Home – Page 40 – The Cancer Letter

Issue 20 - May 18, 2018

TCL44-20 (1287 downloads)

Gynecology’s deadly surprise: Cancers are frequently missed prior to routine procedures
As they reach for surgical tools, gynecologists vastly underestimate the probability that their patients have undiagnosed uterine cancers, a study by Yale University researchers found.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Vanderbilt’s Alvarez: Gynecologists must properly assess all patients for cancer before surgery
I think that it probably represents a failure in our health care system. It just points out an opportunity, from a quality improvement standpoint, to make sure that everybody who is going to have a hysterectomy has the appropriate assessment for the risk of cancer preoperatively.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
OU’s Mannel: Gynecologists must thoroughly evaluate postmenopausal women for hidden cancers
You want to pay attention to everybody, but who are the ones that you really want to pay attention to? And I think what the study’s telling you, older women, women who are obese—you need to really pay attention to.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Fox Chase’s Rubin: Don’t morcellate and you won’t have to worry about cutting up missed cancers
I think you’d have to overcome all those problems before you could say that women with fibroids ought to have a biopsy before they’re morcellated. Which, as I say, sounds like a good idea. I think the better idea is don’t morcellate the damn thing. That would solve the problem.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Yale’s Desai: Gynecologists must preoperatively workup and discuss the risks, benefits, alternatives
We hope that our study increases the awareness and discussion of occult cancer risk in the thousands of women undergoing hysterectomy and myomectomy annually. Morcellation of a specimen allows for the dissemination of cancer, having an informed conversation with patients preoperatively is essential to this process.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Olive: It’s true, gynecologists don’t biopsy masses as much as other surgeons
There are a lot of gynecologists who are not gynecologic oncologists who live in rural areas, who don’t have access to oncologists, or who just have big egos, who will operate on patients with known premalignant disease or early stage cancer—regardless of the fact that they know that it is cancer.
Facing criticism from academic oncologists, Imbruvica’s makers bring back low-dose pill
Pharmacyclics, a unit of AbbVie, and Janssen, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, backed away from their plan to eliminate the lowest-dose capsules of Imbruvica (ibrutinib), a treatment for several hematologic malignancies.
In Brief
- Wui-Jin Koh named chief medical officer at NCCN
- Park named to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center breast cancer leadership post
- Richard Funnell to join WVU Cancer Institute
- ASCO annual meeting merit awards
- NCCN begins work on guidelines to improve cancer care in the Caribbean
Funding Opportunities
NETRF Announces grant funding for neuroendocrine cancer research
The Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation announced its latest Request for Applications and invites innovative research applications in neuroendocrine tumors that can bring the field closer to more effective therapies.
ASCO publishes 5,800 abstracts
Six studies highlighted at press briefing
The American Society of Clinical Oncology May 16 released the nearly 5,800 abstracts that will be presented and published at its annual meeting next month.
Clinical Roundup
- FDA finds survival deficit in some patients taking Keytruda or Tecentriq as monotherapy in urothelial cancer with low expression of PD-L1
- Tecentriq and Avastin plus carboplatin and paclitaxel show longer remissions vs. Avastin plus carboplatin and paclitaxel in metastatic NSCLC
- Bone scan software calculates prognosis of advanced prostate cancer
Drugs and Targets
- FDA approves first epoetin alfa biosimilar for the treatment of anemia

Issue 19 - May 11, 2018

CL44-19 (272 downloads)

