New results from two clinical trials suggest that either of two types of radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery for women with early-stage breast cancer can reduce the risk of the cancer returning. In the randomized clinical trials, both whole-breast irradiation (WBI) and accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) were associated with low rates of the cancer recurring in the breast where the disease originally developed. The median follow-up ranged from …

Two recent NCI-funded studies may explain why the combination of two cancer therapies is effective against acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The drugs work together to target cancer stem cells, a subset of cells that are thought to give rise to all other cancer cells. Specifically, the studies showed, the drugs venetoclax (Venclexta) and azacitidine (Vidaza)team up to block the unique metabolism of leukemia stem cells. Cancer …

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved lenvatinib (Lenvima) to treat some patients with the most common type of thyroid cancer, differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). The approval is for patients with DTC whose disease has progressed following radioactive iodine therapy (radioactive iodine-refractory disease). Although the incidence of thyroid cancer has increased slowly over the past two decades, mortality rates have been relatively …

After rising steadily for decades, the incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States may have stabilized, according to a new study. Although still increasing, the number off new cases has risen at a much slower rate in recent years than in the past. The incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States began to rise during the early 1990s, with …

Patients who choose not to pursue immediate biopsy or treatment for small, asymptomatic thyroid cancers, or suspected cancers, may face unsupportive responses from doctors, friends, family, and others, a new study shows. Such responses may contribute to patients’ anxiety about cancer progression, feelings of isolation, and—for some—even a decision to stop monitoring their cancers, the study authors found. In recent years, …

In a small clinical trial of people with an inherited condition that greatly increases the risk of developing gastrointestinal cancers, a two-drug combination has been shown to shrink duodenal polyps, precursor lesions for cancer, raising the possibility that the regimen could lower the risk of duodenal cancer. In the randomized trial, patients with the condition, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), who took erlotinib (Tarceva®) and sulindac (Aflodac®) …

On February 14, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved apalutamide (Erleada) for men with prostate cancer that has not spread (nonmetastatic) and is resistant to standard hormone therapy, also called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Treatment with apalutamide decreased the risk of metastasis or death by more than 70% compared with placebo, the trial that led to the approval showed. “These are very dramatic results and, in many …

Findings from a new clinical trial suggest that a much smaller dose of the cancer drug abiraterone (Zytiga) taken with a low-fat breakfast may be as effective as the full dose taken on an empty stomach, as directed on the drug’s label. It’s unclear from the study whether, over the long term, patients taking the lower dose will do as well as …

Nearly one-fifth of men with metastatic prostate cancer whose tumors were resistant to hormone therapy subsequently developed an aggressive prostate cancer subtype, a new study has shown. Men with this subtype, called treatment-emergent small-cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer (t-SCNC), appear to have shorter survival than men with other subtypes. The researchers also found genetic differences between t-SCNC and the adenocarcinoma subtype, which accounts for most prostate cancers at …

The addition of daratumumab (Darzalex®) to lenalidomide (Revlimid®) and dexamethasone increased progression-free survival among patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, compared with lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone, according to the results of a phase III clinical trial. Meletios A. Dimopoulos, M.D., of the University of Athens, and his colleagues reported their findings from the POLLUX trial at the 21st Congress of the European Hematology Association in June. The results appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine on …