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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Ivosidenib with Chemotherapy New Option for Some People with AML
For some people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that has a mutation in the IDH1 gene, combining ivosidenib (Tibsovo) with the chemotherapy drug azacitidine may be a new treatment option, according to results from a large clinical trial.
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Opdualag Becomes First FDA-Approved Immunotherapy to Target LAG-3
The immunotherapy treatment, which combines the LAG-3 inhibitor relatlimab and PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab, becomes the first new immune checkpoint inhibitor approved in 8 years. Both drugs are given to patients via a single infusion to treat advanced melanoma.
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Carvykti Approval Marks Second CAR T-Cell Therapy for Multiple Myeloma
People with advanced multiple myeloma now have another option for CAR T-cell therapy with the recent approval of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti). Like the first approved CAR T-cell therapy, Carvykti targets the BCMA protein on myeloma cells.
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Darolutamide Extends Survival for Some People with Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Adding darolutamide (Nubeqa) to ADT and docetaxel (Taxotere) can improve how long men with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer live without causing more side effects, results from the ARASENS trial show.
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Can Artificial Intelligence Help See Cancer in New, and Better, Ways?
Researchers have been developing artificial intelligence (AI) tools that could make cancer imaging faster, more accurate, and more informative. But there are also questions about whether these tools are ready for doctors’ offices, whether they will actually help people, and whether that benefit will reach all—or only some—patients.
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Severe Side Effects of Cancer Treatment Are More Common in Women than Men
Women are more likely than men to experience severe side effects from cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, a new study finds. Researchers hope the findings will increase awareness of the problem and help guide patient care.
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Trametinib Is a New Treatment Option for Rare Form of Ovarian Cancer
New results from a large study show that trametinib (Mekinist) is an effective treatment for low-grade serous ovarian cancer. The findings are the first strong evidence that this rare type of ovarian cancer should be treated differently from other forms of the disease.
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Telehealth-Based Cancer Care Surged during COVID. Will It Continue?
Experts say studies are needed on how to best transition telehealth from a temporary solution during the pandemic to a permanent part of cancer care that’s accessible to all who need it.
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Experimental Medulloblastoma Treatment Gets a Boost with Nanoparticles
A nanoparticle coating may help cancer drugs reach medulloblastoma tumors in the brain and make the treatment less toxic. Mice treated with nanoparticles containing palbociclib (Ibrance) and sapanisertib lived substantially longer than those treated with either drug alone.
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Can Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease Be Prevented?
Removing immune cells called naive T cells from donated stem cells before they are transplanted may prevent chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in people with leukemia, a new study reports. The procedure did not appear to increase the likelihood of patients’ cancer returning.
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Durvalumab Modestly Improves Survival in Advanced Biliary Tract Cancer
Adding durvalumab (Imfinzi) to standard chemotherapy modestly extended how long people with advanced biliary tract cancer lived, results from the TOPAZ-1 trial show. The immunotherapy drug may now be the standard first-line therapy for this hard-to-treat cancer.
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Cancer Immunotherapies Don’t Work for Everyone: HLA Gene May Explain Why
A specific form of the HLA gene, HLA-A*03, may make immune checkpoint inhibitors less effective for some people with cancer, according to an NCI-led study. If additional studies confirm the finding, it could help guide the use of these commonly used drugs.
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Can mRNA Vaccines Help Treat Cancer?
The success of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 could help accelerate research on using mRNA vaccine technology to treat cancer, including the development of personalized cancer vaccines.
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Should CAR T Cells Be Used Earlier in People with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
Results from three clinical trials have found that CAR T cells may be superior to standard treatments for patients with B-cell NHL that has not responded to treatment (refractory) or has returned after treatment (relapsed).
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When Ovarian Cancer Returns, Surgery May Be a Good Choice for Selected Patients
For patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who meet strict criteria, additional surgery may improve survival, results from a large clinical trial show.
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Immunotherapy Combination Most Effective as Initial Treatment for BRAF+ Melanoma
Clinical trial finds that ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) combo is superior to a combination of the targeted therapies dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) as the first treatment for metastatic BRAF-positive melanoma.
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Shorter, More Intensive Radiation Safe after Surgery for Prostate Cancer
Many with prostate cancer can safely receive shorter, higher-dose radiation therapy after surgery, a new study has found. The approach, called HYPORT, didn’t harm patients’ quality of life compared with the standard radiation approach, trial finds.
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Tecartus Becomes First CAR T-Cell Therapy Approved for Adults with ALL
The CAR T-cell therapy Tecartus has become the first such treatment approved by FDA to treat adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The approval is for patients whose cancer has not responded to treatment or returned after treatment.
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Enhertu May Be Preferred Therapy for Some Metastatic Breast Cancers
In people with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, the targeted drug trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) markedly lengthened progression-free survival compared with trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcycla), new study results show.
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Pembrolizumab May Help Prevent Early-Stage Melanoma from Returning
Trial results show patients who received the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) after surgery to remove high-risk stage II melanomas were less likely to have the cancer come back than those who received no treatment after surgery.