A recent phase II study showed progression-free survival and overall survival benefits with the addition of onartuzumab (an antibody directed against MET, a receptor kinase that binds hepatocyte growth factor [HGF]) to erlotinib (Tarceva) in the subset of patients with advanced non–small cell ...
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...
Population-based screening with full-field digital mammography is associated with lower recall and biopsy rates than screen-film mammography, suggesting that full-field digital mammography may reduce the number of diagnostic workups and biopsies that do not lead to diagnosis of breast cancer,...
Obesity, rather than diet, causes changes in the colon that may lead to colorectal cancer, according to a study in mice by the National Institutes of Health. The finding bolsters the recommendation that calorie control and frequent exercise are not only key to a healthy lifestyle, but a strategy to ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, van de Water et al found that Dutch women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer aged ≥ 65 years at diagnosis who were treated in a clinical trial had significantly fewer comorbid diseases, higher socioeconomic...
Barrett’s esophagus with low-grade dysplasia increases risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. In a European study reported in JAMA, Phoa et al assessed whether endoscopic radiofrequency ablation reduced the rate of neoplastic progression compared with endoscopic surveillance in patients with...
In a series of studies involving 140 American men and women with liver tumors, researchers at Johns Hopkins have used specialized three-dimensional (3D) MRI scans to precisely measure living and dying tumor tissue to quickly show whether highly toxic chemotherapy is working. The investigators said ...
Physicians have long suspected that chemotherapy can accelerate the aging process in patients treated for cancer. Using a test developed at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to determine molecular aging, oncologists have directly measured the impact of anticancer chemotherapy drugs on...
As reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, Sun et al studied the frequency with which women lead clinical trial publications from organized collaborative groups in oncology. They found that women are very infrequently lead or corresponding authors, with the percentages not changing ...
In the phase II Tailored Postsurgical Therapy in Early-Stage NSCLC (TASTE) trial (IFCT-0801), reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wislez et al examined the feasibility of customized adjuvant treatment based on EGFR mutation status and expression of ERCC1 (excision repair...
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 III IBIS-II trial, reported in The Lancet, Cuzick et al found that aromatase inhibitor therapy with anastrozole reduced risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women at high risk of the disease. Study Details In this double-blind trial, 3,864 postmenopausal women aged 40 to 70 years...
Many lung cancer patients suffer difficulties with sexual expression and intimacy, yet for too long the topic has been ignored by doctors and researchers, experts said at the 4th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. Researchers have estimated that sexual dysfunction...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) committee of genetic experts has determined that Cologuard, a stool-based DNA, noninvasive screening test for colorectal cancer, has demonstrated safety, effectiveness, and a favorable risk-benefit profile. The FDA is now considering the...
Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring ALK rearrangement is sensitive to the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori), but resistance ultimately occurs. In a phase I study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Shaw et al found that the more-potent ALK inhibitor ceritinib was...
The pattern of metastatic spread is not incorporated into current risk-stratification systems for neuroblastoma. In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Morgenstern et al found that patients with neuroblastoma with metastatic disease limited to distant lymph nodes...
Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase who are resistant or intolerant to imatinib (Gleevec) can experience long-term benefit with dasatinib (Sprycel), according to results of a randomized phase III study. The CA180-034 study also found that early molecular and...
Scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, and Houston Methodist, Houston, have found that a gene previously unassociated with breast cancer plays a pivotal role in the growth and progression of the triple-negative form of the disease. The research by Chen et al, published in Nature,...
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...
The quest to improve survival of children with a high-risk brain tumor has led investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to two drugs already used to treat adults with breast, pancreatic, lung, and other cancers. The study by Morfouace at al was published today in Cancer Cell....
The ACOSOG Z9001 (Alliance) study showed that 1 year of adjuvant imatinib (Gleevec) prolonged recurrence-free survival after resection of primary gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). As reported by Corless et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a study evaluating correlation of pathologic...
As reported by Gianni et al in The Lancet Oncology, long-term follow-up of women with HER2-positive locally advanced breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone vs with neoadjuvant and adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the phase III NOAH trial has shown continued event-free survival...
“Use of e-cigarettes does not discourage, and may encourage, conventional cigarette use among US adolescents.” This was the conclusion of a cross-sectional analysis of survey data from a representative sample of middle and high school students who completed the National Youth Tobacco...
A new era of lung cancer therapy is dawning, using drugs that can prevent tumor cells from evading the immune system, experts reported at the 4th European Lung Cancer Congress. For decades, scientists and doctors thought immunotherapy was of marginal benefit in lung cancer, said ESMO spokesperson...
The EORTC/LYSA/FIL Intergroup H10 trial assessed whether omitting involved-node radiotherapy would affect progression-free survival in patients with negative early positron-emission tomography (PET) scans after two cycles of ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) compared with...
