The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with genitourinary cancers—prostate, bladder, uterine, and testicular. The trials are investigating genetic biomarkers of cancer; proton beam therapy; allogeneic bone marrow...
The Basser Center for BRCA at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center has announced the recipient of its third annual Basser Global Prize: molecular cancer expert David Livingston, MD, Emil Frei Professor of Genetics and Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Deputy Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard...
Two studies reported in The New England Journal of Medicine identified new molecular classifications of glioma that capture biologic and prognostic differences. The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network identified three prognostically significant subtypes of lower-grade glioma that were identified...
Through the Lens of Oncology History: A Century of Progress The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The photos below are from the volume titled “The...
Emerging laboratory technology will be “moving the bar forward” in terms of molecular markers, genomics, and gene-expression profiling, with the potential for huge payoffs to oncologists and patients, according to Mark Pegram, MD, the Susy Yuan-Huey Hung Professor of Medicine at Stanford School of...
For breast cancer patients with robust family histories, medical oncologists should be testing not only for BRCA1/2 mutations, but also for large duplications and deletions as well as for PALB2 mutations. “These [findings] have proven utility in testing breast cancer patients,” said Louise E....
Detectable oral HPV16 DNA in oral rinses post treatment for oropharyngeal cancer appears to be a harbinger of poor prognosis and can predict recurrence. Oral HPV16 DNA rinses are a potential tool for long-term tumor surveillance, according to a study selected for the Best of ASCO® 2015.1 “The goal ...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected seven leading physician-researchers to receive a total of $675,000 in awards and grants to advance radiation oncology research. Together, the grants will support studies in cancer biology, radiation physics, translational research,...
Male breast cancer is an uncommon disease, although the incidence has increased over the past couple of decades. As with many other “orphan” diseases, male breast cancer is understudied, especially in randomized controlled trials. Although it shares similarities with female breast cancer, some...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has 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. Mechanism of Action The new oral agent is a...
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) announced that the MMRF CoMMpass StudySM, the most comprehensive long-term genomic study ever conducted in myeloma, has reached full enrollment, with 1,000 patients now participating. The global study is mapping the genomic profile of each enrolled...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On September 22, 2015, trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) was...
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 recipients were recently announced. They are Tomas Lindahl, PhD, Paul Modrich, PhD, and Aziz Sancar, PhD, for having mapped, at a molecular level, how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information. Their work has provided fundamental knowledge of...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) has named three investigators as recipients of this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award recognizes promising investigators aged 45 or younger for their efforts in advancing cancer research. The winners are Bradley E. Bernstein, MD,...
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has received a National Cancer Institute grant of $5 million over the next 5 years to lead a massive effort to integrate the data from all experimental models across all types of cancer. The Web-based repository is an important step in moving the...
A lower-than-expected rate of cancer among elephants could be potentially related to multiple copies of TP53, “a crucial tumor suppressor gene mutated in the majority of human cancers,” according to a study published online by The Journal of the American Medical Association. “Compared with human...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with lung cancer. The trials are investigating DNA, RNA, and protein changes contributing to carcinogenesis; new prevention strategies; combination therapies; radiation,...
Treatment with erlotinib and bevacizumab (Avastin) may help overcome the poor prognosis associated with T790M mutations present at diagnosis in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the results of the phase II BELIEF trial.1 At the 2015 European Cancer Congress, Rolf A. Stahel,...
In discussing the findings of this study on genetic sequencing of breast cancer tissue, Fabrice André, MD, PhD, of the Gustave Roussy Institute, in Villejuif, France, questioned whether all the genes that were found to be enriched in the relapsed samples were driving the relapse and whether any...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On October 22, 2015, irinotecan liposome injection (Onivyde)...
A team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto has used focused ultrasound to enable temporary and targeted opening of the blood-brain barrier, allowing the more effective delivery of chemotherapy into a patient’s malignant brain tumor. This is the first known report of the noninvasive...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On October 23, 2015, trabectedin (Yondelis) was approved for the...
The number of targeted therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the treatment of a variety of cancers, especially hematologic malignancies, continues to rise. In 2014 alone, 4 of the 10 new agents directed at discrete molecular targets approved by the FDA were for blood...
The genetic basis for inherited colorectal cancer is proving to be a much bigger and more complicated “pie” than was appreciated just a few years ago, according to Michael Hall, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Risk Assessment at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia. “With next-generation...
BookmarkTitle: Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer CuresAuthor: Arlene WeintraubPublisher: ECW PressPublication date: October 13, 2015Price: $16.95; paperback, 240 pages Comparative oncology, a fairly recent addition to the ever-evolving world of cancer research, studies the...
