Even before the next Congress is formally elected, a national group of health-care stakeholders called the Cancer Innovation Coalition (CIC) went to Capitol Hill today to call for early legislative and regulatory action in 2015 that will reinvigorate cancer innovation in the United States. The...
Analysis of 607 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) tumors and neuroendocrine tumors identified common molecular markers among both groups that could reveal new therapeutic targets for patients with similar types of lung cancer, according to research presented at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary...
Lung cancer patients with minimally invasive adenocarcinoma have similar, positive 5-year disease-free survival and overall survival rates as patients with adenocarcinoma in situ, according to research presented today at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology (Abstract...
Biopsies were found to be the most costly tool prescribed in lung cancer diagnosis, according to research presented today at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology (Abstract 103). The study examined the utilization rates and estimated the Medicare costs of the lung...
Patients at high-risk for developing lung cancer are more likely to receive low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening when their primary care provider is familiar with guideline recommendations for low-dose CT screening for lung cancer, according to research presented today at the 2014 Chicago...
Antibody-drug conjugates, checkpoint inhibitors, and single-dose intraoperative radiation therapy for breast cancer were included in the Cleveland Clinic's Ninth Annual Top 10 Medical Innovations List released earlier today. The list identifies those advances likely to have a major impact on...
Compared with normal colorectal mucosae, nearly half of colorectal tumors showed medium-to-high levels of lecithin retinol acyltransferase (LRAT) hypermethylation, according to the results of a study reported by Cheng et al in Medical Oncology. This finding was noted more frequent in earlier tumor...
New research by the international Cancer Genomics of the Kidney consortium (CAGEKID) reveals an important connection between kidney cancer and exposure to aristolochic acid, an ingredient in some herbal remedies. The findings, published by Scelo et al in Nature Communications, have important...
Data suggest that cancer treatment puts patients at risk of cognitive impairment and that many patients exhibit impairment prior to treatment. In an observational cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ganz et al found that language and communication cognitive complaints were...
Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk of primary colorectal cancer, as well as increased risk of breast, endometrial, esophageal, pancreatic, and kidney cancers. In a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gibson et al found...
A new study has found that patients who received chest radiation for Wilms tumor, a rare childhood cancer, face an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life due to their radiation exposure. Reported by Lange et al in Cancer, the findings suggest that cancer screening guidelines might ...
Using genomic sequencing data on all currently known genetic alterations in breast cancer, it is possible to identify a woman’s genetic risk for the disease, and this approach can bring greater gains in disease prevention than previously estimated, according to a study reported by Sieh et al...
In a phase III ARCHER 1009 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ramalingam et al found no progression-free survival benefit of the irreversible pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor dacomitinib vs erlotinib among all patients with pretreated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or among those...
Age-related loss of the Y chromosome from blood cells, a frequent occurrence among elderly men, is associated with elevated risk of various cancers and earlier death, according to research presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2014 Annual Meeting in San Diego (Abstract 295). This...
In a study in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study population reported in The Lancet Oncology, Green et al found that increasing alkylating agent exposure was associated with impaired spermatogenesis in adult male survivors of childhood cancer who did not undergo radiation therapy as part of their...
Early findings from a study of 319 families suggest that use of an innovative, telephone-based symptom monitoring and coaching system during home hospice care leads to significantly decreased patient symptoms in the final weeks of life. The findings will be presented at the 2014 Palliative Care in...
First evaluation of a pioneering “co-rounding” partnership between medical oncologists and palliative care specialists at Duke University Medical Center shows improvements in both health system–related and patient-related outcomes. The first year of the new partnership—set...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Maude et al reported achieving sustained remissions in children and adults with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) using autologous CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells. Study Details In the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for Taiho Oncology’s TAS-102, a novel agent currently under investigation for the treatment of refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. TAS-102 is an oral combination investigational anticancer drug consisting of...
A large prospective, randomized, controlled trial investigating whether individualized genetic and environmental risk assessment of colorectal cancer susceptibility improves adherence to screening in average-risk persons, has found that the information was not enough to persuade nonadherent...
At least 14 million major medical conditions among U.S. adults aged 35 years and older were attributed to cigarette smoking by a study estimating the disease burden of cigarette smoking, which, according to the study’s authors, “remains immense.” Among current and former smokers,...
Findings from a pilot study of 42 parents with advanced cancer indicate that parental status is an important factor in treatment decision-making. When asked how having children influences their treatment decisions, the majority of parents (64%) responded that being a parent motivates them to pursue ...
More women are undergoing salpingo-oophorectomy as a cancer prevention measure, but many are unaware of the potential sexual or psychological side effects of the procedure. A new study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute demonstrated that a half-day educational program can help ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and granted Priority Review to Pfizer’s New Drug Application for palbociclib, in combination with letrozole, as a first-line treatment for postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer...
