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Showing 14601 - 14650Outcomes with Adjuvant Trastuzumab in HER2-positive Breast Cancer Not Affected by PTEN Status
PTEN is a negative regulator of PI3K/AKT signaling. PI3K/AKT signaling can be activated by HER2, and it has been hypothesized that alteration in this pathway may affect sensitivity to trastuzumab (Herceptin). Preclinical data and some of the limited available clinical data suggest that loss or...
Measurement of Circulating Tumor DNA Shows Promise in Monitoring Metastatic Breast Cancer
Management of metastatic breast cancer requires monitoring of tumor burden to assess response to treatment, and there is a need for biomarkers that can measure tumor burden with high sensitivity and specificity. Assays measuring serum cancer antigen (CA) 15-3 and circulating tumor cells have been...
Radium-223 Dichloride for Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer with Symptomatic Bone Metastases
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. Indication On May 15, 2013, radium Ra 223 dichloride (Xofigo) was...
Molecular Landscaping of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Are We Relearning the Past or Informing the Future?
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease.1 This concept has been supported by more than 4 decades of studies showing distinct outcomes of subsets of patients that differ in age, disease type (primary vs secondary vs therapy-related), and cytogenetic and...
Genomic and Epigenomic Characterization of Acute Myeloid Leukemia
In a study by the Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, genomes of 200 adult cases of de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were analyzed by whole-genome sequencing (n = 50) or whole-exome sequencing (n = 150) to identify mutations and relationships...
Best First-line Treatment for Advanced Colorectal Cancer Remains Unclear
In patients with advanced colorectal cancer, it remains unclear which biologic agent added to standard chemotherapy is best, even after a head-to-head comparison of two commonly used agents. In the phase III FIRE-3 trial, conducted by the German AIO CRC Study Group, the addition of cetuximab...
Two New Genetic Tests Offer Progress in Personalized Medicine for Newly Diagnosed Prostate Cancer
At least 12 different genetic tests for prostate cancer are under development. The two tests currently available are Oncotype DX (Genomic Health, Redwood City, California) and Prolaris (Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Salt Lake City). Both tests can identify which low-risk patients are “truly” at low...
Benefit for Dual HER2 Targeting in Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer Regimen Restricted to Subset of Patients
As a neoadjuvant regimen for HER2-positive early breast cancer, the use of two HER2-directed agents was no more effective than trastuzumab (Herceptin) alone in producing pathologic complete responses, although one subset of patients did benefit from this approach, according to the results of the...
Search for Biomarkers of mTOR Inhibitor Benefit in Breast Cancer Fails to Pan Out
The search for a biomarker of benefit from mTOR inhibitors in breast cancer fell flat in an exploratory genetic analysis of the BOLERO-2 trial, presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting by Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, Professor of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson...
ASCO Will Change with the Times
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, The ASCO Post caught up with new President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, Chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, for a glimpse of his plans for ASCO in the coming year, and his thoughts on being elected ASCO...
Expert Point of View: Kanti R. Rai, MD
“These three excellent, encouraging, tantalizing studies show that we really are making progress in the treatment of chronic CLL, whereas 10 to 12 years ago, we had no real progress to report,” stated Kanti R. Rai, MD, Chief, CLL Research Program, North Shore-LIJ Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY. ...
Idelalisib, Obinutuzumab Show Encouraging Results in CLL Studies
A trio of presentations at the ASCO Annual Meeting focused on two promising investigational drugs for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). These two drugs—idelalisib and obinutuzumab—join a list of new approaches showing potential. Idelalisib Alone A phase I dose-ranging study of...
Expert Point of View: Marjorie G. Zauderer, MD and Andrew D. Seidman, MD
Commenting on the ganetespib study, Marjorie G. Zauderer, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said that this first-in-class study suggests efficacy and represents a potential advance in lung cancer treatment. “We haven’t had any advances in a long time....
First Positive Trial of Heat Shock Protein 90 Inhibitor in Lung Cancer That Has Progressed after First-line Therapy
The investigational heat shock protein (Hsp)90 inhibitor ganetespib plus docetaxel extended overall survival compared with docetaxel alone as second-line therapy in patients with advanced non–small cell adenocarcinoma of the lung that had progressed on first-line therapy in the randomized phase II...
Second-generation ALK Inhibitor Breakthrough Drug Promising in Early Study for Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Encouraging results were seen in a preliminary study of a second-generation ALK inhibitor in advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The drug—dubbed LDK378—achieved tumor shrinkage in almost all patients enrolled in the study, in all mutational subsets, in crizotinib...
Despite a Recurrence, I'm Not Surrendering My Life to Cancer
This is the first time I’m going public with the fact that I have advanced ovarian cancer. I thought I could avoid the fate of my mother and her mother, both of whom died of ovarian cancer in their 50s, and live well past my 60s and even 70s. But at 58, I’ve had to accept that that is not likely. I ...
