Anita T. Shaffer

Patients with small brain metastases from other tumor types should not routinely receive adjuvant whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), according to a study that showed the treatment dramatically increases the incidence of cognitive decline without improving survival outcomes.

Patients with melanoma who are found to have micrometastases after an initial positive sentinel node biopsy can safely forgo a complete lymph node dissection, thus avoiding the risk of debilitating adverse events from the surgery.

Patients with myelofibrosis achieved significantly better outcomes in spleen volume reduction and symptom control with the novel JAK2 inhibitor pacritinib compared with best available therapy.

Nivolumab generated antitumor responses in nearly 20% of patients with advanced HCC in a small study that suggests a promising role for the immunotherapy agent in a malignancy with dismal outcomes.

Findings from large, late-stage clinical trials in melanoma, non–small cell lung cancer, and several hematologic malignances are expected to rank among the most clinically significant research findings presented at the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Although patients with invasive lobular carcinoma are typically treated with the same therapeutic strategies as those with infiltrating ductal malignancies, ILC is emerging as a molecularly complex and distinct tumor type that suggests different approaches may be effective.

The combination of olaparib with the novel AKT-targeting agent AZD5363 generated responses in a variety of tumor types among patients with and without BRCA1/2 mutations, demonstrating that a simultaneous attack on the two pathways is a safe and potentially versatile strategy.

A two-pronged strategy combining the PARP inhibitor olaparib and the PI3K inhibitor BKM120 proved to be a safe and clinically beneficial regimen for women with triple-negative breast cancer and for patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

Clinical trial evidence indicates that some women with high-grade serous ovarian cancer who do not test positive for a BRCA mutation also may respond to olaparib.

The prospects for combining anti–PD-1 pathway agents with other checkpoint blockade inhibitors or with agents that target angiogenesis are among the most promising immunotherapy approaches under development for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Physicians should engage in careful patient selection before recommending active surveillance for prostate cancer, according to Mitchell C. Benson, MD.

A new standard that recommends ovarian function suppression (OFS) therapy as a routine adjuvant treatment option for certain premenopausal women with higher risk, hormone receptor (HR)–positive breast cancer emerged as the most far-reaching medical oncology research finding in the field for 2014, according to Debu Tripathy, MD.

A detailed tumor profile of molecular and protein alterations in a rare breast cancer subtype and a retrospective analysis about the impact of radiation after breast conserving surgery took home top honors at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference this year.

Compelling clinical trial evidence supports the use of hypofractionated radiation as the standard of care for postmenopausal women with luminal A tumors and node-negative disease.

The treatment options for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma are expanding rapidly, notably through clinical trial evidence supporting a number of three-drug combination regimens, according to Sundar Jagannath, MD.

The FDA is evaluating proposals for new indications for at least 17 oncology medicines, according to Friends of Cancer Research.

Intensifying the chemotherapy component of a standard first-line bevacizumab-containing regimen reduced the risk of death by about 20% and doubled the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Researchers will dissect topline results from the MARIANNE trial in the coming weeks in an effort to understand why T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; Kadcyla) failed to triumph as a first-line treatment in the metastatic setting for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer despite the promise of earlier findings

Two HER2-targeting regimens anchored by T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; Kadcyla) failed to outperform the standard strategy in women with previously untreated advanced HER2-positive breast cancer in the MARIANNE trial, dealing a blow to efforts to move the drug into frontline settings.

Nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) proved markedly more effective than conventional paclitaxel as part of a neoadjuvant regimen for patients with high-risk early breast cancer in a large German study presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

PARP inhibitors represent an important class of emerging therapies for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer and possibly other malignancies, but many scientific questions about the underlying molecular mechanisms that these agents target must be answered before they can be fully employed in clinical practice.

As the targeted therapy era in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) continues to unfold, two next-generation agents are generating responses with improved safety profiles as single agents and in combination regimens

At least 30 companies are seeking to develop the next generation of circulating tumor cell (CTC) technology, part of an emerging focus on analyzing the biofluids of patients with cancer as a "liquid biopsy," particularly for solid tumors.

Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, discusses the implications of responses to the CAR T-cell therapy KTE-C19, particularly among patients with chemotherapy-refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphomas.

A wearable device that uses electric fields to disrupt the activity of cancer cells has demonstrated survival benefits among patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme in real-world settings, particularly among individuals treated in earlier stages of progression

Ever since ipilimumab (Yervoy) gained FDA approval in 2011 for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, the immune checkpoint blockade strategy that the agent employs has been an intense focus of interest in research and pharmaceutical circles.

Five novel agents for the treatment of patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung will be evaluated in the recently launched Lung-MAP trial

A growing understanding of the biological pathways at work in the development of oral mucositis in patients treated with cytotoxic cancer therapies has helped spur interest in steering symptom management away from "institutional folklore" rinses and anecdotal approaches toward evidence-based strategies

Immunotherapy agents are delivering impressive results in a broad range of tumor types, reinforcing the excitement in research and investment circles for anticancer strategies that actively harness the immune system

A significant proportion of oncology patients and caregivers feel they are not getting the information they want from their cancer care team, and nearly 1 in 4 are dissatisfied with the care provided during their treatment journey