Cancers – Page 9 – OncWonk – Dr Bier’s Oncology Research Reviews

Breast-Conserving Surgery with or without Irradiation in Early Breast Cancer

November 15, 2025

| Cancer - Breast, Radiation Therapy, Treatments – Conventional

Comment: This 10-year follow-up of the PRIME II trial reinforces a crucial point for managing older patients with low-risk, hormone-positive breast cancer. Yes, omitting radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery increased the 10-year local recurrence rate significantly (from 0.9% to 9.5%). However, the definitive, practice-changing finding is that this 10-fold increase in local recurrence had zero impact on […]

Soy Consumption and Breast Cancer Outcomes – Synthesis

November 15, 2025

| No Comments

| Cancer - Breast, Synthesis

🌱Synthesized Clinical Bottom Line updated 11-15-2025 The provided body of evidence, including two meta-analyses and several large prospective cohort studies, indicates that post-diagnosis soy food consumption is safe and likely beneficial for breast cancer survivors. Contrary to long-standing concerns fueled by inapplicable mouse models, the human data consistently show that moderate soy intake is associated […]

Dietary flaxseed alters tumor biological markers in postmenopausal breast cancer

November 15, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast

Comment: This small but powerful study on dietary flaxseed is a great reminder that simple, well-tolerated dietary interventions can have profound biological effects in breast cancer. It also helps address a persistent misinterpretation, which is that flax can act negatively in breast cancer patients. The study shows a significant reduction in the Ki-67 index (cell […]

Associations of Commonly Used Concomitant Medications With Survival and Adverse Event Outcomes in Breast Cancer

November 11, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast, Cancers, Miscellaneous

Comment: This large pooled analysis gives us several interesting and important pieces of information. Although this study was with breast cancer patients, there is no reason to believe it doesn’t apply to every cancer. The magnitude of risk associated with common, non-oncology drugs is genuinely alarming. PPI use, a near-universal practice for GI prophylaxis and […]

Intermittent vs Continuous Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

November 2, 2025

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| ADT - Androgen Deprivation, Cancer - Prostate

Comment: This meta-analysis provides important, ‘Moderate’ certainty evidence that supports a clinical approach that’s simple to implement. The key takeaway is the non-inferiority of intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD) regarding overall survival. While the summary notes minimal difference in overall quality of life, the qualitative data suggesting improvements in physical and sexual functioning is clinically significant. […]

Metronomic Chemotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer Treatment: Clinical and Preclinical Data between Lights and Shadows

November 2, 2025

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| Cancer - Breast

Comment: Metronomic chemotherapy (mCHT) is a concept that’s been around, but it’s often overlooked in favor of high-dose regimens. This 2022 review from J. Clin. Med. brilliantly frames the evidence, separating the clear “lights”—like its low-toxicity profile—from the persistent “shadows” we still face, such as the lack of large randomized trials. For our frail or […]

Thyroxine promotes lung cancer growth in an orthotopic mouse model

November 1, 2025

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| Cancers, Medications - General Pharmaceuticals

Comment: This is an important pre-clinical study, adding another piece to the connection between levothyroxine and cancer. The finding that T4 promotes tumor growth not by direct cell stimulation, but by driving neoangiogenesis via the integrin αvβ3 receptor, is a critical piece of biologic plausibility. Of course, the major caveat is that this is a […]

The Intriguing Thyroid Hormones-Lung Cancer Association as Exemplification of the Thyroid Hormones-Cancer Association: Three Decades of Evolving Research

November 1, 2025

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| Cancers, Immunotherapy & Targeted Therapies, Medications - General Pharmaceuticals

Comment: This is a fascinating review of a complex topic. The key clinical pearl here is the paradoxical finding that treatment-induced hypothyroidism (from TKIs/ICPis) often correlates with a favorable prognosis. It underscores the need to closely monitor thyroid function in these patients—not just as a side effect to be managed, but as a potential prognostic […]

Reporting of Clinical Trial Uncertainties With New Cancer Drugs in Journal Publications and Clinical Guidelines

October 29, 2025

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| Cancers, Statistics

Comment: Unfortunately, this study confirms a persistent issue. We repeatedly see this major discrepancy between the “known unknowns”—the clinical uncertainties the FDA rightly identifies during expedited approvals—and what actually gets published in high-impact journals and translated into clinical guidelines like the NCCN. The result is that frontline oncologists are often making treatment decisions with an […]

Efficacy and safety of metronomic chemotherapy in maintenance therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

October 27, 2025

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| Cancer - Colon

Comment: This systematic review is, predictably, hampered by significant heterogeneity and an insufficient number of trials, preventing any definitive conclusions. However, an optimistic signal does emerge. The review strongly reinforces the primary value proposition of metronomic chemotherapy: an exceptionally favorable safety profile, with a striking lack of severe hematological toxicity. Furthermore, despite the mixed data, […]