Darlene Dobkowski, MA

Results from this blood test may help develop informed treatment plans for pancreatic cancer and potentially help patients avoid unnecessary treatment.

Tesetaxel, a novel agent, with Xeloda contributed to a median progression-free survival of 9.8 months, compared with 6.9 months with Xeloda alone, in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Women with higher diet adherence scores after diagnosis had a 33% lower risk for all-cause mortality and a 17% lower risk for mortality related to breast cancer compared with women with lower diet adherence scores.

The combination of ublituximab and umbralisib, two novel compounds, was able to safely prolong progression-free survival with low rates of toxicities in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia compared with standard of care chemoimmunotherapy regardless of prior treatment.

Most of the potential years of life lost, a measure of the impact of cancer-related deaths especially in younger patients, were attributed to cancers such as colon, lung and breast.

The benefit observed in patients with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia treated with Imbruvica (ibrutinib) plus Rituxan (rituximab), compared with placebo and Rituxan, focused on survival and response to the treatment, both of which occurred despite prior treatment and genotypes.

Compared with patients assigned bendamustine with Rituxan, those assigned Venclexta with Rituxan maintained an overall survival benefit, with a five-year OS estimate of 82.1% for the Venclexta with Rituxan group vs. 62.2% for the bendamustine with Rituxan group.

The phase 3 trial found that this treatment improves progression-free survival (PFS) during 18.7 months of follow-up, although patients treated with Venclexta (venetoclax) a had increased mortality rates compared with those treated with placebo.

The reduced incidence in developing advanced cancer in patients at least 50 years and older was more prominent in those with normal weight vs. overweight or obesity.

Safety and efficacy observed in this real-world study for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma similarly reflect findings from previous pivotal trials.

Study results also determined that immune system status before treatment may predict outcomes post-treatment.

The drug has been approved to treat patients with advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer.

Predicting risk for recurrence and progression in patients with nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer may help when discussing management options with clinicians.

The radioactive diagnostic agent, Gallium 68 PSMA-11, can detect suspected prostate cancer metastasis or recurrence, providing another imaging option for these patients.

Several factors may lead to prolonged treatment duration for breast cancer including socioeconomic status, race, and barriers to care.

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Danyelza comes as a result of two trials that assessed the efficacy of the drug in patients with relapsed or refractory high-risk neuroblastoma in the bone or bone marrow who did not have sufficient response to prior therapies.

This survival benefit was particularly observed in patients with node-positive disease, or cancer that spread to the lymph nodes according to pathology.

Despite a modest benefit in these patients, principal investigator Dr. Yuan Yuan said she is looking “forward to the future” with regards to therapies that integrate nonsteroidal selective androgen receptor modulators for this patient population.

This combined treatment, which includes bendamustine, ofatumumab, carboplatin and etoposide, may serve as an effective bridge to stem cell transplantation.

Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) may benefit from this combination treatment if they are in the accelerated or blast phase of the disease.

Among patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, several groups were found to receive chemotherapy less often compared with White patients. They included Black, older and uninsured patients as well as those with nonprivate health insurance.

This treatment, which included dexamethasone, high-dose cytarabine and cisplatin, was well tolerated in this patient population, although longer-term follow-up is needed to see if the benefit persists.

Findings from this analysis determined that diet may not affect survival, which may lead to a stronger focus on exercise at the start of first-line treatment for metastatic disease.

A randomized, controlled trial comparing olanzapine with a standard antiemetic regimen resulted in more patients achieving no vomiting and no rescue medication during the acute, delayed and overall periods.

These findings, based on a 20-year analysis, may show the benefit with weight loss surgery to reduce the effects of chronic inflammation associated with diabetes and obesity.

The FDA approved this liquid biopsy to check blood for prostate-tumor DNA that indicates the presence of genetic mutations or rearrangements. The test was also recently approved for use in patients with ovarian, non-small cell lung or breast tumors.

Financial hardship, particularly related to debt and psychological distress, can affect young female cancer survivors who may have to reduce hours or stop work completely.

This benefit observed with Venclexta (venetoclax) plus Rituxan (rituximab) for patients with CLL was particularly strong in patients with undetectable minimal residual disease, which may predict clinical outcome after chemoimmunotherapy.

Taking cholesterol-lowering drugs may provide a mortality benefit in women with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer, breast cancer and melanoma, although more research is needed to confirm this potential association.

Results of this trial led to an accelerated FDA approval of Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) in March to treat this specific patient population.