In the phase III HELIOS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Chanan-Khan et al found that the addition of the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to bendamustine (Treanda)/rituximab (Rituxan) increased progression-free survival in patients with chronic lymphocytic ...
A new analysis indicated that many patients continue working after being diagnosed with metastatic cancer, but a heavy burden of symptoms may prevent them from doing so. Published by Tevaarwerk et al in Cancer, the study illustrates the need to treat difficult symptoms so that patients can maintain ...
Andrew Seidman, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discuss the recent approval of a cooling cap to reduce hair loss during chemotherapy.
Lisa A. Carey, MD, of the University of North Carolina, and Sibylle Loibl, MD, PhD, of the German Breast Group, discuss new data on palbociclib, new immunotherapy, and brain metastases (Abstract YR4).
David Henry, MD, of Pennsylvania Hospital, discusses new advances with direct oral anticoagulants, or DOACs.
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, discusses a study that showed patients with advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma, with a negative PET-scan following ABVD chemotherapy, have excellent outcomes without the need for consolidative radiotherapy, regardless of disease ...
David Henry, MD, of Pennsylvania Hospital, discusses the exciting developments in multiple myeloma treatment, including the three new drugs approved for the disease in November 2015.
More patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) could benefit from pembrolizumab (Keytruda), said Roy Herbst, MD, PhD, Chief of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven. Dr. Herbst presented promising results from the pivotal phase...
Five percent of cancer patients and their families were pushed into poverty in Southeast Asia between March 2012 and September 2013 because of high disease-related costs, a study (Abstract 52O) by Bhoo-Pathy et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Asia 2015 Congress in Singapore...
Novel strategies are being explored for difficult-to-treat and advanced head and neck cancer—the most heterogeneous group of malignancies that are generally associated with poor survival—and encouraging results have been presented in two trials at the first European Society for Medical...
On December 18, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the pembrolizumab (Keytruda) label to include approval of the drug for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. This expansion now includes the initial treatment of patients with unresectable or...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Shain et al identified the order of occurrence of mutations in the progression of melanoma as well as characterized point mutation burden and chromosomal instability during disease evolution. Study Details The study involved sequencing...
Each year, about 1.38 million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer. Advances in treatment have facilitated a 90% 5-year survival rate among those treated. Given the increased rate and length of survival following breast cancer, more and more survivors are facing a lifetime risk of...
Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, has been elected President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2017. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2016. Additionally, four new members were elected to the ASCO Board of Directors, as well as three new...
A new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows wide racial and economic disparities in access to minimally invasive hysterectomies for early uterine cancer in the United States. This is despite years of accumulating evidence that the procedures to remove the uterus are linked to fewer...
Using information gleaned from more than 20,000 men, researchers at Johns Hopkins have affirmed the value of their alternative system for assessing the likelihood of growth and spread of prostate cancer. The new grading system, they said, is not only easier to use and understand, but also more...
In the phase III HELIOS trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Chanan-Khan et al found that adding the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to bendamustine (Treanda)/rituximab (Rituxan) increased progression-free survival in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or...
Thyroid cancer survivors report poor quality of life after diagnosis and treatment compared with other patients who are diagnosed with more lethal cancers, according to new research from the University of Chicago Medicine. The findings, published by Aschebrook-Kilfoy et al in the journal Thyroid,...
Among patients undergoing major cancer operations, the preoperative use of blood-thinning drugs such as heparin does not increase rates of major bleeding or transfusions, and is associated with a decreased risk of blood clots, according to new study results published by Selby et al in the Journal...
A class of drugs used increasingly to help fight cancer may have the additional benefit of protecting the kidneys when packaged with the powerful chemotherapy agent cisplatin. These findings were published by Ranganathan et al in Kidney International. The nearly 40-year-old cisplatin can be a...
In a retrospective single-center cohort study reported in JAMA Dermatology, Carlos et al identified the cutaneous toxicities associated with the use of the BRAF inhibitors dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and vemurafenib (Zelboraf) alone or dabrafenib combined with the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist)....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to alectinib (Alecensa) for the treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have had disease progression on or are intolerant to crizotinib (Xalkori). ...
Among patients with HER2-positive, metastatic breast cancer that had progressed despite treatment with two or more forms of HER2-targeted therapy (trastuzumab [Herceptin] and lapatinib [Tykerb]), median overall survival was increased for those treated with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (aka T-DM1...
For more than 20 years, the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test has been used to help screen for prostate cancer. However, in recent years, some task forces have called for this blood test to be abandoned because it leads to many unnecessary biopsies. Now, a new study from The Ottawa Hospital and...
Patients with stage II or stage III triple-negative breast cancer who had a pathologic complete response (pCR) after presurgery chemotherapy had increased event-free and overall survival compared with those who had more than minimal residual invasive disease at surgery following presurgery...
A study by Chandarlapaty et al investigating whether mutations in the estrogen receptor are common in patients with advanced breast cancer and how they affect patient outcomes has found that the D538G and Y537S mutations in the estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) gene are prevalent in patients with advanced ...
