Although somatostatin analogs are commonly used to treat symptoms associated with hormone hypersecretion in neuroendocrine tumors, data on their antitumor effects are limited. In the phase III CLARINET trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Caplin et al found that somatostatin...
Nasal cavity and paranasal sinus tumors are rare and comprise multiple histologic types, making comparative therapeutic trials difficult. In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Patel et al found that that charged-particle therapy appeared to be associated with...
Lieu et al recently analyzed the effect of age on outcome in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using the ARCAD (Aide et Recherche en Cancérologie Digestive) database. The findings, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicate a U-shaped risk of death and death or...
Histologic grade, age, margin status, and use of endocrine therapy may identify a subset of women aged ≥ 50 with stage I breast cancer, who are at a very low risk of disease recurrence after breast-conserving surgery plus whole-breast radiotherapy, according to a study by Smith et al in the...
In the phase II Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)-0234 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Harari et al found that adjuvant chemoradiation with docetaxel or cisplatin plus cetuximab (Erbitux) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and high-risk...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Genentech’s supplemental Biologics License Application and granted Priority Review for bevacizumab (Avastin) plus chemotherapy in the treatment of women with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer. The designation...
ODM-201 is a novel androgen receptor inhibitor—structurally distinct from enzalutamide (Xtandi)—that acts via high-affinity binding to the androgen receptor and inhibition of receptor nuclear translocation. In the phase I/II ARADES trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fizazi et al...
An analysis of data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study reported by Siddiqui et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that vasectomy is associated with a modestly but significantly increased risk of high-grade and lethal prostate cancer. The study involved data from 49,405...
A novel approach using ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analysis in combination with RNA expression data has identified a gene called USP9X that may predict which patients with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer will benefit from tamoxifen therapy after surgery. The gene signature the researchers...
New research raises the prospect of more effective treatments for cachexia, a profound wasting of fat and muscle occurring in about half of all cancer patients, raising their risk of death, according to scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In a study reported in Nature, Spiegelman et al...
A new analysis has found that rates of testicular cancer have been rising dramatically in recent years among young Hispanic American men, but not among their non-Hispanic counterparts. Published early online in Cancer, the findings indicate that greater awareness is needed concerning the increasing ...
Using a multidimensional platform that combined nanofluidic technology for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and quantitative fluorescent immunohistochemistry for protein analysis, researchers at the Danbury Hospital Biomedical Research Institute were able to accurately predict...
The phase II Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) S0802 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Allen et al showed that adding ziv-aflibercept (Zaltrap) to topotecan improved 3-month progression-free survival, but increased toxicity and had no effect on overall survival, in patients...
Risk of severe irinotecan-associated neutropenia is related in part to presence of the UGT1A1*28 variant, which is linked to reduced elimination of the irinotecan active metabolite SN-38. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Innocenti et al identified appropriate irinotecan...
In a UK phase III trial (NCRI Myeloma X Relapse [Intensive] Trial) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cook et al found that high-dose melphalan plus salvage autologous stem cell transplantation significantly prolonged time to progression vs cyclophosphamide in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma...
Invading glioblastoma cells may hijack cerebral blood vessels during early stages of disease progression and damage the brain’s protective barrier, preclinical study published in Nature Communications indicated. The finding by Watkins et al could ultimately lead to new ways to bring about the ...
Invasive breast cancers with skin involvement, regardless of size or lymph node involvement, are automatically classified as stage III locally advanced tumors, which suggests that they are a relatively serious form of cancer with poor survival. In a study published in the Journal of the American...
In a European phase III noninferiority trial (Euro-EWING99-R1) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Le Deley et al found that cyclophosphamide was noninferior in event-free survival vs ifosfamide in combination with vincristine/dactinomycin as consolidation therapy in patients with...
The effect of neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy in early-stage esophageal cancer is not clear. In the phase III FFCD 9901 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mariette et al found that neoadjuvant chemoradiation including fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin did not improve R0...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sheppard et al found that frailty was a significant predictor of not starting adjuvant hormonal therapy in breast cancer patients aged ≥ 65 years, but was not predictive of discontinuation of treatment. Study Details The study was...
The multikinase inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar) is the only effective systemic treatment available in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. In the phase III EVOLVE-1 trial reported in JAMA, Zhu et al found no survival benefit from treatment with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) after sorafenib...
In the phase III Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 40101/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shulman et al found that noninferiority of adjuvant single-agent paclitaxel was not established vs doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide for relapse-free survival in women with operable...
According to a new study, a cascade of molecular events in the bone marrow produces high levels of inflammation that disrupt normal blood formation and lead to potentially deadly disorders including leukemia. The discovery, published by the journal Cell Stem Cell, points the way to potential...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy status to CTL019, an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The Breakthrough Therapy filing...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Hedditch et al found that expression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes of the A subfamily (ABCA) had a significant impact on outcome in epithelial ovarian cancer. High ABCA1, Low ABCA5 Expression Analysis of gene...
