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...
All relatives of individuals with colorectal cancer are at increased risk for this cancer, regardless of the age of diagnosis of the index patient in the family, according to a study published by Samadder et al in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. These findings may impact future guidelines ...
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...
An innovative service model that partners radiation oncology with palliative care leads to better results for patients, according to a new analysis. The model of care, established at Mount Sinai Medical Center, is one of only a handful in the country. The study (Abstract 110) will be presented at...
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...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed the current American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) guideline on treatment of small cell lung cancer, released in 2013. After review of evidence from an updated literature search covering 2011 to March 2015, an ASCO...
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 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...
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...
Millions of people are unable to receive necessary treatment worldwide because of a chronic underinvestment in radiotherapy resources, according to a major new Commission on access to radiotherapy, published in by Atun et al in The Lancet Oncology, and presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress ...
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....
A study published by Forero-Torres et al in Blood reported that brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) is an effective and safe first course of treatment for older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who are unfit for chemotherapy. Ineligibility for Chemotherapy Although standard chemotherapy can...
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...
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 ...
Over 80% of the 15 million people diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2015 will need surgery, but less than one-quarter of them will have access to proper, safe, affordable surgical care when they need it, according to a major new Commission examining the state of global cancer surgery. The...
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;...
Each year in Europe, 6,000 young people die from cancer, and two-thirds of those who survive suffer from treatment-related side effects. Although there has been considerable progress in the treatment of childhood cancers over the past few decades, and cancer in childhood is rare, these are major...
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...
A randomized phase III study by Borghaei et al evaluating the efficacy and safety of nivolumab (Opdivo) vs docetaxel in patients with advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy has found that nivolumab improved overall survival, 12.2...
In a randomized phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hurwitz et al found no significant survival benefit of adding the JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib (Jakafi) to capecitabine in patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma who had treatment failure with gemcitabine....
Overall survival data from a phase II study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ellis et al, suggest a benefit of first-line fulvestrant (Faslodex) vs anastrozole in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive advanced breast cancer. The study protocol was amended to...
A protein known to play a role in transporting the molecular contents of normal cells into and out of various intracellular compartments can also turn such cells cancerous by stimulating a key growth-control pathway. By conducting a large-scale search for regulators of the signaling pathway known...
Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors in real-world clinical practice tend to be older and sicker than the patients enrolled in pivotal clinical trials of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Conversely, patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated...
In an interim analysis of the phase III PROLONG trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Oers et al found that maintenance therapy with ofatumumab (Arzerra) prolonged progression-free survival vs observation in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in complete or partial remission after...
A rare form of skin cancer known as desmoplasmic melanoma may possess the highest burden of gene mutations of any cancer, suggesting that immunotherapy may be a promising approach for treatment, according to an international team led by University of California San Francisco (UCSF) scientists. One...
A study among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with carboplatin-paclitaxel or carboplatin-paclitaxel-bevacizumab (Avastin) found that those receiving the bevacizumab combination were more likely to experience a toxicity event but were less likely to be...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have been previously treated with chemotherapy and biologic therapy and are no longer responding to treatment. The new agent is an oral combination of...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Demetri et al found that treatment with trabectedin significantly improved progression-free survival vs dacarbazine in patients with advanced liposarcoma or leiomyosarcoma after prior conventional chemotherapy. Interim analysis of...
Adjuvant radiation therapy may be omitted for elderly women with estrogen receptor–positive, early-stage breast cancer who receive hormone therapy. Limited data exist to guide treatment decision-making for elderly women with triple-negative breast cancer. As some findings thus far have shown...
A new retrospective analysis explored local recurrence rates for women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) treated between 1978 and 2010. In the research (Abstract 32) by Van Zee et al, to be presented September 25 at the 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium, in San Francisco, investigators evaluated a...
Women who are carriers of mutated BRCA genes are known to have a significantly higher risk for developing breast and ovarian cancers than those who do not have the mutations. A viewpoint published recently in JAMA Oncology by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles questioned...
Voriconazole, commonly used to prevent and treat fungal infections in lung transplant recipients, significantly increases the risk for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in this population, according to a new study by University of California San Francisco researchers. The team recommends physicians ...
In a phase III trial (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-American College of Radiology Imaging Network Cancer Research Group E4697 trial) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lawson et al found no relapse-free or overall survival benefit with adjuvant yeast-derived granulocyte-macrophage...