Despite advances in the treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma), including the introduction of rituximab (Rituxan), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients living in low-socioeconomic-status neighborhoods have a 34% greater risk of dying from...
Barrington et al in the International Conference on Malignant Lymphomas Imaging Working Group have presented updated consensus guidelines on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) for staging and response assessment for FDG-avid lymphomas. The...
Despite updates on cancer screening guidelines from several medical societies—including ASCO, the American Cancer Society, the American Urological Association, the American College of Physicians, as well as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—which use life expectancy and/or age as...
Use of panitumumab (Vectibix) and cetuximab (Erbitux) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer decreased significantly after the publication of clinical trial evidence that anti-EGFR antibodies should be restricted to wild-type KRAS tumors, subsequent ASCO guidelines recommending testing for...
BluePrint in combination with MammaPrint molecular subtyping reclassified more than 20% of breast cancer patients into a different subgroup compared with conventional assessment, according to the results of the prospective Neoadjuvant Breast Registry Symphony Trial (NBRST). In Annals of Surgical...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, the International Consortium for Outcome Research (ICOR) in Head and Neck Cancer proposed modifying the current American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for oral cancer to include depth of invasion. A model...
The phase III NeoALTTO trial showed a significantly improved pathologic complete response rate with lapatinib (Tykerb) plus trastuzumab (Herceptin) vs either alone in women with HER2-positive early breast cancer. As reported in The Lancet Oncology by de Azambuja et al, the combination was not...
The European Thoracic Oncology Platform Lungscape ALK project is investigating the prevalence and prognostic impact of ALK-positivity in resected lung adenocarcinoma in a primarily European population. As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Blackhall and colleagues, the project has...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schleiermacher et al found ALK mutations at relapse of neuroblastoma that were not present at diagnosis. They also found that subclonal mutations may be present at diagnosis with clonal expansion observed at relapse. The study involved...
Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have found that the expression pattern of a unique class of tumor-associated antigens, known as the MAGE cancer-testis antigens (CTAs), correlates with clinical outcome in epithelial ovarian cancer. Based on their findings, the researchers have...
The 13-year follow-up of the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC), reported by Schröder et al in The Lancet, showed that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men aged 55 to 69 years is associated with a 21% reduction in risk of prostate cancer mortality...
In a single-center retrospective matched case-control study reported in JAMA Surgery, Franken et al found no significant differences in 30-day morbidity or mortality, positive margin status, major complications, hospital stay, or readmission rates for laparoscopic vs open partial hepatic resection...
Researchers at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have identified a gene that contributes to the development of several childhood cancers, in a study conducted in mouse models. If the findings prove to be applicable to humans, the research could...
Healthy men participating in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial who actively participate in all steps of the clinical trial are most likely to undergo a biopsy, according to a study by Gritz et al published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, ...
In a European phase III FIRE-3 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Heinemann et al found no difference in response rate, the primary endpoint, between FOLFIRI (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan) plus the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab (Erbitux) vs FOLFIRI plus the anti-VEGF-A antibody...
The BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) is approved for treatment of BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma. There are reports indicating that vemurafenib may be active in the treatment of intracranial neoplasms with BRAF mutations. As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lee et al from...
Postmenopausal women who in the previous 4 years had undertaken the equivalent of at least 4 hours of walking per week had a 10% decreased risk of invasive breast cancer compared with women who were less active, according to a new study. The findings suggest that regular physical activity, even of...
In the phase II Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 40603/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sikov et al found that the addition of carboplatin or bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response rate in...
Researchers from the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine have reported new information about the genetic alterations that may contribute to the development of a breast cancer subtype typically associated with more aggressive forms of the disease and higher recurrence...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Walker et al found that among nonelderly patients with the top 10 most lethal cancers, those with Medicaid or no insurance were more likely to present with advanced disease and less likely to receive cancer-directed surgery or radiation...
Researchers with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have completed the largest, most diverse tumor genetic analysis ever conducted, revealing a new approach to classifying cancers. The work, published in Cell, not only revamps traditional ideas of how cancers are diagnosed and treated, ...
In a UK population-based cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cardwell et al found that statin use after diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with a 29% reduction in colorectal cancer–specific mortality and a 25% reduction in all-cause mortality. Improvements...
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. Active surveillance offers low-risk prostate cancer patients a means to avoid the potentially harmful side effects from treatment. In a recent article in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, a...
An analysis of the gut microbiome in patients from three clinical groups representing the multistage progression in colorectal cancer has found that the composition of the gut microbiome differentiates individuals with healthy colons from those with adenomas and carcinomas. Adding gut microbiome...
Past exposure to immunosuppressive drugs called thiopurines has been found to increase the risk of myeloid disorders, such as acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The findings were reported by Lopez et al in Clinical...
Despite the fact that smoking increases the probability of cancer recurrence and reduces survival time, many cancer survivors continue to smoke. In a new study, nearly 1 in 10 cancer survivors reported being current smokers 9 years after their diagnosis, and 83% were daily smokers averaging about...
