Among the burgeoning options for treating multiple myeloma could be an approach that is proving to be exciting in leukemia: CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T cells) therapy. Preliminary results of the first-in-humans study in myeloma were presented as a late-breaking abstract at the 2015 ASH...
Marc S. Ernstoff, MD, has been appointed Professor and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Chair of the Department of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Clinical...
Although nevi are considered among the strongest risk factors for melanoma, most patients with melanoma had few total and no atypical nevi, according to a study of 566 patients with invasive cutaneous melanoma. “Three notable findings emerged from this case study,” Alan C. Geller, MPH, ...
Anamorelin (a ghrelin-receptor agonist) increased lean body mass but had no beneficial effect on handgrip strength vs placebo in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and cachexia, according to two international phase III trials (ROMANA 1 and 2) reported in The Lancet...
Although President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act in 1971, essentially declaring a war on cancer, the genesis of the idea had actually been born 2 years earlier, after the first landing on the moon set off a new era of scientific exploration and sparked a belief that any scientific...
In the phase II Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) 022 study, reported by Freedman et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the erbB1, HER2, erbB4 inhibitor neratinib showed some activity in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer brain metastases. Study Details In the...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by O’Sullivan et al, a new staging system for human papillomavirus–related oropharyngeal cancer has been developed based on findings from the International Collaboration on Oropharyngeal Cancer Network for Staging (ICON-S) study. Study Details The...
In a subgroup analysis of the phase III RADIANT-4 trial, focusing on neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal origin, the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) essentially doubled the median progression-free survival time, compared with placebo, researchers reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal...
As reported by Patel et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, analysis of lung cancer incidence and mortality in the Women’s Health Initiative Study cohort of postmenopausal women showed a marginally significant lower risk of cancer in Hispanic women vs white women and no difference in...
The 69th Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium, being held March 2–5 in Boston, will include featured lecturers with ties to the recently announced White House “moonshot” initiative to cure cancer—a proposed $1 billion in spending on cancer research over ...
In the Asian phase III REGATTA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fujitani et al found that the addition of gastrectomy to chemotherapy did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced gastric cancer with a single noncurable factor. Study Details In this open-label trial conducted...
A quality improvement initiative to reduce patients’ reliance on emergency room (ER) visits to treat cancer treatment side effects has shown to be highly effective, according to early findings from a new study. The strategy, involving a telephone triage service coupled with patient education, ...
To facilitate doctor/patient conversations about costs of cancer care, researchers developed and piloted an online tool for oncologists. The innovative resource lists prices for the 50 most commonly prescribed cancer treatment regimens. A survey of the pilot users at four clinics in Washington...
A new study suggests that up to 60% of the computed tomography (CT) scans, bone scans, and positron-emission tomography (PET) scans performed for more than 29,000 Michigan women diagnosed with early breast cancer between 2008 and 2014 could not be medically justified based on retrospective record...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved everolimus (Afinitor) for the treatment of adult patients with progressive, well-differentiated nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal or lung origin with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic disease. ...
A study from Lund University in Sweden has shown that commonly used chemotherapy toxins impair the eyesight in childhood cancer survivors in a way that indicates an impact on the central nervous system. The results were published by Einarsson et al in PLOS One. It was not the former patients' ...
As reported by Ronald C. Chen, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed, with qualifications, the 2015 Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline on active surveillance for management of localized prostate cancer....
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and...
On February 19, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved palbociclib (Ibrance) in combination with fulvestrant for the treatment of women with hormone receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer with...
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, an internationally recognized lung cancer physician-investigator, has been named Deputy Director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. He will also serve as Assistant Dean for Cancer Research in the Emory School of Medicine. In his role as Winship’s Deputy...
Here are several more abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2015 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, focusing on newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, and amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis. For other selected abstracts...
In three phase III studies reported in The Lancet Oncology, the addition of the neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor antagonist rolapitant to serotonin (5-HT3) receptor antagonist and dexamethasone treatment significantly improved complete response rates in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and ...
There is ample evidence to suggest that older adults with a good performance status (0 or 1) with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) should be treated with combination chemotherapy akin to younger patients.1,2 However, older adults comprise a heterogeneous group that has been...
Adjuvant sequential chemotherapy plus radiation therapy and adjuvant radiation therapy alone significantly improved local tumor control compared with adjuvant chemotherapy alone in locally advanced bladder cancer but the improvement in disease-free survival (3-year disease-free survival of 68% vs...
Compared to patients with non-Medicaid insurance, uninsured patients and patients with Medicaid are more likely to present with advanced stages of head and neck cancer and have higher overall and cancer-specific mortality rates, according to research presented by Churilla et al at the 2016...
