Treatment - Cancer Currents Blog
Cancer treatment related news, with context from leading experts. Includes articles on new therapies, treatment side effects, and important trends in treatment-related research.
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Can Immunotherapy Succeed in Glioblastoma?Despite continued efforts to develop new therapies for glioblastoma, none have been able to improve how long patients live appreciably. Despite some setbacks, researchers are hopeful that immunotherapy might be able to succeed where other therapies have not.
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Some Children with Wilms Tumor Can Receive Less Therapy, Study SuggestsResults from an NCI-sponsored clinical trial may point to an important change in how some children with advanced Wilms tumor, a form of kidney cancer, are treated.
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Rucaparib Approved as Maintenance Treatment for Some Recurrent Ovarian CancersFDA has expanded its approval of rucaparib (Rubraca) as a maintenance therapy for women with recurrent ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer whose tumors shrank after subsequent treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy.
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Moving Beyond BMI: Low Muscle Mass May Affect Cancer SurvivalResearchers compared the risk of death for women with breast cancer who had low skeletal muscle mass, or sarcopenia, at the time of their cancer diagnosis and women who had adequate muscle mass.
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Immunotherapy Drugs Expand Treatment Options for Advanced Lung CancerResults from a large clinical trial show combining an immune checkpoint inhibitor with chemotherapy helped some patients with advanced lung cancer live longer than chemotherapy alone. How will this change the lung cancer treatment landscape?
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Take with Food: Study Tests Lowering Dose of Prostate Cancer DrugIn a small clinical trial, researchers compared the efficacy of a much lower dose of the cancer drug abiraterone (Zytiga) taken with a low-fat breakfast with a full dose taken on an empty stomach, as directed on the drug’s label.
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Brentuximab Approved for Initial Treatment of Advanced Hodgkin LymphomaThe FDA has expanded the approved uses of brentuximab (Adcetris) in people with Hodgkin lymphoma. Under the new approval, brentuximab can be used in combination with three other chemotherapy drugs as an initial treatment in patients with advanced disease.
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Cancer Immunotherapy Drug Simultaneously Targets Two Proteins that Block Immune ResponseTwo independent groups of researchers have fused a TGF-beta receptor to a monoclonal antibody that targets a checkpoint protein. The result is a single hybrid molecule called a Y-trap that blocks two pathways used by tumors to evade the immune system.
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NCI Launches New Resource for Specimens and Data from Cancer Clinical TrialsNCI has launched Navigator, a new resource for researchers interested in using specimens and clinical data collected from large cancer clinical trials.
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Many Men with Penile Cancer Do Not Get Recommended Treatments, Study FindsAn analysis of records from a national cancer treatment database has found that many men with penile cancer that has not spread beyond nearby lymph nodes did not undergo lymph node biopsy or receive chemotherapy, as recommended by widely used professional guidelines.
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Drug May Help Prevent Resistance to Toxin-Based Leukemia TherapyA new study has identified a possible strategy for improving the efficacy of a toxin-based cancer treatment, moxetumomab pasudotox, in some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
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Targeted Therapy Larotrectinib Shows Promise in Early Trials, Regardless of Cancer TypeInitial results from a series of three small clinical trials of a targeted cancer therapy called larotrectinib suggest that it may be effective in patients—children and adults—with a wide variety of cancer types.
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Cabozantinib Approval Expands Initial Treatment Options for Advanced Kidney CancerThe Food and Drug Administration has approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx®) as an initial treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer.
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Can Oxygen “Microbubbles” Make Radiation Therapy More Effective?A new study in mice raises the possibility that using microscopic, oxygen-carrying bubbles may improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy in the treatment of breast cancer.
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Abiraterone Approved for Earlier Use in Men with Metastatic Prostate CancerThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the approval of abiraterone (Zytiga®) for men with prostate cancer. The agency approved abiraterone, in combination with the steroid prednisone, for men with metastatic prostate cancer that is responsive to hormone-blocking treatments (also known as castration-sensitive) and is at high risk of progressing.
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For Rare Melanoma, Checkpoint Inhibitors May Hold Substantial PromiseA new study suggests that patients with a rare form of melanoma, called desmoplastic melanoma, may be particularly likely to benefit from treatments known as immune checkpoint inhibitors. An NCI-sponsored clinical trial is already testing one such drug in patients with this cancer.
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New Cancer Treatment Approach Targets Circadian ClockTwo compounds that target components of the circadian clock killed several types of cancer cells in the lab and slowed the growth of brain tumors in mice without harming healthy cells, a new study showed.
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Oncolytic Virus Therapy: Using Tumor-Targeting Viruses to Treat CancerA small but growing number of patients with cancer are being treated with oncolytic viruses, which infect and kill tumor cells. But research now suggests that these treatments also work against cancer by spurring an immune response.
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Gut Bacteria Influence Effectiveness of a Type of ImmunotherapyUsing mouse models of cancer, researchers found that altering the gut microbiome could affect whether tumors responded to checkpoint inhibition.
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Study Identifies Potential Cause of Hearing Loss from CisplatinA new study has found the commonly used chemotherapy drug cisplatin is retained in the inner ear of mice and humans for long periods. The finding may explain why many patients treated with the drug develop hearing loss and could point toward potential ways to prevent it.