Darcy Lewis

A new single-center report has found that the results of next-generation sequencing–based molecular profiling for non–GI stromal tumor sarcomas provided information used to effectively guide clinical management.

According to a single-institution retrospective study recently published in&nbsp;<em>Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma &amp; Leukemia,&nbsp;</em>minimally toxic first-line therapies may be beneficial in early extranodal follicular lymphoma compared with observation.

A new meta-analysis has found that the combined regimen of bevacizumab (Avastin) plus erlotinib (Tarceva) is effective in treating advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma.

A new phase III trial has demonstrated that a novel extended-release formulation of anagrelide (Thromboreductin) is noninferior to immediate-release anagrelide in reducing platelet counts in patients with essential thrombocythemia.

In the absence of biological or molecular predictive markers, tumor volume doubling time is a good indicator for predicting the growth rate of papillary thyroid carcinomas during active surveillance, according to findings from a single-center cohort study recently published in <em>Thyroid</em>.

A comprehensive effort to assess the prevalence of microsatellite instability in a large series of malignant thyroid tumors comprising all major histologic subtypes has found that the overall prevalence of MSI in follicular thyroid cancer is 2.5%. The study also found that MSI is either entirely absent or rare in other histology subtypes of thyroid carcinoma.

The combination of FOLFOXIRI plus molecular targeted therapies, including bevacizumab, was effective as a first-line treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer, according to findings from a retrospective study recently published in <em>Oncotarget.</em>

The efficacy of osimertinib does not significantly vary according to the body size variables of patients with T790M-positive non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who progress on prior EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, according to findings from a new study published in <em>Thoracic Cancer</em>.<br /> &nbsp;

Ofatumumab was both active and well-tolerated at 2 different dose levels in treatment-na&iuml;ve patients with advanced follicular lymphoma who had low tumor burden, according to findings from a phase II, multicenter study recently published in the <em>British Journal of Haematology</em>.

Researchers have defined a clinically and biologically distinct subgroup of tumors within germinal center B-cell&ndash;like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma characterized by a gene expression signature of high-grade B-cell lymphoma with&nbsp;<em>MYC&nbsp;</em>and&nbsp;<em>BCL2&nbsp;</em>and/or&nbsp;<em>BCL6&nbsp;</em>rearrangements, according to a study published in the&nbsp;<em>Journal of Clinical Oncology</em>.

Adjuvant external beam radiation therapy was associated with worse overall survival and disease-specific survival in patients with locally invasive papillary thyroid carcinoma, a new retrospective cohort study has found.

The combination of ibrutinib and palbociclib appeared to be a feasible and active treatment regimen in patients with previously treated mantle cell lymphoma, according to findings from a phase I dose-finding study recently published in <em>Blood</em>.

The first attempt to quantify therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukemia in the era of widespread platinum-based chemotherapy has found that tMDS/AML risks were statistically significantly elevated after chemotherapy for 22 of 23 solid cancers, according to a new study in <em>JAMA Oncology.</em>

A phase Ib dose-finding study has established the maximum safe starting dose of ruxolitinib to be 10 mg twice daily in treating myelofibrosis in patients with low initial platelet counts.

Positive RET staining by immunohistochemistry was associated with a low risk of recurrence and death from papillary thyroid cancer, according to a new exploratory analysis published in <em>Cancer Medicine</em> that examined a cohort of 231 patients with long-term follow up at a single institution.

A new retrospective analysis of 640 newly diagnosed patients with follicular lymphoma found that patients who had achieved partial remission after 4 or more cycles of bendamustine plus rituximab experienced improved duration of response on maintenance rituximab compared with patients who received no maintenance treatment or who were in complete remission following induction with bendamustine plus rituximab.

A randomized phase II trial found that nab-paclitaxel showed equivalent efficacy and was well tolerated compared with docetaxel as neoadjuvant therapy in early-stage breast cancer.

Minimizing dose interruptions of lenvantinib improved progression-free survival in patients with radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RR-DTC), according to an exploratory post-hoc analysis from a phase III randomized trial.

A randomized phase II trial found that both fluorouracil plus cisplatin and twice-daily radiation and gemcitabine plus once-daily radiation achieved freedom from distant metastasis at 3 years in at least 75% of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

A new pooled analysis concluded that the leading cause of death in patients with follicular lymphoma continues to be lymphoma, despite the widespread improvements in overall survival demonstrated with rituximab.

Treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab demonstrated dose-limiting toxicities when combined with the tyrosine kinase inhibitors sunitinib or pazopanib to treat advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma, according to the results of a phase I parallel cohort dose escalation trial. However, both combinations showed encouraging preliminary antitumor activity.

Clinicians need to consider the inherent heterogeneity of each case of triple-negative breast cancer during diagnosis and treatment planning, said Stuart J. Schnitt, MD, because not all cases present the same way. During the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Schnitt&nbsp;reviewed the conventional views of TNBC and emphasized that they may not fit all cases of TNBC.

Two variants of the chemotherapy regimen R-CHOP resulted in comparable overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with previously untreated stage III or IV indolent B-cell lymphoma, including grades 1 to 3 follicular lymphoma, according to a long-term follow-up analysis from a combined phase II/III randomized trial.

Beginning ruxolitinib (Jakafi) therapy at lower doses may limit the anemia frequently seen early in treatment in patients with myelofibrosis while still providing clinical benefits like improvements in splenomegaly, according to the results of a 24-week open-label phase II dose escalation study.

Using the VR-CAP regimen instead of R-CHOP significantly improved median overall survival in previously untreated newly diagnosed patients with mantle cell lymphoma who were not eligible for transplant, according to results from the long-term follow-up phase of a randomized, open-label, phase III trial.

Adding thalidomide to induction and maintenance therapy in stem cell transplant-eligible, newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma improved event-free survival and progression-free survival compared with standard chemotherapy drugs and interferon alfa, according to a long-term follow-up analysis from a phase III open-label randomized trial.

Genomic assays and signatures are increasingly being used as a prognostic indicator for guiding treatment decisions, according to Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD. During a presentation at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago, he explained that many of these tests can also be used as predictive indicators.

Although, it is challenging to determine the optimal&nbsp;adjuvant therapy for&nbsp;younger patients with breast cancer, Mark Robson, MD, encouraged that the addition of adjuvant chemotherapy does show a benefit in this patient population.&nbsp;

The role of&nbsp;tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is expanding in cancer care, necessitating a more involved role for pathologists to quantify immune infiltrates,&nbsp;K.P. Siziopikou, MD, PhD, suggested during a presentation at&nbsp;the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.

Patients with HER2-positive, microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H), and <em>NTRK</em> gene fusion-positive breast cancer likely benefit more than others from molecular profiling. In a presentation at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago, Illinois,&nbsp;Sledge discussed the growing use of molecular profiling, especially for metastatic cancers, as well said the decreasing cost of sequencing.