The Surgeon

A novel peptide vaccine was able to reduce the mortality rate in women with HER2/neu overexpressing breast cancer by about half, researchers report here at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2008 Annual Meeting.

“The numbers in this study are small but the concept is good,” commented William N. Hait, MD, PhD, president of the AACR and senior vice president of Worldwide Hematology and Oncology Research and Development at Johnson & Johnson. “It’s a good first step and we are cautiously optimistic.”
(more…)

Nearly 25 million U.S. women between the ages of 14 and 59 are infected with HPV, and the annual cost of screening and treating cervical abnormalities is about $4 billion, according to a statement from the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

For many unvaccinated women HPV infections clear up naturally without causing any cervical problems, as do many pre-malignant lesions. In other cases, HPV prompts cell changes that can gradually put women at greater risk of cervical cancer.
(more…)