Brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) is active in patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In a phase I study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Anas Younes, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (formerly of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), and colleagues...
In the phase III Z1041 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Aman U. Buzdar, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues compared neoadjuvant therapy with FEC-75 (fluorouracil [5-FU], epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide) followed by paclitaxel plus trastuzumab (Herceptin) ...
Data suggest that Src kinase-mediated interactions between prostate cancer cells and osteoclasts might promote bone metastasis and that the Src kinase inhibitor dasatinib (Sprycel) might exhibit synergy with docetaxel in prostate cancer. In a phase III trial (READY) reported in The Lancet Oncology, ...
On October 31, 2013, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of ponatinib, agreed to an FDA request to suspend marketing and sales of the drug due to the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. The FDA states that it will continue to evaluate ponatinib to further ...
Propofol is increasingly being used for sedation in screening colonoscopies in low-risk patients. In the United States, propofol can be administered only by an anesthesiologist, which can raise the cost of the procedure by $600 to $2,000. In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal...
A new diagnostic platform to detect BRAF mutations in melanoma and other cancer types is faster and more accurate compared with the standard method currently used in clinics, and this could help accelerate diagnosis and treatment, according to results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International...
Risk and risk factors for congestive heart failure in older breast cancer patients receiving trastuzumab have not been clearly defined. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues...
Clinical trials have shown limited efficacy of anti–insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) monoclonal antibodies, with the mechanisms of resistance to IGF-1R monoclonal antibody-based therapy remaining undefined. In preclinical studies reported in the Journal of the National...
A phase III trial (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 0525; N = 833) comparing dose-dense vs standard-dose temozolomide maintenance in newly diagnosed glioblastoma showed no differences in overall survival or progression-free survival between treatments. A substudy of the trial, reported in...
Dose-dense temozolomide results in depletion of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT)—a potential determinant of treatment response—in blood mononuclear cells and possibly in tumors. In a phase III trial (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 0525) reported in the Journal ...
The Program Chairs of the 2013 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which will be held December 10–14, 2013, have highlighted what they consider to be the most important abstracts to be presented at the Symposium. In a telebriefing in advance of the December meeting, C. Kent...
Sentinel lymph node surgery provides reliable nodal staging information and is associated with less morbidity than axillary lymph node dissection in patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer. The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z1071 (Alliance) trial examined the...
Children of melanoma survivors were more likely to wear hats and reapply sunscreen after receiving a multimedia informational program designed specifically for them. These new findings were included in research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. A team of researchers...
Scientific data suggest that a woman reduces her risk of breast cancer by breastfeeding, having multiple children, and giving birth at a younger age. However, a study led by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, indicates that women of Mexican descent may not fit that profile. ...
A new study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center found that the use of feeding tubes in patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated with intensity modulated proton therapy decreased by more than 50% compared to patients treated with intensity modulated...
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...
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 ...
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...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Arjun Sahgal, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, and colleagues evaluated the occurrence of vertebral compression fractures in patients undergoing spinal stereotactic body radiotherapy. Vertebral compression fracture ...
A new screening strategy for ovarian cancer appears to be highly specific for detecting the disease before it becomes lethal. The strategy was described in a study published early online this week in Cancer. A clinical trial is ongoing to verify the findings. Karen Lu, MD, of The University of...
An app to prevent teens from smoking and encourage them to quit if they have started is now available at no cost on the Apple iTunes Store. “Our app combines education and entertainment with comics and interactive games,” said Designer Alexander Prokhorov, MD, PhD, a Professor in the...
Poor oral health, including gum disease and dental problems, is a newly recognized independent risk factor for oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which causes between 40% and 80% of oropharyngeal cancers, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research. Researchers from the...
For the two-thirds of lung cancer patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease, tumor size is not used currently to predict overall survival times. However, a new study led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center has shown that even in advanced stages total tumor size can have ...
In the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), initially reported in 2003, finasteride significantly reduced the risk of prostate cancer by 24.8% but was associated with a relative 26.9% increase in risk of high-grade disease compared with placebo. In a study reported in The New England Journal of ...
A “new kind of pathology,” in which anatomy and histology are supplemented by molecular etiology, has been emerging over the past decade and promises better response rates among cancer patients as genomic alterations in cancer continue to be identified and treated with targeted...
