As reported by Dotan et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the antibody-drug conjugate labetuzumab govitecan showed antitumor activity in a phase I/II trial in patients with heavily pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer who had received prior irinotecan therapy. The agent comprises...
Two years ago, I was on my way to hospice care after numerous treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy failed to stop the progression of my stage IV castration-resistant prostate cancer. A last-minute call from my oncologist about a phase I trial of combination...
On August 31, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director Janet Woodcock, MD, issued the following statement: “Clinical trials play a critically important role in bringing to market innovative new therapies for patients facing life-threatening...
Updated results of a phase I/II study of durvalumab (Imfinzi) in locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma were reported by Powles et al in JAMA Oncology. Data from the ongoing study supported the recent approval of durvalumab as second-line treatment in this setting on the basis of...
As reported by Larsen et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a Danish retrospective study has shown reduced cancer-specific and all-cause mortality with postdiagnosis statin use in patients with prostate cancer. Study Details The study involved nationwide Danish registry data from 31,790...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued what it has called a “historic action,” making the first gene therapy available in the United States. The FDA approved tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for certain pediatric and young adult patients with a form of acute lymphoblastic...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Riedel et al found that integration of oncology and palliative care in a solid tumor inpatient service resulted in improvements in quality-of-care metrics during the first year of implementation. Study Details The study...
In a single-center phase II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Feng et al found that individualized adaptive stereotactic body radiotherapy achieved high rates of local tumor control with low complication rates in patients with liver tumors and preexisting liver dysfunction. Study Details The study ...
On August 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) and granted Priority Review for obinutuzumab (Gazyva) in combination with chemotherapy followed by obinutuzumab alone for patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma....
Although the potential for immunotherapy to improve outcomes for patients with cancer, particularly through a combination of agents targeting immune inhibitory pathways, is becoming increasingly evident, how to optimally combine the many new immunotherapy agents being developed remains a major...
The rate of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in the United States is increasing, but remains lower than ideal. A new study suggests that survivors of childhood cancer receive the HPV vaccine at an even lower rate than their peers without cancer—24% vs 40%, respectively. Nearly...
Female patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery are more likely to have a favorable response to the treatment than male patients are, and women are less likely to experience cancer recurrence, according to a study published by...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lu et al found that autologous CD4-positive T cells engineered to express a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II–restricted T-cell receptor (TCR) targeting the cancer germline antigen MAGE-A3 (melanoma-associated antigen-A3)...
Over the past 30 years, squamous cell carcinoma of the anus has been one of the few cancers with a steadily rising incidence in the United States, with the most rapid increase seen in black men. To further investigate this trend, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center...
A UK phase III trial (UK MRC OE05) has shown no significant survival benefit of extended and intensified neoadjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin, cisplatin, and capecitabine vs standard cisplatin/fluorouracil followed by resection in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma. The findings were...
AS REPORTED in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, the anti–Trop-2 antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan has been found to produce durable responses in patients with heavily...
Vitamin C may “tell” faulty stem cells in the bone marrow to mature and die normally, instead of multiplying to cause blood cancers. This is the finding of a study led by researchers from Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health, and published by Cimmino et al in Cell....
Next-generation sequencing of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) identified distinct genomic profiles with potentially targetable alterations in 99.7% of patients with carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) who have detectable alterations, according to results published by Kato et al in Cancer Research....
A meta-analysis of three randomized trials (FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global) indicates no overall survival benefit of adding first-line selective internal radiotherapy to chemotherapy in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer. The findings were reported by Wasan et al in The...
In the phase III historically controlled Children’s Oncology Group (COG) AAML0631 trial, arsenic trioxide consolidation permitted the use of lower-dose anthracycline without appearing to compromise outcomes in pediatric patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). The results were...
Because unprovoked venous thromboembolism may be the first sign of occult cancer, or cancer of an unknown primary origin, screening is often considered in patients with the condition to detect underlying cancer at an early, curable stage. However, extensive screening tests may yield false-positive...
In a Children’s Oncology Group study, high response rates were achieved with crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment in pediatric ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCL) and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors. These results were reported by Mossé et al in the Journal of Clinical...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tzannou et al found that use of off-the-shelf, broad-coverage, adoptively transferred, virus-specific T cells was feasible and effective in treating viral infections in patients who had undergone allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell...
PRIMARY LIVER CANCER is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for 90% of liver cancer, with around 800,000 new cases diagnosed globally each year.1 In contrast to the stable or declining trends observed for most neoplasms, the incidence and...
ALTHOUGH THE National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) strongly influence the management of advanced prostate cancer, they do not always reflect actual clinical practice. It turns out that in the real world, there are multiple areas ...
