In a retrospective analysis utilizing both uterine serous carcinoma cell lines and patient-derived xenografts, dual therapy with lapatinib (Tykerb) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) demonstrated antitumor responses, according to a study by Groeneweg et al in Clinical Cancer Research. Also, the authors...
Analysis of data from an institutional patient registry on stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) indicates excellent long-term, local control in 79% of tumors for medically inoperable, early-stage lung cancer patients treated with the procedure from 2003 to 2012, according to research presented at...
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...
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...
For women with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer, combining two anti-HER2 agents with chemotherapy is the most effective treatment modality in the neoadjuvant setting, according to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Supplemental New Drug Application for the expanded use of technetium 99m tilmanocept (Lymphoseek Injection) for lymphatic mapping in solid tumors and for adding sentinel lymph node detection for breast cancer and melanoma to the approved...
Melphalan in combination with bortezomib (Velcade) should be maintained as one of the standards of care for the treatment of elderly patients with multiple myeloma, concluded Spanish trialists reporting updated results from the GEM2005 study comparing bortezomib/melphalan/prednisone with...
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...
For the first time, studies show that a drug is effective in treating cancer-related cachexia. Oral anamorelin hydrochloride increased lean body mass, achieved weight gain, and improved quality of life in patients with cancer-related cachexia in two pivotal phase III studies presented at the ESMO...
In the SMaRT Oncology-3 study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Walker et al found that an integrated collaborative treatment program for depression (‘depression care for people with cancer’) was associated with significantly reduced severity of depression compared with usual care in...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released its 2014 Cancer Progress Report today, which highlights the quickening pace of drug development and approval, especially in molecularly targeted agents that are leading to increased numbers of cancer survivors. However, the report also...
Recurrence-free survival rates were similar for patients with cT1 renal masses who underwent partial nephrectomy or percutaneous cryoablation, according to the results of a retrospective trial reported by Thompson et al in European Urology. However, metastases-free survival was superior for...
When factoring in what is now known about breast cancer biology and heterogeneity, breast-conserving therapy may offer a greater survival benefit over mastectomy to women with early-stage, hormone receptor–positive disease, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
Despite its acceptance as standard of care for early-stage breast cancer almost 25 years ago, barriers still exist that preclude patients from receiving breast-conserving therapy, with some still opting for a mastectomy, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center....
A new breast cancer vaccine candidate, GP2, provides further evidence of the potential of immunotherapy in preventing disease recurrence. This is especially the case for high-risk patients when it is combined with a powerful immunotherapy drug. These findings were presented at the 2014 Breast...
Despite conjecture in the lay media that wearing a bra may be a risk factor for breast cancer based on the potential for bras to interfere with lymph circulation and drainage, hampering the removal of waste and toxins, there were few scientific studies investigating the issue. Now, a new study by...
A large study conducted through the BC Cancer Agency in British Columbia, Canada, reports that adding family physician–signed reminder letters to the standard schedule of postcard reminders substantially improves return rates for screening among women who are overdue for such screening. In a...
Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have identified and characterized mutated forms of the gene that encodes BCR-ABL, the unregulated enzyme driving chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The findings by Zabriskie et al were published in Cancer Cell. Although tyrosine ...
The 1964 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health started a culture change in the way Americans viewed tobacco and their health, and has saved countless million of lives. But the 1964 Report remained scientifically ambiguous on certain vital issues, such as the effect smoking had on the ...
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 routine use of a molecular testing panel developed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center greatly increases the likelihood of performing the correct initial surgery for patients with thyroid nodules and cancer, reported researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. The ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
The new combination agent TAS-102 can improve overall survival compared to placebo in patients whose metastatic colorectal cancer is refractory to standard therapies, researchers reported at the ESMO 16th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona (Abstract O-0022). “Around 50%...
The addition of the novel agent MM-398 to standard treatment improved overall survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already received gemcitabine, according to a phase III trial reported at the ESMO 16th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona (Abstract...
In an online report in the journal Cancer, a team of University of Chicago cancer specialists have described the first tool—11 questions, assembled and refined from conversations with more than 150 patients with advanced cancer—to measure a patient’s risk for, and ability to...
