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Showing 17851 - 17900Idelalisib Achieves High Response Rates in ‘Double-Refractory’ Indolent NHL
In patients with indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) refractory to both rituximab (Rituxan) and an alkylating agent, monotherapy with the selective oral PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib produced a high response rate, with responses persisting for 1 year in the average patient, according to...
Idelalisib Plus Rituximab in Heavily Pretreated Relapsed CLL: ‘Dawn of a New Age’?
Idelalisib plus rituximab (Rituxan) improved progression-free survival, overall response rates, and overall survival compared with rituximab alone in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Moreover, the combination provided effective, durable disease control...
Expert Point of View: Anas Younes, MD
This study provides proof of principle that different tumor types that express CD30 have a good chance of responding to anti-CD30 treatment. Brentuximab achieves good response rates of about 76% in mycosis fungoides and 85% in [anaplastic T-cell lymphoma]. In [mycosis fungoides] and cutaneous...
Zoledronic Acid Fails to Benefit Women With Chemoresistant Breast Cancer
Zoledronic acid does not improve outcomes in patients with early breast cancer who do not have a full response to neoadjuvant anthracycline/taxane–based chemotherapy, according to results of the Neo-Adjuvant Trial Add-On (NATAN) study presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 A...
Adding Bevacizumab to Adjuvant Chemotherapy/Trastuzumab Fails to Improve Survival in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
The addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve invasive disease-free survival or overall survival in patients with high-risk HER2-positive breast cancer in the large randomized phase III BETH trial. Although not specifically designed to answer this question, BETH...
Immune Modulation May Aid Some Breast Cancer Subtypes
There may be an immunogenic phenotype in breast cancer that could benefit from immune modulation as part of treatment, according to results from studies that correlated high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes with both pathologic complete responses and long-term outcomes. Studies presented at ...
Novel Therapies May Help Wipe Out Residual Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Minimal residual disease after induction and consolidation for the treatment of acute leukemia might be eradicated by novel therapies, thus obviating the need for stem cell transplantation. That is the prediction of Matthew J. Wieduwilt, MD, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the...
Minimal Residual Disease Before and After Transplant: What Does It Mean?
In patients with acute leukemia, outcomes after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are negatively impacted by the presence of minimal residual disease. However, transplant can prolong survival in patients with minimal residual disease after consolidation, according to two studies presented at...
Expert Point of View: Rebecca A. Miksad, MD, MPH
Rebecca A. Miksad, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Physician-Investigator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, who discussed the paper by Fine et al at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, said, “the study reports that a range of neuroendocrine...
For Progressive Neuroendocrine Tumors, Clinical Benefit Is High With Capecitabine Plus Temozolomide
In an interim analysis of a phase II trial, 97% of patients with progressive metastatic neuroendocrine tumors achieved clinical benefit with the combination of capecitabine and temozolomide (CAPTEM). The results were reported at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium by Robert L. Fine, MD,...
SIDEBAR: Colorectal Cancer Survivors’ Comments on Strategies to Regulate Bowel Function
Avoiding Foods I don’t eat beans, I don’t eat onions. I’m kind of careful on greens because they just don’t digest well. I don’t eat as many salads. I couldn’t because they went right through. Behavioral Adjustments You learn, over the years, what you can and can’t do. And you can’t overeat....
Colorectal Cancer Survivors Face Challenges With Bowel Regulation
The fight against colorectal cancer leaves many survivors with battle wounds, according to studies that show a high incidence of assorted morbidities that can affect quality of life. Clinicians, in fact, may be unaware of the struggles with bowel function that occur during survivorship, researchers ...
Outcomes in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Studies Examine Relative Merits, Cost-Effectiveness
Targeted biologic agents have improved long-term outcomes in metastatic colorectal cancer, but debate continues as to their relative efficacy and proper sequencing. At the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, a number of studies attempted to answer these questions by interrogating the clinical...
Expert Point of View: Neal J. Meropol, MD
Neal J. Meropol, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, discussed the various findings in RAS mutations at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. “RAS mutations beyond exon 2 are common, occurring in about 15% ...
Expert Point of View: Neal J. Meropol, MD
Neal J. Meropol, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, discussed the study by Kothari et al presented at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. He noted that complex interactions exist between PIK3CA and...
Colorectal Cancer Screening: Quality Measures Should Focus on Patient Benefit Over Age Alone, Study Reports
Screening for colorectal cancer based on age alone may contribute to both underuse and overuse of colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and fecal occult blood testing among older people, according to a study by investigators at the University of Michigan and the Veterans Affairs Center for Clinical...
Expert Point of View: Thomas W. Flaig, MD
This study has the potential to expand the number of patients who can benefit from organ-sparing therapy,” said Thomas W. Flaig, MD, Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado Denver, commenting on the pooled analysis of RTOG 9906 and 0233 presented at the ...