Mammography-detected breast cancer is associated with a shift to earlier stage diagnosis in older women, subsequently reducing the rate of more advanced, difficult-to-treat cases, according to a new study by Malmgren et al published in the journal Radiology. The findings lend support to regular...
Cancer research lost a pioneer on August 3, 2014, with the passing of Emmanuel Farber, MD, PhD, a renowned pathologist who made fundamental contributions to our understanding of chemical carcinogenesis. Dr. Farber’s studies in experimental pathology demonstrated that chemical carcinogens are...
An analysis in the population of the National Patient Navigation Research Program reported by Ko et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that patient navigation significantly improves the likelihood of receiving antiestrogen treatment among hormone receptor–positive breast cancer...
In a Taiwanese retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, Tseng et al found that diabetes was associated with increased risk of head and neck cancer, including increased risk of oral cavity, oropharyngeal, and nasopharyngeal cancers. Study Details...
Physicians at Johns Hopkins have developed blood and saliva tests that help accurately predict recurrences of HPV-linked oral cancers in a substantial number of patients. The tests screen for DNA fragments of the human papillomavirus (HPV) shed from cancer cells lingering in the mouth or other...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation to AbbVie’s investigational compound ABT-414, which is being evaluated for safety and efficacy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme. ABT-414 is an investigational anti-EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor)...
The activating mutation MYD88 L265P has been reported in approximately two-thirds of cases of primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, leg-type. In a French retrospective analysis reported in JAMA Dermatology, Pham-Ledard et al confirmed the high prevalence of the mutation and documented...
In an analysis of patients with operable triple-negative breast cancer in two Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) adjuvant trials, Adams and colleagues found that higher stromal compartment tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte levels were associated with significantly improved disease-free survival, ...
Women who recently used birth control pills containing high-dose estrogen and a few other formulations had an increased risk for breast cancer, whereas women using some other formulations did not, according to data published in Cancer Research. “Our results suggest that use of contemporary...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sabine et al found that PIK3CA mutation was not an independent predictor of distant relapse-free survival among postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy in the TEAM (Exemestane...
In a phase II Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Miller et al found that the combination of pemetrexed (Alimta) and cisplatin produced responses in the treatment of advanced, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer. In the study, 54 patients from...
Of the many subgroups of cells vying for control within a cancerous tumor, the most dangerous may not be those that can proliferate the fastest, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reported in a study published in Nature. The findings have important implications for the treatment of cancer...
Nearly half of adult patients with lung-only metastases from Ewing sarcoma who received whole-lung irradiation were free of pulmonary relapse at 3 years, according to the results of a retrospective study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. With few...
Multicentric Castleman’s disease is characterized by overproduction of interleukin-6 (IL-6). In a trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Rhee et al found that the anti–IL-6 antibody siltuximab (Sylvant) produced a significantly better response rate vs placebo in patients with the...
Research conducted at the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has discovered links between a set of genes known to promote tumor growth and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, an oral cancer that affects the salivary glands. The discovery could help physicians develop new treatments that...
A study reported by Meghani et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that African American patients with cancer pain are more likely than white patients to receive morphine, with its known 3- and 6-glucuronide neurotoxic metabolites, despite their higher reported risk for chronic kidney...
Compared with intravenous (IV) followed by consolidation intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy, primary IV/IP chemotherapy was associated with a statistically significant improvement in overall survival—but not progression-free survival—in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer...
A new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by researchers at Northwestern Medicine shed new light on the risks associated with the growing popularity of endoscopic resection in the treatment of localized, early-stage esophageal cancer. Merkow et al found that the...
A phase Ib study has found that a combination of the EGFR-targeted agents afatinib (Gilotrif) and cetuximab (Erbitux) yielded clinical responses in patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancer that had stopped responding to the EGFR inhibitors erlotinib (Tarceva) and gefitinib (Iressa). The combination...
A St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital study found that 73% of adult survivors of childhood cancer more than doubled their risk of developing metabolic syndrome and related health problems by failing to follow a heart-healthy lifestyle. The results were published online in the journal...
Early surveillance imaging (< 6 months) after stereotactic body radiation therapy for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) seems to be of limited benefit, resulting in definitive intervention in only 3% of patients, according to the findings of a study in Practical Radiation...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today expanded the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who carry deletions of the short arm of chromosome 17, which are associated with poor responses to standard treatment for CLL. Ibrutinib...
As reported by Motzer et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the randomized phase II RECORD-3 trial showed that first-line use of everolimus did not achieve noninferiority in progression-free survival vs sunitinib (Sutent) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma receiving sequential...
Statin use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing Barrett’s esophagus, according to a new study by Nguyen et al in Gastroenterology. Obese patients experienced the greatest level of risk reduction with statin use. While statins have been associated with a reduced risk...