September 2013

The federal sequester trims Medicare payments for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in doctors’ offices in an effort to save the government money. Instead, it will end up costing more in the long run, according to the president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Shortages of cancer drugs caused many oncologists and hematologists to choose suboptimal treatment plans for their patients last year, and government efforts have done little to boost the availability of the hard-tofind medications.

Though pazopanib and sunitinib are relatively similar in terms of efficacy in the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma, the former appears to cause fewer toxic side effects than the latter, suggesting that patients could experience a greater quality of life and the same treatment benefit with pazopanib as opposed to sunitinib.

Oral proteasome inhibitor to be studied in phase III trials, identifying new targets, pomalidomide for relapsed/refractory MM, early stage data for daratumumab, and updated phase I and II results for elotuzumab in multiple myeloma.

Individualized treatment protocols for patients are becoming increasingly important in the management of NSCLC. Consequently, drug research continues to focus on regimens that select therapy according to the molecular characteristics of the tumor.

A subgroup analysis showed that certain patients with breast cancer may benefit more from eribulin, and quality of life (QoL) data suggest that patients may prefer eribulin because of a lower frequency of certain adverse events.

Amid a flurry of new drug approvals in recent years, the American Urological Association (AUA) has issued its first set of guidelines for the management of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

High doses of interleukin-2 (IL-2) could be used to treat patients with melanoma whose disease has metastasized to the brain, potentially expanding options in a population facing a grim prognosis, according to researchers from Saint Louis University in Missouri.

New approaches to treating women with advanced ER+ breast cancer are in development, which includes both hormone therapy and combinations with targeted agents. The continuing goal is to understand disease biology and individualize treatment regimens to increase survival.

Researchers are still at the drawing board when it comes to finding revolutionary solutions for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but recent studies have shed light on the diversity of the disease and offered hints about the directions future inquiries should take.

With seven targeted therapies approved for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), researchers and drug developers are now focusing on understanding the best way to sequence these therapies—and on identifying predictive biomarkers of response.