When used to treat pediatric patients with intracranial malignant tumors, proton therapy may limit the toxicity of radiation therapy while preserving tumor control, according to research presented on Sunday, September 22, at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s 55th Annual Meeting...
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, Pamela J. Goodwin, MD, and Tina Hsu of University of Toronto and colleagues assessed changes in quality of life from time of breast cancer diagnosis to long-term survivorship and compared quality of life in long-term survivors to that of...
Hodgkin lymphoma survivors who received subdiaphragmatic radiotherapy and chemotherapy regimens containing high doses of the alkylating agent procarbazine (Matulane) were at an increased risk of developing stomach cancer, according to a large study by scientists at the National Cancer Institute...
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...
Despite a relatively high rate of depression among patients with head and neck cancer following radiation therapy, mental health services were severely underutilized in this group, concluded researchers who analyzed questionnaire results from 211 patients. The patients had been previously treated...
VeriStrat, a serum-based protein assay, can help select which patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are not known to have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations might benefit from an EGFR-targeted agent, according to a study described at the 2013 Best of ASCO Los...
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...
Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have identified four inherited genetic variants in patients with non–small cell lung cancer that can help predict survival and treatment response. Their findings, published in Carcinogenesis, could help lead to more personalized treatment options and...
Patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) often receive allogeneic transplants that effectively “reboot” their own immune defenses, which then attack and potentially cure the hard-to-treat disease. However, there is a high rate of relapse in these patients, and the...
Long-term use of a calcium-channel blocker to treat hypertension is associated with higher breast cancer risk, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine. The study assessed the relationships between the major classes of hypertensive agents and risk of the two most common histologic...
Many factors play into why women diagnosed with breast cancer often choose overly aggressive treatment even when there is little evidence to show clinical benefit: the shock and fear of suddenly being confronted with a major health threat, the impression of having to make treatment decisions...
In a report in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sonali M. Smith, MD, of University of Chicago Hospitals, and colleagues analyzed outcomes in a large cohort of autologous or allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients with the most common T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma histologies. Their ...
The incidence of a non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is significantly higher in regions near facilities that release the chemical benzene into the environment, according to a new study published early online in Cancer. This and other studies like it will be critical to identifying and enacting public...
The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) showed that screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) resulted in a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality compared with chest radiography in participants aged 55 to 74 years with a minimum of 30 pack-years of smoking and no more than 15 years since...
Few markers of ovarian cancer prognosis have been established, perhaps because potential subtype associations are missed in studies including patients with all histopathologic subtypes. In a study reported in Lancet Oncology, Weiva Sieh, PhD, of Stanford University and colleagues assessed the...
A new study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in partnership with Costa Rican investigators and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), shows for the first time that the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18, which is used to prevent cervical cancer, also...
The RAPID trial compared accelerated partial-breast irradiation using three-dimensional (3D) conformal external-beam radiation therapy vs whole-breast irradiation in women with invasive or in situ breast cancer ≤ 3 cm. As reported by Ivo A. Olivotto, MD, FRCPC, of the British Columbia Cancer...
Maintenance therapy is associated with improved survival in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but few studies have compared active agents in this setting. In a phase III trial (AVAPERL trial) reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Fabrice Barlesi, MD, PhD, of Aix Marseille...
In the phase III PARAMOUNT trial, pemetrexed (Alimta) continuation maintenance therapy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression by 38% compared with placebo after pemetrexed/cisplatin induction in patients with advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Final...
Scientists have successfully targeted a malfunctioning immune system enzyme to kill diseased cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a precursor to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Reporting their results in Cancer Cell, researchers say their successful laboratory tests in human MDS...
Timothy Henrich, MD, Associate Physician in the Division of Infectious Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, reported that two patients with long-standing HIV infections have no detectable levels of the disease in their blood cells, even though they stopped taking their...
A novel pairing of two investigational cancer drugs in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer showed promising activity and had manageable toxicities, according to a phase I trial published online in the European Journal of Cancer. The combination of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)...
New research using mathematical models of different types of cancer—including melanoma, pancreatic, and colorectal—to determine the evolutionary dynamics of lesions in response to treatment is revealing why and how cancer cells resist targeted therapies. The study by Ivana Bozic, PhD,...
Melanoma is the third most common cancer among adolescents and young adults, but few studies have explored the survival differences by sex in this population. A new study published in JAMA Dermatology sought to determine whether long-term survival varied between white male and female...
A study from the University of Colorado Cancer Center shows that the ALK and ROS1 gene rearrangements known to drive subsets of lung cancer are also present in some colorectal cancers. Results imply that drugs used to target ALK and ROS1 in lung cancer may also have applications in this subset of...
