The beta-blocker bisoprolol was able to prevent trastuzumab (Herceptin)-associated declines in left-ventricular ejection fraction, whereas the effect of the angiotensin-converting–enzyme (ACE) inhibitor perindopril was less robust. Use of bisoprolol reduced dose interruptions for trastuzumab due to ...
The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute recently announced the promotion of two physician scientists: Elisabeth Heath, MD, FACP, and Ulka Vaishampayan, MD. Elisabeth Heath, MD, FACP Dr. Heath will lead the Genitourinary Oncology Multidisciplinary Team at Karmanos Cancer Institute. She will also...
A randomized trial from the Bone and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network was halted early after concluding that allogeneic stem cell transplantation after a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen resulted in higher relapse rates compared to myeloablative conditioning. The phase III randomized ...
Mercaptopurine is critical for maintaining remission in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, a study has shown that overreporting of intake is common, and self-reports of intake are not as reliable as electronic reporting.1 About 86% of parents and children overreported the number ...
Press briefing moderator George Daley, MD, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, was enthusiastic about these results, despite the small number of patients treated in studies of CAR-T cells thus far. Most of the results have been in a positive direction, he noted. “It is remarkably exciting to see...
The approach of using genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells has received much attention for treating leukemias, where it has achieved spectacular long-lasting complete remissions in some patients with no other treatment options. CAR-T cells are also being studied in...
In a separate interview, Kanti Rai, MD, of the Northwell Health System in New Hyde Park, New York, noted that venetoclax is one of several “exciting recent developments in this disease.” There is the Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica), the PI3K inhibitor idelalisib (Zydelig),...
Venetoclax, the latest entry into the field of treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), is a powerful investigational therapy that promises to fill an important niche: treatment of high-risk relapsed/refractory patients with deletions of 17p. Nearly 80% of patients with relapsed/refractory...
Hematologists and patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are excited about new drugs that have dramatically improved outcomes. But all drugs have side effects, and it is important to be aware of potential consequences. Hepatotoxicity turns out to be a major concern in younger CLL patients ...
Idelalisib (Zydelig) combined with bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) plus rituximab (Rituxan) was superior to chemotherapy with bendamustine/rituximab plus placebo, reducing the risk of progressive disease and death while improving progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with...
Two investigative groups have reported interesting observations about genomic alterations in the tumors of young patients with lung cancer. Notably, ALK rearrangement was the most common driver mutation found, in studies reported at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer.1,2 “To our knowledge,...
A study presented at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium showed that 40% of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated with docetaxel following abiraterone (Zytiga) had at least a 50% reduction in prostate-specific antigen (PSA), demonstrating the activity of this...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On November 30, 2015, elotuzumab (Empliciti) was approved for...
Among patients with HER2-positive, metastatic breast cancer that had progressed despite treatment with two or more forms of HER2-targeted therapy (trastuzumab [Herceptin] and lapatinib [Tykerb]), median overall survival was increased for those treated with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (aka T-DM1...
A plasma-based cell-free DNA test identified mutations in the estrogen receptor 1 gene (ESR1) in 30% of patients from the BOLERO-2 trial of everolimus (Afinitor) plus exemestane, and these mutations were correlated with survival. The results, which support the use of plasma as a source of...
Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, commented on the findings by Ma et al in an interview with The ASCO Post, calling the study “very elegantly designed.” “The study provides three important pieces of information. One, it suggests that palbociclib can add to the benefit...
The ability to classify breast cancer according to biologic subtype has enabled researchers to dig deeper and determine which therapies benefit specific subgroups. Encouraging evidence from an analysis of a Danish trial presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium suggests that...
The use of T cells that are genetically engineered to express chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) has made headway as an approach to hematologic malignancies, with the best results achieved in leukemia. At the 2015 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, a preliminary...
The 340B Drug Pricing Program was created by Congress through the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 to allow some health-care entities—including safety-net providers with large shares of uninsured and low-income patients and other “covered entities”—to obtain drugs at discounted prices.1,2 Congress...
In a North American phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Shaw et al found that alectinib (Alecensa), which is active against acquired crizotinib (Xalkori) resistance mutations and exhibits high central nervous system (CNS) penetration, was associated with considerable activity in...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved eribulin mesylate (Halaven), an antimicrotubular antineoplastic agent, for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic liposarcoma. This treatment is approved for patients who received prior chemotherapy that contained an anthracycline drug....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ferguson et al found that cellulitis in the affected arm, but not blood draws, injections, trauma to the affected arm, or air travel, was associated with an increased risk of lymphedema in women treated for breast cancer. Study Details In...
Poor black patients undergoing surgery for esophageal cancer are at higher risk for death than white patients and patients with higher socioeconomic status, according to a scientific presentation by Erhunmwunsee et al at the 52nd Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The abstract,...
In the long-term follow-up of the Italian HD2000 trial reported by Merli et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, no significant differences in overall or progression-free survival were observed after 10 years among patients with previously untreated advanced Hodgkin lymphoma receiving ABVD...
