Women whose breast cancer has spread to just a few lymph nodes under their arm are less likely to have their disease recur or to die from it if they have radiotherapy after mastectomy, according to new research presented today at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Glasgow and published in The ...
In an open-label phase III trial reported by Ardeshna et al in The Lancet Oncology, rituximab (Rituxan) induction plus maintenance was found to delay the need for subsequent therapy and improve elements of quality of life vs watchful waiting in patients with advanced asymptomatic nonbulky...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Larkin et al, interim results of a safety study designed to reflect the spectrum of patients encountered in routine practice suggest that vemurafenib (Zelboraf) has a safety profile in patients with BRAF V600–mutated metastatic melanoma similar to that...
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...
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...
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 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...
Bladder-sparing approaches are typically reserved for patients with bladder cancer who have a complete response to combined modality induction therapy (radiation plus chemotherapy). A new phase II study suggests that patients with near-complete response should also be considered for bladder-sparing ...
In the randomized, phase III CA184-043 trial, ipilimumab (Yervoy) improved progression-free survival and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response compared with placebo, but failed to improve overall survival significantly in postdocetaxel metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer....
The addition of radiation to lifelong hormone therapy with oral antiandrogens vs antiandrogens alone reduced the prostate cancer–specific death rate by more than 50% at 10 and 15 years in men with locally advanced prostate cancer, according to an updated analysis of the Scandinavian Prostate...
Enzalutamide (Xtandi) improved survival by 29% in men with chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and reduced the risk of radiographic progression by 81%, according to complete results of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multinational, phase III PREVAIL...
In a prospective study reported as a research letter in JAMA, Meretoja et al found that 50% of patients had mild pain and 16% moderate or severe pain at 12 months after surgery for breast cancer. Factors predictive of pain were chronic preoperative pain, preoperative pain in the area of surgery,...
According to the final results of the phase III CAIRO3 trial by the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group, maintenance treatment with capecitabine plus bevacizumab (Avastin) significantly delayed progression compared to observation in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, and in a subset of patients, ...
Irinotecan drug-eluting beads given simultaneously with FOLFOX (leucovorin, fluorouracil, oxaliplatin) and bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with unresectable liver metastasis from colorectal cancer improved response rates, increased resectability and prolonged hepatic progression-free survival in...
More data have emerged that discount the potential for benefit with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors in esophageal cancer. The latest comes from the RTOG 0436 randomized phase III trial in patients with nonoperable esophageal cancer, the results of which were presented at the 2014 ...
Overall survival was improved in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer through an innovative immunotherapy strategy in a multicenter study to be reported at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract 177). The results were announced at a press briefing prior to the meeting....
In the global phase III RAINBOW trial of patients with metastatic gastric cancer, the investigational monoclonal antibody ramucirumab significantly improved both progression-free and overall survival when given as second-line therapy, investigators reported at a press briefing in advance of the...
New findings from a four-arm phase III clinical trial in patients with stage II or stage III rectal cancer indicate that combining preoperative radiation with either capecitabine or fluorouracil (5-FU) results in equivalent outcomes. This study provides strong clinical evidence that using either...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the New Drug Application (NDA) for idelalisib, a targeted, oral inhibitor of PI3K-delta, for the treatment of refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The FDA has granted a standard review for the NDA, with a target review date of...
The addition of carboplatin to a neoadjuvant regimen significantly increased the rate of pathologic complete response in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. The results from the CALGB/Alliance 40603 study were reported at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S5-01)....
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S1-04). Previous studies of chemotherapy plus anti-HER2 treatment for node-negative...
Final results of the phase III NeoALTTO trial have confirmed the value of pathologic complete response to dual HER2 blockade in the neoadjuvant setting. The achievement of pathologic complete response was associated with significantly improved event-free survival and overall survival in some women...
Bevacizumab (Avastin) failed to extend invasive disease–free survival when added to trastuzumab (Herceptin)-directed adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer in the phase III BETH trial. Although not specifically designed to answer this question, BETH also...
A new analysis of the multiple myeloma IFM 2005-02 trial showed that lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance prolongs progression-free survival after stem cell transplantation, but does not improve overall survival. This is possibly attributed to the shorter survival time after first disease...
First-line treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma using continuous treatment with the doublet of lenalidomide (Revlimid) and low-dose dexamethasone was superior to standard triplet treatment with melphalan, prednisone, and thalidomide (Thalomid) for 72 weeks, according to initial results of...
