January 2013

Leyland-Jones, MB BS, PhD, a renowned oncologist and translational scientist, has helped develop several mainstay oncologic treatments and the targeted breast cancer therapy trastuzumab.

New discoveries about tumor biology suggest to many researchers that targeted therapies, when used in appropriate early-stage patients, might significantly boost cure rates and extend lives.

While the number of known mutations and matching targeted agents is relatively limited at present, clinical trials are being designed to identify effective therapies for specific mutations more efficiently.

As therapy based on cell-signaling pathways has become a priority in cancer research, so has the concept of designing clinical trials that can better target patient populations more likely to benefit from a particular regimen.

In interviews with OncologyLive, Debu Tripathy, MD, and William Gradishar, MD, discussed their views of the most important abstracts presented during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Maurie Markman, MD, asks who should decide whether it is ethically valid to consider off-label treatment in a patient with a very serious medical illness.

Several recent clinical trials have yielded positive data that may open up new treatment options for patients with glioblastoma.

Antibody-drug conjugates are a robust area of oncology exploration, with an estimated 25 ADCs under study in clinical trials, up from six less than a decade ago.

Efforts to improve guidelines continue for HER2 testing and the evaluation of whether patients' tumors are estrogen receptor-positive and progesterone receptor-positive.