In the first phase III trial assessing the combination of an insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) inhibitor with chemotherapy as first-line treatment for advanced nonadenocarcinoma non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the addition of the fully human immunoglobulin G2 monoclonal...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Tammemägi et al assessed smoking cessation rates among participants undergoing chest x-ray or computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Among patients without a subsequent ...
Weekly paclitaxel is used as second-line treatment in advanced gastric cancer, including HER2-positive disease, in Asian countries. In the phase III TyTAN trial in Asian patients reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Satoh et al assessed the addition of the anti-HER2 agent lapatinib...
A study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by Stout et al suggests that the switch from film to digital mammography screening in the United States has produced a small health benefit at increased cost and with an increased false-positive rate. Biennial digital screening...
As reported in JAMA Ophthalmology, McCannel and colleagues identified three cases of subfoveal neurosensory retinal detachment among patients receiving MEK inhibitor therapy for metastatic cancer in clinical trials requiring ophthalmologic examination at their institution. In all cases, the toxic...
The androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) has been shown to prolong survival in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with progressive disease after chemotherapy. In the phase III PREVAIL trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Beer et al found that...
A recently reported phase II trial indicated that maintenance therapy with the PARP inhibitor olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with platinum-sensitive serous ovarian cancer. As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ledermann et al, a preplanned...
The combination of lenalidomide (Revlimid) and rituximab (Rituxan) has shown synergistic activity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) preclinical models. In a CLL Research Consortium phase II study of the combination in treatment-naive patients reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, James...
Elevated circulating tumor cells are associated with poor prognosis in metastatic breast cancer. In the phase III Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) S0500 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Smerage et al assessed whether changing chemotherapy after one cycle of first-line treatment in ...
In a Dutch population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, de Glas et al found that the Adjuvant! Online prediction tool performed poorly in older patients with early-stage breast cancer, significantly overestimating or underestimating overall survival depending on comorbidity...
Ibrutinib is an irreversible inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase that was recently approved for treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who have received at least one prior therapy. A small proportion of CLL patients have been observed to relapse during ibrutinib treatment, ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mandelblatt and colleagues attempted to determine whether cognitive impairment is present in older patients with breast cancer prior to systemic therapy. They found that although there were no global differences in cognitive function between...
The availability of cross-sectional imaging has resulted in increased diagnosis of low-grade pancreatic neoplasms and use of central pancreatectomy as an alternative to standard resection for such lesions. In a French single-center experience reported in JAMA Surgery, Goudard et al found that...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by O’Connell et al, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Trial R-04 is assessing four chemotherapy regimens given concurrently with preoperative radiotherapy in order to help identify optimal treatment in patients with ...
In the noninferiority COREAN trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jeong et al found that laparoscopic surgery was associated with disease-free survival similar to that with open surgery for mid- or low-rectal cancer. Study Details In this open-label trial, 340 patients with cT3N0–2M0...
In a study reported in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, Rocke et al compared hypothetical resource allocation by otolaryngology–head and neck surgery physicians and patients with that by advanced cancer patients or their caregivers. They found significant differences in...
Gemcitabine plus a platinum agent is standard treatment in advanced biliary cancer. In the phase II open-label noncomparative BINGO trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Malka et al found no apparent benefit of adding the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab (Erbitux) to gemcitabine/oxaliplatin in first-line ...
In an open-label phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Glass et al examined the strategy of adding rituximab (Rituxan) to standard prophylaxis for graft-vs-host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Rituximab did not...
In a Japanese phase III trial (DELTA) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kawaguchi et al found that erlotinib (Tarceva) was associated with no progression-free survival or overall survival advantage as second- or third-line therapy in EGFR-unselected patients with non–small cell...
Although presence of circulating tumor cells has been shown to predict reduced survival in metastatic breast cancer, data on their predictive performance in earlier breast cancer are lacking. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Rack et al found that presence of...
In a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Pettersson et al found that percentage dense area on breast mammography is a stronger predictor of breast cancer than absolute dense area. An inverse association of absolute nondense area and risk was also observed. The...
Current treatment options for relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which carries a very poor prognosis, are generally ineffective. In a phase III trial (CLAVELA) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roboz et al found that elacytarabine, a novel elaidic acid ester of...
Lenalidomide (Revlimid) is active in relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell lymphomas. In a European phase II trial (REAL07) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Vitolo et al examined the addition of lenalidomide to rituximab (Rituxan), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone...
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Zhu et al described identification of resistance mutations in acute promyelocytic leukemia patients receiving arsenic trioxide (Trisenox) and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) therapy. The direct-binding targets of arsenic trioxide in the...
There are conflicting data on whether epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor therapy is beneficial in second-line treatment of lung cancer patients with unknown or wild-type EGFR status. In a phase III trial (PROSE) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gregorc et al assessed the predictive...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kaseb et al developed a plasma insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)–based score for hepatic reserve in hepatocellular carcinoma and compared its predictive ability with that of the Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score in two...
