Christin Melton

An interview with Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of the book "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer."

PLX4032 is an investigational treatment for metastatic melanoma, which some are calling a "miracle cure" following a 3-part article in the New York Timesthat discussed promising patient responses.

The motto for Onyx Pharmaceuticals is "Changing the Way Cancer is Treated." With a successful 2009 behind it and a busy 2010 ahead, Onyx is staying true to its word.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has issued new practice guidelines for managing certain patients with prostate cancer.

Jianfeng Xu, MD, professor of epidemiology and cancer biology, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, North Carolina, and colleagues discovered a variant predictive of aggressive prostate cancer.

In 2009, we covered several long-term studies investigating the use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) alone or sequenced with tamoxifen. This includes the Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES), the TEAM trial, and the BIG 1-98 trial, all of which presented new or updated data at the 2009 SABCS in December.

Bisphosphonates have been a hot topic at the past several SABCS meetings. This year was no exception. In addition to bisphosphonates' protective effects on bone, researchers have been looking at whether they have anticancer effects.

A persistent concern about using marijuana for medical purposes has been the lack of clinical trials demonstrating marijuana's effectiveness in any of the conditions for which it is legally prescribed in many states. Now, a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) has presented a summary of studies to the California legislature that claims smoking marijuana relieves pain in several chronic illnesses.

Falls remain the most commonly documented adverse event in the hospital setting.

New evidence presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists suggests that Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, also reduces the likelihood of recurrence after surgery by 40%.

The need to eliminate the trial-and-error approach to vein hunting inspired the creation of VeinViewer in 2006.

Paula Trahan Rieger, RN, MSN, CAE, FAAN, is the CEO of ONS and has received numerous awards throughout a storied career.

In March, we published data from the Lysosomal Disease Network WORLD Symposium on new treatment options being studied for type 1 Gaucher disease.

In the April issue of Hepatology, researchers from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, reported that administering sirolimus (Rapamune)after liver transplantation in patients with nonresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) significantly increased survival rates.

We interview hematologist Neal Weinreb, MD, director of the University Research Foundation for Lysosomal Storage Diseases and a researcher involved in studying Gaucher disease for more than 3 decades. Dr Weinreb talks about the risks of cancer in patients with type 1 Gaucher disease and why hematologists and oncologists need to know about this rare inherited disorder.

Three presentations at the recent Third Annual Interdisciplinary Prostate Cancer Congress in New York are reviewed. Urologist Leonard Gomella, MD, addresses truths and myths about prostate cancer prevention;Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, discusses the timely topic of immunotherapy; and E. David Crawford, MD, talks about screening controversies.

Being able to predict which women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are likely to develop subsequent invasive breast cancer could prevent a lot of unnecessary treatment, said researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

Oncology & Biotech News is now united with the experienced publishing, editorial, and creative staff of Oncology Net Guide and OncNurse under the Oncology Specialty Group umbrella, which also includes our newest publication, Contemporary Oncology.

New treatments are desperately needed for neuroendocrine tumors, said Leonard Saltz, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, also reduces the likelihood of recurrence after surgery by 40%.

Several studies have been examining various 3- and even 4-drug regimens in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Paul G. Richardson, MD, and colleagues from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, conducted a phase I/II study investigated the novel combination of lenalidomide (Revlimid), bortezomib (Velcade), and dexamethasone (Decadron). In an interview with Oncology & Biotech News/Oncology NetGuide, Dr Richardson said response was “unprecedented.” In presenting data from the studies, Dr Richardson said, “Partial responses or better were seen in all of the 66 patients treated with the drug combination…with 74% having a VGPR rate in the phase II portion.” He added that the 54% rate of CR/near CR in patients enrolled in the phase II study “was also encouraging.”

HER2-positive breast cancer has long been recognized as an aggressive disease, but women with small node-negative tumors are considered low risk for recurrence and do not always receive adjuvant therapy. Data presented by Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and colleagues in a poster session at this week’s Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco suggests perhaps they should. In comparing outcomes between women who received adjuvant trastuzumab for low-risk HER2-positive tumors and those treated before trastuzumab was available, they concluded adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) reduces recurrence rates and mortality.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) typically begins in a milk duct and is the most common type of noninvasive early stage breast cancer. It represents nearly one-quarter of new breast cancer diagnoses annually.

Approximately three quarters of funding for cancer research goes to biology research and drug development in Europe, and this concerns Professor Richard Sullivan, King’s Health Partners Integrated Cancer Centre in London and chairman of the European Cancer Research Managers Forum.

Prof Cuzick told an attentive audience at the ECCO 15-ESMO 34 Joint Congress that he believes new HPV vaccines on the horizon, which are effective against 9 strains of HPV, coupled with a shift to molecular HPV screening, could allow countries to eradicate cervical cancer within their borders.

In a press conference at ECCO 15-ESMO 34, Professor John Burn, Institute of Human Genetics, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, discussed follow-up results to a trial he and his colleagues conducted that investigated the effectiveness of ordinary aspirin in preventing colon cancer.

In what is being touted as a practice-changing study, Mieke Van Hemelrijck, a cancer epidemiologist at King’s College, London, and associates found that men with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who receive hormone therapy have a much greater risk of developing cardiac problems.

Reforming healthcare often took center stage during the presidential campaign. Having won the election, President Obama continues to tout healthcare reform as one of the top issues he wants addressed his first year in office.

Tamoxifen, long considered the gold standard for treating estrogen-receptor (ER) positive, early-stage breast cancer, is known to increase the risk of thrombotic events (blood clots).

Researchers have released findings from a large retrospective study showing that women treated for early stage HER2-positive breast cancer tumors ≤ 1cm have a significantly greater risk of recurrence than women whose tumors are HER2-negative.