New research suggests that it is safe to limit radiation therapy to lymph nodes on only one side of the neck for lateralized tonsil cancer. In addition, the study findings show that primary tumor location, rather than the amount of lymph node involvement on the tumor side of the neck, drives the...
Pathologic complete response has been proposed as a surrogate endpoint for long-term clinical benefit in breast cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established the international Collaborative Trials in Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer working group to perform a pooled analysis of...
New research is showing that sparing the contralateral submandibular gland during radiation therapy in the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer is technically feasible and safe even in advanced-stage, node-positive disease and base-of-tongue lesions. Limiting radiation to these major...
Pancreatic cystic lesions are frequently detected radiologic incidentalomas, a considerable proportion of which are pancreatic cancer precursors. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Jabbar et al found that proteomic mucin profiling of cyst fluid was more accurate...
Using next-generation sequencing and the clinical data of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, researchers found that combining mutant-allele tumor heterogeneity as a biomarker with patients’ human papillomavirus (HPV) status provides a reliable predictor of patient survival....
Patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx had a longer time to development of distant metastasis after initial treatment, and had more metastatic sites in more atypical locations compared to HPV-negative patients, according to research presented...
Asparaginase treatment, standard in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) regimens, is excluded or used for shorter durations in treatment of adults with ALL due to risk of toxicity. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Douer et al evaluated a pegaspargase (Oncaspar) dosing...
A retrospective analysis of patients with oropharyngeal cancer with recurrence of disease after primary therapy in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) studies 0129 and 0522 found that human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive patients had a higher overall survival rate than HPV-negative patients, ...
New study findings show that patients with head and neck cancer receiving daily humidification of the mouth and throat during radiation therapy had reduced symptoms of muscositis and spent nearly 50% fewer days in the hospital to manage their treatment side effects. The study by Macann et al was...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bulian et al found that CD49d-positive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients have significantly poorer overall survival and treatment-free survival and that CD49d status is the strongest flow cytometry–based predictor of overall...
New research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Georgia Regents University has found that a protein that regulates an inflammatory pathway does not turn off in breast cancer, resulting in an increase in cancer stem cells. This finding may provide a potential target for...
Using whole-genome mRNA-expression profiling, researchers have identified three molecular subtypes of muscle-invasive bladder cancers that shared molecular features with basal and luminal breast cancers. The findings have important implications for prognostication, the future clinical development...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pasquali et al assessed the prognostic utility of nonsentinel lymph node status in patients with cutaneous melanoma. They found that nonsentinel lymph node status was a significant independent predictor of melanoma-specific survival in...
Researchers have identified a microRNA, miR-146a, that accelerates in the presence of BRAF and NRAS genetic mutations—which occur in 70% of melanoma cases—by activating the Notch signaling pathway. The finding could provide a new drug development target for patients with melanoma. The...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vaz-Luis et al assessed duration and toxicity of adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in older patients with early-stage breast cancer. They found that age and comorbidity affected treatment completion rates and that significant...
Mature results of a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Advani et al indicate that rituximab (Rituxan) is active in nodular lymphocyte–predominant Hodgkin lymphoma, which is characterized by expression of CD20 by malignant cells. Most patients relapsed, but durable...
In response to FDA's approval earlier this week of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who had received at least one prior therapy, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) issued the following statement: "After the FDA designated ibrutinib as a...
While new and better treatments have improved the odds of survival for patients diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer, that progress has been largely confined to non-Hispanic whites and Asians and those under age 65, according to a new study published in Cancer Causes and Control. Sineshaw et ...
Lenalidomide (Revlimid) has been associated with risk for second primary malignancies in patients with myeloma. In a meta-analysis of individual patient data reported in The Lancet Oncology, Palumbo et al found that lenalidomide was associated with a significantly increased risk of second primary...
Researchers have discovered a preleukemic stem cell that may be the first step in initiating disease and also the culprit that evades therapy and triggers relapse in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The research, published online in Nature, is a significant step forward in...
In a study reported in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Trabert et al in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium found that aspirin use and high-dose nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use were associated with significant reductions in risk for ovarian cancer, with the greatest...
Using high-throughput screening of already FDA-approved chemotherapeutic agents in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) cell lines, researchers have discovered that GIST cells display a high sensitivity to transcriptional and topoisomerase II inhibitors. The finding could bring new treatments to...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted full approval to omacetaxine mepesuccinate (Synribo) for injection. The full approval was based on the final analysis of two phase II trials that evaluated the efficacy and tolerability data of omacetaxine. The agent received an accelerated...
The 20-year follow-up of the Swedish Uppsala/Örebro trial, reported by Wickberg et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, shows that improved control of recurrence over 5 years with radiotherapy after sector resection in patients with stage I breast cancer is followed by similar...
In the SAFIR01/UNICANCER study reported in The Lancet Oncology, André et al used comparative genomic hybridization and Sanger sequencing on metastatic breast cancer biopsy samples to determine the proportion of cases in which targeted therapy could be offered. They found that screening...