The monoclonal antibody gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) improved event-free survival and reduced the risk of relapse in children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in a study from the Children’s Oncology Group, presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and...
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 ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted regular approval for crizotinib (Xalkori) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test. Today’s...
Additional data for the investigational anti–PD-1 immunotherapy lambrolizumab (MK-3475) were presented yesterday at the 10th International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research in Philadelphia. In patients with advanced melanoma, lambrolizumab demonstrated an estimated 1-year overall...
Preliminary results of an ongoing clinical trial suggest that the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf)—indicated for the treatment of metastatic melanoma with BRAF V600E mutation—may have an important role in the treatment of hairy cell leukemia. The cornerstone of therapy for this...
Both pemetrexed (Alimta) and gefitinib (Iressa) are standard second-line treatments for advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in East Asia. In a phase II trial (CTONG 0806) reported at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s 15th World Conference...
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-...
A phase III trial (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 0525; N = 833) comparing dose-dense vs standard-dose temozolomide maintenance in newly diagnosed glioblastoma showed no differences in overall survival or progression-free survival between treatments. A substudy of the trial, reported in...
Older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a high relapse rate after standard chemotherapy. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sylvie D. Freeman, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Birmingham National Health Service Trust, and colleagues investigated whether assessing...
Results of the phase III TH3RESA trial show that the antibody-conjugate ado-trastuzumab (Kadcyla, previously known as T-DM1) extends progression-free survival in women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer that progressed on two or more previous HER2-directed therapies including trastuzumab...
In a retrospective analysis of the randomized phase II EXPERT-C trial presented at the European Cancer Congress 2013 (Abstract LBA7), TP53 emerged as a strong, independent predictive biomarker for the benefit of cetuximab (Erbitux) in high-risk, locally advanced rectal cancer, according to...
In patients with early breast cancer receiving anti-HER2 therapy in the NeoALTTO trial, mutations in PIK3CA were associated with lower rates of pathologic complete response, Jose Baselga, MD, reported at the European Cancer Congress 2013 (Abstract 1859) in Amsterdam. In patients treated with the...
Extending radiation to the lymph nodes behind the sternal wall and above the collarbone extends overall survival in patients with stage I to III breast cancer and does not increase toxicity compared to conventional locoregional radiation therapy, according to 10-year results of an international...
There is no longer any doubt that for the treatment of metastatic or locally advanced melanoma, ipilimumab (Yervoy) conveys long-term survival benefits, according to studies presented at the European Cancer Congress 2013. In the largest survival analysis of the CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody to date...
Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma have poor postoperative prognosis. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jianhua Yin, MD, of the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, and colleagues assessed the effects of nucleotide/nucleoside analog...
In an analysis reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frank A. Sinicrope, MD, of the Mayo Clinic and North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG), and colleagues investigated the association of deficient DNA mismatch repair with prognosis in patients with stage III colon cancer treated with...
Tremelimumab is an anticytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) monoclonal antibody, a class of inhibitor that has shown activity in multiple tumor types. Ipilimumab (Yervoy), another agent in this class, was found to significantly prolong overall survival in metastatic melanoma despite a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 13 to 0, with one abstention, in favor of recommending accelerated approval of a pertuzumab (Perjeta) regimen for neoadjuvant treatment in patients with high-risk, HER2-positive, early-stage breast...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the manufacturer of ipilimumab (Yervoy), released results from its phase III randomized double-blind study investigating the drug in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The study findings show that ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the ...
Cabozantinib (Cometriq) is an inhibitor of hepatocyte growth factor receptor (MET), VEGFR2, and rearranged during transfection (RET) tyrosine kinases. In a phase III trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rosella Elisei, MD, of the University of Pisa, and colleagues found that cabozantinib ...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shukui Qin, MD, of People’s Liberation Army Cancer Centre, Bayi Hospital, in Nanjing, and colleagues compared FOLFOX4 (infusional fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) with doxorubicin as palliative chemotherapy in patients with ...
The investigational agent brivanib is a selective dual inhibitor of VEGF and fibroblast growth factor receptors, both implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma. In a trial (BRISK-PS) reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Josep M. Llovet, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New...
In an Italian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Umberto Vitolo, MD, and colleagues in the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi, treatment-naive patients aged > 60 years with advanced follicular lymphoma were randomized to rituximab [Rituxan] maintenance or observation after brief ...
Bayer HealthCare and Onyx Pharmaceuticals announced that the FDA has granted priority review designation to the supplemental new drug application of sorafenib (Nexavar) tablets for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. The...
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...