Patients older than age 45 with thyroid cancer that has spread to neck lymph nodes have long been considered at higher risk of dying, but the same has not been true for younger patients. Now researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute have found that...
A single dose of the recombinant human papillomavirus (HPV) bivalent (types 16 and 18) vaccine (Cervarix) appears to be as effective in preventing certain HPV infections as three doses, the currently recommended course of vaccination, concluded a study published by Kreimer et al in The Lancet...
A pooled analysis of four clinical trials of nivolumab (Opdivo) in advanced melanoma, reported by Larkin et al in JAMA Oncology, suggested similar response rates in patients with BRAF V600–mutant and BRAF wild-type disease. Study Details The retrospective analysis included data from adult...
In an analysis of Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow et al found that dexrazoxane use did not appear to be associated with poorer survival among pediatric patients with leukemia or lymphoma in long-term follow-up. Study Details The...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Surgery, Margonis et al found that particular KRAS codon 12 mutations were associated with significantly poorer overall survival among patients with colorectal liver metastases. Study Details This retrospective study included data from 331 patients...
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 ...
It is estimated that one of every three Latina women will be diagnosed with cancer during her lifetime. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, along with collaborators at the University of South Florida, recently published a study about the attitudes and cultural perspectives of Latinas undergoing...
In the phase III EURAMOS-1 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bielack et al found that the addition of postoperative pegylated interferon alfa-2b (Pegintron, Sylatron) to MAP (methotrexate, doxorubicin, and cisplatin) in patients with osteosarcoma showing good histologic response...
In a phase I trial, the investigational agent mirvetuximab soravtansine (IMGN853) was found to be active in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. ImmunoGen, Inc, announced the first clinical findings of this folate-receptor alpha (FRα)-targeting antibody-drug conjugate at the...
A study led by the University at Buffalo (UB) and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) has identified beliefs and personality traits associated with higher levels of distress in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. The findings support the value of emotional and informational support for...
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...
A study investigating the process involved in metastatic breast cancer has found that patients with high levels of the protein activin-like receptor kinase (ALK) 1 in the blood vessels of their tumors were more likely to develop metastatic disease than patients without endothelial expression of...
In a phase III trial (ABCSG-18) reported in The Lancet, Gnant et al found that adjuvant denosumab (Xgeva) reduced the risk of clinical fracture in women with breast cancer receiving aromatase inhibitor therapy. Study Details In the double-blind study, 3,420 women from Austria and Sweden with...
Screening for colorectal cancer increased in individuals with a lower socioeconomic status after 2008, perhaps reflecting the Affordable Care Act’s removal of financial barriers to screening, according to a new analysis. The study, by American Cancer Society investigators, was published by...
More than one-third of counties in the United States are located more than 50 miles from the nearest gynecologic oncologist, making access to specialty care for ovarian and other gynecologic cancers difficult for nearly 15 million women. Although most of these “low-access” counties are...
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...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lichtenthal et al found that parents who have lost a child to cancer report wanting and frequently using mental health services, although barriers to seeking care exist and retention in care is suboptimal. Study Details The cross-sectional...
Pictures illustrating the dangers of cigarette smoking were more effective at strengthening people’s intentions to quit smoking than text warnings, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analysis of multiple research studies has found. These findings were published by Noar et al in...
A modified poliovirus therapy that is showing activity in patients with glioblastoma works best at a low dosage, according to the research team at Duke’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. The dosage findings for the first 20 patients in the phase 1 trial were presented June 1 at the...
In a French phase III trial (GETUG 12) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fizazi et al found that the addition of docetaxel and estramustine (Emcyt) to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) improved relapse-free survival among patients with high-risk localized prostate cancer. Study Details In the...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rini et al developed a 16-gene assay and recurrence score that predicted postsurgery outcome in patients with stage I to III clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Development Phase In the development phase, examination of the association between expression...
Researchers have identified a gene in dendritic cells that disables an effective immune response against ovarian cancer tumors. In preclinical studies, the researchers found that silencing this gene, XBP1, in dendritic cells restores their function and enhances T-cell antitumor immunity. XBP1 is...
In the largest study of its kind, transplant physicians at Mayo Clinic in Florida have found that liver cancer patients have similar beneficial outcomes whether using organs donated by patients after cardiac death or brain death. The study was recently published by Croome et al in the American...
Interpace Diagnostics, a subsidiary of PDI, Inc, announced new data demonstrating the clinical value of BarreGen, a molecular diagnostic test that predicts the risk of progression from Barrett’s esophagus to esophageal cancer approximately 3 to 4 years before the cancer develops. These...
In a UK study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gale et al found that presence of DNMT3A mutations was associated with poorer prognosis in young adults with cytogenetic intermediate-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) irrespective of the presence of NPM1 mutation. Poorer outcome was found ...
