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Showing 3201 - 3250Recent Reports on Treatment for Leukemias, Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome, and Graft-vs-Host Disease
In this installment of Hematology Expert Review, I will summarize five studies from the recent literature addressing important questions about leukemias and their treatment, anticoagulant therapy with the new agent defibrotide (Defitelio), and the use of antilymphocyte globulin to prevent chronic...
How Immunotherapy Is Revolutionizing Cancer Care
More than 100 years after William B. Coley, MD, used bacterial toxins to goad the immune system into recognizing cancer cells as foreign to the body and mount an immune response to go after and kill them, the recognition of immunotherapy as a powerful anticancer therapy is finally being...
Upfront Transplant Remains Standard of Care in Multiple Myeloma
Upfront autologous stem cell transplant remains the standard of care in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, even in the era of novel agents, according to a phase III study of the European Myeloma Network.1 “Our findings show that autologous stem cell transplant should remain the...
The Arrival of Generic Imatinib Into the U.S. Market: An Educational Event
Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), a Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is approved therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the United States. Imatinib is a miraculous drug that results in a normal functional lifespan in most patients with CML who can afford and comply with the treatment and who ...
Liquid Biopsy–Based Test Appears Comparable to Standard Tissue Testing in Detecting BRAF V600 Mutations
Cell-free (cf) DNA from plasma offers a minimally invasive approach to obtain material for BRAF mutation analysis for diagnostics and response monitoring. A study by Janku et al investigating whether the detection of BRAF V600 mutations in plasma cfDNA from patients with advanced cancers using the...
Venetoclax Produces High Response Rate in Relapsed or Refractory CLL With 17p Deletion
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Stilgenbauer et al found that the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) produced a high response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with the 17p deletion (del [17p]). The study supported the recent...
T-Cell Bim Levels May Reflect Responses to Anti–PD-1 Cancer Therapy
A protein called Bim may hold the clue to which patients may be successful on immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, according to the results of a study by Mayo Clinic researchers led by senior author Haidong Dong, MD, PhD, and published by Dronca et al in JCI Insight. “Immune checkpoint...
ASCO 2016: Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Remains Relevant in Multiple Myeloma, Even in Era of Novel Agents
Early findings from a phase III clinical trial (EMN02/HO95 MM) showed that patients with multiple myeloma who received an autologous stem cell transplant survived longer without disease progression than those who received only chemotherapy using novel agents. This is the largest study reported to...
Pembrolizumab Active in PD-L1–Positive Advanced Gastric and Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancers
As reported by Muro et al in The Lancet Oncology and Nanda et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, single-agent pembrolizumab (Keytruda) showed activity in programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive advanced gastric cancer and metastatic triple-negative breast cancer in the...
AUA 2016: IsoPSA, a Novel, Structure-Based Biomarker Test for Prostate Cancer, Explored in a Multicenter Prospective Trial
A promising new test is detecting prostate cancer more precisely than current tests by identifying molecular changes in the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) protein, according to Cleveland Clinic research presented at the 111th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA)...
Factors Associated With Response to Dabrafenib/Trametinib in BRAF Inhibitor–Refractory Metastatic Melanoma
Poor response to combined BRAF and MEK inhibition with dabrafenib (Tafinlar)/trametinib (Mekinist) in patients with BRAF inhibitor–refractory metastatic melanoma may be associated with failure to significantly inhibit the MAPK pathway, according to a single-center phase II study reported in...
Cancer Stole My Identity
In 1997, just 6 weeks after giving birth to my second child, I started having fevers and night sweats and my lymph nodes were swollen. I’m a physician, so I knew something was wrong and that my symptoms were unrelated to having just given birth. I had a blood test, and a biopsy was performed on one ...
The Parker Foundation Launches the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy With a $250 Million Grant
On April 13, The Parker Foundation announced a $250 million grant to launch the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a collaboration between scientists, clinicians, and industry partners to lead an unprecedented cancer immunotherapy research effort. The gift is the largest single contribution ...
ASH Meets With Officials, Provides Recommendations for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative
On April 26, 2016, American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Charles S. Abrams, MD, shared the following statement: “Today ASH met with the White House to share scientific recommendations for the National Cancer Moonshot, an initiative spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden that aims to make...
AUA 2016: BRCA Gene Mutations Associated With Increased Prostate Cancer Risk
Though predominantly known for their increased associations with breast cancer risk, germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are also associated with an increased susceptibility to other diseases, including prostate cancer. New data being presented during the 111th Annual Scientific Meeting ...
Defibrotide Sodium for Hepatic Veno-occlusive Disease After HSCT
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On March 30, 2016, defibrotide sodium (Defitelio) was approved for...
Enzalutamide Produces Large Progression-Free Survival Benefit vs Bicalutamide in Two Trials in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
In the randomized phase II TERRAIN trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Neal D. Shore, MD, of Carolina Urologic Research Center, Myrtle Beach, and colleagues found that use of the androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) more than doubled median progression-free survival vs bicalutamide...
