Cancer

The FDA on Tuesday issued a safety alert for the serotonin receptor agonist lorcaserin, warning that results from a clinical trial assessing safety show a possible increased risk for cancer with the weight-management medicine, according to an agency press release.

A cohort of Korean women with acromegaly had a more pronounced risk for death or developing cancer during 3 years of follow-up compared with men; however, the overall incidence of acromegaly was similar to that of Western populations, according to findings from a database analysis.

Shielding a patient from the facts of an advanced-cancer diagnosis could compromise the patient’s ability to make informed treatment choices, according to an article published in Journal of General Internal Medicine.

In 2018, infections were the cause of 13% of all new cancer diagnoses, totaling 2.2 million new cases worldwide, although these totals do not include nonmelanoma skin cancers, according to findings published in The Lancet Global Health.

Increased travel time for oncologic care due to cancer clinic closings appeared to be associated with greater Medicare spending and patient cost responsibilities, according to study findings published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Healio presents a list of the most-read cardiology articles from 2019. Our readers were interested in sex differences and disparities in heart disease, the role of wearable devices in CV health, omega-3 fatty acids, results of the DAPA-HF trial and more.

Patients who survived cancer have an increased risk for mortality from CHD and stroke compared with the general population, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal.

Among patients who underwent PCI, those with cancer had elevated risks for cardiac mortality and bleeding, researchers reported in JACC: CardioOncology.

Physicians may use disease-specific or relative survival rates to explain a prognosis to patients with early-stage cancer, but both types of survival rates have limitations, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Women with peripartum cardiomyopathy have a 16 times greater prevalence of cancer compared with those who do not, and cancer incidence was associated with greater delay in recovery of cardiac function, according to findings published in JACC: CardioOncology.