A study by Black et al from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, found that the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy to stage early breast cancer increased in both black and white women from 2002 to 2007, but the rates remained lower in black than white patients, a disparity...
A unique public-private collaboration among the National Cancer Institute (NCI), SWOG Cancer Research, Friends of Cancer Research, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), five pharmaceutical companies (Amgen, Genentech, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and AstraZeneca’s global...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new use for technetium 99m tilmanocept (Lymphoseek Injection), a radioactive diagnostic imaging agent used to help doctors determine the extent to which squamous cell carcinoma has spread in the body’s head and neck region. In 2013,...
Stopping statin therapy is safe for patients with cancer who have a life expectancy of less than 1 year, according to a randomized study reported at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract LBA9514). Discontinuing statins did not shorten survival and provided a number of important...
Concurrent treatment with ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab resulted in a 2-year survival rate of 79% for patients with advanced melanoma. “While this is a small trial, that is very impressive 2-year survival data,” noted Mario Sznol, MD, at a press briefing on progress in immunotherapy ...
A phase III, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that the oral targeted drug lenvatinib is highly effective among patients with differentiated thyroid cancer resistant to standard radioiodine therapy. “The main result is an extraordinary improvement in progression-free...
A large phase III study, ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimisation), found no statistically significant differences in 4-year disease-free survival among women with early HER2-positive breast cancer who received adjuvant treatment that combined the HER2-targeted drugs...
Early findings from the phase III RESONATE study indicate that ibrutinib (Imbruvica) produces durable tumor responses and marked improvement in survival over standard ofatumumab (Arzerra) for patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). “With ibrutinib, about 80% of patients...
Oncologists now have a new understanding of the toxicity levels of specific chemotherapy regimens used for women with early-stage breast cancer, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The retrospective study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued an update to its clinical practice guideline on the use of adjuvant endocrine therapy for women with stage I to III hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The guideline was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Duration...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved panitumumab (Vectibix) for use in combination with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin) as first-line treatment in patients with wild-type KRAS (exon 2) metastatic colorectal cancer. This approval converts the accelerated...
The cancer community is mourning the death of Selma Schimmel who passed away on May 21, 2014, from malignant psoas syndrome, a complication of ovarian cancer. Ms. Schimmel died at Providence Tarzana Medical Center near her home in Los Angeles, California. She was 59. A tireless and fierce advocate ...
In a recent study by the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC), investigators incorporated tumor genotyping into therapeutic decision-making for patients with lung adenocarcinomas. An oncogenic driver was detected in 64% of tumors from patients in this study. According to data from this study...
According to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, selection of men for active surveillance for prostate cancer should be based not on conventional biopsy, but on a new, imaging-guided targeted prostate biopsy. The new biopsy method is now a routine part of the...
A randomized phase Ib study of a combination of low radiosensitizing doses of gemcitabine and fractionated doses of 90Y-clivatuzumab tetraxetan in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal cancer who had received at least two prior systemic therapies, has found a significant survival advantage in...
The only recent comprehensive analysis of lung cancer rates for women around the world found that lung cancer rates are dropping in young women in many regions of the globe, pointing to the success of tobacco control efforts. However, rates continue to increase among older women in many countries,...
A new study of 80,000 women with early breast cancer in 70 clinical trials finds that obesity is associated with a 34% higher risk of breast cancer–related death only among the 20,000 premenopausal women who had estrogen receptor–positive disease. Obesity had little effect in...
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have discovered that by targeting a particular receptor, chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells can be killed in an acute form of childhood leukemia, offering the potential for a future treatment for patients who would otherwise experience relapse...
In patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), preoperative positron-emission tomography (PET) has been shown to limit the number of unnecessary surgeries, according to the results of a study presented by Zeliadt et al in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Besides its value in accurate...
An analysis of the metabolic profiles of hundreds of ovarian tumors has revealed a new test to determine whether ovarian cancer cells have the potential to metastasize. The study, which was published in Molecular Systems Biology, also suggests how ovarian cancer treatments can be tailored based on...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved omacetaxine mepesuccinate (Synribo) for injection, for subcutaneous use, to include home administration, and also approved a related Medication Guide and Instructions for Use. With this approval, physicians who treat adults with chronic- or...