Colorectal Cancer

Preoperative treatment with short-course radiation therapy plus 3 cycles of chemotherapy boosted overall survival (OS) and generated fewer adverse events (AEs) compared to standard chemoradiation for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

A gene associated with the suppression of tumor growth has been found to act in the opposite manner in some forms of colorectal cancer (CRC), according to researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

With an expanding treatment paradigm for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) at their fingertips, oncologists are working out the best methods of use for their new armamentarium, says John L. Marshall, MD.

Recent results from a survey of some 7000 patient specimens from the Cancer Genome Atlas concluded that gene fusion events, resulting in oncogenic activation, were commonly observed among members of the neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase family, with 23 gene fusions observed over a total of 9 different tumor types, including colorectal cancer.

Vitamin C, often used to fight colds and other pathogens, may also be a powerful weapon against colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a study published in Science.

A number of colorectal cancer care advocacy groups and the American Cancer of Radiology are lobbying Congress to pass the CT Colonography Screening for Colorectal Cancer Act, an initiative that could lower costs and increase screening rates.

The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation to Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a potential therapy for patients with microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans and red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans.

Dr. S. Yousuf Zafar talks about the association between the body mass index of patients who are starting treatment for colorectal cancer and both the progression free survival and overall survival.

Dr. Guy Van Hazel speaks about finding a potential survival advantage for extrahepatic colorectal cancer metastases patients that undergo selective internal radiation therapy.

The USPSTF recently posted a draft recommendation statement and draft evidence review on screening for colorectal cancer prompting responses from organizations and industry.

The oral nucleoside TAS-102 (Lonsurf) has been approved by the FDA for patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) who are not responding to other treatments.

A novel basket trial has reported results on the treatment of vemurafenib in variety of nonmelanoma cancers with BRAF V600 mutation.

Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, discusses regorafenib for the treatment of patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Sonidegib (Odomzo) was approved by the EC for the treatment of patients who have locally advanced basal cell carcinoma (laBCC) and are not amenable to curative surgery or radiation therapy.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has been selected as the site for one of two new Genome Characterization Centers (GCCs) funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Health (HHSN261200800001E).

Dirk Arnold, MD, director of the Department of Medical Oncology at Klinik für Tumorbiologie, Freiburg, Germany, discusses the advantages of using yttrium-90 (Y-90) as the first line treatment for patients with liver metastases from metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

A study including the largest reported US cohort of patients under age 35 with colorectal cancer (CRC) has discovered that one-third of these patients suffer from hereditary forms of the disease.

S. Yousuf Zafar, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke Cancer Institute, discusses the association of obesity with metastatic colorectal cancer.

James J. Lee, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, discusses the importance of mismatched repair testing in colorectal cancer (CRC).

According to findings from a phase II study released by Amgen, monotherapy with blinatumomab (Blincyto) showed promising complete remission (CR) or CR with partial hematological recovery (CRh) rates in adult patients with relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

One gene can encode more than one protein; however, proteins are dynamic (binding to membranes, other proteins, synthesis, degradation), undergo co- and post-translational modification, and exist in a wide range of concentrations in the body.