Clinical Trial Results - Cancer Currents Blog
Reports on findings from cancer clinical trials, with commentary from leading researchers on how the trial results will affect patient care.
-
Collection of Patient-Reported Outcomes Feasible in Cancer Clinical Trials
Cancer patients, even those who are undergoing difficult treatments, are willing to devote time to completing thorough assessments of the side effects they encounter in clinical trials, a new study finds.
-
Nanoparticles Create Effective CAR T Cells in Living Mice
Researchers have developed a method to genetically engineer cancer-fighting immune cells in living animals using nanoparticles that carry DNA. The new study shows that the resulting immune cells, known as CAR T cells, eliminated leukemia in mice.
-
Blinatumomab Extends Survival for Patients with Advanced ALL
Patients with previously treated acute lymphoblastic leukemia who received blinatumomab, which encourages the immune system to kill cancer cells, lived longer and experienced fewer side effects than patients given standard chemotherapy.
-
Researchers Use CRISPR Gene-Editing Tool to Help Turn Immune Cells against Tumors
Using a new tool for editing genomes, known as CRISPR, researchers have genetically engineered immune cells and improved the ability of these cells to kill cancer cells in mice.
-
Combination Therapy Improves Survival for Some Men with Recurrent Prostate Cancer
Long-term results from an NCI-sponsored clinical trial suggest that adding androgen deprivation therapy to radiation therapy can improve survival for some men with recurrent prostate cancer.
-
Three-Drug Combination Extends Survival for Patients with Multiple Myeloma
A phase III clinical trial demonstrates that adding the drug bortezomib to a commonly used two-drug regimen extends survival in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.
-
New Therapy Benefits Patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors
Results from a clinical trial suggest that 177 Lu-Dotatate may soon be a new treatment option for some patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors.
-
Less-Frequent Zoledronic Acid Treatment Effective at Preventing Bone Metastasis Complications
In a clinical trial involving patients with metastatic cancer, administration of zoledronic acid every 12 weeks was as effective at preventing skeletal-related events caused by bone metastases as administration every 4 weeks.
-
Ibrutinib Relieves Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease Symptoms
The targeted cancer therapy ibrutinib can effectively treat the symptoms of chronic graft-versus-host disease, a common and serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplants, findings from a small clinical trial show.
-
For Some Breast Cancer Survivors, Drug May Reduce Treatment-Related Joint Pain
Researchers have found that duloxetine (Cymbalta®), a drug most commonly used to treat depression, may also reduce joint pain caused by aromatase inhibitors in some women being treated for early-stage breast cancer.
-
New Targeted Therapies Show Promise for Treating Advanced GIST
Two new targeted therapies have shown promise in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) that have developed resistance to standard therapies.
-
Modified Immunotherapy Approach Shows Promise for Leukemia
Researchers have developed an immunotherapy approach that uses immune cells whose natural cancer killing abilities have been enhanced in the lab. In a small clinical trial, the treatment led to remissions in about half of patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
-
Avelumab Induces Sustained Tumor Responses in Some Patients with Rare Skin Cancer
In a phase II clinical trial, some patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma whose cancer has progressed despite treatment with chemotherapy had durable tumor responses to the immunotherapy drug avelumab.
-
Olanzapine Helps Prevent Nausea and Vomiting Caused by Chemotherapy
A drug currently used to treat several psychiatric conditions can help prevent nausea and vomiting in patients receiving chemotherapy, a large clinical trial showed.
-
Extended Adjuvant Therapy Beneficial for Some Women with Breast Cancer
Results from a recent clinical trial showed that extending adjuvant therapy with an aromatase inhibitor to 10 years after initial treatment can have important benefits for postmenopausal women with early-stage hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.
-
Early-Stage Cancer Trials Support Promise of Precision Medicine, Immunotherapy
Encouraging findings from several early-stage clinical trials featured at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting support the promise of precision medicine and immunotherapy.
-
Trials Produce Practice-Changing Results for Brain Cancer
Results from two clinical trials show that treating patients with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide in addition to radiation therapy increased overall and progression-free survival.
-
After Rising for Decades, Thyroid Cancer Incidence Stabilizes
After rising steadily since the 1990s, the incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States may be leveling off, according to an analysis of data from NCI’s SEER program.
-
Pembrolizumab Shows Promise in Patients with Rare Form of Skin Cancer
In a small clinical trial, more than half of the patients with an aggressive form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma responded to the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab.
-
Sunitinib and Sorafenib Ineffective as Adjuvant Therapies for Kidney Cancer
Results from a recent clinical trial show that post-surgical therapy with two anti-angiogenesis drugs does not improve progression-free survival for patients with kidney cancer and may cause serious side effects.