In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thomas E. Hutson, DO, PharmD, of Baylor Sammons Cancer Center and colleagues compared the second-generation VEGFR inhibitor axitinib (Inlyta) with sorafenib (Nexavar) as first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. There was no...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Julia Wade, PhD, of Bristol University, United Kingdom, and colleagues assessed the psychological impact of prostate biopsy. They found that postbiopsy symptoms can be associated with increased anxiety, independent of anxiety associated...
The longer a woman with breast cancer has to travel to reach a comprehensive cancer center, the more likely she is to have later-stage disease at diagnosis, and the more likely she is to have a mastectomy, according to study by medical student Krishan Jethwa and colleagues from the University of...
Men who spend the most time engaged in sedentary behaviors are at greatest risk for recurrence of colorectal adenomas, benign tumors that are known precursors of colorectal cancers, according to results presented at the 12th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention...
Vaccines currently available to prevent the two most common strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), HPV 16 and 18, responsible for about 70% of cervical cancers, may not be protective in African American women, according to a study by Cathrine Hoyo, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor in the Obstetrics...
Men with short-ended chromosomes in the immune cells in their blood were at increased risk for aggressive prostate cancer compared with men with long-ended chromosomes in blood immune cells, according to results presented at the 12th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer...
Measuring the presence and amount of the protein Vav2 may help identify breast precancers that will progress to invasive cancers, according to results presented at the 12th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held October 27 to 30 in National Harbor,...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Taxiarchis V. Kourelis, MD, and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic attempted to define a threshold of bone marrow plasma cell number that could serve to define light chain amyloidosis as light chain amyloidosis with multiple myeloma. They found that ...
In a phase I study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Donald M. Cannon, MD, of University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Mountain States Tumor Institute, and colleagues attempted to identify the maximum tolerated dose of dose-escalated hypofractionated radiation...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jean M. Mitchell, PhD, of Georgetown University, examined patterns of use of intensity-modulated radiation therapy to treat prostate cancer among urologists in private practice who have integrated intensity-modulated radiation therapy into ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved hydrocodone bitartrate extended-release capsules (Zohydro ER) for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate. The drug, a Schedule ...
According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 10 years, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will result in approximately 25 million newly insured individuals and 12 million more Medicaid beneficiaries through the the Medicaid expansion provision. While the law provides...
Since 1994, many thousands of women with breast cancer from families severely affected with the disease have been tested for inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, and the vast majority of those patients were told that their gene sequences were normal. With the development of modern genomics...
A newly discovered potential gene-diet interaction for colorectal cancer may shed light on the statistically significant increased risk of colorectal cancer that is associated with consumption of red and processed meat, according to a study reported yesterday at the American Society of Human...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Patricia G. Moorman, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues evaluated risk of ovarian and breast cancer among oral contraceptive users with BRCA1/2 mutations. The study showed a significantly reduced risk of ovarian...
Patient assistance programs can help patients with breast cancer meet a variety of needs that might otherwise interfere with getting recommended adjuvant therapies such as radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal treatments, according to a study published recently in the online edition of...
New research ties preparative procedures and complications associated with blood or bone marrow transplant with diminished sexual health in both men and women who have undergone the procedure. Study data, published today in Blood, confirm chronic graft-vs-host disease as a potential source of...
Treating aggressive lung cancer with the diabetes drug metformin along with radiation and chemotherapy may slow tumor growth and recurrence, suggested new preliminary findings from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings will be presented by...
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Ségolène Hescot, MD, of Université Paris Descartes, and colleagues reported evidence of irreversible pancreatic atrophy in two patients after long-term sorafenib treatment. Both patients received cumulative doses of sorafenib...
Previously reported results of the phase III EORTC intergroup 40983 trial showed that perioperative chemotherapy with FOLFOX4 (leucovorin, fluorouracil [5-FU], and oxaliplatin) increased progression-free survival compared with surgery alone in patients with initially resectable liver metastases...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, of Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, and colleagues assessed the addition of nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) to gemcitabine in patients with previously untreated...
A functional biomarker that can predict whether BRAF-mutant melanomas respond to drugs targeting BRAF could help guide the treatment of patients with these cancers, according to results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held...
A new diagnostic platform to detect BRAF mutations in melanoma and other cancer types is faster and more accurate compared with the standard method currently used in clinics, and this could help accelerate diagnosis and treatment, according to results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has assigned Priority Review to the regulatory submission for ramucirumab (IMC-1121B) as a single-agent treatment for advanced gastric cancer following disease progression after initial chemotherapy. Ramucirumab is a human monoclonal antibody that...
Axitinib plasma exposure may correlate with efficacy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma, according to population pharmacokinetic data. In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Brian I. Rini, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues evaluated the effects of axitinib dose titration in...
