The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Cologuard, the first stool-based colorectal screening test that detects the presence of red blood cells and DNA mutations that may indicate the presence of certain kinds of abnormal growths that may be cancers such as colon cancer or...
It is unclear whether somatic mutations that are strongly associated with phenotype and prognosis in myelodysplastic syndrome are also predictive of outcome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bejar et al found that...
Postmenopausal women who in the previous 4 years had undertaken the equivalent of at least 4 hours of walking per week had a 10% decreased risk of invasive breast cancer compared with women who were less active, according to a new study. The findings suggest that regular physical activity, even of...
In a Children’s Oncology Group phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gamis et al found that the addition of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), an immunoconjugate targeting CD33, resulted in significantly prolonged event-free survival but not overall survival when added...
A large DNA analysis of people with and without pancreatic cancer has identified several new genetic markers that signal increased risk of developing the highly lethal disease, reported scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The study by Wolpin et al was published in Nature Genetics. The...
Researchers from the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine have reported new information about the genetic alterations that may contribute to the development of a breast cancer subtype typically associated with more aggressive forms of the disease and higher recurrence...
Researchers with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have completed the largest, most diverse tumor genetic analysis ever conducted, revealing a new approach to classifying cancers. The work, published in Cell, not only revamps traditional ideas of how cancers are diagnosed and treated, ...
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. Active surveillance offers low-risk prostate cancer patients a means to avoid the potentially harmful side effects from treatment. In a recent article in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, a...
Mammography-detected breast cancer is associated with a shift to earlier stage diagnosis in older women, subsequently reducing the rate of more advanced, difficult-to-treat cases, according to a new study by Malmgren et al published in the journal Radiology. The findings lend support to regular...
Cancer research lost a pioneer on August 3, 2014, with the passing of Emmanuel Farber, MD, PhD, a renowned pathologist who made fundamental contributions to our understanding of chemical carcinogenesis. Dr. Farber’s studies in experimental pathology demonstrated that chemical carcinogens are...
Standardizing prescribing practices for single-fraction radiation therapy for palliation of bone metastases could lead to cost savings and improvement in patients’ quality of life, according to a study published in the August issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology •...
In a Taiwanese retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, Tseng et al found that diabetes was associated with increased risk of head and neck cancer, including increased risk of oral cavity, oropharyngeal, and nasopharyngeal cancers. Study Details...
Physicians at Johns Hopkins have developed blood and saliva tests that help accurately predict recurrences of HPV-linked oral cancers in a substantial number of patients. The tests screen for DNA fragments of the human papillomavirus (HPV) shed from cancer cells lingering in the mouth or other...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation to AbbVie’s investigational compound ABT-414, which is being evaluated for safety and efficacy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme. ABT-414 is an investigational anti-EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor)...
Women who recently used birth control pills containing high-dose estrogen and a few other formulations had an increased risk for breast cancer, whereas women using some other formulations did not, according to data published in Cancer Research. “Our results suggest that use of contemporary...
Of the many subgroups of cells vying for control within a cancerous tumor, the most dangerous may not be those that can proliferate the fastest, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reported in a study published in Nature. The findings have important implications for the treatment of cancer...
BCR-ABL1–like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a recently identified B-cell ALL subtype associated with poor outcome, has a gene-expression profile similar to BCR-ABL1–positive disease without the presence of the BCR-ABL1 fusion protein. In a retrospective analysis reported in the...
Multicentric Castleman’s disease is characterized by overproduction of interleukin-6 (IL-6). In a trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Rhee et al found that the anti–IL-6 antibody siltuximab (Sylvant) produced a significantly better response rate vs placebo in patients with the...
Research conducted at the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has discovered links between a set of genes known to promote tumor growth and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, an oral cancer that affects the salivary glands. The discovery could help physicians develop new treatments that...
Use of electroacupuncture—a form of acupuncture where a small electric current is passed between pairs of acupuncture needles—produces significant improvements in fatigue, anxiety, and depression in as little as 8 weeks for early-stage breast cancer patients experiencing joint pain...
Compared with intravenous (IV) followed by consolidation intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy, primary IV/IP chemotherapy was associated with a statistically significant improvement in overall survival—but not progression-free survival—in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer...
A new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by researchers at Northwestern Medicine shed new light on the risks associated with the growing popularity of endoscopic resection in the treatment of localized, early-stage esophageal cancer. Merkow et al found that the...
Cancer researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a molecule that selectively and irreversibly interferes with the activity of a mutated cancer gene common in 30% of tumors. The molecule, SML-8-73-1 (SML), interferes with the KRAS gene, whose proteins influence when cells...
A St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital study found that 73% of adult survivors of childhood cancer more than doubled their risk of developing metabolic syndrome and related health problems by failing to follow a heart-healthy lifestyle. The results were published online in the journal...