Led by George Demetri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, expert medical oncology investigators from leading academic sarcoma centers and Janssen Pharmaceuticals employees performed a phase III trial in order to provide evidence for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of...
Using multiplatform profiling, researchers have identified potentially targetable biomarker aberrations in a large cohort of geriatric breast tumors.1 According to the study, presented at the 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium, these data may help researchers to design clinical trials focusing on...
We have a responsibility to develop better treatment for inflammatory breast cancer,” Massimo Cristofanilli, MD, FACP, told participants at the 17th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago. As recently appointed Associate Director of Translational Research and Precision Medicine at the ...
Women co-infected with low-risk and high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) had a reduced risk for invasive squamous cervical carcinoma and a longer time to progression than did women infected with high-risk human papillomavirus alone, according to a Swedish study published in the Journal of the...
The first class of National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award recipients showcases the cutting edge of oncologic research and the 43 investigators behind it. NCI’s Outstanding Investigator Award supports accomplished leaders in cancer research, who are providing significant...
The concept of using activation of the innate immune system and an inflammatory response against a bacterial component to instigate an antitumor response was studied in the 1960s, which led to the development of intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin, now used in the treatment of superficial bladder ...
Patients who have been treated for breast cancer may overestimate the value of follow-up testing and may expect—or even ask for—more testing than recommended, Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, told participants at the Lynn Sage...
Rapidly dividing cells rely on an enzyme called Dicer to help them repair the DNA damage that occurs as they make mistakes in copying their genetic material over and over for new cells. Researchers have built on the discovery of Dicer’s role in fixing DNA damage to uncover a new potential...
A class of drugs used increasingly to help fight cancer may have the additional benefit of protecting the kidneys when packaged with the powerful chemotherapy agent cisplatin. These findings were published by Ranganathan et al in Kidney International. The nearly 40-year-old cisplatin can be a...
Among women with locally advanced or metastatic hormone receptor–positive breast cancer that was resistant to hormone therapy, those who had mutated PIK3CA detected in their blood benefited from a combination of the investigational PI3K inhibitor buparlisib and fulvestrant (Faslodex),...
A study by Chandarlapaty et al investigating whether mutations in the estrogen receptor are common in patients with advanced breast cancer and how they affect patient outcomes has found that the D538G and Y537S mutations in the estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) gene are prevalent in patients with advanced ...
Two new studies to be reported at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting highlighted new insights on genetic mutations in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) that indicate a higher risk for debilitating chemotherapy-associated bone damage. The study findings were...
Comprehensive molecular characterization of primary papillary renal cell carcinoma, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, showed that type 1 and 2 papillary renal cell carcinomas were distinct types of disease based on differences in genetic...
In a retrospective analysis of data from 130 patients with pancreatic cysts, scientists at Johns Hopkins have used gene-based tests and a fixed set of clinical criteria to more accurately distinguish precancerous cysts from those less likely to do harm. The findings may eventually help some...
Scientists have developed a highly sensitive blood test that can spot when breast cancers become resistant to standard hormone treatment, and have demonstrated that this test could guide further treatment. The test gives an early warning of resistance to aromatase inhibitors, which are used to...
Results of a new laboratory study by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers suggest that some rare “missense” mutations in the HER2 gene are apparently not—on their own—capable of causing breast cancer growth or spread. In a related finding, the research team said...
Patients who develop ovarian cancer appear to have better outcomes if they have a history of oral contraceptive use, according to a study by Mayo Clinic researchers published by Jatoi et al in BMC Cancer. “Multiple studies from a variety of sources have indicated that oral contraceptives are ...
A team of researchers, including scientists from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), has reported that analyzing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can track how a patient's cancer evolves and responds to treatment. In a study published in Nature Communications, Muhammed Murtaza, PhD, ...
Australian scientists have identified a critical molecular “feedback loop” that helps initiate and drive neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system in children that is triggered in embryonal nerve cells. This feedback loop massively accelerates cancer development. The research team...
In a phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Mateo et al found that the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) produced a high response rate in patients with previously treated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with tumors exhibiting defects in DNA repair genes....
Cologuard stool DNA testing for colorectal cancer was found to be an accurate noninvasive screening option for Alaska Native people, a population with one of the world's highest rates of colorectal cancer, concluded researchers from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Mayo Clinic. The...
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...
Colorectal cancer is on the rise among younger patients. Although some of the younger-onset cases can be explained by hereditary factors, the majority arise spontaneously. Researchers have now found that tumors in younger patients with colorectal cancer may be molecularly distinct from those of...
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...
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...