In an observational study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kelly et al found that overall survival was similar with upfront surgery and definitive chemoradiotherapy among patients with newly diagnosed cT1–2 N1–2b human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma....
“These results are interesting, important, and relevant for maintenance post chemotherapy, but if we are not using chemotherapy, they may not be relevant,” said Richard Furman, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York. He said that newer drugs such as...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for the treatment of patients with marginal zone lymphoma who require systemic therapy and have received at least one prior anti–CD20-based therapy. Accelerated approval was granted for this indication based on...
In a phase Ib study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Seymour et al found that the combination of the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab (Rituxan) was highly active in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia...
Scientists have been able to validate the recently proposed five-tiered system of Gleason grade grouping using population-based data. The study, led by Grace Lu-Yao, PhD, MPH, Associate Director for Population Science at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University and Vice...
Phase I clinical trial data published by Moulder-Thompson et al in Clinical Cancer Research reported that the investigational anticancer agent tucatinib (formerly ONT-380) showed 'notable activity' in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer with . The 50 women treated had disease...
In an analysis from the Canadian Cancer Trials Group MAP.3 chemoprevention trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Meggetto et al found that worsening of overall menopause-specific quality of life was associated with early discontinuation of study treatment in high-risk postmenopausal...
Real-world data from a large observational study suggests that omitting surgery in strictly selected patients with a clinical complete response does not compromise outcomes in rectal cancer. The 3-year survival rate among patients who received “watch-and-wait” care after initial cancer...
A new analysis of the CALGB 80405 (Alliance) trial suggests that people with metastatic colorectal cancer who are more physically active fare better than those who are less active. In a large clinical trial, patients who at the time of starting chemotherapy reported engaging in physical activity...
Findings from a federally funded clinical trial—CALGB 80803 (Alliance)—point to a new way to improve the outlook for patients with esophageal cancer: using positron-emission tomography (PET) scans to assess tumor response to initial chemotherapy may allow doctors to tailor further...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gibson et al found that clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential at the time of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients with lymphoma was associated with an increased risk of poorer outcomes. Study Details In the...
As some national guidelines now recommend against routine prostate cancer screening, the overall rate of men receiving treatment for the disease declined 42% between 2007 and 2012, a new study published by Borza et al in Health Affairs found. The decline reflects efforts to decrease overdiagnosis...
On January 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) and granted Priority Review for atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who are ineligible for cisplatin...
In a biomarker analysis of the CATCH trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Khorana et al found that elevated circulating tissue factor levels were associated with an increased risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism in cancer patients on anticoagulant therapy. CATCH was a randomized ...
A new study published in JAMA reported that patients with bone metastases due to breast cancer, prostate cancer, or multiple myeloma who used zoledronic acid every 12 weeks compared with every 4 weeks did not have in an increased risk of skeletal events over 2 years. In this study, Andrew L....
The final results of the international phase III ORCHARD study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by van Imhoff et al, showed no difference in progression-free survival with the addition of ofatumumab (Arzerra) vs rituximab (Rituxan) to cisplatin, cytarabine, and dexamethasone (O-DHAP vs ...
In a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jackson et al found that overall survival with sorafenib (Nexavar) in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly improved vs comparator treatments among patients who were both hepatitis B virus (HBV)-negative and hepatitis C...
In the phase III SWOG S0777 trial reported in The Lancet, Durie et al found that adding bortezomib (Velcade) to lenalidomide (Revlimid)/dexamethasone improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed myeloma who were not planned for immediate autologous stem cell...
A new Yale study suggested that patients with a common form of lung cancer may still benefit from delayed chemotherapy started up to 4 months after surgery, according to the researchers. The study was published by Salazar et al in JAMA Oncology. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of...
Depending on the type of treatment older patients with lung cancer receive, they can spend an average of 1 in 3 days interacting with the health-care system in the first 60 days after surgery or radiation therapy, according to a study by Yale researchers. These findings were published by Presley in ...
In a National Cancer Database analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Seisen et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy after radical nephroureterectomy was associated with an overall survival benefit in patients with locally advanced or regional lymph node–positive upper tract...
A steady decline over more than 2 decades has resulted in a 25% drop in the overall cancer death rate in the United States. The drop equates to 2.1 million fewer cancer deaths between 1991 and 2014. The news comes from "Cancer Statistics, 2017," the American Cancer Society’s...
In a prospective longitudinal study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Janelsins et al found that nearly half of women with breast cancer reported a clinically significant decline in cognitive function from before to after chemotherapy, compared with only 10% of age-matched noncancer...
As reported by Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, of the City of Hope Medical Center, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline update on the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care. This update of a 2012 ASCO provisional clinical...
In a Dutch trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rutten et al found that initial diagnostic laparoscopy can prevent futile primary cytoreductive surgery in patients with suspected advanced-stage ovarian cancer. Study Details In the trial, 201 women who were qualified for primary...
