Personalized Medicine

Results of a study reported at the 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium showed that at 1.5 years after the last injection of this therapy, minimal myelosuppression and minimal nonhematologic adverse events were reported, and there were no reports of cancers of concern, including acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and primary bone cancer

San Francisco, CA—Longer-term follow-up of a large randomized phase 3 trial suggests that quality of life (QOL) is improved when patients with high-risk prostate cancer have a shorter versus longer course of androgen- deprivation therapy (ADT) plus radiotherapy as primary treatment. In this follow-up study, 18 months of ADT were found to improve QOL versus 36 months of ADT when added to radiotherapy.

San Francisco, CA—Men with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) had inferior time duration to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression and of progression-free survival (PFS) if they received the androgen receptor agonist enzalutamide (Xtandi) after the taxane docetaxel (Taxotere) rather than before, according to data from a retrospective study presented at the 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Women who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation had an 80% reduction in risk for ovarian, fallopian tube, or breast cancer if they underwent preventive oophorectomy, according to a large prospective study, and a 77% reduction in all-cause mortality (Finch AP, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2014 February 24 [Epub ahead of print]).

New Orleans, LA—Those frustrated with low long-term remission rates in adult patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) can find hope in the superior outcomes associated with treatment for pediatric ALL.

The quest for personalized medicine has come full circle with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s approval of the first high-throughput genomic sequencer, MiSeqDx, but challenges remain on several fronts before the technology’s full potential can be realized, according to the nation’s top health research administrator.

San Antonio, TX—Veliparib plus carboplatin was identified as a worthy combination to move forward in trials of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC; ie, estrogen receptor–negative, progesterone receptor–negative, HER2-negative), a subtype of breast cancer with a very poor prognosis.

>San Antonio, TX—Patients with HER2-­positive breast cancer harboring a PIK3CA mutation had a significantly lower likelihood of achieving a pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant anti-HER2 therapy, the results of 2 large clinical trials presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) showed.

New Orleans, LA—Novel options for the treatment of patients with hematologic conditions are in the pharmaceutical pipeline, with many drugs showing promising results. Here is a look at key studies presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology annual meeting.

New Orleans, LA—Mounting evidence from several research centers shows that autologous T-cells genetically engineered with a chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T; also called CTL019) achieve dramatic responses in patients with advanced leukemia and lymphoma who have exhausted all treatment options.