of breast lesions: sensitivity and specificity of detection of primary breast cancers

December 13, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Mammography - Mammogram, Screening

Comment: Although the concept of thermograph sounds great, the results are not. A fundamental conflict exists between the “health halo” surrounding digital thermography and the reality of the outcomes. Proponents argue that DITI can identify early metabolic shifts, yet the data confirms that it fails at the most basic requirement of a screening tool: identification of […]

Hyperglycemia and Chemoresistance in Breast Cancer: From Cellular Mechanisms to Treatment Response

December 9, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Cancers, Chemotherapy

Comment: A solid, though non-systematic, review that effectively compiles preclinical evidence showing how hyperglycemia drives chemoresistance via metabolic reprogramming (the Warburg effect). Crucially, it reminds us that aggressive glycemic control is a clinically relevant intervention. The Wonk Debate – Audio Critique & Clinical Commentary: Summary: Clinical Bottom Line This narrative review synthesizes preclinical and clinical […]

Hyperglycemia during Adjuvant Chemotherapy as a Prognostic Factor in Breast Cancer Patients without Diabetes

December 9, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Cancers, Chemotherapy

Comment: This study again reinforces that we need to view blood sugar through the lens of oncologic outcome. Hyperglycemia is a driver of cancer recurrence, so modulating sugar intake during chemotherapy is a low-toxicity, low-cost strategy that somehow is still controversial despite all the research supporting it. Since sugar consumption is the primary lever for […]

Simple sugar intake and cancer incidence, cancer mortality and all-cause mortality: A cohort study from the PREDIMED trial

December 7, 2025

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| Cancers

🍏Comment: This study, stemming from the PREDIMED trial, suggest that it’s not the total amount of simple sugar that seems to drive cancer risk and mortality in this high-risk population, but the physical form it’s consumed in. It isolates liquid sugars (like those in fruit juice and presumably sugary drinks) as the significant culprits, with a […]

Metformin for the treatment of breast cancer: a scoping review of randomized clinical trials

December 6, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast

Comment: This review maps the landscape of metformin trials and ultimately highlights the lack of evidence for its routine use. Only one trial (NCIC CTG MA.32) showed a survival benefit, and strictly within the HER2+ subgroup. Critically, the review lacks a risk-of-bias assessment, complicating the interpretation of smaller ‘positive’ studies. Furthermore, the largest trial reported […]

Standard-dose vs fixed-dose capecitabine in patients with advanced gastrointestinal and metastatic breast cancer.

December 3, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Cancer - Colon

Comment: With the caveat that this is an abstract and not the full study, this trial is a crucial validation of the “less is more” principle that come up frequently. The significant improvement in Time to Treatment Failure (TTF) with the Fixed-Dose (7/7) schedule confirms what proponents of metronomic chemotherapy have argued for years: the […]

Radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery for elderly patients with early-stage breast cancer: A national registry-based study

December 1, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Mastectomy-Lumpectomy, Radiation Therapy

Comment: This study complicates the de-escalation narrative we see surrounding radiation for breast cancer. While randomized trials have proven we can omit radiation in low-risk settings, this data suggests that ‘real-world’ safety may be lower than trial safety. This may be because the registry included patients with higher tumor burdens (up to T2/N1) and unmeasured […]