Articles

Chicago, IL—The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduced the concept of a breakthrough therapy designation in 2012 to help expedite patient access to new therapies for the treatment of serious or life-threatening diseases.

Chicago, IL—Delaying androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for at least 2 years did not lead to worse overall survival or prostate cancer–specific survival compared with the initiation of ADT within 3 months of rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in men with PSA-only relapse (ie, biochemical relapse) after the primary treatment of prostate cancer with surgery or radiation, according to the results of a large population-based study presented at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting and highlighted at a press briefing.

Changes in the design and interpretation of phase 3 trials for advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have begun to emerge regarding statistical power, sample size, and the primary end points used. In a new study, researchers explored how the design and interpretation of these trials has changed over the past 3 decades.

Panitumumab (Vectibix) proved noninferior to cetuximab (Erbitux) in overall survival (OS) in patients with chemotherapy-refractory wild-type KRAS exon 2 metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), according to the results of ASPECT (A Study of Panitumumab Efficacy and Safety Compared to Cetuximab).

The identification of oncogenic drivers has helped transform the care of patients with adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer diagnosed in 130,000 patients in the United States and 1 million persons worldwide annually.

Tampa, FL—The poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib demonstrated activity in relapsed and/or refractory BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer, according to the results of a phase 2 clinical trial reported at the 2014 Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting.

Los Angeles, CA—Worksite pharmacies have unique advantages over local pharmacies in caring for employees with cancer.

Los Angeles, CA—Worksite health centers can improve the quality and effectiveness of cancer treatment for employees while reducing costs for their employers.

Los Angeles, CA—Although targeted drug development and testing are clearly transforming medicine, resistance to greater uptake of personalized medicine includes a shift in the evidence threshold in personalized testing and drawbacks to the delivery system, including the cost of molecular tests, said Peter B. Bach, MD, Director, Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.