Treatment - Cancer Currents Blog
Cancer treatment related news, with context from leading experts. Includes articles on new therapies, treatment side effects, and important trends in treatment-related research.
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Nivolumab Improves Survival for Some Patients with Advanced Stomach CancerFor some people with advanced stomach cancer, the drug nivolumab (Opdivo) plus chemotherapy may improve how long they live, results from a large clinical trial show. The trial also included patients with gastric cancers that involve the esophagus.
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For Esophageal Cancer, Immunotherapy Likely to Play Larger RoleFor some people with advanced esophageal cancer, the immunotherapy drugs pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) may become part of early treatment for the disease, according to results from two large clinical trials.
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FDA Approves Blood Tests That Can Help Guide Cancer TreatmentFDA has recently approved two blood tests, known as liquid biopsies, that gather genetic information to help inform treatment decisions for people with cancer. This Cancer Currents story explores how the tests are used and who can get the tests.
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A More Treatable Kind of Metastatic Cancer?People with oligometastatic cancer have only a few metastatic tumors. Researchers are studying whether treating these individual tumors directly with surgery or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBTR or SABR) can help patients live longer or improve their quality of life.
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CAR T-Cell Therapy Approved by FDA for Mantle Cell LymphomaA CAR T-cell therapy called brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus) has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for some patients with mantle cell lymphoma. This is the third CAR T-cell therapy approved by FDA for patients with cancer.
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Trastuzumab May Improve Survival in Women with Rare Endometrial CancerFor some women with HER2-positive uterine serous carcinoma, a rare type of endometrial cancer, treating them with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and chemotherapy may help them live longer, according to updated results from a small clinical trial.
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How CRISPR Is Changing Cancer Research and TreatmentThe gene-editing tool CRISPR is changing the way scientists study cancer, and may change how cancer is treated. This in-depth blog post describes how this revolutionary technology is being used to better understand cancer and create new treatments.
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Study Links Mental Health Treatment to Improved Cancer SurvivalIn a study of more than 50,000 veterans with lung cancer, those with mental illness who received mental health treatment—including for substance use—lived substantially longer than those who didn’t participate in such programs.
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A New FDA Approval Furthers the Role of Genomics in Cancer CareFDA’s approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat people whose cancer is tumor mutational burden-high highlights the importance of genomic testing to guide treatment, including for children with cancer, according to NCI Director Dr. Ned Sharpless.
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Responding to Coronavirus, Cancer Researchers Reimagine Clinical TrialsIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer researchers are making changes to clinical trials to ensure patient safety and protect the integrity of their work. Some changes, such as greater use of telemedicine, will likely continue into the future.
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Study Clarifies Timing of Immunotherapy for Advanced Bladder CancerResults from a large study show that, for most people with advanced bladder cancer, starting immunotherapy with avelumab (Bavencio) shortly after initial treatment with chemotherapy is better than delaying treatment.
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Selpercatinib Approved for Thyroid and Lung Cancers with RET Gene AlterationsFDA has granted accelerated approval for selpercatinib (Retevmo) to treat certain patients with thyroid cancer or non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors have RET gene alterations. The drug, which works by blocking the activity of RET proteins, was approved based on the results of the LIBRETTO-001 trial.
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With Two FDA Approvals, Prostate Cancer Treatment Enters the PARP EraFDA has approved olaparib (Lynparza) and rucaparib (Rubraca) to treat some men with metastatic prostate cancer. The PARP inhibitors are approved for men whose cancers have stopped responding to hormone treatment and have specific genetic alterations.
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More Evidence that Ruxolitinib Benefits Some Patients with Graft-Versus-Host DiseasePatients with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) that does not respond to steroid therapy are more likely to respond to the drug ruxolitinib (Jakafi) than other available treatments, results from a large clinical trial show.
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Encorafenib, Cetuximab Combination Approved for Metastatic Colorectal CancerThe Food and Drug Administration has approved encorafenib (Braftovi) in combination with cetuximab (Erbitux) to treat adults with metastatic colorectal cancer whose tumors have a specific mutation in the BRAF gene, called V600E.
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Boosting Dendritic Cells Helps the Immune System Find Pancreatic CancerThe number of dendritic cells in a tumor may explain why immunotherapies work for some cancers but not others, a new study suggests. In mice, boosting dendritic cells triggered an immune response that slowed pancreatic tumor growth.
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Deaths from Metastatic Melanoma Drop Substantially in the United StatesAfter rising steadily for decades, the number of people in the United States who die each year from the skin cancer melanoma has dramatically dropped in recent years, results from a new study show. Learn what has contributed to the dramatic decline.
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Health of Gut Microbes May Affect Survival after Stem Cell TransplantIn people with blood cancers, the health of their gut microbiome appears to affect the risk of dying after receiving an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, according to an NCI-funded study conducted at four hospitals across the globe.
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Remodeled CAR T-Cell Therapy Reduces Side Effects in First Clinical TrialA remodeled CAR T-cell therapy causes fewer neurologic side effects and is equally effective as the original form of the treatment, according to results from the first clinical trial testing the approach in patients with B-cell lymphomas.
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Is Proton Therapy Safer than Traditional Radiation?Some experts believe that proton therapy is safer than traditional radiation, but research has been limited. A new observational study compared the safety and effectiveness of proton therapy and traditional radiation in adults with advanced cancer.