The National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program approved the following clinical research studies last month. For further information, contact the principal investigator listed.
Overall treatment costs for cancer patients with clostridium difficile infection, based on a decision tree analysis, are lower with fidaxomicin compared to current standard of care, vancomycin, resulting in a potential cost saving of approximately $7,000 per patient.
A combination of cediranib and olaparib nearly doubled progression-free survival compared to olaparib alone in a phase II trial of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.
An unscheduled interim analysis halted a fast-tracked phase III study of monoclonal antibody therapy Xilonix in advanced colorectal cancer patients with cachexia.
A global phase III trial of Cyramza (ramucirumab) in combination with paclitaxel in patients with advanced gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma met its primary endpoint of median overall survival.
Panobinostat demonstrated a four-month improvement in median progression-free survival in relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma, in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone, in a phase III trial.
Merck Serono will discontinue its worldwide clinical development program of MUC1 antigen-specific immunotherapy tecemotide as a monotherapy in stage III non-small cell lung cancer. This includes the phase III START2 and INSPIRE studies.
Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors Afinitor Increases Overall Survival To 3.5 Years in Phase III Trial
An analysis of mature overall survival data from a phase III trial showed that Afinitor increased median overall survival by 6.34 months compared to placebo, for a total of over 3.5 years in patients with well-differentiated advanced and progressive pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
Final phase III trial results showed that adding Perjeta to Herceptin and docetaxel chemotherapy increased overall survival to over four-and-a-half years in patients with previously untreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
FDA approved a new use for Avastin (bevacizumab) to treat patients with persistent, recurrent or late-stage cervical cancer. The new indication is approved for use in combination with paclitaxel and cisplatin or in combination with paclitaxel and topotecan.