Earlier today researchers released top-line results from the Phase III trial in melanoma, evaluating the efficacy and safety of talimogene laherparepvec (Amgen; T-VEC, originally called OncovexGM-CSF, the trial drug was initially under development by BioVex Inc, Oxford, UK, until it was purchased by Amgen in January 2011 and…

A large study reports that a new real-time performance tracking system, which monitors adherence to five National Quality Forum endorsed quality care metrics for breast and colon cancer, significantly improved quality standard adherence rates over a four-year period in a group of 64 cancer centers participating in the Rapid Quality Reporting System or RQRS “beta test.” Use of the system also reduced reported…

New findings that highlight the challenges of managing thromboembolic events in patients being treated for cancer were released at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna (September 28 - October 2, 2012).

Venous thromboembolism causes symptoms in about 3 to 4% of cancer patients whose chemotherapy drugs are delivered via a central venous catheter, commented Fausto Roila, M.D. from Medical Oncology Department, Terni,…

Today AVEO Oncology announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval for tivozanib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Advanced RCC, or kidney cancer, is the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and women in the U.S.[1] Worldwide it is estimated that more than 250,000…

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Society for Surgical Oncology (SSO) earlier today jointly issued their first evidence-based clinical practice guideline on the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy or SLNB to stage patients with newly diagnosed melanoma.…

The 2012 ASCO Impact Report, a survey of physicians and healthcare professionals attending the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO), published by Encuity Research, the market research and analytics subsidiary of Campbell Alliance, revealed that this year's event had a significant impact on the treatment plans of…

BPM 31510 targets the metabolic machinery of the cancer microenvironment to reverse the aerobic glycolytic phenotype of cancer cells also called the Warburg phenotype.  The Warburg phenotype has been related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, malignancy, metabolic syndrome x, autoimmune disease and neuronal degeneration.



The endogenous small molecule resident in mitochondria restores oxidative phosphorylation and confers re-capitulation of the BCL-2…

Final results from a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase II clinical trial with the selective MET inhibitor tivantinib (ARQ 197;  ArQule, Inc. and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited) as a single-agent, investigational, second-line treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) shows positive results. The data was presented at the…

Documenting a cancer patient’s family history (CFH) of cancer is important in establishing risk for primary and secondary cancer and identifying individuals who may be candidates for genetic counseling and genetic testing. Prior studies have demonstrated low rates of family history documentation and low referral rates for genetic counseling and genetic testing.



In 2011, the American Society for Clinical Oncology's (…

Results of an international Phase III trial demonstrate that the new targeted oral drug, regorafenib, which targets angiogenic, stromal and oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinase, can improve outcomes for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) that progress due to resistance to other available treatment options, including imatinib (Gleevec®, Novartis) and sunitinib (…

A study finds that female survivors of childhood cancer treated with radiation to the chest had a high risk of developing breast cancer at a young age, comparable to that of BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. The findings also suggest that more survivors may be affected than previously thought. The results were presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).



Currently,…

Final results from PARAMOUNT trial, a Phase III clinical study of pemetrexed (Alimta®, Eli Lilly and Company) in the continuation maintenance setting, demonstrated improved overall survival in patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with pemetrexed continuation maintenance. PARAMOUNT trial results were presented on Monday, June 4, 2012, at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of…

An initial combination chemotherapy of bendamustine (Treanda®; Cephalon, Inc) and rituximab (Rituxan®, Genentech/Biogen IDEC) more than doubled progression-free survival (PFS) compared with R-CHOP therapy, the current standard of care, among patients with previously untreated indolent or slow-growing lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma. This outcome is based on updated…

Onco'Zine - The International Oncology Network is on-site at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting held at the McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, from June 1-5, 2012.  The ASCO meeting is one of the largest scientific events in oncology organized in the world. In 2011, more than 32,000 attendees gathered to listen, learn and network.



Each year ASCO draws an international audience of healthcare…

Results from an exploratory biomarker analysis evaluating MET expression as a predictor of clinical response to rilotumumab (AMG 102) conducted on a previously reported Phase II study of rilotumumab in patients with locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal cancer, showed that treatment with the trial drug in combination with chemotherapy improved median overall survival (OS) in patients whose tumors exhibited high MET protein expression. Full results of the…

A population-based analysis of more than 3,000 families including women with breast cancer, published online October 31, 2011, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a tri-monthly peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), found that close relatives of women who carry mutations in a BRCA gene – but who themselves do not have such genetic…

A new drug targeting the PI3K gene in patients with advanced breast cancer shows promising results in an early phase I investigational study conducted at Virginia G. Piper Cancer at Scottsdale Healthcare, according to a presentation by oncologist Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P. at the 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).



The drug under investigation, GDC-0941,…