University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers have described costs across the entire care process for low-risk prostate cancer—from the time a patient checks in for his first appointment to his post-treatment follow-up testing—using time-driven activity-based costing. For the ...
Two phase III trials, reported in JAMA by Fleshman et al and Stevenson et al, failed to show noninferiority of surgical outcome for laparoscopic vs open resection in patients with rectal cancer. ACOSOG Z6051 Trial In the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z6051 trial, reported...
Regular physical activity could play a role in helping women at high-risk of breast cancer delay the need for drastic preventive measures such as prophylactic mastectomy, according to new research led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Results of the WISER Sister...
In a UK-based phase III trial (AML17) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Burnett et al found that a chemotherapy-free regimen of arsenic trioxide plus all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) did not improve quality of life, the primary endpoint, vs ATRA plus idarubicin in patients with acute promyelocytic...
In a multi-institutional phase II trial (ACOSOG Z6041) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Garcia-Aguilar et al found that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and local excision was associated with an acceptable disease-free survival rate, albeit not so high as anticipated, in patients with clinical stage...
ASCO has called for comprehensive physician payment reform to support the full scope of services required by patients with cancer, rather than jeopardizing patient outcomes by reducing the available resources in a particular cancer care setting in an effort to achieve "site neutrality" in...
Hypofractionated radiation therapy results in similar rates of cure and side effects compared to a longer treatment schedule for some men with low-risk prostate cancer, according to research (Abstract LBA6) presented by Lee et al October 19, 2015, at the American Society for Radiation Oncology...
For men with prostate cancer who have had a prostatectomy and salvage radiation therapy, analyzing their tumor genome provides clues as to whether their cancer will metastasize, thereby enabling clinicians to better personalize treatment options, according to research presented by Den et al...
Long-term patient-reported outcomes indicate that for some men with localized prostate cancer, hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) may be a reasonable treatment option and result in similar quality-of-life outcomes, compared to conventional radiation therapy, according to...
Patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) have 44% fewer cases of severe pneumonitis and improved likelihood of completing consolidative chemotherapy after radiation, compared to patients who receive three-dimensional...
For some early-stage breast cancer patients, accelerated partial-breast irradiation using multicatheter brachytherapy following breast-conserving surgery may be an excellent treatment option, as it has now been proven to be as effective as the current standard treatment—whole-breast...
For some patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancer of the tonsils and tongue, reduced-intensity radiation therapy and chemotherapy may be as effective as standard-dose radiation and chemotherapy, and result in fewer acute side effects, according to research presented by Chera et al...
The potential risks and harms of low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening in current 20 to 29 pack-year smokers needs to be assessed before recommending such screening to this group, according to a study published by Pinsky and Kramer in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute....
Among children with intermediate-risk rhabdomyosarcoma that is negative for a fusion gene, those who had a high score for expression of a specific gene signature called MG5 had poorer survival outcomes compared with those who had a low MG5 score, according to a study published by Hingorani et al in ...
As reported by Falini et al in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, dactinomycin treatment resulted in morphologic and molecular complete remission ongoing at 14 months in a patient with NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). NPM1-mutated AML may account for one-third of AML in...
While most cancer survivors in the United States are motivated to seek information about food choices and dietary changes to improve their health, a new study comparing their dietary patterns to federal guidelines indicates that they often fall short. By Zhang et al in Cancer, the findings point to ...
Results of the phase III AHT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Eeles et al suggest that adjuvant hormonal therapy may improve survival in women with epithelial ovarian cancer. The trial, started in 1990, was stopped early due to low recruitment. Study Details In the open-label ...
For a malignant tumor to form, cancer cells must evade the immune system's attack. Numerous studies have already shown that cancer spreads particularly aggressively if there is an unfavorable balance between suppressing and active immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. “But we didn't...
As reported by Solin et al in Journal of Clinical Oncology, 12-year results from the ECOG-ACRIN E5194 trial indicate that among women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with low-risk clinical and pathologic characteristics, surgical excision without radiation therapy was associated with...
In a study reported in The Lancet, Smyth et al found that alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of cancer at sites known to be related to alcohol consumption, with evidence of increased risk being found in both higher- and lower-income countries. The study examined associations...
As reported in JAMA Internal Medicine by Toledo et al, a large Spanish primary prevention nutrition intervention trial in patients at high cardiovascular risk (PREDIMED) showed a large reduction in risk for invasive breast cancer among women 60 to 80 years of age who were randomly assigned to the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved an expanded indication for the Optune tumor treating fields device to treat patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. It is given along with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide following standard treatments that include...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed the current American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) guideline on treatment of small cell lung cancer, released in 2013. After review of evidence from an updated literature search covering 2011 to March 2015, an ASCO...
A prospective study of guideline-based, postoperative, image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy in patients with prostate cancer found low toxicity profiles and favorable patient-reported quality of life following treatment, with researchers concluding that toxicity and health-related...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sundström et al found that women co-infected with high-risk and low-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) had reduced risk of squamous cervical cancer (SCC), but not cancer in situ (CIS) compared with women with high-risk HPV...
