A study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has found that overweight or obese men with prostate cancer whose tumors were positive for the TMPRSS2:ERG genetic mutation had more than a 50% increased risk of dying...
In a brief communication published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Akbari et al reported finding a higher frequency of PPM1D mutations in circulating white blood cells from women with ovarian cancer vs controls, higher mortality associated with the mutation in women with ovarian...
A phase II trial to evaluate the combination of bendamustine (Treanda) with bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma “showed a remarkable response rate of 60.9%, and, when minor responses were included in 75.9% of patients,”...
Interim phase I/II clinical trial data for VAL-083—a bifunctional DNA alkylator that crosses the blood-brain barrier with preferential accumulation in brain tumor tissue—in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme were presented by Shih et al at the 4th Quadrennial Meeting of the ...
A team of researchers looking into the interplay of the immune system and cancer have found a link between a history of airborne allergies—in particular to plants, grass, and trees—with risk of blood cancers in women. The same association was not found in men, suggesting a possible...
In a study reported in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, Eileen Danaher Hacker, PhD, APN, AOCN, of the University of Illinois College of Nursing, and colleagues attempted to identify and quantify nocturnal care disruptions in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. They ...
Results of a Johns Hopkins study may explain why cyclophosphamide prevents graft-vs-host disease in people who receive bone marrow transplants. The experiments point to an immune system cell that evades the toxic effects of cyclophosphamide and protects patients from a lethal form of graft-vs-host...
The Group for Research in Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (GRAALL) recently reported significantly better outcome in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) harboring NOTCH1 or FBXW7 (N/F) mutations, although relapse was still observed in one-third of patients with N/F-mutated T-cell ALL. In a ...
On October 31, 2013, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of ponatinib, agreed to an FDA request to suspend marketing and sales of the drug due to the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. The FDA states that it will continue to evaluate ponatinib to further ...
Advanced imaging techniques may be able to distinguish which patients' tumors will respond to treatment with antiangiogenic drugs and which will not. In a report published online in PNAS, researchers studied patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma who were treated with the antiangiogenic agent...
Because statins exhibit immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects that may ameliorate graft-vs-host disease, they may be a safe strategy following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mehdi Hamadani, MD, and colleagues ...
Results from the Costa Rica HPV16/18 Vaccine Trial (CVT) has found that 4-year efficacy against 12-month HPV16/18 persistent infection was similarly high among women who received one, two, or the recommended three doses of the bivalent HPV16/18 L1 virus-like particle vaccine (Cervarix). The...
The inclusion of multiple hormones—rather than just adding one or two individually—in breast cancer risk prediction models may improve prediction of the disease and could help better identify women who would benefit from chemoprevention, according to a study by Shelley S. Tworoger, PhD, ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked the manufacturer of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib (Iclusig) to suspend marketing and sales of the drug because of the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. Ariad Pharmaceuticals has agreed to...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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 ...
Dose-dense temozolomide results in depletion of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT)—a potential determinant of treatment response—in blood mononuclear cells and possibly in tumors. In a phase III trial (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 0525) reported in the Journal ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ghada N. Farhat, PhD, of University of Balamand in Beirut, and colleagues found that women with lower pretreatment endogenous estrogen levels are at greatest risk of breast cancer during estrogen-plus-progestin therapy. Study...
Myeloablative conditioning with cyclophosphamide combined with intravenous busulfan (Busulfex) was associated with better leukemia-free and overall survival than conditioning with cyclosphosphamide and total-body irradiation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were in first complete...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Raya Mawad, MD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and colleagues assessed the frequency of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first complete remission at their institution and...
An investigational targeted drug that reduces blood flow to tumors prolonged the survival of patients with advanced stomach cancer after standard treatments failed, according to results of large multicenter clinical trial reported by Charles S. Fuchs, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and...
Short telomere length in peripheral blood mononuclear cells is associated with aging and such age-related diseases as cancer, stroke, vascular dementia, cardiovascular disease, obesity, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Telomere attrition is considered a potential mechanism in triggering the chromosomal...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Monique Terwijn, PhD, of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, and colleagues assessed the prognostic performance of flow cytometric minimal residual disease detection in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients aged < 60 years. They...