In patients with heavily pretreated advanced BRCA-related breast and ovarian cancers, the investigational poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor BMN673 produced an objective response rate of more than 40% and delayed disease progression by more than 6 months, according to a multicenter phase ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, I-Chan Huang, PhD, of University of Florida at Gainesville, and colleagues investigated the association between prevalence of symptoms and health-related quality of life in adult survivors of childhood cancer enrolled in the St. Jude...
In a phase III trial (EORTC [European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer]/GIMEMA [Gruppo Italiano Malattie Ematologiche dell’Adulto] consortium AML-17 trial) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sergio Amadori, MD, of Tor Vergata University Hospital in Rome, and...
In the RIGHT trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, of University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, and colleagues assessed the effects of imatinib (Gleevec) rechallenge in patients with metastatic or unresectable gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) after objective...
Patients with pancreatic cancer may benefit from an investigational member of an emerging class of anticancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, according to preclinical results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held October...
Two drug combinations that simultaneously block two major signaling pathways downstream of the protein KRAS, which is aberrantly active in most pancreatic cancers, may provide a new treatment option for patients with this disease, according to preclinical results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC...
The nanopharmaceutical CRLX101, a novel inhibitor of topoisomerase-1 and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 alpha, may be capable of overcoming resistance of tumors to antiangiogenic agents, according to preclinical and early clinical studies that have evaluated CRLX101 in combination with...
The investigational drug PF-06463922 may have the potential to become a new treatment option for patients who have lung cancer harboring abnormalities in the ALK gene, according to preclinical results (Abstracts A277, PR10/B107, and C253) presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on...
LEE011, an investigational small-molecule inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6, showed promising results in drug-resistant melanoma and drug-resistant breast cancer when tested in combination with other targeted therapies, according to findings presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC...
Approximately 50% of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who develop resistance to inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have acquired a second mutation, T790M, which no current EGFR inhibitors target. This may change if the AstraZeneca investigational compound...
Risk and risk factors for congestive heart failure in older breast cancer patients receiving trastuzumab have not been clearly defined. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues...
In a randomized phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by R. Wendel Naumann, MD, of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and colleagues, the addition of vintafolide to pegylated liposomal doxorubicin improved progression-free survival in women with...
Although multiple studies have shown that high body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer, few studies have evaluated the impact of BMI on survival and none have used prospectively collected data on BMI. Now a large prospective study by Brian M....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating an increasing frequency of reports of serious and life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels of patients taking the antileukemia drug ponatinib (Iclusig). Ponatinib is indicated for the treatment of patients with...
The National Institutes of Health has awarded 10 new grants totaling up to $17 million over the next 4 years to support genomics research in Africa, as part of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program. This set of grants is the second disbursement of H3Africa awards and brings the ...
Clinical trials have shown limited efficacy of anti–insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) monoclonal antibodies, with the mechanisms of resistance to IGF-1R monoclonal antibody-based therapy remaining undefined. In preclinical studies reported in the Journal of the National...
In the phase IIIB ATLAS trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bruce E. Johnson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues assessed the addition of maintenance erlotinib (Tarceva) to bevacizumab (Avastin) following chemotherapy plus bevacizumab in first-line treatment of ...
A genetic analysis of 3,281 tumors from 12 cancer types, including breast, lung, endometrial, glioblastoma multiforme, ovarian, colon, and acute myeloid leukemia, has found 127 significantly mutated genes that appear to be involved in either cancer initiation or progression. Although the average...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alan Pollack, MD, PhD, of University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and colleagues compared escalated radiation dose using hypofractionated vs conventional fractionation intensity-modulated radiation therapy in men with favorable-...
An international research team led by scientists from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center has discovered a genetic mutation linked to low-risk bladder cancer. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, identified STAG2 as one of the most commonly mutated genes in bladder cancer,...
An international consortium co-led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia has identified four genetic variants associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer and its precursor, Barrett’s esophagus. The...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Catherine Schairer, PhD, from the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues investigated risk factors associated with inflammatory breast cancer. Among their findings was that high body mass index (BMI) increased inflammatory ...
Survivorship care plans, consisting of treatment summaries and follow-up plans, are intended to promote coordination of post-treatment cancer care, but little is known about how they are being used in routine oncology practice. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Esther N. Klein Hesselink, of University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues evaluated long-term cardiovascular mortality in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer. They found that risk of cardiovascular and...
A simple blood test that measures serum free fatty acids and their metabolites may detect early-stage lung cancer and its recurrence, according to a study from The Cleveland Clinic presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco (Abstract A4267). The study was presented ...