Fine-Tuning Bladder-Preservation Trimodality Therapy for Patients With Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer
Organ preservation is a hallmark of progress in the world of cancer management. For patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, the bladder-sparing approach is a well-established alternative to radical cystectomy. Patients undergo cystoscopic evaluation between the induction and consolidation...
Expert Point of View: James Gulley, MD, PhD
“The key thing about this trial is that while the overall study was negative, subset analysis suggests that the patients who appear to benefit from ipilimumab have better prognostic factors, including no visceral disease, lower alkaline phosphatase, and elevated hemoglobin,” commented James...
Role of Immunotherapy Explored in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Ipilimumab (Yervoy) failed to meet the primary endpoint of improving overall survival in the randomized, phase III CA184-043 trial. However, the immunotherapy did improve progression-free survival and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response compared with placebo in postdocetaxel metastatic...
The Evolution of U.S. Cooperative Group Trials: Publicly Funded Cancer Research at a Crossroads
Over the past 5 decades, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups have played an enormous role in the fight against cancer, tackling a broad social agenda, including cancer prevention, quality-of-life issues for patients with cancer, and comparison of benefits among...
I Refuse to Capitulate to Cancer
Early last year, just as I returned to my residency in neurologic surgery at Stanford University after completing 2 years of my postdoctoral fellowship in a laboratory developing optogenetic techniques, I started losing weight—dropping from 180 lb to 160 lb in just 6 months—and I was having fairly...
State-of-the-Art Update on Prostate Cancer
The 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, held in San Francisco from January 29 to February 1, brought together more than 3,100 participants from around the world involved in the care of patients with genitourinary malignancies. The abstract presentations and plenary discussions offered the latest...
Greatly Frustrated by Congressional Failure to Act on Sustainable Growth Rate
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is deeply frustrated by the failure of Congress to permanently repeal the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula used to set Medicare physician payments and passage of the 17th patch to the system. ASCO and the entire physician community worked ...
Transition From Busy Oncologist to Retiree: Challenges and Opportunities
Oncology is a demanding field that requires special qualities to care for very sick patients, many of whom will die prematurely of their disease. Research indicates that years of facing life-and-death decisions in the clinic can be associated with oncology burnout syndrome, which effects physician...
Long-Term Benefit With Dasatinib After Imatinib Failure in Chronic-Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase who are resistant or intolerant to imatinib (Gleevec) can experience long-term benefit with dasatinib (Sprycel), according to long-term results of a randomized phase III study. The CA180-034 study also found that early molecular and...
Breast Reconstruction Has Increased Over Time but Varies Widely by Region
Analysis of data from 20,560 women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer found that breast reconstruction use “increased from 46% in 1998 to 63% in 2007 (P< .001), with increased use of implants and decreased use of autologous techniques over time (P < .001),” according to a report...
City of Hope Names Yuman Fong, MD, Chair, Department of Surgery
City of Hope recently announced the appointment of two new chairs in the Department of Surgery and for the Board of Directors. Yuman Fong, MD, has been named Chair of the Department of Surgery at City of Hope. Dr. Fong comes to City of Hope from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York,...
Expect Questions From Patients
Results from the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group Study Number 4 (SPCG-4), showing that men with early-stage prostate cancer, particularly men under 65 years old, treated with radical prostatectomy had increased survival compared to those assigned to watchful waiting, has raised concerns among...
Prostate Cancer Study Showing Increased Survival for Younger Men Undergoing Prostatectomy Not Expected to Increase Surgeries
Extended follow-up in the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group Study Number 4 (SPCG4), reported recently in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 found that men with early-stage prostate cancer, particularly those under 65 years old, who were treated with radical prostatectomy had increased survival...
Have You Heard?
“It’s not a matter of if a child will be seriously poisoned or killed. It’s a matter of when.” Lee Cantrell, PharmD, Director of the San Diego Division of the California Poison Control System and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, commenting on the...
Reishi Mushroom
Scientific name: Ganoderma lucidum Common names: Ling zhi, lin zi, mushroom of immortality Overview A fungus, reishi mushroom is an important component of the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries. It is used to increase energy, stimulate the immune system,...
MD Anderson Honors Two Champions for Women in Medicine and Research
Two champions of gender equality in medicine and research were recently honored by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Laurie Glimcher, MD, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University since 2012, received...
Ongoing Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Adolescent and Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer
ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT CHILDHOOD CANCER SURVIVORS Study Type: Randomized/interventional Study Title: A Randomized Web-Based Physical Activity Intervention in Adolescent Survivors of Childhood Cancer Study Sponsor and Collaborators: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Purpose: Five-year...
