Although small cell lung cancer is an aggressive disease with a high mortality rate, in contrast to other lung carcinomas, there has not been significant progress in the development of therapies for the disease in more than 3 decades. Now, researchers using a high-throughput cellular screen of a...
According to new data reported at the 56th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) demonstrated antitumor activity both as a single agent and in combination with dexamethasone in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or relapsed/refractory...
Results from the international phase II BLAST study show that one cycle of blinatumomab (Blincyto) immunotherapy achieved complete minimal residual disease response in 78% of patients with precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Complete minimal residual disease response was...
The promise of the programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitors seen in solid tumors, especially melanoma, may hold true for at least one hematologic malignancy, according to studies presented at the 56th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition. At a press briefing,...
In the phase III GETUG 13 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fizazi et al found that treatment intensification based on early tumor marker decline resulted in a numeric and borderline statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival in patients with poor-prognosis germ cell...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Shiels et al found significant changes in levels of inflammatory/immune markers in current cigarette smokers vs nonsmokers. There was a significant relationship between time since quitting and return to nonsmoker levels for...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jänne et al found that the pan-HER inhibitor dacomitinib was active in first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR mutations or clinical characteristics associated with response to EGFR...
A new study presented at RSNA 2014, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, has found that digital breast tomosynthesis, also known as three-dimensional (3D) mammography, has the potential to significantly increase the cancer detection rate in mammography screening of women ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yuan et al found that pancreas cancer patients with diabetes of more than 4 years’ duration at diagnosis had significantly poorer survival compared with nondiabetic patients. Study Details The study involved data from 1,006 patients...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Topp et al found that the bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) antibody blinatumomab produced a high response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). BiTEs induce a transient cytolytic ...
In the French phase II AVATAXHER trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Coudert et al found that 18F–fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET) predicted complete response to trastuzumab (Herceptin)/docetaxel neoadjuvant therapy and that adding bevacizumab (Avastin) in...
In the phase II SMARTE-R-CHOP-14 trial of the German High-Grade Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pfreundschuh et al found that extended rituximab (Rituxan) exposure in patients aged > 60 years with poor-prognosis diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was...
In a retrospective single-institution study reported in JAMA Surgery, Gangi et al found a low risk of breast cancer after diagnosis of ovarian cancer in women harboring BRCA mutations. The study involved 364 women who had BRCA mutation testing for stage I to IV epithelial ovarian...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Nguyen-Tan et al, long-term follow-up in the phase III Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0129 trial indicates no difference in overall survival or late toxicity with use of accelerated vs standard radiation therapy plus cisplatin in patients...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shiels et al found that prediagnostic smoking among survivors of stage I lung cancer or bladder, kidney, or head/neck cancer was associated with increased risk of second lung, bladder, kidney, and head and neck cancer. Study Details The...
In a phase III study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert et al found that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) significantly improved overall survival compared with the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) in...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Wagner et al found that use of two units vs one unit of umbilical cord blood in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation did not improve 1-year overall survival in children and adolescents with hematologic cancers. Use of...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pawel et al found no difference in overall survival with amrubicin vs topotecan as second-line therapy in patients with first-line sensitive or refractory small cell lung cancer. An overall survival benefit of amrubicin was observed ...
In a combined analysis of outcomes in the translational research cohort of the Arimidex, Tamoxifen Alone or in Combination trial (TransATAC) and the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group 8 (ABCSG 8) trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sestak and colleagues found that the ...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert et al found that the PD-1 immune-checkpoint–inhibitor antibody nivolumab significantly increased overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate compared with dacarbazine in patients with...
Researchers have found that patients with an advanced form of kidney cancer, for which there is no standard treatment and a very poor prognosis, respond well to a combination of two existing anticancer drugs. The combination of bevacizumab (Avastin) and erlotinib (Tarceva) produced excellent...
Current guidelines discourage tumor marker assessment in surveillance of nonmetastatic breast cancer. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ramsey et al found that > 40% of Medicare patients with early-stage breast cancer had at least one tumor marker assessment and that...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ladra et al found that proton radiotherapy was a safe and effective treatment in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma. Proton radiotherapy can substantially reduce radiotherapy doses to normal tissue compared with conventional photon...
In a substudy of the IBIS-II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sestak et al found that risedronate treatment reduced anastrozole-related bone loss over 3 years in postmenopausal women at increased risk for breast cancer. Study Details The study involved assessment of bone mineral density...
In a phase III trial (Southwest Oncology Group Intergroup S0008) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Flaherty et al found that a shorter course of biochemotherapy consisting of cisplatin, vinblastine, dacarbazine, interleukin-2, and interferon alfa-2b produced better relapse-free...