As reported in BMJ by Miller et al, the 25-year follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study has shown no mortality benefit of annual mammography screening for breast cancer compared with physical examination or usual care. Mammography screening was associated with...
Findings from a study by Puissant et al suggest that the wild-type form of enzyme SYK pairs with FLT3, the most commonly mutated enzyme found in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), to promote progression of the cancer. The molecular partnership also promotes AML cells’ resistance to treatment with...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today expanded the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who have received at least one previous therapy. Ibrutinib, an oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was previously...
Among the four major molecular subgroups of medulloblastoma, WNT tumors are associated with excellent prognosis, whereas SHH and Group 4 tumors are associated with intermediate and Group 3 tumors with poor prognosis. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shih et al identified a...
Scientists from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have uncovered the possible genetic origins of breast cancers that metastasize to the brain. The compendium of new genetic targets may be be used to identify potential methods of diagnosis and novel therapeutics for patients with...
The Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) formed a multidisciplinary expert panel in 2013 to examine the relationship between surgical margin width and ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence and develop guidelines on margins for breast-conserving...
In the BRIM-3 trial, vemurafenib (Zelboraf) was associated with improved progression-free and overall survival vs dacarbazine in patients with advanced BRAF V600 mutation–positive melanoma. In an extended follow-up reported in The Lancet Oncology, McArthur et al found that superior survival...
In an open-label exploratory phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kim et al found that the antifungal agent itraconazole, which inhibits the Hedgehog signaling pathway, reduced tumor cell proliferation, Hedgehog pathway activity, and tumor area in patients with basal cell...
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a highly accurate, noninvasive test to identify benign pancreatic cysts, which could spare patients the cost and risk of surveillance or potentially dangerous surgical intervention. The findings are reported in the Journal of...
As mammography screening has shifted to digital technology, a range of computed radiography and direct radiography systems have emerged. Digital mammography screening with a new photon-counting technique offers high diagnostic performance, according to a study reported by Weigel et al in Radiology. ...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Held et al studied elderly patients with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and bulky disease in the most effective treatment arm of the RICOVER-60 trial, which included radiotherapy. The investigators compared outcomes ...
In patients with late-stage epithelial ovarian cancer, high levels of microRNA-181a may be predictive of chemotherapy resistance and disease progression, according to the results of a study reported by Parikh et al in Nature Communications. Thus, microRNA-181a may serve as a biomarker for prognosis ...
Using data from the whole-genome sequencing of a pair of 3-year-old female monozygotic twins, one healthy and one with the multilineage form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a team of scientists from China and the United States have identified a novel molecular target that could offer a new...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, van Ryn et al assessed patient-reported quality of care among patients with colorectal cancer in the Veterans Affairs health-care system. The investigators found significant gaps in patient-centered quality of supportive care, but also found...
Oral ascorbate, or vitamin C, has been shown to be ineffective in cancer clinical trials. However, recent studies have indicated that millimolar concentrations of ascorbate achieved in blood and tissue with intravenous dosing is associated with cancer cell killing without harm to normal tissue. In...
In a brief communication in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Passerini et al described compassionate use experience with the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) in a group of patients with chemoresistant advanced ALK-positive lymphoma. Response was observed in 10 of 11 patients, and...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Cunha et al found that receipt of a stem cell transplant from donors with a homozygous haplotype (h2/h2, G-A/G-A) in PTX3, the gene encoding the soluble pattern-recognition receptor pentraxin 3 (PTX3), is associated with significantly...
When comparing treatments designed to enable long-term breast preservation for older women with invasive breast cancer, researchers found those treated with brachytherapy were at higher risk for a later mastectomy, compared to women treated with standard radiation therapy. The findings, published...
Cancer experts from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College are collaborating to understand the link between obesity and cancer. Most recently, their research has yielded an interesting association: Obesity prior to diagnosis is associated with a fivefold increase...
The pan-Canadian Prostate Cancer Risk Stratification database was created to report on the patient, tumor, and treatment factors that were predictive of biochemical and clinical outcomes in patients who underwent radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Risk stratification in the management of those with...
Studies of complications of surgery or radiotherapy for prostate cancer generally focus on incontinence and erectile dysfunction. In a population-based cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nam et al assessed the frequency of other complications associated with such treatment and found high ...
In a meta-analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Flaherty et al found that progression-free survival is a reliable surrogate for overall survival in clinical trials in metastatic melanoma that include dacarbazine as control treatment. Study Details In the analysis, 1,649 reports and meeting...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al in the Children’s Oncology Group identified a common single nucleotide polymorphism, rs2232228, in the hyaluronan synthase 3 (HAS3) gene that is associated with anthracycline dose–related risk of cardiomyopathy in...
An altered radiation treatment schedule for glioblastoma, the most common and lethal form of brain cancer, extended the survival period of mice with the disease, according to a new study published in Cell. Because the research involved mice, the study does not recommend a specific new schedule for...
In a trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Milbury et al compared cancer symptoms, physical and mental function, depressive symptoms, fatigue, and sleep outcomes after sessions of expressive writing about cancer vs writing about neutral topics in patients with renal cell carcinoma....