Articles

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 ›