Latest Conference Articles

In a multisite study offering the largest experience to date of how immunotherapy can be deployed in patients with head and neck cancer, the anti-PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab produced broad and durable responses in patients with advanced disease.

Treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab demonstrated high response rates in patients with heavily pretreated colorectal cancer who harbored genetic defects in mismatch repair.

Howard Burris, III, MD, chief medical officer and executive director of Drug Development at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute discusses the importance of the ASCO annual meeting, taking place May 29 - June 2.

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.

Prior treatment with abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide did not alter the survival benefit seen with radium-223 in men with advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Neal D. Shore, MD, FACS, medical director, Carolina Urologic Research Center, managing partner, Atlantic Urology Clinics, discusses the results of the TERRAIN trial.

Prostate cancer patients with different baseline cardiovascular risk had similar reductions in cardiovascular event rates when treated with the LHRH antagonist degarelix versus an LHRH agonist.

Matthew Cooperberg, MD, genitourinary cancer specialist, University of California San Francisco, discusses the efficacy of using an antagonist with hormone therapy in prostate cancer.

A fourth of patients with advanced urothelial cancer had objective responses to treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab.

The combination of multiparametric MRI with a fusion-guided biopsy (MRI plus ultrasound) was more effective at detecting aggressive prostate cancer compared with either procedure alone.

A cell-surface proteoglycan found on prostate cancer cells but not normal prostate tissue demonstrated good specificity as a blood test for prostate cancer.

Sexual function scores were better for patients who had a robotic compared with open surgery for prostate cancer; however, comparative results for urinary function were not conclusive.

Judd W. Moul, MD, urologic oncologist, Duke Medicine, discusses a recent study that demonstrated the impact of obesity on active surveillance.

Brock O'Neil, MD, physician, instructor in urologic surgery, Vanderbilt University, discusses a study that demonstrated evidence of superior quality of life after robotic assisted radical prostatectomy.

Since the USPSTF guideline on PSA screening the overall rate of PSA testing decreased by 50% among primary care physicians at Oregon Health & Science University.

A urine assay that targets expression of exosomal messenger RNA demonstrated high negative predictive value for high-grade prostate cancer in a study that validates the emerging test as a tool to help determine whether patients need initial biopsies.

Enzalutamide significantly improved progression-free survival, PSA kinetics, and quality of life compared with bicalutamide in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Kyle A. Richards, MD, assistant professor, University of Wisconsin, discusses the association between urinary tract infections (UTI) and worse bladder cancer outcomes in the Medicare population.

Michael Brawer, MD, vice president of Medical Affairs, Myriad Genetic Laboratories, discusses the clinical utility of the cell cycle progression (CCP) test in personalizing prostate cancer treatment.

As the AS strategy gains a foothold among urologists both here in the US and around the world, a study presented at the 110th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association suggests that among men in the US, very few are following the stringent protocol for AS that is recommended by major academic institutions.

Use of multiparametric MRI as follow-up to a suggestive PSA test or digital rectal exam reduced prostate biopsies by 73% but identified fewer prostate cancers compared with upfront transrectal ultrasound–guided biopsy, a decision-tree analysis showed.

The role of androgen receptor variant-7 in patients with early stage prostate cancer is not well characterized but data presented at the 2015 American Urological Association (AUA) Meeting is bringing the discussion into focus.

Alexander Kutikov, MD, FACS, attending surgeon, urologic oncology, associate professor, urologic oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses the understanding of tumor pathology in renal cell carcinoma.

E. David Crawford, MD, professor, urology, radiation oncology, University of Colorado Denver, discusses the differences between an LHRH agonist and a GNRH antagonist.

Adding elotuzumab to lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone reduced the risk of disease progression by 30% in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

The addition of docetaxel to standard hormonal therapy significantly improved survival among men with newly diagnosed, hormone-naïve advanced prostate cancer.

For those with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer, reducing their risk of recurrence can be as simple as taking the vitamin B3 pill nicotinamide.

Treatment with an intensified chemotherapy regimen was associated with improvements in event-free survival for children with favorable histology Wilms tumor with loss of heterozygosity in chromosomes 1p and 16q.

Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD, chief, Section of Myelodysplastic Syndromes, deputy chair, Translational Research, professor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses deferasirox (Exjade) in iron chelation therapy for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

Treatment with the thrombopoietin receptor agonist eltrombopag significantly improved cytopenias and was well-tolerated in patients with low to intermediate-2 risk myelodysplastic syndromes.