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition plays a key role in tumor cell invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance and the transcription factor brachyury has recently been identified as a driver of this process. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Palena et al found that a...
In a phase III trial (CA184-043) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kwon et al assessed the effects of adding ipilimumab (Yervoy) after radiotherapy in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer progressing after docetaxel chemotherapy. The investigators found no improvement...
A proposed metric of quality of cancer care is whether chemotherapy is administered in the last 14 days of life. In a retrospective study of patients at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Rodriguez et al found an overall rate of chemotherapy use in ...
In an article in The Lancet Oncology, Sartor et al report symptomatic skeletal event outcomes in the phase III ALSYMPCA trial, which was the study supporting the May 2013 approval of radium-233 dichloride (Xofigo) in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and bone metastases. They found ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hung et al assessed the ability of the 2011 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society (IASLC/ATS/ERS) adenocarcinoma classification system to predict disease recurrence and...
Although neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy is standard of care for muscle-invasive bladder cancer, it is not widely used due to concerns over toxicity and delayed cystectomy. In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Plimack et al evaluated whether a neoadjuvant...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Choueiri et al found that a neoadjuvant four-cycle/8-week regimen of dose-dense methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin was well tolerated and effective in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial cancer. Study Details ...
Retrospective studies have shown that pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis is underutilized in hospitalized patients with cancer, who are believed to be at high risk of venous thromboembolism. In a prospective cross-sectional study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zwicker et al found that...
As reported in a research letter in JAMA Dermatology, Watanabe et al found that diffuse erythema at presentation in patients with leukemic T-cell lymphoma was associated with better response to low-dose alemtuzumab (Campath) compared with patients presenting with preexisting plaques or tumors....
In a phase II feasibility study (MRC FOCUS3) reported in British Journal of Cancer, Maughan et al used KRAS and BRAF mutation status and topoisomerase-1 expression status to randomly assign patients with advanced colorectal cancer to molecular hypothesis–driven treatment or control treatment. ...
In a report in JAMA Dermatology, Zhu et al discuss two cases in which clinically significant squamous cell carcinoma was found within the tumor bed of locally advanced basal cell carcinoma during vismodegib (Erivedge) treatment for basal cell carcinoma. In one, basal cell carcinoma tumor shrinkage...
Positive positron-emission tomography (PET) scans have low positive predictive value after chemotherapy in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kobe et al assessed whether use of pretreatment and post-treatment computed tomography (CT) could...
In a study reported in British Journal of Cancer, Shaw et al assessed the accuracy of several reported criteria for identifying insignificant prostate cancer for active surveillance in a population of unscreened men. None of the examined tools provided sufficient discrimination of insignificant...
Cowden syndrome, an autosomal-dominant disorder characterized by the development multiple hamartomas, is associated with increased risk of breast, thyroid, endometrial, and renal cancers in patients with underlying germline PTEN mutations. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,...
In 2010, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries began collecting data on HER2 receptor status in breast cancer cases. In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Howlader et al identified U.S. incidence rates for breast cancer by joint hormone...
In a UK trial (EnROL) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kennedy et al compared outcomes with open vs laparoscopic resection of colorectal cancer within a multimodality enhanced recovery program. Such programs are intended to improve all aspects of perioperative care and have been shown...
There are limited data on outcomes after surgery for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Mavros et al found that tumor characteristics are the primary predictors of survival after curative intent surgery, indicating the need for...
The effect of false-positive mammograms on women undergoing screening is being investigated by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Tosteson et al assessed responses to false-positive screening mammograms. According to the authors, their findings...
Few options are available to treat pain from bone metastases in patients refractory to drug and radiation therapy. In a phase III study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Hurwitz et al found significant pain relief using magnetic resonance–guided focused ultrasound...
Preclinical data suggest that triple-negative breast cancer is sensitive to interstrand crosslinking agents and that the combination of a taxane, trastuzumab (Herceptin), and a platinum may have synergistic effects in HER2-positive breast cancer. In a randomized phase II trial (GeparSixto, German...
Geographic proximity to services has been identified as a potential barrier to cancer screening, and there is evidence of disparity in colorectal cancer outcomes between urban and rural U.S. residents. In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Aboagye et al identified a significantly greater density of...
In a Spanish trial (PETHEMA ALL-AR-03) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ribera et al found high disease-free and overall survival rates with delayed consolidation and maintenance chemotherapy in high-risk Philadelphia chromosome–negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)...
In a Chinese study reported in JAMA Surgery, Huang et al found that preoperative elevated hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) level is an independent risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence and mortality in patients with low HBV DNA levels undergoing hepatic resection....
There are few treatment options for breast cancer patients with progressive disease after two or more HER2-directed regimens for recurrent or metastatic disease. In the open-label phase III TH3RESA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Krop and et al, ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla)...