Oncology

A poster session on the second day of the 56th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held December 6-9, San Francisco, was dedicated to trials evaluating therapeutic options in chronic myelogenous leukemia. Data presented included safety, efficacy, managing comorbidities, and biological differences that drive response to therapy.

Perceptions of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and how to live with it are very different for patients and physicians, and a strong dialogue is needed to overcome the disparity, according to Jan Geissler, co-founder of the CML Advocates Network.

Although nilotinib as a first-line therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia is a more effective treatment than imatinib, nilotinib's side effects are too much for patients.

On the second day at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2014, Francois-Xavier Mahon, MD, PhD, Bordeaux Hospital, INSERM 1035, Bordeaux, France, shared the results from the European LeukemiaNet Stop TKI (EURO-SKI) study; the trial used tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in CML to define prognostic markers to increase the rate of patients in durable deep molecular response after stopping TKI.

The plenary session on the second day of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held December 6-9 in San Francisco, saw the best presentations, selected by the Program Committee, from among the thousands of scientific abstracts that were accepted for the meeting. These talks included a JAK/STAT-mediated thrombopoietin regulation by the Ashwell-Morell receptor, lenalidomide-mediated casein kinase regulation in myelodysplastic syndrome, and the results of the SORAML trial in acute myeloid leukemia.

One of the reoccurring themes at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology was the importance of proper monitoring, said Greg Stephens, executive director of the National CML Society.

Isolating and comparing cancer stem cells with their normal counterparts has allowed researchers to identify hundreds of differences that can be used to target therapies, said Elaine Fuchs, PhD, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Rockefeller University.

While medical oncologists, drug developers, and research scientists presented their research findings and novel treatment options in hematological cancers, a special session in the afternoon on the first day of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held December 6 to 9 in San Francisco, addressed the aspect of cost of care and the increasing financial burden faced by the cancer patient.

Recent important changes in oncology have led to major advances that allow providers to recommend very specific therapies, said Mark G. Kris, MD, William and Joy Ruane chair in thoracic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The results were presented at the recent Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Barcelona, a meeting jointly sponsored by the NCI, AACR, and EORTC.

While ASCO is calling to update the 340B drug discount program, hospitals that serve economically diverse populations make a case for the program: "Because of 340B, we don't have to turn patients away when they can't pay."

The American Society of Hematology has added 5 more recommendations to it's Choosing Wisely list, which was published in the journal Blood,

The study, published in NEJM, found that PFS improved by nearly 4 months while ORR improved by nearly 30%.

By distinguishing low- and intermediate-risk patients, Oncotype DX is predicted to avoid over- and under-treatment of prostate cancer patients.

Blincyto, which was considered a promising immunotherapy with a novel mechanism of action, was approved 5 months prior to its PDUFA date.

Absence of a microRNA in TNBC resulted in the overexpression of RASAL2 in those tumors. Patients overexpressing RASAL2 had poorer survival, research showed.

People could be putting their lives at risk by dismissing potential warning signs of cancer as less serious symptoms, according to a Cancer Research UK-funded study published in PLOS ONE. The survey found that nearly 97% of people with symptoms failed to act on them.

A study found new indications for a drug that is widely used in the treatment of osteoarthritis, based on an observation that those on the medication had a lower incidence of several cancers.

Iressa, an EGFR inhibitor, is widely used in the treatment of advanced, metastatic NSCLC.

Failure of the drug in the phase 3 COMET-2 study was anticipated following the reported failure of the earlier COMET-1 trial.

What makes a cancer therapy effective may be in the eye of the stakeholder, even though everyone involved in healthcare decisions relies on evidence-based information. Evidence-Based Oncology, a publication of The American Journal of Managed Care, this month publishes a condensed version of the discussion among payers on how to improve collection and use of collection of data to make better evidence-based decisions in oncology.

The NIH-funded study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, identified mutations that are harbored early and could be potential early-onset biomarkers for detection.

A study by the University of Colorado Cancer Center published in the journal PLoS ONE and concurrent phase I clinical trial is examining a new strategy: targeting both important cancer-causing pathways simultaneously.

Early this week, Novation, a healthcare services company that oversees supply chain management, called on Genentech to reverse its decision to use only specialty drug distributors instead of wholesale distributors for its widely used anticancer treatments, Avastin, Rituxan, and Herceptin.