-
August 5, 2018
Steroids Lower Survival Benefits Associated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Lung Cancer Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from Healio:
“The use of steroids at baseline was associated with inferior survival outcomes in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who were starting either PD-1 or PD-L1 blockade therapy, according to retrospective data presented at ASCO Annual Meeting.
” ‘Treatment with PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors is now standard therapy for nearly all patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer,’ Kathryn C. Arbour, MD, a fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said during her presentation. ‘The potential impact of steroids in patients with PD-1 or PD-L1 blockade has been an open question. Steroids are frequently used as a supportive medication in cancer care and can provide rapid relief of numerous cancer-related symptoms, including dyspnea, anorexia, pain, fatigue and symptoms associated with brain metastases. However … [physicians] routinely recognize that there can be substantial toxicities associated with long-term steroid use.’ ”
Go to full article published by Healio on July 10, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
-
August 5, 2018
FDA Approves Enzalutamide for Nonmetastatic CRPC Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from OncLive:
“The FDA has approved enzalutamide (Xtandi) for the treatment of patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), according to Pfizer and Astellas, the codevelopers of the antiandrogen agent.
“The approval is based on the phase III PROSPER trial, in which the combination of enzalutamide (Xtandi) and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) reduced the risk of metastases or death by 71% compared with ADT alone for patients with nonmetastatic CRPC. In the double-blind study, the median metastasis-free survival (MFS) was 36.6 months with enzalutamide plus ADT versus 14.7 months with ADT alone (HR, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.24-0.35; P <.0001).”
Go to full article published by OncLive on July 13, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
-
August 5, 2018
Immune-Based Therapy May Be Tool Against Melanoma in the Brain Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from UPI:
“A type of therapy that harnesses the immune system is giving new hope to people battling a once hopeless cancer — melanoma that’s spread to the brain.
“New research involving more than 2,700 U.S. patients is confirming what specialists in the field have long known — that “checkpoint blockade” treatment can beat back these devastating tumors.”
Go to full article published by UPI on July 12, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
-
June 11, 2018
Abiraterone May Be More Effective in Black Men With Prostate Cancer Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“Black men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) who received hormonal therapy with the adrenal inhibitor abiraterone had greater and longer-lasting responses compared with white men, according to the results of a late-breaking study (abstract LBA5009) presented at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, held in Chicago June 1–5.
“The prospective study found that black men were more likely to have a decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and had a longer median time to PSA worsening than white men. The findings were presented by Daniel George, MD, professor of medicine and surgery at Duke University.”
Go to full article published by Cancer Network on Jun 2, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
-
May 29, 2018
Practice-Changing Developments in Treatment of Metastatic NSCLC
Emma Shtivelman, PhDImmune checkpoint inhibitor drugs that target the proteins PD-1 and PD-L1 are by now well established in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nivolumab (Opdivo), an anti-PD-1 drug, for treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC who progressed or relapsed after platinum-based chemotherapy. Atezolizumab (Tecentriq), an anti-PD-L1 drug, was approved in 2016 for… Read more »
-
February 19, 2018
New Developments in Melanoma Treatment
Emma Shtivelman, PhDNeoadjuvant (before-surgery) treatments for resectable melanoma Neoadjuvant treatments are the mainstay in the care of patients with breast, colon, and other cancers, but have not traditionally been used in melanoma. This has changed now, with the publication of a report showing that patients with resectable stage III or IV BRAF-mutant melanoma benefit from treatment with the BRAF/MEK inhibitor drugs dabrafenib and trametinib prior to… Read more »
-
January 5, 2018
New Guidelines on Clinical Trial Design for Patients with Brain Metastases Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“Clinical trials of new anti-cancer therapies have often excluded patients whose disease has spread to the brain or central nervous system (CNS) or, if such patients were allowed on trial, trials have often failed to clearly capture information on the drug’s effect in the brain. Today new guidelines from an international, multidisciplinary group published in the journal Lancet Oncology describe how to most appropriately address cancer patients with CNS involvement within clinical trials of anti-cancer drugs.”
Go to full article published by ScienceDaily on Dec 30, 2017.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
-
December 21, 2017
A Gut Feeling: Bacteria in Your Gut May Affect Cancer Treatment
Emma Shtivelman, PhDThe human gut contains hundreds of species bacteria, which are known to contribute to various bodily functions (such as digestion, of course!) but they also shape our immune system. Now, recent research has revealed how our microbiomes (the abundant bacteria living in our bodies) may affect the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in cancer treatment. How it started: about two years ago, an… Read more »
-
October 4, 2017
New Trends in Pre-Surgery Treatments for Breast Cancer
Emma Shtivelman, PhDNon-metastatic breast cancers are most often treated with surgery, but if the tumors are fairly large, or involve nearby lymph nodes, neoadjuvant (pre-operative) treatments with chemotherapy (NAC) are done first. NAC often reduces the tumor size and kills cancer cells in lymph nodes, if present, prior to surgery, improving the outcome. The best possible result of neoadjuvant treatment is pCR (pathologic compete response), when… Read more »
-
September 5, 2017
EGFR-mutant NSCLC: Choice of First-Line Treatment May Get More Complicated
Emma Shtivelman, PhDMedical guidelines for treatment of newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) mandate upfront testing of tumor tissue for mutations in the EGFR gene (as well as ALK and ROS gene translocation). EGFR mutations are found in 10 to 15% of white patients, but in patients of East Asian origin such mutations are in encountered in approximately 48%. However, with new data and drugs… Read more »