Lauren M. Green

Patients receiving treatment for metastatic cancer who used a web-based tool to report their symptoms either while at home or during clinic visits lived on average 5 months longer than their counterparts who had standard symptom monitoring.

Larotrectinib (LOXO-101), the novel pan-TRK inhibitor, induced responses in 3 out of 4 patients with a&nbsp;<em>TRK</em>&nbsp;fusion&ndash;positive solid tumor, according to findings presented in a press conference June 3 at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Eating tree nuts, like almonds, walnuts, and pecans can improve overall survival and reduce the risk of recurrence in patients with colon cancer, findings of a new prospective study suggest.

The FDA has given its approval to co-packaging of the oral medications ribociclib (Kisqali) and letrozole (Femara) for the treatment of postmenopausal women with HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Adding a formulation of the Coxsackievirus A21 to ipilimumab yielded an overall response rate of 50% and was well-tolerated in immunotherapy-na&iuml;ve and pretreated patients with advanced melanoma.

According to 5-year follow-up data&nbsp;from the CA209-003 study, long-term survival in patients with metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) has proven to be much higher than expected, with 16% of patients surviving after 5 years.

A landmark analysis of findings from the EF-14 trial testing the efficacy and safety of tumor treating fields for the treatment of patients with glioblastoma multiforme has found that the risk of death was reduced by 37% and overall survival was extended by a median of 5 months with the use of the device.

Patients with lymphoma who are treated with brentuximab vedotin often experience peripheral neuropathy as an adverse event and potentially dose-limiting toxicity. A novel study has shown that, despite the prevalence of this toxicity, these patients report that the better outcomes yielded from treatment with brentuximab vedotin outweigh the risk of neuropathy.&nbsp;

Researchers in the Netherlands have found that using a gradual or &ldquo;stepped&rdquo; approach to providing psychosocial support for patients diagnosed with head and neck or lung cancers not only improves their quality of life but is also cost-effective.

The results of a new study have provided yet more evidence that survivors of endometrial cancer should be closely monitored for cardiovascular disease.

Findings from the first prospective, randomized clinical trial to evaluate modern scalp-cooling demonstrate that the system is safe and effective in reducing hair loss in women being treated with chemotherapy for their breast cancer, especially for those on taxane-based regimens.

Early data from a phase I/II study suggest that the combination of brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab may be an active and well-tolerated outpatient regimen in patients with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of standard frontline chemotherapy.

Findings from the longest follow-up to date evaluating up to 5 years of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) show that the agent is safe and effective.

With treatment for newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia remaining essentially unchanged over the last 4 decades, researchers are hopeful that the addition of the investigational agent vadastuximab talirine to standard 7+3 induction therapy may improve survival for these patients.&nbsp;

An exploratory subgroup analysis of older patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia who took the liposomal formulation CPX-351 (Vyxeos) before allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation demonstrated that the drug improves overall survival and reduces the risk of early death.

Although paradigms for treating older patients with head and neck cancer are not well defined, advancements in targeted and immunotherapies and less toxic radiation regimens suggest that physicians can aim for a more individualized approach to treating this patient population.

More options are now available for combining and sequencing therapy for patients with estrogen (ER)&ndash;positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC), including the deployment of CDK4/6 inhibitors, as clinicians endeavor to individualize the sequencing of therapies to improve patient outcomes, according to Maura N. Dickler, MD.

A better understanding of how patients with triple-negative breast cancer respond to neoadjuvant therapy regimens is helping to further individualize therapy for patients while also informing treatment decisions in the adjuvant setting.

A new nationwide research project is encouraging patients to share tumor samples and clinical information with researchers in the hope that it will lead to discoveries for new and improved treatment options and, ultimately, a cure, for metastatic breast cancer.

Extending aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment to 10 years post-treatment reduced the risk of recurrence in women with early-stage HR-positive breast cancer by more than a third. Findings of the MA.17R trial also showed that adjuvant therapy extension did not create any new toxicities or quality of life complications for patients.

Findings from a population-based study reported at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting revealed that young black women with breast cancer are much less likely to undergo testing for the BRCA gene or to get risk reducing prophylactic mastectomy or salpingo-oophorectomy than other women.

Intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IP) was well tolerated by patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and reduced the risk of progressive disease.

Patients with advanced midgut neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) will continue to see major therapeutic benefits from the peptide receptor radionuclide therapy Lu-Dotatate (Lutathera), including an improvement in overall survival and the reduction of progression or death risk by 79%.

Aspirin, normally associated with heart health, may not extend to the reduction of risk in prostate cancer, according to the results of an observational study.

Breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and radiation in early-stage breast cancer has been shown to give patients about a 20% better chance of survival over the course of 10 years, moreso than their counterparts who opted had mastectomy.

A follow-up benefits analysis of adding denosumab to aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy shows the agent not only helps prevent fractures, it also reduces risk of recurrence and death in postmenopausal women with HR-positive breast cancer.

Developing safe and effective therapies for malignant brain tumors, specifically glioblastoma, is a challenging-yet-achieveable endeavor pursued by researchers and patients alike.

Physicians are up to the task when it comes to the influx of immunotherapies being studied and approved across multiple tumor types, Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD

With the incidence of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers on the rise, researchers are currently seeking less intense treatment options that combine effectiveness and low toxicity for patients.

The news of a shifting landscape for the diagnosis and treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) is a good thing for patients and practitioners. The altered playing field means refined criteria for diagnosing symptomatic patients, identifying those at highest risk, and an impressive arsenal for treating a disease which carries such heavy symptom burdens.