The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is recommending that newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients be screened for Lynch syndrome, previously called hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. The NCCN’s proactive position should greatly help identify individuals and their...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rosmarin et al assessed the association of reported fluorouracil (5-FU) toxicity genetic markers with occurrence of capecitabine toxicity of grade ≥ 3 in the QUASAR2 trial in colorectal cancer and with occurrence of capecitabine and 5-FU...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conducted a survey of U.S. oncologists between October 2012 and March 2013, evaluating satisfaction with work-life balance and career plans. The findings, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Shanafelt et al, indicate that most are...
In an open-label phase III trial reported by Ardeshna et al in The Lancet Oncology, rituximab (Rituxan) induction plus maintenance was found to delay the need for subsequent therapy and improve elements of quality of life vs watchful waiting in patients with advanced asymptomatic nonbulky...
The first-ever comprehensive assessment of challenges facing the U.S. cancer care system suggests that patient access to cancer care will be threatened as growing demand for care outstrips the supply of oncologists, and as cost pressures force the closure of small physician practices that form the...
Although it is recommended that women aged ≥ 75 years be informed of the benefits and risks of mammography before being screened, it appears that this is not common practice. As reported in JAMA Internal Medicine by Schonberg et al, a decision aid developed by the investigators helped improved...
It is known that chronic inflammation plays a role in the development of colorectal cancer. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Mehta et al evaluated the association of the novel plasma inflammatory biomarker macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1; growth...
A new clinical study has found that erlotinib (Tarceva) has promising potential to improve treatment for cervical cancer. Published in Cancer, the findings by Nogueira-Rodrigues et al indicate that larger trials are warranted to determine whether the drug should become part of standard therapy for...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Bill-Axelson et al, additional long-term follow-up in the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group-4 trial (SPCG-4) continues to show significant benefits of radical prostatectomy vs watchful waiting in early prostate cancer, including reduced risk of ...
Little is known about how fertility concerns affect treatment decisions or fertility preservation strategies at the time of initial diagnosis of breast cancer. In an ongoing multicohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ruddy et al found that most young women with breast cancer...
A simple questionnaire that rates breathing difficulties on a scale of 0 to 3 may be able to predict survival in patients with chronic graft-vs-host disease, according to a study by Palmer et al published in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Although a poor National Institutes of Health ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Smith et al, the double-blind phase III Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9020/Alliance trial assessed the effect of early initiation of zoledronic acid in reducing risk of skeletal-related events in men with castration-sensitive prostate cancer. ...
In a phase IIB study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Guarneri et al compared neoadjuvant letrozole plus lapatinib (Tykerb) or placebo in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Response rates were similar in the two groups, but a...
In a dose-escalation, cohort expansion study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Topalian et al found that treatment with the PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab produced durable responses in patients with advanced melanoma. Long-term follow-up also showed promising survival rates...
In an open-label phase III trial (MITO-7) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Pignata et al found that while a lower-dose weekly carboplatin/paclitaxel regimen did not improve progression-free survival compared with standard every-3-week carboplatin/paclitaxel as first-line treatment of advanced...
Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women in India, a nation where large-scale Pap smear screening is not feasible. As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Shastri et al have performed a large cluster-randomized study of education and screening of Indian...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Larkin et al, interim results of a safety study designed to reflect the spectrum of patients encountered in routine practice suggest that vemurafenib (Zelboraf) has a safety profile in patients with BRAF V600–mutated metastatic melanoma similar to that...
For women with breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy, yoga offers unique benefits beyond fighting fatigue, according to a study by Chandwani et al published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. While simple stretching activities counteracted fatigue, patients who participated in yoga exercises ...
In a single-center experience reported in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Lohia et al found that intensity-modulated radiation therapy for oropharyngeal cancer reduces percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube dependence and severe skin and mucous membrane toxicity compared with...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Dearnaley et al, the 10-year follow-up of the phase III open-label MRC RT01 trial showed continued benefit of escalated-dose vs control-dose conformal radiotherapy in biochemical progression-free survival in patients with prostate cancer but no overall survival ...
In a study published in The Lancet, Zimmermann et al compared quality of life, symptom severity, and care satisfaction with early initiation of palliative care vs standard cancer care in patients with advanced cancer. Although early palliative care was not associated with improved quality of life...
Follicular lymphoma has been found to respond to radiotherapy doses as low as 4 Gy. In the phase III FORT trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hoskin et al compared radiotherapy with 4 Gy in two fractions vs 24 Gy in 12 fractions in patients with indolent lymphoma, finding that the 24-Gy regimen...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gralnek et al found that full-spectrum endoscopic colonoscopy had a lower adenoma miss rate compared with standard forward-viewing colonoscopy. Study Details In the study, performed at three sites in Israel, one in the Netherlands, and two in the United ...
In a cohort study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Baldur-Felskov et al found that there has been a significant reduction in cervical lesions among Danish girls and women receiving the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine during the first 6 years of its...