Although more people than ever before are surviving cancer—there are currently 14.5 million cancer survivors, and that number is expected to climb to 19 million by 20241—they often experience long-lasting physical, emotional, and financial concerns related to the disease. To address the unmet...
The United Kingdom’s phase II NEOSCOPE trial compared the toxicity and efficacy of two preoperative chemoradiation regimens—carboplatin/paclitaxel and oxaliplatin/capecitabine—and judged one to be the winner. “CarPacRT passed the prespecified efficacy criteria for taking forward to phase III, but...
Bringing new cancer therapies through the discovery and development process entails considerable risk and many years of study. It also requires substantial investment and incentives from the public and private sectors to fuel future investment and discovery. A system that rewards advances in cancer ...
An international research team has determined how inherited gene variations lead to severe drug toxicity that may threaten chances for a cure in children with leukemia. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study, results of which set the stage to expand the use of a...
Annual screening with the fecal immunochemical test is highly sensitive for detecting colorectal cancer and “is feasible and effective for population-level colorectal cancer screening,” according to a large-scale retrospective cohort study assessing the fecal immunochemical...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Brinkman et al, a study in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort showed that adult survivors of pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tumors are at increased risk of severe neurocognitive impairment. Study Details The study involved 224 survivors of CNS...
In a Dutch study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Schaapveld et al found that survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma treated between 1965 and 2000 were at a 4.6-fold greater risk of second cancer vs the general population during long-term follow-up. There was no significant difference in the ...
Pediatric oncologists from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have investigated techniques to improve and broaden a novel personalized cell therapy to treat children with cancer. The researchers say that a patient’s outcome may be improved if clinicians select specific...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and ASCO have issued a Breast Cancer Survivorship Care guideline, published jointly in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The guideline recommendations were formulated by a multidisciplinary expert work group and are based on...
A retrospective analysis of human papillomavirus (HPV) antibodies in patients treated for oropharyngeal cancers linked to HPV infection suggests at least one of the antibodies could be useful in identifying those at risk for a recurrence of the cancer, said scientists at The Johns Hopkins...
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 December 11, 2015, alectinib (Alecensa) was granted...
Addressing disparities of cancer care that result in poorer outcomes among certain populations remains a persistent challenge in the oncology community and in the health-care system at large. It is, to a large degree, a medical story of haves and have-nots. Richard “Buz” Cooper, MD, a preeminent...
The Hospira Foundation has donated $5 million to the University of Chicago Medicine to create the Hospira Foundation Professorship in Oncology. The Hospira Foundation Professor will be a key leader in advancing the University of Chicago Medicine’s cancer research objectives, which include...
Here are several more abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2015 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, highlighting therapeutics in acute leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes. For five other top abstracts on therapies for acute leukemias and myelodysplastic ...
In a study reported in JAMA Dermatology,1 Neel Maria Helvind, MD, of the University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues analyzed the increases in melanoma incidence seen in Denmark between 1985 and 2012. Over that time, the incidence of malignant melanoma doubled to rates...
Investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have found that significant bone loss occurs during the first month of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is far earlier than previously assumed. Results of the study were published by Orgel et al in the...
Cancer will kill more than 8 million people worldwide this year, which is equivalent to the entire population of New York. Half of these will be people of working age (30–69 years old). It has been estimated that the cost implications on world economies caused by cancer and the other...
At a Capitol Hill briefing today, ASCO announced immunotherapy as the top cancer advance of the year. Recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy—along with almost 60 other important cancer research advances—are described in ASCO's just-released report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2016: ASCO's...
In some patients, blood in the urine, or hematuria, may be the only warning sign of cancer in the urinary tract. A new report from the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) High Value Care Task Force published by Nielsen et al in Annals of Internal Medicine issues advice for physicians on how ...
High-dose hypofractionated proton beam therapy produced a high rate of local control in patients with localized unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma or intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, according to a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hong et al. Study Details In the...
Sparano JA, Gray RJ, Makower DF, et al: Prospective validation of a 21-gene expression assay in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 373:2005-2014, 2015. Chagpar AB, Killelea BK, Tsangaris TN, et al: A randomized, controlled trial of cavity shave margins in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 373:503-510, 2015....
The 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research, the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and Baylor College of Medicine, was held in December 2015. As has been true for...
Patients with multiple myeloma now have access to an all-oral regimen, with the recent approval of the oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro) in previously treated patients. New pairings for the drug in relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed patients are being studied, with investigators...
Late in 2015, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the label for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a humanized antibody, to include the initial treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. Previously, pembrolizumab had received accelerated approval in patients with...
Options for second-line therapy of advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma are expanding. Updates from the CheckMate 025 and METEOR trials presented at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium solidify the value of both nivolumab (Opdivo, an immune checkpoint inhibitor) and cabozantinib...