In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ross et al found potentially targetable genomic alterations in most carcinomas of unknown primary site using comprehensive genomic profiling. Adenocarcinomas of unknown primary site frequently harbored receptor tyrosine kinase/Ras/MAPK pathway alterations....
In the phase II CheckMate 063 study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rizvi et al found that the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced durable responses in some patients with advanced, refractory squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had received at least two prior treatments....
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kang et al found that adding aprepitant to ondansetron with or without dexamethasone was effective in preventing chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in pediatric patients receiving moderately or highly emetogenic chemotherapy. Study...
In a pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schadendorf et al found 3-year overall survival rates of 26% and 20% in treatment-naive and previously treated patients receiving ipilimumab (Yervoy)-based treatment for unresectable or metastatic melanoma. A survival curve plateau...
In the phase III POEMS/S0230 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Moore et al found that treatment with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist goserelin (Zoladex) reduced risk of ovarian failure during chemotherapy for breast cancer in premenopausal women. Study Details In...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wharam et al found that estimated mammography rates were lower than predicted in white, Hispanic, and Asian women since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening recommendations in November 2009. The guidelines...
In a basket trial (CUSTOM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lopez-Chavez et al performed molecular profiling of tumors in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer, or thymic malignancies and assigned those in any of five actionable...
In the randomized phase II Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 30504/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ready et al found that sunitinib (Sutent) vs placebo maintenance following chemotherapy improved progression-free survival in patients with previously untreated...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robak et al found that VR-CAP, a regimen replacing vincristine with bortezomib (Velcade) in R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan], cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone), significantly improved progression-free...
The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project reports that a highly aggressive form of leukemia in infants has surprisingly few mutations beyond the chromosomal rearrangement that affects the MLL gene. The findings, reported by Andersson et al ...
The U.S. cancer care system faces tremendous turbulence while dealing with growing numbers of cancer patients and survivors, mounting pressures to control rising health-care costs, and widespread oncology practice transformation, reports a new study by the American Society of Clinical Oncology...
New clinical trial findings provide further evidence that combining chemotherapy with radiation therapy is the best treatment for people with a low-grade form of brain cancer. The findings come from a phase II study co-led by a researcher at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer...
Although blacks were diagnosed at younger ages than whites for nearly every cancer type, after adjustments for population structure shifted the comparisons toward older ages among blacks, only six statistically significant differences of 3 or more years remained, according to a study reported by...
A prospective, multicenter, observational study involving 992 consecutive patients with one to four asymptomatic, sonographically or cytologically benign thyroid nodules found that “the majority of nodules exhibited no significant size change during 5 years of follow-up or they actually...
At a median follow-up of 3 years, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) demonstrated continued activity with durable responses that improved in quality with extended treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In addition, grade 3 toxicity and adverse events leading to discontinuation diminished ...
In a phase III NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hensley et al found no benefit of adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to first-line gemcitabine-docetaxel in patients with metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma. Study Details In this...
In a phase III trial (ELM-PC 5) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fizazi et al found that the addition of the 17,20-lyase inhibitor orteronel to prednisone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer progressing after docetaxel therapy resulted in an overall...
The European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) trial showed a significant 29% prostate cancer mortality reduction with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening but a marked negative impact on quality-adjusted life-years gained due to the effect of overdiagnosis on quality...
Patients with larger malignant tumors of the breast who undergo chemotherapy before a breast cancer operation are more likely to undergo a lumpectomy than a mastectomy, according to a study published by Killelea et al in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Study investigators from...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Krop et al found that ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) had an acceptable cardiac safety profile when used after anthracycline-based (neo)adjuvant therapy in women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer. Study Details In the study,...
Bisphosphonate use for treatment or prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women has been associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, including in a study in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) population. In a WHI study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Newcomb et al...
In the phase III INSPIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Paz-Ares et al found that the addition of the anti-EGFR IgG1 monoclonal antibody necitumumab to first-line pemetrexed (Alimta)-cisplatin did not improve overall survival in patients with previously untreated stage IV nonsquamous...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Melichar et al found that the oral aurora kinase A inhibitor alisertib was active in solid tumors, particularly breast cancer and small cell lung cancer. Aurora kinases play central roles in mitosis. Inhibition of aurora kinase A, which is...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds ...
In the phase III ELM-PC 4 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Saad et al found that the addition of the CYP 17,20 lyase inhibitor orteronel to prednisone did not improve overall survival in chemotherapy-naive patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Improvement in...
In a study reported in The Lancet, Hersch et al found that use of a decision aid containing information on overdetection in breast cancer screening was associated with an increased rate of informed choice regarding screening, a reduced rate of positive attitudes toward screening, and reduced...
