In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Garcia-Aguilar et al found that adding neoadjuvant mFOLFOX6 (modified fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, oxaliplatin) after chemoradiation improved the pathologic complete response rate in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing...
In a phase III study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hofheinz et al found that 10% urea cream was better at preventing capecitabine-related hand-foot syndrome than a new ointment (Mapisal) available in Germany that contains several antioxidants and exhibits high radical protection....
In a UK randomized phase II trial (ABC-03) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Valle et al found that adding the VEGF inhibitor cediranib to first-line cisplatin/gemcitabine did not improve progression-free survival in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer. Study Details In the double-blind...
A “pill on a string” developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could help doctors detect esophageal cancer at an early stage, helping them overcome the problem of wide variation between biopsies, suggests research published by Ross-Innes et al in Nature Genetics. The...
“A cancer diagnosis among patients with diabetes reduced adherence with evidence-based medications, particularly if patients’ life expectancy was short,” according to a study among Medicare beneficiaries reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice. “These findings emphasize ...
In a phase III IMPRESS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Soria et al found no progression-free survival benefit of adding gefitinib (Iressa) to platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had acquired resistance to...
In a retrospective study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tabernero et al used commercially available BEAMing technology to assess plasma tumor DNA and protein levels in a subgroup of patients from the CORRECT trial of regorafenib (Stivarga) in metastatic colorectal cancer and examined the...
UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center scientists have identified a new mechanism that delivers a key substance that fuels the growth of pancreatic and prostate cancer cells, a finding that offers new hope in the fight against two of the deadliest forms of the disease. Their findings were published by...
In a Danish prospective observational study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Appelt et al found that high-dose chemoradiotherapy and watchful waiting may be an alternative to abdominoperineal resection in some patients with distal rectal cancer. Study Details In the study, 55 patients with...
In the phase III LUX-Lung 8 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Soria et al found that the irreversible ErbB-family inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) significantly improved progression-free and overall survival vs the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib as second-line treatment in patients with ...
In the phase II BELIEF trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Connor et al found that the pan–histone deacetylase inhibitor belinostat (Beleodaq) produced durable responses in patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma. The study supported the U.S. Food...
In patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy, outcomes were similar between patients with biopsy-proven lesions and those with radiographically diagnosed disease, according to a study by Fischer-Valuck et al in Tumori Journal....
Women with cervical or endometrial cancer who require treatment to the para-aortic lymph nodes can safely receive extended-field intensity-modulated radiation therapy without increased risk of duodenal toxicity, according to a study by Xu et al in Practical Radiation Oncology. Extended-Field...
A prospective study examining weight gain in breast cancer survivors compared with cancer-free women from a familial risk cohort has found that, overall, breast cancer survivors gained significantly more weight than cancer-free women of the same age and menopausal status. According to the study...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved gefitinib (Iressa) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations as detected by an...
The enzyme phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) appears to be exploited in almost every type of human cancer, making it the focus of considerable interest as a therapeutic target, with many PI3K-inhibiting drugs currently in various stages of clinical development. However, PI3K inhibitors have only ...
In a study reported in JAMA by Meester et al, microsimulation modeling of data from a U.S. community-based health-care system showed that colorectal cancer incidence and mortality were reduced with increased adenoma detection rate in colonoscopy screening, with no increase in total costs. Study...
Final overall survival results of the phase III ICON7 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Oza et al indicate no significant increase with the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy in women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer. However, overall survival benefit of...
On the hunt for better cancer screening tests, Johns Hopkins scientists led a proof-of-principle study that successfully identified tumor DNA shed in the blood and saliva of 93 patients with head and neck cancer. A report on the findings was published by Wang et al in Science Translational...
In the randomized phase II KEYNOTE-002 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ribas et al found that treatment with the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) prolonged progression-free survival vs investigator-choice chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma progressing on...
A review of medical records for almost 200 patients with breast cancer suggests that more selective use of biomarker testing for such patients has the potential to save millions of dollars in health-care spending without compromising care, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. Specifically,...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) issued an endorsement of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) clinical practice guideline on postoperative radiation therapy for women with endometrial (uterine) cancer. The endorsement was published by Meyer et al in the Journal of...
In a study in Swedish men reported in JAMA, Loeb et al found a statistically significant increase in risk of malignant melanoma in those using oral phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors for erectile dysfunction. However, risk was not significantly elevated in men filling multiple PDE5...
In the U.S. community-based phase IIIB UPFRONT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Niesvizky et al found no benefit of adding thalidomide (Thalomid) or melphalan to first-line bortezomib (Velcade)-based treatment in transplant-ineligible myeloma patients. Study Details In the...
Gains have been made in the overall reduction in the death rates of colorectal cancer in the United States. A new study by Siegel et al has identified three distinct geographic hot spots where colorectal cancer death rates remain elevated over other parts of the country. These hot spots were found...
