The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review Amgen’s Biologics License Application for blinatumomab for the treatment of adults with Philadelphia chromosome–negative relapsed/refractory B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). As part of the acceptance, the ...
The molecule threonyl tRNA-synthetase may provide value as a serum diagnostic marker and a potential target of therapy for ovarian cancer, according to the results of a study reported by Wellman et al in BMC Cancer. In addition, the mortality risk was slightly reduced for patients with high...
In a large international population-based study reported in JAMA Dermatology, Thomas et al found that increased risk of melanoma-related mortality for patients with amelanotic vs those with pigmented melanomas was no longer evident after adjustment for tumor stage at diagnosis. The study involved...
The phase III CONCUR trial of regorafenib (Stivarga) monotherapy in Asian patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer confirmed the overall survival benefit seen in the previous CORRECT trial and in an exploratory analysis suggested the benefit is substantial in patients not...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designations to aldoxorubicin in three indications: glioblastoma multiforme, small cell lung cancer, and ovarian cancer. Aldoxorubicin combines doxorubicin with a novel single-molecule linker that binds directly and...
In a recent study reported in Nature Medicine, scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Harvard School of Public Health, among other institutions, investigated whether pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma produces metabolic changes that can be...
In the introduction to a cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Parsons et al stated “Surgical innovations disseminate in the absence of coordinated systems to ensure their safe integration into clinical practice, potentially exposing patients to increased risk for medical error.” Their ...
The addition of the monoclonal antibody VEGFR-2 antagonist ramucirumab (Cyramza) to paclitaxel led to a statistically significant improvement in median overall survival in patients with advanced gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in a phase III trial, reported Wilke et al in ...
A secondary analysis of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-32 trial indicates that radiation therapy does not increase the incidence of lymphedema in patients with node-negative breast cancer, according to research presented at the American Society for Radiation...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released its 2014 Cancer Progress Report today, which highlights the quickening pace of drug development and approval, especially in molecularly targeted agents that are leading to increased numbers of cancer survivors. However, the report also...
In the phase III ROSE/TRIO-12 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mackey et al found no significant improvement in investigator-assessed progression-free survival by adding the antiangiogenic VEGFR-2 inhibitor ramucirumab (Cyramza) to first-line docetaxel in women with...
Findings from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) showed that screening high-risk individuals (smoking history of ≥ 30 pack-years) aged 55 to 74 with low-dose computed tomography (CT) vs chest radiography reduced lung cancer mortality. Following the study results, the U.S. Preventive...
Despite its acceptance as standard of care for early-stage breast cancer almost 25 years ago, barriers still exist that preclude patients from receiving breast-conserving therapy, with some still opting for a mastectomy, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center....
A new breast cancer vaccine candidate, GP2, provides further evidence of the potential of immunotherapy in preventing disease recurrence. This is especially the case for high-risk patients when it is combined with a powerful immunotherapy drug. These findings were presented at the 2014 Breast...
An analysis of data from 12 large clinical trials found that the cancer’s pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and tumor subtype are strong predictors of locoregional breast cancer recurrence. According to the researchers, the study showed that these two predictors may be more...
Circulating tumor cell clusters—clumps of from 2 to 50 tumor cells that break off a primary tumor and are carried through the bloodstream—appear to be much more likely to cause metastasis than are single circulating tumor cells, according to a study from investigators at the...
Although the majority of patients with mantle cell lymphoma respond to initial therapy, the duration of remission is typically short (1.5 to 3 years). Although bortezomib (Velcade) and lenalidomide (Revlimid) as single agents have been associated with response rates as high as 53% in patients with...
The 1964 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health started a culture change in the way Americans viewed tobacco and their health, and has saved countless million of lives. But the 1964 Report remained scientifically ambiguous on certain vital issues, such as the effect smoking had on the ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the antiangiogenic agent bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer. The new indication is approved for use in combination with paclitaxel and cisplatin or paclitaxel and topotecan. The FDA ...
The 13-year follow-up of the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC), reported by Schröder et al in The Lancet, showed that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men aged 55 to 69 years is associated with a 21% reduction in risk of prostate cancer mortality...
Researchers at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have identified a gene that contributes to the development of several childhood cancers, in a study conducted in mouse models. If the findings prove to be applicable to humans, the research could...
The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network has recently reported its comprehensive molecular profiling of lung adenocarcinoma in Nature. Findings included a high rate of somatic mutations including alterations in tumor-suppressor genes, chromatin-modifying genes, and RNA-splicing genes and suggested...
