In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Losk et al found that an intervention including surgeon initiation of gene-expression profile testing with Oncotype DX significantly reduced the time to testing, receipt of testing results, and initiation of chemotherapy in...
Overall survival outcomes in the phase III CheckMate 067 trial indicate improved survival with nivolumab (Opdivo)/ipilimumab (Yervoy) vs ipilimumab and with nivolumab vs ipilimumab in patients with previously untreated advanced melanoma. These findings were reported in The New England Journal of...
The final efficacy analysis of a trial of 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has shown a high preventive effect against disease due to the additional HPV pathogenic strains covered compared with the quadrivalent vaccine at up to 6 years. These findings were reported by Huh et al in The...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Jabbour et al found that the combination of inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa) and low-intensity chemotherapy produced promising results in patients with relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative acute lymphoblastic...
Federally funded research that provides a deep understanding of cancer is spurring advances against many types of the disease. With a strong bipartisan commitment from Congress to keep investment in biomedical research a national priority, we can accelerate our pace of progress and save more lives...
Immune-cell based therapies opening a new frontier for cancer treatment carry unique, potentially lethal side effects that provide a new challenge for oncologists—one addressed by a team led by clinicians at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with proposed guidelines for...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reiss et al found that reducing the starting dose of sorafenib (Nexavar) was associated with noninferior overall survival, reduced cost, and lower risk of discontinuing treatment in patients with advanced hepatocellular...
A phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Leonard et al showed no significant progression-free survival benefit of adding bortezomib (Velcade) to R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan], cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) in previously untreated patients with...
In the UK-Swiss phase III GeDDiS trial, the combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel did not significantly improve progression-free survival vs doxorubicin in first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. Findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by Seddon et al....
A new guideline from ASCO published by Gilligan et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology outlines best practices for cancer clinicians when communicating with patients and their loved ones. The Patient-Clinician Communication: American Society of Clinical Oncology Consensus Guideline...
The University of Texas System Board of Regents has selected Peter W.T. Pisters, MD, MHCM, as sole finalist for the position of president at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The regents voted unanimously to select Dr. Pisters at a special board meeting on Friday,...
Mature results from the KEYNOTE-045 trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA37_PR) confirmed significantly longer survival in patients with advanced urothelial cancer who received the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab after initial...
A new tool to identify patients who would benefit from early palliative care was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA54_PR). The so-called “Triggers” tool, developed by the London Cancer Alliance to help clinicians in the...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Seisen et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a survival benefit vs observation in patients with adverse prognostic features after neoadjuvant therapy and radical cystectomy for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Study Details The...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has instituted Categories of Preference for recommendations within the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®). Initially, Categories of Preference will be published for drugs and biologics recommended within...
Clinical trials are fundamental to the development of new treatments for cancer, yet the annual accrual to cancer clinical trials worldwide is low, estimated at 3%–5%. A nationwide study in Ireland, the preliminary results of which were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
Immunotherapy with the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) may be a better option than standard treatments for patients whose head and neck cancer has spread or recurred after an initial round of chemotherapy, according to results of the KEYNOTE-040 trial presented at the European Society ...
Body fat distribution in the trunk is more influential than body weight when it comes to cancer risk in postmenopausal women, according to a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 1408P_PR). The findings put a new spin on weight...
The results of the MONARCH 3 trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 236O_PR), showed that adding the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib to endocrine therapy improved progression-free survival compared to endocrine...
Factors that may limit the ability of young adult cancer survivors to work were reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 1110PD_PR). Late side effects can occur months or years after cancer treatment. In patients diagnosed with cancer in young...
A phase II study has shown activity of recombinant adenovirus interferon-α with Syn3 (rAd-IFNα/Syn3), a replication-deficient recombinant adenovirus gene transfer vector, in patients with high-grade bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)-refractory or -relapsed non–muscle invasive bladder ...
Osimertinib (Tagrisso) has shown high activity in the phase I expansion component of the AURA trial in previously untreated patients with EGFR mutation–positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These findings were reported by Ramalingam et al in the Journal of Clinical...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to copanlisib (Aliqopa) for the treatment of adults with relapsed follicular lymphoma who have received at least two prior systemic therapies. “For patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma, the cancer often...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Bevacizumab-awwb is the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment of cancer. “Bringing new biosimilars to...
Durvalumab improves progression-free survival in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III lung cancer, according to late-breaking results from the phase III PACIFIC trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA1_PR) and...
