Bonnie Gillis

Two studies presented at SABCS refined knowledge about how to prevent lymphedema in patients with breast cancer.

Imatinib (Gleevec) improves the ability to proceed with allogeneic stem cell transplantation and improves 5-year overall survival (OS) when used as induction therapy in patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph ) acute lymphoblastic leukemia

A new scoring system has been developed that is designed to predict the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) in a patient with cancer.

An investigational pan-BCR-ABL inhibitor designed to inhibit the entire spectrum of mutations responsible for resistance to drugs such as imatinib (Gleevec) and its cousins nilotinib (Tasigna) and dasatinib (Sprycel) appears to fulfill its promise.

Intensified immunochemotherapy with R-ACVBP significantly improved event-free survival, progression-free survival, disease-free survival, and overall survival compared with R-CHOP in younger patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), but at the cost of increased hematologic toxicity.

Carfilzomib, described as a next-generation protease inhibitor, produced durable responses in patients with multiple myeloma whose disease relapsed after or proved refractory to all available therapies.

An investigational drug known as brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35) achieved dramatic responses in a pivotal phase II study involving younger patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.

Bosutinib (SKI-606) seems poised to join the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) imatinib (Gleevec), dasatinib (Sprycel), and nilotinib (Tasigna) as a first-line therapy option for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in the chronic phase.

An investigational drug known as brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35) achieved dramatic responses in a phase II study of younger patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) who had no other treatment options

Everolimus (Afinitor) added to tamoxifen delayed tumor progression in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, advanced metastatic breast cancer

Two trials explored the role of lapatinib (Tykerb) as neoadjuvant therapy in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer and concluded that its effectiveness is statistically no better than standard trastuzumab (Herceptin) therapy

Investigators for Study 136 say that an additional 4 months of follow-up data have confirmed earlier findings that denosumab (Xgeva) is superior to zoledronic acid (Zometa) at preventing skeletal-related events

Adjuvant treatment of stage II and III breast cancer with zoledronic acid (Zometa) failed to improve disease-free survival (DFS) in the large

Women with untreated advanced breast cancer had a trend toward greater clinical benefit with fulvestrant (Faslodex) versus anastrozole (Arimidex) as first-line hormonal therapy

Aromatase inhibitor use appears to increase the risk of cardiotoxicity in women with early-stage breast cancer, albeit slightly.