Amgen announced on January 21 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the supplemental New Drug Application of carfilzomib (Kyprolis) for injection in combination with dexamethasone or with lenalidomide (Revlimid) plus dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with relapsed or...
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc, announced that an updated overall survival analysis of the phase III NAPOLI-1 study of irinotecan liposome injection (Onivyde) in combination with fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin achieved a substantial improvement in 12-month overall survival compared to 5-FU and...
Findings from a Polish phase III study point to an additional treatment option for patients with advanced rectal cancer. Patients who received short-course (5-day) radiation followed by consolidation chemotherapy before surgery achieved outcomes similar to those of patients treated with...
Early results from the NETTER-1 phase III study of patients with previously treated, advanced midgut neuroendocrine tumors show that a novel therapy, lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera), may substantially slow tumor growth. Patients treated with the experimental drug had a 79% lower risk ...
At NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, researchers have discovered an inherited genetic marker that might provide clinicians with a personalized tool to gauge an individual’s survival and determine which patients require closer monitoring in the years...
In a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Sequist et al reported clinical benefit with the recently approved third-generation EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso) in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who had disease...
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. However, in a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stearns et al...
Two quality improvement projects described by Bryant-Bova in the Journal of Oncology Practiceresulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous and oral chemotherapy. A project at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types ...
A protein that is constantly expressed by cancer cells and quiescent in healthy cells appears to be a solid target for reducing cancer's ability to spread, scientists reported. The WASF3 protein enables cancer cell invasion, and by interrupting its relationship with another protein, CYFIP1, which...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved ofatumumab (Arzerra) for extended treatment of patients who are in complete or partial response after at least two lines of therapy for recurrent or progressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Ofatumumab was previously approved for the...
A randomized phase II study in symptomatic, untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) found an increased overall response rate with obinutuzumab (Gazyva) at a dose of 2,000 mg vs 1,000. In addition, the “data demonstrate that obinutuzumab produces a higher response rate in...
Radiation-induced breast cancer risk from digital mammography is low for the majority of women, but the risk is higher in women with large breasts, who received 2.3 times more radiation and required more views per examination to image as much of the breast as possible compared to those with small...
In a European phase III study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Kröger et al found that inclusion of antihuman T-lymphocyte immune globulin (ATG) in the myeloablative conditioning regimen in patients with acute myeloid or lymphoid leukemia resulted in a significant reduction in...
ASCO has announced the creation of the Ellen L. Stovall Award and Lecture for Advancement of Cancer Survivorship Care, intended to recognize and promote the work of pioneers and leaders in the growing field of survivorship. The first award will be presented at the 2017 Cancer Survivorship...
Obesity has long been associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer, but the link has never been understood. Now, a research team led by investigators at Thomas Jefferson University has revealed the biologic connection, and in the process, has identified an approved drug that might prevent...
In a Japanese phase III trial (SELECT BC) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Takashima et al found that first-line treatment with the oral fluoropyrimidine S-1 was associated with noninferior overall survival vs taxane regimens in women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer resistant to...
A regional anesthesia technique called thoracic paravertebral nerve block is highly effective in controlling pain after breast cancer surgery, but concern about potential complications may limit its use. A new study provides evidence that using ultrasound to guide the nerve blocking procedure...
Results of a phase III trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Piccart-Gebhart et al, showed a modest and statistically nonsignificant increase in disease-free survival with concurrent adjuvant lapatinib (Tykerb) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) vs trastuzumab alone in patients with...
Physicians treating patients with metastatic melanoma may soon have a superior tool in their efforts to closely track the disease. A new study shows that a blood test that monitors blood levels of DNA fragments from dead cancer cells does a better job than the current standard test at tracking the...
In the LEAN (Lifestyle, Exercise, and Nutrition) study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Harrigan et al found that telephone and in-person weight loss counseling was effective in reducing weight and C-reactive protein level in overweight or obese women treated for breast cancer. In the ...
As reported in The Lancet by Herbst et al, the phase II/III KEYNOTE-010 trial showed that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) significantly improved overall survival vs docetaxel in patients with previously treated programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer...
Melanoma of the skin remains a fatal disease, and its incidence continues to rise, mostly in young adults during their prime. Surgery remains the most effective therapeutic modality, but patients’ survival depends on the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. Various therapeutic agents have ...
Recently reported findings that bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and hysterectomy decreased the risk of ovarian cancer compared to ovarian conservation and hysterectomy, without increasing cardiovascular, fracture, and other cancer risks, should “challenge” current thinking about bilateral...
More than a decade after lung cancer incidence and death rates began to decline in men, a statistically significant decrease in the rates are occurring among women. The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975 to 2007, is the first to document these decreases, the report’s authors...
A phase III, open-label, randomized trial found that adding gemcitabine to concurrent cisplatin chemoradiotherapy and using gemcitabine as adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin improved survival outcomes in women with locally advanced cervical cancer. Toxicity was increased compared to standard...
Many breast cancer–focused meetings and conferences are held each year, but the Breast Cancer Symposium, which takes place this year in San Francisco, September 8–11, is one of the few that takes an interdisciplinary approach to delivering practical, how-to clinical information for attendees from...