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...
Radiation therapy, an emerging treatment modality for breast cancer in the lymph nodes, is associated with significantly fewer postoperative complications than axillary lymph node dissection, according to a detailed analysis of morbidity from the AMAROS trial presented at a press briefing prior to...
Quality of life is rarely reported in surgical publications, yet it can be an important metric that can be of use to physicians and patients when making treatment decisions. Prior studies of average-risk patients undergoing lobectomy suggested that low baseline quality-of-life scores predict worse...
Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have employed a novel DNA vaccine that indirectly kills cancer cells by targeting a protein found in the tumor vasculature. The vaccine also indirectly creates an immune response to the ...
Most drugs used to treat lung, breast, and pancreatic cancers also promote drug resistance and ultimately spur tumor growth. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine have discovered a biomarker called CD61 on the surface of drug-resistant tumors that may be...
Scientists have identified two unlikely partners found in macrophages that work together in response to cancer drugs to increase inflammation in a way that may alter tumor growth. The study by Lowe et al was published in Cancer Research. These partners are the p53 protein that suppresses tumors...
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified new mutations in pediatric high-grade gliomas. The findings by Wu et al were published in Nature Genetics and may lead to improved outcomes for children with these brain...
Using comprehensive genomic analysis, researchers have sorted low-grade brain tumors into three categories, one of which has the molecular hallmarks and shortened survival of glioblastoma multiforme, the most lethal of brain tumors. The findings were reported at the American Association for Cancer...
Men with localized prostate cancer that is at risk of growing and spreading have a lower risk of disease progression and recurrence if they are treated with radiotherapy combined with androgen-deprivation therapy, according to new research. The findings, which were presented at the 33rd Conference...
Research in mice and human cell lines has identified an experimental compound dubbed TTT-3002 as potentially one of the most potent drugs available to block genetic mutations in cancer cells blamed for some forms of treatment-resistant leukemia. The study by Ma et al, published in Blood, found that ...
A large prospective study of patients with invasive colorectal cancer has found that higher body mass index 2 years before diagnosis increased risk of all-cause mortality after diagnosis, even in patients whose tumors harbored a marker that is usually associated with better prognosis. The...
Among patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with the investigational immune checkpoint inhibitor MK-3475, those whose tumors had high levels of the protein PD-L1 had significantly better outcomes, according to results of a phase I clinical trial presented at the American...
Patients with cancer of the throat and who are positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) have a good prognosis, but until now the effect of being HPV-positive on the prognosis of tumors located elsewhere in the head and neck was unknown. A new study presented at the 33rd Conference of the...
In a series of studies involving 140 American men and women with liver tumors, researchers at Johns Hopkins have used specialized three-dimensional (3D) MRI scans to precisely measure living and dying tumor tissue to quickly show whether highly toxic chemotherapy is working. The investigators said ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) committee of genetic experts has determined that Cologuard, a stool-based DNA, noninvasive screening test for colorectal cancer, has demonstrated safety, effectiveness, and a favorable risk-benefit profile. The FDA is now considering the...
Scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, and Houston Methodist, Houston, have found that a gene previously unassociated with breast cancer plays a pivotal role in the growth and progression of the triple-negative form of the disease. The research by Chen et al, published in Nature,...
A retrospective study has shown that two targeted therapy drugs—erlotinib (Tarceva) and gefitinib (Iressa)—achieved similar outcomes among people with metastatic or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring an EGFR mutation. These EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors have...
Both obesity and diabetes have adverse effects on outcomes in breast cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to research presented at the 9th European Breast Cancer Conference. Although a high body mass index (BMI) is known to have a negative impact on cancer development and ...
Women whose breast cancer has spread to just a few lymph nodes under their arm are less likely to have their disease recur or to die from it if they have radiotherapy after mastectomy, according to new research presented today at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Glasgow and published in The ...
Adult survivors of childhood cancer face significant health problems as they age and are five times more likely than their siblings to develop new cancers, heart disease, and other serious health conditions beyond the age of 35, according to the latest findings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor...
A large retrospective cohort study by Potosky et al of 15,170 men with early-stage prostate cancer has found that patients who received androgen deprivation as their primary treatment instead of surgery or radiation did not live any longer than those who received no curative-intent treatment. Men...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has expanded its Survivorship Guidelines to include a section on cancer-associated cognitive impairment, and to include chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy as a component of the Adult Cancer Pain section. The inaugural guidelines for...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is recommending that newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients be screened for Lynch syndrome, previously called hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. The NCCN’s proactive position should greatly help identify individuals and their...
The first-ever comprehensive assessment of challenges facing the U.S. cancer care system suggests that patient access to cancer care will be threatened as growing demand for care outstrips the supply of oncologists, and as cost pressures force the closure of small physician practices that form the...
In a phase IIB study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Guarneri et al compared neoadjuvant letrozole plus lapatinib (Tykerb) or placebo in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Response rates were similar in the two groups, but a...
Many breast cancer survivors experience fatigue and other debilitating symptoms that persist months to years after their course of treatment has ended. Now researchers at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have found clues that may explain how these symptoms can linger. Chemotherapy...
A novel approach to cancer immunotherapy may provide a new and cost-effective strategy against ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. In a study published in the Journal of Hematology & Oncology, Yuan et al reported that a fusion protein engineered to combine a molecule targeting a tumor-cell-surface ...
Immunotherapy for ovarian, breast, and colorectal cancer has so far had limited success, primarily because the immune system often can’t destroy the cancer cells. According to a report published in Oncotarget, researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified genes that have been repressed through ...
For women with breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy, yoga offers unique benefits beyond fighting fatigue, according to a study by Chandwani et al published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. While simple stretching activities counteracted fatigue, patients who participated in yoga exercises ...
A large population-based study by Landgren et al has found that African Americans are more likely to have a higher prevalence of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a precursor to the development of multiple myeloma, compared with whites or Hispanics. The study is published...
A multicenter study led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that high-dose supplementation with both the trace element selenium and vitamin E may increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer. This risk is dependent upon a man’s selenium status prior to taking the...
A common compound known to fight lymphoma and skin conditions actually has a second method of action that makes it particularly deadly against certain aggressive breast tumors, according to a study reported by Xia et al in PLOS ONE. The compound, psoralen, is a natural component found in foods such ...
New research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Georgia Regents University has found that a protein that regulates an inflammatory pathway does not turn off in breast cancer, resulting in an increase in cancer stem cells. This finding may provide a potential target for...
Using whole-genome mRNA-expression profiling, researchers have identified three molecular subtypes of muscle-invasive bladder cancers that shared molecular features with basal and luminal breast cancers. The findings have important implications for prognostication, the future clinical development...
Researchers have discovered a preleukemic stem cell that may be the first step in initiating disease and also the culprit that evades therapy and triggers relapse in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The research, published online in Nature, is a significant step forward in...
The Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) formed a multidisciplinary expert panel in 2013 to examine the relationship between surgical margin width and ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence and develop guidelines on margins for breast-conserving...
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a highly accurate, noninvasive test to identify benign pancreatic cysts, which could spare patients the cost and risk of surveillance or potentially dangerous surgical intervention. The findings are reported in the Journal of...