Surveillance appears to be sufficient for men with stage I seminoma treated with orchiectomy, sparing patients from side effects of adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy. In a long-term study presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 4502), 99.5% of men followed by surveillance alone...
A genomic profiling study of African American women with breast cancer found that about one in five carries an inherited abnormality in at least 1 of 18 genes associated with breast cancer susceptibility. Such mutations were more prevalent among women with aggressive triple-negative breast cancer,...
A European phase III clinical trial found that lymphedema was twice as common among women with sentinel lymph node–positive early breast cancer who had axillary lymph node dissection compared to those who had axillary radiotherapy. Overall and disease-free survival 5 years after treatment...
Cervical cancer mortality was reduced by 31% over a period of 15 years among women screened with biennial visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), or vinegar, delivered by primary health workers in a large randomized study conducted among 150,000 women in India. The researchers estimate this...
Frequent heartburn was positively associated with cancers of the throat and vocal cord among nonsmokers and nondrinkers, and the use of antacids, but not prescription medications, had a protective effect, according to data published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of...
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...
Results from a phase I study of a new oral targeted drug, idelalisib (GS-1101), show the agent has potential as a therapy for relapsed or treatment-resistant chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The drug produced rapid and long-lasting tumor shrinkage in half of the patients treated with...
A phase I expansion study of the investigational drug MPDL3280A— an engineered PD-L1 targeted antibody—shows impressive tumor shrinkage rates in patients with several different cancers—including lung, melanoma, kidney, colorectal, and gastric cancers—that had progressed...
A comprehensive genomic analysis of nearly 400 endometrial tumors suggests that certain molecular characteristics, such as the frequency of mutations, could complement current pathology methods and help distinguish between principal types of endometrial tumors, as well as provide insights into...
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that this so-called “master regulator” gene may be the key to...
A combination of therapies may prove to be a promising advance for the treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer based on results of a phase I clinical trial, said researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is one of the deadliest of all cancers. Nearly all patients diagnosed...
Breast cancer survivors are among the women who could most benefit from regular physical activity, yet few meet national exercise recommendations during the 10 years after being diagnosed, according to a study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Prior studies and available...
The chances of developing lung cancer associated with asbestos exposure, asbestosis, and smoking are dramatically increased when these three risk factors are combined, and quitting smoking significantly reduces the risk of developing lung cancer after long-term asbestos exposure, according to a new ...
Patients with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma who received infusions of chemotherapy, but who did not have radiation therapy to the mediastinum, had excellent outcomes, according to clinical trial results. Until now, most standard treatment approaches for patients with this type of...
Researchers using patients’ own immune cells in an immunotherapy approach called anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy achieved responses in children whose acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) had returned after a bone marrow transplant, according to preliminary results...
Taking a break from hormone-blocking prostate cancer treatments once the cancer seems to be stabilized is not equivalent to continuing therapy, a new large-scale international study finds. Previous smaller studies had indicated that intermittent androgen deprivation therapy might be just as good...
The antidepressant drug duloxetine (Cymbalta) helped relieve painful numbness and tingling feelings caused by chemotherapy in 59% of patients, a new study finds. This is the first clinical trial to find an effective treatment for this pain. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology announced yesterday that it has completed a prototype of CancerLinQ™, the Society’s groundbreaking health information technology (HIT) initiative to achieve higher quality, higher value cancer care with better outcomes for patients. The...
A national survey of health professionals showed that drug shortages are taking a heavy toll on cancer patients, forcing treatment changes and delays that for some patients meant worse outcomes, more therapy-related complications, and higher costs. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital...
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues in Canada have published study results focused on black women younger than 50, a population disproportionately afflicted with and dying from early-onset breast cancer compared to their white counterparts. The research published in The...
The overexpression or underexpression of a newly identified set of genes related to lipid metabolism may help physicians identify whether or not a woman is at risk for hormone receptor–positive or hormone receptor–negative breast cancer and to subsequently tailor prevention strategies...
Surgery offers better survival benefit for men with localized prostate cancer, according to a large observational study, conducted by a group of researchers in Sweden and the Netherlands. The study, “Comparative oncologic effectiveness of radical prostatectomy and radiotherapy in prostate...
Samuel M. Silver, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been elected Chairman of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Board of Directors. Dr. Silver was previously Vice Chairman of the Board and succeeds Thomas A. D'Amico, MD, of the Duke Cancer...
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have found that healthy adolescent females have predetermined expectations for becoming parents in the future, but have concerns about fertility and childbearing should they develop a life-threatening illness, such as cancer. The...