A new study has found that loss of paid employment after a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer may be common and potentially related to the type of treatment patients received. Published early online in Cancer, the findings by Jagsi et al support efforts to reduce the side effects and burden of...
Patients with radioactive iodine-refractory, locally advanced or metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer have a poor prognosis. In the double-blind phase III DECISION trial reported in The Lancet, Brose et al found that sorafenib (Nexavar) increased progression-free survival in this setting. The...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new guideline, “The Role of Postoperative Radiation Therapy for Endometrial Cancer: An ASTRO Evidence-Based Guideline,” that details the use of adjuvant radiation therapy in the treatment of endometrial cancer. The...
Women infected with HIV are disproportionally affected by human papillomavirus (HPV)-related anogenital disease, particularly with increased immunosuppression. In a clinical study of 319 HIV-infected women in the United States, Brazil, and South Africa, researchers assessed the immunogenicity and...
As part of its implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act signed by the President in 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed a new rule that would extend the agency’s tobacco authority to cover additional tobacco products. ...
Nationwide data on mortality and morbidity from colorectal cancer resections in the aging population are lacking. In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Jafari et al found that there has been an overall decrease in numbers of resections and improved in-hospital mortality in older patients, although...
Disease progression in HER2-positive breast cancer treated with trastuzumab (Herceptin) may be associated with PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway activation, and use of an mTOR inhibitor might restore trastuzumab sensitivity. In the double-blind phase III BOLERO-3 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology,...
In female patients undergoing breast cancer lumpectomies, intraoperative frozen section margin assessment has been shown to decrease overall reoperation rates, according to the results of a study reported by Boughey et al in the journal Surgery. This finding may lead to lower health-care costs, a...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eriksson et al found that Swedish men with cutaneous malignant melanoma have more advanced stage at diagnosis and worse disease-specific survival if they live alone. Women living alone did not have worse disease-specific...
In a prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Li et al found that recent and ever use of sildenafil for erectile dysfunction was associated with increased risk of subsequent melanoma, but not squamous cell or basal cell carcinoma. The RAS/RAF/MAPK and ERK kinase/ERK cascade is...
In an analysis from the EPIC study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sieri et al found that high dietary intake of total fat and saturated fat were associated with increased risk of estrogen receptor–positive/progesterone receptor–positive breast cancer and that...
Bevacizumab has exhibited limited activity in advanced melanoma. In an interim analysis of the open-label phase III AVAST-M trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Corrie et al found that adjuvant bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with resected melanoma at high risk of recurrence has thus far...
Pulmonary nodules are common and many more will be found with implementation of lung cancer screening. In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Wiener et al found that patients with pulmonary nodules were at high risk of both underevaluation and overevaluation for cancer, ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved ofatumumab (Arzerra) injection in combination with chlorambucil (Leukeran) for the treatment of previously untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), for whom fludarabine-based therapy is considered inappropriate. Trial...
In the open-label noninferiority phase III ASPECCT trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Price et al found that anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody treatment with panitumumab (Vectibix) produced a noninferior overall survival outcome vs cetuximab (Erbitux) in patients with chemotherapy-refractory...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to volasertib for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Volasertib is currently being evaluated in a phase III clinical trial for the treatment of patients aged 65 or older, with previously untreated AML, who are ineligible for ...
Cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the largest and most heterogeneous cytogenetic AML subgroup. As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pastore et al have developed a widely applicable prognostic model for cytogenetically normal AML that combines established patient and ...
Noncompliance appears to be a major challenge for active surveillance, according to the results of long-term follow-up of patients with prostate cancer presented at the European Association of Urology 29th Annual Congress in Stockholm. Over a quarter of men dropped out of the active surveillance...
A majority of cancer patients experience some level of fatigue during their course of treatment, and approximately 30% contend with persistent fatigue for years after treatment. Fatigue is among the most common and distressing long-term effects of cancer treatment and significantly affects patient...
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified new mutations in pediatric high-grade gliomas. The findings by Wu et al were published in Nature Genetics and may lead to improved outcomes for children with these brain...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Russell et al found that immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH@) translocations were present in a substantial proportion of younger patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), including those with B-cell precursor ALL. However, IGH@...
Surgery for liver metastasis from colorectal cancer is associated with overall survival of approximately 40% at 5 years, and progression-free survival is increased with the addition of oxaliplatin and fluorouracil (5-FU). The addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to chemotherapy has produced a survival...
Older people who are starting to have memory and thinking problems, but do not yet have dementia, may have a lower risk of dying from cancer than people who have no memory and thinking problems, according to a study by Benito-León et al published online in Neurology. “Studies have...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Buchholz et al, ASCO has endorsed the recently published Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) consensus guideline on margins for breast-conserving surgery with whole-breast irradiation in stage I...
A crossover trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Escudier et al found that patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma preferred pazopanib (Votrient) vs sunitinib (Sutent) treatment. Study Details In the double-blind study, 168 patients with no prior systemic therapy for...
The results from a phase I study of a new investigational epigenetic therapy called OTX015, a small-molecule inhibitor that blocks the activity of bromodomain and extraterminal (BET)-bromodomain proteins, is showing clinical activity in some blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma. The study ...
