ASCO 2015 Highlights

>The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of dabrafenib (Tafinlar; GlaxoSmithKline) plus trametinib (Mekinist; GlaxoSmithKline) as a new combination therapy for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma that is unresectable or metastatic.

San Antonio, TX—Adjuvant bisphosphonates reduce the risk of bone metastases by approximately 33% and improve breast cancer–related survival by 17% in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer, according to a large meta-analysis reported at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). Bisphosphonates had no effect on premenopausal women in the adjuvant setting.

San Antonio, TX—Breast cancer survivors obtained significant relief from aromatase inhibitor–associated joint pain with a prescribed exercise program, the results of a randomized clinical trial showed.

San Antonio, TX—Five years of treatment with the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole (Arimidex) cut the risk of breast cancer by 50% in high-risk postmenopausal women who had not developed a first cancer.

This collaborative program is based on evidence-based decision support in cancer care, using personalized medicine and realigning payment structure with the goal of increasing patient treatment coordination, improving quality outcomes, and reducing overall costs of cancer care.

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have announces a new collaboration with Pfizer to develop immune-based approaches to new therapies for cancer. This new effort is based on M.D. Anderson’s Moon Shots Program that aims to reduce cancer deaths significantly in the future, using the 6 moon shots that target 8 types of difficult-to-treat cancer.

Responding to the relentless economic pressures on patients and oncologists and the ever-escalating costs of cancer care delivery, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in collaboration with the Value in Cancer Care Task Force, is developing a working definition of “value” in oncology, as well as identifying how to incorporate the implications of that approach into clinical decision-making in patient care.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched a clinical trial to determine whether selecting therapies based on genetic mutations can improve outcomes in patients with metastatic solid tumors.

In a new study, researchers examined the correlation between the use of statins after a prostate cancer diagnosis and the risk of cancer-related and all-cause mortality (Yu O, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32:5-11).