In a phase III PALOMA 3 trial reported at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Turner et al found that the cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitor palbociclib (Ibrance) significantly improved progression-free survival in women with advanced hormone...
More than half of all cancer patients experience pain, most often associated with the malignancy type, body location, and disease progression. Pain researchers participating in a symposium at the American Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting last month reported that the relationship between...
In a pooled analysis of the LUX-Lung 2, 3, and 6 trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yang et al found that the activity of afatinib (Gilotrif) differed according to uncommon EGFR mutations in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Most patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC have deletion...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cole et al found that polymorphisms in genes related to oxidative stress or neuroinflammation were associated with poorer cognitive function in survivors treated for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Survivors of childhood ALL...
In an interim analysis of the phase III ELOQUENT-2 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Lonial et al found that the addition of the investigational agent elotuzumab to lenalidomide (Revlimid)-dexamethasone significantly increased progression-free survival in patients with relapsed ...
New cases of virtually all types of cancer are rising in countries globally—regardless of income—but the death rates from cancer are falling in many countries, according to a new analysis of 28 cancer groups in 188 countries. These findings were published by Fitzmaurice et al in JAMA...
Phase III results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0537 indicate that acupuncture-like, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (ALTENS) may be equally effective as the prescription medication pilocarpine, the current standard of care, to treat radiation-induced xerostomia (dry...
In a Swedish study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, He et al identified numerous predictors of discontinuation of adjuvant hormone therapy in patients with breast cancer. Study Details The study involved 3,395 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2008 in Stockholm who...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Menon et al, findings in the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening indicate that the number of screen-detected ovarian cancers is doubled by using the risk of ovarian cancer algorithm (ROCA) with serial CA-125 measurements...
In the phase III SQUIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thatcher et al found that the addition of the second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody necitumumab to first-line gemcitabine-cisplatin improved overall survival among patients with stage IV squamous...
A recent analysis of a large observational study has revealed that men with a history of asthma are less likely than those without it to develop lethal prostate cancer, researchers at Johns Hopkins reported. These findings were published by Platz et al in the International Journal of Cancer....
A University of Michigan survey of women with breast cancer found that nearly half considered having a double mastectomy—but of those who considered it, only 37% knew that the more aggressive procedure does not improve survival for women with breast cancer. Among women who received a double...
New findings from a phase III clinical trial suggest the IDH1 gene may be a prognostic marker for anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare form of brain cancer. The results of this study were presented on June 2 at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract 2002). Patients in this study who had a...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Silvestri et al of the AEGIS study team found that use of a bronchial airway gene-expression classifier improved the diagnostic performance of bronchoscopy in patients being evaluated for suspected lung cancer. Study Details The study...
Although various drugs have improved outcomes for metastatic colon cancer patients, researchers continually strive to find new agents to improve treatment. Antibody-drug conjugates are a promising option, due to the fact that they can deliver chemotherapy directly into a targeted cell, destroy...
In an analysis of the NeoALTTO trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Salgado et al found that a higher level of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes was associated with improved pathologic compete response rate and event-free survival independent of neoadjuvant treatment received in patients with...
Squamous cell anal carcinomas are rare, representing only about 2% of gastrointestinal cancer diagnoses. These cancers, which are associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV), sometimes prove very difficult to treat, recurring or developing metastases following standard treatment. Seeking to...
ASCO’s wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary, CancerLinQ LLC, provided the first demonstration of its groundbreaking health information technology platform at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Beginning May 30, demonstrations of the CancerLinQ platform’s initial components were...
In a phase III BEYOND trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhou et al found that the addition of bevacizumab to carboplatin-paclitaxel improved progression-free and overall survival in Chinese patients with locally advanced, metastatic, or recurrent advanced nonsquamous...
Results from the phase III registration study PALOMA-3 show that adding the investigational targeted agent palbociclib (Ibrance) to the standard hormonal therapy fulvestrant (Faslodex) more than doubled the duration of disease control, delaying disease progression by roughly 5 months in women with...
A phase III trial comparing 5 years of tamoxifen vs 5 years of the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole for postmenopausal women treated for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) found 10-year breast cancer–free interval rates were higher in the anastrozole group than in the tamoxifen group (93.5% vs...
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...
A collaborative team of researchers led by Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD, FACP, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, shared results from the first clinical study of the anticancer effects of the novel agent entolimod on May 30 at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract 3063). Their findings confirm ...
A new study conducted by the American Cancer Society found that the economic burden of cancer extends beyond diagnosis and treatment, with cancer survivors facing thousands of dollars of excess medical expenses every year, as well as excess employment disability and loss of production at work. The...
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...