The second-generation immunomodulatory drug pomalidomide (Pomalyst) “has shown impressive results in patients with multiple myeloma who are refractory to lenalidomide and bortezomib,” according to a review of clinical data leading to the drug’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug...
Researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center have shown scientifically what many women report anecdotally: that tamoxifen is toxic to cells of the brain and central nervous system (CNS), producing mental fogginess similar to “chemo brain.” In the study, published in the...
In an analysis reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frank A. Sinicrope, MD, of the Mayo Clinic and North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG), and colleagues investigated the association of deficient DNA mismatch repair with prognosis in patients with stage III colon cancer treated with...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yuko Kitagawa, MD, FACS, of Keio University School of Medicine, and colleagues found that sentinel node mapping using a standardized dual tracer endoscopic injection technique was safe and accurate in patients with gastric cancer. Study Details ...
A meta-analysis reported in The Lancet Oncologyby Wei-Chih Liao, MD, of National Taiwan University Hospital and colleagues indicates that fluorouracil (5-FU) or gemcitabine is optimal adjuvant therapy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Chemoradiation was associated with poorer survival and...
Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that harbors KRAS mutations in exon 2 do not benefit from anti-EGFR therapy. However, other activating RAS mutations may predict poorer outcome with anti-EGFR therapy. In an analysis reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Jean-Yves Douillard,...
Young women with breast cancer may overestimate the risk that cancer will occur in their other healthy breast and decide to undergo contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, a survey conducted by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators indicated. The survey also shows that many patients may opt for ...
Elderly patients are often underrepresented in clinical trials of metastatic colorectal cancer. In a phase III study (AVEX trial) reported in The Lancet Oncology, David Cunningham, MD, of Royal Marsden Hospital in London and colleagues assessed the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to capecitabine...
Tremelimumab is an anticytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) monoclonal antibody, a class of inhibitor that has shown activity in multiple tumor types. Ipilimumab (Yervoy), another agent in this class, was found to significantly prolong overall survival in metastatic melanoma despite a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the marketing of the UroLift system, a permanent implant to relieve low or blocked urine flow in men age 50 and older with benign prostatic hyperplasia. As men age, the prostate can become enlarged, also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia....
GlaxoSmithKline recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Priority Review designation to its supplemental New Drug Applications for the combined use of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic ...
In an exploratory analysis of long-term survival data from the GeparTrio trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, of the German Breast Group in Neu-Isenburg, and colleagues found that response-guided neoadjuvant chemotherapy appears to improve disease-free survival...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for ofatumumab (Arzerra) in combination with chlorambucil (Leukeran) for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who have not received prior treatment and are inappropriate for...
A comparison of three methods of predicting the risk of recurrence in women treated for estrogen-receptor–positive breast cancer found that only the breast cancer index (BCI)—a biomarker based on the expression levels of seven tumor-specific genes—accurately identified patients...
The level of expression of three genes associated with aging can be used to predict whether seemingly low-risk prostate cancer will remain slow-growing, according to researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). Use of this three-gene...
Tivozanib is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1), -2, and -3. In a phase III trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Robert J. Motzer, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and colleagues, tivozanib was found to...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Annette McWilliams, MD, of Vancouver General Hospital, and colleagues analyzed data from subjects undergoing low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer to identify factors that might predict whether lung nodules found on...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 13 to 0, with one abstention, in favor of recommending accelerated approval of a pertuzumab (Perjeta) regimen for neoadjuvant treatment in patients with high-risk, HER2-positive, early-stage breast...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the manufacturer of ipilimumab (Yervoy), released results from its phase III randomized double-blind study investigating the drug in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The study findings show that ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the ...
Today, as many as 23 million children and teens are obese or overweight, and it is estimated that more than one-third of U.S. adults (more than 72 million people) are obese, according to a statement released by ASCO to help raise awareness of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month....
A family of microRNAs (miR-200) blocks cancer progression and metastasis by stifling a tumor’s ability to weave new blood vessels to support itself, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in Nature Communications. Patients with lung, ovarian, kidney, or...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gregory T. Armstrong, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and colleagues assessed the frequency of major cardiac events and cardiovascular risk factors among adult survivors of childhood cancer and their siblings. They...
Available data suggest that docetaxel plus cyclophosphamide improves disease-free survival and overall survival compared with doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide in early-stage breast cancer. Other findings suggest that amplification of TOP2A, the gene positioned next to HER2, is predictive of...
In a keynote lecture during the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium breast cancer expert and ASCO Past President George Sledge, MD, offered five predictions for the future of the medical management of breast cancer. Dr. Sledge is now Chief of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto,...
Results of the two rounds of annual incidence screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) vs radiography in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) were recently reported by Denise R. Aberle, MD, of University of California at Los Angeles, and colleagues in The New England Journal of...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced class-wide safety labeling changes and new postmarketing study requirements for all extended-release and long-acting opioid analgesics intended to treat pain. “The FDA is invoking its authority to require safety labeling changes and ...
