The risk of developing breast cancer may be increased among some women who undergo menopause prior to age 46, according to a recent study published by Allen-Brady et al in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Background Early menopause occurs in women aged 40 to 45 years. Primary ...
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare and aggressive malignant head and neck cancer that is highly prevalent in the southern and southwestern provinces of China. Although the incidence of the cancer is less than 1 per 100,000 in Europe, the United States, and the Pacific, data from the International...
Although esophageal cancer in the United States is relatively rare—affecting about 22,400 people each year and making up about 1% of all cancer cases—the disease is common in East and Central Asian countries. Nearly 90% of patients with esophageal cancer in Asia are diagnosed with the squamous cell ...
The global oncology and public health communities are mourning the death of Lynette Ann Denny, MD, PhD, a world-renowned gynecologic oncologist and a leading researcher in the prevention of cervical cancer in low-resource settings. Dr. Denny died on June 9, 2024, in Cape Town, South Africa, of...
The presence of a mutation in any one of three genes known to be involved in DNA damage repair may be associated with complete pathologic response to cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy, as measured by pathologic downstaging at the time of cystectomy in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial ...
DNA/RNA material contained in circulating extracellular vesicles secreted into the blood stream by tumor cells may capture cancer genomics and transcriptomic evolution in patients with metastatic prostate cancer, according to a recent study published by Casanova et al in Cancer Cell. Background...
Those living in disadvantaged neighborhoods have significantly higher activity of stress-related genes, new research suggests, which in turn may contribute to higher rates of aggressive prostate cancer in African American men. These findings were published by Boyle et al in JAMA Network Open....
Targeting lactate with the epilepsy drug stiripentol may reverse chemotherapy resistance in patients with gastric cancer, according to a recent study published by Chen et al in Nature. Background Chemotherapy attacks cancer cells by damaging their DNA. The cancer cells then try to rapidly repair...
The results from a phase Ib/II study of a five-drug regimen of venetoclax, ibrutinib, prednisone, obinutuzumab, and lenalidomide (ViPOR) in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) show the treatment produced durable remissions in patients with specific molecular...
Administering chemotherapy prior to and following surgery may extend survival in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma compared with postoperative administration alone, according to a recent study published by Cecchini et al in JAMA Oncology. The findings may be encouraging for the 15% to...
On June 18, the first patient was randomized into the PRISM-MEL-301 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT06112314), which is assessing the efficacy and safety of brenetafusp (also known as IMC-F106C; PRAME-A02) in combination with nivolumab in the first-line setting of advanced or metastatic...
Suppression of the estrogen receptor has proven to be an effective treatment for hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, but standard endocrine therapies have liabilities that are not limited to their pharmacokinetics or toxicity profiles, which allow for ligand-independent estrogen receptor...
In a single-center study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hamilton et al found that second tumors had occurred in 25 of 724 patients during 15 months of follow-up after receipt of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, including one fatal case of T-cell lymphoma. The study...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Benjamin J. Solomon, MBBS, PhD, and colleagues, analysis of 5-year outcomes in the phase III CROWN trial showed that median progression-free survival had not been reached in previously untreated patients receiving lorlatinib vs a median of 9.1...
Several years ago, a visit to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, so fascinated and inspired Mace L. Rothenberg, MD, FASCO, about the history of flight, he wondered why there was not a similar museum showcasing the past and present achievements in science and medicine. The result...
Exposure to increased neighborhood violence may change the glucocorticoid receptor for the stress hormone cortisol and influence the aggressiveness of lung cancer, according to new findings presented by Heath et al at the Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting & Exposition 2024. Study Methods and...
A novel ultrasensitive liquid biopsy may be predictive of breast cancer recurrence up to years prior to relapse in high-risk patients with early breast cancer, according to recent findings presented by Garcia-Murillas et al at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 1010). Background Circulating...
Jeanne Tie, MD, MBChB, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses data on survival and updated 5-year results from the DYNAMIC trial, which supports a role for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis, including serial sampling, in the management of patients with stage II colon cancer (Abstract 108).
Sherene Loi, MD, PhD, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis from a cohort of patients with early-stage breast cancer who were enrolled in the monarchE trial. This large cohort was studied to look at the usefulness of a personalized tumor-informed assay ...
The first-in-class ubiquitin-specific peptidase 1 (USP1) inhibitor RO7623066 showed a positive safety profile as a single agent and signs of early antitumor activity in patients with advanced solid tumors, according to preliminary data from a new first-in-human phase I trial presented by Yap et al...
Alicia Morgans, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Susan Halabi, PhD, of the Duke Cancer Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, discuss a clinical-genetic model that identified novel circulating tumor DNA alterations that are prognostic of overall survival and may help to...
Belinda Lee, MBBS, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Northern Health, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, discusses findings from the AGITG DYNAMIC-Pancreas trial on the potential role of serial circulating tumor DNA testing after upfront surgery to guide adjuvant chemotherapy for...
In patients with metastatic hormone receptor (HR)-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer unselected by PD-L1 status, adding the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab to the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy resulted in a 1.9-month improvement in median progression-free survival...
The CROWN study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03052608) of lorlatinib, a brain-penetrant, third-generation ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, vs crizotinib, an inhibitor of receptor tyrosine kinases (including ALK), in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell...
Lymphoma expert Jane N. Winter, MD, grew up on the south shore of Long Island in New York. “My dad sold cars in my great uncle’s dealership after a failed foray into business after World War II. My mom graduated high school at 16 to go to work to help support her family. When my younger brother...
