An analysis of whole-exome sequencing data from 538 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including 278 pretreatment samples collected from patients enrolled in a clinical trial, has identified 44 recurrently mutated genes and 11 recurrent somatic copy number variations. These findings...
In a Danish-Swedish population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, El-Galaly et al found that routine imaging for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in patients in first complete remission does not improve post-treatment survival. Study Details The study included 525 Danish and...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ambrosone et al found that risk of estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer was reduced with later age at menarche in both parous and nulliparous African American women. Greater interval between menarche and first live birth ...
A study to examine racial disparities in end-of-life care among black and white patients dying of prostate cancer found that “significant racial disparities in end-of-life care" do exist. “Although diagnostic and therapeutic interventions are less frequent in black patients with...
Accelerated partial-breast irradiation was designed to be a faster, more convenient, and potentially safer way for many women with breast cancer to reduce their mortality risk and help keep their cancer from returning after surgery. But a new study shows that despite the availability of accelerated ...
Fresh research at Sahlgrenska Academy has found that antioxidants can double the rate of melanoma metastasis in mice. The results reinforce previous findings that antioxidants hasten the progression of lung cancer. According to Martin Bergö, PhD, people with cancer or an elevated risk of...
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Ransohoff et al describe genetic evidence of phenotype switching from basal cell to squamous cell carcinoma in a patient receiving vismodegib (Erivedge) for basal cell carcinoma. Hedgehog signaling pathway activation, a central feature of...
Bone marrow transplantation is a lifesaving therapy for many patients with blood cancers like leukemias and lymphomas. Currently, the gold standard blood-generating stem cells are obtained from a donor, most likely a sibling, with a perfect match to the patient in order to minimize the chance of...
For a malignant tumor to form, cancer cells must evade the immune system's attack. Numerous studies have already shown that cancer spreads particularly aggressively if there is an unfavorable balance between suppressing and active immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. “But we didn't...
As reported by Solin et al in Journal of Clinical Oncology, 12-year results from the ECOG-ACRIN E5194 trial indicate that among women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with low-risk clinical and pathologic characteristics, surgical excision without radiation therapy was associated with...
In a study reported in The Lancet, Smyth et al found that alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of cancer at sites known to be related to alcohol consumption, with evidence of increased risk being found in both higher- and lower-income countries. The study examined associations...
Surgical removal of melanoma that has metastasized to the abdomen appears to help patients live more than twice as long as those who receive only medical therapy, according to study results presented at the 2015 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. In more than 1,600 patients...
As time lapses, many patients who have undergone a colonoscopy become less and less likely to recall when and where they last had the procedure performed, who the doctor was who performed it, whether polyps were found, and, if so, the number and size of those polyps, according to new study results...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ligibel et al found that body mass index (BMI) at diagnosis was independently prognostic for recurrence-free and overall survival in women with early-stage node-positive breast cancer who received doxorubicin,...
For younger women with early-stage, noninherited breast cancer on one side, a unilateral mastectomy leads to a slightly higher quality of life and lower costs over the next 20 years compared with contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, according to new study results presented at the 2015 Annual...
In a noninferiority phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roa et al found no difference in overall survival, progression-free survival, or quality of life between short-course and longer-course radiotherapy in elderly or frail patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma...
In a systematic review and network meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Fujii et al found that sequential anthracycline-cyclophosphamide and taxane (AC-T) appears to be the most effective adjuvant regimen in early-stage breast cancer in terms of association with overall survival and toxicity....
As reported by Garfall et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, a patient with refractory multiple myeloma who had undergone prior autologous stem cell transplantation and multiple lines of therapy exhibited a complete response to a second autologous transplantation followed by infusion of...
As reported in JAMA Internal Medicine by Toledo et al, a large Spanish primary prevention nutrition intervention trial in patients at high cardiovascular risk (PREDIMED) showed a large reduction in risk for invasive breast cancer among women 60 to 80 years of age who were randomly assigned to the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved an expanded indication for the Optune tumor treating fields device to treat patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. It is given along with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide following standard treatments that include...
Disparities in outcomes for children with retinoblastoma suggest unequal access to primary care, researchers from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center reported in a study published by Truong et al in JAMA Pediatrics. Although virtually all the children in the study...
Determining the answer to a simple question, “Would you be surprised if this patient died within the next year?” can be an important tool to help predict which patients with cancer may be in their final year of life, according to the findings from a study by Vick et al. The tool, known...
In a pilot study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tefferi et al found that imetelstat, which targets the RNA template of telomerase reverse transcriptase, produced responses in patients with myelofibrosis. Treatment was associated with myelosuppression in some patients. Current...
In a randomized phase IIb trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Chawla et al found that aldoxorubicin—a novel albumin-binding prodrug of doxorubicin—produced longer progression-free survival than doxorubicin as first-line treatment for metastatic or locally advanced unresectable soft-tissue...
Almost half of patients with advanced lung cancer receive more than the recommended number of radiation treatments to reduce their pain, according to a new study published by Koshy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Radiation therapy that is palliative can reduce the pain from...
A study evaluating the effects of bariatric surgery on obese women most at risk for cancer has found that the weight-loss surgery slashed participants' weight by one-third and eliminated precancerous uterine growths in those who had them. Other effects included improving patients' physical quality...
On October 2, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed after other treatments and with tumors that express programmed cell...
The latest results from a trial of a combination of two targeted therapies (dabrafenib [Tafinlar] and trametinib [Mekinist]) to treat advanced melanoma have shown that patients are living significantly longer on the combined therapy than patients treated with vemurafenib (Zelboraf) alone. Caroline...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Keenan et al found that African American women with breast cancer had greater intratumor genetic heterogeneity, a higher frequency of TP53 mutation, and higher risk for basal tumors compared with white women, with the characteristics...
In a recent report of single-institution experience in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kasamon et al found that nonmyeloablative-related HLA-haploidentical blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) followed by high-dose cyclophosphamide produced good outcomes in patients aged 50 to 75 years...
A prospective study of guideline-based, postoperative, image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy in patients with prostate cancer found low toxicity profiles and favorable patient-reported quality of life following treatment, with researchers concluding that toxicity and health-related...
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti–PD-1 therapy, may be effective as monotherapy in patients with advanced unresectable nasopharyngeal carcinoma whose tumors express programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). Data from a phase Ib study, KEYNOTE-028, showed an overall response rate of 22.2% in 27...
At the 2015 European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria, early results were announced (Abstract 21LBA) from a pivotal phase II study, IMvigor 210, of the investigational cancer immunotherapy atezolizumab (anti–PD-L1; MPDL3280A) in people with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial...
On September 30, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to nivolumab (Opdivo) in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy) for the treatment of patients with BRAF V600 wild-type, unresectable, or metastatic melanoma. The FDA is scheduled to make a decision on ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sundström et al found that women co-infected with high-risk and low-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) had reduced risk of squamous cervical cancer (SCC), but not cancer in situ (CIS) compared with women with high-risk HPV...
Gastric cancer is typically associated with late-stage diagnosis, as well as high mortality. A study by Li et al in The American Journal of Pathology points to a pivotal role played by the biomarker microRNA (miR)-506 in gastric cancer. Patients whose primary gastric cancer lesions express high...
An international team of researchers has shown that the use of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus can delay tumor growth among both gastrointestinal and lung neuroendocrine tumors. This is particularly important for patients with lung tumors, the researchers say, because there is currently no approved...
Results from a multicenter randomized international trial of an innovative treatment show a marked improvement in the length of time patients with midgut neuroendocrine tumors experience progression-free survival, researchers reported at the 2015 European Cancer Congressin Vienna, Austria, on...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Landier et al found that education tailored to personal risk for therapy-related complications improved risk awareness in survivors of childhood cancer. The level of awareness appeared to reach a maximum after several educational sessions....
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive disease that is difficult to treat and is frequently diagnosed only when it has metastasized. Five-year survival rates in SCLC, which accounts for about 14% of all lung cancers, are very low, at only 6%. Researchers presented novel findings (Abstract...
In a special session on cancer in pregnancy at the 2015 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 3205), Frédéric Amant, MD, PhD, said that new results from a study of 129 children, aged 1–3, born after prenatal exposure to cancer treatment, showed normal development of their...
Living in overcrowded conditions appears to protect children and young adults against developing a particular type of Hodgkin lymphoma. This protective effect seems to suggest that infections earlier in life may stimulate the immune system to deal with future infections and cancerous cells more...
Unraveling the genetic sequences of cancer that has spread to the brain could offer unexpected targets for effective treatment, according to new research (Abstract 2905) presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria, and published simultaneously by Brastianos et al in...
Young women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer may be more likely to remain fertile if they also receive hormonal treatment, according to new research (Abstract 1957) presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria, and published simultaneously by Lambertini et al in Annals ...
Aspirin improved survival in patients with tumors situated throughout the gastrointestinal tract, results from a large study in the Netherlands showed. This is the first time that survival data from patients with tumors in different gastrointestinal locations have been analyzed at the same time;...
Patients with cancers of the mid and lower throat may have higher survival rates if their initial treatment includes surgery, according to new research (Abstract 2804) presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria. Researchers explained that a nationwide study in Taiwan found...
The targeted drug nivolumab (Opdivo) significantly prolonged survival in patients with advanced kidney cancer whose disease had progressed after their first treatment, according to the results (Abstract 3LBA) presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Vienna, Austria, and published...
Comparisons of cancer patients’ survival and care in Europe up to 2007 showed that although more patients are surviving for at least 5 years after diagnosis, there are large variations among countries, which are particularly significant in cancers of the blood. Milena Sant, MD, from the...
Patients with advanced kidney cancer lived for nearly twice as long without their disease progressing if they were treated with cabozantinib (Cometriq), a drug that inhibits the action of tyrosine kinases. Toni Choueiri, MD, presented the research (Abstract 4LBA) at the Presidential Session of the...
In a phase I/II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corcoran et al found that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) produced responses in some patients with BRAF V600–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer. MAPK...