Some data suggest that BRCA1 mutations are associated with occult primary ovarian insufficiency and that BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers have earlier natural menopause than noncarrier relatives. A study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ian M. Collins, MD, of Peter MacCallum Cancer...
New research shows that children with an inherited genetic defect in a critical anti-inflammatory pathway have a genetic predisposition to lymphoma. Results of the study, published online today in Blood, reveal an important association between the genetic defect, which causes chronic intestinal...
Use of existing, well-established hypertension drugs could improve the outcome of cancer chemotherapy by opening up collapsed blood vessels in solid tumors. In a report published in Nature Communications, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) described how the angiotensin...
Cancer cells are known to have short telomeres, but just how short they are from cancer cell to cancer cell may be a determining factor in a prostate cancer patient's prognosis, according to a study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins. "Doctors are looking for new ways to accurately predict...
In a phase III study (VANTAGE 088 trial) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Meletios Dimopolous, MD, of the University of Athens, and colleagues assessed the addition of the oral HDAC inhibitor vorinostat (Zolinza) to bortezomib (Velcade) in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The...
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) has announced two open access gateways, the MMRF Researcher Gateway, which will upload genomic data as it becomes available and make it accessible to all researchers, and the MMRF CoMMunity Gateway, which will aggregate subtypes of myeloma patients...
The second-generation immunomodulatory drug pomalidomide (Pomalyst) “has shown impressive results in patients with multiple myeloma who are refractory to lenalidomide and bortezomib,” according to a review of clinical data leading to the drug’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug...
Researchers have discovered why multiple myeloma frequently recurs after an initially effective treatment that can keep the disease at bay for up to several years. The study, published in Cancer Cell, was a collaboration between researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Mayo Clinic in...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the marketing of the UroLift system, a permanent implant to relieve low or blocked urine flow in men age 50 and older with benign prostatic hyperplasia. As men age, the prostate can become enlarged, also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia....
A new plasma biomarker, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), has been shown to be more sensitive in detecting non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than currently used biomarkers, including CEA, Cyfra21-1, and CA125, according to a study published in Clinical Cancer Research. The study by Jie He,...
A family of microRNAs (miR-200) blocks cancer progression and metastasis by stifling a tumor’s ability to weave new blood vessels to support itself, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in Nature Communications. Patients with lung, ovarian, kidney, or...
Colin McCowan, PhD, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues analyzed the prescription records of 1,263 women with breast cancer between 1993 and 2000 to determine how often they took their prescription of adjuvant tamoxifen following surgery and for how long. Women who filled less than 80% of...
A large-scale survey of women undergoing mammography screening on Long Island, New York, indicates that the majority (90.6%) either underestimate or overestimate their lifetime risk for developing breast cancer. Furthermore, 4 in 10 women surveyed reported they had never discussed their...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pamela J. Goodwin, MD, and Tina Hsu of University of Toronto and colleagues assessed changes in quality of life from time of breast cancer diagnosis to long-term survivorship and compared quality of life in long-term survivors to that of...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital investigators have identified a protein that certain high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells need to survive and have used that knowledge to fashion a more effective method of killing tumor cells. The findings appear in the August 29 edition of ...
A retrospective analysis of 110 patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia found that single-unit, unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation resulted in a 5-year disease-free survival rate of 44%. “Our data document that a significant proportion of children with this disease,...
A study published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that blocking the RUNX1 protein normally credited with suppressing leukemia may be a promising therapeutic strategy for acute myeloid leukemia. Transcription Factor RUNX1 Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital...
A new screening strategy for ovarian cancer appears to be highly specific for detecting the disease before it becomes lethal. The strategy was described in a study published early online this week in Cancer. A clinical trial is ongoing to verify the findings. Karen Lu, MD, of The University of...
The combination of the investigational histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (Faridak) with bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone was able to recapture responses in 34.5% of heavily pretreated, bortezomib-refractory patients with multiple myeloma in the phase II PANORAMA 2 trial. The 55...
In a study (Medical Research Council AML 15 Trial) reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alan K. Burnett, MD, of Cardiff University School of Medicine and colleagues compared induction with daunorubicin/cytarabine, daunorubicin/cytarabine plus etoposide, and fludarabine/cytarabine/granulocyte...