Articles

San Francisco, CA—Preoperative breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) failed to influence clinical management in any subgroup of 257 patients with breast cancer, according to the results of a retrospective review that led one cancer center to discontinue the practice.

San Francisco, CA—A new GP2 peptide vaccine was safe and reduced the rate of breast cancer recurrence in women with high-risk breast cancer in a phase 2 clinical trial.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has responded to the chorus of voices calling for less complex rules governing electronic health records (EHRs) by not adopting the Voluntary 2015 Edition Electronic Health Record Certification Criteria.

A survey of patients with cancer and caregivers about the benefits they would like Medicare to cover in their last 6 months of life uncovered large gaps with the benefits that Medicare currently offers (Taylor DH Jr, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32:3163-3168).

Madrid, Spain—Continuing an EGFR inhibitor after acquired resistance does not slow the progression of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients receiving chemotherapy, according to a report presented at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress.

Madrid, Spain—The positive results from 2 studies raised speculation about a possible resurrection of the breast cancer indication for bevacizumab, as reported at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

Madrid, Spain—Combination therapy with a BRAF inhibitor and a MEK inhibitor improves survival outcomes in patients with advanced BRAF-mutated melanoma, based on results of 2 phase 3 clinical trials presented at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

Madrid, Spain—Immunotherapy marches on, showing continued progress in treating advanced melanoma. At the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, first reports from a phase 3 clinical trial showed that the monoclonal anti–PD-1 antibody nivolumab achieved superior responses and longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with standard chemotherapy in the second- or third-line treatment of patients whose melanoma progressed with ipilimumab therapy.

New York, NY—Four head and neck surgeons, 3 of whom use robots in their practice, squared off in a friendly debate on the pros and cons of advanced technology use, focusing on the examples of thyroidectomy and advanced oropharyngeal cancer, at the 2014 American Head and Neck Society annual meeting.

Medicare now provides coverage for the only FDA-approved noninvasive stool DNA screening test for colorectal cancer (CRC), after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final National Coverage Determination in October.