May 2014

The optimal management of patients with early-stage NSCLC remains controversial, and the prospect of exposing an otherwise low-risk patient to potentially toxic chemotherapy based on limited prognostic information remains a problem for many clinicians.

Patients with a rare but aggressive form of ovarian cancer had mutations in the chromatin regulator SMARCA4, suggesting a causative role of these mutations.

A study using next-generation sequencing showed that genetic testing limited to BRCA1/2 mutations would have missed 29% of mutations that carry hereditary risk of ovarian cancer.

New and evolving strategies for clinical trial design are under way, a point that was made abundantly clear April 25th at the NCCN Policy Summit on Designing Clinical Trials in the Era of Multiple Biomarkers and Targeted Therapies.

During a 2013 discussion on treating NSCLC, a group of oncologists were asked what share of cancer patients have access to molecular testing. The answers varied: One said he guessed 40% to 50%, another said "a large minority."

Major objective responses to treatment were demonstrated in one-fourth of patients with relapsed or refractory BRCA-mutant ovarian cancer with the investigational PARP inhibitor, veliparib, according to results from a phase II study.