Patients With Small-Cell Lung Cancer Face Barriers to Combined-Modality Therapy
January 5th 2018While chemotherapy with thoracic radiation has been established as the standard of care for the initial treatment of non-metastatic small-cell lung cancer, a large proportion of patients do not receive these treatments and in turn have lower overall survival, according to a study published in JAMA Oncology.
CRISPR Used to Disable Defective Gene in ALS
January 4th 2018Recent data have found that the same gene editing platform can disable the defective gene responsible for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in mice. The therapy, which extended the lifespan of the mouse models by 25%, delayed the onset of the muscle wasting which characterizes the disease.
What We're Reading: Vision Loss Gene Therapy; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Dementia in the Hospital
January 3rd 2018New vision loss gene therapy gets a price tag below the expected $1 million mark; new evidence finds that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has plateaued; hospitals are ill-equipped to care for dementia patients, but a new effort could change that.
Plinabulin Combo With Docetaxel Aimed at Delivering a "Double Hit" in NSCLC Trial
January 3rd 2018Plinabulin, an antineoplastic agent that activates an immune response, is being investigated as a treatment option for patients with advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who have progressed after standard-of-care therapy.
FDA Approves Frontline Cabozantinib for Advanced RCC
January 3rd 2018The FDA has expanded the label for cabozantinib (Cabometyx) to include first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma regardless of treatment status. Cabozantinib was initially approved in patients who had previously received anti-angiogenic therapy.
Real-World Economic Value of a 21-Gene Assay in Early-Stage Breast Cancer
Universal gene expression profiling of patients with stage II breast cancer resulted in outpatient savings of $11,000 (inclusive of testing costs) within 6 months of initiation of medical therapy.
Checkpoint Inhibitors, TKIs, and Novel Agents Poised to Enter Liver Cancer Treatment Paradigm
December 19th 2017Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, discusses what he sees coming down the pike in epatocellular carcinoma with regard to novel agents, including CAR T-cell therapy, and the burgeoning questions with optimal sequencing of these treatments.
Elotuzumab/Lenalidomide Maintenance Deepens Responses After Transplant in Myeloma
December 13th 2017Maintenance therapy with elotuzumab (Empliciti) and lenalidomide (Revlimid) after autologous stem cell transplant improves the quality of response achieved with induction therapy in patients with multiple myeloma.
Combination Therapy Proposed for Multiple Myeloma and Mantle Cell Lymphoma
December 12th 2017A proof-of-concept study has demonstrated that resistance to treatment in multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma could be linked to a protein called Nrf1, which appears to respond to proteasome insufficiency or pharmacological inhibition.
Lenalidomide Maintenance Therapy Outperforms Observation in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma
December 11th 2017Continuous lenalidomide therapy improves outcomes among patients with newly diagnosed myeloma who are not autologous stem cell transplant candidates, according to findings from a large phase III clinical trial.
Anti-BCMA CAR T-Cell Therapy Active in Heavily Pretreated Myeloma
December 11th 2017A single treatment with a second-generation CAR T-cell treatment elicited an overall response rate of 94% in a small study of patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma, according to the results of a phase I study presented at the ASH Annual Meeting.
Six-Month Analysis of CTL019 Demonstrates Sustained Responses in Refractory DLBCL Patients
December 11th 2017A potentially practice-changing study presented at 2017 ASH shows high rates of sustained complete response in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who were treated with CTL019 CAR T-cell therapy.
Gene-Based Biomarker Identifies Patients With Breast Cancer More Likely to Respond to Enzalutamide
December 9th 2017Enzalutamide (Xtandi) added to exemestane improved progression-free survival in patients with hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer and no prior endocrine therapy who were positive for a gene signature-based biomarker indicating androgen receptor-signaling.