Latest Conference Articles

MPDL3280A received the first Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA for bladder cancer, according to information released May 31, 2014 at the 50th Annual Meeting of ASCO.

The third-generation EGFR inhibitor CO-1686 continues to demonstrate promising activity in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who developed resistance after prior treatment with an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI).

Paulo Marcelo Hoff, MD, PhD, FACP, discusses a trial that looked at the consistency of effect of ziv-aflibercept in the bevacizumab pre-treated subgroup of patients in the VELOUR trial stratified by first-line progression ≥ 9 months versus < 9 months.

Adding the VEGFR-2 inhibitor ramucirumab (Cyramza) to standard docectaxel improved overall survival (OS) by 1.4 months versus docetaxel alone in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Richard Goldberg, MD, discusses results from the phase III CALGB/SWOG 80405 trial at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Treatment with single-agent ibrutinib (Imbruvica) dramatically increased progression-free survival (PFS) by nearly 80% and significantly extended overall survival (OS) by 57% compared with ofatumumab in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Combining the oral targeted agents olaparib and cediranib resulted in a near-doubling of median progression-free survival (PFS) among women with recurrent ovarian cancer.

Lenvatinib, a novel multityrosine kinase inhibitor, is highly effective against differentiated thyroid cancer that has become resistant to standard radioiodine (RAI) therapy.

Adding goserelin to chemotherapy for women with early-stage hormone receptor (HR)-negative breast cancer helps both to preserve their fertility and to prolong their survival.

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, a professor of medical oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, discusses data presented at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting examining EGFR inhibitors for lung cancer.

Patients starting palliative care for advanced cancer are often already on repeat prescriptions of statins to lower cholesterol and reduce risk of a heart attack or stroke, and many of these patients continue on statin therapy until death.

The dosing frequency of zoledronic acid (Zometa) can be reduced by 67% without compromising efficacy and safety in women with breast cancer and bone metastases.

Obesity significantly increases the risk of dying of breast cancer in premenopausal women with ER-positive early disease, according to findings from a large, retrospective study involving 80,000 patients.

In December 2013, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that asymptomatic, high-risk individuals receive annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT).

The new targeted drug, PLX3397, has demonstrated responses in patients with pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), a rare joint disorder.

A rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) after surgery or radiation therapy for prostate cancer is not enough reason, on its own, to initiate androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), a large observational study has found.

The highly selective EGFR inhibitor AZD9291 demonstrated an ORR of 64% without inducing dose-limiting toxicities in patients with metastatic NSCLC who harbor an acquired EGFR T790M resistance mutation.

Over the past few decades, the optimal margin width for minimizing recurrence after breast-conserving surgery (BCS; lumpectomy) has been a topic of much debate.

The most promising novel therapeutics in development for patients with breast cancer focus primarily on targeting activating mutations in combinations that are based on findings from next-generation sequencing.

Henry M. Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS, professor of surgery, Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the overtreatment of DCIS.

Grant W. Carlson, MD, professor of surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, chief, Division of Plastic Surgery, Emory University Hospital, discusses treatment considerations for younger patients with breast cancer.

Since its approval in 1998 to treat metastatic disease, trastuzumab has dramatically expanded life expectancy and improved quality of life for women diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer.

The large Canadian study that has caused a stir by indicating that mammograms are of no use in women aged 40 to 59 years, and in fact can lead to over-diagnosis of breast cancer, is flawed and misleading.

A wide-ranging analysis of more than 5500 breast cancer tumors that combined genomic and protein expression testing has identified promising targets to explore for treating patients with poor prognoses, with particularly notable findings involving androgen receptor (AR) expression.

David F. McDermott, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses PD-L1 expression in kidney cancer and developing biomarkers for anti-PD-L1 agents.

According to a retrospective analysis of the phase III COMPARZ trial, high tumor expression of the protein PD-L1 (programmed cell death 1 ligand 1) is independently associated with shorter overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) receiving treatment with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy.

Elizabeth Plimack, MD, MS, attending physician, medical oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses a phase I trial looking at overcoming mTOR resistance in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Most medical oncologists in the United States would opt for an mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitor as second-line therapy for patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mccRCC).

Investigators reported at the 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium that two new combinations demonstrated activity in refractory or advanced, previously untreated urothelial carcinoma in phase II evaluations.

Survival, measured as either disease-specific survival or relative conditional survival, has not improved for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma despite increasing use of second-line therapies with no formal indication in this setting.