In a phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Mateo et al found that the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) produced a high response rate in patients with previously treated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with tumors exhibiting defects in DNA repair genes....
The final analysis of a European Dermatologic Cooperative Oncology Group phase III trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Mohr et al, showed that adjuvant intermittent vs standard high-dose intravenous interferon alfa-2b was associated with no difference in overall survival but...
In a Canadian phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Chow et al found that prophylactic dexamethasone reduced the incidence of radiation-induced pain flare compared with placebo in patients receiving palliative radiotherapy for bone metastases. Study Details In this double-blind trial,...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Renfro et al found that low but not high body mass index (BMI) was associated with poorer progression-free and overall survival in patients receiving first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. The analysis included individual...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, Kim and Prasad found that few oncology drugs receiving FDA approval on the basis of surrogate endpoints currently have evidence of an overall survival benefit. In the study, all approvals from January 1, 2008, through December 31, ...
Two phase III trials, reported in JAMA by Fleshman et al and Stevenson et al, failed to show noninferiority of surgical outcome for laparoscopic vs open resection in patients with rectal cancer. ACOSOG Z6051 Trial In the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z6051 trial, reported...
In a trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Baron et al found that daily vitamin D and calcium supplementation did not reduce recurrence of colorectal adenomas in patients with recently diagnosed adenomas and no known polyps remaining after complete colonoscopy. Study Details In...
In the phase III BEACON trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Perez et al found that etirinotecan pegol was not associated with a significant increase in overall survival compared with physician’s choice of treatment in women with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer previously...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Advani et al, the cumulative incidence of cardiac events remained significantly higher at 6 years in breast cancer patients who received adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the NCCTG N9831/Alliance trial. However, few new congestive heart failure...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corso et al found that chemoradiotherapy was associated with an overall survival benefit vs chemotherapy in elderly patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Study Details The study involved National Cancer ...
In a UK-based phase III trial (AML17) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Burnett et al found that a chemotherapy-free regimen of arsenic trioxide plus all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) did not improve quality of life, the primary endpoint, vs ATRA plus idarubicin in patients with acute promyelocytic...
As reported by King et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 29-year longitudinal experience at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center indicates an annual 2% risk of breast cancer in women with lobular carcinoma in situ. Risk was reduced with chemoprevention. Study Details The study involved...
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc's telotristat etiprate was shown to have clinical benefit in treating carcinoid syndrome in cancer patients not adequately controlled by long-acting somatostatin analog therapy, the current standard of care, according to data from the phase III TELESTAR study presented...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Motzer et al found that the combination of the multi–tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib (Lenvima) plus the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) significantly improved progression-free survival vs everolimus alone in patients with...
In a multi-institutional phase II trial (ACOSOG Z6041) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Garcia-Aguilar et al found that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and local excision was associated with an acceptable disease-free survival rate, albeit not so high as anticipated, in patients with clinical stage...
In a UK phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Symonds et al found that the addition of the investigational VEGFR1, -2, and -3 inhibitor cediranib to carboplatin/paclitaxel improved progression-free survival in patients with metastatic or relapsed cervical cancer. The addition of cediranib ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stewart-Merrill et al at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, have developed an approach to determining surveillance duration that attempts to balance risk of recurrence vs risk of non–renal cell carcinoma death after resection for renal cell carcinoma....
In a German noninferiority phase III trial (AIO 0207) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hegewisch-Becker et al found that maintenance treatment with bevacizumab (Avastin) was noninferior to a fluoropyrimidine plus bevacizumab in time to maintenance strategy failure following first-line treatment...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Allegra et al, ASCO has issued a provisional clinical opinion (PCO) update on extended RAS mutation testing in metastatic colorectal cancer to predict response to anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody treatment. The update revises a 2009 PCO and is based...
In a UK phase III noninferiority trial reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Hoskin et al found similar effects of single-dose ibandronate and single-dose radiotherapy on localized metastatic bone pain in patients with prostate cancer. Study Details In the open-label trial,...
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Hamadani et al describe near-complete and complete responses with the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in two heavily pretreated patients with classic Hodgkin lymphoma. Patient 1 The first patient was a 28-year-old...
As reported by Falini et al in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, dactinomycin treatment resulted in morphologic and molecular complete remission ongoing at 14 months in a patient with NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). NPM1-mutated AML may account for one-third of AML in...
In a Danish-Swedish population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, El-Galaly et al found that routine imaging for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in patients in first complete remission does not improve post-treatment survival. Study Details The study included 525 Danish and...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ambrosone et al found that risk of estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer was reduced with later age at menarche in both parous and nulliparous African American women. Greater interval between menarche and first live birth ...
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Ransohoff et al describe genetic evidence of phenotype switching from basal cell to squamous cell carcinoma in a patient receiving vismodegib (Erivedge) for basal cell carcinoma. Hedgehog signaling pathway activation, a central feature of...
Results of the phase III AHT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Eeles et al suggest that adjuvant hormonal therapy may improve survival in women with epithelial ovarian cancer. The trial, started in 1990, was stopped early due to low recruitment. Study Details In the open-label ...
As reported by Solin et al in Journal of Clinical Oncology, 12-year results from the ECOG-ACRIN E5194 trial indicate that among women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with low-risk clinical and pathologic characteristics, surgical excision without radiation therapy was associated with...
In a study reported in The Lancet, Smyth et al found that alcohol consumption was associated with increased risk of cancer at sites known to be related to alcohol consumption, with evidence of increased risk being found in both higher- and lower-income countries. The study examined associations...
In a phase IIb trial reported in The Lancet, Trimble et al found that a therapeutic synthetic vaccine (VGX-3100) targeting human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 and 18 E6 and E7 proteins increased the frequency of regression of HPV-16/18–related cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2/3 vs...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ligibel et al found that body mass index (BMI) at diagnosis was independently prognostic for recurrence-free and overall survival in women with early-stage node-positive breast cancer who received doxorubicin,...
In a noninferiority phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roa et al found no difference in overall survival, progression-free survival, or quality of life between short-course and longer-course radiotherapy in elderly or frail patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma...
In a systematic review and network meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Fujii et al found that sequential anthracycline-cyclophosphamide and taxane (AC-T) appears to be the most effective adjuvant regimen in early-stage breast cancer in terms of association with overall survival and toxicity....
As reported by Garfall et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, a patient with refractory multiple myeloma who had undergone prior autologous stem cell transplantation and multiple lines of therapy exhibited a complete response to a second autologous transplantation followed by infusion of...
As reported in JAMA Internal Medicine by Toledo et al, a large Spanish primary prevention nutrition intervention trial in patients at high cardiovascular risk (PREDIMED) showed a large reduction in risk for invasive breast cancer among women 60 to 80 years of age who were randomly assigned to the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed the current American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) guideline on treatment of small cell lung cancer, released in 2013. After review of evidence from an updated literature search covering 2011 to March 2015, an ASCO...
In a pilot study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tefferi et al found that imetelstat, which targets the RNA template of telomerase reverse transcriptase, produced responses in patients with myelofibrosis. Treatment was associated with myelosuppression in some patients. Current...
In a randomized phase IIb trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Chawla et al found that aldoxorubicin—a novel albumin-binding prodrug of doxorubicin—produced longer progression-free survival than doxorubicin as first-line treatment for metastatic or locally advanced unresectable soft-tissue...
Almost half of patients with advanced lung cancer receive more than the recommended number of radiation treatments to reduce their pain, according to a new study published by Koshy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Radiation therapy that is palliative can reduce the pain from...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Keenan et al found that African American women with breast cancer had greater intratumor genetic heterogeneity, a higher frequency of TP53 mutation, and higher risk for basal tumors compared with white women, with the characteristics...
In a recent report of single-institution experience in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kasamon et al found that nonmyeloablative-related HLA-haploidentical blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) followed by high-dose cyclophosphamide produced good outcomes in patients aged 50 to 75 years...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sundström et al found that women co-infected with high-risk and low-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) had reduced risk of squamous cervical cancer (SCC), but not cancer in situ (CIS) compared with women with high-risk HPV...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Landier et al found that education tailored to personal risk for therapy-related complications improved risk awareness in survivors of childhood cancer. The level of awareness appeared to reach a maximum after several educational sessions....
In the phase III RADIANT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kelly et al found no disease-free survival improvement with adjuvant erlotinib (Tarceva) vs placebo in patients with EGFR-expressing stage IB to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, there was evidence of ...
In a phase I/II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corcoran et al found that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) produced responses in some patients with BRAF V600–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer. MAPK...
In a randomized phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hurwitz et al found no significant survival benefit of adding the JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib (Jakafi) to capecitabine in patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma who had treatment failure with gemcitabine....
Overall survival data from a phase II study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ellis et al, suggest a benefit of first-line fulvestrant (Faslodex) vs anastrozole in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive advanced breast cancer. The study protocol was amended to...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Tosoian et al, a prospective active surveillance program resulted in good intermediate/longer-term outcomes in men with favorable-risk prostate cancer. Study Details The program included 1,298 men with very-low-risk or low-risk disease enrolled...
In an interim analysis of the phase III PROLONG trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Oers et al found that maintenance therapy with ofatumumab (Arzerra) prolonged progression-free survival vs observation in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in complete or partial remission after...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Demetri et al found that treatment with trabectedin significantly improved progression-free survival vs dacarbazine in patients with advanced liposarcoma or leiomyosarcoma after prior conventional chemotherapy. Interim analysis of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ligibel et al, ASCO has issued a statement providing recommendations for obesity clinical trials in cancer survivors. ASCO convened the Research Summit on Advancing Obesity Clinical Trials in Cancer Survivors in November 2014. The meeting involved...