In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Surgery, Shapiro et al found that use of radiotherapy in unresectable pancreas cancer has decreased over time and that disparities in use can be identified. Decreasing Use The study involved Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data...
In an analysis of overall survival in the phase III LUX-Lung 3 and LUX-Lung 6 trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yang et al found no significant difference between afatinib (Gilotrif) vs pemetrexed (Alimta)-cisplatin (LUX-Lung 3) or vs gemcitabine-cisplatin (LUX-Lung 6) in previously...
In a Swedish study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Holm et al found that interval cancers in women with low mammographic density breasts were more aggressive vs screen-detected cancers in these women and vs interval cancers in women with dense breasts. Use of hormone replacement...
The phase III Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) 240 trial showed that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy prolonged survival in patients with advanced cervical cancer. An analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology by Penson et al showed no reduction in quality of life among patients...
In a phase III trial to assess whether whole-breast irradiation could be omitted in women aged ≥ 65 years with early-stage breast cancer undergoing breast-conserving surgery and receiving adjuvant endocrine treatment, Kunkler et al found increased risk of local recurrence in women not receiving...
Interaction of the estrogen receptor and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways and the finding of resistance to hormonal therapy mediated by PI3K activation suggest a benefit of adding an mTOR inhibitor to hormonal treatment in endometrial carcinoma. In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical...
In the phase II CONCERT-2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Giralt et al found that treatment with the EGFR inhibitor panitumumab (Vectibix) plus concurrent radiotherapy was associated with poorer local-regional control vs cisplatin chemoradiation in previously untreated patients with...
In the phase II CONCERT-1 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Mesía et al found that adding the EGFR inhibitor panitumumab (Vectibix) to standard cisplatin chemoradiation provided no benefit in previously untreated patients with unresected stage III to IVB head and neck squamous cell...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Teulings et al found that development of vitiligo in patients receiving immunotherapy for stage III or IV melanoma was a significant predictor of improved progression-free and overall survival. The study...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Perez et al found that an immune function gene profile was associated with significantly improved relapse-free survival among patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer who had trastuzumab (Herceptin) added to adjuvant chemotherapy ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ng et al found consistent trends suggesting benefit of aspirin use and COX-2 inhibitor use on recurrence-free, disease-free, and overall survival in patients with stage III colon cancer. Study Details This prospective...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Lyman et al, an ASCO update committee recommended no changes to the 2013 clinical practice guideline for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis and treatment after review of 53 new publications in the area that became available between...
In a retrospective analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Costa et al found that crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment resulted in high systemic and intracranial disease control rates in patients with ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had asymptomatic brain...
As reported by Stitzenberg et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a study examining the effect of travel distance on inpatient readmission and outcome after major cancer surgery found that predictors of readmission included discharge to somewhere other than home, longer length of stay,...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Vannucchi et al found that the JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib (Jakafi) produced significantly better hematocrit control and reduction in spleen volume than standard treatment in patients with polycythemia vera with inadequate...
In a European open-label noninferiority trial (German Hodgkin Study Group [GHSG)] HD13) reported in The Lancet, Behringer et al found poorer outcomes with omission of dacarbazine or bleomycin from treatment with ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) in patients with...
Some data suggest that migraine is associated with reduced risk of breast cancer. In a prospective cohort study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Winter et al found no association between migraine and breast cancer risk or endogenous sex hormone levels. A meta-analysis...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Farooqui et al found that single-agent ibrutinib (Imbruvica) had good activity in patients with previously untreated or relapse/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with TP53 aberrations. Study Details In this single-arm trial, 51...
In a Danish retrospective population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bertelsen et al found that complete mesocolic excision resulted in better disease-free survival compared with conventional colon resection in patients with stage I to III colon cancer. Study Details The study...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Bradley and colleagues, the phase III Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 0617 trial showed no survival benefit of high- vs standard-dose radiotherapy or for addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to concurrent paclitaxel-carboplatin chemoradiation in patients with...
In the final analysis of overall survival in the COU-AA-302 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ryan et al, the addition of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) to prednisone significantly prolonged survival in chemotherapy-naive patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer. Abiraterone had...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Arem et al found that increased leisure-time physical activity prior to and increased activity after colorectal cancer diagnosis were associated with improved overall survival, as was less television watching prior to diagnosis. Study ...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jaiswal et al found somatic mutations associated with hematologic cancers at increasing frequency with increasing age, with presence of the mutations being associated with increased risk of hematologic cancers, all-cause mortality,...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by McCormick et al, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9804 trial showed that radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery reduced local failure vs observation in women with good-risk ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The study was designed...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Genovese et al found that clonal hematopoiesis with somatic mutations is increasingly common with greater age and is associated with increased risk of hematologic cancer. The presence of such clonal hematopoiesis in apparently healthy...
In an Italian Sarcoma Group phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Grignani et al found that the combination of sorafenib (Nexavar) and everolimus (Afinitor) was active in unresectable high-grade osteosarcoma progressing after standard treatment, but did not produce the study goal of ≥...
As reported by Pisansky et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9910 trial showed no benefit of extending the duration of pre–radiation therapy androgen suppression on survival or disease control among patients with localized prostate cancer....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mittendorf et al found no differences in recurrence-free, disease-specific, or overall survival between patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage IA breast cancer and those with stage IB disease. Estrogen receptor status...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chubb et al found that genetic diagnosis of high-penetrance susceptibility to colorectal cancer can be achieved in a sizeable proportion of familial colorectal cancer cases via exome sequencing for germline mutations. Study Details The...
In a Chinese study reported in JAMA, Huang et al found that treatment with entecavir (guanosine analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor) reduced hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatitis and HBV reactivation compared with lamivudine (cytidine analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor) in HBV-positive...
In the phase III SEARCH trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhu et al found no overall survival benefit of adding erlotinib (Tarceva) to sorafenib (Nexavar) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In this double-blind trial conducted in 26 countries in...
In a study in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Cohort reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hudson et al found that poor health status was more common in survivors than in siblings, with an age-related increase in prevalence particularly evident in female survivors. In the study, 22,568...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Le et al found that adding Listeria monocytogenes–expressing mesothelin (CRS-207) boost to GVAX pancreas vaccine priming resulted in improved overall survival in patients with previously treated metastatic pancreas adenocarcinoma....
It is estimated that approximately 2% to 7% of U.S. adult patients with cancer participate in clinical trials, and poor geographic accessibility of clinical trial sites contributes to this low participation. In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Galsky et al found that approximately 40% to ...
In a phase II trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ramalingam et al found that the addition of the VEGFR and PDGFR inhibitor linifanib to carboplatin-paclitaxel increased progression-free survival in patients with advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The...
In the phase II SN FNAC (Sentinel Node Biopsy Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy) trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Boileau et al found a sentinel node biopsy false-negative rate of 8.4% with mandatory use of immunohistochemistry and a sentinel node biopsy identification rate of...
In an analysis of the Study Alliance Leukemia (SAL) AML 2003 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Röllig et al found that allogeneic stem cell transplantation significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival in patients with NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). NPM1...
In a phase II trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dang et al found that the addition of weekly paclitaxel to trastuzumab (Herceptin)/pertuzumab (Perjeta) produced good activity in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Paclitaxel may be a less toxic alternative to...
In an integrated analysis of two phase II trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Garcia et al found that treatment with anamorelin, an oral ghrelin-receptor agonist with appetite-enhancing and anabolic activity, produced a gain in lean body mass in patients with cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome. ...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roscoe et al found that cognitive behavioral therapy combined with placebo or the wakefulness-promoting agent armodafinil (Nuvigil) had similar beneficial effects on insomnia and sleep quality in cancer survivors. Study Details In the study, 96 ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frazier et al used data from U.S. and UK clinical trials to identify a high-risk group of patients with pediatric extracranial germ cell tumors. Study Details The study involved data from seven germ cell tumor trials conducted by the...
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Slotman et al found that while thoracic radiotherapy vs no thoracic radiotherapy was not associated with a significant improvement in 1-year overall survival, the primary endpoint of the study, it significantly improved 2-year overall survival and...
Approximately 5% to 6% of cases of colorectal cancer are associated with germline mutations conferring an inherited predisposition for disease. As reported by Stoffel et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed, with qualifying statements, the European Society for Medical Oncology...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Palmer et al found that Asian cancer survivors reported poorer care communication and care quality compared with white patients. Study Details The study involved 1,196 survivors of breast, prostate, colorectal, ovarian, and endometrial...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Edelman et al found no benefit of adding the daily COX-2 inhibitor apricoxib to second-line docetaxel or pemetrexed (Alimta) in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who exhibited suppressed levels of the urinary...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Klotz et al found that 1.5% of prostate cancer patients in a Canadian active surveillance cohort died from the disease during up to 16 years of follow-up. Study Details The study involved 993 men with favorable-risk prostate cancer who were ...
Retrospective analyses of the ATAC, TEAM, and BIG 1-98 adjuvant endocrine therapy trials in breast cancer have suggested that treatment-emergent endocrine symptoms may be associated with superior survival outcomes. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stearns et al found no...
In a national retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Kummerow et al found that an increased proportion of women with breast cancer eligible for breast-conserving surgery have undergone mastectomy during recent years. The study involved data from > 1.2 million women with...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Greco et al updated a 2008 systematic review on cancer pain management. Improvements were seen between 2008 and 2013, but approximately one-third of patients still do not receive pain medication adequate for reported pain intensity. Changes...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wuthrick et al found that patients with stage III or IV head and neck cancer in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0129 trial who were treated at historically high-accruing centers in RTOG clinical trials had significantly better...