In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jaiswal et al found somatic mutations associated with hematologic cancers at increasing frequency with increasing age, with presence of the mutations being associated with increased risk of hematologic cancers, all-cause mortality,...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by McCormick et al, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9804 trial showed that radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery reduced local failure vs observation in women with good-risk ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The study was designed...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Genovese et al found that clonal hematopoiesis with somatic mutations is increasingly common with greater age and is associated with increased risk of hematologic cancer. The presence of such clonal hematopoiesis in apparently healthy...
A new breast imaging technique developed at Mayo Clinic nearly quadruples detection rates of invasive breast cancers in women with dense breast tissue, according to the results of a study published by Rhodes et al in the American Journal of Roentgenology. What Is MBI? Molecular breast imaging...
As reported by Pisansky et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9910 trial showed no benefit of extending the duration of pre–radiation therapy androgen suppression on survival or disease control among patients with localized prostate cancer....
Data from 25 case-control studies and separate analyses show that head and neck cancers in young adults are more likely to occur as a result of inherited factors rather than lifestyle factors, such as smoking or drinking alcohol, according to a new study by Toporcov et al published in the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chubb et al found that genetic diagnosis of high-penetrance susceptibility to colorectal cancer can be achieved in a sizeable proportion of familial colorectal cancer cases via exome sequencing for germline mutations. Study Details The...
In a Chinese study reported in JAMA, Huang et al found that treatment with entecavir (guanosine analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor) reduced hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatitis and HBV reactivation compared with lamivudine (cytidine analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor) in HBV-positive...
Taking a hormonal contraceptive for at least 5 years is associated with a possible increase in women’s risk of developing a glioma, according to a study by Andersen et al published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Study Details While little is known about the causes of...
In the phase III SEARCH trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhu et al found no overall survival benefit of adding erlotinib (Tarceva) to sorafenib (Nexavar) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In this double-blind trial conducted in 26 countries in...
In a study in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Cohort reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hudson et al found that poor health status was more common in survivors than in siblings, with an age-related increase in prevalence particularly evident in female survivors. In the study, 22,568...
In a phase II trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ramalingam et al found that the addition of the VEGFR and PDGFR inhibitor linifanib to carboplatin-paclitaxel increased progression-free survival in patients with advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The...
A simple change to a two-drug therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer provides similar cancer control while significantly improving quality of life and reducing the cost of care, according to data reported by researchers at the The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur...
Patients with early-stage breast cancer still undergo imaging for distant metastases despite evidence-based local, national, and international guidelines, and a recommendation from ASCO to avoid such imaging, according to a retrospective review of staging imaging for distant metastases in patients...
After 4.5 years of taking tamoxifen for primary prevention of breast cancer, 46% of women discontinued use, according to research conducted within the Sister Study, a prospective cohort of women who had a sister who had been diagnosed with breast cancer but did not have breast cancer themselves....
Selenium supplementation of 140 μg/d or more after diagnosis of nonmetastatic prostate cancer may increase risk of prostate cancer mortality, according to a prospective study following 4,459 men initially diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roscoe et al found that cognitive behavioral therapy combined with placebo or the wakefulness-promoting agent armodafinil (Nuvigil) had similar beneficial effects on insomnia and sleep quality in cancer survivors. Study Details In the study, 96 ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frazier et al used data from U.S. and UK clinical trials to identify a high-risk group of patients with pediatric extracranial germ cell tumors. Study Details The study involved data from seven germ cell tumor trials conducted by the...
A recent study on the use of minimally invasive surgery for colorectal cancer at National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) centers has found that although laparoscopic colectomy results in equivalent oncologic outcomes compared to open colectomy, its adoption nationally has been slow. An...
A prospective analysis of data from a phase III study of patients newly diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer indicates that patients with higher vitamin D levels have better outcomes after treatment with chemotherapy and targeted therapy. The median overall survival for patients with the...
Patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who receive neoadjuvant radiation therapy with either irinotecan plus capecitabine or oxaliplatin plus capecitabine have a 4-year overall survival rate of 85% and 75%, respectively, according to a study reported by Wong et al in the International Journal ...
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Slotman et al found that while thoracic radiotherapy vs no thoracic radiotherapy was not associated with a significant improvement in 1-year overall survival, the primary endpoint of the study, it significantly improved 2-year overall survival and...
Approximately 5% to 6% of cases of colorectal cancer are associated with germline mutations conferring an inherited predisposition for disease. As reported by Stoffel et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed, with qualifying statements, the European Society for Medical Oncology...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Palmer et al found that Asian cancer survivors reported poorer care communication and care quality compared with white patients. Study Details The study involved 1,196 survivors of breast, prostate, colorectal, ovarian, and endometrial...
Oral infection with human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16), which is the type of HPV most frequently linked to HPV-driven head and neck cancers, was more likely to persist 12 or more months in men older than 45 than in those younger than 45, according to a study reported by Pierce Campbell et al in...
