The addition of carboplatin to a neoadjuvant regimen significantly increased the rate of pathologic complete response in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. The results from the CALGB/Alliance 40603 study were reported at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S5-01)....
Adjuvant use of bisphosphonates reduced the risk of bone recurrence by 34% and the risk of breast cancer death by 17% in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer in a large meta-analysis conducted by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG). The potentially...
In postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy, low-dose tamoxifen did not significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer but did increase climacteric symptoms, according to the phase III study results presented by DeCensi et al in the Annals of Oncology. However, beneficial trends...
Bevacizumab (Avastin) failed to extend invasive disease–free survival when added to trastuzumab (Herceptin)-directed adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer in the phase III BETH trial. Although not specifically designed to answer this question, BETH also...
A high proportion of mantle cell lymphoma patients may achieve an objective and durable response to treatment with an initial chemotherapy-free regimen, according to Jia Ruan, MD, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, who presented the results of a multicenter phase II study at the 55th...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Shiels et al identified 11 circulating inflammation markers significantly associated with lung cancer risk. A risk score using four of the markers distinguished risk levels among current and former smokers. Study Details This...
The monoclonal antibody gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) improved event-free survival and reduced the risk of relapse in children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in a study from the Children’s Oncology Group, presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and...
Years after receiving treatment, many patients who survive prostate cancer continue to experience treatment-related symptoms, according to the findings of a study by Darwish-Yassine et al published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship. These findings highlight the need for improvements in survivor ...
Development of autologous genetically engineered anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T cells holds promise in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. CAR T cells are being studied in adult and pediatric acute lymphocytic leukemias and in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and...
Patients receiving crizotinib (Xalkori) for the treatment of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non?small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had reductions in their estimated glomerular filtration rate, according to the findings of a study by Brosnan et al published in the journal Cancer. In the...
In a study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, George et al evaluated radiation treatment characteristics and outcomes among head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients receiving adjuvant external-beam radiation therapy at an academic center vs other institutions....
Available data indicate that lymph node involvement predicts failure at primary and distant sites after chemoradiation for head and neck cancer. In a study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Ranck et al assessed the impact of postradiotherapy neck dissection on local and...
The results from the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)-led Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI) project show that due to a lack of access to essential opioids, more than 4 billion people—over half the world’s population—live in countries where regulatory barriers,...
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Smith-Bindman et al evaluated the ability of ultrasound imaging characteristics to determine risk of thyroid cancer associated with thyroid nodules. They found that a strategy of using two abnormal nodule characteristics as an indication for biopsy...
PARP inhibition appears to be an effective way to shrink PTEN-deficient endometrial tumors with low levels of estrogen but is ineffective in those with high levels of estrogen, according to preclinical study results reported by Janzen et al in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. The findings suggest...
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Wernli et al evaluated use of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the community setting from 2005 to 2009. They found that although recommended use of MRI for screening of high-risk women is increasing, considerable progress is needed in...
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Stout et al assessed use of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the community setting from 2000 to 2011. They found a steep increase in use in screening and surveillance, with most women not meeting American Cancer Society (ACS) criteria for...
A team of researchers looking into the interplay of the immune system and cancer have found a link between a history of airborne allergies—in particular to plants, grass, and trees—with risk of blood cancers in women. The same association was not found in men, suggesting a possible...
In a study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Neil Bhattacharyya, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Elliot Abemayor, MD, PhD, of David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, analyzed recent patterns of hospitalization for head and neck...
An investigational prostate cancer treatment slows the disease’s progression and may increase survival, especially among men whose cancer has spread to the bones, according an analysis led by the Duke Cancer Institute. The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, adds...
Combining gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) with conventional chemotherapy may improve the outcome of bone marrow transplantation for some children battling high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The results appear in the...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jia-Xing Zhang, MD, of Sun Yat-sen University, and colleagues identified a six-microRNA (miRNA) signature that predicted risk of recurrence after surgery for stage II colon cancer and that may help to identify patients most likely to benefit from adjuvant ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Susan Halabi, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues developed and validated a prognostic model predicting prostate cancer survival in patients receiving second-line chemotherapy for castration-resistant...
The choice and timing of therapeutic interventions may significantly affect the quality of life of young breast cancer survivors in the short term, although other quality-of-life domains such as family relationships may not be negatively impacted after treatment. These findings were reported by...
In a study reported in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Emma C. Fields, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed the stage-specific management of male breast cancer with surgery and radiation therapy and related them to outcomes...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Boris Böll, MD, of University Hospital Cologne, and colleagues analyzed second-line treatment and survival in older patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma in German Hodgkin Study Group first-line studies. Use of a...
