Dave Levitan

The oral ALK inhibitor ceritinib provided a significant improvement in progression-free survival over platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer.

Most patients with cancer decreased their physical activity levels following their diagnosis, in spite of the potential benefits associated with exercise, according to a new study.

Anxiety is common among partners of young breast cancer survivors, even several years after the diagnosis, according to a new analysis. Anxiety was correlated with the use of less constructive and more maladaptive coping strategies.

An analysis of Lynch syndrome–associated ovarian cancer found that the malignancy tends to present at an early stage and has a generally good prognosis.

In prostate cancer patients, a PSA nadir value of > 0.5 ng/mL after radiation therapy and androgen deprivation therapy can identify patients at a high risk of death.

Women with endometrioid ovarian cancer present at a younger age and with earlier stage disease than those with serous ovarian cancer, according to a new analysis. The earlier presentation resulted in better 5- and 10-year overall survival rates as well.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab showed promising antitumor activity and acceptable safety in patients with advanced urothelial cancer, in a phase I trial.

Certain patient-reported outcomes including fatigue and emotional support are associated with survival outcomes in patients with early-stage colorectal cancer.

Advanced colorectal cancer patients with BRAF mutations have markedly worse prognosis than non-mutant patients, according to a large analysis. Post-progression survival in particular is worse among BRAF-mutant patients.

Adding bortezomib to lenalidomide and dexamethasone improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who were not planned for immediate stem-cell transplant.

In patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma, adjuvant chemotherapy following radical nephroureterectomy confers a survival advantage compared with observation following radical nephroureterectomy.

Brain metastases from primary breast cancer tumors often acquire clinically actionable genetic alterations, according to a small study. About one fifth of ERBB2/HER2-negative cases switched to HER2-positivity in the brain metastases.

Adding cetuximab to chemoradiation yielded better locoregional failure rates than historical data in a small trial of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal, but the treatment resulted in substantial toxicity.

A delay in initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy following resection for non–small-cell lung cancer was not associated with any increase in mortality.

Angiosarcoma has generally poor survival among Asian patients; though chemotherapy can be effective, it has been underused in the last few decades.

Breast cancer screening was not associated with any reduction in the incidence of advanced cancer, and overdiagnosis of invasive tumors and ductal carcinoma in situ is a common problem, according to a new study conducted in Denmark.

A database analysis shows significant shifts in treatment patterns for elderly patients diagnosed with advanced-stage non–small-cell lung cancer, along with a modest gain in survival since 2000.

The FDA has concluded that pioglitazone, used to treat type 2 diabetes, may be linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer.

Among cancer patients with bone metastases, administration of zoledronic acid every 12 weeks did not increase the risk of skeletal events over 2 years compared with the standard dosing of every 4 weeks.

An increasing percentage of men over the age of 75 who are diagnosed with prostate cancer have distant metastases at the time of diagnosis, according to a new study.

A small preliminary study showed that adding pioglitazone to imatinib therapy might have a favorable impact on residual disease in chronic myeloid leukemia, as measured by conversion to molecular response 4.5.

Aldoxorubicin yielded significantly better progression-free survival over investigator’s choice of various chemotherapy options in patients with relapsed or refractory leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma, according to updated results of a phase III trial.

Patients with CML who have higher proportions of natural killer immune cells, and more mature natural killer cells, fare better when discontinuing therapy with imatinib.

Vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy with padeliporfin was significantly better than active surveillance over a 2-year period in men with low-risk localized prostate cancer.

The FDA granted accelerated approval to rucaparib (Rubraca), a PARP inhibitor, for the treatment of women with deleterious BRCA mutation-associated ovarian cancer.

Non-aspirin NSAIDs are more effective than other options for colorectal chemoprevention in individuals with previous colorectal neoplasia, according to a new meta-analysis. Low-dose aspirin, however, is a safer option, and offers the best risk-benefit profile.

A higher quantity of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) was associated with better overall survival in patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer treated with either pertuzumab or placebo, along with trastuzumab and docetaxel.

The antioxidant sodium thiosulfate protects children and adolescents against cisplatin-induced hearing loss without any added serious adverse effects, according to a randomized study.

Larger social networks involving family, friends, community ties, and other connections are associated with better breast cancer–specific and overall survival.

More than 15% of patients with early-onset colorectal cancer may harbor mutations to cancer susceptibility genes, suggesting a need for genetic counseling and a multigene panel.