Patients with advanced cancers who received mesothelin-directed chimeric antigen receptor–modified T cells (CART-meso), a type of investigational adoptive immunotherapy, tolerated the treatment well, and there was evidence that the infused immune cells persisted in the patients’ blood...
Obesity in black men substantially increased the risk of low- and high-grade prostate cancer, whereas obesity in white men moderately reduced the risk of low-grade cancer and only slightly increased the risk of high-grade cancer, according to the first large, prospective study to examine how race...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Matasar et al found that Hodgkin lymphoma patients treated during adulthood were at increased risk of all-cause and second primary malignancy mortality compared with SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and...
The immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was found to be safe and yielded durable responses in patients with advanced, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Those with high levels of the protein PD-L1 in their tumors had better clinical outcomes, according to phase I KEYNOTE-001 clinical...
In the first randomized trial to compare two U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line therapy for patients with advanced melanoma, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) yielded significantly better treatment outcomes than ipilimumab (Yervoy) for all endpoints...
More than 60% of patients with Epstein-Barr virus–associated lymphoproliferative disorder (EBV-LPD) that was nonresponsive to standard rituximab (Rituxan) treatment responded to a new type of immunotherapy called Epstein-Barr virus–specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (EBV-CTL) therapy....
In the randomized phase II EMERGE study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yardley et al found that the anti–glycoprotein NMB (gpNMB) antibody-drug conjugate glembatumumab vedotin may improve response rate over alternative chemotherapy in patients with advanced refractory breast...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Kneuertz et al found that the more frequent stage-specific use of adjuvant chemotherapy in younger patients with colon cancer did not appear to produce commensurate benefit in survival compared with outcomes in older patients. Study Details The study was a...
A subset of lung cancer patients can derive important clinical benefits from drugs that are more commonly used to treat melanoma, the authors of a new academic clinical trial in Europe have reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva (Abstract 21PD_PR). Oliver Gautschi, MD, a...
Almost one in four patients (24%) with advanced lung cancer in Europe, Asia, and the United States are not receiving EGFR test results before being started on treatment, researchers reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva (Abstract LBA2_PR). This lack of test results may...
Cancer DNA circulating in the bloodstream of lung cancer patients can provide doctors with vital mutation information that can help optimize treatment when tumor tissue is not available, an international group of researchers has reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva...
Three or more hours of walking per week can boost the vitality and health of prostate cancer survivors. Men and women who have survived colorectal cancer and are regular walkers also reported lower sensations of burning, numbness, tingling, or loss of reflexes that many often experience after...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, McGlynn et al found that statin use was associated with a reduced risk of primary liver cancer in a setting of low liver cancer prevalence. Other studies have shown a preventive benefit of statin therapy in regions of the world...
A large, diverse study of 16,827 adolescents and young adults with differentiated thyroid cancer has found that African Americans and Hispanics were six times and three times more likely, respectively, to die of their cancer than Caucasians. Residing in low-socioeconomic neighborhoods, insurance...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Treon et al found that ibrutinib (Imbruvica) was highly active and produced durable responses in patients with previously treated Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. Response rates were highest in patients with MYD88 mutation and...
In the COLOR II study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Bonjer et al found similar rates of locoregional recurrence and disease-free and overall survival with laparoscopic vs open resection of rectal cancer. Study Details In the trial, 1,044 patients from 30 sites in 8 countries in ...
In a statement, the American Society of Clinical Oncology praised the U.S. Senate’s 92-to-8 approval of legislation to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula. ASCO President Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, said, “Today's courageous vote by the U.S. Senate to finally end the...
In a Children’s Oncology Group study (COG-AALL03N1) reported in JAMA Oncology, Bhatia et al found that < 95% adherence to mercaptopurine treatment was associated with a nearly threefold increase in the risk of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Among adherent...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Scher et al found that circulating tumor cell count and LDH level served as an individual-level surrogate for survival among patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer receiving abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) plus...
In the phase III VANTAGE-014 study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Krug et al found that treatment with the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat (Zolinza) did not improve overall survival vs placebo in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma who had progressed on previous chemotherapy....
A population-based cohort study indicates that “more extensive lymph node clearance during surgery for esophageal cancer may not improve survival,” van der Schaaf et al reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “These results challenge current clinical guidelines,...
Most patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who discontinued ibrutinib (Imbruvica) early “were difficult to treat and had poor outcomes,” according to a study of patients enrolled in four different clinical trials of ibrutinib, with or without rituximab...
According to a recent study by Perl et al published in the Journal of Oncology Practice, the administration of chemotherapy near death is recognized by patients, their families, and oncologists as “aggressive and poor-quality care.” Despite this, rates of end-of-life chemotherapy have...
Uninsured cancer patients are paying anywhere from 2 to 43 times what Medicare would pay for chemotherapy drugs, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These findings were published by Dusetzina et al in Health Affairs. Major Discrepancies Researchers led...