In a study on use of the most common definitive therapies for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Medicare patients reported in JAMA Surgery, Shirvani et al found that lobectomy was associated with improved outcome vs sublobar resection and that stereotactic ablative radiotherapy may be of...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Shaughnessy et al found that the addition of iniparib to gemcitabine and carboplatin did not improve overall survival or progression-free survival in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. An exploratory...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Iyengar et al found that stereotactic body radiation therapy plus erlotinib (Tarceva) resulted in infrequent recurrence in radiation therapy–treated sites and was associated with prolonged progression-free survival and overall...
Adding interleukin-2 to gefitinib (Iressa) therapy resulted in threefold higher response rates in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study by Bersanelli et al in Cancers. The addition of interleukin-2 enhanced the efficacy of gefitinib without negatively ...
In the phase III Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) E-3193 (Intergroup 0142) trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Tevaarwerk et al, adding ovarian function suppression to tamoxifen was associated with worse patient-reported outcomes in premenopausal women with...
In the phase III Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 40302/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Burstein et al found that the addition of the dual EGFR-HER2 inhibitor lapatinib (Tykerb) to endocrine therapy with fulvestrant (Faslodex) did not improve progression-free...
In a noninferiority phase III EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Donker et al found that axillary radiotherapy provided comparable disease control and was associated with less morbidity compared with axillary surgery in breast cancer patients with a positive sentinel...
In a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jones and colleagues found that vigorous exercise reduces the risk of major cardiovascular events in adult survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma. Study Details In the study, 1,187 survivors of...
Patients with untreated metastatic colorectal cancer who received FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, oxaliplatin, irinotecan) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) had improved survival compared to patients who received FOLFIRI (5-FU, leucovorin, irinotecan) plus bevacizumab in a phase III...
In a Danish population-based cohort study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Daugaard and colleagues found that surveillance for stage I nonseminoma testicular cancer after orchiectomy was associated with high cure rate and low treatment burden over long-term follow-up. Study Details The...
Despite evidence that cervical cancer screening saves lives, about 8 million women aged 21 to 65 years have not been screened for cervical cancer in the past 5 years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly ...
Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group (IRSG) studies have shown improved failure-free survival with VAC (vincristine, dactinomycin, and cyclophosphamide) given with a total cumulative cyclophosphamide dose of 26.4 g/m2 compared with VA (vincristine and dactinomycin) in patients with subset 1...
In a retrospective analysis utilizing both uterine serous carcinoma cell lines and patient-derived xenografts, dual therapy with lapatinib (Tykerb) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) demonstrated antitumor responses, according to a study by Groeneweg et al in Clinical Cancer Research. Also, the authors...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) for use in combination with paclitaxel for the treatment of patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Ramucirumab was approved in April 2014 as a single agent for the treatment of...
Adjuvant radiotherapy may play a role in the management of ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma, which appears to be less prone to peritoneal dissemination than other subtypes, according to the results of a small retrospective study reported by Macrie et al in the International Journal of...
A randomized clinical trial of patients with advanced metastatic melanoma treated with ipilimumab (Yervoy), an immune checkpoint inhibitor, in combination with sargramostim (Leukine), an immune stimulant, vs ipilimumab alone, has found a 1-year survival rate of 68.9% vs 52.9% in the ipilimumab-only ...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Long and colleagues found that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) improved response rate and progression-free survival compared with dabrafenib alone in...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Larkin and colleagues found that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib improved response rate and progression-free survival compared with vemurafenib alone in...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Shaw et al found that crizotinib (Xalkori) produced a high response rate in patients with ROS1-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Chromosomal rearrangements in ROS1, which encodes the proto-oncogene receptor tyrosine...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow and colleagues developed risk scoring that can identify likelihood of heart failure among childhood cancer survivors. Study Details The study involved survivors in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) free of significant...
In the NCIC-CTG LY.12 study, a phase III international noninferiority trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Crump and colleagues found that gemcitabine, dexamethasone, and cisplatin (GDP) was associated with a noninferior response rate and similar transplantation rate compared with...
The Dutch and Belgian NELSON trial is assessing the effect of increasing interval low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer on lung cancer mortality. In an analysis of screening test performance among Dutch participants reported in Lancet Oncology, Horeweg and colleagues found...
Analysis of 607 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) tumors and neuroendocrine tumors identified common molecular markers among both groups that could reveal new therapeutic targets for patients with similar types of lung cancer, according to research presented at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary...
Lung cancer patients with minimally invasive adenocarcinoma have similar, positive 5-year disease-free survival and overall survival rates as patients with adenocarcinoma in situ, according to research presented today at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology (Abstract...
Patients at high-risk for developing lung cancer are more likely to receive low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening when their primary care provider is familiar with guideline recommendations for low-dose CT screening for lung cancer, according to research presented today at the 2014 Chicago...