Personalized Medicine

Chicago, IL— Necitumumab, a human immunoglobulin G1 anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody, added to standard chemotherapy significantly improved survival compared with chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment of patients with stage IV non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of squamous histology.

Toronto, Ontario—Going to more than 10 indoor tanning sessions over a person’s lifetime is associated with a 34% increased risk of developing melanoma, according to a new meta-analysis presented at the 2014 Canadian Dermatology Association annual meeting.

Chicago, IL—The upfront addition of docetaxel to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) adds more than 1 year to overall survival (OS) compared with ADT alone in men with newly diagnosed hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, according to findings from a phase 3 study presented at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Chicago, IL—Adjuvant exemestane is more effective at preventing breast cancer recurrences than tamoxifen when given with ovarian function suppression (OFS) in young women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer, reported Olivia Pagani, MD, Clinical Director, Breast Unit, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Approximately 15% to 20% of patients with breast cancer have HER2-positive disease. Brain metastases are relatively common in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, with up to 50% of patients developing metastases over time.

The addition of lapatinib (Tykerb) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) to create dual HER2 blockade was no better than trastuzumab alone in the adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2 breast cancer in the global phase 3 ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimisation) trial, reported Martine J. Piccart-Gebhart, MD, PhD, Chair, Breast International Group, Brussels, Belgium, at a plenary session at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.

Sandra Wade first e-mailed me on July 15, 2011. As you can see in the excerpts from her correspondence with me below, she asked me to contact her oncologist and let her know that as a breast cancer survivor, Sandra had suffered more than she should have, because she was not referred for rehabilitation services.

The cancer drug pipeline continues to boast many new therapies, reinforcing the recent trends of new and improved monoclonal antibodies and other classes of targeted therapies for different types of tumors.

Approximately 15% to 20% of patients with breast cancer have HER2-positive disease. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released new clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, focusing on systemic therapies.

Orlando, FL—Delaying a prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-triggered prostate biopsy to allow for additional PSA assessments might have avoided more than 70% of subsequent biopsies, according to a study of negative biopsies for >28,000 men reported at the 2014 American Urological Association annual meeting.