Men who reported taking muscle-building supplements, such as pills and powders with creatine or androstenedione, reported a significantly higher likelihood of having developed testicular cancer than men who did not use such supplements, according to a study by Li et al in the British Journal of...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Makarov et al found that hospital referral regions marked by higher rates of inappropriate imaging in patients with low-risk breast cancer also had high rates of inappropriate prostate imaging in patients with low-risk prostate cancer. Inappropriate imaging...
In the phase II TBCRC009 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Isakoff et al found that platinum monotherapy was active in treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, particularly in cases with BRCA1/2 mutation, and that an assay of genomic instability characteristic of...
In the phase II PrECOG 0105 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Telli et al found that neoadjuvant iniparib plus gemcitabine-carboplatin was active in early-stage triple-negative and BRCA1/2-mutant breast cancer. Higher score on a homologous recombination deficiency–loss of...
A new study showed that providing women with skills to manage stress early in their breast cancer treatment can improve their mood and quality of life many years later. Published by Stagl et al in Cancer, the findings suggest that women given the opportunity to learn stress management techniques...
Public health programs that devote a portion of their funding to encourage more boys to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV)—rather than merely attempting to raise coverage among girls—may ultimately protect more people for the same price, a study from Duke University...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stevanovíc et al observed complete regression of metastatic cervical tumors in two patients following a single infusion of human papillomavirus (HPV)-targeted tumor-infiltrating T cells. In the protocol, nine patients with metastatic cervical ...
In a phase I cohort-expansion study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, McDermott et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) produced durable responses in patients with previously treated advanced renal cell carcinoma. Responses continued after nivolumab discontinuation in some patients. Study...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ostronoff et al found that the presence of the NPM1-positive/FLT3-internal tandem duplication (ITD)–negative genotype—which is recognized as a marker of better prognosis in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia—was...
A recent commentary published in Annals of Internal Medicine discusses the paradoxical finding that most patients are at below-average risk of disease and can expect to experience less-than-average benefits from a treatment. Yet, argue Vickers et al, too many people are being screened, diagnosed,...
A particular molecular pathway permits stem cells in pediatric bone cancers to grow rapidly and aggressively, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center. These findings were published by Basu-Roy et al in Nature Communications. Study...
In patients with previously irradiated recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, the combination of stereotactic body radiation therapy plus cetuximab (Erbitux) appears to be safe and effective, according to a study by Vargo et al in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology...
In the phase III National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) MA.31 trial, first-line treatment with lapatinib (Tykerb) vs trastuzumab (Herceptin) combined with a taxane was associated with poorer progression-free survival and greater toxicity in patients with advanced...
A large retrospective cohort study of more than 32,000 Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with melanoma has found that one in five patients experience a delay of surgery that is longer than 1.5 months. Those patients undergoing biopsy and surgery by dermatologists had the lowest risk for delay, which ...
A statistical analysis of 51 oncology drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2013, has found that cancer drug prices are rising faster than the prices in other sectors of health care and that the high cost of the drugs is not...
A substantial gap exists between patient expectations and current practices for providing information about medical imaging tests that use radiation, according to a new study published by Thornton et al in the journal Radiology. Researchers said the findings highlight a need for better...
Women who have inherited mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) have an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers. However, little has been known about how cancer risks differ by BRCA1/2 mutation type. In a study involving more than 31,000 women who are carriers of disease-associated mutations...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Wright et al found a weak relationship between measures of patient satisfaction and quality and surgical oncologic perioperative outcomes at the hospital level. Study Details In the study, the Nationwide Inpatient Sample...
In the phase III EORTC 18071 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Eggermont et al found that adjuvant ipilimumab (Yervoy) significantly improved recurrence-free survival vs placebo in patients with completely resected stage III melanoma at high risk of disease recurrence. Ipilimumab was...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to Clovis Oncology’s investigational agent rucaparib as monotherapy treatment of advanced ovarian cancer in patients who have received at least two lines of prior platinum-containing therapy, with...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kelly et al found that low baseline serum vitamin D levels are associated with poorer progression-free and overall survival in patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma. Study Details The study involved analysis of data...
In a phase I/II study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ahmed et al found that infusion of T cells expressing HER2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) with a CD28.ζ signaling domain (HER2-CAR T cells) could produce persistent CAR T cell levels for ≥ 6 weeks in patients with...
In a retrospective single-institution study reported in JAMA Surgery, Boone et al found significant improvements in blood loss, incidence of conversion to open surgery, pancreatic fistula incidence, and operative time with increased number of patients treated with robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy....
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maio et al found a 5-year survival rate of 18% among treatment-naive patients receiving ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus dacarbazine in a phase III trial. The findings support other data indicating long-term survival in some patients receiving...
Long-term analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9903 demonstrates that the addition of erythropoietin did not improve local-regional control for anemic patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who receive radiation therapy or chemoradiation, according to a study published...
In the phase III AETHERA trial reported in The Lancet, Moskowitz et al found that brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) consolidation therapy after autologous stem cell transplantation prolonged progression-free survival by 18 months vs placebo in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma at risk for relapse or...