Supreme Court Rules Human Genes May Not Be Patented
On June 13, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that isolated human genes may not be patented. However, the creation of synthetic forms of DNA, known as complementary DNA (cDNA), is eligible for patent protection. The decision resolves the question brought before the Supreme Court justices in...
Bevacizumab in Glioblastoma: Another Perspective
Given the results of the AVAglio trial, we feel that a more balanced discussion about the role of bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma is in order. The accompanying article in The ASCO Post suggests that bevacizumab has no benefit in newly diagnosed glioblastoma; data ...
Studies Explore Role of Bevacizumab in Combination Therapies for Glioblastoma
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, studies evaluating the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard therapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme patients did not meet their primary endpoints. When paired with irinotecan, however, bevacizumab showed activity in MGMT-unmethylated tumors....
Some Excess Cancer Risk in Men May Be Related to Greater Height
More than one-third of the excess risk for cancers among men may be due to factors associated with height, according to data from the Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study. As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, these factors include the “number of susceptible cells in a...
Lenalidomide Induces Long-lasting Responses in Elderly Patients
Treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid) as initial therapy induced long-lasting responses in a phase II study of 60 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). “Overall, 35 patients (58%) patients had responses lasting more than 36 months and were considered long-term responders,” the...
Two Studies Indicate Potential Predictors of Survival Benefit from Endocrine Therapy
Two studies published in Journal of Clinical Oncology indicate that treatment-related symptoms and mammographic density reduction may predict whether a woman with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer will benefit from adjuvant endocrine therapy. In one study, women who had specific adverse...
Pain Is More Prevalent and Severe in Men with Metastatic Disease and Use of Docetaxel
Men who have metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and have used docetaxel reported a higher prevalence and greater severity of pain than docetaxel-naive patients, according to results of an anonymous survey conducted at five comprehensive cancer centers in the Prostate Cancer Clinical...
Use of Advanced Technologies Has Increased in Men at Low Risk of Dying from Prostate Cancer
The use of advanced treatment technologies, such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy and robotic prostatectomy, has increased among men unlikely to die from prostate cancer, according to a retrospective analysis of data from almost 56,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2009....
Most Patients Receiving Radiotherapy for Incurable Lung Cancer Do Not Realize It Is Unlikely to Cure Them
Surveying a population-based and health system–based cohort of patients receiving radiation therapy for incurable lung cancer (defined as stage IV or stage IIIB with malignant effusion at diagnosis) revealed that “64% did not understand that [radiotherapy] was not at all likely to cure them.” These ...
Encourage Questions about Late Effects of Treatment
Melissa Hudson, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and lead author of a study finding that 98.2% of adult survivors of childhood cancer had a chronic health condition, told The ASCO Post that she hoped that survivors’ awareness of the need for ongoing health monitoring was...
More Than 98% of Childhood Cancer Survivors Have Chronic Health Conditions
More than 98% of adult survivors of childhood cancer in a large clinically evaluated cohort had a chronic health condition, including a substantial number of previously undiagnosed problems that are more likely to occur in an older population. “These findings underscore the importance of ongoing...
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Names 7-Year Survivor Chair of National Board of Directors
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network recently announced the appointment of Laurie MacCaskill to Chair of the National Board of Directors of the organization, effective July 1, 2013. Ms. MacCaskill is the first pancreatic cancer patient to hold this position. Since her diagnosis in 2006, Ms....
I Have No Fear
I found out that I had stage III pancreatic cancer on Valentine’s Day in 2011, but I think the disease may have been brewing for a long time. For 19 years, I had experienced intermittent pain in the right upper quadrant of my abdomen. I had gallbladder surgery to relieve a bile duct obstruction,...
Co-discoverer of DNA Double Helix, James Watson, PhD, Offers a New Theory on Cancer Progression
Despite his fame as co-discoverer—along with Francis Crick, PhD—of the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, that accomplishment is not what James Dewey Watson, PhD, came to talk about during a recent presentation he gave at the World Science Festival in New York. Instead,...
Management of Anaplastic Oligodendroglial Tumors
Pearls in Neuro-oncology is guest edited by Tracy Batchelor, MD, Director, Division of Neuro-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston. The series is intended to provide the practicing oncologist with guidance in managing...
FDA Approves Afatinib for Late-stage Lung Cancer
On July 12, 2013, the FDA approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations...
Barriers to Successful Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a combined research program of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. At the forefront of research to increase access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and improve outcomes, the ...
Denosumab in Adults and Skeletally Mature Adolescents with Giant Cell Tumor of Bone
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. Indication On June 13, 2013, denosumab (Xgeva) was approved for the ...
