Patients with intermediate meningiomas treated with radiation therapy after surgery experienced a 96% 3-year progression-free survival rate and had minimal adverse events, according to research presented by Rogers et al October 21, 2015, at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s...
A long-term follow-up of RTOG 9202 indicated that for patients with locally advanced prostate cancer, an additional 24 months of long-term androgen-deprivation therapy after radiation therapy plus short-term androgen-deprivation therapy improved disease-free survival by 60%, compared to patients...
For patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes, radiation therapy that targets only the involved lymph node regions results in less toxicity without causing a statistically significant difference in locoregional lymph node recurrence, distant failure, and...
Patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) have 44% fewer cases of severe pneumonitis and improved likelihood of completing consolidative chemotherapy after radiation, compared to patients who receive three-dimensional...
A collaborative, patient-reported outcome–based approach by palliative care and radiation oncology teams results in better outpatient symptom management and a decrease in end-of-life hospitalizations and costs for late-stage cancer patients, according to research presented by Read et al...
For high-risk patients who receive chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer, frequent follow-up appointments conducted by advance practice nurses (APNs) in a clinical outpatient setting allowed for more intensive symptom management, resulting in fewer post-treatment emergency room visits and...
For some early-stage breast cancer patients, accelerated partial-breast irradiation using multicatheter brachytherapy following breast-conserving surgery may be an excellent treatment option, as it has now been proven to be as effective as the current standard treatment—whole-breast...
The steroid dexamethasone reduces radiation-induced pain flare in cancer patients with painful bone metastases, according to research presented by Chow et al (Abstract LBA1) October 18, 2015 at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO’s) 57th Annual Meeting in San Antonio,...
For some patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancer of the tonsils and tongue, reduced-intensity radiation therapy and chemotherapy may be as effective as standard-dose radiation and chemotherapy, and result in fewer acute side effects, according to research presented by Chera et al...
Immunotherapy combined with palliative radiation therapy for a subset of patients with metastatic melanoma reduces the growth and spread of the cancer, according to research presented by Hiniker et al (Abstract 215) on October 20, 2015 at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s...
In a systematic review and network meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Fujii et al found that sequential anthracycline-cyclophosphamide and taxane (AC-T) appears to be the most effective adjuvant regimen in early-stage breast cancer in terms of association with overall survival and toxicity....
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...
A small phase I/IIa study of third-generation CD19 CAR (chimeric-antigen receptor) T-cell therapy combined with chemotherapy pretreatment has resulted in complete responses in 6 of the 11 patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma and leukemia enrolled in the study. Although CAR T-cell...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Masters et al, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on systemic therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Recommendations are based on an update committee systematic review of randomized controlled trials...
In a phase II histology-independent basket study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hyman et al found that the BRAF V600 kinase inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) exhibited activity in some but not all nonmelanoma cancers with BRAF V600 mutations. Study Details In the study, 122...
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers demonstrated a benefit in overall survival among patients with epithelial ovarian cancer receiving generic beta-blocker heart medications. Survival was shown to be greatest among those prescribed first-generation nonselective beta-blockers. According to...
Chemotherapy prolongs life for older adults with most types of cancer, but for women with breast cancer over age 80, the chances of survival with chemotherapy alone are significantly lower than in younger patients, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Texas...
In a randomized trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Shaitelman et al found that hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation resulted in reduced short-term effects compared with conventional fractionation in women with stage 0 to II breast cancer undergoing breast-conserving surgery. Study Details In...
In a phase III VALOR trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ravandi et al found that the addition of the quinolone derivative vosaroxin to cytarabine did not significantly improve overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, differences favoring...
Cancer can be caused solely by protein imbalance within cells, a study of ovarian cancer has found. Until now, genetic aberrations have been seen as the main cause of almost all cancer. The research, published by Timsah et al in Oncogene, demonstrates that protein imbalance is a powerful prognostic ...
Although the prevalence of genetic risk factors, such as Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous polyposis, has been studied in the general population of individuals with colorectal cancer, patients diagnosed as adolescents and young adults are not well represented in colorectal cancer studies. A...
In a study using National Cancer Data Base data reported in JAMA Surgery, Lautner et al identified several factors associated with the use of breast-conserving therapy in women with early-stage breast cancer, including older age, higher education and income, private insurance, treatment at an...
On the hunt for better cancer screening tests, Johns Hopkins scientists led a proof-of-principle study that successfully identified tumor DNA shed in the blood and saliva of 93 patients with head and neck cancer. A report on the findings was published by Wang et al in Science Translational...
A protein encoded by the gene glypican-1 (GPC1) present on cancer exosomes may be used as part of a potential noninvasive diagnostic and screening tool to detect early pancreatic cancer, potentially at a stage amenable to surgical treatment, according to a study completed by University of Texas MD...