THE ADDITION of daratumumab (Darzalex) to a triplet induction regimen led to good responses in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, but not without toxicities. And in the treatment of myeloma bone disease, denosumab (Xgeva) in place of zoledronic acid preserved renal function and may be associated...
IMMUNOTHERAPY AND ANTIANGIOGENESIS were highlighted in a session on metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the Best of ASCO New Orleans meeting. Matthew Gubens, MD, MS, presented the selected abstracts from the ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Dr. Gubens is Associate Professor of Thoracic Medical...
FAKE NEWS, junk science, and alternative facts seem pervasive in our current culture, to the detriment of important, verified scientific advancements. One area where this is quite evident is the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV). Although we have had a safe, effective vaccine since 2006...
On August 17, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to olaparib tablets (Lynparza) for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, who are in a complete or partial response to...
On August 17, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa) for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). INO-VATE ALL The approval was based on data from INO-VATE ALL, a randomized (1:1), ...
On August 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) and granted Priority Review for brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). The sBLA and its acceptance is based on data from the phase III...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted approval, expanded approval, and breakthrough therapy designation to numerous treatments across a range of tumor types and malignancies. New Drug Approvals Daunorubicin-Cytarabine Combination (Vyxeos): On August 3, the FDA granted...
Two years ago, I was on my way to hospice care after numerous treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy failed to stop the progression of my stage IV castration-resistant prostate cancer. A last-minute call from my oncologist about a phase I combination trial of the...
The French phase III ALLOZITHRO trial, stopped early due to excessive hematologic relapse in the azithromycin group, showed worse airflow decline–free survival with azithromycin vs placebo after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for hematologic malignancy. The study findings were ...
The UK IMPORT LOW phase III trial has shown noninferiority in local relapse for partial-breast and reduced-dose vs standard whole-breast radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in early breast cancer. These study results were reported by Coles et al in The Lancet. Study Details In the...
With the advent of molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapy, eligibility criteria have increased in number and complexity for lung cancer clinical trials, according to an analysis published by Garcia et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Despite calls to streamline cancer clinical trial...
The phase III FIRSTANA trial has shown no difference in overall survival with two dose regimens of cabazitaxel (Jevtana) vs docetaxel in the first-line treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Results were reported by Oudard et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
Administering a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and a blood test to patients with metastatic colorectal cancer may help to select those who would benefit from a targeted cancer treatment, a new study published by Khan et al in Gutreported. Researchers found that after only 2 weeks on the...
On August 8, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would pursue a strategic, new public health education campaign aimed at discouraging the use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) by children. The agency plans to expand its “The Real...
In a health-related quality-of-life study among patients in the phase III TOAD trial, immediate vs delayed androgen-deprivation therapy was associated with early worsening of androgen-deprivation therapy–related symptoms but few other comparative adverse effects on functioning or quality of...
Among men diagnosed with prostate cancer, about one in two will receive androgen-deprivation therapy, which is associated with many potential adverse side effects, including significant bone loss and increased risk for low trauma or fragility fractures similar to those found in people with primary...
Most cancer-related deaths are the result of postsurgical metastatic recurrence. A new Tel Aviv University (TAU) study published by Shaashua et al in Clinical Cancer Research found a specific drug regimen administered prior to and after surgery significantly reduces the risk of postsurgical cancer...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Pedraza et al found that patients with advanced cancer who had Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms in place were more likely to have hospice admission and death out of the hospital than those with only advance...
Within the past few years, a type of immunotherapy known as T-cell therapy has emerged as a promising treatment option for certain cancers. T cells are immune cells that can fight infectious viruses—and also cancer. In T-cell therapy, these cells are removed from a patient’s blood, modified in the ...
According to a new study published by Elsayem et al in The Oncologist, patients with advanced cancer who are diagnosed with delirium when presenting to emergency departments are more likely to be hospitalized and more likely to die earlier than patients without delirium. This shows the importance...
NEW DRUGS that will improve the outcome of adult patients who develop a deadly disease such as acute leukemia are badly needed; combinations of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs may have reached an upper limit of utility. Agents that eradicate leukemia by alternative mechanisms would be of...
On August 3, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to a liposome-encapsulated combination of daunorubicin and cytarabine (Vyxeos) for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or AML with myelodysplasia-related...
As reported by Rebecca Suk Heist, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan showed activity in patients with previously treated metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sacituzumab targets ...
The following essay by Howard A. (Skip) Burris III, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org....
“In the sufferer let me see only the human being.” So said Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher and physician who espoused treating the patient rather than the illness, a philosophy that modern oncology had to relearn. This brief quote greets readers of a new book called Extreme Measures:...