Estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer, but resistance to therapy is common, and eventual development of metastatic disease is a leading cause of death. In research published by Lei et al in Cell Reports, researchers from Baylor College of...
ASCO AND the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) are calling on leaders and health ministers of the 193 United Nations (UN) member countries to reduce the burden of all noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer. The two organizations issued a joint statement in advance of the third ...
TAILORx changes the configuration of the ball field and the shape of the ball in deciding which women will be recommended chemotherapy after resection of node-negative, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. TAILORx was presented by Joseph Sparano, MD, at the 2018 ASCO Plenary Session and...
ON JULY 30, 2018, Roche announced approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of its cobas HPV Test in first-line screening for cervical cancer in women 25 years and older using cervical specimens collected in SurePath preservative fluid. The FDA first approved the cobas HPV test...
In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ipilimumab (Yervoy), an anticytotoxic T-lymphocyte– associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), the first checkpoint inhibitor for the treatment of advanced melanoma.1 Since then, several more checkpoint inhibitors directed at both the programmed...
In February 2015, there was no indication that my life was about to radically change. I was a practicing attorney and happily raising two young children with my husband. At 40 years old, I was healthy—or so I thought—and had no physical symptoms to alert me to the devastating news that was about to ...
Findings in a phase I trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Pernas and colleagues indicate activity of the combination of the CXCR4 chemokine receptor antagonist balixafortide plus eribulin (Halaven) in previously treated HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The CXCR4–stromal cell-derived...
BOOKMARK Title: Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the GenomeAuthor: Nessa CareyPublisher: Columbia University PressOriginal publication date: April 2015Price: $22.95, paperback, 360 pages When biologists first delved into the human wonder of genes in the 1970s, they eventually...
ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) have submitted recommended language to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for five guidance documents on ways to broaden eligibility criteria for cancer clinical trials. The recommendations are part of an ASCO...
Almost 1 year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mogamulizumab-kpkc (Poteligeo) injection for intravenous use for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome after at least one prior systemic therapy. This approval provides a new...
GC4419, A SMALL molecule superoxide dismutase mimetic, reduced the duration, incidence, and severity of chemoradiotherapy-induced mucositis in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer, with a safety profile comparable to that of placebo. This finding comes from a randomized phase IIb...
FOR THE TREATMENT of lymphoma, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are becoming an important class of drugs, as described at the 2018 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference by Brad Kahl, MD, Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.1 “We have one ADC—brentuximab vedotin...
THE EMERGENCE of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has sparked a wave of optimism in hematologic malignancies, but as experience in using CAR T-cell therapy has grown, new challenges have surfaced. A pioneer in the field, David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, enlightened attendees on these issues ...
BEFORE TOO LONG, oncologists can expect to have an entirely new arsenal in the fight against multiple myeloma. Cutting-edge therapies on the near horizon were described in a presentation by Kenneth Anderson, MD, at the 2018 American Association of Cancer Research’s (AACR’s) inaugural conference on...
WHAT IS THE best choice of treatment for a man with newly diagnosed metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after treatment with androgen-deprivation therapy—abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) plus prednisone, or enzalutamide (Xtandi)? Both drugs achieve similar cancer control in this setting,...
ROBERT PETER GALE, MD, PhD, DSc (hc), was on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine for 20 years and has served as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. In 1986, he was asked by the...
ON MAY 30, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act of 2017.1 This law creates an additional and alternative pathway for patients with a “life-threatening disease or condition” to access...
Adult survivors of childhood cancer should be screened for financial problems that might cause them to delay or skip medical care or to suffer psychological distress. The recommendation from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital researchers followed an analysis that found 65% of...
Research published by Jung et al in OncoImmunology showed organ transplant recipients may reduce their risk of developing secondary skin cancer by changing their immunosuppressant medication. University of Queensland (UQ) researchers have studied the impact of such medications on the immune...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for lenvatinib (Lenvima) in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the potential treatment of patients with advanced and/or metastatic non–microsatellite instability high (MSI-H)/proficient...
In an analysis of Asian trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yeoh et al found evidence that treatment intensification improved outcomes in childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) with IKZF1 deletion (del). The analysis compared outcomes in the Malaysia-Singapore ALL...
Gini Fleming, MD, had a peripatetic path to her destination as a gynecologic and breast cancer expert. As a child, she moved around a lot, living in about 10 or 12 different places, so she had no real sense of being born and reared in any particular place. “My parents married young, when my father ...
GUEST EDITOR Dr. Abraham is the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic. For this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed Mace L. Rothenberg, MD,...
In a Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) meeting devoted to real-world evidence, members of the cancer community generally agreed that its use has an increasingly important role to play in gathering the data necessary to test, evaluate, and bring new therapeutic agents to market. This Friends...
