GENOMIC TESTING

Despite the availability of several new agents in the past 5 years for the treatment of melanoma, patients with advanced melanoma still suffer poor prognoses.

Almost half of patients with cancer who receive genetic testing may be given information that leads to unsuitable targeted treatments, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

A research team led by investigators at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has published a study in Nature Communications identifying several new genetic mutations in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Sharyn N. Lewin, MD, discusses the importance of screening patients with ovarian cancer for a BRCA mutation.

Harold Varmus, MD, may be stepping down as director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the end of March, but in an interview with Targeted Oncology, he made it clear that he is not retiring.

Blocking activin-A, a protein that is secreted by non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, may prevent cancer metastasis, according to research conducted at the University of Virginia (UVA).

Many patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have no identifiable mutations, and therefore their disease cannot be managed with targeted treatments.

In the largest patient population study to date, Mayo Clinic investigators have identified new genetic predictors of toxicity to colon cancer treatment, but the study has some caveats.

Guardant360 is a highly sensitive digital sequencing system that requires only a 10 mL blood sample, and allows for simultaneous assessment of more than 60 actionable genes in circulating, cell-free DNA.

Advances in molecular testing have enabled families of those with thyroid cancers to determine whether or not they may be at increased risk for developing thyroid cancer.

In many cases, prostate cancer grows slowly and causes few symptoms; thus, many men remain unaware that they have the disease.

During a retrospective study of 182 patients with nonresectable pancreatic cancer, a negative association was found between baseline circulating tumor (ct)DNA KRAS counts in plasma and overall survival (OS), which indicates that patients with lower KRAS burden in ctDNA survive longer.

The start of 2015 brought news from Novartis that it had signed an agreement with Intellia Therapeutics and Caribou Biosciences to license its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing platform to develop novel treatments for chronic genetic-based diseases.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) and Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) are characterized by a high frequency of BRAFV600E mutations, which are responsive to treatment with BRAF inhibitors such as vemurafenib.

Adam Bass, MD, assistant professor, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, provides an overview of the four subtypes of gastric cancer identified in a recent study.

A 12-gene test for breast cancer recurrence after ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) distinguished high- and intermediate- risk patients from those with a low risk. These results were presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

A 25-gene hereditary cancer panel can increase the identification of deleterious mutations by almost 70%, over testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) or Lynch syndrome alone.

Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses next-generation sequencing in thyroid cancer.

Knowledge of genetic expression of melanocytic lesions significantly reduced the number of indeterminate diagnoses made by dermatopathologists.

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, discussed the potential of veliparib as a treatment for patients with squamous cell NSCLC in an interview with Targeted Oncology.

As with many cancers, early detection (before the onset of symptoms) offers the possibility for less expensive treatment and better outcomes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A key to improved outcomes for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the ability to identify the wide spectrum of genetic changes present in tumors. Doing so will guide treatment decisions and influence the development of much-needed additional targeted therapies.

The development of drug resistance in cancer cells presents a major obstacle to cancer treatments of all types, including small molecule inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and hormone therapy.

New research has identified a genetic variant that helps reduce the risk of breast cancer in some Latina patients by 40% to 80%.

A “nano-cocoon” DNA drug delivery vehicle may offer several advantages over other nanotechnology-based delivery systems, according to new research.