Patients diagnosed with thymoma, a rare cancer of the thymus gland, may be able to avoid certain cancer treatments associated with severe adverse events if the results of a new test reveal they are at low risk of metastasis, according to a study published in PLOS ONE. The study, by researchers at...
Richard I. Fisher, MD, a leading cancer center administrator and nationally recognized hematology/oncology expert, has been appointed President and CEO of Fox Chase Cancer Center. Dr. Fisher will also hold the title of Cancer Center Director of Fox Chase, serving as the principal investigator on...
Intratumoral injections of plasmid DNA encoding interleukin-12 (IL-12), facilitated in its delivery by electroporation, results in tumor regression in patients with both metastatic melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma, according to findings reported at the 2013 World Cutaneous Malignancies Congress...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that oral ketoconazole should not be used as first-line treatment for any fungal infection and should only be used for the treatment of endemic mycoses when alternative antifungal therapies are not available or tolerated. The use of...
A family history of cancer increases the risk of other members of the family developing not only the same, or concordant, cancer but also a different, or discordant, cancer, according to a large study of 23,000 people in Italy and Switzerland. The study, published in Annals of Oncology, provides a...
Scientists have identified a protein that could play a crucial role in recognizing whether patients with colorectal cancer are candidates for chemotherapy due to a high risk of their cancer spreading, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Cancer. Scientists at the University...
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have used digital versions of a standard molecular biology tool to detect a common tumor-associated mutation in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with brain tumors. In a report published in Molecular Therapy – Nucleic Acids, the...
This afternoon, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) hosted a congressional briefing to highlight the significance of federally funded biomedical research in improving our understanding of cancer health disparities and developing targeted interventions to eliminate them. The...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking additional information to help the agency make informed decisions about menthol in cigarettes. Despite decades of work to reduce tobacco use in the United States, it continues to be the...
In an analysis of 5-year survival rates among black and white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 2005, black women continued to have a lower rate of survival, with most of the difference related to factors including poorer health of black patients at diagnosis and more advanced...
A multidisciplinary team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has found that measuring the oxygenation of tumors can be a valuable tool in guiding radiation therapy, opening the door for personalized therapies that keep tumors in check with oxygen enhancement. In a study examining tissue oxygenation...
Boys are more likely to receive the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine if their mothers receive flu shots or Pap screenings, according to a study from Kaiser Permanente published in the American Journal of Public Health. Study Details The study examined the electronic health records of...
In a phase II study evaluating three dosing regimens of nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) given with bevacizumab (Avastin), weekly dosing of nab-paclitaxel resulted in the highest overall response rate and longest progression-free survival. The schedule of nab-paclitaxel given...
An integrative approach to treating chronic pain significantly reduced pain severity and improved mood and quality of life, according to a new study from the Bravewell Practice-based Research Network (BraveNet) published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Researchers found a reduction...
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital in China have discovered a gene-expression signature that may lead to new immune therapies for patients with lung cancer. Their findings, published in The Journal of Clinical...
Women who survive cancer have more frequent, severe, and troubling hot flashes than other women with menopausal symptoms, according to a study published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). But surprisingly, the cancer survivors fare better...
A set of proteins involved in the body’s natural defenses produces a large number of mutations in human DNA, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, suggest that these naturally produced mutations are just as...
A new study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in partnership with Costa Rican investigators and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), shows for the first time that the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18, which is used to prevent cervical cancer, also...
The protein TAp73 shares extensive common gene sequences with the tumor-suppressor protein p53, and previous studies have suggested that it may function similarly to p53 to prevent tumor formation. However, unlike p53, the most commonly mutated gene in human tumors, TAp73 is rarely mutated and is...
Cancer patients who receive chest radiation should be screened for heart disease every 5 to 10 years, according to the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) of the European Society of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography. Their recommendations are outlined in the ...
The American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) has announced recommendations to support a new criterion for cancer center accreditation. In 2015, the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) Commission on Cancer (CoC) will require cancer centers to implement screening programs for...
In a study that included more than 10,000 men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer, use of androgen deprivation therapy was associated with a significantly increased risk of acute kidney injury, with variations observed with certain types of androgen deprivation therapies, according to a study in the ...
Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center recently discovered that the most frequently used cancer cell lines in ovarian cancer research are not suitable models of ovarian cancer. Their findings are the result of a detailed review of genomic data that recently became publicly...
According to a new study, colorectal cancer survivors face an increased risk of developing subsequent primary cancers, particularly second colorectal cancers and small intestinal cancers. These findings, published online in Cancer, may help in the development of screening guidelines for patients...
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that nerves play a critical role in both the development and spread of prostate tumors. Their findings, using both a mouse model and human prostate tissue, may lead to new ways to predict the aggressiveness of...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21...
Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has been named as the Senior Director of the Education, Science and Professional Development Department of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). A long-time ASCO member and...
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered that a protein used by cancer cells to evade death also plays a vital role in heart health. This dual role complicates efforts to develop cancer drugs that target the protein, but may lead to new therapies for heart muscle...
A second large, prospective study by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has confirmed the link between high blood concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids and an increased risk of prostate cancer. Study Details Published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the...
A team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has identified why disruption of a vital pathway in cell cycle control leads to the proliferation of cancer cells. Their findings on telomeres, published today in Molecular Cell, suggest a potential target for preventive measures...
Scientists have successfully targeted a malfunctioning immune system enzyme to kill diseased cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a precursor to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Reporting their results in Cancer Cell, researchers say their successful laboratory tests in human MDS...
Different factors influence delay between diagnosis and first course of treatment for breast cancer for African American and white women, according to a recently published study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The study used data from the Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS)...
According to research published in PNAS, scientists have used an efficient new screening strategy to identify gene mutations in tumor cells that are possible drug targets for the most common form of lung cancer. Researchers from the Cancer Research UK’s Paterson Institute for Cancer Research ...
Pharmacyclics, Inc, today announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the investigational oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib, for two relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancy indications: mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and...
Among men who had undergone radical prostatectomy, daily consumption of a beverage powder supplement containing soy protein isolate for 2 years did not reduce or delay development of biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer compared to men who received placebo, according to a study in the July 10...
New evidence suggests that using advanced genetics technologies to monitor for remaining cancer cells after treatment may soon become an effective tool to inform treatment decisions and ultimately predict patient outcomes for patients with a particularly aggressive form of acute lymphocytic...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) issued a newly updated clinical practice guideline today on pharmacologic prevention interventions for premenopausal and postmenopausal women who are at increased risk for breast cancer. Compared to the previous version of the guideline, this third...
For patients with advanced gastric cancer, treatment with chemotherapy after surgery can reduce the risk of cancer-related death by 34% over 5 years compared to surgery alone, researchers reported at the 15th ESMO World Congress in Gastrointestinal Cancer (Abstract 007), held July 3 to 6 in...
A new analysis has found that among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), African Americans more commonly present with advanced disease and tend to have shorter survival times than Caucasians despite receiving the same care. The results, published early online in Cancer, suggest that...
Smokers and single men are more likely to acquire oncogenic oral human papillomavirus (HPV), according to new results from the HPV Infection in Men (HIM) Study. Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute, Mexico, and Brazil also reported that newly acquired oral HPV...
A jointly signed letter by ASCO and more than 50 other cancer and health-care organizations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius and Acting Secretary of the Department of Labor (DOL) Seth D. Harris asks that they provide clear federal regulations and guidance on...
Two drugs were given Priority Review designation by FDA earlier this week. Obinutuzumab (GA101) was granted Priority Review for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), based on final stage 1 data from the pivotal CLL11 trial. FDA also granted Priority Review to a pertuzumab (Perjeta)...
A novel pairing of two investigational cancer drugs in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer showed promising activity and had manageable toxicities, according to a phase I trial published online in the European Journal of Cancer. The combination of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)...
The rapid increase in papillary thyroid cancer in the United States may not be linked to increase in occurrence, but instead may be linked to an increase in the diagnosis of precancerous conditions and to a person's insurance status, according to a study published online in Thyroid. "This [study]...
According to a recently published analysis in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is safe and effective for patients with stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a multicenter environment. In addition, radiotherapy dosage was identified as a major...
Tobacco control measures put in place in 41 countries between 2007 and 2010 are predicted to prevent an estimated 7.4 million premature deaths by 2050, according to a study published in the July issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. The study is one of the first to ...
A biomarker reflecting expression levels of two genes in tumor tissue may be able to predict which women treated for estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer should receive a second estrogen-blocking medication after completing tamoxifen treatment. In a report published online in the Journal...
Single-agent apixaban (Eliquis) may simplify the treatment of patients with acute venous thromboembolism, according to a new study published online in The New England Journal of Medicine. In the phase III AMPLIFY trial, the oral factor Xa inhibitor anticoagulant was found to be as effective as ...
Investigators in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have uncovered a connection between how tumor cells use energy from metabolic processes and the aggressiveness of the most common form of kidney cancer, clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Their findings demonstrate that normal...
Recurrence of melanoma skin cancer 10 or more years after initial treatment is more common than previously thought, occurring in more than 1 in 20 patients. However, according to a new study, these patients tend to live longer after their cancer returns than patients whose melanoma recurs in the...