A retrospective study has shown that two targeted therapy drugs—erlotinib (Tarceva) and gefitinib (Iressa)—achieved similar outcomes among people with metastatic or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring an EGFR mutation. These EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors have...
In the phase III PROFILE 1014 study, the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) was found to significantly prolong progression-free survival in previously untreated patients with ALK-positive advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared with...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Höckel et al demonstrated that locoregional progression of cervical cancer follows the reverse sequence of establishment of adult tissues in ontogeny. Ontogenetic staging was a better predictor of survival than pathologic staging. Previous work by...
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...
Preliminary research suggests that a targeted oral agent may improve outcomes while minimizing side effects in women with gynecologic cancers who carry a BRCA mutation and whose disease is not responding to other therapies. According to a phase II study presented at the Society of Gynecologic...
Patients with early-stage breast cancer who underwent sentinel lymph node dissection experienced lymphedema more frequently than clinically suspected and with increasing incidence over time, according to a presentation at the 2014 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Cancer Symposium in Phoenix...
The antiseizure medication and mood stabilizer valproic acid was associated with a significant reduction in head and neck cancer risk, according to a study recently published in Cancer. The large retrospective cohort study by Kang et al was conducted to evaluate the effects of the drug, a histone...
Adjuvant radiation following surgery for soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities did not lead to a survival benefit and seemed to be associated with some degree of long-term limb complications, according to a presentation at the 2014 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Cancer Symposium in Phoenix...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Imperiale et al found that a noninvasive, multitarget stool DNA test—including assays for KRAS mutations, aberrant NDRG4 and BMP3 methylation, β-actin, and hemoglobin—was significantly more sensitive but significantly less ...
While many cancer researchers believe that predictive somatic genomic testing holds the potential to usher in the era of precision medicine for patients with cancer, research by Gray et al suggests that not all physicians are eager to embrace the technology. The variation in attitudes was in part...
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...
Women with ovarian and other gynecologic cancers live significantly longer when they receive care at hospitals that treat a large number of patients with these conditions, according to research on more than 850,000 women. The findings, based on information from the nation’s largest cancer...
Women with BRCA1 mutations may have an increased risk for developing rare types of aggressive uterine cancer despite having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed, suggest preliminary findings presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer held ...
Women who had bariatric surgery to lose weight had a 70% lower risk of uterine cancer and an even lower risk if they kept the weight off, according to findings presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, held in Tampa, Florida, from March 22 to 25. ...
Analysis of data from the UK NHS Breast Screening Programme has shown significant variations in the outcomes of treatment for women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) between UK hospitals. Dr. Jeremy Thomas, a consultant pathologist at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, told the 9th...
A review by ASCO’s Update Committee of new data from randomized clinical trials has led to a change in recommendations for the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with early-stage breast cancer. The updated guideline will enable more women with early-stage breast cancer to avoid the ...
Extending national breast cancer screening programs to women over the age of 70 does not result in a decrease in the number of cancers detected at advanced stages, according to new research from The Netherlands. Instead, researchers told attendees at the 9th European Breast Cancer Conference that...
Researchers at UC Davis have found that the investigational cancer vaccine tecemotide, when administered with the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin, boosted immune response and reduced the number of tumors in mice with lung cancer. The study also found that radiation treatments did not...
Both obesity and diabetes have adverse effects on outcomes in breast cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to research presented at the 9th European Breast Cancer Conference. Although a high body mass index (BMI) is known to have a negative impact on cancer development and ...
Although it has been found that lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher operative mortality, the factors explaining this disparity have not been clearly defined. In a study of major cancer surgery reported in JAMA Surgery, Reames et al found that hospitals with the highest proportion...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, McCullough et al used an orthotopic rat model of prostate cancer to assess the effects of exercise on tumor hemodynamics and tissue hypoxia. Their findings of enhanced tumor perfusion and diminished tumor hypoxia suggest that...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Unger et al evaluated whether cancer patients from SWOG clinical trials were similar to nontrial patients in baseline characteristics and survival. They found that, overall, trial participation in standard treatment arms did not...
Participating in athletic activities for more than an hour a day reduces the risk of breast cancer, and this applies to women of any age and any weight, regardless of geographic location, according to research presented at the 9th European Breast Cancer Conference in Glasgow. Compared with the...
Genetic analyses of results from 1,125 postmenopausal women being treated for estrogen-responsive breast cancer have shown that some of them are more likely than others to have a late recurrence of their cancer and might benefit from 10 years of hormone therapy rather than 5 years. Women who had...
Women whose breast cancer has spread to just a few lymph nodes under their arm are less likely to have their disease recur or to die from it if they have radiotherapy after mastectomy, according to new research presented today at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Glasgow and published in The ...