The formal discussant of this trial, Axel Bex, MD, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, was cautious in interpreting these results to be practice-changing. “I congratulate the investigators for the first-ever positive trial for adjuvant treatment of renal cell carcinoma,” he...
Sunitinib (Sutent) improved disease-free survival by more than 1 year when used as adjuvant treatment for high-risk locoregional renal cell carcinoma following nephrectomy, but with the cost of toxicity. S-TRAC is the first phase III trial showing a benefit for adjuvant therapy in renal cell...
Cabozantinib (Cabometyx) improved progression-free survival and response rates in patients with untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma compared with the standard of care, sunitinib (Sutent), according to the results of a phase II multicenter randomized trial called CABOSUN reported at the 2016...
On October 14, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its final policy on what physicians need to do to begin implementing the Quality Payment Program outlined in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The Quality Payment Program is a...
Corey J. Langer, MD, Director of Thoracic Oncology and Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, discussed the OAK study with The ASCO Post. Robust Data “In some ways, the OAK data are some of the most robust we have seen in the second-line setting. For ...
The programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq) significantly improved overall survival, compared to docetaxel, in previously treated, advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to preliminary results of the phase III OAK study. The findings are the first...
A study by University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers has found that younger, uninsured women in North Carolina had higher odds of missing a 60-day window for getting follow-up after an abnormal mammogram, even though research underscores the importance of ...
On November 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a New Drug Application (NDA) for filing and granted Priority Review for ribociclib (LEE011) as first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2...
The addition of norethandrolone as maintenance therapy improved survival in patients aged ≥ 60 years with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a French phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Pigneux et al. In the open-label trial, 330 patients with de novo AML or...
In a study of data from men in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kelly et al found that body mass index (BMI) increases during adulthood that lead to obesity are associated with an increased risk of...
Medical researchers at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington have found evidence for a link between prostate cancer, which affects millions of men aged 50 and older, and Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects children and young adults. The results of the study, reported by Kedage et al...
Mir et al found that regorafenib (Stivarga) was active in patients with advanced nonadipocytic soft-tissue sarcoma previously treated with an anthracycline, according to a French-Austrian phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology. Regorafenib should be evaluated further in this setting, the...
In a new report published by Young et al in Cancer Medicine, a two-gene circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) blood test for postsurgical monitoring of colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence has been shown to detect twice the number of recurrence cases as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) testing, a standard of...
On October 24, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) as determined by an FDA-approved test. This is the...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Goss et al found that osimertinib produced a high response rate in EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor–pretreated EGFR Thr790Met (T790M)–positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Osimertinib is an EGFR tyrosine kinase...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended that 11- to 12-year-olds receive 2 doses of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at least 6 months apart rather than the previously recommended 3 doses to protect against cancers caused by HPV infections. Teens and young adults who ...
Merck announced October 21, 2016, that the phase III KEYNOTE-045 trial investigating the use of pembrolizumab (Keytruda), the company’s anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) therapy in patients with previously treated advanced urothelial cancer, met the primary endpoint of overall ...
In an Australian trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dieng et al found that use of a psychoeducational intervention reduced the fear of cancer recurrence and stress among patients at high risk of developing a second primary melanoma. Study Details In the trial, 164 patients from 3 ...
A phase II study has found venetoclax (Venclexta) to be clinically active in patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) or those unfit for intensive chemotherapy, with an overall response rate of 19% and a tolerable safety profile. The study results, which were...
Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy and open radical retropubic prostatectomy yielded similar domain-specific quality-of-life or pathologic outcomes at 12 weeks in men with newly diagnosed, clinically localized prostate cancer, according to the results of a randomized phase III trial reported ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Laura Q. Chow, MD, of the University of Washington, and colleagues, a fixed-dose reduced-frequency pembrolizumab (Keytruda) regimen produced durable responses in the phase IB KEYNOTE-012 expansion cohort of patients with recurrent or metastatic...
Next-generation sequencing of recurrent or metastatic head and neck tumors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) has provided insight into the molecular characteristics of these tumors, which may aid in the implementation of precision treatment. Luc G. Morris, MD, MSc, of Memorial Sloan...
Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing is recommended in all resource settings; visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) may be used in the basic setting as a “stepping stone” that helps build health service capacity until HPV testing becomes available. Although cotesting with HPV and Papanicolaou...
OCTOBER 16th Biennial Meeting of the International Gynecologic Cancer SocietyOctober 29-31 • Lisbon, PortugalFor more information:http://igcs2016.com NOVEMBER 2016 Oncofertility Conference: Expanding Access to Emerging and Existing Oncofertility ServicesNovember 1-3 • Chicago, Illinois For more...
Dexamethasone mouth rinse should be given prophylactically to prevent stomatitis associated with everolimus (Afinitor)/exemestane in metastatic breast cancer, according to Hope S. Rugo, MD, principal investigator of the SWISH trial and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at...