PSA test gets a better grade from USPSTF—it’s a “C” Uncertainty lingers about high-risk groups
Relying largely on maturing data from the European trials of screening for prostate cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has given a better grade—a “C”—to screening for prostate cancer.
An earlier version of the screening guideline, published in 2012, gave PSA a “D,” as in “don’t.”
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Do African Americans, others at high risk benefit from starting PSA screening early?
The data available to US Preventive Services Task Force didn’t address an important question: what do you recommend to African American men who are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer and die from it as the general population?
Trump administration vows to address drug pricing
The White House May 11 proposed a series of policy initiatives to reduce the prices of prescription drugs.
Health groups urge Congress to modernize regulation of diagnostics
Health care organizations and companies representing patients, providers, laboratories and diagnostic manufacturers called on Senate and House leaders to advance legislation that would reform and modernize the process for bringing innovative diagnostics and clinical laboratory tests to market.
Generic options provide limited savings for high-priced cancer drugs
Generic drug options did not significantly reduce prices paid for the cancer therapy imatinib (Gleevec), according to a Health Affairs paper published May 10.
Obituary
Jane Reese-Coulbourne, advocate, consultant, industry executive, dies at 63
Jane Reese-Coulbourne, 63, a cancer patient advocate who moved into industry and science policy roles died of cancer on April 23.
In Brief
- ACS and MRA award $2.6 million for research focused on reducing immunotherapy side effects
- Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation partners with Komodo Health
Funding Opportunity
DOD publishes Kidney Cancer Research Program Funding Opportunities for FY18
The FY18 Defense Appropriation provides $15 million to the Department of Defense Kidney Cancer Research Program to support the United States Medical Research Acquisition Activity.
Trials & Tribulations
The imaginary interview
As I read the latest offering from the US Preventive Services Task Force, this time another encyclical on prostate screening, I felt a recurrence of the extreme irritation left over from the last time they wasted my (and their) time.
Clinical Roundup
- Immunotherapy drugs rapidly reach patients after approval
- Phase III trial of Lonsurf in gastric cancer produces positive topline result
- ONS: Nurse navigators play crucial role in patient outcomes
Drugs and Targets
- FDA approves Darzalex for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients who are transplant ineligible
- Lynparza approved by EMA for epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer
- Tecentriq gets FDA priority review
- Lilly to acquire ARMO BioSciences

Issue 18 - May 2, 2018

TCL44-18 (257 downloads)

Flatiron, BMS form collaboration to curate regulatory-grade real-world data
Bristol-Myers Squibb and Flatiron Health announced a three-year collaboration to advance methodologies for the curation of real-world data for cancer research and to develop regulatory-grade information.
BMS will use Flatiron data to analyze real-world evidence across a range of tumors and will collaborate on the development and validation of real-world endpoints within Flatiron’s longitudinal datasets.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
BMS’s Saha: We’re at the start of defining new endpoints, hypotheses with real-world evidence
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s three-year collaboration with Flatiron Health will focus on leveraging real-world data to improve the pharmaceutical company’s regulatory submissions, demonstrate the economic value of BMS’s cancer portfolio, and to study the predictive value of biomarkers.
Conversation with The Cancer Letter
Oklahoma’s Stephenson Cancer Center earns coveted NCI Cancer Center designation
The Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma May 2 announced that it has received Cancer Center designation from NCI.
This designation brings the total number of NCI designated cancer centers to 70. With Stephenson included, 14 of these centers now have the Cancer Center designation, 49 have the Comprehensive Cancer Center designation, and seven have the Basic Laboratory Cancer Center designation.
In Brief
- National Coalition for Cancer Research to cease operations as member groups take on their own education, policy roles
- Campaign to educate Washington, DC, public about clinical trials
Funding Opportunities
CPRIT announces New Seed Award for early-stage oncology startups
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas is unveiling a new award mechanism targeting early-stage oncology startup companies. Under this program, known as the Seed Award, companies can apply for up to $3 million in nondilutive funding to support development of innovative cancer therapeutics, diagnostics or tools.
New data prompts CDC to examine adequacy of pre-op workup by gynecologists
In response to a congressional letter and a new study on the prevalence of undiagnosed hidden uterine cancers, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering launching a review of whether gynecologists are sufficiently thorough in evaluating patients in the preoperative setting, according to insiders with knowledge of the agency’s plans.
Clinical Roundup
- Keytruda meets ORR endpoint in interim analysis of phase III trial in NSCLC
Drugs and Targets
- Novartis’ Kymriah gets second FDA approval—for large B-cell lymphoma
- FDA approves Tafinlar and Mekinist for BRAF V600-mutant melanoma
- FDA grants priority review to cemiplimab in advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
- Genocea files IND for neoantigen cancer vaccine candidate GEN-009
CTEP Protocols
NCI Trials for May
The National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program approved the following clinical research studies last month.

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