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Phase 2 Trial Examines Gene-Expression Profiling for Cancer of Unknown...
A randomized phase 2 trial examining the assignment of treatment based on gene-expression profiling compared with standard chemotherapy for patients with cancer of unknown primary site showed no...
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Can Patient-Derived Organoids Help Oncologists Make Treatment Decisions?
Organoids are tiny 3D structures cultured in the lab that recapitulate some of the structures of their organ of origin. They have been made from both healthy and malignant tissues, and have led to...
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Unlocking the Potential of Biosimilars in Community Oncology
Today, biologics make up more than half of the oncologic therapies in the pipeline. These pioneering therapies now allow more than 350 million patients with cancer globally to receive their treatment...
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Should the FDA Do More to Increase Transparency?
Transparency is an often-used term that means different things for different stakeholders and audiences. When it comes to clinical research studies — which ideally result in new or better drugs —...
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Wider Use of Basket Trials Could Hasten Development of Precision Therapies
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018 proposed new guidelines for the use of so-called “master protocol” clinical trials, such as basket trials that test a candidate targeted therapy...
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Study Reports Marijuana Use Among Patients With Cancer May Be Increasing...
In what was billed by study authors as “the first insight into marijuana and opioid use over time in people with cancer across the United States,” investigators concluded that throughout a recent...
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A Novel Method for Biomarker Discovery in Clinical Trials
Recent research finds that a new tool in biomarker discovery may be inferred through the analysis of Kaplan-Meier (KM) curves for time-to-event data from clinical trials. Using clinical trial...
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Predictors of TKI Response in CML Remain Elusive
Despite the use of several modern, high-throughput analytical methods, researchers from Russia were unable to find any reliable molecular markers to help predict which patients with Philadelphia...
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Muscle Complaints Are a Frequent Side Effect of TKI Use in CML, but What...
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have revolutionized the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) since the introduction of imatinib (Gleevec®) in 2001. More than 90% of patients now experience...
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Multidisciplinary Genetic Tumor Boards: Critical for Interpreting Tumor-Only...
Recent research suggests that precision health care will necessarily require an interdisciplinary approach, where representatives from various fields of thought must group together to draw genetically...
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Solving the Obesity Paradox in Oncology
The obesity paradox, where high patient body mass index (BMI) is correlated with improved overall survival in patients with cancer, has had few plausible explanations to date.1 It’s understood, for...
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Do Oncologists Change Practice Based on Inadequate Evidence?
Do oncologists change practice based on meeting abstracts alone? Although these were not the exact words used, this was the essence of the question first posed on Twitter by STAT senior writer Adam...
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T-Cell Cryopreservation for Use in Future Cancer Treatment: Hot or Hype?
This summer, a company by the name of Cell Vault announced the launch of the first T-cell cryopreservation bank in the United States. Given the current groundswell in funding for autologous chimeric...
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New Trial Attempts to Make Genetic Counseling and Testing More Accessible
Most people who should undergo genetic testing according to the US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines have not been tested or counseled. More than 1.2 million women with a history of breast or...
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Cognitive Impairment Following Immunotherapy Treatment May Be Underestimated
It’s well known that chemotherapy treatment can negatively impact a patient’s learning, memory, and other cognitive functions, a condition informally known as “chemo brain.” However, the potential...
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Pathologists Need Better Reporting Guidelines for Postneoadjuvant...
A paper published in Modern Pathology in August 20191 called attention to the lack of standardized reporting practices that pathologists use to evaluate postneoadjuvant chemotherapy specimens. The...
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FDA Proposal Threatens Transparency on Cancer Drug Safety and Efficacy
When the moment strikes, researchers like Marian McDonagh, PharmD, associate director of the evidence-based practice center at the Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, turn away from the...
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Oral Oncology Parity Laws Don’t Make Medications More Affordable
Cancer care is haunted by issues surrounding cost and oral cancer drugs are a stark example. For patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and multiple myeloma (MM), orally administered drugs have...
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Researchers Turn to Crowdsourcing to Learn More About COVID-19 and Cancer
As oncology researchers around the world race to solve the mysteries about how the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 affects cancer patients, a challenge quickly became apparent: How can they get data fast...
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Has the Time for At-Home Cancer Care Finally Come?
As a radiation oncologist, Justin E. Bekelman, MD, periodically hears complaints from patients who ask why they can’t receive hormone injections and chemotherapy infusions at home. One woman called her...
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Researchers Reveal Racial Disparities in Access to Remdesivir for Patients...
Results from an observational study revealed that patients with cancer who also were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were treated with unproven,...
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Changes in Clinical Trial Conduct Prompted by the COVID-19 Pandemic Should...
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted changes to standard practices for cancer clinical trials, and thought leaders have recommended continuing — and improving upon — those new practices. These...
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Drug Shortages Threaten Childhood Cancer Treatment
Childhood cancers have seen remarkable improvements in prognosis over the past few decades, with survival rates in countries such as the US at around 85%.1 Although prognosis varies widely between the...
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FDA Calls for Patient Registries to Track Robotically Treated Cancers
The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent warning about robotic surgery for treating or preventing cancer came as a surprise to some physicians, given the technology’s pervasive reach and...
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Chemotherapy-Stimulated Immune Response: An Open Debate
A recent review suggested that chemotherapy may prime cancer to respond to checkpoint inhibition.1 According to the review, which was published in the Annals of Oncology earlier this year, this may...
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