In a phase II trial (PEAK) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schwartzberg et al compared the EGFR inhibitor panitumumab (Vectibix) vs the VEGF-A inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin) combined with modified fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX6) in patients with previously...
A small clinical study of a new investigational antibody-drug conjugate called DEDN6526A in patients with metastatic or unresectable cutaneous, mucosal, or ocular melanoma has found the drug to be safe and tolerable and demonstrated early evidence of antitumor activity. The findings were presented...
The t(14;18) translocation is a hallmark and critical event in the development of follicular lymphoma, but it is also detectable in otherwise healthy persons, and its relationship to progression to disease is unclear. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roulland et al found...
According to a new study, mutations in the SMARCA4 remodeling gene may play a key role in the development of small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type. The findings by Ramos et al were published in Nature Genetics and suggest that loss of SMARCA4 expression may serve as a biomarker for...
The Mantle Cell Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (MIPI) was developed in 2008 as the first prognostic stratification system specific for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hoster et al confirmed the validity of MIPI in a cohort of two...
In a cohort study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Reimers et al found that aspirin use was associated with a significant 47% reduction in mortality risk after diagnosis of colon cancer expressing HLA class I antigen. There was no difference in aspirin benefit according to strong or weak...
Dose-escalated intensity-modulated radiotherapy with use of a moderate hypofractionation regimen (72 Gy in 2.4-Gy fractions) can safely treat patients with localized prostate cancer with limited grade 2 or 3 late toxicity, according to a study by Hoffman et al published in the International Journal ...
Single-agent chemotherapy is standard in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. In the open-label phase III AURELIA trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pujade-Lauraine et al found that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy resulted in significant improvement in...
Doctors should focus on life expectancy when deciding whether to order mammograms for their oldest female patients, since the harms of screening likely outweigh the benefits unless women are expected to live at least another decade, according to a review published online in JAMA by Walter and...
In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Schwarzenberg et al found 3,4-dihydroxy-6-[18F]-fluoro-L-phenylalanine (18F-FDOPA) positron-emission tomography (PET) metabolic tumor volume values at 2 weeks after the start of bevacizumab (Avastin) were highly predictive of outcome in patients with ...
Results from the BRIGHT study combined with long-term safety data from other studies suggest that bendamustine (Treanda) plus rituximab (Rituxan) “may be an important alternative treatment option” for the initial therapy of patients with low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and mantle...
Population-based screening with full-field digital mammography is associated with lower recall and biopsy rates than screen-film mammography, suggesting that full-field digital mammography may reduce the number of diagnostic workups and biopsies that do not lead to diagnosis of breast cancer,...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, van de Water et al found that Dutch women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer aged ≥ 65 years at diagnosis who were treated in a clinical trial had significantly fewer comorbid diseases, higher socioeconomic...
Barrett’s esophagus with low-grade dysplasia increases risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. In a European study reported in JAMA, Phoa et al assessed whether endoscopic radiofrequency ablation reduced the rate of neoplastic progression compared with endoscopic surveillance in patients with...
Physicians have long suspected that chemotherapy can accelerate the aging process in patients treated for cancer. Using a test developed at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to determine molecular aging, oncologists have directly measured the impact of anticancer chemotherapy drugs on...
A DNA methylation marker test performed on patients with noninvasive urothelial carcinoma can predict tumor recurrence with high sensitivity and specificity, according to a study by Su et al. The findings may help eliminate costly and unnecessary invasive exams and reveals the importance of DNA...
In the phase III IBIS-II trial, reported in The Lancet, Cuzick et al found that aromatase inhibitor therapy with anastrozole reduced risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women at high risk of the disease. Study Details In this double-blind trial, 3,864 postmenopausal women aged 40 to 70 years...
The pattern of metastatic spread is not incorporated into current risk-stratification systems for neuroblastoma. In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Morgenstern et al found that patients with neuroblastoma with metastatic disease limited to distant lymph nodes...
In the phase II US Leukemia Intergroup Trial E1905 reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Prebet et al found that prolonged administration of lower-dose azacitidine produced a high response rate in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with myelodysplastic...
As reported by Gianni et al in The Lancet Oncology, long-term follow-up of women with HER2-positive locally advanced breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone vs with neoadjuvant and adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the phase III NOAH trial has shown continued event-free survival...
A retrospective study has shown that two targeted therapy drugs—erlotinib (Tarceva) and gefitinib (Iressa)—achieved similar outcomes among people with metastatic or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring an EGFR mutation. These EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors have...
In a UK phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hillmen et al assessed the safety and activity of adding rituximab (Rituxan) to chlorambucil (Leukeran) in first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Such a regimen may be an alternative to fludarabine-based...
Patients with early-stage breast cancer who underwent sentinel lymph node dissection experienced lymphedema more frequently than clinically suspected and with increasing incidence over time, according to a presentation at the 2014 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Cancer Symposium in Phoenix...
The antiseizure medication and mood stabilizer valproic acid was associated with a significant reduction in head and neck cancer risk, according to a study recently published in Cancer. The large retrospective cohort study by Kang et al was conducted to evaluate the effects of the drug, a histone...