A large DNA analysis of people with and without pancreatic cancer has identified several new genetic markers that signal increased risk of developing the highly lethal disease, reported scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The study by Wolpin et al was published in Nature Genetics. The...
Past exposure to immunosuppressive drugs called thiopurines has been found to increase the risk of myeloid disorders, such as acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The findings were reported by Lopez et al in Clinical...
Physicians at Johns Hopkins have developed blood and saliva tests that help accurately predict recurrences of HPV-linked oral cancers in a substantial number of patients. The tests screen for DNA fragments of the human papillomavirus (HPV) shed from cancer cells lingering in the mouth or other...
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...
Of the many subgroups of cells vying for control within a cancerous tumor, the most dangerous may not be those that can proliferate the fastest, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reported in a study published in Nature. The findings have important implications for the treatment of cancer...
Research conducted at the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has discovered links between a set of genes known to promote tumor growth and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, an oral cancer that affects the salivary glands. The discovery could help physicians develop new treatments that...
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...
Early surveillance imaging (< 6 months) after stereotactic body radiation therapy for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) seems to be of limited benefit, resulting in definitive intervention in only 3% of patients, according to the findings of a study in Practical Radiation...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today expanded the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who carry deletions of the short arm of chromosome 17, which are associated with poor responses to standard treatment for CLL. Ibrutinib...
The routine use of a molecular testing panel developed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center greatly increases the likelihood of performing the correct initial surgery for patients with thyroid nodules and cancer, reported researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. The ...
A novel, dosimetry-triggered, adaptive intensity-modulated radiation therapy strategy for patients with cervical cancer may minimize the risk of target underdosing in the setting of very small margins and substantial interfractional motion, according to a study by Lim et al in the International...
Mouse models of human oral cancer treated with an agent called capsazepine showed dramatic tumor shrinkage without damage to surrounding tissues, researchers from the School of Dentistry and School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found. The findings by...
In an analysis of metabolites in human kidney tissue, a research team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania identified an enzyme key to applying the brakes on tumor growth. The new study, published in Nature by Simon et al, demonstrated that an enzyme called FBP1,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Genentech’s supplemental Biologics License Application and granted Priority Review for bevacizumab (Avastin) plus chemotherapy for the treatment of women with recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. “The majority of women...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Genentech’s supplemental Biologics License Application and granted Priority Review for bevacizumab (Avastin) plus chemotherapy in the treatment of women with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer. The designation...
The phase II Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) S0802 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Allen et al showed that adding ziv-aflibercept (Zaltrap) to topotecan improved 3-month progression-free survival, but increased toxicity and had no effect on overall survival, in patients...
CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc, announced that its investigational agent ENMD-2076 has received orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. ENMD-2076 is an orally active Aurora A/angiogenic kinase inhibitor with a unique...
A research collaboration between Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has utilized nanomedicine technologies to develop a drug-delivery system that can precisely target and attack cancer cells in the bone, as well as increase bone strength and volume to prevent...
HIV-infected people diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to go untreated for their cancer compared to uninfected cancer patients, according to a large retrospective study from researchers in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The ...
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor MET have been found to promote the proliferation, migration, and survival of tumor cells and to play a role in gastric cancer. In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Iveson et al found evidence of benefit from adding the anti-HGF...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhong et al assessed factors associated with use of immediate breast reconstruction after treatment or prophylaxis for breast cancer among women in the Canadian universal health-care system. Immediate breast reconstruction was more likely in...
The addition of the novel agent MM-398 to standard treatment improved overall survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who have already received gemcitabine, according to a phase III trial reported at the ESMO 16th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona (Abstract...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 11 to 2 that current evidence from clinical studies does not support an accelerated approval for use of olaparib as a maintenance treatment for women with platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer who have...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced the appointment of James R. Downing, MD, as its new CEO, effective July 15, 2014. Dr. Downing most recently has served as the Deputy Director, Executive Vice President and Scientific Director of the hospital. He succeeds William E. Evans,...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Templeton et al found that high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, a marker of inflammation, is associated with significantly poorer overall survival in solid tumors overall and by individual category. High...
Men and women who took low-dose aspirin regularly had a 48% reduction in their risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a new study. In addition, the longer a person started taking low-dose aspirin, the greater the benefit, ranging from 48% reduction in people who started 3 years before...
Despite some success in treating patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, many patients may experience late effects of radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatment, including the possible onset of breast cancer or heart disease. A study by Hoppe et al from the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute...
Extended colectomy in patients with sporadic colorectal cancer who were younger than age 50, in comparison with segmental resection, did not improve the risk of tumor recurrence or disease-free survival, according to the results of a retrospective study presented by Klos et al in the Journal of...