Metastatic Cancer Research

Osteonecrosis of the jaw was thought to be a rare side effect of drugs like denosumab (Xgeva) that lessen bone problems when cancer has spread to the bone. But a new study has found that the painful side effect is more common than once thought.

FDA has approved the combination of the targeted drugs dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) for nearly any type of advanced solid tumor with a specific mutation in the BRAF gene. Data from the NCI-MATCH trial informed the approval.

Cancer often spreads to the lymph nodes, but it has never been clear why. A new study in mice suggests lymph node invasion helps the primary tumor spread, or metastasize, to other organs.

New treatments are helping more people with advanced or metastatic cancer live longer. At a recent NCI conference, survivors and researchers came together to discuss how to better address the needs of those living with metastatic cancer.

In an NCI study, treating mice with engineered immune cells shrank tumors and prevented the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. The immunotherapy approach shows promise as a potential treatment for metastatic cancer.

A recent study quantified the risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw for patients who take zoledronic acid to manage complications from cancer that has spread to the bone. The study also examined risk factors for osteonecrosis of the jaw in these patients.

For some patients with painful spinal metastases from advanced cancer, a type of precise, high-dose radiation therapy—called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT)—may be a highly effective way to relieve that pain, clinical trial results show.

People with oligometastatic cancer have only a few metastatic tumors. Researchers are studying whether treating these individual tumors directly with surgery or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBTR or SABR) can help patients live longer or improve their quality of life.

Melanoma cells that pass through the lymphatic system before entering the bloodstream are more resistant to cell death and spread more readily than cells that enter the bloodstream directly. The finding could lead to new treatment approaches.

In people with cancer, the abscopal effect occurs when radiation—or another type of localized therapy—shrinks a targeted tumor but also causes untreated tumors in the body to shrink. Researchers are trying to better understand this phenomenon and take advantage of it to improve cancer therapy.

Brain cells called astrocytes can activate PPAR-gamma, a growth protein in cancer cells that helps them gain a foothold in the brain, a new study shows. The findings suggest that drugs that block PPAR-gamma activity may help treat brain metastases.

FDA has approved entrectinib (Rozlytrek) for the treatment of children and adults with tumors bearing an NTRK gene fusion. The approval also covers adults with non-small cell lung cancer harboring a ROS1 gene fusion.

New findings from a clinical trial suggest that a single dose of radiation therapy may control painful bone metastases as effectively as multiple lower doses of radiation therapy.

The NCI-MATCH precision medicine clinical trial has reached a milestone with the release of results from several study treatment arms. Findings from three arms were released at the 2018 ASCO annual meeting, adding to findings from one arm released in 2017.

Researchers have struggled to develop therapies to treat tumors that have spread to other parts of the body. In a new study, researchers tested whether the experimental drug metarrestin can selectively shrink metastases in mouse models of aggressive pancreatic cancer.

NCI’s Dr. Rosandra Kaplan discusses important trends in metastatic cancer research and new ideas for treating and preventing metastatic cancer.

Researchers have used modified stem cells to deliver a cancer drug selectively to metastatic breast cancer tumors in mice. The stem cells target metastatic tumors by homing in on the stiff environment that typically surrounds them.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have reported the results of an initiative to characterize the genetic mutations in tumors from more than 10,000 patients with advanced cancer treated at the center.

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.

Cancer cells may exploit a normal function of neutrophils, the most common form of white blood cell, to help form metastatic tumors, a new study suggests.

Researchers have identified proteins that may regulate the movement of breast cancer cells into and out of bone marrow.

In some patients with cancer that has spread to the brain, whole brain radiation following radiosurgery causes more severe cognitive decline and does not improve survival compared with radiosurgery alone, a new study has found.

Cardiac tumors that originate in the heart itself are extremely rare. The highly specialized and most abundant cell in the heart may explain why the organ is such an inhospitable host to cancer.