The drug metformin, which is approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, has been tested in clinical trials as a tumor suppressor in different cancers due to its role in activating the AMPK signaling pathway. However, a new study by Liu et al published in Proceedings of the National Academy of...
Overall survival was improved in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer through an innovative immunotherapy strategy in a multicenter study to be reported at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract 177). The results were announced at a press briefing prior to the meeting....
New data from a phase III clinical trial shows that patients with metastatic colorectal cancer tumors that contain RAS mutations beyond KRAS exon 2 are unlikely to benefit from the addition of panitumumab (Vectibix) to second-line FOLFIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil, irinotecan) chemotherapy....
New findings from a four-arm phase III clinical trial in patients with stage II or stage III rectal cancer indicate that combining preoperative radiation with either capecitabine or fluorouracil (5-FU) results in equivalent outcomes. This study provides strong clinical evidence that using either...
In a study reported as a research letter in JAMA, Sarna et al found that the prevalence of smoking among U.S. health-care professionals was 8.3% in 2010/2011, representing decreases of 23.4% since 2003 and 19.3% since 2006/2007. A previous study had shown no marked reduction in smoking rates among...
ALK and ROS1 gene rearrangements, which are known to drive subsets of lung cancer, appear to be present in some colorectal cancers as well, according to the results of a study published in Molecular Cancer Research. The findings by Aisner et al suggest that therapies used to target these two...
Chemoimmunotherapy has produced improved response and survival in young patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but its use in elderly patients has been limited by myelosuppression and infection. In a phase IB/II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, O’Brien et al assessed the use...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhao et al assessed factors associated with pain severity changes in ambulatory patients with solid tumors in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group E2Z02 (Symptom Outcomes and Practice Patterns) trial. They found that approximately...
In the ORBIT trial, reported in The Lancet, Andreyev et al compared outcomes with usual care, gastroenterologist-led algorithm-based management, and nurse-led algorithm-based management for patients with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms following pelvic radiotherapy for cancer. The findings...
In the ESRA-CII trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Berry et al, patient use of a Web-based self-care program featuring tailored education and communication coaching resulted in significantly reduced symptom distress compared with symptom/quality-of-life tracking alone in patients ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved trametinib (Mekinist) for use in combination with dabrafenib (Tafinlar) for the treatment of patients with unresectable melanoma or metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations. These mutations must be detected by an FDA-approved...
“Eliminating tobacco use is the most important thing we can do to prevent lung and other cancers, as well as the many other diseases its use causes. Today’s news confirms that we are making progress. However, the global health challenges from tobacco are still growing. “This new...
Tobacco control efforts are having a major impact on Americans’ health, a new analysis of lung cancer data suggests. The rate of new lung cancer cases decreased among men and women in the United States from 2005 to 2009, according to a report in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality...
A study of human bronchial epithelial cells carrying mutations in the TP53 and KRAS genes has found that e-cigarette vapors enhanced the cells’ cancerous behaviors. The study suggests that e-cigarette exposure may contribute to lung cancer in individuals at high risk for the disease. The...
There is evidence that high-dose interferon alfa-2b consisting of 4 weeks of daily intravenous interferon alfa-2b followed by 48 weeks of subcutaneous maintenance interferon alfa-2b three times per week reduces risk of recurrence of resected melanoma and that response may depend on the early...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Traeger et al evaluated risk of depression symptoms and psychosocial service use by race and sex among patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer. The investigators found that black men have the highest prevalence of depressive symptoms, white ...
In a noninferiority trial (SINS) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bath-Hextall et al compared imiquimod 5% cream vs surgical excision for nodular and superficial basal cell carcinomas. Imiquimod cream was found to be inferior to surgical excision, but it may have a role in treatment of low-risk...
Wider surgical margins did not reduce the rate of local recurrence in women with triple-negative breast cancer treated with breast-conserving therapy, according to the results of a study published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. Pilewskie et al reported that their data support the definition of ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved revised prescribing information and a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for ponatinib (Iclusig) that allows immediate resumption of its marketing and commercial distribution. The prescribing information includes a revised...
Approximately 40% of patients with Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma have tumor cells that express the type II latency Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antigens latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) and LMP2. T cells specific for these antigens are present in low levels and may be rendered nonreactive by the...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Pan et al assessed factors associated with noncompliance with recommended radiation therapy following breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer. A primary factor in underuse of radiation therapy was younger patients having...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sivendran et al assessed the degree to which publication of phase III trials in oncology conformed with CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) recommendations for reporting adverse events. They found that adverse event...
It has been posited that aspirin treatment may reduce risk for colorectal cancer through inhibition of WNT/cadherin-associated protein β1 (CTNNB1, or β-catenin) signaling. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Nan et al investigated the potential role of the ...
Patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and a poor performance status who were previously treated with docetaxel may benefit from currently available second-line therapies, according to the findings of a meta-analysis by Iacovelli et al published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic...
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...