THURSDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Endometrial cancer patients at medium to high risk for cancer recurrence are more likely to survive if both the pelvic lymph nodes and para-aortic lymph nodes are removed, rather than just the pelvic lymph nodes, say Japanese researchers.

The para-aortic lymph nodes, which are located in front of the lumbar vertebral bodies near the aorta, receive drainage from the lower gastrointestinal tract and the pelvic organs, according to a news release about the study.

The study included 671 women with endometrial cancer who had pelvic lymph nodes removed or both pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes removed. Women at medium or high risk for cancer recurrence were offered additional treatment in the form of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Those at medium to high risk for recurrence who had both pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes removed were 56 percent less likely to die than were those who had only their pelvic lymph nodes removed, the study found. The removal of both pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes was found to have no impact on survival among people at low risk for cancer recurrence.

Analysis of 328 medium- to high-risk women who were also treated with radiotherapy or chemotherapy showed that having the complete procedure decreased the risk for dying prematurely by 52 percent, and having just chemotherapy decreased the risk by 41 percent, independently of one another, according to the study, authored by Noriaki Sakuragi and Dr. Yukiharu Todo of the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine in Sapporo, Japan, and their colleagues.

The findings show that removal of both pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes should be recommended for endometrial cancer patients at medium to high risk for recurrence, the researchers concluded, adding that the results suggest that adding chemotherapy could further improve their likelihood of survival.

The study was published online Feb. 24 in The Lancet.

More information

The Women's Cancer Network has more about endometrial cancer  .

THURSDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Women with breast cancer who choose to have a preventive mastectomy on their disease-free breast do reduce their risk of cancer in that breast, studies have shown.

But now new research finds that the survival benefit from that preventive surgery is small and not equal among all women.

"The survival benefit was limited to a small subset of all breast cancer patients [studied]," said study author Dr. Isabelle Bedrosian, an assistant professor of surgical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston.

Those most likely to derive a survival benefit, she said, were those younger than 50 who had been diagnosed with early-stage cancers that were estrogen receptor (ER)-negative.

ER-negative tumors don't require estrogen to grow, as do ER-positive tumors, and the prognosis is poorer for the ER-negative cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.

The study is published online Feb. 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

According to Bedrosian and others, experts have long known that women diagnosed with breast cancer have an elevated risk of developing cancer in the opposite breast. Removing that breast as a preventive measure reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of cancer in that breast.

"But we have never really established the difference it makes in the survival of breast cancer patients," she said. So, Bedrosian and her colleagues used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database, evaluating 107,106 women with breast cancer who had undergone mastectomy for that cancer between 1998 and 2003, along with a subset of 8,902 who had the opposite breast removed as a preventive measure.

After a five-year follow-up, 88.5 percent of those who had the opposite breast surgery were alive, versus 83.7 percent of those who did not, a difference of less than 5 percent. The improved survival was clear for a select group, mostly the women aged 18 to 49 with early-stage, ER-negative tumors, the researchers found.

There was no information from the database on whether the women had genetic mutations to boost breast cancer risk, Bedrosian noted.

After five years, what might happen? "We actually would expect that number [the nearly 5 percent benefit] would increase over time," Bedrosian said.

The findings makes sense to Dr. Allison W. Kurian, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif., who has published research on the topic.

"These results are consistent with other studies," she said, including her own research published in 2009 in the same journal, which found that the risk for a breast cancer in the opposite breast is affected by a variety of factors, with those having ER-negative tumors in the original breast cancer having a higher risk of getting second tumors in the opposite breast.

Bedrosian said her research suggests most women diagnosed with breast cancer shouldn't be concerned about the opposite breast: "We cannot demonstrate for most of them a survival benefit [with preventive mastectomy on the opposite breast]."

However, she said, psychological factors should also be taken into account. "There are some patients who may feel they still want to do this," she said.

Kurian agreed: "This paper does give more information [about the outlook for various women], but it remains a personal decision for women to discuss with their doctor."

More information

To learn more about breast cancer, visit the American Cancer Society  .

MONDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Cholesterol-lowering statins significantly reduce prostate tumor inflammation, which may help lower the risk of disease progression, new study findings suggest.

Duke University Medical Center researchers found that the use of statins before prostate cancer surgery was associated with a 69 percent reduced likelihood of inflammation inside prostate tumors.

For the study, the researchers examined tissue samples of prostate tumors from 236 men undergoing prostate cancer surgery. The patients included 37 who took statins during the year prior to their surgery.

Overall, 82 percent of the men had inflammatory cells in their prostate tumors and about one-third had marked tumor inflammation. After they accounted for factors such as age, race and body-mass index (a measurement that is based on weight and height), the Duke team concluded that statin use was associated with reduced inflammation within tumors. They also determined that inflammation was more likely among older men with more advanced prostate cancer who'd waited a longer time between prostate biopsy and surgery.

The findings are published in the Feb. 22 online edition of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

"Increasing evidence suggests that statins may reduce risk of prostate cancer progression, and some studies have even suggested that widespread statin use over the past 15 years has contributed to a decline in prostate cancer mortality," lead author Dr. Lionel Banez, an assistant professor of surgery and urology, said in a Duke news release.

But that doesn't mean that all prostate cancer patients should take statins, said study senior author Dr. Stephen Freedland, an associate professor of urology and pathology at the Duke Prostate Cancer Center.

"More studies have to be done before such a recommendation can be made. However, men taking statins for heart health may already be enjoying a beneficial side effect against prostate cancer," Freedland said in the news release.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about prostate cancer  .

FRIDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Surgery alone offers a reasonable overall level of survival for patients with stage 1 small cell lung cancer, a new study suggests.

Traditional treatment regimens for limited stage SCLS include chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

In this study, researchers analyzed U.S. National Cancer Institute data on the outcomes of 247 patients with stage 1 SCLC who had surgery to remove a lung (lobectomy).

The three- and five-year survival rates for patients who had surgery alone were 58.1 percent and 50.3 percent, respectively. The three- and five-year survival rates for patients who had surgery followed by radiotherapy (RT) were 64.9 percent and 57.1 percent, respectively.

"Based on our analysis, surgery without RT may offer a reasonable survival in a selected cohort of patients who undergo lobectomy, but this needs to be validated in a prospective settings," lead investigator Dr. James B. Yu, of Yale University, said in a news release.

"We cannot say conclusively whether patients who endure invasive surgeries can go without additional adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy, but looking forward, the study findings create a platform for advancing the understanding of the role of surgery in therapy."

The study results were published in the February issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about small cell lung cancer.