Internal tandem duplications (ITDs) in the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) juxtamembrane region are observed in 20% to 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and point mutations in the FLT3 activation loop are observed in 5% to 10%. FLT3-ITD mutations are associated with early relapse ...
A new analysis has found that most deaths from breast cancer occur in younger women who do not receive regular mammograms. Published early online in Cancer, the study indicates that regular screening before age 50 should be encouraged. The use of mammograms to prevent breast cancer deaths has been ...
Cabozantinib (Cometriq) is an inhibitor of hepatocyte growth factor receptor (MET), VEGFR2, and rearranged during transfection (RET) tyrosine kinases. In a phase III trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rosella Elisei, MD, of the University of Pisa, and colleagues found that cabozantinib ...
After neoadjuvant chemotherapy, 41% of early breast cancer patients experienced a change in status for the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, or HER2 oncogene, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco...
German investigators reported at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco that an abridged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol can accurately detect cancers among women whose mammographic screenings were negative (Abstract 1). MRI, therefore, may reveal the type of tumor that...
Colin McCowan, PhD, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues analyzed the prescription records of 1,263 women with breast cancer between 1993 and 2000 to determine how often they took their prescription of adjuvant tamoxifen following surgery and for how long. Women who filled less than 80% of...
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have identified a molecular marker called Mig6 that appears to accurately predict longer survival—up to 2 years—among patients being treated with the EGFR inhibitors gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva). Results from the preliminary study were published ...
Valganciclovir (Valcyte), a drug used to treat cytomegalovirus (CMV) eye infections in people with HIV/AIDS, may lengthen survival in patients with glioblastoma, a Swedish study has found. The researchers evaluated 50 patients with glioblastoma who received valganciclovir as an add-on to standard...
A new laser-based technology may make brain tumor surgery much more accurate, allowing surgeons to tell cancer tissue from normal brain at the microscopic level while they are operating, and avoid leaving behind cells that could spawn a new tumor. In a new paper published in Science Translational...
A study from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) has found that patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiation as part of their treatment were less likely to suffer unwanted side effects such as worsening of diet, need for a feeding tube, or narrowing of the throat passage if...
A large retrospective study reported that adding magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to mammography before or immediately after surgery was not associated with reduced local recurrence or contralateral breast cancer rates among women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast who were treated...
A large population-based study in the Netherlands found that women who had received radiation therapy to treat ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast (DCIS) have no increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared to the general population of Dutch women, nor compared to DCIS patients treated with ...
A large-scale survey of women undergoing mammography screening on Long Island, New York, indicates that the majority (90.6%) either underestimate or overestimate their lifetime risk for developing breast cancer. Furthermore, 4 in 10 women surveyed reported they had never discussed their...
Although fewer Medicare patients with cancer died in the hospital in 2010 than in the years 2003–2007, aggressive treatment continues at the end of life, according to a new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project. The findings also show that a significant number of patients were likely to...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shukui Qin, MD, of People’s Liberation Army Cancer Centre, Bayi Hospital, in Nanjing, and colleagues compared FOLFOX4 (infusional fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) with doxorubicin as palliative chemotherapy in patients with ...
A new ultrasensitive screening method that detects genetic variations that initiate colon cancer and can help in the detection of the cancer in its early stages could be used for noninvasive colon cancer screening, according to a study by Bettina Scholtka, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department ...
As reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Glenwood D. Goss, MD, of the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Center, and colleagues, the prematurely closed NCIC CTG BR19 study showed no apparent survival benefit of adjuvant gefitinib (Iressa) vs placebo in patients with completely resected non–small...
A team of researchers led by Janet Stanford, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has discovered that mutations in the gene BTNL2, which encodes a protein involved in regulating T-cell proliferation and cytokine production—both of which impact immune function—increase the risk ...
The effect of bisphosphonate treatment in early breast cancer is controversial, with some data indicating survival benefit in the adjuvant setting. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, of the German Breast Group in Neu-Isenberg and colleagues compared...
The investigational agent brivanib is a selective dual inhibitor of VEGF and fibroblast growth factor receptors, both implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma. In a trial (BRISK-PS) reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Josep M. Llovet, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New...
The investigational drug brivanib is a dual inhibitor of VEGF and fibroblast growth factor signaling, both implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma. In a noninferiority trial (BRISK-FL) reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Philip J. Johnson, MD, of the Institute of Translational Medicine,...
The more alcohol young women drink before motherhood, the greater their risk of future breast cancer, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Previous studies have looked at breast cancer risk and alcohol consumption later in life or at the effect of...
In an Italian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Umberto Vitolo, MD, and colleagues in the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi, treatment-naive patients aged > 60 years with advanced follicular lymphoma were randomized to rituximab [Rituxan] maintenance or observation after brief ...
Survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for long-term adverse physical and mental effects, but little is known about the effects of illness in siblings of these patients. In a study reported in Lancet Oncology, Lasse Wegener Lund, MD, of the Danish Cancer Society Research Centre in...