As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Van Poznak et al, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline on the use of biomarkers to guide decisions on systemic therapy in women with metastatic breast cancer. The statement is based on an ASCO expert panel assessment of systematic reviews, ...
In a BIG 1-98 trial analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Metzger Filho et al found that the benefit of adjuvant letrozole vs tamoxifen was greater in patients with lobular than ductal breast carcinoma. Study Details In the BIG 1-98 trial, postmenopausal women with hormone...
ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on the use of hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors, as reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Smith et al. This update to the ASCO 2006 guideline was based on a systematic review of randomized clinical trials, meta-analyses, and ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Patel et al found that inflammatory cytokine levels were associated with poorer memory function in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, with higher pretreatment levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor type ...
In a phase III VALOR trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ravandi et al found that the addition of the quinolone derivative vosaroxin to cytarabine did not significantly improve overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, differences favoring...
Available data suggest an increased risk of bladder cancer with pioglitazone treatment for diabetes. In an analysis of Kaiser Permanente Northern California data reported in JAMA, Lewis et al found no significantly increased risk of bladder cancer in patients with diabetes ever using pioglitazone....
In a patient-level meta-analysis of randomized trials reported in The Lancet by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG), 5 years of aromatase inhibitor treatment significantly reduced the recurrence risk vs 5 years of tamoxifen therapy during the first 4 years and...
In a patient-level meta-analysis reported in The Lancet by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG), adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment in early breast cancer was associated with a reduced risk of bone recurrence and breast cancer mortality, with the benefit limited to...
In a retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kalbasi et al found that dose-escalated external-beam radiation therapy was associated with improved overall survival among men with intermediate- and high-risk, but not low-risk, nonmetastatic prostate cancer. Study Details The study involved...
In a randomized phase II trial (NSABP FB9) reported in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Abraham and colleagues found no improvement in pathologic complete response rate with neoadjuvant eribulin (Halavan) vs weekly paclitaxel followed by doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide in women with locally...
In a phase III trial (National Cancer Institute of Canada [NCIC] Clinical Trials Group MA.20) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Whelan et al found that the addition of regional nodal irradiation to whole-breast irradiation did not improve overall survival in women with node-positive...
In a phase III trial conducted by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Radiation Oncology and Breast Cancer Groups, the addition of regional nodal irradiation to whole-breast or thoracic-wall irradiation after surgery produced a marginal overall survival benefit...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Carvajal-Hausdorf et al found that quantitative measurement of HER2 protein expression in intracellular and extracellular domains indicated improved disease-free survival with adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in breast cancer ...
As reported by Schnipper et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the ASCO Value in Cancer Care Task Force has released an ASCO statement detailing a conceptual framework to assess the value of cancer treatment options. The aim of ASCO in developing the framework is to encourage more...
The 6-year follow-up of the phase III ANZMTG 01.02/TROG 02.01 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Henderson et al, showed that adjuvant lymph-node field radiotherapy in melanoma patients with high risk of lymph-node field recurrence reduced the rate of recurrence but did not improve overall...
In a phase III noninferiority trial (SIOP WT 2001) reported in The Lancet, Pritchard-Jones et al in the SIOP (International Society of Paediatric Oncology) Renal Tumours Study Group found that omission of doxorubicin from postoperative chemotherapy for stage II to III histologic intermediate-risk...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Keng et al at Cleveland Clinic found that institution of an emergency department febrile neutropenia pathway for patients with cancer reduced the time to antibiotic administration compared with historical and direct admission cohorts....
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Harding et al found that on the county level in the United States, mammography screening for breast cancer is associated with an increase in detection of small breast cancers but no reduction in breast cancer mortality. Study Details This ecologic...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Murphy et al found that disparity in the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in white vs black patients with stage III colon cancer may have recently reemerged after a trend of increasing use in both racial groups. Changes in Use Over...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Scagliotti et al found that the addition of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor tivantinib to erlotinib (Tarceva) did not improve overall survival in previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous ...
Lapatinib plus trastuzumab improves outcomes vs lapatinib in heavily pretreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. In the phase II TBCRC 003 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lin et al found that earlier use of lapatinib plus trastuzumab was active in HER2-positive metastatic ...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Momtaz et al found that the rate of infusion-related reactions remained acceptably low when ipilimumab (Yervoy) 3 mg/kg was infused over 30 minutes in patients with advanced melanoma. The currently approved dose of...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Garcia-Aguilar et al found that adding neoadjuvant mFOLFOX6 (modified fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, oxaliplatin) after chemoradiation improved the pathologic complete response rate in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing...
In a phase III study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hofheinz et al found that 10% urea cream was better at preventing capecitabine-related hand-foot syndrome than a new ointment (Mapisal) available in Germany that contains several antioxidants and exhibits high radical protection....
In a UK randomized phase II trial (ABC-03) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Valle et al found that adding the VEGF inhibitor cediranib to first-line cisplatin/gemcitabine did not improve progression-free survival in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer. Study Details In the double-blind...