Organized mailing campaigns could substantially increase colorectal cancer screening among uninsured patients, according to a study published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. The research also suggested that a noninvasive colorectal screening approach, such as a fecal immunochemical test, might be ...
The results of a large-scale analysis of the association between DNA viruses and human malignancies suggest that many of the most common cancers are not associated with DNA viruses. The findings, published in the August issue of the Journal of Virology, challenge earlier studies suggesting that as...
Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who identified a protein’s dual role in cancer promotion have discovered a way to shut it down, opening a potential new avenue for cancer treatment. Reporting their findings in the journal Cell, the researchers describe the first ...
A cohort study of 2,238 men who were evaluated for infertility at a clinic in Texas from 1989 to 2009 found that those men who had azoospermia, a condition in which no measurable sperm is present, had a 2.2-fold higher cancer risk compared with those who were nonazoospermic. The study was published ...
New evidence suggests that using advanced genetics technologies to monitor for remaining cancer cells after treatment may soon become an effective tool to inform treatment decisions and ultimately predict patient outcomes for patients with a particularly aggressive form of acute lymphocytic...
A new analysis has found that among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), African Americans more commonly present with advanced disease and tend to have shorter survival times than Caucasians despite receiving the same care. The results, published early online in Cancer, suggest that...
Ibrutinib is a first-in-class oral covalent inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), a mediator of the B-cell receptor signaling pathway implicated in the pathogenesis of B-cell cancers. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Michael L. Wang, MD, of The University...
Researchers have discovered and mapped the signaling network between two previously unconnected proteins, exposing a link that, if broken, could cut off cancer cell growth at its starting point. A team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported the tie between...
According to a June 3 letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), there will be no reprieve in the 2% ($11.08 billion) reduction to Medicare providers and hospitals mandated by the federal budget sequestration. The letter by CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner was in...
A randomized phase III study found no improvement in overall survival after the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard first-line chemoradiation for glioblastoma. Patients who received bevacizumab also experienced more side effects compared to those treated with chemoradiation alone. The...
Under conditions of oxygen starvation often encountered by tumors, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) sends signals that thwart the development of tumor-suppressing microRNAs, an international team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered. The...
A new measure of the heterogeneity of cells within a tumor appears to predict treatment outcomes of patients with the most common type of head and neck cancer. In the May 20 issue of the journal Cancer, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear...
The pages of medical history are dog-eared with breakthroughs that have transformed medicine and saved lives. One of those dog-eared pages belongs to Emil Frei III, MD, known to his colleagues and friends as Tom. In the dawn of oncology, Dr. Frei, along with his associate, Emil Freireich, MD, did...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology, Community Oncology Alliance, ION Solutions, and The US Oncology Network today commended a bipartisan group of 124 lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives who sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing concern...
The emergence of molecular diagnostic testing in lung cancer offers new hope for patients battling the number 1 cancer killer in the United States and abroad. Now, for the first time after a decade of biomarker testing in lung cancer, a uniform approach for testing for the EGFR mutation and ALK...
Endometrial cancer survivors are more likely to complete physical activity, and for longer durations, when their daily self-efficacy is higher, according to a study published online in the journal Health Psychology, a publication of the American Psychology Association. “Sedentary behavior is ...
A series of microRNA expression signatures that may help to define progression of the precancerous condition Barrett’s esophagus into esophageal adenocarcinoma was reported recently in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. “Once a rare...
Self-identified smokers directly connected to a tobacco cessation quit line are 13 times more likely to enroll in a treatment program as compared to smokers who are handed a quit line referral card and encouraged to call on their own, according to a new study published online in JAMA Internal...
Low-grade serous ovarian cancer is less common and aggressive than the high-grade variety, but the disease is exceptionally difficult to treat when front-line therapy fails. "After surgery, with or without presurgical chemotherapy, when low-grade serous ovarian cancer persists or returns,...
Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found qigong, an ancient mind-body practice, reduces depressive symptoms, and improves quality of life in women undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer. The study, published in the journal Cancer, is the first to examine...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have improved survival outcomes if they are taking beta-blockers while receiving radiotherapy, according to a study of 722 patients recently published in Annals of Oncology. Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in...