In a study reported in JAMA, Elmore et al found a substantial rate of disagreement between pathologist diagnosis based on single breast biopsy slides and the consensus-derived diagnosis of a panel of pathologists. Disagreement rates were highest for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and atypical...
In the phase III CheckMate 037 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Weber et al found that treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) resulted in a significantly greater response rate vs chemotherapy as second- or later-line treatment in patients with advanced melanoma progressing after ...
According to researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), hepatic parenchymal preservation, in which a surgeon removes less than a lobe of the liver in a patient undergoing an operation for liver cancer, is associated with lower mortality and complication rates. Their study...
In the ENABLE III study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bakitas et al found that early vs delayed initiation of a palliative care intervention did not result in improved patient-reported outcomes or resource use. Early initiation was associated with better 1-year survival. Study...
In the ENABLE III study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dionne-Odom et al found that early vs delayed use of a palliative care intervention for family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer reduced caregiver depression scores and caregiver stress burden. No differences in...
Researchers investigating the prevalence of childhood cancer survivors and the population-level burden of morbidity in these survivors have found that although the number of childhood cancer survivors has increased by nearly 60,000 since 2005, the majority of those who have survived 5 or more years ...
In a study of women with high-grade endometrial cancer, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found sentinel lymph node mapping accurately identified all women with node-positive, high-risk endometrial cancer, when prospectively compared to a complete pelvic and...
In an Italian 2×2 phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Del Mastro et al found that dose-dense adjuvant therapy with sequential epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel (EC-P) with or without fluorouracil (5-FU) increased disease-free survival vs standard-interval therapy in early-stage ...
In patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, the combination of panobinostat (Farydak) and carfilzomib (Kyprolis) appears to be safe and effective, according to a phase I/II study by Berdeja et al in Haematologica. Further evaluation of this combination treatment is warranted to establish ...
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fassnacht et al found that linsitinib, an insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) and insulin receptor inhibitor, did not improve overall survival vs placebo in patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic...
The growing use of sophisticated abdominal imaging techniques, which has led to a marked increase in the findings of incidental pancreatic cysts, has prompted the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) to issue new recommendations in the management of asymptomatic neoplastic pancreatic...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stone et al found that the combination of cytarabine and amonafide L-malate, a DNA intercalator and non–ATP-dependent topoisomerase II inhibitor, did not improve complete remission rate compared with cytarabine plus...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Moskowitz et al found that a salvage strategy involving brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) treatment followed by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (PET) and augmented ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide (ICE) in PET-positive...
In a European trial (Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster study group trial ALL-SCT-BFM 2003) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Peters et al found no difference in event-free survival with stem cell transplantation using matched unrelated vs sibling donors in pediatric patients with high-risk...
In a retrospective study in the European EUROS1 cohort reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mazières found that crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment was associated with an 80% response rate in patients with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma with ROS1 rearrangement. Study Details The study...
In the phase III MAINSAIL trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Petrylak et al found that the addition of lenalidomide (Revlimid) to docetaxel-prednisone in chemotherapy-naive men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer was associated with significantly worse overall survival. The...
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 ...