Articles
A unique library representing an important new tool for accelerating the development of an entire class of targeted cancer drugs has been created by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center. The actions of 178 candidate drugs capable of blocking the activity of one or more of 300 enzymes, including enzymes critical for cancer, have been cataloged and cross-indexed.
Chemotherapy combined with an experimental vaccine, TG4010, resulted in more progression-free survival in patients with advanced lung cancer, according to a recent study published in The Lancet Oncology.
The TG4010 vaccine targets MUC1, a protein associated with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of lung cancer.
The phase 2 trial, led by Elisabeth Quoix, MD, a professor of pneumonology at the Université de Strasbourg, included 148 patients with NSCLC.
Patients were divided into 2 groups:
Postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) who took nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ie, aspirin or ibuprofen) appeared to have a lower risk of death from colorectal cancer than women who did not use these medications, according to new study results.
Radiotherapy following surgery for breast cancer reduces the chances of cancer recurrence by 50% over the next 10 years, andit minimizes the risk of breast cancer mortality by one-sixth for the 15 years following surgery, a study led by Oxford University researchers has found.
Older women diagnosed with hormone-sensitive breast cancer are more likely to live longer and less likely to experience cancer recurrence when treated with the drug Femara (letrozole) as opposed to tamoxifen, a long-term follow-up study published online October 21 in The Lancet Oncology shows.
Although many patients with cancer have benefited from new drug discoveries over the last decade, a common side effect of these newly developed therapies may be inadvertent effects on the thyroid gland, according to a report published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
ADCETRIS™ (brentuximab vedotin), a new CD30-directed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 19, 2011, for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after failure of autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) or after failure of at least 2 prior multiagent chemotherapy regimens. ADCETRIS is also indicated for the treatment of patients with systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) after failure of at least 1 prior multiagent chemotherapy regimen.1
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved denosumab (Prolia, Amgen) to increase bone mass in patients at high risk for fracture receiving androgen- deprivation therapy for nonmetastatic prostate cancer or adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy for breast cancer. This monoclonal antibody that binds to RANKL was approved based on results of 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. One trial randomized 1468 men with prostate cancer.
I will admit that I am knowingly and willingly walking into a hornet’s nest by discussing the current drug shortage, but I feel I must. In addition to our (oncology pharmacists’) ruminations about the current drug shortage, the issue has garnered national media attention. Major newspapers, national TV networks, magazines, and numerous websites have jumped on the drug shortage story.