Vol. 17/No. 4

Although metastatic breast cancer remains incurable for most women, recent research offers important new guidance for clinicians managing patients across the spectrum of advanced disease.

Experts in the field assert that the path forward requires a paradigm shift toward integrative analyses that encompass multiple classes of genomic aberrations and consensus classification of CRC based on genomic data to facilitate more effective management of this disease.

Separating hype from hope has often been problematic when developments that may lead to advances in the oncology field enter the public domain. The mapping of the human genome and the ability to characterize mutations associated with cancer have spawned one of those waves of excess promises.

Epigenetic therapy has emerged as a novel approach, not necessarily by killing cancer cells, but perhaps by altering the network of chemical changes that affect the DNA/chromatin within cancer cells.

We now have a better understanding of the sequence of events, particularly regarding the timing of these mutations, their impact, and some of the factors involved that might cause them.

Changes are brewing again in the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry including developments with the potential to affect the public in the oncology field.

Although the goals of quality-care and value-based oncology initiatives are legitimate and laudable, some of the assertions should be examined more closely.

The role of immunotherapy is emerging as an effective, and in some cases, dramatic treatment in the non-small cell lung cancer landscape.

Manish A. Shah, MD, discusses the BRIGHTER trial, which is investigated BBI608 as a second-line treatment for patients with gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer who already have undergone platinum and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy.