Negative 18F–fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) after two cycles of chemotherapy (PET2) has been shown to be associated with favorable prognosis in Hodgkin lymphoma. In a prospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hutchings et...
In the phase III international AFFIRM trial, enzalutamide (Xtandi) was shown to improve overall survival vs placebo in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after progression on docetaxel. In an analysis of secondary endpoints reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fizazi et al found...
It is unclear whether somatic mutations that are strongly associated with phenotype and prognosis in myelodysplastic syndrome are also predictive of outcome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bejar et al found that...
In the phase II Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 40603/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sikov et al found that the addition of carboplatin or bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response rate in...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Antoniou et al identified lifetime risk of breast cancer in families with germline loss-of-function mutations in PALB2. Estimated cumulative risk among female mutation carriers was 14% by 50 years of age and 35% by 70 years of age....
In a Children’s Oncology Group phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gamis et al found that the addition of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), an immunoconjugate targeting CD33, resulted in significantly prolonged event-free survival but not overall survival when added...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Walker et al found that among nonelderly patients with the top 10 most lethal cancers, those with Medicaid or no insurance were more likely to present with advanced disease and less likely to receive cancer-directed surgery or radiation...
Risk-adjusted margin positivity rate has been suggested for use as a rectal cancer surgery quality metric. In an observational cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Massarweh et al from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center identified risk-adjusted margin positivity ...
In a UK population-based cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cardwell et al found that statin use after diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with a 29% reduction in colorectal cancer–specific mortality and a 25% reduction in all-cause mortality. Improvements...
In a study of use of breast cancer screening modalities in the Medicare population reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Killelea et al found significant increases in use of digital image acquisition and computer-aided detection and cost of screening, but no increase in rate of...
In a trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Bochner et al found no difference in complication rates or length of hospital stay with robot-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy vs open surgery in patients with bladder cancer. Blood loss was greater and procedure time shorter with...
An analysis in the population of the National Patient Navigation Research Program reported by Ko et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that patient navigation significantly improves the likelihood of receiving antiestrogen treatment among hormone receptor–positive breast cancer...
In a Taiwanese retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, Tseng et al found that diabetes was associated with increased risk of head and neck cancer, including increased risk of oral cavity, oropharyngeal, and nasopharyngeal cancers. Study Details...
The activating mutation MYD88 L265P has been reported in approximately two-thirds of cases of primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, leg-type. In a French retrospective analysis reported in JAMA Dermatology, Pham-Ledard et al confirmed the high prevalence of the mutation and documented...
In an analysis of patients with operable triple-negative breast cancer in two Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) adjuvant trials, Adams and colleagues found that higher stromal compartment tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte levels were associated with significantly improved disease-free survival, ...
In a European analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Davies et al found that pathologic tumor downstaging after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was the strongest independent predictor of overall survival in patients undergoing surgery for esophageal and esophagogastric junction...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sabine et al found that PIK3CA mutation was not an independent predictor of distant relapse-free survival among postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy in the TEAM (Exemestane...
A study reported by Gragert et al in The New England Journal of Medicine indicates that most candidates for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the United States will have a suitable adult donor on the basis of HLA matching, although many will not have optimal donors. Few will have optimal...
In a phase II Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Miller et al found that the combination of pemetrexed (Alimta) and cisplatin produced responses in the treatment of advanced, persistent, or recurrent cervical cancer. In the study, 54 patients from...
In a letter to the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Richter et al describe a potential tyrosine kinase inhibitor withdrawal syndrome characterized by musculoskeletal pain after stopping tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Onset After Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor...
BCR-ABL1–like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a recently identified B-cell ALL subtype associated with poor outcome, has a gene-expression profile similar to BCR-ABL1–positive disease without the presence of the BCR-ABL1 fusion protein. In a retrospective analysis reported in the...
Multicentric Castleman’s disease is characterized by overproduction of interleukin-6 (IL-6). In a trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Rhee et al found that the anti–IL-6 antibody siltuximab (Sylvant) produced a significantly better response rate vs placebo in patients with the...
A study reported by Meghani et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that African American patients with cancer pain are more likely than white patients to receive morphine, with its known 3- and 6-glucuronide neurotoxic metabolites, despite their higher reported risk for chronic kidney...
The oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica) has shown activity in relapsed and refractory B-cell malignancies. In a phase Ib trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Younes et al identified no maximum tolerated dose of ibrutinib when combined with R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan],...
In a phase Ib study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ribas et al found that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and the MEK inhibitor cobimetinib was safe and active in the treatment of advanced BRAF V600–mutant melanoma. Preclinical studies have shown that the...
There is considerable concern that uterine morcellation as part of minimally invasive hysterectomy may result in the spread of undetected malignancies. In a study reported in JAMA, Wright et al identified a prevalence of 27 cases of uterine cancer and 7 cases of other gynecologic malignancies per...
As reported by Motzer et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the randomized phase II RECORD-3 trial showed that first-line use of everolimus did not achieve noninferiority in progression-free survival vs sunitinib (Sutent) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma receiving sequential...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cohen et al found that induction chemotherapy before chemoradiotherapy did not improve overall survival vs chemoradiotherapy alone in patients with N2 or N3 locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The study...
Bevacizumab (Avastin) is frequently used in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, although it is unclear whether responses observed with such treatment result in improved overall survival. In the phase II Dutch BELOB study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Taal et al found that overall survival...
In a Scottish study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zgaga et al found strong associations between plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer and colorectal cancer–specific and all-cause mortality. Significant interactions of vitamin D...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Xing et al found that the combined presence of BRAF V600E and TERT C228T mutations was associated with increased risk of recurrence and poor disease-free survival in patients with papillary thyroid cancer. The retrospective study included 365...
Primary androgen-deprivation therapy has been widely used in localized prostate cancer, despite absence of definitive evidence of benefit in early-stage disease. In a large population-based cohort study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Lu-Yao et al found that primary androgen-deprivation therapy ...
In a small Norwegian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Paulsen et al found that methylprednisolone treatment improved fatigue, appetite loss, and patient satisfaction but not pain in patients with advanced cancer receiving opioid treatment for pain. Study Details In the study,...
In a population-based cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Prasad et al found that men with depressive disorder prior to prostate cancer diagnosis were significantly less likely to undergo definitive therapy and had worse overall survival across all risk strata compared with...
As reported in The Lancet by Robert et al, the anti–programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) antibody pembrolizumab produced responses and was well tolerated at two dose levels in an expansion cohort of a phase I trial in patients with ipilimumab (Yervoy)-refractory advanced melanoma. In this...
In the open-label phase III AZURE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Coleman et al found that adjuvant zoledronic acid treatment in patients with high-risk early-stage breast cancer provided no overall disease-free survival benefit. A reduction in bone metastases was observed, and women who...
The antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) is currently indicated in the United States for treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who previously received trastuzumab (Herceptin) and a taxane and who have either received prior therapy for metastatic...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Waller et al found that higher marrow graft, but not peripheral blood graft, levels of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and naive CD4-positive and CD8-positive T cells in unrelated donors were associated with increased overall survival in...
As reported by Sant et al in The Lancet Oncology, the population based EUROCARE-5 study has shown significantly improved survival in hematologic malignancies in Europe between 1997 and 2008. Although improved, survival was poorer in Eastern Europe compared with other regions. Study Details This...
Most older men with low-risk prostate cancer receive upfront treatment, despite absence of clear survival benefit and potential for morbidity. In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Hoffman et al found that use of observation as management in this setting varied widely...
In a retrospective analysis in the HF-ACTION trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jones et al found that a program of aerobic training did not reduce the rate of all-cause mortality or hospitalization in cancer patients with heart failure. Some evidence suggested that patients who...
In a phase II Intergroupe Francophone du Myélome (IFM) trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Roussel et al, induction and consolidation treatment with RVD (lenalidomide [Revlimid], bortezomib [Velcade], and dexamethasone) followed by lenalidomide maintenance was associated...
In a European study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maurichi et al identified lymphovascular invasion and regression as important prognostic factors in thin melanoma. They developed a nomogram including age, mitotic rate, ulceration, lymphovascular invasion, regression, and sentinel...
Nasal cavity and paranasal sinus tumors are rare and comprise multiple histologic types, making comparative therapeutic trials difficult. In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Patel et al found that that charged-particle therapy appeared to be associated with...
Lieu et al recently analyzed the effect of age on outcome in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer using the ARCAD (Aide et Recherche en Cancérologie Digestive) database. The findings, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicate a U-shaped risk of death and death or...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Noreen et al found that aspirin and hormone-replacement therapy reduced age-related gene promoter DNA methylation, and smoking and high body mass index (BMI) increased methylation in the colonic mucosa in women. Similar...
In a case report in JAMA Dermatology, Grieshaber et al describe finding cutaneous embolization of doxorubicin-eluting microspheres following transarterial chemoembolization in a woman with unresectable liver metastasis from breast cancer. Presentation The patient presented with painful pruritic...
In the phase II Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)-0234 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Harari et al found that adjuvant chemoradiation with docetaxel or cisplatin plus cetuximab (Erbitux) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and high-risk...
ODM-201 is a novel androgen receptor inhibitor—structurally distinct from enzalutamide (Xtandi)—that acts via high-affinity binding to the androgen receptor and inhibition of receptor nuclear translocation. In the phase I/II ARADES trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fizazi et al...
An analysis of data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study reported by Siddiqui et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that vasectomy is associated with a modestly but significantly increased risk of high-grade and lethal prostate cancer. The study involved data from 49,405...