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 for the treatment of women with recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. “The majority of women...
In the open-label phase III AZURE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Coleman et al found that adjuvant zoledronic acid treatment in patients with high-risk early-stage breast cancer provided no overall disease-free survival benefit. A reduction in bone metastases was observed, and women who...
The antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) is currently indicated in the United States for treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who previously received trastuzumab (Herceptin) and a taxane and who have either received prior therapy for metastatic...
In a European study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maurichi et al identified lymphovascular invasion and regression as important prognostic factors in thin melanoma. They developed a nomogram including age, mitotic rate, ulceration, lymphovascular invasion, regression, and sentinel...
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...
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 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...
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...
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,...
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...
Men and women who took low-dose aspirin regularly had a 48% reduction in their risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a new study. In addition, the longer a person started taking low-dose aspirin, the greater the benefit, ranging from 48% reduction in people who started 3 years before...
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 an online report in the journal Cancer, a team of University of Chicago cancer specialists have described the first tool—11 questions, assembled and refined from conversations with more than 150 patients with advanced cancer—to measure a patient’s risk for, and ability to...
In the first phase III trial assessing the combination of an insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) inhibitor with chemotherapy as first-line treatment for advanced nonadenocarcinoma non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the addition of the fully human immunoglobulin G2 monoclonal...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for gadobutrol (Gadavist) injection for intravenous use with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast to assess the presence and extent of malignant breast disease. The approval is based on priority review of two multicenter...
Barbara L. McAneny, MD, a practicing oncologist from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been re-elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association (AMA) and will assume the position of Board Chair when the trustees gather for their first postelection meeting. Dr. McAneny, who has...
There may be significant genomic differences between patients with invasive lobular breast cancer and those with invasive ductal breast cancer, according to the results of a study presented by Sawyer et al in PLOS Genetics. This finding may lead to further insights into the biology of lobular...
Ibrutinib is an irreversible inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase that was recently approved for treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who have received at least one prior therapy. A small proportion of CLL patients have been observed to relapse during ibrutinib treatment, ...
A phase III, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that the oral targeted drug lenvatinib is highly effective among patients with differentiated thyroid cancer resistant to standard radioiodine therapy. “The main result is an extraordinary improvement in progression-free...
The addition of docetaxel to androgen-deprivation therapy extended survival for men with newly diagnosed hormone-sensitive prostate cancer by more than 13 months in the National Cancer Institute–led phase III E3805 study. The survival benefit was even greater for men with high-volume disease. ...
In a long-term follow-up analysis of RTOG 9802, the addition of PCV (procarbazine [Matulane], lomustine [CeeNu], and vincristine) to radiotherapy prolonged both progression-free survival and overall survival in adult patients with low-grade glioma. The findings were reported at the 2014 ASCO Annual ...
An international, randomized phase III study found that replacing vincristine with bortezomib (Velcade) in R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan] plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) significantly improved outcomes in newly diagnosed patients with mantle cell lymphoma who were...
Oncologists now have a new understanding of the toxicity levels of specific chemotherapy regimens used for women with early-stage breast cancer, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The retrospective study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by O’Connell et al, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Trial R-04 is assessing four chemotherapy regimens given concurrently with preoperative radiotherapy in order to help identify optimal treatment in patients with ...
Lenalidomide (Revlimid) is active in relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell lymphomas. In a European phase II trial (REAL07) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Vitolo et al examined the addition of lenalidomide to rituximab (Rituxan), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone...
In an article in The Lancet Oncology, Sartor et al report symptomatic skeletal event outcomes in the phase III ALSYMPCA trial, which was the study supporting the May 2013 approval of radium-233 dichloride (Xofigo) in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and bone metastases. They found ...
A series of studies evaluating the cost-effectiveness, risks, and outcomes associated with detecting, diagnosing, and treating testicular cancer were presented at a press conference during the 2014 Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association in Orlando, Florida. Although...
Although neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy is standard of care for muscle-invasive bladder cancer, it is not widely used due to concerns over toxicity and delayed cystectomy. In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Plimack et al evaluated whether a neoadjuvant...
The only recent comprehensive analysis of lung cancer rates for women around the world found that lung cancer rates are dropping in young women in many regions of the globe, pointing to the success of tobacco control efforts. However, rates continue to increase among older women in many countries,...