Gastric cancer is typically associated with late-stage diagnosis, as well as high mortality. A study by Li et al in The American Journal of Pathology points to a pivotal role played by the biomarker microRNA (miR)-506 in gastric cancer. Patients whose primary gastric cancer lesions express high...
Millions of people are unable to receive necessary treatment worldwide because of a chronic underinvestment in radiotherapy resources, according to a major new Commission on access to radiotherapy, published in by Atun et al in The Lancet Oncology, and presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Landier et al found that education tailored to personal risk for therapy-related complications improved risk awareness in survivors of childhood cancer. The level of awareness appeared to reach a maximum after several educational sessions....
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive disease that is difficult to treat and is frequently diagnosed only when it has metastasized. Five-year survival rates in SCLC, which accounts for about 14% of all lung cancers, are very low, at only 6%. Researchers presented novel findings (Abstract...
Over 80% of the 15 million people diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2015 will need surgery, but less than one-quarter of them will have access to proper, safe, affordable surgical care when they need it, according to a major new Commission examining the state of global cancer surgery. The...
Patients with cancers of the mid and lower throat may have higher survival rates if their initial treatment includes surgery, according to new research (Abstract 2804) presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria. Researchers explained that a nationwide study in Taiwan found...
Comparisons of cancer patients’ survival and care in Europe up to 2007 showed that although more patients are surviving for at least 5 years after diagnosis, there are large variations among countries, which are particularly significant in cancers of the blood. Milena Sant, MD, from the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Tosoian et al, a prospective active surveillance program resulted in good intermediate/longer-term outcomes in men with favorable-risk prostate cancer. Study Details The program included 1,298 men with very-low-risk or low-risk disease enrolled...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Grisham et al identified a novel alteration in the MAP2K1 gene encoding for MEK1 that appeared to explain a complete response ongoing for more than 5 years in a patient treated with the MEK inhibitor selumetinib for metastatic low-grade...
In the first trial of the University of Pennsylvania's personalized cellular therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), 8 of 14 patients responded to the therapy, with some complete remissions continuing past 4.5 years. These results, published by Porter et al in Science Translational...
A small phase I/IIa study of third-generation CD19 CAR (chimeric-antigen receptor) T-cell therapy combined with chemotherapy pretreatment has resulted in complete responses in 6 of the 11 patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma and leukemia enrolled in the study. Although CAR T-cell...
Among patients with clinically stage I or stage II melanoma, those treated with the immune system–boosting agent CpG-B were less likely to experience recurrence of their disease than those who received placebo, according to results from two randomized, placebo-controlled phase II clinical...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Grenda et al found higher mortality and higher failure to rescue rates in patients undergoing lung resection at hospitals with high vs low mortality rates in major cancer resections. Study Details In the study, hospitals with the lowest...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Petersdorf et al found a greater risk of acute graft-vs-host disease among hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with the high-expression rs9277534G allele linked to mismatched HLA-DPB1 who received transplants from donors with the...
A new statistical model may help predict which patients are most likely to receive life-extending benefits from surgical treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma, according to a report published by Leuzzi et al in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive...
Assessing blood plasma levels of certain microRNAs (miRNAs) distinguished individuals with noninvasive pancreatic precancers from healthy individuals and discriminated between patients with high-risk and low-risk neoplasms, according to a preliminary, proof-of-principle study published by...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Masters et al, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on systemic therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Recommendations are based on an update committee systematic review of randomized controlled trials...
A genetic test that helps predict whether some women’s breast cancer will recur might influence how chemotherapy is used, according to a study from Duke Medicine. The study found that low-risk patients who had the test appeared to opt for more treatment, and high-risk patients who were...
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are one of the most common driver oncogenes in lung cancer, typified by high response rates when treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and median progression-free survival of 10 months, commonly due to emergence of T790M. The genomic...
Smoking cessation among patients enrolled in a low-dose computed tomography screening program is associated with a three- to five-time reduction in mortality, according to research (Abstract PLEN04.07) presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Denver, Colorado. The Conference...
As reported by Schmoll et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the final results of the phase III NO16968 trial showed that adjuvant therapy with XELOX (capecitabine, oxaliplatin) improved overall survival vs fluorouracil (5-FU)/leucovorin in patients with resected stage III colon cancer....
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) issued a new statement on Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation on September 7 at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Denver, Colorado. The statement calls for higher taxes on tobacco products; comprehensive...
The standard of care for malignant pleural mesothelioma may be poised for change, judging by results from a study (Abstract ORAL11.01) by the French Cooperative Thoracic Intergroup. The addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) in the first-line setting to the current standard of care, pemetrexed...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that are currently being tested to treat B-cell malignancies target a specific protein present on leukemia and lymphoma cells, but these immune cells cannot distinguish the cancer cells from healthy cells. However, the side effects from these CAR T cells...
In the phase III CATCH trial reported in JAMA, Lee et al found that the low–molecular-weight heparin tinzaparin (Innohep) did not significantly reduce the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism vs warfarin in the treatment of acute symptomatic venous thromboembolism in patients with active...