Vol. 17/No. 5

New research is carving out a role for ipilimumab and a second CTLA-4-targeting drug, tremelimumab, as combination therapy with potential in a variety of solid tumors. In addition to combinations with other immune checkpoint inhibitors, the agents are being evaluated across a breadth of other strategies.

Among the bright spots in the treatment of patients with breast cancer are the successes achieved in the management of HER2-positive disease. And, therapeutic options are continuing to expand, owing to the advent of novel anti-HER2–targeted agents and multitargeted HER2 receptor blockade.

Despite national evidence- and consensus- based guidelines on posttreatment care, fewer than half of adolescents and young adults with Hodgkin lymphoma receive all of the recommended services within the first year after treatment.

Randomized trials comparing proton beams with standard radiation for the treatment of prostate cancer and other common tumor types are years from completion, but healthcare providers around the nation are betting billions of dollars that the greater accuracy of proton beam therapy will justify the greater costs.

The appropriateness of off-label drug use in the management of patients with cancer in the United States is one of the most contentious issues confronting individual oncologists, patients, insurers, and governmental policy makers.

Mark Socinski, MD, discusses the three generations of drugs are now available to treat patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer, and mutation testing for patients diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease has been incorporated into clinical practice guidelines.

Galeterone is being explored in the ARMOR 3-SV study, in which men with progressive metastatic disease who have received prior androgen deprivation therapy are randomized to receive either galeterone or enzalutamide.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and elsewhere are focusing on lymphocytes, the essential effector cells in the immune response to cancer.

The creation of new technology is a complicated, risky business regardless of the area of healthcare or industry. The cover story in this issue, “Proton Beam Centers Multiply Despite Economic Risks,” illustrates that the oncology field is no exception to those rules of the marketplace.

Although patients and survivors often complain of “chemobrain” during and after their cancer treatment, it turns out that there are multiple factors behind the cognitive decline many survivors experience.

Despite advances, the majority of patients receiving targeted therapies do not experience radiographic responses, and nearly all patients who initially benefit develop resistance in less than two years.

Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, who has pioneered many clinical advances in the treatment of women with breast cancer, was honored in the Breast Cancer category with a 2015 Giants of Cancer Care® award, a program that the Intellisphere® Oncology Specialty Group launched to honor leaders in the field.