Palliative care is slowly but surely being integrated into the treatment of patients with solid tumors, but its role in the hematopoietic stem cell transplant setting is still lagging, speakers said at the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium. “There is a huge symptom burden among patients...
Question 1: Which statement about donor selection for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant is correct? Correct Answer: C. If a donor is available, the genotypic identity between the patient and his brother should be established by typing the patient’s parents; if this is not possible, the...
Case Study A 33-year-old white male is diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with complex cytogenetics. A decision is made in favor of performing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in first complete remission. The patient has a 35-year-old brother who is healthy and motivated to...
Scientific Names: Sulfydryl proteolytic enzyme, cysteine proteinase Common Names: Ananase, Dayto Anase, Traumanase Overview Derived from the fruits and stems of pineapples, bromelain is a proteolytic enzyme that is used to treat burns and skin conditions, and as an anti-inflammatory agent....
The rise in the incidence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2011 was not solely attributable to a rise in the incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive disease, according to a study published in Cancer Research,1 which reported that the proportion of ...
Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and tumors harboring the BRAF V600E mutation who received triple therapy with dabrafenib (Tafinlar), trametinib (Mekinist), and panitumumab (Vectibix) showed an improved best overall response and prolonged progression-free survival compared to...
Findings from a phase II trial of vemurafenib in previously treated patients with advanced disease and BRAF-mutated tumors indicate that the drug is effective in patients with diverse BRAF V600–mutated tumors but not in patients with BRAF non-V600 mutations. After a mean treatment...
The field of cancer vaccines may be reinvigorated by a new understanding, and the therapeutic leveraging, of neoantigens. Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are exploring this novel approach as a means of protecting patients with high-risk melanoma from recurrence. Early...
In an analysis from the phase IB KEYNOTE-001 trial, Daud et al found that the level of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression was associated with outcomes of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) treatment in patients with advanced melanoma. These findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical...
In the phase III CheckMate 141 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Ferris et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) increased overall survival vs standard therapies in patients with recurrent platinum-refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Study Details In this...
Ever since the landmark studies of Griffiths and colleagues in the 1970s,1 primary cytoreductive surgery followed by chemotherapy with the objective of achieving minimal residual disease has been the standard approach for women with advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer. However, what is...
As reported by Alexi A. Wright, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO and the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) have released a clinical practice guideline on neoadjuvant therapy for patients with newly diagnosed stage IIIC or IV...
The paper’s invited discussant was Olivier Michielin, MS, MD, PhD, Head of Personalized Analytical Oncology and the Melanoma Clinic at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland. He called the findings of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment (EORTC) 18071 trial a “new landmark in...
Patients with stage III melanoma who were considered to be at high risk for recurrence derived an overall survival benefit from adjuvant treatment with ipilimumab (Yervoy), although it came at the price of considerable toxicity, according to updated survival results from the phase III European...
“Early intervention might prevent lymphedema progression,” Alphonse Taghian, MD, PhD, said at the 18th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago, but the lack of a universal definition of lymphedema and agreement on how to optimally measure it impedes phase III studies to test that...
In the phase III S-TRAC trial reported at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ravaud et al, adjuvant sunitinib (Sutent) significantly prolonged disease-free survival vs placebo in patients with high-risk renal cell carcinoma after...
A pooled analysis from three clinical trials in advanced melanoma shows that although patients treated with nivolumab and nivolumab plus ipilimumab with ≥ 5% programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) tumor expression have similar progression-free survival, durable response rates were higher for the...
Two separate randomized trials presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) affirmed the value of stereotactic radiosurgery as an option for postoperative treatment of the surgical cavity of resected brain metastases, potentially avoiding the cognitive...
Giving patients larger fractions of radiation over shorter periods (ie, hypofractionation) is gaining ground in several types of cancers. This approach is attractive for patients’ convenience, shortening treatment and travel times, and also for resource utilization. Several studies have shown that ...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On September 13, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
The investigational immunotherapeutic IMC-20D7S was found to be well tolerated and somewhat active in patients with advanced melanoma, including one complete response, according to the results of a phase I/Ib trial reported by Khalil et al in Clinical Cancer Research. IMD-20D7S is a...
On October 18, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy. Patients with EGFR or ALK genomic...
In 2014, the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) published a “Consensus Guideline on Margins for Breast-Conserving Surgery With Whole-Breast Irradiation in Stages I and II Invasive Breast Cancer.”1 A multidisciplinary expert guideline used a...
A clinical practice guideline on margins for breast-conserving surgery with whole-breast irradiation in ductal carcinoma in situ has been jointly developed by the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and ASCO.1-3 The recommendations were...
Dear Presidential Candidates: Wouldn’t it be great if history’s Alexander the Great was actually Dr. Alexander Fleming, the doctor-scientist who saved millions of lives by discovering penicillin, rather than the other Alexander, who conquered and killed thousands of innocent people? Wouldn’t it be...