Two phase III studies—KX-AK-003 and KX-AK-004—achieved their primary endpoint of 100% clearance of actinic keratosis lesions at day 57 within the face or scalp treatment areas, with each study achieving statistical significance (P < .0001). Statistical significance (P < .001) ...
Physicists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust combined standard two-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of the chests of healthy volunteers to create 'super-resolution' videos, showing the lungs expanding and contracting. The...
The global, randomized, phase III ALTA-1L (ALK in Lung Cancer Trial of AP26113 in 1st Line) trial met its primary endpoint at the first prespecified interim analysis, with brigatinib (Alunbrig) demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in progression-free...
In a pivotal phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet et al found that cytarabine and daunorubicin liposome (CPX-351, Vyxeos) significantly improved overall survival vs standard cytarabine plus daunorubicin (7+3 regimen) in older patients with newly diagnosed secondary...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lusutrombopag (Mulpleta) for thrombocytopenia in adults with chronic liver disease who are scheduled to undergo a medical or dental procedure. L-PLUS 1 and L-PLUS 2 Approval was based on two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled...
Conventional wisdom suggests that a high level of the protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in men with prostate cancer means a poor prognosis. However, this may not always be the case in men with a particular subtype of prostate cancer, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine and...
A joint analysis of parallel phase III trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Gridelli et al found no overall survival benefit of adding cisplatin to first-line treatment of elderly patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without an EGFR mutation. Study...
On July 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved iobenguane I-131 (Azedra) injection for adult and pediatric patients (12 years and older) with iobenguane scan–positive, unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic pheochromocytoma or paraganglioma (PPGL) who require systemic...
High rates of regional lymph node involvement and metastases are not uncommon in Merkel cell carcinoma. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines recommend sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for staging purposes in this malignancy. In a study by Knanckstedt et al in ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to galinpepimut-S for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Galinpepimut-S is licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and targets the Wilms tumor 1 (WT1) protein, which is present in an array of tumor types....
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Oza et al found that quality of life (QOL) based on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) was not worsened with niraparib (Zejula) maintenance vs placebo in the phase III ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial in women with recurrent ovarian cancer who were in response to...
As reported by Li and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) showed activity in advanced HER2-mutant lung adenocarcinoma. Study Details The current report involves a cohort of patients with HER2-mutant lung...
In an Australian phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Coughlin et al found similar functional outcomes at 2 years with robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy and open radical retropubic prostatectomy in men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer. Study Details In ...
In the phase III SOLO2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Friedlander et al found that olaparib maintenance therapy did not worsen health-related quality of life vs placebo in patients with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer and a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. In the study, maintenance...
RECOMMENDATIONS IN the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) clinical practice guidelines for integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment “are clear, thorough, and based on the most relevant scientific evidence,” concluded an ASCO expert panel that reviewed the guidelines.1,2...
In 2015, Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization ACT (MACRA), which aims to move Medicare toward reimbursement based more on outcomes and values, a goal, in theory, shared by the oncology community. To shed light on the complicated and problematic attempt to restructure the...
Prior to ASCO’s 2016 endorsement of the Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline on active surveillance in the management of localized prostate cancer,1 most men—over 90%—diagnosed with low-risk localized disease were treated with active therapy.2 Today, about 50% of American men with low-risk disease...
Critics of health-care consolidation have cited higher costs of chemotherapy administration as an example of how mergers drive up costs. A new study by Kalidindi et al in The American Journal of Managed Care found that although drug administration costs in hospitals are higher,...
A new study by Meulepas et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that computed tomography (CT) scans may increase the risk of brain tumors. The use of CT scans has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades. CT scans greatly improve diagnostic capabilities,...
EARLY IN 2018, olaparib tablets (Lynparza) were granted regular approval for treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who have been treated with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, or metastatic setting.1,2...
EARLY IN 2018, abiraterone acetate tablets (Zytiga) in combination with prednisone were approved for the treatment of metastatic high-risk castration-sensitive prostate cancer.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS based on the findings of the phase III LATITUDE trial, in which 1,199 patients...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted a biologics license application (BLA) for filing and granted Priority Review for sacituzumab govitecan for the treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who previously received at least two prior therapies for...
For patients with early kidney cancer, surgically removing a portion of the kidney instead of the whole organ is often a preferred treatment, because the procedure can effectively remove tumors while preserving kidney function. But when it comes to the best surgical approach—robotic,...
According to the American Cancer Society, cancer is the leading cause of death for Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islanders in the United States. However, their cancer burden is less than that of non-Hispanic whites and especially non-Hispanic blacks, who bear the most disproportionate share of the...
An analysis of cancer registry data from a California hospital system showed that women with head and neck cancer were less likely to receive intensive chemotherapy (35% vs 46%) and radiation (60% vs 70%) compared to men. Controlling for factors such as age and serious medical conditions, a...