Oncology

Molecular analysis is now underway to characterize subsets of patients who performed better or worse on either treatment.

The recommendation to the EMA came soon after Zydiga (idelalisib) was approved in the US.

The drug is to be administered right before chemotherapy or radiation, to bind to and inhibit cell division in normal cells and reduce the adverse effects of chemotherapy.

AstraZeneca has signed up Roche and Qiagen to develop two separate diagnostic tests, both using simple blood samples, to identify patients who will benefit from its lung cancer drugs.

New trial data confirms its use as standard therapy for CLL.

HIV-positive individuals are not usually enrolled in clinical trials, resulting in a knowledge-gap on their treatment options.

Active implementation of cost-saving measures successfully cut down expenditure at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Following the success of robotics in prostate surgeries, the technique was expected to provide comparable results for bladder cancer surgeries as well.

Opdivo (Nivolumab) recently received regulatory approval in Japan for the treatment of patients with unresectable melanoma, the first global approval for a PD-1 inhibitor.

The approval is a big gain for melanoma (Yervoy) and prostate cancer (Xtandi) patients in England and Wales.

However, a point to note is that this was a small cohort study without a comparator arm.

The drug has been approved for use in patient's with relapsed disease.

According to a recent survey, radiation oncologists are doing this for 7.9% less pay than they earned the year before.

The researchers found that the risk of developing cervical cancer within three years following a negative HPV test result was about half of the already low risk following a negative Pap test.

Aduro joins the exclusive group of companies, so far only the big pharma, that have a successful trail of immunooncology candidates.

Preventive mastectomy did not improve survival in the study population.

It is well known that oncology care pathways are the tools that practices can utilize to care for its patients. Ira Klein, MD, MBA, FACP, chief medical officer, National Accounts Clinical Sales & Strategy, Aetna, suggests that Aetna's only involvement in creating these pathways should be in helping these practices develop "reasonable care pathways."

The study, published in PNAS, showed that the peptide microarrays could classify complex heterogeneous cancers with upto 98% accuracy.

The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, showed that the gel could prevent growth of breast cancer, with fewer side effects.

The authors sought to determine if tumor heterogeneity and biospecimen variables affect the evaluation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway markers in breast cancer.

The long-term study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, was conducted in more than 65,000 men over the age of 66 years with early-stage prostate cancer.

Genentech submitted the BLA for bevacizumab for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer.

Cobimetinib (MEK inhibitor), used in combination with Zelboraf (BRAF inhibitor), improved survival without disease progression.