Latest Conference Articles

Updated results confirm that addition of bevacizumab to docetaxel as first-line breast cancer treatment improves survival and response rates.

Letrozole treatment over 5 years was still associated with significantly better overall survival than 5 years with tamoxifen.

During the 51st ASH Annual Meeting, several new data from the PROPEL trial were released, including updates on the ORR and safety of pralatrexate in patients with PTCL and data on the correlation between baseline methylmalonic acid status and mucositis severity in this population. While the data reinforce pralatrexate as a viable treatment in patients with relapsed or refractory PTCL, some question whether the drug confers enough of a benefit to warrant its $30,000 per month cost.

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.”

Single-agent pixantrone, an investigational agent, showed encouraging third-line responses, duration of responses, and progression-free survival (PFS) compared with other single-agent chemotherapies in patients with relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the phase III, randomized, open-label, multicenter EXTEND trial. In the study, patients with relapsed/refractory NHL treated with pixantrone achieved significant increases in complete response (CR) and overall response (ORR) and demonstrated a positive trend in overall survival (OS) compared with other chemotherapy agents, according to Ruth Pettengell, MD, of St. Georges Hospital in London, who presented these results at a poster session. “An anthracycline with reduced cardiotoxicity that can be used for salvage therapy of aggressive NHL meets a significant unmet medical need,” she said.

The results of a study that looked at the competing effects on left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) of hypokalemia and treatment with hydrochlorothiazides (HCTZ) in hypertensive patients were presented Monday, November 15 at the American Heart Association Scientitifc Sessions 2009.

Today’s discussion on EHR incentive payments and implementation included a lot of issues that regular MDNG readers are familiar with: HITECH, “meaningful use,” and annual incentives. Although it may seem like the same old song and dance, the reality is that all those dates you’ve been hearing about are fast approaching.

Decision-making in medical practices is often stalled by competing interests, conflicting goals and misunderstandings. In this session, you will learn from real-life examples why impasses occur and the problems they create for physicians, staff and patients. You will discover how to gain agreement through using a voting matrix and how to test alternatives and devise voting options. In addition, you will learn the role of confidentiality in protecting future working relationships in the medical practice.

Dr. Michelle Koury began her session by explaining the goals of her session: to help attendees learn to organize leadership to pursue and achieve accreditation, apply strategies and tools to assist in accreditation success, and understand the organizational, financial, regulatory, and political advantages of accreditation.

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.

The addition of panitumumab (Vectibix) to FOLFIRI (an irinotecan-based combination chemotherapy) prolonged progression-free survival and overall survival compared with FOLFIRI alone as second-line therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer in patients with wild-type KRAS.

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.

According to the results of two studies presented at the ECCO 15 – ESMO 34 Joint Congress in Berlin, Germany, two new blood tests may eventually help clinicians screen for and diagnose gastrointestinal and colorectal cancers earlier.

Data presented at the 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in show that combination therapy with the investigational drug dimebon (latrepiridine) and donepezil HCl tablets was well tolerated in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Wellstat Therapeutics has developed vistonuridine, the first viable prodrug of uridine, which is an orally administered agent that delivers approximately 8-fold more uridine as it is converted to uridine in the body than administration of uridine itself.

A new retrospective study shows that use of three widely prescribed selective serotinin reuptake inhibitors—Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft—more than double the risk of breast cancer recurrence in women treated with tamoxifen.

As you can well imagine, a cancer diagnosis can lead to an incredible amount of distress, which may be amplified once a patient starts to undergo treatment and experience its related side effects.

Geralyn Lucas, a very spunky breast cancer survivor, gave an amazing key note address that kept the audience engaged with her humor.

In a striking case report, the stimulant modafinil was able to dramatically improve neurological functioning in an elderly woman suffering from bilateral thalamic infarction, a disorder that often is fatal.

Dr. Busis talks about the current health IT climate, AAN efforts to educate members about the use of health IT in practice, the recently passed HITECH Act, the importance of interoperability, future drivers of health IT adoption, and more.

The history of the neurologic examination, referral pattern among neurologists for neurointerventional procedures, Parkinson's disease on the Internet, and online learning are just a few of the many topics discussed during the Day 2 sessions at the AAN meeting.

Alternating mammography and MRI every 6 months appears to be the best way to detect cancer in high-risk women, an M.D. Anderson study found. This strategy can identify cancers not found by mammography alone, said Huong Le-Petross, MD, assistant professor, Diagnostic Radiology, who presented a retrospective pilot study at a poster session during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

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).