Topline results from the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-859 trial investigating Keytruda (pembrolizumab), in combination with chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma, were positive.
Patients with high-risk stage III-IV melanoma who received Keytruda (pembrolizumab) after surgery reported a better quality of life than patients who received the previous standard-of-care treatment with either ipilimumab or high-dose interferon, according to a large clinical trial led by the SWOG Cancer Research Network.
New research out of VCU Massey Cancer Center suggests that the inactivation of NF1—a gene known as Neurofibromin-1 that holds natural tumor-suppressing functions—could be instrumental in the onset of pancreatic cancer, either in tandem with KRAS mutations, which occur in 85-90% of all pancreatic tumors, or even before any mutations occur in the KRAS gene, in partnership with TP53, the most inactivated tumor suppressor gene in human malignancies.
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center implemented an approach to post-surgery pain management that is focused on maximizing non-opioid techniques first, using opioids only as a back-up option.
While it has long been recognized that drugs that block the cancer-promoting activity of estrogen reduce risk of developing new breast cancers, a new computer modeling study led by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues showed that these treatments could also reduce the risk of dying from the disease in women who are at high risk.
Johns Hopkins researchers generate lab-grown human tissue model for gastroesophageal junction cancer
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have created a laboratory-grown three-dimensional organoid model that is derived from human tissue and designed to advance understanding about how early stages of cancer develop at the gastroesophageal junction.
Researchers from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Gero and Genome Protection Inc., recently published new work in Nature Communications in which the artificial neural network applied by the research team precisely projected the health condition of an aging mouse with the help of a single variable, which was termed dynamic frailty indicator (dFI) that accurately characterizes the damage that an animal accumulates throughout life.
A multicenter analysis of patients with invasive lobular carcinoma—the second most common histological subtype of invasive breast cancer in the U.S.—showed that, despite its prevalence, ILC is detected later and has worse outcomes than the predominant subtype of invasive breast cancer, known as invasive ductal carcinoma, or no special type.
The phase III PhALLCON trial met its primary endpoint, demonstrating that adult patients with newly-diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with Iclusig (ponatinib) plus reduced-intensity chemotherapy achieved higher rates of minimal residual disease-negative complete remission compared to imatinib.
Positive results from the phase II/III QUILT 3.032 trial studying N-803 (nogapendekin alfa inbakicept), a novel IL-15 superagonist complex, plus BCG in adults with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer carcinoma in situ with or without Ta/T1 papillary disease were published in NEJM Evidence.
