Articles

The somatostatin analog lanreotide (Somatuline) reduced the frequency of vomiting for patients with inoperable malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) in what presenter Pascale Mariani, MD, at the Institut Curie in Paris, France, called the first randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled study on palliative care in this patient population. Read More ›

Vandetanib (Zactima) received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today for adults with nonresectable or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). Vandetanib was initially approved under the FDA's orphan drug program, making it the first medical treatment for MTC.

Read More ›

Following up the combination regimen of gemcitabine (Gemzar) and FOLFOX with drugs designed to boost the immune system significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Pierpaolo Correale MD, PhD, Siena University School of Medicine, Italy, noted that the benefits observed in the experimental arm of the trial led a monitoring committee to halt the trial early. Preliminary data were reported at the 102nd annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research being held in Orlando, Florida.

Read More ›

Recruiting adults with cancer to take part in clinical trials is an ongoing challenge in the United States, but the growing number of studies for targeted therapeutics and the positive news emerging from these studies might help turn that around. Trials of targeted agents depend heavily on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic testing to assess outcomes, prompting a team of researchers to investigate how willing patients are to undergo various testing procedures in the trial setting.

Read More ›

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute report that radiation therapy for a first cancer is unlikely to lead to a second cancer diagnosis later in life. The investigative team conducted a retrospective review of data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry for nearly 650,000 adults who received a cancer diagnosis between 1973 and 2002 and survived at least 5 years. Approximately 50% of patients received radiation, and only 8% of these (n = 3266) developed a second malignancy considered attributable to the therapy (95% confidence interval [CI], 7%-9%). Read More ›

APP Pharmaceuticals has issued a voluntary recall of 5 lots of irinotecan hydrochloride injection (Camptosar) as a precautionary measure. No adverse events related to the recalled products have been reported. The lots recalled: • 870DE00301 • 870CZ00301 • 870DE00101 • 870DE00201 • 870DE00401 Read More ›

Patients with inoperable metastatic melanoma now have another treatment option as ipilimumab becomes the second immunotherapy drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of cancer. Fortunately for clinicians, ipilimumab also has a new, easier-to-pronounce name–Yervoy. Specifically, Yervoy is indicated for patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma that is newly diagnosed or continues to progress despite prior therapy. Read More ›