Manmeet S. Ahluwalia, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Fairview Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Health System, Cleveland, OH.

Hamed A. Daw, MD, The Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center, Cleveland, OH.

This Update in Oncology reports on seven papers published in 2003 that provided evidence that could alter the standard of care. For example, letrozole use is now recommended after standard tamoxifen therapy for postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Another study showed the benefit of platinum-based chemotherapy in invasive bladder cancer. Finasteride was found to delay prostate cancer while aspirin was of value in preventing adenomas of the colon and hence is expected to help prevent colorectal cancer. Usefulness of sentinel node biopsy as a safe and accurate screening method in small breast cancer was confirmed. Finally, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical cystectomy improve survival in locally advanced bladder cancer.

Key words: cancer, chemotherapy, metastasis, neoadjuvant, adenoma.