News

According to a careful examination of studies exploring the immune response, immunotherapy will be most effective as a treatment for breast cancer when it is used to alter the tumor microenvironment. Nora Disis, MD, presented her findings during the 15th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference.

Tari A. King, MD, discusses whether age is an independent prognostic factor in breast cancer or if it's simply a reflection of biology.

Inhibition of CDK4/6 results in improvements in progression-free survival in women with estrogen receptor ER-positive HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer whether it is endocrine sensitive or resistant.

Ramesh K. Ramanathan, MD, discusses clinical trials investigating combination treatments with standard chemotherapies to improve outcomes in pancreatic cancer.

The addition of chemotherapy, either adjuvant or induction, to concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) achieved a significantly high survival benefit for patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, discusses efforts to find effective new treatments for triple-negative breast cancer.

Michael F. Press, MD, PhD, discusses the new ASCO-CAP guidelines for HER2 FISH testing.

During a presentation at the 2017 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Leslie R. Schover, PhD, stressed the importance of preventive sexual counseling in reducing sexual dysfunction resulting from the treatment of breast cancer patients with aromatase inhibitors.

The number of positive lymph nodes is an appropriate selection factor in deciding adjuvant chemoradiotherapy use in some patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer, according to the results of a recent retrospective analysis .

Pembrolizumab has been granted an accelerated approval by the FDA for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma who are refractory or have relapsed after 3 or more lines of therapy.

Clinical trials of selinexor, which is being explored in several tumor types, have been placed on clinical hold by the FDA.

Helmut Schaider, MD, discusses why drug resistance in melanoma may be due to epigenetic changes and not mutation-induced changes, as well as the role of immunotherapy/targeted therapy combinations in combating resistance.

With the objective of identifying patients who would derive greater benefit from CRT,  a recent retrospective, observational cohort study examined use and survival outcomes with adjuvant CRT in patients with resected locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy has been associated with less acute and chronic gastrointestinal toxicity, compared with standard pelvic radiation in the treatment of patients with cervical or endometrial cancer, according to results of a phase III study.

Dmitriy Zamarin, MD, PhD, discusses the next steps necessary to advance immunotherapy in the field of gynecologic cancers.

The CDK 4/6 inhibitor ribociclib has been approved by the FDA for use in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for the frontline treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Thomas J. Lynch Jr, MD, has been appointed the executive vice president and chief scientific officer for Bristol-Myers Squibb, effective March 16, 2017. He will succeed Francis Cuss, MB BChir, who will be retiring from the company. Lynch will simultaneously step down from the Board of Directors at Bristol-Myers Squibb, effective March 15, 2017.

Sheldon M. Feldman, MD, has been named chief of the Division of Breast Surgery and Surgical Oncology, and director of Breast Cancer Services at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore has announced. He will also join the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a professor of clinical surgery.

Jeffrey A. Drebin, MD, PhD, has been named chairman of the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, MSK has announced.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has announced Brian Wolpin, MD, MPH, has been appointed Robert T. and Judith B. Hale Chair in Pancreatic Cancer.

Adding ublituximab to ibrutinib significantly improved objective response rates (ORR) compared with ibrutinib alone for patients with previously treated high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia .

Clinical holds on several phase I trials of vadastuximab talirine in acute myeloid leukemia have been lifted by the FDA.

The combination of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab with chemotherapy induced objective responses in one-third of patients with previously treated metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Andrea Apolo, MD, discusses promising early data demonstrating the activity and safety of cabozantinib and nivolumab, with or without ipilimumab, in bladder cancer and other advanced genitourinary cancers.<br /> &nbsp;

Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, MD,&nbsp;the potential role of <em>BRAF</em> and <em>CTNNB1</em> mutations in the survival difference between CRC patients with left- and right-sided tumors.

The addition of pertuzumab to trastuzumab and chemotherapy reduced the risk of recurrence of invasive disease or death in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer in the phase III APHINITY study.

A new drug application for enasidenib has been granted a priority review by the FDA as a treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory <em>IDH2</em>-mutated acute myeloid leukemia.

Alectinib has been approved by the European Commission as a treatment for patients with metastatic ALK-positive non&ndash;small cell lung cancer following progression on crizotinib.

Lisa Carey, MD, discusses the current state of the science in TNBC, the potential for immunotherapy, and future treatment approaches she anticipates in the coming years.

PFS was improved with Olaparib versus standard chemotherapy in patients with <em>BRCA</em>-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, according to findings from the phase III OLYMPIAD trial.