It seems public awareness of breast cancer, the most common cancer among US women, is at an all-time high. Coming out of Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, we’ve recently seen the release of updated guidelines for mammogram screening from the American Cancer Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the US Preventive Services Task Force. Public figures and celebrities are speaking out about the disease in an effort to raise funds for research and grow public awareness even further.

The medical community is also honing its focus. This issue of The American Journal of Hematology/Oncology^®, a peer-reviewed resource for oncology education and the official journal of Physicians’ Education Resource, LLC, features 4 articles relating to different aspects of breast cancer treatment.

In the first, Chirag Shah, MD; Vivek Verma, MD; Michael A. Weller, MD; Eric Westerbeck, BS; Kyle Reilly, BS; and Frank Vicini, MD, FACR, focus on the utilization and results of accelerated partial-breast irradiation, an adjuvant radiotherapy technique used in radiation therapy.

Federico Ustaris, MD; Cristina Saura, MD; Jack Di Palma, MD; Richard Bryce, MBChB, MRCGP, MFPM; Susan Moran, MD; Linda Neuman, MD; and Rolando Ruiz, MD, contributed the story “Effective Management and Prevention of Neratinib-Induced Diarrhea,” which reviews the effectiveness of loperamide prophylaxis in managing diarrhea resulting from the use of neratinib, a kinase inhibitor frequently used in treating breast cancer.

In our third breast cancer-related story, Frank Vicini, MD, FACR, and Chirag Shah, MD, take a look at the role of radiation therapy in treating women with ductal carcinoma in situ, which has been growing in incidence among breast cancer patients in recent decades.

Our fourth story this month concerns head and neck cancer—in this case, managing squamous cell carcinoma. Barbara Burtness, MD, comments on the results of some promising immuno-oncology approaches.

Our CME article for November also relates to breast cancer. Tiffany Traina, MD, discusses current and evolving strategies for treating triple-negative breast cancer. In this interview, she covers a variety of fascinating approaches including genetic testing, treatment options, emerging immunooncology agents and clinical trials.

Michael J. Hennessy, Sr
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer