Articles
Imatinib (Gleevec) revolutionized the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome– positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and established targeting and inhibiting BCR-ABL as the standard of care.1 In 2009, 8-year follow- up data from the landmark phase 3 IRIS (International Randomized Study of Interferon Versus STI571) trial were presented for the 553 patients with newly diagnosed chronic-phase (CP) CML randomized to imatinib. Read More ›
For women with stage II to III estrogen receptor–rich, HER2-negative breast cancer, neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy can increase the likelihood of successful breast-conservation surgery. According to phase 2 results of American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z1031, exemestane, letrozole, and anastrozole are biologically equivalent and therefore likely to achieve similar adjuvant activities. The researchers concluded that because this is a low-toxicity approach, neoadjuvant AI therapy is a reasonable standard of care for selected members of this population.
Read More ›A clinicopathologic staging system for diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (DMPM) stratifies survival through tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) criteria. Using prospectively collected data from 8 institutions, the developers identified 3 prognostic factors independently associated with survival: peritoneal cancer index, lymph node status, and extra-abdominal metastasis. The developers based the TNM system on these 3 factors, which they identified as influenced by disease progression from a set of 7 factors associated with improved survival in their univariate analysis of the data.
Read More ›Objective response rates, median progression-free survival, and overall survival increased in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and sunitinib-induced hypertension, according to results of a retrospective analysis of more than 500 RCC patients treated with sunitinib. The rate of adverse events did not increase in hypertensive patients, except for renal adverse events (5% vs 3%). Because of the ease of clinical monitoring, the researchers concluded that, if prospectively validated, sunitinib-induced hypertension will make a desirable biomarker in these patients.
Read More ›The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved everolimus (Afinitor, Novartis) for progressive neuroendocrine tumors of pancreatic origin (PNET) in patients with unresectable, locally advanced, metastatic disease.
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Maintenance therapy has begun to emerge as a treatment standard for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has not progressed after 4 to 6 cycles of frontline chemo therapy. But some caveats still apply. Although it may be suitable for fit, motivated patients who are highly symptomatic at the time of presentation, it is not yet clear if maintenance therapy should be routine.
Read More ›Using the recommended dose of 1.3 mg/m2administered as a 3- to 5-second bolus intravenous (IV) injection on days 1, 4, 8, and 11 of 21-day cycles, patients with relapsed multiple myeloma (MM) after 1 to 3 previous lines of therapy achieved noninferior efficacy with subcutaneous versus IV delivery of the drug when receiving up to eight 21-day cycles. In addition, those in the SQ arm experienced improvement in their systemic safety profile.
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