Leukemia expert Eunice S. Wang, MD, is the daughter of first-generation immigrants, whose work ethos inspired in her a world without boundaries. “My parents were born in China during the communist era, and they immigrated to Taiwan when the communists took over in the 1940s and then subsequently...
An investigational noninvasive exosome-based liquid biopsy shows potential for early detection of pancreatic cancer, an important unmet need, according to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024.1 When combined with the biomarker CA 19-9, the...
In two studies reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, investigators found that a cell-free DNA (cfDNA) blood-based test (ECLIPSE study)1 and a next-generation multitarget stool DNA test (BLUE-C study)2 both showed high sensitivity for colorectal cancer and high specificity for advanced...
Exposure to certain chemicals while on the job may increase the risk of prostate cancer among firefighters, according to a recent study published by Quaid et al in Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis. Background Prostate cancer has the highest incidence of any cancer type among U.S. male...
According to Google Chief Executive Officer Sunder Pichai, artificial intelligence (AI) is “the most profound technology humanity is working on—more profound than fire or electricity or anything that we’ve done in the past.” The impact of AI on health care and especially cancer care will not be...
Saruparib, a first-in-class PARP1-selective inhibitor, was reported to have favorable safety and anticancer activity in heavily pretreated patients with breast cancer harboring homologous recombination–repair (HRR) mutations, according to the results of the phase I/II PETRA study presented at the...
In patients with ovarian cancer, second-look surgery may find a role again. The evaluation of measurable residual disease (MRD) using second-look laparoscopy identified more women who had detectable MRD after front-line treatment than did circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), according to a study...
Testing for measurable residual disease (MRD) prior to bone marrow transplant may be effective and practical in patients in remission after receiving treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a recent study published by Dillon et al in JAMA Oncology. Study Methods and Results In the...
Glenn J. Hanna, MD, Director, Center for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation (Early Drug Development Program), medical oncologist at the Center for Head & Neck Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, was interviewed for his...
Although so-called liquid biopsies are now helping to determine the need for adjuvant therapy for a number of malignancies, oropharyngeal carcinoma is not yet one of them, according to a prospective pilot study from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The investigators evaluated the use of...
A blood-based, machine learning assay that combines cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentomes and protein biomarkers was able to differentiate patients with ovarian cancer from healthy controls at a high specificity of more than 99%, according to study results by Medina et al.1 It noninvasively recognized ...
Although KRAS was once considered an untargetable mutation, KRAS inhibitors are now approved for the treatment of KRAS-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and are emerging as a potential option for the treatment of KRAS G12C–mutated colorectal cancer in combination with other therapies....
Researchers have developed a novel artificial intelligence (AI) model that may accurately predict whether patients with cancer will respond to certain therapies, according to a recent study published by Sinha et al in Nature Cancer. The findings indicated that single-cell RNA sequencing data may be ...
A novel MDM2 inhibitor has demonstrated antitumor activity in progressive salivary cancer, particularly adenoid cystic carcinoma, according to data presented at the 2024 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium. Results of the phase I/II trial showed an overall response rate of 13% and a...
Ovarian cancer is the eighth most-common cancer among women globally, and the eighth most-common cause of death from cancer worldwide. In the United States alone, in 2023, there were nearly 20,000 new cases of the cancer, and about 13,270 deaths from the disease. Ovarian cancer is largely...
An investigational exosome-based liquid biopsy accurately detected 97% of stage I to II pancreatic cancers when combined with the biomarker CA 19-9, according to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024 (Abstract 3899). “Pancreatic cancer is one...
Certain proteogenomic signatures in the prostate cancers of men of African and European ancestries were associated with higher risk of metastasis and/or recurrence of the disease, according to a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024 (Abstract...
The novel poly-ADP ribose polymerase-1 (PARP1)-selective inhibitor saruparib demonstrated early efficacy and a favorable safety profile in patients with homologous recombination repair (HRR)-deficient breast cancer, according to new findings presented by Yap et al at the American Association for...
AZD1390, an ataxia telangiectasia mutant (ATM) kinase inhibitor, demonstrated a manageable safety profile in patients with both recurrent and newly diagnosed glioblastoma when given in combination with standard-of-care radiotherapy and showed preliminary efficacy in patients with recurrent...
Adding a personalized antitumor vaccine to the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab may be safe and about twice as effective at shrinking tumors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma compared with pembrolizumab alone, according to new findings presented by Yarchoan et al at the American Association for ...
Two recent studies have offered new insights into the treatment of muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma following cystectomy, according to findings presented by Powles et al and Galsky et al at the European Association of Urology Congress 2024. The research could allow physicians to target...
The risk of certain types of cancer may be higher in patients currently or previously diagnosed with tuberculosis, according to new findings to be presented by Kim et al at the upcoming 2024 European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual congress. Background...
In the phase II acelERA BC trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Miguel Martín, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the selective estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist and degrader giredestrant did not significantly improve progression-free survival vs physician’s choice of endocrine...
In an analysis of two trials (SCOT and IDEA-HORG) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Domingo et al identified the predictive value of Immunoscore for disease-free survival in patients with stage III colorectal cancer treated with adjuvant mFOLFOX6 (modified fluorouracil, leucovorin, and...
Anne Knisely, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses study findings showing that patients with ovarian cancer who undergo second-look laparoscopy and are found to have measurable residual disease (MRD) as well as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) after front-line therapy...