In the Spanish phase III DART01/05 GICOR trial reported in Lancet Oncology, Zapatero and colleagues found that long-term androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) increased biochemical disease-free survival and overall survival vs short-term ADT when combined with high-dose radiotherapy in men with...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Swain et al, the final prespecified overall survival analysis in the phase III CLEOPATRA study showed a significant 15.7-month increase in median overall survival over 50 months of follow-up with the addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to...
Researchers investigating whether tumor genotype correlates with benefit from immune therapy in melanoma has found that patients whose tumors had NRAS mutations had better response to immunotherapy and better outcomes than patients whose tumors had other genetic subtypes. The results suggest that...
Preliminary results from the phase II STAND trial have demonstrated a robust immune response with sipuleucel-T (Provenge) that continues 2 years after completing treatment in men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. The findings, along with data from an ongoing phase IV registry related to ...
In the phase III CEREBEL study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pivot et al compared lapatinib (Tykerb)-capecitabine vs trastuzumab (Herceptin)-capecitabine in the prevention of central nervous system (CNS) metastases as first relapse site in patients with metastatic HER2-positive...
An analysis of data on roughly 87,500 men treated for prostate cancer since 2005 found a notable increase in higher-risk cases of the disease between 2011 and 2013. The retrospective analysis of patient data found the proportion of men diagnosed with intermediate- and high-risk disease increased by ...
Certain rare epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are associated with tobacco smoking, worse prognosis, and poor response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, compared with more common, classic EGFR mutations. However, as not all rare mutations are the same, testing and therapy...
In the final prespecified analysis of an Intergroup trial (NCIC Clinical Trials Group PR.3/Medical Research Council PR07/Intergroup T94-0110) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mason et al found that overall survival and cancer-specific survival at 8 years were significantly greater with ...
In a Spanish-German phase III LEA trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Martín et al found that adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to endocrine therapy with letrozole or fulvestrant (Faslodex) in the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer did not...
In the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z1071 trial, sentinel lymph node surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a 12.6% false-negative rate in breast cancer patients with cN1 disease. In an analysis of axillary ultrasound findings in the trial, a secondary endpoint,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and granted Priority Review for Genentech’s New Drug Application (NDA) for cobimetinib in combination with vemurafenib (Zelboraf) for the treatment of people with BRAF V600 mutation–positive advanced melanoma. The FDA will make a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the existing indication for lenalidomide (Revlimid) in combination with dexamethasone to include patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Lenalidomide plus dexamethasone was previously approved in June 2006 for use in multiple myeloma...
The phase III CRYSTAL trial showed that the addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to first-line FOLFIRI (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan) significantly improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rates in patients with KRAS codon 12/13 (exon 2) wild-type...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Wang et al, the incidence of late toxicity among patients with extremity soft-tissue sarcoma receiving preoperative image-guided radiotherapy to a reduced target volume in the phase II Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0630 trial was lower...
Common surgical procedures used to diagnose and treat precancerous cervical lesions do not decrease women's chances of becoming pregnant, according to a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente Northwest, which followed nearly 100,000 women for up to 12 years. In fact, researchers found that women ...
In an analysis among patients in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) E4402 trial (RESORT) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wagner et al found no difference in anxiety or health-related quality of life in patients with low–tumor burden non-Hodgkin lymphoma who received...
A frailty score predicts mortality and the risk of toxicity in elderly patients with multiple myeloma and can be used to determine more suitable therapies for these patients, the International Myeloma Working Group reported in Blood. “Chronologic age, performance status, and physician's...
In the Dutch phase III HYPRO trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Aluwini et al found that hypofractionated radiotherapy was not noninferior to standard fractionated radiotherapy in acute genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicity in men with intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer. Efficacy...
A phase II, open-label study evaluating the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), an anti-CD30 antibody-drug conjugate, found that among 48 evaluable patients with CD30-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, 21 (44%) had objective responses. This total included 8 patients (17%) with complete ...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thomas et al found that sunitinib (Sutent) was active in patients with platinum-refractory thymic carcinoma. Study Details In the open-label study, 23 evaluable patients with thymic carcinoma and 16 with thymoma who had disease progression...
In a Japanese phase III trial (Intergroup Trial JCOG0803/WJOG4307L) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Abe et al found no overall survival benefit of weekly cisplatin/docetaxel vs standard docetaxel in the first-line treatment of elderly patients with advanced non–small cell lung...
In a study of women with stage III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer, the addition of sorafenib (Nexavar) to traditional paclitaxel/carboplatin therapy resulted in no greater efficacy and increased toxicity, according to a report by Hainsworth et al in Cancer Medicine. The investigators suggested that...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wolff et al found a low but higher-than-expected incidence of marrow neoplasms in patients receiving adjuvant radiation therapy or chemotherapy for breast cancer. The study used the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Breast Cancer...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified eight highly specific physical and cognitive signs associated with imminent death in cancer patients. The findings, published by Hui et al in Cancer, could offer clinicians the ability to better communicate with...