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Concomitant chemotherapy with reirradiation offers a cure for select patients with recurrent head and neck cancer in a previously irradiated area. With the findings of 2-year survival in 25% of patients, the researchers noted the importance of choosing the correct patients for this therapy. Previous concurrent chemoradiotherapy was associated with poor survival outcomes. In addition, there was significant risk of sever toxicity, with 20% of patients experiencing treatment-related death.

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Inform Dual ISH (Ventana Medical Systems), a genetic test that allows for measurement of the number of copies of the HER2 gene in tumor tissue. This method of identification of women with breast cancer who are HER2-positive pinpoints who is, and who is not, a candidate for Herceptin (trastuzumab).

Use of hormone therapy for menopause is associated with reduced risks for esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancers, according to results of a prospective study that were then combined with published studies in a meta-analysis. In this British study of women aged 50 to 64 years, researchers found no significant differences in risk by type of hormone therapy, duration of use, or between past and current users. The reduction in risk, however, was small in comparison to the increased risk of breast cancer that has been attributed to hormone therapy in this population.

Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receive unnecessarily high-dose levels of chemotherapy, according to Dr Bob Löwenberg, professor of Hematology at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands at the 16th Congress of the European Hematology Association.

Based on results of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) and the Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) trial, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated the Warnings and Precautions sections of the labels for the 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5-ARI) drug class. These trials showed that daily use of finaseride and dutasteride reduced overall incidence of prostate cancer (mainly low-grade), but increased the incidence of high-grade prostate cancers.

Patients with stage IV or locally advanced stage III cutaneous melanoma experienced higher response rates and longer progression-free survival (PFS) when treated with a gp100 vaccine and interleukin-2 than with interleukin-2 alone, in a phase 3 randomized trial. Tumors in all 185 patients expressed HLA*A0201, which allowed presentation of the peptide vaccine to T cells. The researchers concluded that their results show the potential of immune agents in combination with other treatments in this patient population.

Treatment with a hybridoma-derived autologous tumor immunoglobulin (Ig) idiotype (Id) vaccine extended disease-free survival (DFS) by 14 months in treatment-naive patients with advanced stage follicular lymphoma achieving complete response (CR) or CR unconfirmed (CRu) after chemotherapy, in a double-blind multicenter controlled phase 3 trial. Subgroup analysis identified that patients with the IgM heavy chain isotype and therefore an IgM-Id vaccine, had greater time to relapse than patient with the IgG isotype and IgG-Id vaccine. Read More ›

Hsp90 inhibition has been found to be a successful therapeutic approach for combating diseases that use JAK/STAT signaling for tumor growth. In in vivo and in vitro models, researchers showed that the small molecule Hsp90 inhibitor ganetespib exhibited potent activity in tumor cells dependent specifically on JAK2 signaling. Specifically, ganetespib sustained depletion of JAK2 including active JAK^2V617Fmutant, subsequently decreasing STAT activity and reducing STAT-target gene expression.

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