In a phase III IMPRESS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Soria et al found no progression-free survival benefit of adding gefitinib (Iressa) to platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had acquired resistance to...
In a retrospective study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tabernero et al used commercially available BEAMing technology to assess plasma tumor DNA and protein levels in a subgroup of patients from the CORRECT trial of regorafenib (Stivarga) in metastatic colorectal cancer and examined the...
In an analysis of FDA Adverse Event Reporting System data reported in JAMA Oncology, Jhaveri et al found that the BRAF inhibitors vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and dabrafenib (Tafinlar) were associated with nephrotoxicity. Their findings suggest a need to monitor renal function and electrolyte levels ...
In an analysis from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Prasad et al found evidence of impaired psychosocial and neurocognitive function among long-term cancer survivors diagnosed during adolescence and young adulthood. Risk of Impairment In the...
In a Danish prospective observational study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Appelt et al found that high-dose chemoradiotherapy and watchful waiting may be an alternative to abdominoperineal resection in some patients with distal rectal cancer. Study Details In the study, 55 patients with...
In the phase III LUX-Lung 8 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Soria et al found that the irreversible ErbB-family inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) significantly improved progression-free and overall survival vs the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib as second-line treatment in patients with ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oktay et al found that fertility could be preserved in women with breast cancer via embryo freezing after concurrent aromatase inhibitor treatment and ovarian stimulation. In the study, 131 women with stage ≤ III breast cancer underwent...
In an analysis of the German Hodgkin Study Group HD12 and HD15 trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Haverkamp et al found that discontinuation of bleomycin and vincristine due to drug-specific adverse effects did not affect efficacy of BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide,...
In the phase II BELIEF trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Connor et al found that the pan–histone deacetylase inhibitor belinostat (Beleodaq) produced durable responses in patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma. The study supported the U.S. Food...
In a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Sullivan et al found that adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) was associated with a significant disease-free and overall survival benefit among patients with early HER2-positive hormone receptor–positive and hormone...
In a study using National Cancer Data Base data reported in JAMA Surgery, Lautner et al identified several factors associated with the use of breast-conserving therapy in women with early-stage breast cancer, including older age, higher education and income, private insurance, treatment at an...
In a study reported in JAMA by Meester et al, microsimulation modeling of data from a U.S. community-based health-care system showed that colorectal cancer incidence and mortality were reduced with increased adenoma detection rate in colonoscopy screening, with no increase in total costs. Study...
In an analysis from the National LymphoCare Study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Casulo et al found that disease progression within 2 years of diagnosis was associated with increased mortality risk after first-line R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan] plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin,...
Final overall survival results of the phase III ICON7 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Oza et al indicate no significant increase with the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy in women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer. However, overall survival benefit of...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kwan et al found that women with basal-like tumors were less likely to have breastfed than those with luminal A tumors and that breastfeeding was associated with a significantly reduced risk of recurrence and breast...
In the randomized phase II KEYNOTE-002 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ribas et al found that treatment with the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) prolonged progression-free survival vs investigator-choice chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma progressing on...
In a study in Swedish men reported in JAMA, Loeb et al found a statistically significant increase in risk of malignant melanoma in those using oral phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors for erectile dysfunction. However, risk was not significantly elevated in men filling multiple PDE5...
In the U.S. community-based phase IIIB UPFRONT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Niesvizky et al found no benefit of adding thalidomide (Thalomid) or melphalan to first-line bortezomib (Velcade)-based treatment in transplant-ineligible myeloma patients. Study Details In the...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Lee et al found that factors associated with an increased risk of interval second breast cancers after negative surveillance mammography included grade II primary breast cancer, lumpectomy without radiation, interval primary...
In a prospective cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, May et al found that earlier palliative care consultation for inpatients with advanced cancer was associated with lower total direct costs. Study Details The study included 969 patients with advanced cancer admitted to 5...
In a National Cancer Data Base analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al found that postoperative radiation therapy has been declining in use in recent years but is associated with improved overall survival in patients with incompletely resected stage II or III...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eckel-Passow et al identified a molecular classification scheme for gliomas based on IDH mutation, codeletion of chromosome arms 1p and 19q (1p/19q codeletion), and TERT promoter mutation status. Molecular Classification The study...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lin et al developed a serum microRNA classifier that was more accurate than alpha-fetoprotein in detecting preclinical hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details The study involved healthy controls, inactive hepatitis B surface antigen carriers,...
In the phase III CALGB 40502/NCCTG N063H/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rugo et al found that outcomes in first-line treatment for advanced breast cancer were better with weekly paclitaxel plus bevacizumab (Avastin) compared with weekly nanoparticle albumin-bound...
In a Dutch phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kordes et al found that adding metformin to gemcitabine-erlotinib (Tarceva) did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Study Details In the double-blind study, 121 patients from four centers in the...