Women with cervical or endometrial cancer who require treatment to the para-aortic lymph nodes can safely receive extended-field intensity-modulated radiation therapy without increased risk of duodenal toxicity, according to a study by Xu et al in Practical Radiation Oncology. Extended-Field...
Despite findings of previous studies and published guidelines, nearly two-thirds of patients with T4a laryngeal cancer are not receiving a total laryngectomy—the recommended form of treatment—and, as a result, have significantly worse survival rates vs those treated with a total...
A prospective study examining weight gain in breast cancer survivors compared with cancer-free women from a familial risk cohort has found that, overall, breast cancer survivors gained significantly more weight than cancer-free women of the same age and menopausal status. According to the study...
The enzyme phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) appears to be exploited in almost every type of human cancer, making it the focus of considerable interest as a therapeutic target, with many PI3K-inhibiting drugs currently in various stages of clinical development. However, PI3K inhibitors have only ...
A study of screening mammography across U.S. counties found that “the clearest result of mammography screening is the diagnosis of additional small cancers” but without a “concomitant decline in the detection of larger cancers, which might explain the absence of any significant...
Clinicians testing the drug dasatinib (Sprycel), approved for several blood cancers, had hoped it would slow the aggressive growth of the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma; however, clinical trials to date have not found any benefit. Researchers at Mayo Clinic, who conducted one of those clinical...
On the hunt for better cancer screening tests, Johns Hopkins scientists led a proof-of-principle study that successfully identified tumor DNA shed in the blood and saliva of 93 patients with head and neck cancer. A report on the findings was published by Wang et al in Science Translational...
A protein encoded by the gene glypican-1 (GPC1) present on cancer exosomes may be used as part of a potential noninvasive diagnostic and screening tool to detect early pancreatic cancer, potentially at a stage amenable to surgical treatment, according to a study completed by University of Texas MD...
A review of medical records for almost 200 patients with breast cancer suggests that more selective use of biomarker testing for such patients has the potential to save millions of dollars in health-care spending without compromising care, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. Specifically,...
Janssen Biotech, Inc, announced the opening of a daratumumab expanded access program for eligible U.S. patients. Daratumumab is an investigational human anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody being evaluated in clinical trials as a treatment for patients with multiple myeloma. The multicenter, open-label...
In a National Cancer Data Base analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al found that postoperative radiation therapy has been declining in use in recent years but is associated with improved overall survival in patients with incompletely resected stage II or III...
The phase IIIb CONSIGN trial has confirmed the benefit of regorafenib (Stivarga) in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer, researchers announced July 3 at the European Society for Medical Oncology World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona, Spain (Abstract...
Although being overweight with a high body mass index (BMI) has long been associated with a higher risk for colorectal cancer, thinner patients might not fare as well as previously expected after treatment for advanced cancer, according to a new study from Duke Medicine. The study, which was...
In a single institution study reported in JAMA Surgery, Chung et al found a low axillary recurrence rate and low mortality among women with clinical T1–2N0 breast cancer aged ≥ 70 years who underwent breast-conserving surgery without sentinel node biopsy. Study Details The study involved ...
While the use of antiangiogenesis drugs that block the growth of new blood vessels can improve the treatment of some cancers, clinical trials of their ability to prevent the development of new metastases have failed. Now a study from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center may have...
Metastatic colorectal cancer patients have improved survival rates when they respond to the first line of chemotherapy their doctors recommend. To better predict how patients will respond to chemotherapeutic agents before they begin treatment, researchers at University of California (UC) San Diego...
Because of their location, cancers on the pancreas often invade and wrap around nearby veins and arteries in the abdomen. When these vessels become involved, surgery to remove the cancer, which is typically the standard treatment, becomes significantly more difficult—sometimes impossible....
A large population-based prospective analysis of the consumption of psoralen-rich citrus products and the risk of malignant melanoma has found that the melanoma risk was 36% higher in people who consumed citrus fruit or juice at least 1.6 times daily compared with those who consumed it less than...
The results of a nearly 10-year investigation that identified a key gene mutation that can trigger acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and several other types of cancer were recently published by Noetzli et al in Nature Genetics. The findings have, for the first time, pinpointed a mutation that...
A large international prospective study investigating the safety and effectiveness of using annual low-dose computed tomography (CT) as a screening tool to monitor nonsolid lung nodules has found that CT was accurate in identifying nodules that were likely to become cancerous. The study also found...
Blood and marrow transplantation is a potentially curative treatment for patients with leukemia or other life-threating blood diseases. With a goal of increasing survival rates, a research team led by Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) investigators verified patient outcome data submitted by more ...
Early age at menarche could play a role in the disproportionate incidence of estrogen receptor–negative breast cancers diagnosed among African American women, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study is a result of a multicenter collaborative...
Statin use has been associated with improved outcome in prostate cancer. In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Harshman et al found that statin use at the time of initiation of androgen-deprivation therapy was associated with prolonged time to progression during androgen-deprivation therapy in men...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Huang et al found that use of nephron-sparing surgery has more than doubled since 2001 among older patients with small kidney cancers. Use of nonsurgical approaches has remained stable. Study Details The study involved Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End...