As reported in a research letter in JAMA Dermatology, Watanabe et al found that diffuse erythema at presentation in patients with leukemic T-cell lymphoma was associated with better response to low-dose alemtuzumab (Campath) compared with patients presenting with preexisting plaques or tumors....
The effect of false-positive mammograms on women undergoing screening is being investigated by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Tosteson et al assessed responses to false-positive screening mammograms. According to the authors, their findings...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, D’Souza et al found that while human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive patients with oropharyngeal cancer had high prevelances of oncogenic oral HPV DNA and oral HPV16 DNA, their sexual partners did not appear to have increased risk of...
Activating EGFR mutations are found in approximately 10% of Western patients and 50% of Asian patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors are recommended for use in first-line treatment in this setting. Both tyrosine kinase inhibitors and cytotoxic...
In a phase IIa trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Miller et al assessed combined HER2-targeted therapy with the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) in women with HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Pertuzumab...
As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Riester et al have identified gene-expression signatures predictive of survival and debulking status in late-stage ovarian cancer. Study Details The study involved meta-analytic techniques using integrated data from 13 publicly...
HER3 links with HER2 in a reciprocal relationship including negative feedback signaling that can upregulate HER2-HER3 signaling to compensate for HER2 inhibition. This signal-buffering capacity protects HER2-HER3 against a nearly 2-log inhibition of HER2 catalytic activity. The anti-HER2 tyrosine...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology has released a clinical practice guideline on prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in adult cancer patients, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The overall incidence of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy ...
Men with localized prostate cancer that is at risk of growing and spreading have a lower risk of disease progression and recurrence if they are treated with radiotherapy combined with androgen-deprivation therapy, according to new research. The findings, which were presented at the 33rd Conference...
Research in mice and human cell lines has identified an experimental compound dubbed TTT-3002 as potentially one of the most potent drugs available to block genetic mutations in cancer cells blamed for some forms of treatment-resistant leukemia. The study by Ma et al, published in Blood, found that ...
The results from a phase I study of a new investigational epigenetic therapy called OTX015, a small-molecule inhibitor that blocks the activity of bromodomain and extraterminal (BET)-bromodomain proteins, is showing clinical activity in some blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma. The study ...
The Mantle Cell Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (MIPI) was developed in 2008 as the first prognostic stratification system specific for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hoster et al confirmed the validity of MIPI in a cohort of two...
Results from the BRIGHT study combined with long-term safety data from other studies suggest that bendamustine (Treanda) plus rituximab (Rituxan) “may be an important alternative treatment option” for the initial therapy of patients with low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and mantle...
A DNA methylation marker test performed on patients with noninvasive urothelial carcinoma can predict tumor recurrence with high sensitivity and specificity, according to a study by Su et al. The findings may help eliminate costly and unnecessary invasive exams and reveals the importance of DNA...
In the phase II US Leukemia Intergroup Trial E1905 reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Prebet et al found that prolonged administration of lower-dose azacitidine produced a high response rate in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with myelodysplastic...
In a UK phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hillmen et al assessed the safety and activity of adding rituximab (Rituxan) to chlorambucil (Leukeran) in first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Such a regimen may be an alternative to fludarabine-based...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Burger et al assessed risk factors for gastrointestinal adverse events in women with advanced ovarian cancer receiving first-line bevacizumab (Avastin)/chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab maintenance or chemotherapy alone in the phase III...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Stattin et al found that rates of prostate cancer mortality, excess mortality in men with prostate cancer, and metastatic prostate cancer were lower in counties in Sweden with higher vs lower incidence of prostate cancer that...
In the open-label, phase III EORTC 62012 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Judson et al found that doxorubicin plus ifosfamide was not associated with any overall survival advantage compared with doxorubicin alone in patients with advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. Progression-free...
In a phase I study published in PLOS ONE, treating patients with advanced melanoma and kidney cancer with an antibody that targets a tumor-enhancing protein was found to have an acceptable safety profile and showed preliminary evidence of antitumor activity. The findings by Morris et al shed light...
The first-ever comprehensive assessment of challenges facing the U.S. cancer care system suggests that patient access to cancer care will be threatened as growing demand for care outstrips the supply of oncologists, and as cost pressures force the closure of small physician practices that form the...