A new study has shown that evidence of hepatitis B infection was twice as common in people with pancreatic cancer than in healthy controls. This study is the first to report an association between past exposure to the hepatitis B virus and pancreatic cancer, but researchers cautioned that more studies are necessary to evaluate the nature of the link.

Researchers from the U.S. and Canada found that two computer models widely used to determine who should undergo genetic testing for BRCA mutations underpredicted mutation frequency in Asian-American women by 50 percent.

A Phase III study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that zoledronic acid (Zometa) can prevent bone loss in premenopausal women followed for 12 months undergoing chemotherapy after surgery for early-stage breast cancer. This is the first study to evaluate the use of the drug in premenopausal women with breast cancer, though previous studies have shown similar drugs prevent bone loss during and after chemotherapy in this group.

Three new studies being published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) describe concerning trends suggesting that patients with cancer are more likely to commit suicide or to contemplate taking their own lives, compared with the general population.

A study conducted in Sweden found that more than 40 percent of widowers in that country whose wives had died from cancer four or five years earlier reported they were either never told that their spouse’s cancer was incurable, or they heard this information during the last week of her life. Eighty-six percent of widowers believed next-of-kin should be told immediately when a wife’s cancer is incurable, including 71 percent of the men who said they did not recall being told this information. The study, which is the largest to explore this topic, was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In the first study to assess mammography in women 80 and older, researchers found that having regular mammograms significantly decreases the risk of being diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, but only about one-fifth of women in this age group receive them regularly. The study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also showed that each mammogram that was performed in these older women was assocated with a further reduction in the risk of being diagnosed with late-stage disease.

A multicenter phase III clinical trial has reported that the drug letrozole cuts the risk of breast cancer recurrence and spread by more than 60 percent in postmenopausal women with early-stage disease who completed five years of tamoxifen therapy one to seven years earlier. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

In a new study, researchers have shown that the extent of cancer risk reduction resulting from the procedure varies according to the type of genetic mutation women have. The researchers, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania and nine other institutions, found that women with mutations in the BRCA2 gene have nearly twice the reduction in breast cancer risk following the surgery compared to women with BRCA1 mutations. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

Researchers have found that just four months of hormonal therapy before and with standard external beam radiation therapy slowed cancer growth—especially the development of bone metastases— by as much as eight years, and increased survival in older men with potentially aggressive (“high-risk”) prostate cancer. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

A new study reports a 150 percent increase between 1998 and 2003 in American women opting to have both breasts removed when cancer has been found in only one breast-a procedure called "contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM)." This is the first study to examine this issue on a national level. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

Two studies report that exercise and yoga can help maintain and in some cases improve quality of life in women with early-stage breast cancer. Both studies were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).