News

The FDA has approved eribulin mesylate (Halaven) as a treatment for patients with advanced or unresectable liposarcoma following prior treatment with an anthracycline-based chemotherapy, based on an improvement in overall survival (OS) in a phase III study.

Diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is pivoted around cytogenetic analysis of patient bone marrow or peripheral blood cultures. The World Health Organization classification of tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues is based on cytogenetic features along with other clinical, morphological, and immunophenotypic characteristics.

In patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), ensituximab (NPC-1C), a chimeric immunoglobulin IgG1 monoclonal antibody, produced stable disease in almost half the patients in a phase II study, without contributing toxicity.

For the first time, scientists have identified a "feed-forward loop" consisting of a gene, micro-RNA, and transcription factor implicated in both multiple myeloma and Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, according to an article published this month in the Blood Cancer Journal.

The results from MAESTRO, a phase III trial examining evofosfamide in advanced pancreas cancer patients, show the treatment offers little-to-no advantage to both patients with pancreatic cancer and soft tissue sarcoma (STS) were presented at an oral session at the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Physicians may be able to use KIT mutations to help predict the progression of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), according to a new meta-analysis published in Nature Scientific Reports.

The safety and efficacy profile of regorafenib in patients with previously treated colorectal cancer (CRC) is similar between US patients and the global study population enrolled in the phase IIIb CONSIGN study, according to Udit Verma, MD, at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Treatment initiation for hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer should include the addition of docetaxel to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) as standard of care.

A study published in Scientific Reports by researchers from China indicates panurothelial carcinoma (panUCC) has a high risk of recurring, progressing, and disseminating after conservative surgery, leading to poor outcomes.

The frontline melanoma indications for nivolumab (Opdivo), as both a single agent and in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy), have been expanded by the FDA to include patients with BRAF V600 mutations. This expansion was based on data from the phase III CheckMate-067 trial.

Bladder cancer remains the costliest cancer to treat per capita, taking into account diagnostic testing, management, and long-term follow-up. Continued development of urine-based biomarker diagnostic tests may help replace the costly and more invasive techniques of imaging, cytology, and cystoscopy for cancer detection. Genome-wide expression and sequencing studies have identified genes and pathways considered key drivers of bladder cancer.

Carfilzomib (Kyprolis) has been approved by the FDA in combination with either dexamethasone or lenalidomide plus dexamethasone for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma following prior treatment with 1 to 3 lines of therapy. The approval is based on findings from the phase III ENDEAVOR trial.

Urothelial bladder cancers (UBC) may display complex and heterogeneous features, driven in part by a diverse genomic profile.

The FDA has designated the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax as a breakthrough therapy for use in combination with rituximab (Rituxan) to treat patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

A team in Australia have revealed the clinicopathological phenotypes and clinical activities of rarer BRAF mutations, namely BRAFK601E (K601E) and BRAFL597 (L597).

Results from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) have shown that alterations in gene copy number (ie, amplifications or deletions) are an important characteristic of high-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOC).

A recent preclinical study conducted by researchers at the The University of Chicago Medical Center suggests that the antibiotic monensin may be effective in combating such a malignancy.

The combination of lenvatinib (Lenvima) and everolimus (Afinitor) has been given a priority review status by the FDA as a treatment for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following one prior VEGF-targeted therapy.

Ofatumumab (Arzerra) has received FDA approved for the extended treatment of patients with recurrent or progressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Patients eligible to receive the treatment must show complete or partial response following at least two lines of therapy.

In a new study, researchers investigated the roles of Dicer in replication-associated DNA damage during development. The team chose a model of the developing cerebellum for the study.

Neurosurgeons at UC San Diego Health are making headway in a study of minimally invasive laser treatment of brain tumors focused on improving quality of life for patients who have been diagnosed with glioblastoma.

Building on previous work showing increased NF-kB activity in lung cancers, one research team has recently published a study showing this activity is also enhanced in glioblastoma, one of the most lethal forms of human cancers.

A study analysis tackles the ethical debate surrounding the impact of the increasing requirement for research biopsies on the participation of patients with advanced non-small lung cancer in clinical trials.

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS, associate director for clinical science and chief surgical officer at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, will serve as editor-in-chief of The Journal of Targeted Therapies in Cancer and Targeted Therapies in Oncology.

Researchers have identified a potential new biomarker for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which may help increase the efficacy of an emerging vaccine based on the MUC-1 antigen.

As new information regarding the efficacy of targeted and immunotherapeutic approaches emerge, the standard of care for patients with melanoma becomes slightly more altered.

Patients who elect to undergo immediate surgery for low-risk thyroid-related microcarcinoma may be subjecting themselves to unnecessary risk, according to findings from a large study in Japan.

The presence or absence of certain serum-free fatty acids could be an excellent diagnostic tool to differentiate between patients with either benign thyroid diseases or thyroid cancer.

A new retrospective study claimed a rarity of cytogenetic and molecular monitoring exists among patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) treated in a community setting; however, one researcher is challenging that claim.

A comparison preclinical study pitting a sugary diet with one less sweet shows the former resulting in increased breast cancer tumor growth and metastasis.