Researchers have a significantly better understanding of the genetic alterations found in cutaneous melanoma as part of a multi-institution, international effort of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The study, published in Cell, refined and revealed new molecular subgroups of patients who could...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that inhibiting the immune receptor protein TLR4 may not be a wise treatment strategy in all cancers, as research now shows TLR4 can either promote or inhibit breast cancer cell growth depending on mutations in...
The costs associated with cancer drug prices have risen dramatically over the past 15 years, a trend concerning to many oncologists. In a new analysis, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center concluded that the majority of existing treatments for hematologic cancers are...
Scientists at multiple institutions have found a new way of classifying brain cancers that could very well change how the illness is diagnosed and treated. The study, a project of The Cancer Genome Atlas, found striking molecular differences between various forms of gliomas by looking at the makeup ...
A study by Dahlstrom et al investigating the usefulness of serum antibodies to human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 DNA antigens as predictors of survival for patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma has found that E1, NE2, and E6 antibody positivity were all strongly associated with improved overall and...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Meric-Bernstam and colleagues at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that a small minority of patients with potentially actionable genes identified in large-scale testing were enrolled onto clinical trials targeting...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Subbiah et al, the addition of number of brain metastases to the breast graded prognostic assessment (breast-GPA) tool improved the prediction of overall survival in breast cancer patients with brain metastases. The existing breast-GPA includes...
Investigators for the nationwide trial NCI-MATCH: Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice announced at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago that the precision medicine trial will open to patient enrollment in July. The trial seeks to determine whether targeted therapies for people whose tumors...
As the practice of genetically profiling patient tumors for clinical treatment decision-making becomes more commonplace, a recent study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center suggests that profiling normal DNA also provides an important opportunity to identify inherited mutations...
Significant clinical variations exist among patients with the most common type of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, depending on the viral cause of the disease—hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV). These differences suggest that hepatitis status should be considered when...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chavez-MacGregor et al found that the majority of older breast cancer patients receiving trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based chemotherapy do not receive adequate cardiac monitoring. Study Details The study involved 2,203 patients aged ≥...
In the phase II BOLT trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Migden et al found that the hedgehog pathway signaling inhibitor sonidegib produced responses in patients with locally advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma at 200-mg and 800-mg dose levels. The lower dose appeared to be associated...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Phan et al found that the VEGFR-1, -2, -3 inhibitor pazopanib (Votrient) plus depot octreotide produced responses in patients with advanced well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors. No responses were observed in patients with carcinoid tumors....
Nearly 20% of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma “wait more than 3 months from presentation to diagnosis, which can contribute to interval tumor growth,” Patel et al concluded in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. They based their conclusions on a review of...
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in American men, yet controversy over the utilization and frequency of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening methods remains, due to the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of men with low-grade, less-aggressive forms of the disease. At the 110th...
Patients with operable stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) could achieve better overall survival rates if treated with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy rather than the invasive surgery, the current standard of care, according to research from a phase III randomized international...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hwang et al, ASCO has released a provisional clinical opinion update on screening of cancer patients for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection before cancer treatment to reduce the risk of HBV reactivation. The ASCO consensus panel providing the update ...
In a retrospective single-center study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rozovski and colleagues found that chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with disease progression after allogeneic stem cell transplantation had a relatively good prognosis, with apparent benefit of salvage...
Mutations of the KRAS gene are commonly known to lead to cancer. However, deeper understanding of exactly how they do this continues to be explored by cancer researchers. Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have gained further insight about the processes behind KRAS...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Kneuertz et al found that the more frequent stage-specific use of adjuvant chemotherapy in younger patients with colon cancer did not appear to produce commensurate benefit in survival compared with outcomes in older patients. Study Details The study was a...
Most patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who discontinued ibrutinib (Imbruvica) early “were difficult to treat and had poor outcomes,” according to a study of patients enrolled in four different clinical trials of ibrutinib, with or without rituximab...
In a phase I/II study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ahmed et al found that infusion of T cells expressing HER2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) with a CD28.ζ signaling domain (HER2-CAR T cells) could produce persistent CAR T cell levels for ≥ 6 weeks in patients with...
According to a phase II study presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, an experimental immunotherapy is in the works that can target an individual woman’s ovarian tumor and extend the time period between initial treatment and the cancer’s...
In a study of women with high-grade endometrial cancer, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found sentinel lymph node mapping accurately identified all women with node-positive, high-risk endometrial cancer, when prospectively compared to a complete pelvic and...
In a phase III study of women with ovarian cancer, researchers found that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy extended median overall survival by 5 months compared to standard chemotherapy alone. The bevacizumab combination was also associated with a significant...
The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today released a draft of a clinical practice guideline on the use of molecular marker testing for...