Retreatment with cisplatin has reduced effectiveness in patients with recurrent cervical cancer who have received cisplatin with radiation therapy. In a 2×2 factorial phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tewari et al compared cisplatin/paclitaxel vs nonplatinum...
In a double-blind phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Chinot et al assessed adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to radiotherapy and temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This was the second of two similar studies published in the February 20 issue of...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jagsi et al found that use of breast reconstruction in patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy has increased over time but varies according to a number of treatment and demographic characteristics. Study Details The study involved ...
Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathway activation may be a mechanism of escape from vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapies. In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Motzer et al compared the VEGF and FGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor dovitinib vs sorafenib...
Patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated with combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy reported a decrease in their voice and speech quality for up to 1 year after the completion of treatment, according to research presented today at the 2014 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium....
Pathologic complete response has been proposed as a surrogate endpoint for long-term clinical benefit in breast cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established the international Collaborative Trials in Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer working group to perform a pooled analysis of...
Patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx had a longer time to development of distant metastasis after initial treatment, and had more metastatic sites in more atypical locations compared to HPV-negative patients, according to research presented...
Asparaginase treatment, standard in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) regimens, is excluded or used for shorter durations in treatment of adults with ALL due to risk of toxicity. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Douer et al evaluated a pegaspargase (Oncaspar) dosing...
A retrospective analysis of patients with oropharyngeal cancer with recurrence of disease after primary therapy in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) studies 0129 and 0522 found that human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive patients had a higher overall survival rate than HPV-negative patients, ...
New study findings show that patients with head and neck cancer receiving daily humidification of the mouth and throat during radiation therapy had reduced symptoms of muscositis and spent nearly 50% fewer days in the hospital to manage their treatment side effects. The study by Macann et al was...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vaz-Luis et al assessed duration and toxicity of adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in older patients with early-stage breast cancer. They found that age and comorbidity affected treatment completion rates and that significant...
Mature results of a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Advani et al indicate that rituximab (Rituxan) is active in nodular lymphocyte–predominant Hodgkin lymphoma, which is characterized by expression of CD20 by malignant cells. Most patients relapsed, but durable...
In the SAFIR01/UNICANCER study reported in The Lancet Oncology, André et al used comparative genomic hybridization and Sanger sequencing on metastatic breast cancer biopsy samples to determine the proportion of cases in which targeted therapy could be offered. They found that screening...
Among the four major molecular subgroups of medulloblastoma, WNT tumors are associated with excellent prognosis, whereas SHH and Group 4 tumors are associated with intermediate and Group 3 tumors with poor prognosis. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shih et al identified a...
In the BRIM-3 trial, vemurafenib (Zelboraf) was associated with improved progression-free and overall survival vs dacarbazine in patients with advanced BRAF V600 mutation–positive melanoma. In an extended follow-up reported in The Lancet Oncology, McArthur et al found that superior survival...
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a highly accurate, noninvasive test to identify benign pancreatic cysts, which could spare patients the cost and risk of surveillance or potentially dangerous surgical intervention. The findings are reported in the Journal of...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Held et al studied elderly patients with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and bulky disease in the most effective treatment arm of the RICOVER-60 trial, which included radiotherapy. The investigators compared outcomes ...
Using data from the whole-genome sequencing of a pair of 3-year-old female monozygotic twins, one healthy and one with the multilineage form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a team of scientists from China and the United States have identified a novel molecular target that could offer a new...
Oral ascorbate, or vitamin C, has been shown to be ineffective in cancer clinical trials. However, recent studies have indicated that millimolar concentrations of ascorbate achieved in blood and tissue with intravenous dosing is associated with cancer cell killing without harm to normal tissue. In...
In a brief communication in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Passerini et al described compassionate use experience with the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) in a group of patients with chemoresistant advanced ALK-positive lymphoma. Response was observed in 10 of 11 patients, and...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Cunha et al found that receipt of a stem cell transplant from donors with a homozygous haplotype (h2/h2, G-A/G-A) in PTX3, the gene encoding the soluble pattern-recognition receptor pentraxin 3 (PTX3), is associated with significantly...
Cancer experts from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College are collaborating to understand the link between obesity and cancer. Most recently, their research has yielded an interesting association: Obesity prior to diagnosis is associated with a fivefold increase...
Studies of complications of surgery or radiotherapy for prostate cancer generally focus on incontinence and erectile dysfunction. In a population-based cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nam et al assessed the frequency of other complications associated with such treatment and found high ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al in the Children’s Oncology Group identified a common single nucleotide polymorphism, rs2232228, in the hyaluronan synthase 3 (HAS3) gene that is associated with anthracycline dose–related risk of cardiomyopathy in...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kiecolt-Glaser et al found that yoga reduced levels of inflammatory cytokines and fatigue and increased vitality in breast cancer survivors. Study Details In the study, 200 women with stage 0 to IIIA breast cancer who had completed...
A simple tool called “phi” appears to be able to identify which patients assigned to active surveillance for prostate cancer are more likely to require treatment. Phi, or the prostate health index, is calculated from three serum measurements: PSA, free/total PSA, and a new measurement,...