The literature on chronic pain and stigma was reviewed by a group of academics from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, who published their findings in the journal Pain and Therapy. Perhaps most unexpectedly, they discovered that stigma surrounding pain persists even in clinical settings, resulting in clinicians’ inadequate evaluations of patients’ pain, doubt about the reality of their suffering, and lower pain ratings. These factors frequently result in inadequate treatment of pain and a propensity to believe that it is solely a psychological disorder.

Who is at fault when the patient is injured when only partially following the doctor’s orders regarding limiting activity? The doctor hadn’t discussed all the potential adverse effects (e.g. dizziness and fainting) from medical therapy but had warned the patient to strictly moderate their activity level. Read the case and the court ruling.

In his discussion of the subject, Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD, FACP, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine notes that about 50% of breast cancers categorized as HER2-negative exhibit low HER2 expression, and preliminary data suggest that new antibody-drug conjugates may be effective in treating tumors with low HER2 expression; clinical trials are currently underway. Trastuzumab should not be added to treatment plans for women with low HER2 expression, according to Dr. Brufsky, because it does not assist those with IHC 3+ or ISH-amplified breast cancer or those without those conditions. Finally, compared to triple-negative tumors, hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2-negative cancers seem to have low HER2 expression more commonly.

Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Cancer Prevention Among Anti-vaxxers, Flat Earthers, and Reptilian Conspiracists: Online Cross Sectional Survey The fact that more than half of the 1,494 survey respondents agreed that “It seems like everything causes cancer” underscores the challenge society faces in separating real causes from mythological ones as a result of widespread information. Contrary to their counterparts, those who believed in conspiracies, disapproved of the COVID-19 vaccination, or supported alternative medicine were more likely to support the fictitious causes of cancer while being less likely to support the real causes of cancer. These findings imply a clear link between online disinformation and ensuing unhealthy choices, which may account for an additional portion of cancer that is preventable.

Medical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists, oncology nurses, pharmacists, and other oncology HCPs who treat patients with lung cancer should be better able to describe ideal evidence-based treatment selection and sequencing recommendations for the use of immuno-oncologic therapy in patients with early-stage NSCLC and evaluate clinical trial data of emerging immunotherapy-based agents in the treatment after completing this three-chapter, 0.50-credit CME activity.

Event-free survival (EFS) was significantly increased with enasidenib compared to conventional care regimens (CCR) in this open-label, randomized, phase 3 trial; overall survival (OS) was complicated by early dropout and usage of later AML medications. The older R/R mutant-IDH2 AML group received notable morphologic and hematologic responses from enasidenib as opposed to CCR.