Early surveillance imaging (< 6 months) after stereotactic body radiation therapy for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) seems to be of limited benefit, resulting in definitive intervention in only 3% of patients, according to the findings of a study in Practical Radiation...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today expanded the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who carry deletions of the short arm of chromosome 17, which are associated with poor responses to standard treatment for CLL. Ibrutinib...
Statin use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing Barrett’s esophagus, according to a new study by Nguyen et al in Gastroenterology. Obese patients experienced the greatest level of risk reduction with statin use. While statins have been associated with a reduced risk...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved idelalisib (Zydelig) for the treatment of patients with three types of blood cancers. Idelalisib is being granted traditional approval to treat patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Used in combination with rituximab...
In an analysis of metabolites in human kidney tissue, a research team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania identified an enzyme key to applying the brakes on tumor growth. The new study, published in Nature by Simon et al, demonstrated that an enzyme called FBP1,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Genentech’s supplemental Biologics License Application and granted Priority Review for bevacizumab (Avastin) plus chemotherapy for the treatment of women with recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. “The majority of women...
Noninvasive quantitative computed tomography–based texture analysis can accurately differentiate the presence of a KRAS mutation from pan–wild-type non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), based on the results of a study in PLOS ONE. Weiss et al reported that this tumor heterogeneity...
A study by investigators at the National Cancer Institute of more than 1 million women has found that a negative test for human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a more reliable predictor of the risk of developing cervical cancer than a negative Pap test. The findings suggest that primary HPV...
Robot-assisted surgery to remove cancerous prostate glands is effective in controlling the disease for 10 years, according to a new study led by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. The study by Diaz et al, published in European Urology, also suggested that traditional methods of measuring the...
Researchers at UC Davis, University of Massachusetts, and Harvard Medical School have developed a combination drug that controls both tumor growth and metastasis. By combining a cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor, similar to celecoxib, and a soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitor, the drug...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Genentech’s supplemental Biologics License Application and granted Priority Review for bevacizumab (Avastin) plus chemotherapy in the treatment of women with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer. The designation...
New research raises the prospect of more effective treatments for cachexia, a profound wasting of fat and muscle occurring in about half of all cancer patients, raising their risk of death, according to scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In a study reported in Nature, Spiegelman et al...
A new analysis has found that rates of testicular cancer have been rising dramatically in recent years among young Hispanic American men, but not among their non-Hispanic counterparts. Published early online in Cancer, the findings indicate that greater awareness is needed concerning the increasing ...
Key genetic variants may affect how cancer patients respond to radiation treatments, according to a study recently published in Nature Genetics. The research team, which included researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, found that variations in the TANC1 gene are associated with...
Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and other centers have identified novel mutations in a well-known cancer-causing pathway in lung adenocarcinoma, the most common subtype of lung cancer. Knowledge of these mutations could potentially identify a...
In a UK phase III trial (NCRI Myeloma X Relapse [Intensive] Trial) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cook et al found that high-dose melphalan plus salvage autologous stem cell transplantation significantly prolonged time to progression vs cyclophosphamide in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma...
Invading glioblastoma cells may hijack cerebral blood vessels during early stages of disease progression and damage the brain’s protective barrier, preclinical study published in Nature Communications indicated. The finding by Watkins et al could ultimately lead to new ways to bring about the ...
Invasive breast cancers with skin involvement, regardless of size or lymph node involvement, are automatically classified as stage III locally advanced tumors, which suggests that they are a relatively serious form of cancer with poor survival. In a study published in the Journal of the American...
A heparin derivative differentiated cancer cells and caused neuroblastomas to regress without causing severe bleeding, according to the findings of a preclinical study presented in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Knelson et al identified novel roles for heparan sulfate proteoglycans in...
According to a new study, a cascade of molecular events in the bone marrow produces high levels of inflammation that disrupt normal blood formation and lead to potentially deadly disorders including leukemia. The discovery, published by the journal Cell Stem Cell, points the way to potential...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy status to CTL019, an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The Breakthrough Therapy filing...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Hedditch et al found that expression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes of the A subfamily (ABCA) had a significant impact on outcome in epithelial ovarian cancer. High ABCA1, Low ABCA5 Expression Analysis of gene...
Some data indicate an increased risk for cancer in patients receiving tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha antagonists (eg, infliximab [Remicade], adalimumab [Humira], certolizumab pegol [Cimzia]) for rheumatoid arthritis. Studies with follow-up of ≤ 1 year have not found increased risk in patients ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval to belinostat (Beleodaq), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma, a rare and fast-growing type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). “This is...
A research collaboration between Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has utilized nanomedicine technologies to develop a drug-delivery system that can precisely target and attack cancer cells in the bone, as well as increase bone strength and volume to prevent...
HIV-infected people diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to go untreated for their cancer compared to uninfected cancer patients, according to a large retrospective study from researchers in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The ...