A 14-year randomized trial in more than 600 patients has concluded that chemoradiation should remain the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. The findings were reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 928O_PR). ...
The preliminary results of a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid show that sociopsychological factors have become more significant for patients today than physical side effects such as nausea and vomiting, which were among the top concerns in...
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown a promising response rate in patients with pretreated metastatic gastric cancer, according to late-breaking results from the KEYNOTE-059 trial presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA28_PR). The expected...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Whitney et al found that the majority of patients diagnosed with advanced cancer were hospitalized within 1 year of diagnosis, with a sizable proportion having multiple hospitalizations. Hospitalization Rates The study involved California...
In a European analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Martínez et al found similar survival outcomes with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide-based haploidentical allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) vs conventional HLA-matched sibling donor or HLA-matched...
The subgroup analysis of outcomes among patients with advanced liposarcoma from a pivotal phase III trial comparing eribulin (Halaven) vs dacarbazine in previously treated liposarcoma or leiomyosarcoma was reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Demetri et al. Overall, the phase III trial...
Cancers caused by mismatch repair (MMR)-deficiency involve gene mutations that affect the ability of the cell to repair the mistakes that may occur during the DNA replication process. MMR-deficient tumors have 10 to 100 times more mutations than tumors with intact MMR pathways. A study...
Results from an ASCO-sponsored survey study indicate that despite professed interest in the area, most hematology-oncology fellows have inadequate training in geriatrics/geriatric oncology. These findings were reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice by Maggiore et al. Study Details The...
As reported by Hsu et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown activity in programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, in a cohort of the phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 trial. Study Details In the study, 27...
A first-in-human phase I study of the oral tamoxifen metabolite Z-endoxifen showed high drug exposure, acceptable toxicity, and antitumor activity in endocrine-refractory estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer. The findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by...
Adding taselisib to letrozole before surgery significantly improved outcomes for patients with early breast cancer that was both estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-negative, according to results of the LORELEI trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress ...
Patients with high-risk prostate cancer starting long-term hormone therapy may benefit from two new treatments, according to late-breaking results from the STAMPEDE trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (LBA31_PR). Long-term hormone therapy...
The superiority of docetaxel-based triplet therapy over standard of care in patients with resectable esophagogastric cancer has been confirmed in late-breaking results from the FLOT4 trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA27_PR)....
Due to DNA sequencing, patients with rare cancers for which no standard treatment is available could receive existing therapies that work in patients treated for different cancers but who carry the same genetic mutations. The first results of a multidrug and multitumor clinical trial (Abstract...
Bonnie S. Glisson, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a clinical trial on the combination of ISA101, an HPV-16 vaccine, and nivolumab for patients with incurable HPV-16+ cancer (Abstract 1136O).
Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers expert perspectives on the role of PARP inhibitors in treating triple-negative breast cancer.
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses updated overall survival results on cabozantinib vs sunitinib as initial targeted treatment for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (Abstract LBA38).
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses phase III study findings on durvalumab after chemoradiation therapy in patients with stage III, locally advanced, unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA1).
Eric Pujade-Lauraine, MD, PhD, of the Université Paris Descartes, discusses phase III study findings on the efficacy of olaparib maintenance therapy in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer by lines of prior chemotherapy (Abstract 932PD).
Michèle Beau-Faller, MD, PhD, of the Hôpital de Hautepierre & Institut Régional du Cancer, discusses study results on ultrasensitive detection of EGFR T790M mutation by droplet digital PCR in TKI naïve non–small cell lung cancer harboring EGFR mutation (Abstract 85PD).
Combination targeted adjuvant therapy with dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) doubles relapse-free survival in patients with stage III BRAF-mutant melanoma, according to late-breaking results from the COMBI-AD trial presented on September 11 at the European Society for Medical Oncology ...
Adjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) is superior to standard-of-care ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with surgically resected stage III/IV melanoma who are at high risk of relapse, according to late-breaking results from the CheckMate 238 trial presented on September 11 at the European Society for Medical...
In a single-center experience reported by Yamashita et al in JAMA Surgery, postoperative remnant liver ischemia of grade ≥ 2 was associated with worse cancer-specific survival after resection of colorectal liver metastases. Study Details The retrospective analysis included 202 patients who...
As reported by Baik et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Medicare patients who received androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer do not appear to be at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and may have an extremely small increased risk for dementia. Study Details The study...
In a phase III trial reported by Govindan et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the addition of first-line ipilimumab (Yervoy) to paclitaxel/carboplatin did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details In the...