The phase IIIb CONSIGN trial has confirmed the benefit of regorafenib (Stivarga) in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer, researchers announced July 3 at the European Society for Medical Oncology World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona, Spain (Abstract...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eckel-Passow et al identified a molecular classification scheme for gliomas based on IDH mutation, codeletion of chromosome arms 1p and 19q (1p/19q codeletion), and TERT promoter mutation status. Molecular Classification The study...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lin et al developed a serum microRNA classifier that was more accurate than alpha-fetoprotein in detecting preclinical hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details The study involved healthy controls, inactive hepatitis B surface antigen carriers,...
Researchers from Merck presented results from a phase III study investigating the safety and efficacy of single-dose fosaprepitant dimeglumine (Emend) for injection, a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, in combination with other antivomiting medicines, for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced...
In the phase III CALGB 40502/NCCTG N063H/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rugo et al found that outcomes in first-line treatment for advanced breast cancer were better with weekly paclitaxel plus bevacizumab (Avastin) compared with weekly nanoparticle albumin-bound...
In a Dutch phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kordes et al found that adding metformin to gemcitabine-erlotinib (Tarceva) did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Study Details In the double-blind study, 121 patients from four centers in the...
In a randomized phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oza et al found that the mTOR inhibitor ridaforolimus was active in previously treated advanced endometrial carcinoma. Study Details In the open-label study, 130 patients with progressive disease after one or two lines...
In a population-based cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Sagara et al found that the breast cancer–specific survival benefit associated with surgery for low-grade ductal carcinoma in situ is lower than that associated with surgery for intermediate- or high-grade ductal carcinoma in situ. ...
In a single institution study reported in JAMA Surgery, Chung et al found a low axillary recurrence rate and low mortality among women with clinical T1–2N0 breast cancer aged ≥ 70 years who underwent breast-conserving surgery without sentinel node biopsy. Study Details The study involved ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Turnbull et al identified a four-gene predictive model of response to aromatase inhibitor therapy that was highly predictive of response on the basis of pretreatment and 2-week on-treatment measurements. The classifier was a significant predictor of...
In a randomized phase II trial (BEST; ECOG-ACRIN E2804) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Flaherty et al found that adding the VEGFR inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar) or the mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus (Torisel) to the VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin) or using sorafenib-temsirolimus in...
In a phase II Intergroup trial (SWOG 1108) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Barr et al found that the aurora A kinase inhibitor alisertib produced responses in patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Aurora A kinase is upregulated in highly...
In the phase III BOLERO-1 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hurvitz et al found that the addition of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) to trastuzumab (Herceptin)-paclitaxel did not significantly increase progression-free survival among patients with HER2-positive advanced breast...
In the phase III REACH trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zhu et al found that the anti-VEGFR2 monoclonal antibody ramucirumab (Cyramza) did not significantly improve overall survival vs placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who had received first-line treatment with the...
In long-term follow-up of the phase III E1199 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sparano et al, adjuvant weekly paclitaxel and every-3-week docetaxel were associated with significantly longer disease-free survival and numerically longer overall survival vs every-3-week paclitaxel ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Brundage et al found that the addition of radiotherapy to androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer in the NCIC CTG PR3/MRC PR07 trial had a transient negative impact on health-related quality of life over ...
Overall survival results of a phase III COMBI-d trial reported in The Lancet by Long et al showed that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) with the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) resulted in significantly prolonged overall survival vs dabrafenib alone in patients with...
New research published by Søgaard et al in Blood found that blood clots in the abdominal veins might be an indicator of undiagnosed cancer. The study also suggests that these clots predict poorer survival in patients with liver and pancreatic cancer. Clotting and Cancer Risk Compared to...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Beltran et al found that whole-exome sequencing of metastatic and treatment-resistant cancers revealed biologically informative alterations in the majority of cases. Although treatment recommendations could be made in the majority of cases, treatment was guided ...
Houston Methodist Neurological Institute neurosurgeon David Baskin, MD, presented preliminary data from a phase II clinical trial that suggests gene therapy (AdV-Tk therapy), which uses a mediated herpes simplex virus, combined with a traditional treatment—surgical resection—could ...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Paniccia et al identified patient and treatment characteristics that were associated with survival of at least 10 years after diagnosis of invasive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, including lower positive lymph node ratio, receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy, ...
A single dose of the recombinant human papillomavirus (HPV) bivalent (types 16 and 18) vaccine (Cervarix) appears to be as effective in preventing certain HPV infections as three doses, the currently recommended course of vaccination, concluded a study published by Kreimer et al in The Lancet...
A pooled analysis of four clinical trials of nivolumab (Opdivo) in advanced melanoma, reported by Larkin et al in JAMA Oncology, suggested similar response rates in patients with BRAF V600–mutant and BRAF wild-type disease. Study Details The retrospective analysis included data from adult...
In an analysis of Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow et al found that dexrazoxane use did not appear to be associated with poorer survival among pediatric patients with leukemia or lymphoma in long-term follow-up. Study Details The...
In the phase III EURAMOS-1 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bielack et al found that the addition of postoperative pegylated interferon alfa-2b (Pegintron, Sylatron) to MAP (methotrexate, doxorubicin, and cisplatin) in patients with osteosarcoma showing good histologic response...