Articles

Drug shortages have hit the oncology community hard. Determined to alleviate the much-publicized drug shortage associated with doxorubicin hydrochloride liposome injection (Doxil; Janssen), the FDA expedited the approval of the first generic version of this agent, which is produced by Sun Pharma Global FZE (Sun).

San Antonio, TX—Adding magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to a breast cancer screening strategy for women with a familial risk of cancer costs approximately 2.6 times as much per life-years gained compared with screening with mammography alone, Dutch researchers reported at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

>Dutch researchers have peered into the minds and wallets of a group of men aged 55 to 75 years to determine what they are willing to trade for a reduced risk of prostate cancer–related death or to avoid unnecessary procedures and treatment.

When added to gemcitabine, weekly nab-paclitaxel improved survival in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer by nearly 2 months compared with gemcitabine alone, said Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, Physician in Chief and Director of Translational Research, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, regarding the results of a large international phase 3 clinical trial.

Atlanta, GA—Many patients with multiple myeloma succumb to infection before they have a chance to benefit from cancer therapy, according to a new study from Sweden.

On August 3, 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ziv-aflibercept (Zaltrap) for use in combination with a FOLFIRI chemotherapy regimen to treat adults with mCRC that is resistant to or has progressed after an oxaliplatin-containing regimen.

San Antonio, TX—For the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive early breast cancer, 10 years of treatment with tamoxifen yields better outcomes than 5 years of treatment, according to an analysis from the international ATLAS study that was presented at the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

San Antonio, TX—The addition of an oral investigational agent to letrozole (Femara) for the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive metastatic breast cancer more than tripled the time spent in remission compared with endocrine therapy alone, according to a study reported at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Vancouver, BC—In the aftermath of the Z0011 study from the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, oncology centers across the United States are reexamining their approach to axillary management in breast cancer.

Vienna, Austria—Despite a robust response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which renders many early breast cancer tumors resectable, breast-conserving surgery is often overlooked in favor of mastectomy, according to an analysis of the Neo-ALLTO clinical trial, which was presented at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.