The National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program approved the following clinical research studies last month. For further information, contact the principal investigator listed.
Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) became the first gene therapy available in the United States.
Sigmascreening, a Dutch MedTech developer that works with pressure based digital mammography and breast cancer screening, said that a study of in total 15,898 in digital mammograms from 3,772 Asian women underlines the need for compression guidelines.
A new NCI study has identified genes that are necessary in cancer cells for immunotherapy to work, addressing the problem of why some tumors don't respond to immunotherapy or respond initially but then stop as tumor cells develop resistance to immunotherapy.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found significant racial and gender-based disparities in outcomes among patients with locoregional anal cancer
Female patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer that is treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery are more likely to have a favorable response to the treatment than male patients are, and women are less likely to experience cancer recurrence, according to a study published online in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
A specific region of the small bowel, called the duodenal-jejunal flexure, shows a high frequency of gastrointestinal stromal tumors with mutations of the NF1 gene, according to researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center. The small bowel, where approximately 30 percent of all GISTs occur, is divided into three anatomically, histologically and functionally distinct segments: the duodenum, jejunum and ileum. Most small bowel GISTs are associated with KIT mutations. However, a subset of GISTs have mutations in other genes, such as NF1. “Where the duodenum transitions into the jejunum, we are finding an over-representation of NF1-mutated GIST,” said Jason Sicklick, a surgical oncologist at Moores Cancer Center. NF1 can be mutated both somatically (within tumor DNA) or in the germline (part of the hereditary condition called Neurofibromatosis type I). Patients with NF-1 are 34 times more likely to develop GIST than unaffected individuals.
Kura Oncology announced positive topline results from a phase II trial for tipifarnib in patients with HRAS mutant relapsed or refractory squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. The phase II trial achieved its primary endpoint prior to the completion of enrollment.
Immune Design said an interim analysis of its ongoing, randomized phase II trial showed that NY-ESO-1+ soft tissue sarcoma patients receiving the combination of CMB305 and Genentech's checkpoint inhibitor, atezolizumab (Tecentriq), experienced greater clinical benefit and immune response than those receiving atezolizumab alone.
Eli Lilly announced phase III RANGE data that are the first detailed results from the global, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled RANGE study of Cyramza (ramucirumab), in combination with docetaxel, in patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma whose disease progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.
