NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Refractory salivary gland inflammation after radioiodine therapy can often be improved by dilating and irrigating the ducts, a small retrospective analysis shows.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Thalidomide should not be added to standard chemoradiotherapy for inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), randomized trial results show.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The radioactive seeds used in brachytherapy for early prostate cancer may damage the DNA in a man's sperm, a small study finds.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A trial of aggressive chemotherapy in early unfavorable Hodgkin's disease has shown improvement in two intermediate endpoints, freedom from treatment failure (FFTF) and progression-free survival (PFS).

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The risk of cancer recurrence is increased after laparoscopic rather than open surgical management of uterine cancer, but only slightly, researchers say.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress should not loosen conflict of interest rules to expand the pool of potential U.S. government health advisers, the head of the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Stage III or IV gastric cancer is about half as likely to be fatal when there's a first-degree family history of the disease, compared to when there isn't, new research shows.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma being prepared for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) may do better if radioimmunotherapy with Zevalin (Yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan) is added to high-dose chemotherapy in the conditioning regimen, according to Israeli researchers.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One in four women who have breast-conserving surgery for cancer needs a second operation to remove more breast tissue, suggests a new study that also found the rate of reoperation varied widely by surgeon.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As robots march into operating rooms across the nation, yet another study is casting doubt on the technology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Roughly a quarter of patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) are likely to respond to romidepsin (Istodax), according to a report last week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pfizer's Inlyta (axitinib) for patients with refractory renal cell carcinoma (RCC) got the nod from U.S. regulators on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Compared to the usual five-year course of tamoxifen, women with early-stage estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer fare somewhat better with two years of tamoxifen followed by three years of anastrozole, an Austrian team reports.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cancer patients age 65 and older are more likely than younger cancer patients to suffer from malnutrition, researchers from Spain said this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition in Orlando, Florida.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In platinum-pretreated patients with metastatic urothelial cancer, researchers tried to improve outcomes by adding vandetanib to docetaxel, but the results were disappointing.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new study helps explain why up to a third of advanced melanoma patients who take Zelboraf (vemurafenib) develop cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, and even points to a potential fix.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a small minority of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) sunitinib or sorafenib prompt complete remission, European researchers report.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Contrary to traditional thinking, carotid endarterectomy can be done safely in patients who've had cervical radiation therapy, a meta-analysis shows.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Results of a randomized trial suggest that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist therapy does not help preserve ovarian function in young women undergoing modern chemotherapy for early breast cancer.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When it comes to healthcare deals, the new motto may be "too expensive to fail."

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding radiotherapy to capecitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy after complete resection of gastric cancer did not significantly improve disease-free survival for most patients in the ARTIST trial.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a reminder of how much a once-heralded area of cancer research has crumbled, a former Duke oncologist and his colleagues issued their eighth study retraction late last week.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Integrating genomic information with traditional clinical risk factors can refine the prognosis and help optimize therapeutic strategies for patients with early breast cancer, a research team at Duke University reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association for April 1st.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a recent survey, men who had robotic surgery for prostate cancer and men who had lower-tech surgeries were equally likely to have sexual problems and urinary leakage afterward.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Relatives of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are not at increased risk for these diseases, according to findings online December 12 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who survive Hodgkin's lymphoma may experience premature ovarian failure (POF), depending on what treatment they received, according to European researchers.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Peritoneal carcinomatosis in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer is associated with a poorer prognosis following chemotherapy than other disease manifestations, researchers report in a paper online December 12 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients with rectal cancer who have a complete clinical response to chemoradiation can be managed without surgery if they are monitored closely, a new study from the Netherlands suggests.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Knowing the receptor status of breast cancer metastases can help guide treatment, Canadian researchers say.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR) is safe and effective in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, according to a small study online November 16 in the Journal of Urology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Paclitaxel and doxorubicin appear to have comparable efficacy in patients with metastatic angiosarcoma, researchers reported in Cancer.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Up to three-quarters of patients who receive hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) will have late adverse effects, and many will have poor functional status and quality-of-life as a result, a new study shows.

MIAMI/ATLANTA (Reuters) - By the time authorities busted a fake AIDS clinic in Miami, it had bilked Medicare of more than $4.5 million. Still, the man behind the scheme remained far ahead of the agents pursuing him.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a study from Japan, one in four patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) was still alive 10 years later.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who want to preserve their eggs before cancer treatment should know that doctors probably won't be able to retrieve as many oocytes as they do from healthy women, say the authors of a new report.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When patients with advanced urothelial cancer can't receive cisplatin, carboplatin-based regimens are similarly effective, a phase II/III study shows.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a new survey of breast cancer survivors, few people said that having a follow-up appointment with a doctor or nurse over the phone or online instead of in person would ease their stress and worry.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In patients with limited-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, treatment with ABVD chemotherapy alone led to better overall survival than a strategy that includes subtotal nodal radiation therapy, according to new research presented this week at the 53rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

LONDON (Reuters) - New DNA tests looking for the virus responsible for most cases of cervical cancer make sense for all women aged 30 or over, since they can prevent more cases of cancer than Pap smears alone, Dutch researchers say.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Docetaxel plus gemcitabine failed to provide any meaningful benefit over docetaxel alone in a Danish study of women with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Radiation and chemotherapy given to young cancer patients don't seem to increase the risk that their own children will have birth defects years later, according to a new study.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A new study of leukemia drug Mylotarg (gemtuzumab), pulled from the U.S. market last year due to safety concerns, found it to be effective when used at low doses in older adults but questions about toxicity remain.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Researchers have developed a gene therapy that can boost the output of factor IX, possibly offering a long-term solution for people with hemophilia B.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time created platelets by reprogramming stem cells derived from adult cells, offering the potential for a renewable supply.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men with heart problems are more likely to regret prostate cancer treatment than others, according to a recent study.

SILVER SPRING, Md. (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc won unanimous expert backing for its experimental drug Inlyta (axitinib) for advanced kidney cancer.