On November 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the FoundationOne CDx (F1CDx), the first breakthrough-designated, next-generation sequencing–based in vitro diagnostic test that can detect genetic mutations in 324 genes and 2 genomic signatures in any solid tumor type. The ...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s MSK-IMPACT tumor profiling assay, an in vitro diagnostic test that can identify more biomarkers that may be found in various cancers than any test previously reviewed by the...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) clinical trial has achieved the goal of screening nearly 6,000 patients in just under 2 years, according to data presented by Chen et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer...
A computational imaging-based signature of immune-cell infiltration in and around a tumor could predict patients’ responses to treatment with anti–programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immunotherapies, according to data from a study presented by Sun et...
Children with relapsed or refractory malignant rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcomas, or poorly differentiated chordomas with a particular genetic defect tolerated treatment with the investigational drug tazemetostat well, and some had objective and durable responses, according to data from a phase ...
Patients with chordoma—a rare bone cancer of the skull and spine—could be helped by existing treatments, suggest scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, University College London Cancer Institute, and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. In the largest...
A new study involving patients with stage IV cancer has found that treatment with radiation therapy and immunotherapy can slow tumor growth by stimulating the body’s immune system to attack the cancer. In the phase II trial, patients with end-stage cancer that had metastasized to the lungs or ...
In a bid to detect cancers early and in a noninvasive way, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Baltimore, reported they have developed a test that spots tiny amounts of cancer-specific DNA in blood, and have used it to accurately identify more than half of 138 people with...
In a study of nearly 9,000 people treated for solid tumors, researchers found that radiation treatment and tobacco use were linked to higher rates of blood-based DNA mutations that could lead to a higher risk for blood cancers such as leukemia. The study, published by Coombs et al in...
In a new study from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), researchers found a higher-than-expected prevalence of cancer at baseline screening in individuals with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare inherited disorder that leads to a higher risk of developing certain cancers. The research demonstrates...
Today, investigators at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) announced the opening of enrollment for a unique precision medicine clinical trial. NCI-COG Pediatric Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (Pediatric MATCH) is a nationwide trial to explore...
In preclinical studies, tumors that consitutively expressed the protein indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) responded to the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor celecoxib (Celebrex) and had improved infiltration of certain subsets of T cells, making them more likely to respond to...
A class of oral drugs for treating breast cancer known as cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors are generally well-tolerated, with a manageable toxicity profile for most patients. This is the conclusion of a comprehensive review of toxicities and drug interactions related to this class of...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued an update to its recommendations for medical insurance coverage regarding the use of proton beam therapy to treat cancer. The updated Proton Beam Therapy Model Policy provides guidance to payers on clinical indications that are...
Varian Medical Systems has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for its Halcyon system, a new device for cancer treatment. Halcyon simplifies and enhances image-guided volumetric-intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). “We are proud that Halcyon has now...
On July 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the expanded use of a cooling cap, DigniCap Cooling System, to reduce hair loss during chemotherapy. This is the first cooling cap cleared by the agency for use in cancer patients with solid tumors. “We are pleased to expand the...
Patients with neuroendocrine tumors may experience fewer symptoms and survive longer by undergoing peptide-receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) combined with a drug that makes tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy, said researchers at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear...
A first-in-human study presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) (Abstract 385) demonstrated the feasibility and safety of imaging with the novel human monoclonal antibody HuMab-5B1, to enable highly specific targeting for the cancer...
ASCO’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study continues to expand and now has more than 300 participants enrolled on study drug, more than 100 sites, new partnerships, and a revised protocol to lower the age of eligibility. “We are very pleased with the...
David M. Hyman, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses findings on the efficacy of larotrectinib, a selective tropomyosin receptor kinase inhibitor, in adult and pediatric cancers. (Abstract LBA2501)
Scientists may have developed the first targeted, oral, tumor-type agnostic therapy—an agent that works comparably well across many kinds of cancer, regardless of patient age. In clinical trials of adults and children with 17 different types of advanced cancer, larotrectinib treatment...
In a study of 124 patients with advanced breast, lung, and prostate cancers, a new high-intensity genomic sequencing approach detected circulating tumor DNA at a high rate. In 89% of patients, at least one genetic change detected in the tumor was also detected in the blood. Overall, 627 (73%)...
In a large study, 38% of 491 testicular cancer survivors had low testosterone levels. Compared with survivors with normal testosterone levels, survivors with low testosterone levels were more likely to have a range of chronic health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes, erectile...
On May 23, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for adult and pediatric patients with unresectable or metastatic, microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) solid tumors that have progressed ...
Tumors with mutations in the proteins isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 or -2 (IDH1/2) exhibited features similar to BRCA-mutant tumors and were more likely to respond better to PARP inhibitors than to IDH inhibitors, according to preclinical data presented by Sulkowski et al at the 2017 American...