Breaking Down Dogma With the Outgoing President of SGO
At the 2016 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, The ASCO Post sat down with the SGO’s outgoing President, Robert L. Coleman, MD, and discussed the revolutionary potential of blood biomarkers, why enhanced recovery after surgery protocols is a significant...
Selected Abstracts From the 2016 BMT Tandem Meetings
The BMT Tandem Meetings are the combined annual meetings of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Held recently in Honolulu, Hawaii, this year’s BMT Tandem Meetings drew 3,000 attendees from 35 countries,...
Using Telemedicine to Reduce Wait Times for Veterans
John Farrow, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, had not been able to sleep for days. A week ago, his primary care doctor at his local outpatient Veterans Administration (VA) clinic told him that his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood level was rapidly increasing, and his prostate was abnormal on...
ESTRO 2016: Radiation and L19-IL2 Immunotherapy Combination Shows Activity in Preclinical Models
Radiation therapy not only targets and destroys cancer cells, but also helps to activate the immune system against their future proliferation. However, this immune response is often not strong enough to be able to completely eradicate tumors, and even when it is, its effect is limited to the area...
Study Links Residential Radon Exposure to Increased Risk of Hematologic Malignancies in Women
A new report published by Teras et al in Environmental Researchfound a statistically significant, positive association between high levels of residential radon and the risk of hematologic cancer (lymphoma, myeloma, and leukemia) in women. The study is the first prospective, population-based study...
Validation of Rapid Plasma Genotyping for Detecting EGFR and KRAS Mutations in Advanced Lung Cancer
As reported in JAMA Oncology, Sacher et al have prospectively validated a plasma droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) assay for detecting common EGFR and KRAS mutations in patients with advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer. Study Details The study involved 180...
New Study Suggests Cholesterol Levels, Not Statins, Influence Colorectal Cancer Risk
Long-term use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins does not appear to decrease a patient’s risk of colorectal cancer, suggests a new, large case-control study from Penn Medicine published by Mamtani et al in PLOS Medicine. The observational analysis of over 100,000 patients’...
Donor Epstein-Barr Virus Status Affects Risk for Graft-vs-Host Disease but Not Survival in Acute Leukemia After HSCT
Positive donor Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) serostatus increases the risk for graft-vs-host disease but does not affect relapse-free or overall survival among patients with acute leukemia receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), according to a study from the Acute...
Solid Organ Transplant Recipients With Preexisting Malignancies in Remission May Be More Likely to Die, Develop New Cancers
Patients who had cancer before receiving an organ transplant were more likely to die of any cause, die of cancer, or develop a new cancer than organ recipients who did not previously have cancer, a new study published by Acuna et al in the journal Transplantation has found. However, the increased...
AACR 2016: Neoadjuvant Trastuzumab Emtansine Plus Pertuzumab May Improve Outcomes for Women With HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Results from the I-SPY 2 TRIAL show that a neoadjuvant therapy combination of the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) was more beneficial than paclitaxel plus trastuzumab for women with HER2-positive invasive breast cancer, according to research...
Larry W. Kwak, MD, PhD, Awarded Ho-Am Prize in Medicine
Physician and scientist Larry W. Kwak, MD, PhD, Director of City of Hope’s Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center, has been awarded the 2016 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, which recognizes people of Korean heritage who have made impressive contributions in clinical and research areas that contributed to the...
Raising Awareness of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma
I’m used to having bumps and cysts pop up on my body, so when I felt a lump on the front of my throat, just below my Adam’s apple, I brushed it off. But when it was still there 6 months later, I became concerned and decided to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He performed a fine-needle...
Immunotherapy Could Be the Wave of the Future, but Problems and Challenges Cannot Be Ignored
Immunotherapy is on its way. A few agents have already been approved: ipilimumab (Yervoy) in 2011 for melanoma; nivolumab (Opdivo) in 2015 for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and then later that year for renal cell carcinoma; and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for NSCLC. In addition, many clinical...
AACR 2016: Genomic Variants May Influence Risk for Breast Cancer After Chest Radiotherapy to Treat Childhood Cancer
Among females who received radiotherapy to the chest as part of treatment for a childhood cancer, those who had either of two specific genetic variants were at significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life, according to research presented by Morton et al at the 2016 AACR...
AACR 2016: Cologuard Detected Colorectal Cancer in Previously Unscreened Patients
A noninvasive colorectal cancer-screening test detected the disease in patients who had previously avoided more invasive screening measures, according to research presented by Prince et al at the 2016 AACR Annual Meeting (Abstract LB-296). The study of nearly 400 patients revealed four patients...