In the German phase III CONKO-003 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oettle et al found that second-line oxaliplatin, leucovorin, and fluorouracil (5-FU) significantly increased overall survival and time to progression vs leucovorin/5-FU in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer...
In light of nonrandomized studies suggesting benefit of video-assisted thoracoscopic partial pleurectomy (VAT-PP) in symptom control and survival, Rintoul et al performed a randomized trial (MesoVATS) of VAT-PP vs talc pleurodesis in malignant pleural mesothelioma. As reported in The Lancet, this...
Some data indicate an increased risk for cancer in patients receiving tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha antagonists (eg, infliximab [Remicade], adalimumab [Humira], certolizumab pegol [Cimzia]) for rheumatoid arthritis. Studies with follow-up of ≤ 1 year have not found increased risk in patients ...
Recent retrospective, single-institution analyses have suggested that anatomic segmentectomy results in freedom from recurrence and survival rates similar to those achieved by lobectomy in lung cancer. In a large propensity-matched analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Landreneau...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Friebel et al attempted to identify factors that appear to modulate risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women who have inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. Although the ability to perform...
In the phase III American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z4032/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fernando et al found that adjuvant brachytherapy did not improve risk for local recurrence after sublobar resection in patients with high-risk stage I operable...
Colorectal cancer screening rates are low among Latinos and people living in poverty. In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Baker et al found that a multifaceted intervention more than doubled adherence to screening with fecal occult blood testing in a largely Latino and uninsured...
In an updated analysis of the European phase II EXPERT-C trial reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sclafani et al found that adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to neoadjuvant capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) followed by chemoradiotherapy, surgery, and adjuvant CAPOX produced no...
HIV-infected people diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to go untreated for their cancer compared to uninfected cancer patients, according to a large retrospective study from researchers in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The ...
Higher intakes of calcium, vitamin D, and dairy product are associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer, but the effect of such intake on survival in colorectal cancer is unclear. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yang et al found that higher postdiagnosis intake of...
Given the changes in treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the risk of late effects in those treated with current protocols may be different from that in children treated decades ago. In a study of survivors of childhood standard-risk ALL reported in The Lancet Oncology,...
Surgical resection markedly improved survival among metastatic melanoma patients whose disease is isolated to a few areas in the liver, according to new study findings published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. These results mark a departure for melanoma, which is most often...
The new combination agent TAS-102 can improve overall survival compared to placebo in patients whose metastatic colorectal cancer is refractory to standard therapies, researchers reported at the ESMO 16th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona (Abstract O-0022). “Around 50%...
A new evidence-based clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians (ACP) is recommending that physicians should not offer routine pelvic examinations to asymptomatic, average-risk, nonpregnant women. The recommendation stems from a review of 52 published articles from 1946...
Oncogenic mutations in GNAQ and GNA11, resulting in MAPK pathway activation, are observed in > 80% of uveal melanomas. In a phase II trial reported in JAMA, Carvajal et al found that treatment with the MEK1/MEK2 inhibitor selumetinib significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhong et al assessed factors associated with use of immediate breast reconstruction after treatment or prophylaxis for breast cancer among women in the Canadian universal health-care system. Immediate breast reconstruction was more likely in...
In a UK phase III TeloVac trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Middleton et al found that the sequential or concurrent addition of the telomerase peptide vaccine GV1001 to gemcitabine/capecitabine did not improve survival in patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. GV1001...
Patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer have reduced risk of progression compared with those with HPV-negative disease, but the effect of HPV status on overall survival after progression has not been clear. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,...
The addition of the novel agent MM-398 to standard treatment improved overall survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already received gemcitabine, according to a phase III trial reported at the ESMO 16th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona (Abstract...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 11 to 2 that current evidence from clinical studies does not support an accelerated approval for use of olaparib as a maintenance treatment for women with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer who have...
In an interim analysis of the European phase III PETACC-8 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Taieb et al found no disease-free survival or overall survival benefit with the addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to standard adjuvant FOLFOX4 (oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, leucovorin) therapy in patients...
Researchers from Case Western Reserve and Dartmouth have shown that a class of small antioxidant molecules carries promise for suppressing colon cancer associated with colitis. These preclinical findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, offer hope that physicians ultimately will ...
The oral fluoropyrimidine S-1 is standard treatment for locally advanced gastric cancer in Japan. In a Japanese phase III trial (SAMIT) in locally advanced disease reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tsuburaya et al found that sequential paclitaxel plus tegafur and uracil or S-1 did not improve...
In what may be the first randomized trial of systemic therapy in this setting, Dutton and colleagues evaluated gefitinib (Iressa) vs placebo in patients with esophageal cancer progressing after chemotherapy. As reported in The Lancet Oncology, the COG trial showed no survival benefit with gefitinib ...
In a Japanese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fujimori et al found that an oncologist communication skills training program based on patient preferences in receiving bad news was of benefit to both oncologists and patients. Study Details In the study, 30 oncologists were...