In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jaiswal et al found somatic mutations associated with hematologic cancers at increasing frequency with increasing age, with presence of the mutations being associated with increased risk of hematologic cancers, all-cause mortality,...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Genovese et al found that clonal hematopoiesis with somatic mutations is increasingly common with greater age and is associated with increased risk of hematologic cancer. The presence of such clonal hematopoiesis in apparently healthy...
A new analysis opens the door to the discovery of thousands of potential new cancer biomarkers, according to a recent study by Iyer et al published in Nature Genetics. Long Noncoding RNA Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed the global landscape of long...
A new breast imaging technique developed at Mayo Clinic nearly quadruples detection rates of invasive breast cancers in women with dense breast tissue, according to the results of a study published by Rhodes et al in the American Journal of Roentgenology. What Is MBI? Molecular breast imaging...
Data from 25 case-control studies and separate analyses show that head and neck cancers in young adults are more likely to occur as a result of inherited factors rather than lifestyle factors, such as smoking or drinking alcohol, according to a new study by Toporcov et al published in the...
Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a potential treatment targeting a pathway by which several aggressive tumors maintain their ability to proliferate, according to a study by Flynn et al published...
A genomic study of cancer patients previously treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy found that TP53 mutations may play a role in the development of treatment-related acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome, according to a report by Wong et al in Nature. However, the...
Among patients who had an unidentifiable lung nodule detected by a chest computed tomography (CT) scan, testing sputum for a panel of three microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers successfully distinguished early-stage lung cancers from nonmalignant nodules most of the time, according to a study reported by...
A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center characterizes the genetic underpinnings of phyllodes tumors, a rare type of breast tumor. The study offers the first comprehensive analysis of the molecular alterations at work in these tumors, according to Cani...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) announced today that it will use SAP HANA®, a data management and application platform, in the development of CancerLinQ, the Society’s health information technology platform that will harness Big Data to deliver high-quality care to...
ASCO released its report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2015: An Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer, today, and for the first time announced its cancer Advance of the Year: gains made in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). ASCO credits the improvements in CLL care with the...
New data from the phase II PEAK and phase III PRIME studies support the first-line use of panitumumab (Vectibix) in combination with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin) in patients with wild-type RAS metastatic colorectal cancer. The study results were presented during a poster session...
A simple change to a two-drug therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer provides similar cancer control while significantly improving quality of life and reducing the cost of care, according to data reported by researchers at the The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur...
Although scientists know that all cancers contain a mixture of both rapidly and slowly proliferating cancer cells, which complicates the detection and treatment of patients with cancer and may cause disease relapse long after apparently curative treatment, the circumstances and molecular details of ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frazier et al used data from U.S. and UK clinical trials to identify a high-risk group of patients with pediatric extracranial germ cell tumors. Study Details The study involved data from seven germ cell tumor trials conducted by the...
Updated results from TRIBE, an Italian phase III study of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, indicate that FOLFOXIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil [5-FU], oxaliplatin, irinotecan) chemotherapy in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin) is superior to the standard FOLFIRI (leucovorin, 5-FU,...
New findings from an international phase III study of 1,072 patients with advanced colorectal cancer whose disease progressed on or after initial therapy indicate that a combination of the targeted drug ramucirumab (Cyramza) and FOLFIRI (irinotecan, fluorouracil, leucovorin) chemotherapy provides a ...
A retrospective review of clinical data on 145 patients with stage I to III rectal cancer indicates that patients who achieved complete response after treatment with chemoradiation and systemic chemotherapy had similar 4-year survival rates regardless of whether they had immediate surgery or...
Even decades after being cured, many cancer survivors face physical and mental challenges resulting from their disease and its treatment, according to a new study reported by Burg et al in Cancer. The findings could help clinicians and other experts develop interventions that are tailored to the...
Patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who receive neoadjuvant radiation therapy with either irinotecan plus capecitabine or oxaliplatin plus capecitabine have a 4-year overall survival rate of 85% and 75%, respectively, according to a study reported by Wong et al in the International Journal ...
In a population-based study of patients with thyroid cancer, 12.3% of patients with small papillary thyroid tumors experienced thyroid cancer–related deaths despite undergoing thyroidectomy, according to a report by Nilubol and Kebebew in the journal Cancer. From the results of this study,...
Patients with new cases of cancer face a heightened risk of stroke in the months immediately following their diagnoses, with that risk escalating with the aggressiveness of their disease, according to a new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer...
Retrospective analyses of the ATAC, TEAM, and BIG 1-98 adjuvant endocrine therapy trials in breast cancer have suggested that treatment-emergent endocrine symptoms may be associated with superior survival outcomes. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stearns et al found no...
A phase II clinical study of adjuvant paclitaxel and trastuzumab (Herceptin) in women with stage I HER2-positive breast cancer has found the 3-year rate of survival free from invasive disease was 98.7%. The findings may help establish the combination therapy as the first standard treatment approach ...
A clinical trial that combined stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with erlotinib chemotherapy more than doubled survival rates for certain patients with stage IV lung cancer patients, reported Iyengar et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. SBRT is a type of radiation therapy in which a ...
Adding radiation treatment to androgen-deprivation therapy saves more lives among older men with locally advanced prostate therapy than androgen-deprivation therapy alone, according to a new study reported by Bekelman et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The researchers found that...
The molecular determinants of benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment have not been characterized. In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Snyder et al found that benefit of the anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) antibodies ipilimumab (Yervoy) and...
The American Cancer Society’s annual cancer statistics report found that a 22% drop in cancer mortality over 2 decades led to the avoidance of more than 1.5 million cancer deaths that would have occurred if peak rates had persisted. And while cancer death rates have declined in every state,...
After initiating several biophysical computational studies, researchers have identified mutations that destabilize a DNA structure that turns a gene “off.” They found that these mutations occur at four specific sites in the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter in over ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to nivolumab (Opdivo) for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma who no longer respond to other drugs. Nivolumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, is intended for patients who have been previously treated with ipilimumab...
The American Pyschosocial Oncology Society (APOS) announced today that it is accepting nominations for its 2015 awards. The deadline for submitting nominations is December 31, 2014. These awards will be presented at the World Congress of Psycho-Oncology, to be held July 30 to August 1, 2015. For...
A new analysis suggests that women who use bisphosphonates have about half the risk of developing endometrial cancer as women who do not use the drugs. The findings by Alford et al, published early online in Cancer, supports other research that has shown an anticancer effect of this type of...
Today’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of olaparib (Lynparza) occurred concurrently with that of a companion diagnostic, BRACAnalysis CDx. This genetic test is designed to detect the presence of mutations in the BRCA genes in blood samples from patients with ovarian...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to olaparib (Lynparza) for women with advanced ovarian cancer with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer, as detected by an FDA-approved test, who have been treated with three ...
Anti–PD-1 antibodies have been shown to be effective in solid tumors. There is evidence that the malignant Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin lymphomas use the PD-1 pathway to evade immune detection, with alterations in chromosome 9p24.1 increasing levels of PD-L1 and PD-L2 and promoting...
In an Australian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, White et al found that a telephone-based peer-support intervention reduced breast cancer distress among women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation. Study Details In the study, 207 mutation carriers reporting interest in talking...
The genetic abnormality that drives the bone cancer Ewing sarcoma operates through two distinct processes, both activating genes that stimulate tumor growth and suppressing those that should keep cancer from developing. The findings by Riggi et al, published in Cancer Cell, may lead to new...
In a phase III PROFILE 1014 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Solomon et al found that the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) improved progression-free survival vs standard chemotherapy in first-line treatment of advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)....
A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) describes a novel marker that might help doctors choose the least toxic, most effective treatment for many...
Racial disparities in colon cancer survival rates may be explained by differences in the health of the patients at diagnosis—both in the stage of the cancer and comorbid conditions—rather than by differences in subsequent treatment, a new study has found. Focusing efforts on prevention...
Among patients with advanced, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer who had not been treated previously for advanced disease, those who took fulvestrant (Faslodex) lived longer than those who took anastrozole, according to data from the phase II FIRST trial presented at the 2014 San Antonio ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shi et al found a modest correlation of progression-free survival with overall survival as first-line treatment endpoints in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. The study involved individual patient- and trial-level data from 16,762...
Results of the large international SOFT trial present a convincing argument for the addition of ovarian function suppression to adjuvant hormonal therapy to reduce the risk of recurrence in premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer at high enough risk to be treated with ...
Results from the largest series of male breast cancer cases ever studied showed that there was significant improvement in overall survival for male breast cancer patients over the duration of the study, but the improvement was not as good as has been seen for female breast cancer patients,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved recombinant nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine (Gardasil 9) for the prevention of certain diseases caused by nine types of HPV. The nine-valent vaccine covers five more HPV types than the previously approved quadrivalent vaccine...
Although the data are preliminary, single-agent AG-221 therapy targeted to the IDH2 mutation holds great promise as a nonchemotherapy approach for the treatment of advanced hematologic malignancies, including relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and untreated AML. The findings were...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for denosumab (Xgeva) for the treatment of hypercalcemia of malignancy refractory to bisphosphonate therapy. Denosumab was approved and granted Orphan Drug designation by the FDA, which is reserved for drugs that are intended for...
Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, has been elected President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for the term beginning in June 2016. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2015. “I'm honored to be elected incoming President of...
A phase II study investigating the potential of the drugs azacitidine and lenalidomide (Revlimid) demonstrated that the two therapies in combination may be an effective frontline treatment regimen for patients with higher-risk forms of myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The...
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...