European Society for Medical Oncology Congress (ESMO)

One year of combination treatment with dabrafenib plus trametinib reduced the risk for disease recurrence or death by more than half in patients with stage III high-risk BRAF V600E/K melanoma.

Weekly dose-dense chemotherapy can be delivered successfully and with lower toxicity than standard 3-weekly regimens, but it does not improve progression-free survival among patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, according to a large new study presented at the ESMO.

The addition of selumetinib to docetaxel failed to improve progression-free and overall survival in patients with KRAS-mutated locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC.

The oral PARP inhibitor rucaparib showed strong activity and an acceptable safety profile in women with high-grade, BRCA-mutated ovarian carcinoma who had previously received at least two lines of chemotherapy.

The oral PARP inhibitor niraparib yielded significantly improved progression-free survival for women with platinum-sensitive, recurrent ovarian cancer in a phase III trial.

Treatment with cabozantinib resulted in significantly improved PFS and overall response vs sunitinib for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Use of the targeted therapy dabrafenib resulted in a high overall response rate and was well tolerated in a small phase I/II study of pediatric BRAF V600-mutant low-grade glioma.

Patients with renal cell carcinoma at high risk for recurrence had prolonged disease-free survival when treated with sunitinib compared with placebo.

Adding ribociclib, a CDK4/6 inhibitor, to letrozole significantly improved progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with advanced, HR-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer.

A large percentage of patients with metastatic melanoma in Europe may not have access to innovative medicines used to treat the disease, according to the results of a survey.

The use of the PD1 inhibitor nivolumab appeared to be feasible and safe in a small study of patients with untreated, stage I–IIIa non–small-cell lung cancer.

Patients with working memory dysfunctions and depression may be more likely to be nonadherent to oral cancer therapies, according to the results of a study presented at ESMO.

A new study suggests that expression of the enzyme thymidylate synthase can be used as a predictive marker for lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The MAGRIT trial showed no benefit with the recMAGE-A3 + AS15 cancer immunotherapeutic compared with placebo in completely resected, MAGE-A3-positive NSCLC.

In patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, afatinib better delayed cancer progression compared with methotrexate, according to results presented at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Rolapitant added to granisetron/dexamethasone helped prevented chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy, according to a study at the ESMO 2014 Congress.

Combining BRAF and MEK inhibitors resulted in better response, PFS, and overall survival compared with a BRAF inhibitor alone in BRAF-positive melanoma patients, according to results presented at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Data from the CLEOPATRA trial show that pertuzumab adds nearly 16 months to median survival times when used with trastuzumab and chemo in HER2-positive breast cancer, according to final results presented at the ESMO 2014 Congress.

Two French studies have shown that screening for colorectal cancer with fecal occult blood tests can be very effective, according to results presented at the ESMO 2014 Congress.

Exposure to chemo or radiotherapy has no long-term negative mental or cardiac effects on children exposed to these cancer treatments while in the womb, according to a study presented at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Adding the TKI cediranib to chemotherapy improved progression-free survival in patients with metastatic or relapsed cervical cancer, according to a study presented at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Continuing gefitinib after acquiring resistance to the TKI adds no clinical benefit in patients with EGFR-positive non-small-cell lung cancer, according to trial results presented at the 2014 ESMO Congress.

Almost three out of every four young oncologists in Europe may be experiencing burnout, according to data from the largest burnout survey conducted to date.

As part of our coverage of the 2014 ESMO meeting we discuss recent advances in the treatment of kidney, bladder, and testicular cancers.