Data suggest that Src kinase-mediated interactions between prostate cancer cells and osteoclasts might promote bone metastasis and that the Src kinase inhibitor dasatinib (Sprycel) might exhibit synergy with docetaxel in prostate cancer. In a phase III trial (READY) reported in The Lancet Oncology, ...
Results of a Johns Hopkins study may explain why cyclophosphamide prevents graft-vs-host disease in people who receive bone marrow transplants. The experiments point to an immune system cell that evades the toxic effects of cyclophosphamide and protects patients from a lethal form of graft-vs-host...
The use of assay-sensitive treatment significantly improved both progression-free survival and overall survival compared with nonsensitive treatment in women with recurrent ovarian cancer, according to the results of a prospective clinical trial reported in Gynecologic Oncology. Thomas Rutherford,...
History of severe acne, which is a surrogate for high androgen activity, has been associated with increased risk of prostate cancer and recent data suggest that severe teenage acne is a risk factor for melanoma. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wen-Qing Li, PhD, of the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oriana Yu, MD, of Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, and colleagues assessed the association of statin use with prostate cancer mortality and all-cause mortality in men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer. They found that postdiagnostic ...
Use of a minimally invasive endoscopic procedure to remove superficial, early-stage esophageal cancer is as effective as surgery that takes out and rebuilds the esophagus, according to a study by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida. The research, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and...
Preliminary results of an ongoing clinical trial suggest that the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf)—indicated for the treatment of metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600E mutation—may have an important role in the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. The cornerstone of therapy for this...
Recommended treatment for most stage I rectal cancers is total mesorectal excision. However, local excision is considered an alternative for T1 tumors that are < 30% of the bowel circumference, < 3 cm in size, mobile, well to moderately differentiated, and lack lymphovascular invasion in...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, Zehra B. Omer, BA, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues assessed how the description of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) affected selection of treatment options. They found significant differences in treatment...
Novocure announced today that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its NovoTAL (Transducer Array Layout) System through a Premarket Approval supplement. The NovoTAL System allows certified physicians to use the individual magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for use in combination with chlorambucil (Leukeran) to treat patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Obinutuzumab is the first drug with Breakthrough Therapy designation to receive FDA...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked the manufacturer of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib (Iclusig) to suspend marketing and sales of the drug because of the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. Ariad Pharmaceuticals has agreed to...
Standardized criteria for initiating palliative care consultations can substantially improve the care of patients with advanced solid tumors, according to research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, led by Kerin Adelson, MD, Coordinator for Ambulatory Oncology Quality for the Tisch...
A new educational tool for oncologists may enhance compliance with quality care standards and improve the value of cancer care, ultimately resulting in big cost savings for health-care systems, according to Karen Fields, MD, and colleagues from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute,...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today announced its second “Top Five” list of opportunities to improve the quality and value of cancer care. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), ASCO’s second Top Five list was released as part of the Choosing...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jean M. Mitchell, PhD, of Georgetown University, examined patterns of use of intensity-modulated radiation therapy to treat prostate cancer among urologists in private practice who have integrated intensity-modulated radiation therapy into ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved hydrocodone bitartrate extended-release capsules (Zohydro ER) for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate. The drug, a Schedule ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Patricia G. Moorman, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues evaluated risk of ovarian and breast cancer among oral contraceptive users with BRCA1/2 mutations. The study showed a significantly reduced risk of ovarian...
Treating aggressive lung cancer with the diabetes drug metformin along with radiation and chemotherapy may slow tumor growth and recurrence, suggested new preliminary findings from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings will be presented by...
Risk and risk factors for congestive heart failure in older breast cancer patients receiving trastuzumab have not been clearly defined. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating an increasing frequency of reports of serious and life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels of patients taking the antileukemia drug ponatinib (Iclusig). Ponatinib is indicated for the treatment of patients with...
An international research team led by scientists from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center has discovered a genetic mutation linked to low-risk bladder cancer. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, identified STAG2 as one of the most commonly mutated genes in bladder cancer,...
Survivorship care plans, consisting of treatment summaries and follow-up plans, are intended to promote coordination of post-treatment cancer care, but little is known about how they are being used in routine oncology practice. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer...
A simple blood test that measures serum free fatty acids and their metabolites may detect early-stage lung cancer and its recurrence, according to a study from The Cleveland Clinic presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco (Abstract A4267). The study was presented ...