The most common genetic subtype of lung cancer, which has long defied treatment with targeted therapies, has had its growth halted by a combination of two already-in-use drugs in laboratory and animal studies, setting the stage for clinical trials of the drugs in patients. The study, published in...
According to a retrospective study, the use of angiotensin system inhibitors, such as lisinopril, captopril, and losartan, improved the survival of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma by 9 months, compared with patients who were not receiving these types of agents. Survival was even...
The addition of radiation to lifelong hormone therapy with oral antiandrogens vs antiandrogens alone reduced the prostate cancer–specific death rate by more than 50% at 10 and 15 years in men with locally advanced prostate cancer, according to an updated analysis of the Scandinavian Prostate...
Enzalutamide (Xtandi) improved survival by 29% in men with chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and reduced the risk of radiographic progression by 81%, according to complete results of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multinational, phase III PREVAIL...
An early-stage study shows melatonin may have the potential to help slow the growth of certain breast cancer tumors, according to researchers from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo. The study, published online in the journal PLoS...
A study by Almendro et al analyzed breast cancer tumors before and after treatment for important characteristics, including chromosome copy number, the presence or absence of certain protein markers, and their proliferative capacity. The scientists then used the data to develop computational models ...
As genomic testing becomes more common, genetic counseling is increasingly performed via telephone. BRCA1/2 mutation carries increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer. In a noninferiority study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schwartz et al compared genetic counseling for BRCA1/2...
A survey of oncologists by Shanafelt et al has found that approximately 45% had at least one symptom of burnout, with risk being greatest among younger oncologists and those spending more hours per week devoted to direct patient care. However, overall career satisfaction remains high, especially...
In a study (FACS trial) reported in JAMA, Primrose et al compared outcomes with intensive follow-up with carcinoembryonic antigen measurement (CEA), computed tomography (CT), both, or minimum follow-up after curative surgery for primary colorectal cancer. Intensive strategies resulted in a...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Bosset et al, long-term results of the European Organisaton for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) trial 22921 indicate that adjuvant fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy after preoperative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy does not affect...
Patients with cancers of the head and neck who received intensity-modulated radiation therapy experienced improved outcomes, as well as reduced toxicities, compared to patients receiving conventional radiation therapy, according to findings published online in Cancer by Beadle et al. The study is...
It is estimated that overdiagnosis occurs in approximately 20% to 40% of prostate cancers detected at screening in U.S. men aged 50 to 84 years, with the likelihood of overdiagnosis varying widely according to patient age and tumor characteristics. In a study reported in the Journal of the...
In a phase III trial (LUME-Lung 1) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Reck et al assessed the addition of nintedanib to docetaxel in second-line treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The combination significantly improved progression-free survival in all patients and improved overall ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Marcucci et al assessed whether including epigenetic changes—ie, DNA methylation—as molecular risk factors could improve risk stratification in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). They found that a seven-gene score integrating DNA...
More data have emerged that discount the potential for benefit with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors in esophageal cancer. The latest comes from the RTOG 0436 randomized phase III trial in patients with nonoperable esophageal cancer, the results of which were presented at the 2014 ...
The drug metformin, which is approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, has been tested in clinical trials as a tumor suppressor in different cancers due to its role in activating the AMPK signaling pathway. However, a new study by Liu et al published in Proceedings of the National Academy of...
In the global phase III RAINBOW trial of patients with metastatic gastric cancer, the investigational monoclonal antibody ramucirumab significantly improved both progression-free and overall survival when given as second-line therapy, investigators reported at a press briefing in advance of the...
New data from a phase III clinical trial shows that patients with metastatic colorectal cancer tumors that contain RAS mutations beyond KRAS exon 2 are unlikely to benefit from the addition of panitumumab (Vectibix) to second-line FOLFIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil, irinotecan) chemotherapy....
New findings from a four-arm phase III clinical trial in patients with stage II or stage III rectal cancer indicate that combining preoperative radiation with either capecitabine or fluorouracil (5-FU) results in equivalent outcomes. This study provides strong clinical evidence that using either...
Interim results from an ongoing phase II clinical trial in patients with various types of advanced neuroendocrine tumors show that a new chemotherapy combination of capecitabine and temozolomide either stalled disease progression or shrank tumors in 95% of patients whose disease worsened after...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for dabrafenib (Tafinlar) for the treatment of patients with metastatic BRAF V600E mutation–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have received at least one prior line of...
ALK and ROS1 gene rearrangements, which are known to drive subsets of lung cancer, appear to be present in some colorectal cancers as well, according to the results of a study published in Molecular Cancer Research. The findings by Aisner et al suggest that therapies used to target these two...
“Eliminating tobacco use is the most important thing we can do to prevent lung and other cancers, as well as the many other diseases its use causes. Today’s news confirms that we are making progress. However, the global health challenges from tobacco are still growing. “This new...
Tobacco control efforts are having a major impact on Americans’ health, a new analysis of lung cancer data suggests. The rate of new lung cancer cases decreased among men and women in the United States from 2005 to 2009, according to a report in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality...