In a small clinical trial, scientists at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute found that men with advanced prostate cancer and detection of androgen receptor splice variant-7 (AR-V7) respond to chemotherapy just as well as men who lack the variant. The...
Women who were exposed to higher levels of the pesticide DDT in utero were nearly four times more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer as adults than women who were exposed to lower levels before birth, according to a study published by Cohn et al in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & ...
Houston Methodist Neurological Institute neurosurgeon David Baskin, MD, presented preliminary data from a phase II clinical trial that suggests gene therapy (AdV-Tk therapy), which uses a mediated herpes simplex virus, combined with a traditional treatment—surgical resection—could ...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Paniccia et al identified patient and treatment characteristics that were associated with survival of at least 10 years after diagnosis of invasive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, including lower positive lymph node ratio, receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy, ...
Scientists at multiple institutions have found a new way of classifying brain cancers that could very well change how the illness is diagnosed and treated. The study, a project of The Cancer Genome Atlas, found striking molecular differences between various forms of gliomas by looking at the makeup ...
In a phase I trial, the investigational agent mirvetuximab soravtansine (IMGN853) was found to be active in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. ImmunoGen, Inc, announced the first clinical findings of this folate-receptor alpha (FRα)-targeting antibody-drug conjugate at the...
A study led by the University at Buffalo (UB) and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) has identified beliefs and personality traits associated with higher levels of distress in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. The findings support the value of emotional and informational support for...
A study investigating the process involved in metastatic breast cancer has found that patients with high levels of the protein activin-like receptor kinase (ALK) 1 in the blood vessels of their tumors were more likely to develop metastatic disease than patients without endothelial expression of...
More than one-third of counties in the United States are located more than 50 miles from the nearest gynecologic oncologist, making access to specialty care for ovarian and other gynecologic cancers difficult for nearly 15 million women. Although most of these “low-access” counties are...
A modified poliovirus therapy that is showing activity in patients with glioblastoma works best at a low dosage, according to the research team at Duke’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. The dosage findings for the first 20 patients in the phase 1 trial were presented June 1 at the...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rini et al developed a 16-gene assay and recurrence score that predicted postsurgery outcome in patients with stage I to III clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Development Phase In the development phase, examination of the association between expression...
Researchers have identified a gene in dendritic cells that disables an effective immune response against ovarian cancer tumors. In preclinical studies, the researchers found that silencing this gene, XBP1, in dendritic cells restores their function and enhances T-cell antitumor immunity. XBP1 is...
In the largest study of its kind, transplant physicians at Mayo Clinic in Florida have found that liver cancer patients have similar beneficial outcomes whether using organs donated by patients after cardiac death or brain death. The study was recently published by Croome et al in the American...
In a Swedish study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, He et al identified numerous predictors of discontinuation of adjuvant hormone therapy in patients with breast cancer. Study Details The study involved 3,395 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2008 in Stockholm who...
In the phase III SQUIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thatcher et al found that the addition of the second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody necitumumab to first-line gemcitabine-cisplatin improved overall survival among patients with stage IV squamous...
A University of Michigan survey of women with breast cancer found that nearly half considered having a double mastectomy—but of those who considered it, only 37% knew that the more aggressive procedure does not improve survival for women with breast cancer. Among women who received a double...
Although various drugs have improved outcomes for metastatic colon cancer patients, researchers continually strive to find new agents to improve treatment. Antibody-drug conjugates are a promising option, due to the fact that they can deliver chemotherapy directly into a targeted cell, destroy...
Squamous cell anal carcinomas are rare, representing only about 2% of gastrointestinal cancer diagnoses. These cancers, which are associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV), sometimes prove very difficult to treat, recurring or developing metastases following standard treatment. Seeking to...
ASCO’s wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary, CancerLinQ LLC, provided the first demonstration of its groundbreaking health information technology platform at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Beginning May 30, demonstrations of the CancerLinQ platform’s initial components were...
A collaborative team of researchers led by Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD, FACP, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, shared results from the first clinical study of the anticancer effects of the novel agent entolimod on May 30 at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract 3063). Their findings confirm ...
A new study conducted by the American Cancer Society found that the economic burden of cancer extends beyond diagnosis and treatment, with cancer survivors facing thousands of dollars of excess medical expenses every year, as well as excess employment disability and loss of production at work. The...
Investigators for the nationwide trial NCI-MATCH: Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice announced at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago that the precision medicine trial will open to patient enrollment in July. The trial seeks to determine whether targeted therapies for people whose tumors...
In a phase II Intergroup study (SWOG S0809) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ben-Josef et al found that adjuvant capecitabine and gemcitabine followed by concurrent radiotherapy and capecitabine produced good survival results in patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or...
ASCO announced its first-ever clinical trial, which will offer patients with advanced cancer access to molecularly targeted cancer drugs and collect “real-world” data on clinical outcomes, to help learn the best uses of these drugs outside of indications approved by the U.S. Food and...
For patients with melanoma and micrometastases, as shown by positive sentinel lymph node biopsy, complete lymph node dissection did not improve survival, according to results of a randomized study presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract LBA9002). “This is the first study which...
A large, cooperative group study directed by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has confirmed previous evidence that the drug lenalidomide (Revlimid) delays time to disease progression for patients with multiple myeloma and is an important treatment option for patients with this rare but...