In a population-based study of patients with thyroid cancer, 12.3% of patients with small papillary thyroid tumors experienced thyroid cancer–related deaths despite undergoing thyroidectomy, according to a report by Nilubol and Kebebew in the journal Cancer. From the results of this study,...
Retrospective analyses of the ATAC, TEAM, and BIG 1-98 adjuvant endocrine therapy trials in breast cancer have suggested that treatment-emergent endocrine symptoms may be associated with superior survival outcomes. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stearns et al found no...
In a national retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Kummerow et al found that an increased proportion of women with breast cancer eligible for breast-conserving surgery have undergone mastectomy during recent years. The study involved data from > 1.2 million women with...
A phase II clinical study of adjuvant paclitaxel and trastuzumab (Herceptin) in women with stage I HER2-positive breast cancer has found the 3-year rate of survival free from invasive disease was 98.7%. The findings may help establish the combination therapy as the first standard treatment approach ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Greco et al updated a 2008 systematic review on cancer pain management. Improvements were seen between 2008 and 2013, but approximately one-third of patients still do not receive pain medication adequate for reported pain intensity. Changes...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wuthrick et al found that patients with stage III or IV head and neck cancer in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0129 trial who were treated at historically high-accruing centers in RTOG clinical trials had significantly better...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Topp et al found that the bispecific CD19-directed CD3 T-cell engager (BiTE) blinatumomab (Blincyto) was highly active in adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Blinatumomab binds to CD19 expressed ...
Adding radiation treatment to androgen-deprivation therapy saves more lives among older men with locally advanced prostate therapy than androgen-deprivation therapy alone, according to a new study reported by Bekelman et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The researchers found that...
In a study in the Multiethnic Cohort (composed of men and women from California and Hawaii) reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Setiawan et al found that diabetes was associated with increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in all racial/ethnic groups, with risk being...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cainap et al found that treatment with linifanib, an ATP-competitive inhibitor of VEGF and PDGF receptor tyrosine kinases, did not improve overall survival compared with sorafenib (Nexavar) treatment in patients with advanced...
The effects of PMS2 germline mutations are less well understood than those of other Lynch syndrome–associated mismatch repair gene mutations. In a European cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ten Broeke et al found that risks of colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer...
A new analysis suggests that women who use bisphosphonates have about half the risk of developing endometrial cancer as women who do not use the drugs. The findings by Alford et al, published early online in Cancer, supports other research that has shown an anticancer effect of this type of...
TH-302 is a hypoxia-activated prodrug that releases the DNA alkylator bromo-isophosphoramide mustard in hypoxic settings. In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Borad et al found that the addition of TH-302 to gemcitabine improved progression-free survival in patients...
In an analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Schmoll et al found no difference in survival outcomes with adjuvant capecitabine vs fluorouracil (5-FU)/leucovorin with or without oxaliplatin in patients with stage III colon cancer and no adverse impact of adjuvant oxaliplatin on post-relapse...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wei et al found that use of urinary prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) measurement could improve avoidance of repeat prostate biopsy and detection of prostate cancer in biopsy-naive patients. This National Cancer Institute study involved...
Anti–PD-1 antibodies have been shown to be effective in solid tumors. There is evidence that the malignant Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin lymphomas use the PD-1 pathway to evade immune detection, with alterations in chromosome 9p24.1 increasing levels of PD-L1 and PD-L2 and promoting...
In a retrospective study of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of the superior sulcus, induction chemoradiotherapy followed by resection provided complete or partial response in over 50% of subjects, according to a report by Truntzer et al in Radiation Therapy. However, the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eskander et al found that rates of 30-day hospital readmission after surgery for advanced ovarian cancer are high and have increased significantly in recent years. In the study, the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare ...
In a phase III PROFILE 1014 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Solomon et al found that the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) improved progression-free survival vs standard chemotherapy in first-line treatment of advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kurta et al calculated conditional disease-free survival estimates among ovarian cancer patients, showing that odds of remaining disease free improve with a longer disease-free period from initial remission. Improved Conditional Disease-Free ...
Men with localized prostate cancer who walked or cycled for 20 minutes or more a day had a 30% decreased overall mortality and a 39% decreased prostate cancer–specific mortality compared with men who spent less time engaging in those activities, a large Swedish study has found. The study...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Di Narzo et al found that individual colon cancer gene-expression risk scores contributed little to the prognostic ability of traditional risk factors. Study Details The study involved evaluation of four gene-expression risk...
In the phase III EORTC 30994 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sternberg et al found no overall survival difference between immediate and delayed adjuvant chemotherapy after radical cystectomy in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Immediate treatment was...
In an analysis of patients with T1 node-positive colon cancer who had previous surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy provided a significant survival advantage, according to a study by Ganapathi et al in Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. However, the investigators noted that a significant minority of this...
In a study reported in JAMA, Bekelman et al found that approximately two-thirds of patients with early-stage breast cancer for whom hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation is endorsed receive conventional whole-breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery. Health-care expenditures were...