Oncology

Digoxin treatment reactivates in vivo radioactive iodide uptake and correlates with favorable clinical outcome in non-medullary thyroid cancer

Purpose: Non-medullary thyroid cancer (NMTC) treatment is based on the ability of thyroid follicular cells to accumulate radioactive iodide (RAI). However, in a subset of NMTC patients tumor dedifferentiation occurs, leading to RAI resistance. Digoxin has been demonstrated to restore iodide uptake capacity in vitro in poorly differentiated and anaplastic NMTC cells, termed redifferentiation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vivo effects of digoxin in TPO-Cre/LSL-BrafV600E mice and digoxin-treated NMTC patients.

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Risk of cardiovascular disease following gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists vs antagonists in prostate cancer: Real-world evidence from five databases

Observational studies in prostate cancer (PCa) have shown an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) following gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, whereas randomised-controlled trials have shown no associations. Compared to GnRH agonists, GnRH antagonists have shown less atherosclerotic effects in preclinical models. Having a history of CVD was found to be an effect modifier for the associations with some CVD subtypes. Overall, we did not observe a difference in risk of overall CVD when comparing GnRH antagonists with agonists-though for some subtypes of CVD we noted an increased risk with antagonists. Further studies are required to address potential confounding caused by unadjusted variables such as severity of CVD history and PCa stage.

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Characteristics and Absolute Survival of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Treated With Biologics: A Real-World Data Analysis From Three European Countries

Biologics were approved for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) based on favorable benefit-risk-assessments from randomized controlled trials (RCTs), but evidence on their use in the real-world setting is scarce. Based on descriptive analyses we therefore aimed to assess characteristics and survival of CRC patients treated with biologics using large healthcare databases from three European countries (Netherlands, Italy, Germany).

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The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is increased for prostate cancer patients who are pharmaceutically treated for depression

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between pharmaceutically treated anxiety and depression and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) among 1-year prostate cancer survivors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A registry-based cohort study design was used toescribe the risk of incident CVD in adult 1-year prostate cancer survivors without a history of CVD

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Real-world insights into risk of developing cardiovascular disease following GnRH agonists versus antagonists for prostate cancer: a methodological protocol to a study using five European databases

One of the more recently investigated adverse long-term side effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists for prostate cancer (PCa) is cardiovascular disease (CVD). Studies suggest lower risk of CVD following GnRH antagonists (degareli) than GnRH agonists. This protocol describes precise codes used to extract variables from five European databases for a study that compares risk of CVD following GnRH agonists and antagonists for PCa

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Type 2 Diabetes, but Not Insulin (Analog) Treatment, Is Associated With More Advanced Stages of Breast Cancer: A National Linkage of Cancer and Pharmacy Registries

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether women with type 2 diabetes (T2D) develop a more advanced stage of breast cancer and whether treatment with insulin (analogs) is associated with specific breast cancer characteristics. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Fr this nested case-control study, women with breast cancer diagnosed in 2002-2014 were selected from the linked Netherlands Cancer Registry-PHARMO Database Network (N = 33,377)

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Changes in glucose-lowering drug use before and after cancer diagnosis in patients with diabetes

AIM: This study explores the changes in glucose-lowering drug (GLD) use before and after cancer diagnosis among patients with diabetes. METHODS: New GLD users (1998-2011) living in the Dutch ECR-PHARMO catchment area were selected from the PHARMO Dtabase Network (n=52,228). Those with a primary cancer diagnosis were considered cases (n=3281) and matched with eligible controls (n=12,891) without cancer during follow-up

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Risk of dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors on site-specific cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The long-term impact of DPP-4 inhibition is unknown and there are concerns about the influence of DPP-4 inhibition on carcinogenesis of the pancreas and thyroid. As DPP-4 is a rather unselective enzyme present in many tissues, we focuseon all specific cancer types. METHODS: PubMed and EMBASE were searched between Jan 2005 and Apr 2017 to identify studies comparing DPP-4 inhibitors with either placebo or active drugs on cancer risk

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