Pap cytology is more specific but less sensitive than human papillomavirus (HPV) testing for the detection of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+). In the pan-European PALMS study, reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Hans Ikenberg, MD, of CytoMol in...
Etirinotecan pegol is a topoisomerase-I inhibitor that prolongs systemic exposure to the active metabolite of irinotecan. In a phase II trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ignace B. Vergote, MD, PhD, of University Hospital Leuven in Belgium, and colleagues found that the agent produced...
According to an analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative, continuous combined use of estrogen plus progestin reduces the risk of endometrial cancer among postmenopausal women. The study was reported at the European Cancer Congress 2013 in Amsterdam (Abstract LBA13) by Rowan Chlebowski, MD,...
Adding the chemotherapy drug cisplatin to a treatment plan of radiation therapy and high–dose rate brachytherapy for stage IIIB cervical cancer is beneficial, according to research presented on September 22, 2013, at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s 55th Annual Meeting...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mathias Onrud, MD, of Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo University Hospital, and colleagues assessed outcomes in the follow-up of the Norwegian Radium Hospital trial to determine long-term effects of external beam radiation therapy in the adjuvant...
A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital found that brachytherapy was associated with better cause-specific survival and overall survival in women with cervical cancer. The population-based analysis also revealed geographic disparities and decline in brachytherapy treatment in the...
A study by Alexi Wright, MD, MPH, and colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has found that two common subtypes of cervical cancer, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, have distinct molecular profiles. The results suggest that clinical...
African American women are less likely to receive the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), even with access to health care, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health, suggest a need...
A new screening strategy for ovarian cancer appears to be highly specific for detecting the disease before it becomes lethal. The strategy was described in a study published early online this week in Cancer. A clinical trial is ongoing to verify the findings. Karen Lu, MD, of The University of...
The primary analysis of the Japanese JGOG 3016 trial showed that dose-dense paclitaxel plus carboplatin significantly improved progression-free and overall survival compared with conventional paclitaxel/carboplatin as first-line treatment in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. In a long-term...
In a study of ovarian cancer cells taken from patients, scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have confirmed that metastasizing cancer cells have a different molecular structure from primary tumor cells and display genetic signatures consistent with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition....
For the first time since the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine became available for adolescent girls in 2006, the vaccination rate for the teenagers has stalled, according to data published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sebastien Gouy, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, and colleagues evaluated survival outcomes in locally advanced cervical cancer patients with negative PET-CT imaging results who underwent laparoscopic para-aortic staging surgery before...
Few markers of ovarian cancer prognosis have been established, perhaps because potential subtype associations are missed in studies including patients with all histopathologic subtypes. In a study reported in Lancet Oncology, Weiva Sieh, PhD, of Stanford University and colleagues assessed the...
A new study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in partnership with Costa Rican investigators and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), shows for the first time that the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18, which is used to prevent cervical cancer, also...
Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center recently discovered that the most frequently used cancer cell lines in ovarian cancer research are not suitable models of ovarian cancer. Their findings are the result of a detailed review of genomic data that recently became publicly...
A novel pairing of two investigational cancer drugs in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer showed promising activity and had manageable toxicities, according to a phase I trial published online in the European Journal of Cancer. The combination of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)...
Although patients with early-stage type I endometrial cancer have very good prognosis, a substantial proportion experience recurrence and die from the disease. In a study published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Alain G. Zeimet, MD, PhD, of Innsbruck Medical University, Austria, and...
A new government study investigating the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in females aged 14 to 59 before and after the introduction in 2006 of the HPV vaccine found that the rate of the HPV infection dropped by 56%, decreasing from 11.5% in 2006 to 5.1% in 2010 among female...
In a phase III trial, treatment with the investigational agent trebananib plus paclitaxel resulted in a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer, according to Amgen. Trebananib is an investigational peptibody designed to inhibit...
Cervical cancer mortality was reduced by 31% over a period of 15 years among women screened with biennial visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), or vinegar, delivered by primary health workers in a large randomized study conducted among 150,000 women in India. The researchers estimate this...
Adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy regimens with or without a platinum drug improved outcomes for women with metastatic or relapsed cervical cancer treated in a randomized phase III study. Presenting the results at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 3), lead author Krishnansu Sujata...
Spouses and long-term partners of patients diagnosed with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer were no more likely to test positive for oral HPV infection than people in the general population and have a low risk of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer, according to the Human Oral...
A phase III clinical trial has found that pazopanib (Votrient), an oral multikinase inhibitor, extends disease-free survival by an average of 5.6 months, compared to placebo, in women with advanced ovarian cancer who had initial successful treatment with surgery and chemotherapy. “Our...
Positively charged gold nanoparticles are usually toxic to cells, but cancer cells somehow manage to avoid nanoparticle toxicity. Mayo Clinic researchers found out why and determined how to make the nanoparticles effective against ovarian cancer cells. The discovery is detailed in the current...
In the largest clinical trial to date to examine the efficacy of PARP inhibitor therapy in BRCA1/2 carriers with diseases other than breast and ovarian cancer, the oral drug olaparib was found to be effective against advanced pancreatic and prostate cancers. Results of the study, led by researchers ...
A comprehensive genomic analysis of nearly 400 endometrial tumors suggests that certain molecular characteristics, such as the frequency of mutations, could complement current pathology methods and help distinguish between principal types of endometrial tumors, as well as provide insights into...
When given sequentially, two orally available experimental drugs—sapacitabine and seliciclib—worked together to elicit antitumor effects in patients with incurable BRCA-deficient cancers, according to phase I data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, DC, April...
A novel two-step immunotherapy approach yielded clinically beneficial responses in patients with advanced ovarian cancer, including one patient who achieved complete remission, according to data from two phase I clinical trials presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, DC,...
The antibody-drug conjugate DMUC5754A, a novel member of a relatively new class of drugs, showed activity in women with ovarian cancer, even those with hard-to-treat, platinum-resistant disease, in a phase I trial presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, DC, April 6 to 10....
Researchers at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center have identified new DNA sequences associated with breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The findings, which appear in three studies in the journals PLoS Genetics and Nature Genetics, will help reveal the underlying causes of these diseases and help researchers...
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of Florida studied health-care providers to determine the factors associated with disparities in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among girls, ages 9 to 17, from low-income families. They found that physician vaccination...
Women are 30% less likely to die of ovarian cancer if they have guideline-recommended treatment, yet nearly two-thirds of those with the disease do not receive it, often because they are cared for at hospitals that treat a small number of ovarian cancer patients. These are the findings of a study...
Patients with advanced ovarian cancer who undergo intensive treatment with chemotherapy that bathes the abdomen are significantly more likely to live longer than those who receive standard intravenous (IV) chemotherapy, according to a study that analyzed long-term follow-up from two landmark...
Patients with locally advanced cervical cancer have better treatment outcomes and are more likely to survive the disease if they receive care at a high-volume medical center than patients treated at low-volume facilities, according to research presented at the Society of Gynecologic...
Combatting the tobacco industry’s tactics in the world’s poorest countries as well as ensuring the best cancer vaccines are available to those most in need are key in order to reduce the number of cancer deaths worldwide, according to a new report published in the journal Science...
Low-grade serous ovarian cancer is less common and aggressive than the high-grade variety, but the disease is exceptionally difficult to treat when front-line therapy fails. "After surgery, with or without presurgical chemotherapy, when low-grade serous ovarian cancer persists or returns,...
Patients with advanced, recurrent, or persistent cervical cancer that was not curable with standard treatment who received the bevacizumab (Avastin) lived 3.7 months longer than patients who did not receive the drug, according to an interim analysis of a large, randomized clinical trial. The...
In a major breakthrough for uterine serous carcinoma (USC), a chemoresistant, aggressive form of endometrial cancer, researchers at Yale Cancer Center have defined the genetic landscape of USC tumors, findings that point to new treatment opportunities. The collaborative team, which included...