Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) is a strong and independent prognostic factor for survival among patients with oropharyngeal cancer, according to research from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) published on June 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.

A single dose of radiotherapy delivered at the time of surgery by way of targeted intraoperative radiotherapy should be considered as an alternative to external beam radiotherapy delivered over several weeks postsurgery for selected patients with early breast cancer, found a study published online June 5 in the Lancet.

Medical imaging core lab services provider Icon Medical Imaging has expanded its technology platform to expedite oncology clinical trials, incorporating RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors) 1.1 evaluation criteria to its ICOSpeedRead system.

Major pathologic response to preoperative chemotherapy and radiation occurs in a minority of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and is independently associated with prolonged survival, according to a study presented at the 46th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on June 6 in Chicago.

Physician Hospitals of America and Texas Spine & Joint Hospital have jointly filed suit in U.S. Federal Court, Eastern District of Texas, challenging the constitutionality of Section 6001 of the healthcare reform bill, which prohibits physician-owned Medicare hospitals from expanding after March 23, and bans any new physician-owned Medicare hospitals that are not certified as Medicare providers by Dec. 31.

Radiation therapy can reduce locoregional recurrence and increase survival in T12 N1 invasive breast cancer patients presenting with negative estrogen receptor status and presence of lymphovascular invasion, found a study published June 1 in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology *Physics.

The success of health information exchange (HIE) implementation will depend on local markets and HIE's perceived value to that locality, according to a webinar hosted by Open Health IT Exchange.

An analysis of Medicare data from 1993 through 2006 for older patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) indicates that along with a decrease in hospital length of stay, the rate of in-hospital and 30-day mortality has decreased, while the rate of hospital readmission and discharge to skilled nursing facilities has increased, according to a study in the June 2 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.