Premenopausal women whose invasive breast cancers were of the luminal A subtype had comparable 10-year disease-free survival rates, regardless of whether or not they received adjuvant chemotherapy, according to data from the phase III Dutch Breast Cancer Cooperative Group (DBCG77B) clinical trial...
Adding denosumab (Xgeva) to adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy improved disease-free survival for postmenopausal patients with early-stage, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, according to results from the phase III ABCSG-18 clinical trial presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast...
Systematic collection of cancer patients’ symptoms using computer surveys was linked to less frequent emergency room admissions, longer average chemotherapy adherence, greater quality-of-life improvements, and improved survival, according to a new randomized, controlled trial spearheaded by a ...
In the phase III NAPOLI-1 trial reported in The Lancet, Wang-Gillam et al found that the addition of nanoliposomal irinotecan (Onivyde) to fluorouracil (5-FU) and folinic acid (leucovorin) resulted in improved overall survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal cancer who had received...
In a study update presented by Plesner et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, daratumumab (Darzalex) was shown to be safe and effective in combination with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (Abstract 507). ...
Using a pediatric chemotherapy regimen to treat young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) significantly improved their outcomes compared to what has historically been achieved with “adult” treatment protocols, report Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists. Overall survival...
Ninety-three percent of pediatric patients (55 of 59) with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) went into remission after receiving an investigational therapy made from their own immune cells, with continuous remissions of over 1 year in 18 patients and over 2 years in nine...
Depression is a significant predictor of 5-year survival and recurrence in head and neck cancer patients, according to a new study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. These findings, published by Shinn et al in Psychosomatic Medicine, represent one of the largest reported...
In a phase III study to be presented by Zelenetz et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, idelalisib (Zydelig) plus bendamustine (Treanda) and rituximab (Rituxan), or BR, proved superior to BR alone in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)...
The results of the randomized Graall-R 2005 study presented by Maury et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting found a new use for rituximab (Rituxan) in acute leukemia (Abstract 1). CD20 is present in 30% to 50% of patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphocytic...
A study presented by Stone et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting described a phase III trial of the first targeted therapy for genetically defined subset of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and its improvement of their survival (Abstract 6). Acute myeloid...
Two new studies to be reported at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting highlighted new insights on genetic mutations in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) that indicate a higher risk for debilitating chemotherapy-associated bone damage. The study findings were...
A study (Abstract LBA1) to be reported by Abbas Ali et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting demonstrated promising early outcomes of a first-in-human trial using a patient’s own genetically modified immune cells to eradicate multiple myeloma. The study...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has released a list of five hematology-related tests and procedures to question based on recommendations from other medical societies taking part in the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation’s Choosing Wisely® campaign. This list...
Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified a potential new approach to fertility preservation for young cancer patients that addresses concerns about beginning cancer treatment immediately and the possibility of reintroducing cancer cells during the fertility-preservation process....
In 1,048 prostate cancer patients previously treated with docetaxel, and 996 metastatic, castration-resistant patients, treatment with the androgen-lowering drug abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) led to longer overall disease control, even when a very high Gleason score indicated especially aggressive...
Women with a certain type of lung nodule visible on lung cancer screening computed topography (CT) exams face a higher risk of lung cancer than men with similar nodules, according to a new study (SSA04-02) presented by Boiselle et al November 29 at the Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of...
Can any cancer cell form another tumor, or is it only select cancer stem cells that give rise to new cancer cells? The answer, a new study finds, is both. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center looked at human ovarian cancer cells, and found that, for the most part,...
As reported by Tournigand et al in The Lancet Oncology, final analysis of the phase III GERCOR DREAM (OPTIMOX3) trial suggested a benefit of maintenance bevacizumab (Avastin)-erlotinib vs bevacizumab after bevacizumab-based induction therapy in patients with previously untreated metastatic...
Studies show that an estimated 67% of women aged 40 and older undergo screening mammography every 1 to 2 years. Over the course of 10 screening mammograms, the estimated cumulative probability of at least one false-positive result is 61% for women screened annually and 42% for women screened...
An increasing number of men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer are opting for active surveillance rather than aggressive treatment to avoid the debilitating potential side effects of surgery and radiation, such as erectile and urinary dysfunction. However, a new study by University of...
Breast density may not be a strong independent factor for breast cancer risk, according to a new study presented (BR267-SD-THA1) by Katavic et al December 2, 2015, at the Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. Prior research has shown an association between...
Comprehensive molecular characterization of primary papillary renal cell carcinoma, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, showed that type 1 and 2 papillary renal cell carcinomas were distinct types of disease based on differences in genetic...
Low-income women in Medicaid expansion states in the United States are more likely to have a breast screening performed than those in nonexpansion states, according to a study (HP207-SD-MOA2) by Fazeli Dehkordy et al presented November 30, 2015, at the Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of...