EGFR is overexpressed in the majority of advanced epithelial ovarian carcinomas, and there is evidence indicating that overexpression is associated with poorer prognosis. In a phase III European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-Gynaecological Cancer Group and Gynecologic...
In a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, Chinn et al surveyed physicians’ attitudes towards hospice treatment if they were terminally ill with cancer and assessed how physician preferences might affect timing of hospice discussions with their terminally ill patients. They...
A study of human bronchial epithelial cells carrying mutations in the TP53 and KRAS genes has found that e-cigarette vapors enhanced the cells’ cancerous behaviors. The study suggests that e-cigarette exposure may contribute to lung cancer in individuals at high risk for the disease. The...
Treatment with the drug decitabine prior to administration of chemotherapy and a cancer vaccine yielded clinical benefit for women with recurrent ovarian cancer, suggesting that this combinatorial chemoimmunotherapy may provide a new treatment option for patients with the disease, according to a...
In a noninferiority trial (SINS) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bath-Hextall et al compared imiquimod 5% cream vs surgical excision for nodular and superficial basal cell carcinomas. Imiquimod cream was found to be inferior to surgical excision, but it may have a role in treatment of low-risk...
Wider surgical margins did not reduce the rate of local recurrence in women with triple-negative breast cancer treated with breast-conserving therapy, according to the results of a study published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. Pilewskie et al reported that their data support the definition of ...
While acknowledging that the full potential of cancer immunotherapy remains unclear, the editors of the journal Science said that the approach of using the immune system to attack tumors marks a turning point in the treatment of cancer. The successes of cancer immunotherapy in clinical trials in...
Maintaining a 2 decade–long trend, the cancer death rate in the United States continues to decline, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published online this week in Cancer. The report, which covers the years 2001 to 2010, shows drops in death rates for a...
It has been posited that aspirin treatment may reduce risk for colorectal cancer through inhibition of WNT/cadherin-associated protein β1 (CTNNB1, or β-catenin) signaling. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Nan et al investigated the potential role of the ...
Patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and a poor performance status who were previously treated with docetaxel may benefit from currently available second-line therapies, according to the findings of a meta-analysis by Iacovelli et al published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic...
The addition of carboplatin to a neoadjuvant regimen significantly increased the rate of pathologic complete response in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. The results from the CALGB/Alliance 40603 study were reported at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S5-01)....
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S1-04). Previous studies of chemotherapy plus anti-HER2 treatment for node-negative...
In postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy, low-dose tamoxifen did not significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer but did increase climacteric symptoms, according to the phase III study results presented by DeCensi et al in the Annals of Oncology. However, beneficial trends...
Five years of treatment with anastrozole reduced the risk of primary breast cancer by 53% in postmenopausal women at high risk for developing the disease, according to an analysis of the IBIS II trial. Anastrozole reduced the risk of estrogen receptor–positive invasive cancers by 58%. The...
Among older women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, it is reasonable to omit whole-breast radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery and neoadjuvant hormone therapy if the patient’s tumors have high levels of estrogen receptor expression, but radiation should remain...
Final results of the phase III NeoALTTO trial have confirmed the value of pathologic complete response to dual HER2 blockade in the neoadjuvant setting. The achievement of pathologic complete response was associated with significantly improved event-free survival and overall survival in some women...
Re-examination of data from four large studies of the benefits and harms of mammography screening shows that the benefits are more consistent across these studies than previously understood and that all the studies indicate a substantial reduction in breast cancer mortality with screening,...
Women with HER2-positive breast cancer who had the highest levels of immune cells in their tumors gained the most benefit from presurgery treatment with chemotherapy and trastuzumab (Herceptin), according to results presented today at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S1-05)....
The antibody-drug conjugate brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) has shown “compelling” antitumor activity in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphomas who were no longer responding to treatment, in a study presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zimmer et al assessed the incidence of spontaneous new primary melanomas in patients with stage III or IV melanoma in order to help clarify risk of BRAF inhibitor–related new melanomas. They found that patients not receiving BRAF...
Nearly all of the patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in a phase II clinical trial responded to treatment with the targeted therapy ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and the antibody rituximab (Rituxan), researchers reported at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting ...
A new analysis of the multiple myeloma IFM 2005-02 trial showed that lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance prolongs progression-free survival after stem cell transplantation, but does not improve overall survival. This is possibly attributed to the shorter survival time after first disease...
In the United States, African American men are 1.6 times more likely to develop prostate cancer and more than 2.5 times as likely to die from the disease than non-Hispanic white men, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. A study by David P. Turner, PhD, Assistant...
The monoclonal antibody gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) improved event-free survival and reduced the risk of relapse in children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in a study from the Children’s Oncology Group, presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and...
Years after receiving treatment, many patients who survive prostate cancer continue to experience treatment-related symptoms, according to the findings of a study by Darwish-Yassine et al published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship. These findings highlight the need for improvements in survivor ...
Two novel agents—the small-molecule PI3K inhibitor IPI-145 and the Bcl-2 inhibitor ABT-199—show promising activity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to two phase I studies presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstracts...