The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) today released its final recommendation statement on screening for oral cancer in adults without signs or symptoms of oral cancer who are seen by primary care providers. This recommendation focuses on primary care professionals and is not a...
In a post hoc analysis reported in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, Galet et al analyzed the effects of diet on men with prostate cancer. They found that men who were on a low-fat diet and fish oil supplementation had lower cell-cycle progression scores, which are associated with less...
ASCO has policy and procedures for endorsing clinical practice guidelines developed by other professional organizations. As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Meyerhardt et al of the ASCO Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee, ASCO has endorsed the Cancer Care Ontario (CCO)...
PARP inhibition appears to be an effective way to shrink PTEN-deficient endometrial tumors with low levels of estrogen but is ineffective in those with high levels of estrogen, according to preclinical study results reported by Janzen et al in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. The findings suggest...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today expanded the approved uses of sorafenib (Nexavar) to treat late-stage differentiated thyroid cancer. The new indication is for patients with locally recurrent or metastatic, progressive differentiated thyroid cancer that no longer responds to radioactive...
In a study reported in the journal PLoS One, Allison Jones, MD, of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health, University College London, and colleagues analyzed the functional role of epigenetic factors in endometrial cancer development. They found that HAND2 methylation...
A team of researchers looking into the interplay of the immune system and cancer have found a link between a history of airborne allergies—in particular to plants, grass, and trees—with risk of blood cancers in women. The same association was not found in men, suggesting a possible...
In a study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Neil Bhattacharyya, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Elliot Abemayor, MD, PhD, of David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, analyzed recent patterns of hospitalization for head and neck...
Brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) is active in patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In a phase I study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Anas Younes, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (formerly of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), and colleagues...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted regular approval for crizotinib (Xalkori) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test. Today’s...
An investigational prostate cancer treatment slows the disease’s progression and may increase survival, especially among men whose cancer has spread to the bones, according an analysis led by the Duke Cancer Institute. The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, adds...
Combining gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) with conventional chemotherapy may improve the outcome of bone marrow transplantation for some children battling high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The results appear in the...
Approximately 50% of metastatic melanomas harbor the BRAF mutation, and although most of these melanomas respond dramatically to treatment with BRAF inhibitors, such as vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and dabrafenib (Tafinlar), nearly all develop resistance to the drugs within 7 to 8 months. While previous...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dale Han, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, and colleagues in the Sentinel Lymph Node Working Group attempted to identify factors predictive of sentinel lymph node metastasis in thin melanomas. They found that Breslow thickness ≥ 0.75 mm, ...
In a randomized noninferiority trial (TARGIT-A) reported in The Lancet, Jayant S. Vaidya, PhD, and Michael Baum, MD, of University College London, and colleagues compared risk-adapted radiotherapy using single-dose targeted intraoperative radiotherapy vs fractionated external-beam radiotherapy in...
Results from a University of Colorado Cancer Center study indicated that bevacizumab (Avastin) resistance in patients with colorectal cancer may be due to increases in growth factors other than the targeted VEGF-A. The study, led by Christopher Lieu, MD, and published in the journal PLoS One,...
In a study reported in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, Eileen Danaher Hacker, PhD, APN, AOCN, of the University of Illinois College of Nursing, and colleagues attempted to identify and quantify nocturnal care disruptions in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. They ...
In a study reported in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Jiemin Ma, PhD, MHS, and colleagues from the American Cancer Society investigated trends in pancreatic cancer death rates in the United States between 1970 and 2009. They found that death rates have been increasing in white men and...
In a study reported in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Mei-Yin C. Polley, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues assessed intralaboratory and interlaboratory variability in Ki67 scoring. They found high intralaboratory reproducibility but only moderate interlaboratory...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Carrie L. Williams, MB, BCh, of University College London, and colleagues analyzed risk for cancers among UK children born after assisted conception. They found no increased risk of cancer overall or for individual cancer types except...
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Edward S. Kim, MD, of Levine Cancer Institute, Carolinas HealthCare System, and colleagues investigated whether the addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to pemetrexed (Alimta) improved progression-free survival in patients with recurrent or...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma, an aggressive B-cell lymphoma that represents about 6% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases in the United States. The drug, a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is ...
History of severe acne, which is a surrogate for high androgen activity, has been associated with increased risk of prostate cancer and recent data suggest that severe teenage acne is a risk factor for melanoma. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wen-Qing Li, PhD, of the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kevin R. Krill, PhD, and colleagues from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital assessed neurocognitive function in adult survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They found pervasive significant impairment across...
On October 31, 2013, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of ponatinib, agreed to an FDA request to suspend marketing and sales of the drug due to the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. The FDA states that it will continue to evaluate ponatinib to further ...
Hopes are high that TAS-102, a novel oral nucleoside agent, will turn out to be an advance in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, said Howard Hochster, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program at Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, speaking at the Chemotherapy Foundation...
The strategy of autologous stem cell transplantation as consolidation in high-intermediate– or high-risk diffuse aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has not been specifically examined in the rituximab (Rituxan) era. In a phase III trial (Southwest Oncology Group 9704) reported in The New...
Novocure announced today that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its NovoTAL (Transducer Array Layout) System through a Premarket Approval supplement. The NovoTAL System allows certified physicians to use the individual magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of...
The investigational anti–PD-1 immunotherapy MK-3475 showed promising objective response rates in patients with previously treated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The interim data were presented by Edward Garon, MD, Director of Thoracic Oncology at Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for use in combination with chlorambucil (Leukeran) to treat patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Obinutuzumab is the first drug with Breakthrough Therapy designation to receive FDA...
Results from the Costa Rica HPV16/18 Vaccine Trial (CVT) has found that 4-year efficacy against 12-month HPV16/18 persistent infection was similarly high among women who received one, two, or the recommended three doses of the bivalent HPV16/18 L1 virus-like particle vaccine (Cervarix). The...
The inclusion of multiple hormones—rather than just adding one or two individually—in breast cancer risk prediction models may improve prediction of the disease and could help better identify women who would benefit from chemoprevention, according to a study by Shelley S. Tworoger, PhD, ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked the manufacturer of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib (Iclusig) to suspend marketing and sales of the drug because of the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. Ariad Pharmaceuticals has agreed to...
Standardized criteria for initiating palliative care consultations can substantially improve the care of patients with advanced solid tumors, according to research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, led by Kerin Adelson, MD, Coordinator for Ambulatory Oncology Quality for the Tisch...
A new educational tool for oncologists may enhance compliance with quality care standards and improve the value of cancer care, ultimately resulting in big cost savings for health-care systems, according to Karen Fields, MD, and colleagues from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute,...
In a Canadian study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kerry S. Courneya, PhD, of the University of Alberta, and colleagues assessed the impact of different levels of physical exercise on physical functioning in women receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer....
In a phase I trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, and colleagues assessed the effects of nivolumab—a human immunoglobulin G4-blocking antibody against the T-cell programmed death 1 checkpoint ...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have the ALK gene rearrangement usually respond to the drug crizotinib (Xalkori), with a median duration of response of approximately 10 months. In a study reported by Shirish Gadgeel, MD, of Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, and colleagues at...
Both pemetrexed (Alimta) and gefitinib (Iressa) are standard second-line treatments for advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in East Asia. In a phase II trial (CTONG 0806) reported at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s 15th World Conference...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today announced its second “Top Five” list of opportunities to improve the quality and value of cancer care. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), ASCO’s second Top Five list was released as part of the Choosing...
The National Lung Screening Trial reported a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality achieved through low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening of the at-risk population, compared to screening with chest x-ray. However, challenges with the clinical implication of CT screening for lung cancer...
Men with short-ended chromosomes in the immune cells in their blood were at increased risk for aggressive prostate cancer compared with men with long-ended chromosomes in blood immune cells, according to results presented at the 12th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Taxiarchis V. Kourelis, MD, and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic attempted to define a threshold of bone marrow plasma cell number that could serve to define light chain amyloidosis as light chain amyloidosis with multiple myeloma. They found that ...
According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 10 years, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will result in approximately 25 million newly insured individuals and 12 million more Medicaid beneficiaries through the the Medicaid expansion provision. While the law provides...
A newly discovered potential gene-diet interaction for colorectal cancer may shed light on the statistically significant increased risk of colorectal cancer that is associated with consumption of red and processed meat, according to a study reported yesterday at the American Society of Human...
Patient assistance programs can help patients with breast cancer meet a variety of needs that might otherwise interfere with getting recommended adjuvant therapies such as radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal treatments, according to a study published recently in the online edition of...
New research ties preparative procedures and complications associated with blood or bone marrow transplant with diminished sexual health in both men and women who have undergone the procedure. Study data, published today in Blood, confirm chronic graft-vs-host disease as a potential source of...
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Ségolène Hescot, MD, of Université Paris Descartes, and colleagues reported evidence of irreversible pancreatic atrophy in two patients after long-term sorafenib treatment. Both patients received cumulative doses of sorafenib...
In patients with heavily pretreated advanced BRCA-related breast and ovarian cancers, the investigational poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor BMN673 produced an objective response rate of more than 40% and delayed disease progression by more than 6 months, according to a multicenter phase ...
Patients with pancreatic cancer may benefit from an investigational member of an emerging class of anticancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, according to preclinical results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held October...