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Showing 12451 - 12500Investigators Report Valganciclovir May Increase Survival in Glioblastoma
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, described experience with the anti-cytomegalovirus (CMV) agent valganciclovir (Valcyte) in the treatment of glioblastoma, citing dramatically improved...
No Apparent Benefit of Adjuvant Gefitinib in Resected NSCLC in Prematurely Closed Trial
As reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Glenwood D. Goss, MD, of the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Center, and colleagues, the prematurely closed NCIC CTG BR19 study showed no apparent survival benefit of adjuvant gefitinib (Iressa, withdrawn from U.S. market) vs placebo in patients with completely ...
Correctly Assessing Pain Progression and Quality-of-Life Deterioration in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
The therapeutic landscape for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer has changed dramatically in the past 4 years, as five new agents affecting different aspects of the malignant process were proven to prolong life. The results are a great benefit to patients, but at the same time...
Adding Abiraterone to Prednisone Significantly Prolongs Time to Pain Progression in Chemotherapy-Naive Men With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
An interim analysis of the COU-AA-302 phase III trial in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic chemotherapy-naive men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer showed that the addition of abiraterone (Zytiga) to prednisone significantly delayed radiographic progression and improved overall...
Similar High Complete Response Rate With Neoadjuvant Trastuzumab, Lapatinib, and Combined Therapy in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
In a phase III trial (NSABP B-41) performed to assess the potential benefit of neoadjuvant dual HER2 blockade in HER2-positive breast cancer, André Robidoux, MD, of Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, and colleagues in the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP)...
Adjuvant Trastuzumab Duration: When Is Enough, Enough?
The duration of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy for breast cancer has been a subject of investigation, scrutiny, and meta-analysis.1,2 With the appreciation that prolonged regimens of cytotoxic chemotherapy of, for example, 1 to 2 years in duration were not superior in reducing breast cancer...
Long-Term Follow-up of the HERA Trial Shows No Benefit of 2 Years vs 1 Year of Trastuzumab in Early Breast Cancer
As reported in The Lancet by Aron Goldhirsch, MD, of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy, and colleagues from the Breast International Group (BIG), the comparison of 1 vs 2 years of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer in the phase III HERA trial ...
Expert Point of View: Kenneth C. Anderson, MD
Commenting on the evidence for treating precursor myeloma in the study by Mateos et al,1 Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer ...
Treating Earlier to Avoid Progression to Multiple Myeloma
With an expanded list of drugs to treat multiple myeloma, experts are interested in whether treating precursor diseases to multiple myeloma can prevent progression to full-blown myeloma. In addition, new drugs are entering the armamentarium for treating multiple myeloma, noted Ruben Niesvizky, MD,...
Extended-Release Lanreotide Significantly Delays Disease Progression in Patients With Neuroendocrine Tumors in Large Phase III CLARINET Trial
A strong antiproliferative response was shown for the somatostatin analog lanreotide (subcutaneous, extended-release formulation, Somatuline Autogel [Somatuline Depot in the United States]) in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, in the large multinational prospective phase...
Expert Point of View: Sibylle Loibl, MD
Sibylle Loibl, MD, of the German Breast Group and the Klinikum Offenbach in Germany, discussed the NeoALTTO findings at the European Cancer Congress, noting that this trial is one of several studies that all point to one conclusion: Pathologic complete response rates are lower in HER2-positive...
PIK3CA-Mutant Tumors Not Likely to Respond to Neoadjuvant HER2 Blockade
In early breast cancer patients receiving anti-HER2 therapy in the NeoALTTO trial, mutations in PIK3CA were associated with lower rates of pathologic complete response, according to a study reported at the 2013 European Cancer Congress by José Baselga, MD, Physician-in-Chief at Memorial...
Radiotherapy Benefit in Young Women With Node-Positive Breast Cancer May Vary by Intrinsic Subtypes
Radiation therapy appears to significantly decrease local recurrence in premenopausal women with node-positive and luminal A tumors, based on an analysis of two small but independent randomized series reported at the 2013 European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam.1 “Though not definitive, our study...
Transplant Now or Later for High-Risk Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
The use of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic blood or marrow transplantation for high-risk aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been extensively evaluated over the past few decades. This treatment was originally used only for patients with relapsed aggressive lymphoma. However, as...
Autologous Transplantation as Consolidation Improves Progression-Free Survival in Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
The strategy of autologous stem-cell transplantation as consolidation in high-intermediate– or high-risk diffuse aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has not been specifically examined in the rituximab (Rituxan) era. In the phase III Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG)-led intergroup 9704 trial...
Consent Is Informed and Shared, But Is It Compassionate?
A 72-year-old, obese male patient and a poor operative candidate is diagnosed with esophageal carcinoma. He has multiple comorbidities and a past history of colon carcinoma. His staging workup, which included a colonoscopy, revealed recurrent colon carcinoma. Thus, we have a patient who we...
SIDEBAR: Shared Decisions: What Should We Expect?
There is growing interest by patients, policymakers, and clinicians in shared decision-making as a means to include patients in health decisions and translate patient evidence into clinical practice. Conceptually, sharing of information seems like a natural interplay between doctors and their...
Expert Point of View: Howard Hochster, MD
Addressing a presentation by Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, at the 2013 Chemotherapy Foundation, Howard Hochster, MD, Yale University Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, said he agrees with Dr. Kopetz about the need for expanded RAS testing. “Now we have two studies suggesting that tumors with all the...
Call for Expanded Genetic Profiling in Colorectal Cancer
Testing for codons 12 and 13 on the KRAS gene and BRAF testing can predict whether patients with colorectal cancer will respond to anti–epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapies. However, genetic alterations not captured by testing for KRAS codon 12 and 13 mutations may play an important...
Role of Autologous Stem Cell Transplant in High-Risk NHL
As described in the December 15 issue of The ASCO Post, Stiff and colleagues treated patients with high-intermediate– or high-risk diffuse, aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma with five cycles of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) or CHOP plus rituximab (Rituxan)....
Janet L. Rowley, MD, Matriarch of Modern Cancer Genetics, Dies at Age 88
Dr. Janet L. Rowley’s groundbreaking research in the translocation of genetic material bucked scientific convention and heralded a new understanding that cancer is indeed a genetic disease. Her research was largely responsible for the discoveries that led to the development of the targeted cancer...
African Americans Report Receiving Few Positive Recommendations by Physicians About Joining Clinical Trial
A study among African American patients with cancer who had declined to participate in a therapeutic clinical trial found that few patients reported receiving a positive recommendation from their physician to participate in the trial. “Patients gave multiple refusal reasons,” researchers led by...
Using Hyperthermia for Cancer Treatment: Proofs, Promises, and Uncertainties
With the headline, “Rare Cancer Treatments, Cleared by F.D.A. but Not Subject to Scrutiny,” a recent article in The New York Times reported that several medical centers were treating patients with cancer using a hyperthermia system that had received a Humanitarian Use Device approval from the U.S....
Oncology Meetings
January 2014 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers SymposiumJanuary 16-18 • San Francisco, CaliforniaFor more information: www.gicasym.org 10th Annual Clinical Breakthroughs and Challenges in Hematologic MalignanciesJanuary 18 • Orlando, FloridaFor more information:...
With the Goal of Curing Cancer, Ezra M. Greenspan, MD, Helped Usher in the Modern Era of Chemotherapy
Two events in Ezra M. Greenspan’s early adult life convinced him to pursue a career in medicine: the death of a college friend from pneumonia when the two were students at Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences and his own bout with the disease soon after. Saved by a local physician who...
Assessing Patients for Palliative Care
In 2012, ASCO issued a provisional clinical opinion addressing the integration of palliative care services into standard oncology practice at the time a patient is diagnosed with metastatic or advanced cancer and for patients with uncontrolled symptoms.1 However, despite ASCO’s provisional clinical ...
Stress and Tumor Biology: Insights Into Managing Stress to Help Improve Cancer Care
Stress is ubiquitous in our society, especially for people diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. There is a common misconception that stress is derived from a particular negative event. However, the event itself (the stressors, such as cancer diagnoses and treatment) does not causes stress....
Cancer Is in My Soul
The threat of getting cancer began for me before I was born. In 1950, when my mother was pregnant with me, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and refused treatment until after she gave birth, so I have always felt that cancer was woven into my soul. For the first year of my life, I was raised by...
Developing Intermediate Endpoints in Immunotherapy
“The immune system holds tremendous potential for long-term sustained antitumor activity,” said James P. Allison, PhD, Immunology Chair, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, as he opened a panel discussion at a meeting cosponsored by the Friends of Cancer Research and the...
Activation of Innovative Lung Cancer Master Protocol Officially Announced, Enrollment to Begin in March
At a recent meeting in Washington, DC, Friends of Cancer Research and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution officially announced activation of the Lung Cancer Master Protocol, a new research strategy that has the potential to hurdle or bypass known clinical trial...
Diagnosing and Treating Chronic Mucocutaneous Graft-vs-Host Disease
Chronic graft-vs-host disease is a major cause of late, nonrelapse death following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In addition, chronic graft-vs-host disease results in significant functional impairment and decreased quality of life for long-term survivors of stem cell...
ASCO Announces Election Results for Terms Beginning June 2014
In addition to the election of Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, as President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for a 1-year term beginning in June 2015 (see page 85), ASCO has announced four new members who were recently elected to the ASCO Board of Directors and two new members...
Adjuvant Gefitinib in Patients With NSCLC: Bad Idea or Wrong Patient Selection?
Despite optimal surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin-based doublets, the 5-year overall survival for patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains suboptimal. In the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) staging project, the...
