July 2014

Settlemen addressed broad questions about his research into acquired resistance mechanisms in an interview with OncologyLive.

Hailed as "new ammunition in the war against cancer" and featured in TIME magazine at the turn of the new millennium, molecularly targeted therapies have gone on to revolutionize cancer treatment. Clinical responses, however, are all too often short-lived as cancer cells become resistant.

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, we offer a variety of clinical trials for patients with mesothelioma at all stages of their disease.

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.

There is a tension in the air these days when it comes to the manner in which evidence-based oncology research should be conducted in this revolutionary era, and that tension is evident on the pages of peer-reviewed articles describing novel findings in clinical molecular oncology, in editorials discussing these studies, and in commentaries related to future approaches to discovery.

For many years, we in the medical and research communities have tried to use proteins and DNA fragments as disease markers to find cancer early.

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

One-third (30%) of chemotherapy-naïve non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint antibody, responded to treatment in a phase I study.

In the first pivotal phase III study of a Janus-associated kinase (JAK) inhibitor for the treatment of polycythemia vera (PV), ruxolitinib (Jakafi) was superior to best available therapy (BAT) in maintaining control of hematocrit without the need for phlebotomy and in reducing spleen size in patients with an inadequate response to or intolerance of hydroxyurea.

Although malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) remains a rare disease, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has considerable experience with this malignancy, and our specialists are at the forefront of translating new approaches for the treatment of patients with mesothelioma into the clinic.

The 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting provided ample evidence not only of the immunotherapy field's vitality but also of its breadth.

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

The antibody-drug conjugate T-DM1 (ado-trastuzumab emtansine; Kadcyla) will have an impact on the entire spectrum of care for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, resulting in a greater emphasis on patient selection protocols and testing.