Known cancer-driving genomic aberrations in localized lung cancer appear to be so consistently present across tumors that a single biopsy of one region of the tumor is likely to identify most of them, according to a paper published by Zhang et al in Science. The study led by scientists at The...
In the phase III TANIA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, von Minckwitz et al found that adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy in second-line treatment improved progression-free survival after first-line bevacizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-negative locally recurrent or...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review Amgen’s Biologics License Application for blinatumomab for the treatment of adults with Philadelphia chromosome–negative relapsed/refractory B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). As part of the acceptance, the ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved bortezomib (Velcade) injection for previously untreated patients with mantle cell lymphoma. This is the first treatment in the United States to be approved for use in previously untreated patients with mantle cell lymphoma. Bortezomib was...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved a combination of netupitant and palonosetron (Akynzeo) to treat nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy. The new drug, also known as NEPA, is a fixed-combination capsule comprised of two agents: oral palonosetron,...
The risk of developing cancer in a salivary gland might be higher in people with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which are associated with breast and ovarian cancer, according to a new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital...
In the 4-year interim follow-up of the VIVIANE study reported in The Lancet by Skinner et al, the human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine was found to be protective against 6-month persistent infection or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 or higher (CIN1+) associated with...
Prostate cancer survivors with higher levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides had an increased risk for disease recurrence, according to a study by Allott et al. The study findings, coupled with evidence that statin use is associated with reduced recurrence risk, suggest that lipid levels...
A study involving a patient with metastatic anaplastic thyroid cancer who achieved a near-complete response to everolimus (Afinitor) that lasted for 18 months, followed by progressive disease, has revealed a previously unknown mutation in the TSC2 gene and in the mTOR protein. The discovery...
A large, prospective study involving more than 75,000 adults in western Washington has found that frequent use of fiber-based laxatives is associated with a decreased risk of colorectal cancer. The study also found that use of nonfiber laxatives is linked to significantly increased risk of...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to DNAtrix’s DNX-2401, a conditionally-replicative oncolytic adenovirus for malignant glioma. Glioma is the most common form of primary brain cancer, the treatment of which remains a significant unmet medical...
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to John O’Keefe, FRS, and to May-Britt Moser, PhD, and Edvard I. Moser, PhD, for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain. This “inner GPS”...
The androgen receptor isoform encoded by splice variant 7 is constitutively active as a transcription factor, despite lacking the ligand-binding domain that is the target of enzalutamide (Xtandi) and abiraterone (Zytiga). In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Antonarakis et al ...
Perineal powder use has been associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer in case-control studies and with increased risk of serous invasive ovarian cancer in a cohort study. In a large cohort study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Houghton et al found no significant...
A retrospective study led by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital has found an overuse of colonoscopies for colorectal cancer screening and surveillance. The study demonstrated that endoscopists commonly recommended shorter follow-up intervals than established guidelines support, and these...
In the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 70103 study, comorbidity was associated with shorter overall survival among older women with early-stage breast cancer and good functional status receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. “The presence of four or more conditions appeared to be a threshold for ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to Ariad Pharmaceutical’s investigational agent AP26113 for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are resistant to crizotinib...
The monoclonal antibody nivolumab achieved superior response rates and a longer duration of response than standard chemotherapy in patients whose melanoma has progressed after treatment with ipilimumab (Yervoy), according to preliminary data from a phase III trial presented at the ESMO 2014...
The MAGRIT trial showed disappointing results for a developmental vaccine called MAGE-3 in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had undergone surgical resection. This is the largest vaccine trial conducted in lung cancer, and investigators hoped that an immunotherapy approach...
Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, FASCO, Assistant Professor of Oncology and Oncology Medical Information Officer at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, has been named Medical Director of the Institute for Quality (iQ) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). ...
For advanced/metastatic melanoma patients with BRAF mutations, two pathway inhibitors are much better than one, according to studies presented at the ESMO 2014 Congress that demonstrated improved progression-free and overall survival for regimens combining a BRAF inhibitor with an inhibitor of the...
Elevated esophageal mucosa cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) levels appear to be associated with the presence of Barrett’s esophagus as well as high waist-to-hip ratios and current tobacco smoking, according to the results of a study reported by Nguyen et al in Digestive Diseases & Sciences. These ...
For patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, adding the experimental drug cediranib to standard chemotherapy improved tumor shrinkage and resulted in a modest improvement in progression-free survival, researchers reported at the ESMO 2014 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA25_PR). In...
In the final overall survival analysis of the phase III CLEOPATRA trial, patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients lived 15.7 months longer if they received pertuzumab (Perjeta) in addition to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and docetaxel, investigators reported at the ESMO 2014...
In a recent study reported in Nature Medicine, scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Harvard School of Public Health, among other institutions, investigated whether pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma produces metabolic changes that can be...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kosturakis et al found that the majority of patients with multiple myeloma had subclinical peripheral neuropathy prior to chemotherapy and that deficits corresponded with decreased fingertip innervation density. Study Details In the study,...