Sorafenib in Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma
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. New Indication On November 22, 2013, sorafenib (Nexavar) was...
Inhibition of LAT Transporters and Leucine Uptake: A Step Forward for Therapeutic Strategies in Prostate Cancer
The seminal study by Wang and colleagues reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post suggests a potential new therapeutic option in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. The authors draw attention to the reliance of cancer cells on...
L-Type Amino Acid Transporters (LAT) Inhibition May Be a New Therapeutic Option for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
L-type amino acid transporters (LATs) uptake neutral amino acids including L-leucine into cells, stimulating mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling and protein synthesis. LAT1 and LAT3 are overexpressed at different stages of prostate cancer and are involved in increasing nutrients and stimulating cell...
ASCO Celebrates 50 Years of Advancing Progress Against Cancer
Fifty years ago, cancer was viewed as a monolithic and largely untreatable disease, with only a handful of hard-to-tolerate and mostly ineffective therapies available. Stigma and silence left many patients with cancer with little support or information. Determined to change this, a group of seven...
Ongoing NCI-Funded Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Advanced Cancer
This issue of The ASCO Post launches a Clinical Trials Resource Guide to increase awareness of NCI-funded phase I, II, and III clinical studies for your patients with advanced cancer. All of the studies are listed on the National Institutes of Health website at ClinicalTrials.gov. The clinical...
Cautious Comments on the TARGIT-A Trial
Numerous randomized trials have demonstrated that whole-breast irradiation plays an important role after breast-conserving surgery for invasive breast cancer. A recent meta-analysis of these trials indicated that whole-breast irradiation decreased the risk of total breast cancer relapse events and...
Targeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy Plus Lumpectomy Noninferior to External-Beam Radiotherapy in Preventing Breast Cancer Recurrence
In the randomized noninferiority TARGIT-A trial reported in The Lancet, Jayant S. Vaidya, PhD, FRCS, and Michael Baum, MD, FRCS, of University College London, and colleagues compared risk-adapted radiotherapy using single-dose targeted intraoperative radiotherapy vs fractionated external-beam...
IFM 2005-02 Update Differs From CALGB 100104: Why?
The updated analysis of the Intergroupe Francophone du Myelome (IFM) 2005-02 trial in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients showed that lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance prolongs progression-free survival after stem cell transplantation, but does not improve overall survival, according to...
Overall Survival Improved by Adding Panitumumab to FOLFOX4 but Only in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Without RAS Mutation
Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that harbors KRAS mutations in exon 2 and patients with other activating RAS mutations do not benefit from anti–epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapy and may in fact be harmed by it. In an analysis reported in The New England Journal of Medicine ...
Tivozanib Improves Progression-Free but Not Overall Survival vs Sorafenib in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
The investigational agent tivozanib is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-1, -2, and -3. In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Robert J. Motzer, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and...
Can Postoperative Radiotherapy Be Avoided in Older Women With Early Breast Cancer and High Estrogen Receptor Expression?
A more conservative approach that avoids radiation therapy seems to be a reasonable option for a subgroup of older women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer at low risk of recurrence. Overall outcomes were similar with or without radiation in older women with hormone receptor–positive...
HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients With Small Tumors Benefit From Low-Toxicity Regimen
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors—a breast cancer subset for whom treatment recommendations have not been established but for whom there is still risk of recurrence—and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San...
Seven Studies at SABCS Make Dr. Jame Abraham's List of 'Practice-Changing' Talks
From December 10 to 14, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and Baylor College of Medicine once again hosted the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), presenting...
Mounting Success in Trials of Genetically Engineered T Cells to Treat Leukemias and Lymphomas
Reports have been trickling in from centers conducting research on the use of chimeric antigen receptor–modified T cells (CAR-T) in hematologic cancer, and the news is encouraging. When directed against CD19, such personalized therapeutic T cells are known as CTL019, and small pilot trials of this...
Risk-Based Breast Cancer Screening: Studies Suggest Alternatives to Age-Based Guidelines
Measuring certain hormone levels could help determine a woman’s risk for breast cancer and add a key factor to current risk-prediction models, according to investigators from Harvard Medical School. Their new study results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
Continuous Lenalidomide/Low-Dose Dexamethasone: A New Option for Older Patients With Newly Diagnosed Myeloma
First-line treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma using the Rd regimen (continuous lenalidomide [Revlimid] plus low-dose dexamethasone) was superior to standard triplet treatment with MPT (melphalan, prednisone, and thalidomide [Thalomid]) for 72 weeks, according to initial results of the...
Oncology Meetings
FEBRUARY 25th International Congress on Anti-Cancer TreatmentFebruary 4-6 • Paris, FranceFor more information: www.icact.fr APOS 11th Annual ConferenceFebruary 13-15 • Tampa, FloridaFor more information:www.apos-society.org/apos2014/ European Society for Medical Oncology Sarcoma and GIST...
