Sharon Worcester is an award-winning medical journalist for MDedge News. She has been with the company since 1996, first as the Southeast Bureau Chief (1996-2009) when the company was known as International Medical News Group, then as a freelance writer (2010-2015) before returning as a reporter in 2015. She previously worked as a daily newspaper reporter covering health and local government. Sharon currently reports primarily on oncology and hematology. She has a BA from Eckerd College and an MA in Mass Communication/Print Journalism from the University of Florida. Connect with her via LinkedIn and follow her on twitter @SW_MedReporter.
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Poziotinib provides ‘modest but meaningful’ efficacy in NSCLC subgroup
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
About 15% of patients achieved a response with poziotinib and 65% had a decrease in tumor size.
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ALTERNATE trial: No fulvestrant benefit in locally advanced ER+ HER2– breast cancer
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
The endocrine-sensitive disease rate was similar whether patients received anastrozole alone, fulvestrant alone, or fulvestrant plus anastrozole...
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LOTUS: Ipatasertib plus paclitaxel may prolong OS in TNBC
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Ipatasertib provided a “clinically meaningful,” but not statistically significant, 9-month improvement in median overall survival.
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Novel penclomedine shows promise for some AYAs with CNS cancers
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Two patients who responded to the treatment were in their 59th month of survival at last follow-up.
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Universal CAR-T therapy produces CRs in relapsed/refractory T-ALL
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
All five patients studied achieved a complete response, though one patient had a morphological relapse.
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MRD surveillance can detect relapse before imaging in early-stage NSCLC
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Relapse occurred in 9 of 10 patients who were positive for minimal residual disease but had no evidence of relapse on imaging.
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Vaccine maintenance improves relapse-free survival in BRCA wild-type ovarian cancer
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Maintenance therapy with gemogenovatucel-T improved relapse-free survival in patients with wild-type BRCA but...
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The American maternal mortality crisis: The role of racism and bias
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Not only do health care providers need to face their implicit biases, the health care system needs to change.
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Adding a blood test to standard screening may improve early cancer detection
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
The blood test detected cancers in seven organs for which no standard screening test is available.
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EMBRACA shows no overall survival benefit with talazoparib
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Talazoparib did not confer an overall survival benefit over chemotherapy in patients with germline BRCA1/2-mutated HER2-negative advanced breast...
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Survey: Supportive oncodermatology program improves QOL for cancer patients
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
A comprehensive supportive program may improve quality of life and reduce treatment interruptions in cancer patients experiencing treatment-...
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FDA approves ibrutinib-rituximab combo for newly diagnosed CLL, SLL in adults
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) earns expanded indication for combination with rituximab as frontline treatment for adult CLL and SLL.
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Prioritize lung cancer patients for COVID-19 testing, physicians recommend
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
Lung cancer patients should be tested for COVID-19 “at the earliest opportunity and as a very high priority,”...
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Doctors push back on treating COVID-19 as HAPE
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
The pathophysiological mechanism of HAPE is a “fundamentally different phenomenon” than what is seen in COVID-19–related ARDS, experts noted in a...
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Pepinemab plus avelumab provides disease control in NSCLC
- Author:
- Sharon Worcester
ORLANDO – Treatment with pepinemab/avelumab produced disease control rates of 59% in immunotherapy-resistant patients and 81% in immunotherapy-...