As more cost pressures are placed on the health-care system, and the transition to value-based care gains momentum, the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ (ACCC) 7th annual Trends in Cancer Programs survey revealed critical challenges and emerging trends in U.S. cancer programs. The...
Mutations that have been linked to endometrial cancer can be found in the uterine lavage fluid of pre- and postmenopausal women both with and without detectable cancer, according to a study published by Nair et al in PLOS Medicine. “Today, there are no effective screening methods for...
On January 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review status for the supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for regorafenib (Stivarga) tablets for the second-line systemic treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in the United States. “Liver cancer is ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Pearlman et al found that 16% of patients with early-onset colorectal cancer had germline cancer susceptibility mutations, with a wide array of such mutations being identified. The study involved 450 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age < 50...
In a new study published by Jagsi et al in JAMA Surgery, nearly half of patients with early-stage breast cancer considered having double mastectomy, and one in six received it—including many who were at low risk of developing a second breast cancer. Many patients who chose double...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Knight et al of the Children’s Oncology Group found that the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Ototoxicity (SIOP) scale may be more sensitive than other classification systems in detecting ototoxicity in children...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gray et al found that most people receiving cancer-related data through direct-to-consumer personal genomic testing tended not to change health or screening behaviors when an elevated risk was identified. The study involved baseline and...
In a phase III METLung trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Spigel et al found that adding the MET inhibitor onartuzumab to erlotinib (Tarceva) was of no benefit in patients with MET-positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had progressed after platinum-based...
Venous thromboembolism is a serious—and sometimes fatal—complication of cancer and chemotherapy treatment. Since breast cancer is one of the most common cancers, it accounts for a large number of cancer-related cases of venous thromboembolism. Routine thromboprophylaxis, however, is not recommended ...
Maintenance olaparib (Lynparza) appeared to be associated with an overall survival benefit vs placebo in women with platinum-sensitive serous ovarian cancer and BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, according to an updated analysis of a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Jonathan A. Ledermann,...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Glenwood Goss, MD, of The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, University of Ottawa, and colleagues found that osimertinib produced a high response rate in EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor–pretreated EGFR Thr790Met (T790M)–positive advanced non–small...
A large population-based observational study by Xabier García-Albéniz, MD, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and colleagues evaluating the effectiveness and safety of screening colonoscopy for the prevention of colorectal cancer in people aged 70 to 74 and 75 to 79 has found...
R. Daniel Beauchamp, MD, Chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences and the John Clinton Foshee Distinguished Professor of Surgery at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, has been selected to receive the 2016 Dr. Rodman E. and Thomas G. Sheen Award from the New Jersey American College of Surgeons...
A study finding that there is no clear cutoff age to stop breast cancer screening has received national coverage in newspapers and CNN as well as in health and medical publications. “I am glad this is catching fire, because it really needs to be out there,” Cindy S. Lee, MD, the study’s lead...
An analysis of data from nearly 6 million screening mammograms found no evidence for a clear cutoff age to stop breast cancer screening. Screening mammography among women aged 75 years was associated with higher cancer detection and lower recall rates than among younger women in the study. These...
One of the featured “Big Debates” at the 2016 World Cancer Congress in Paris addressed this question: Are scarce resources best applied to prevention rather than treatment? Many experts do not see prevention vs treatment in such stark terms or even as a realistic scenario. It’s a false dichotomy,...
The prevalence of both cancer and cognitive impairment increases with age.1-3 Based upon Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare studies, it is estimated that 3% to 7% of patients with cancer aged ≥ 65 also suffer from dementia, although the true prevalence of dementia in this...
The following five abstracts were chosen as the best submitted studies presented at this year’s International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO). They represent a diverse group of integrative therapies and interventions in the care of patients with cancer, including an...
Press conference moderator Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tennessee, said that buparlisib will probably not be clinically useful, partly because it crosses the blood-brain barrier , thus causing mood disorders, and is not an ideal phosphoinositide 3-kinase...
The pan-phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor buparlisib combined with fulvestrant (Faslodex) prolonged progression-free survival compared with placebo and fulvestrant in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer previously treated with an...
Myles Brown, MD, Director of the Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, suggested the failure of the endocrine therapy to increase the pathologic complete response rates “may be related to the fact that the aromatase inhibitor was not the optimal...
As neoadjuvant therapy, abemaciclib alone or in combination with anastrozole achieved strong signals of anticancer activity in postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer in the neoMONARCH phase II study.1 Abemaciclib alone or in combination with anastrozole...
Results of this trial have been anticipated for a long time. Women were enrolled between 2000 and 2008,” said Leif Ellisen, MD, PhD, Program Director of Breast Medical Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston. Regarding the survival advantage in triple-negative...
Young women who carry the BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 mutation and develop breast cancer seem to have similar survival compared with young women who have BRCA-negative breast cancer. However, women with BRCA-positive triple-negative breast cancer have an 11% survival advantage compared with those with...
Researchers working on whole-exome and transciptome sequencing of endocrine-resistant estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer have shown that the mutational landscape differs from that of estrogen receptor–positive primary breast cancer, and these differences have the potential to...