clinical trial results

  • August 5, 2018  

    High Marks for HIFU in Early Prostate Cancer Bookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from MedPage Today:

    “Men with newly diagnosed, nonmetastatic prostate cancer had a 5-year failure-free survival (FFS) of 88% when treated with focal high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy, results of a multicenter European clinical experience showed.

    “The 625-patient cohort had a 5-year overall survival of 99%, and none of the patients died of prostate cancer during a median follow-up of 56 months. In a subgroup of men who submitted questionnaires on patient-reported outcomes, 98% said they did not require absorbent pads for urinary incontinence.”

    Go to full article published by MedPage Today 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.

  • May 29, 2018  

    Practice-Changing Developments in Treatment of Metastatic NSCLC

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Immune 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 »

  • July 6, 2017  

    ASCO 2017: Breast Cancer Treatment News

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Last month, the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting took place in Chicago. Thousands of oncologists, patients, and journalists gathered to learn about the most recent developments in cancer research and treatment. Here are some breast cancer highlights from the meeting: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered more responsive to treatment with immune checkpoint drugs than any other type of breast cancer.… Read more »

  • January 17, 2017  

    In Metastatic Breast Cancer Treatment, Not All CDK Inhibitors Are Equal

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Doctors prescribe drugs known as CDK inhibitors to treat some women with estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) metastatic breast cancer. Research into these drugs is ongoing, and new, promising CDK inhibitor options are on the horizon. Here, I address the current outlook for CDK inhibitors in ER+ breast cancer. First, some background: ER+ breast cancers comprise about 70% of all breast cancers. The name reflects the fact… Read more »

  • November 10, 2015  

    Finally: An Active Prostate Cancer Drug That Doesn’t Target Androgen

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Most of the recent developments in prostate cancer treatment have addressed the timing and duration of androgen deprivation, who should receive radiation treatments, and the timing of the few available chemotherapy options. But this month’s big news is a welcome change: metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancers (mCRPCs) that harbor mutations in BRCA2 or one of a few other genes have a remarkable response to olaparib (Lynparza), a drug that inhibits the enzyme PARP1.

  • June 16, 2015  

    ASCO Highlight: Another Treatment Option for ER-Positive Breast Cancer

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Earlier this year, a new treatment option was added to the arsenal for ER-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of letrozole (Femara) and palbociclib (Ibrance).

  • June 12, 2015  

    Melanoma at ASCO 2015: Immunotherapy Continues to Make Headlines

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    The biggest news in melanoma treatment from the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting was undoubtedly the report from a large, phase III, randomized clinical trial that compared a combination of two ‘checkpoint inhibitor’ drugs—nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy)—with the same drugs given alone. In the CheckMate-067 trial, 945 previously untreated patients with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma were assigned… Read more »

  • January 21, 2015  

    The Role of Pertuzumab in Treating HER2+ Breast Cancer

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Pertuzumab (Perjeta) is a relatively new drug that targets HER2, a protein found at higher-than-normal levels in about 15% to 20% of all breast cancers. Too much HER2 leads to tumor growth. Currently, all newly diagnosed breast cancer patients have their tumors’ HER2 levels tested. Knowing whether a patient’s HER2 levels are abnormally high (HER2-positive) or normal (HER2-negative) is a major factor in choosing a treatment, thanks to the availability of trastuzumab (Herceptin) and, now, other HER2-targeted drugs such as Perjeta, T-DM1 (Kadcyla), and lapatinib (Tykerb). These drugs are all used to treat HER2-positive patients.