ACCC Institutes Network to Provide Assistance in Treating Uncommon Cancers
Among the more than 200 types of cancer are those called “forgotten” or “orphan” cancers, with fewer than 40,000 new cases each year. They present treatment challenges in community cancer centers. Because of the low incidence of these diseases, such as chronic myeloid leukemia, acute promyelocytic...
Critically Ill Hematology Patients Admitted to ICU Have Good Survival, Disease Control, and Quality of Life
A large prospective multicenter cohort study in France and Belgium, reported by Elie Azoulay, MD, of Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, and colleagues from the Groupe de Recherche Respiratoire en Réanimation Onco-Hématologique,1 has shown that critically ill patients with hematologic malignancies...
New Research Presented in Breast, Gastric, Esophageal Cancers, Melanoma, and Multiple Myeloma, plus Supportive Care
Attendees at the ASCO Annual Meeting are faced with a major challenge of trying to attend as many important sessions as they can over a 4-day period. Our challenge is to feature the major news in The ASCO Post. In addition to our regular comprehensive coverage of key presentations, the following...
Lenalidomide in Relapsed/Progressed Mantle Cell Lymphoma after Two Prior Therapies Including Bortezomib
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. Indication On June 5, 2013, lenalidomide (Revlimid) was approved...
Examining the Role Genetics Plays in Breast Cancer Onset
Internationally known for her research in the molecular genetics of cancer, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, MD, FACP, first became interested in oncology during medical school in Nigeria, where she cared for patients with Burkitt’s lymphoma. After moving to Chicago in 1983 to continue her medical...
Genomic Heterogeneity Can Lead to the Selection of 'Incorrect' Targeted Inhibitors
Genomic heterogeneity within tumors and among lesions varies widely, and “discordance among lesions could lead to the selection of the ‘incorrect’ targeted inhibitor,” according to David B. Solit, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who spoke at the ASCO/American Association for Cancer...
New Research on Combination Chemotherapy, Prognostic Biomarkers, and PET-guided Radiation Therapy in B-cell Malignancies
The 12th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma was held June 19-22, 2013, in Lugano, Switzerland. Over 3,000 hematologists, clinical oncologists, pathologists, and leading researchers attended the meeting, which featured new research on B-cell malignancies, follicular lymphoma, as well as...
Expert Point of View: Charles Vogel, MD, Larry Norton, MD, and Andrew D. Seidman, MD
A number of breast cancer specialists commented on the value of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) 0221 data. Charles Vogel, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Health System, commented after the presentation, “This is a potentially important abstract because of the wide variety...
Head-to-Head Matchup Shows Adjuvant Taxane Schedules Equally Effective
In the treatment of early breast cancer, outcomes are equivalent whether paclitaxel is delivered weekly or every 2 weeks, though the weekly schedule may be better tolerated, according to the results of a phase III trial presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 “The progression-free survival...
Expert Point of View: Toni K. Choueiri, MD
Formal discussant of the RECORD-3 trial, Toni K. Choueiri, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Kidney Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, said that the focus of the research concerns how to move forward in the treatment of metastatic...
First-line Sunitinib Followed by Everolimus Remains Standard Sequence in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
With the approval of a number of different drugs for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma, a major issue is how to sequence these drugs to optimize outcome. A large, randomized phase II study called RECORD-3 shows that the standard sequence of the multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor ...
Dose-dense Chemotherapy Improves Outcomes in Poor-prognosis Germ Cell Tumors
For poor-prognosis patients with germ-cell tumors, dose intensification of chemotherapy based on slow decline of tumor markers can increase progression-free survival, according to the first randomized trial of a “personalized” treatment strategy for this tumor.1 At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting,...
Shorter Duration of Hormone Therapy Feasible in Localized High-risk Prostate Cancer
Men with localized high-risk prostate cancer treated with adjuvant radiotherapy had similar overall and disease-free survival when treated with 18 months of androgen deprivation therapy vs 36 months of androgen deprivation therapy, the current standard of care in this setting. These results were...
Enzalutamide Monotherapy Highly Active in Patients with Prostate Cancer Who Have Had No Prior Hormone Therapy
Enzalutamide (Xtandi) monotherapy induced striking declines in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in a majority of patients with hormone-naive prostate cancer in a phase II trial, and this oral agent appears to have little effect on bone mineral density. If these findings are confirmed in a phase III...
Why Is Stem Cell Transplant So Underused in Follicular Lymphoma?
Follicular lymphoma is the second most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the United States. Of the nearly 70,000 new cases of NHL anticipated in 2013,1 approximately 7,000 to 13,000 (10%–19%) will be follicular lymphoma, by recent estimates.2-5 For many years, the median overall...
Top Five Things Oncologists Need to Know about Cancer in Older Adults
A workforce shortage of geriatricians and other health professionals certified in caring for older patients with cancer is colliding with the aging of the population and the increasing number of older Americans with cancer. After describing factors contributing to these dual challenges, Arti...
