1. Novel Multikinase Inhibitor Improves Survival in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
   By Caroline Helwick
   
   The novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor regorafenib, given as a single agent to patients with treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer, significantly improved overall survival and delayed disease progression in an international phase III trial presented at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The ASCO Post, May 1, 2012
   
   Presentation by Axel Grothey, MD
   
   Expert Points of View by Richard Goldberg and Herbert Hurwitz, MD
   
   
2. ASCO Issues New Guideline on Chemotherapy Dosing for Obese Patient
   By Jo Cavallo
   
   In April, ASCO released a new clinical practice guideline on the appropriate dosing of chemotherapy drugs given to obese adult patients with cancer. The result of an analysis by a panel of experts assembled by ASCO, the guideline calls for the use of a patient’s actual body weight when calculating chemotherapy dosing, rather than limiting the dose or using an adjusted ideal body weight, as is commonly done. The panel looked at 56 studies on cytotoxic chemotherapy dosing strategies for overweight and obese patients with cancer. The review excluded leukemia studies and did not address dosing of novel targeted agents. The ASCO Post, May 15, 2012
   
   Interviews with Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, and Jennifer J. Griggs, MD, MPH
   
   
3. First Genomic-based Pediatric Trials Launched in Neuroblastoma
   By Jo Cavallo
   
   Last November, Dell announced it was donating an initial $4 million including cloud-computing technology to speed up development of personalized medicine trials for children with neuroblastoma and other pediatric cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, about 650 children under the age of 15 are diagnosed with neuroblastoma each year. It is the second most common tumor in children and the most common cancer in babies less than 1 year old. Although 5-year survival rates for children with low- and intermediate-risk neuroblastoma is higher than 95%, only between 40% and 50% of children with high-risk neuroblastoma survive long-term. The disease is responsible for one in seven pediatric cancer deaths. The ASCO Post, January 15, 2012
   
   Interviews with Giselle Sholler, MD, Craig Webb, PhD, and James M. Coffin, PhD
   
   
4. No Advantage to Longer Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Women with Early Breast Cancer: CALGB 40101 Trial
   By Matthew Stenger
   
   The ideal duration of adjuvant therapy for women with lower-risk primary breast cancer remains unknown. The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-15 trial, reported more than 20 years ago, found no difference in outcomes between six cycles of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil and four cycles of doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide (AC)—although some believed that the AC arm might have fared better had they received six cycles of AC. Since then, several trials of adjuvant therapy have compared four cycles vs four cycles and six cycles vs six cycles of various regimens, but until recently, none has compared four vs six cycles of identical regimens using the same dose per cycle and schedule of treatment. The ASCO Post, September 1, 2012
   
   
5. Favorable Early-stage Hodgkin Lymphoma and HD.6: The Take-Home and Don’t–Take-Home Messages
   By Joachim Yahalom, MD
   
   The Canadian HD.6 randomized study in patients with nonbulky early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma is mostly of historic interest. It has little relevance to current treatment standards or questions, and the risk for its inappropriate interpretation is of great concern. The ASCO Post, January 15, 2012
   
   
6. BOLERO-2: Everolimus Thwarts Resistance to Hormonal Therapy in Advanced Breast Cancer
   By Susan London
   
   Adding an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) to hormonal therapy for advanced breast cancer effectively circumvents resistance, suggest updated results of the randomized BOLERO-2 trial. The ASCO Post, January 1, 2012
   
   
7. T-DM1 Proves More Effective, Less Toxic Than Standard Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer
   By Caroline Helwick
   
   Positive results continue to be reported for trastuzumab emtansine (T‑DM1), the antibody-drug conjugate linking trastuzumab (Herceptin) to a cytotoxic agent. Early results of the international phase III EMILIA study, presented at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting, showed a 35% reduction in risk of progression among patients with advanced HER2-overexpressing breast cancer who received T-DM1, compared to standard treatment with capecitabine (Xeloda) and lapatinib (Tykerb). The ASCO Post, June 15, 2012
   
   
8. PD-1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Look Promising in Multiple Solid Tumors
   By Caroline Helwick
   
   Antibody-mediated blockade of the programmed death 1 protein (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) induces durable tumor regression and prolonged stabilization of disease in patients with advanced solid tumors, according to data presented at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting.1,2 Although the studies reported were only phase I investigations, and the drugs are known only as BMS-936558 and BMS-936559, the findings earned the investigators an appearance at an ASCO press briefing and were concurrently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The ASCO Post, July 1, 2012
   
   
9. Two Novel Agents Prolong Survival in Advanced Prostate Cancer
   By Alice Goodman
   
   Two novel agents with distinct mechanisms of action join ranks of treatments that extend survival for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer: MDV3100 and radium-223. Both drugs achieved a survival advantage compared with placebo, with relatively benign side-effect profiles, according to results of two international phase III trials reported at the 2012 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, held recently in San Francisco. The ASCO Post, March 1, 2012
   
   
10. Targeting KRAS in GI Cancers: The Hunt for the Holy Grail in Cancer Research
    By Caroline Helwick
    
    The RAS oncogenes are the most frequently mutated class of oncogenes in human cancers, and this has prompted a search for Ras inhibitors to effectively treat tumors with these mutations. Despite intensive efforts, however, none has materialized clinically because K-Ras is proving to be a very vexing target, according to Channing J. Der, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who gave an invited lecture on the topic at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The ASCO Post, April 15, 2012