In the phase II SUMMIT clinical trial, the likelihood that a patient’s cancer responded to the investigational pan-HER–targeted therapeutic neratinib was influenced by both the cancer type and the identity of the gene mutation present in the cancer, according to results presented by...
A first-in-human clinical trial examining the investigational small-molecule drug ONC201 in patients with advanced solid tumors showed the oral agent to be well tolerated at the recommended phase II dose, according to Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey investigators whose research also showed...
Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, discusses mutation burden as a biomarker of response to immune checkpoint therapy in nine solid cancers.
Prasad S. Adusumilli, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a way to promote functional persistence of CAR T cells as an ideal strategy for solid tumor immunotherapy.
Stephen Gottschalk, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, discusses combining CAR T cells with checkpoint blockade or targeted treatments to improve their antitumor activity in solid tumors.
George J. Bosl, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy and the University of Paris Sud, offer the “pro” and “con” viewpoints for treatment intensification in patients with poor-prognosis germ cell tumors with unfavorable marker decline.
Lawrence H. Einhorn, MD, of the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, summarizes his keynote lecture on the controversies in management of clinical stage I testicular cancer and the long-term consequences of platinum combination chemotherapy.
Mohammad Abu Zaid, MD, of Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, discusses findings from a multicenter study of North American testicular cancer survivors, their prevalence of hypertension, risk factors for metabolic syndrome, and the need for screening and treatment (Abstract 102).
Cancer cells often delete genes that normally suppress tumor formation. These deletions also may extend to neighboring genes, an event known as “collateral lethality,” which may create new options for development of therapies for several cancers. Scientists at The University of Texas MD ...
On November 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of previously treated patients with advanced microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) cancer. The FDA granted...
Safety and efficacy data from a phase I/II study of urelumab in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with hematologic and solid tumors, including biomarker analyses by level of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, was recently presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer ...
Findings from a phase II trial of vemurafenib in previously treated patients with advanced disease and BRAF-mutated tumors indicate that the drug is effective in patients with diverse BRAF V600–mutated tumors but not in patients with BRAF non-V600 mutations. After a mean treatment...
Philippe Rochigneux, MD, of the Paoli Calmettes Institute, Marseille Cancer Center, discusses in French his findings on the high rates of chemotherapy used at the end of life for metastatic solid cancer, especially in young patients treated in high-volume centers without a palliative care unit....
Philippe Rochigneux, MD, of the Paoli Calmettes Institute, Marseille Cancer Center, discusses his findings on the high rates of chemotherapy used at the end of life for metastatic solid cancer, especially in young patients treated in high-volume centers without a palliative care unit. (Abstract...
Janessa J. Laskin, MD, of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, discusses the ways in which availability of tumor gene expression data facilitates clinical decision-making for patients with advanced cancers. (Abstract 1519O)
As reported by Esselen et al in JAMA Oncology, cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) tests and computed tomography (CT) scans for surveillance in women with ovarian cancer continue to be used routinely, although their benefit has not been proven and the practices have significant quality-of-life and economic ...
Men with testicular cancer who were uninsured or on Medicaid had a higher risk of death from what is normally a curable disease than insured patients, a new study found. The findings, published by Markt et al in Cancer, add to growing evidence that differences in health insurance status can affect...
Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), engineered from a patient's own immune cells, have been successful for treating blood cancers, but using CARs for solid tumors has been limited by side effects to normal tissues containing the protein targeted by the engineered cells. Now, in a report published...
Researchers at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) presented a molecular imaging technique that allows oncologists to set patients’ radiotherapy doses right at that critical limit of delivering the most powerful dosage to neuroendocrine...
Malignant neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are relatively rare, notoriously difficult to treat, and associated with poor long-term survival. According to research presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), an investigative blood test could...
An experimental CDK inhibitor, abemaciclib, yielded encouraging and durable results against several different types of cancers, including breast cancer, lung cancer, glioblastoma, and melanoma, according to a report published by Patnaik et al in Cancer Discovery. The results of the trial supported ...
John D. Hainsworth, MD, of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses early findings from this umbrella basket study on targeted treatment, outside of current drug indications, for different types of advanced solid tumors (Abstract LBA11511).
A large-scale genomic analysis found that patterns of genetic changes detected in blood samples (liquid biopsy) closely mirror those identified in traditional tumor biopsy. With blood samples from more than 15,000 patients and 50 different tumor types, this is one of the largest cancer genomics...
Researchers reported encouraging early results from a phase II trial that matches patients with molecular abnormalities in the tumor to corresponding targeted treatments. Twenty-nine of 129 patients with 12 different types of advanced cancers responded to drugs outside of U.S. Food and Drug...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Netspot, the first kit for the preparation of Ga-68 dotatate injection, a radioactive diagnostic agent for positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging. This radioactive probe will help locate tumors in adult and pediatric patients with...