DigniCap Scalp-Cooling System Now Available for Women With Breast Cancer at 10 U.S. Cancer Treatment Centers
Dignitana Inc. recently announced that the DigniCap scalp cooling system, which was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2015 to effectively reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer, is now available at 10 cancer treatment...
Liquid Biopsies Predict Treatment Response and Survival in Gynecologic Cancers
A new study has demonstrated for the first time that personalized circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) biomarkers in gynecologic cancers can detect the presence of residual tumor earlier than currently used serum and imaging studies.1,2 According to the data, undetectable levels of ctDNA at the completion ...
Genetic Testing in Women With Ovarian Cancer Helps to Determine Prognosis
A new study suggests that homologous recombination deficiency may have significant prognostic implications for patients with ovarian cancer, highlighting the importance of genetic testing in this population.1 According to the data, patients with ovarian cancer who have mutations in genes affecting...
AACR 2016: MammaPrint Genetic Test Can Reduce Use of Adjuvant Chemotherapy Among Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients
Among patients with early-stage breast cancer who were considered at high risk for disease recurrence based on clinical and biologic criteria, the MammaPrint genetic test identified a large group of patients for whom 5-year distant metastasis–free survival was equally good whether or not they ...
ELCC 2016: Studies Confirm Benefit of Plasma Genotyping to Predict Treatment Benefit in Patients With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The benefit of plasma genotyping to predict treatment benefit in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was confirmed in three studies presented April 15 at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) 2016 in Geneva. However, researchers warned that plasma tests are unlikely to fully ...
The Parker Foundation Launches the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy With a $250 Million Grant
On April 13, The Parker Foundation announced a $250 million grant to launch the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a collaboration between scientists, clinicians, and industry partners to lead an unprecedented cancer immunotherapy research effort. The gift is the largest single contribution ...
Prognostic Scoring System for Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Myelodysplastic Syndrome
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shaffer et al have developed a prognostic scoring system for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for myelodysplastic syndrome. Study Details The study involved data from 2,133 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome in...
FDA Approves Venetoclax for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia With 17p Deletion
On April 11, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved venetoclax (Venclexta) for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with 17p deletion, as detected by an FDA-approved test, who have received at least one prior therapy. Venetoclax is the first...
Significantly Increased Risk of Noncancer Hospitalizations Following Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer in the Elderly
Elderly men had a significant increase in the risk of noncancer hospitalizations following the diagnosis of prostate cancer, according to a population-based retrospective cohort study conducted by Amit D. Raval, PhD, and colleagues at West Virginia University, Morgantown. Results were published in...
Crizotinib in ROS1-Positive Metastatic Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
On March 11, 2016, crizotinib (Xalkori) was approved for treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with ROS1 rearrangement–positive tumors.1,2 A U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved test for the detection of ROS1 rearrangements in NSCLC is not currently...
Lili Yang, PhD, Receives CIRM Funding to Investigate iNKT Modification and Transplantation
With new funding awarded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), Lili Yang, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and the Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research (BSCRC) at the...
MicroRNA miR-181a Reduces NFκB Signaling in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas
A recent study by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine showed that a microRNA called miR-181a dampens signals from the cancer-driving NFκB protein pathway in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). By reducing NFκB...
Vitamin D Level Associated With Melanoma Outcome Independent of C-Reactive Protein Level
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fang et al found that lower vitamin D levels were associated with poorer outcome in patients with melanoma independent of C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Study Details The study involved data from 1,042 prospectively observed patients with ...
Throwing Out the Baby With the Bathwater: A Critical Appraisal of the USPSTF Recommendation Against Screening for Prostate Cancer
In 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a recommendation against routine screening for prostate cancer.1,2 The grade D recommendation was considered controversial at the time, and remains so now, because many stakeholders have weighed the same body of evidence and come to...
ENDO 2016: Engineered Ovary Implant Restores Fertility in Mice
Northwestern University scientists used a three-dimensional (3D) printer to create a prosthetic ovary—an implant that allowed mice that had their ovaries surgically removed to bear live young. The results were presented by Laronda et al on Saturday, April 2, at the Endocrine Society's Annual...
Widely Cited Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening Publications Influence Biopsy Rates and Associated Complications
While absolute rates of biopsy and postbiopsy complications have decreased following several benchmark prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening publications, the relative risk for each patient continues to increase, according to a new study by Mayo Clinic researchers. The study is the largest to...
Epoetin Alfa vs Best Standard of Care in Treatment of Anemia in Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy
Use of epoetin alfa (Epogen, Procrit) vs best standard of care to treat anemia did not achieve noninferiority for investigator-assessed progression-free survival in patients receiving chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer, reported Leyland-Jones et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
DigniCap Scalp Cooling System Now Available for Women With Breast Cancer at 10 U.S. Cancer Treatment Centers
Dignitana Inc. announced today that the DigniCap scalp cooling system, which was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2015 to effectively reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer, is now available at 10 cancer treatment...