Two Behavioral Interventions Help Cancer Patients Struggling With Sleep Issues, Penn Medicine Study Finds
Patients with cancer who are struggling with sleep troubles, due in part to pain or side effects of treatment, can count on two behavioral interventions for relief—cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and mindfulness-based stress reduction—Penn Medicine researchers reported in a recent study...
The FDA’s Bad Ad Program
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. In this installment, Robert Dean, MBA, Director, and Michael Sauers, Deputy Director, of Division II in the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion discuss the FDA’s Bad Ad program. The...
American Association for Cancer Research Elects José Baselga, MD, PhD, as President-Elect 2014–2015
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected José Baselga, MD, PhD, Physician-in-Chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, as their President-Elect for 2014–2015. Dr. Baselga is an internationally recognized physician-scientist whose research...
The CoMMpass Trial in Multiple Myeloma
When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008, at just 47, I was lucky. I was asymptomatic, my cancer was detected through a routine blood test, and I had the smoldering type, so I didn’t need immediate treatment. Plus, I knew that recent advances in more effective therapies were making it...
Unraveling the Molecular Complexity of Multiple Myeloma
In 2011, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) announced the launch of CoMMpass (Relating Clinical Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profile), a clinical study at the heart of its Personalized Medicine Initiative. CoMMpass will follow 1,000 newly diagnosed...
Does ‘Specialist Bias’ Contribute to Overtreatment of Prostate Cancer?
Specialist bias, in which specialists recommend the therapy that they are capable of delivering, is thought to influence the treatment of patients with localized prostate cancer and to contribute to overtreatment of men with limited life expectancy,” Ayal A. Aizer, MD, MPH, and colleagues, from the ...
Shaw T. Chen, MD, PhD, Joins Polaris Pharmaceuticals
Shaw T. Chen, MD, PhD, has been appointed Executive Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs at Polaris Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Polaris Group. Dr. Chen had previously been with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for over 26 years in new drug development. Most recently he served as...
Decision Time for Lung Cancer Screening in High‑Risk Populations
For decades, dedicated members of the oncology community have fought to increase the nation’s focus on lung cancer prevention and treatment. Although smoking cessation initiatives have reduced cigarette consumption, lung cancer 5-year survival has remained stagnant at 15%, lagging far below most...
‘How Am I Doing, Doc?’
The goal of effective adjuvant therapy is to increase overall survival. It has been suggested cynically that all we need to accomplish, actually, is to delay recurrence until after the time the patients die from another cause. However, patients want to hear from us that “it’s never coming back,”...
Hagop Kantarjian, MD, and Victor Fazio, MD, Named Recipients of 2014 Lifetime Achievement Awards Presented by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd
Hagop Kantarjian, MD, Professor and Chair of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Victor Fazio, MD, Chairman Emeritus, Digestive Disease Institute; Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, Rochester, were honored recently with the “Lifetime...
Utah Center for Genetic Discovery to Integrate Genome Data Into Patient Care
The USTAR Center for Genetic Discovery is partnering with California-based Omicia, Inc, to make analyzing a patient’s genome as routine as performing a blood test. The center, codirected by Mark Yandell, PhD, and Gabor Marth, DSc, was launched this month with $6 million from the University of Utah...
Determining Why Younger Women With Breast Cancer Are Less Likely to Survive Than Their Older Counterparts
Although cancer survival rates among pediatric and older adult patients continue to rise, survival rates for adolescents and young adults (AYAs), defined by the National Cancer Institute as those between the ages of 15 and 39, have remained stagnant for decades. In breast cancer especially, AYAs...
Accidental Extravasation of Chemotherapy
Accidental extravasation of chemotherapy is a rare but feared complication of cancer treatment. Risk factors for extravasation include medication-related factors (such as the vesicant properties of the compound, or the volume, concentration, and duration of the infusion), patient-related factors...
Informed Consent: Not Just About Blood Tests and Procedures Anymore
On February 24, the Institute of Medicine National Cancer Policy Forum convened a workshop, “Contemporary Issues in Human Subjects Protection in Cancer Research,” in Washington, DC. In his introduction to the workshop, Steven Piantadosi, MD, PhD, Director, Samuel Oschin Cancer Institute,...
NIH Opens Its Doors to Research for Extramural/Intramural Collaboration
Ten projects that will enable nongovernment researchers to conduct clinical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, were announced recently. Through these 3-year, renewable awards of up to $500,000 per year, scientists from institutions across the...
Become a Cornerstone of the Conquer Cancer Foundation
Have you given any thought to the legacy you would like to leave? For many of you, your professional legacy will include the patients you have cared for, the research you have conducted, the students you have mentored, and the lives you have touched in the world of cancer care. You also have your...
