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Trastuzumab uptake in HER2-positive breast cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies
Overexpression of the HER2 gene is predictive of treatment benefit with trastuzumab therapy for breast cancer (BC) patients. The study objective was to investigate whether all eligible patients with HER2-positive BC initiated trastuzumab therapy. A systematic search was conducted through PubMed, Web of Science PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Cochrane Library. From 2651 studies identified, 107 observational studies were included for full text review, of which 26 met the inclusion criteria and an additional 7 studies were identified through citation searching. (Source: Critical...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 3, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Antony P. Martin, Jennifer Downing, Madeleine Cochrane, Brendan Collins, Ben Francis, Alan Haycox, Ana Alfirevic, Munir Pirmohamed Source Type: research

Biomarkers of response to immune checkpoint blockade in cancer treatment
Academic history of immunity in tumors dates back to 1893 when William Coley, considered the Father of Immunotherapy, reported that sarcoma or cancer patients injected with or infected by bacteria named “Coley’s toxin” showed marked tumor regression 1,2,3. No significant progress was made thereafter as the concept of immunity against cancer cells was much debated and abandoned in preference to chemotherapy and radiation 3, until the theory of cancer immunosurveillance was proposed by Lewis Th omas and Frank Macfarlane Burnet in 1957 4,5. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 3, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Takeo Fujii, Aung Naing, Christian Rolfo, Joud Hajjar Source Type: research

Evolution of Randomized Controlled Trials and Surrogacy of Progression-free Survival in Advanced/metastatic Urothelial Cancer
Clinical trials in advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer have been difficult to perform. We review the current characteristics of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and evaluate whether PFS could be a potential surrogate endpoint for overall survival (OS) in advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 2, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Fei Liang, Sheng Zhang, Qing Wang, Wenfeng Li Source Type: research

Clinical update on K-Ras targeted therapy in gastrointestinal cancers
Ras proteins are small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) with a key role in regulating cell proliferation and survival (Prior et al., 2012), while abnormal Ras function is associated with developmental disorders and cancer (Fernandez-Medarde and Santos, 2011). Mutations in RAS oncogenes are present in an estimated 20 –30% of epithelial cancers (Singh et al., 2015a), and are particularly common in lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers (McCormick, 2016). There are three highly related isoforms of the RAS gene: HRAS, NRAS and KRAS, which has two splice variants, KRAS4A and the major isoform, KRAS4B (Wellcome Sa nger Ins...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 2, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Shubham Pant, Joleen Hubbard, Erika Martinelli, Tanios Bekaii-Saab Source Type: research

Emerging immunotherapeutic strategies targeting telomerases in genitourinary tumors
In the last decade, immunotherapy has completely changed the therapeutic armamentarium of patients with genitourinary tumors. In particular, the approval of anti-Programmed-death-1 (PD-1) agents in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and bladder cancer (BC) has increased their life expectancy, with a generally tolerated toxicity profile. On the contrary, patients with prostate cancer (PCa) seem to scarcely benefit from this strategy. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 1, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Francesco Carrozza, Matteo Santoni, Francesco Piva, Liang Cheng, Antonio Lopez-Beltran, Marina Scarpelli, Rodolfo Montironi, Nicola Battelli, Stefano Tamberi Source Type: research

Angiogenic and immunological pathways in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: A counteracting paradigm or two faces of the same medal? The GIANUS Review
In the so-called “antiangiogenic era” of recent years, a number of targeted therapies have been approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Emerging information about the immunological features of mRCC and the immunomodulating properties of antiangiogenic agents, one of the standard tre atments for mRCC, indicates that a more rational design of potentially-synergistic combinations should be pursued. Indeed, immunotherapy has undergone a resurgence in clinical practice. In this narrative review, we discuss the immunological features of mRCC and the potential interactions that antian giogenic ag...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 1, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Sergio Bracarda, Camillo Porta, Roberto Sabbatini, Licia Rivoltini Source Type: research

THE USE OF SAMe IN CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED LIVER INJURY
Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) remains the most common cause of acute liver failure in the Western world. Chemotherapy is one of the major class of drugs most frequently associated with idiosyncratic DILI. For this reason, patients who receive chemotherapy require careful assessment of liver function prior to treatment to determine which drugs may not be appropriate and which drug doses should be modified. S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is an endogenous agent derived from methionine. Its supplementation is effective in the treatment of liver disease, in particular intrahepatic cholestasis (IHC). (Source: Critical Reviews in...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - August 1, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: B. Vincenzi, A. Russo, A. Terenzio, A. Galvano, D. Santini, F. Vorini, Incalzi R. Antonelli, Gentilucci U. Vespasiani, G. Tonini Source Type: research

GEORCC Recommendations on Target Volumes in radiotherapy for Head Neck Cancer of Unkown Primary
Cancer of unknown primary site (CUP) includes a group of metastatic tumors in which, after a thorough staging evaluation, the primary origin is not identified (Jesse et al., 1973). A specific category within CUP is that of metastatic cervical lymph node of unknown primary, or Head Neck Cancer of Unknown Primary (HNCUP). This group is less than 10% of head and neck cancer whereas its most frequent histological diagnosis is squamous cell carcinoma (50-70%) (Strojan et al., 2013). After treatment a small percentage of patients will develop a subsequent mucosal primary (SMP) (Nieder et al., 2001) tumor. (Source: Critical Revie...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 24, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Joaqu ín Cabrera Rodríguez, Jon Cacicedo, Jordi Giralt, Enrique García Miragall, Marta Lloret, Fernando Arias, María Angeles González Ruiz, Jorge Contreras Source Type: research

Role of Vena Cava Filters for the Management of Cancer-related Venous Thromboembolism: Systematic review and Meta-analysis
Results from cohort studies evaluating the benefit in prevention of recurrent Venous Thromboembolism in cancer population are heterogeneous and controversial. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 19, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Cristhiam M. Rojas-Hernandez, James A. Zapata-Copete, Herney Andr és García-Perdomo Source Type: research

Immune-checkpoint inhibitors in previously treated patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Urothelial cancer of the bladder, renal pelvis, ureter and other urinary organs is the ninth most common malignancy worldwide. Advanced stages of the disease including locally advanced or metastatic tumours still remain associated to poor prognosis with an estimate 5-years survival of only 5 –30% making management of this tumour a priority and an open challenge for clinicians and researchers (Torre et al., 2015; Siegel et al., 2018). (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 19, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Vincenzo Di Nunno, Emmanuele De Luca, Consuelo Buttigliero, Marcello Tucci, Francesca Vignani, Lidia Gatto, Clizia Zichi, Andrea Ardizzoni, Massimo Di Maio, Francesco Massari Source Type: research

Early mortality in myeloma patients treated with first-generation novel agents thalidomide, lenalidomide, bortezomib at diagnosis: a pooled analysis
Early toxic death ( ≤60 days of diagnosis) in elderly multiple myeloma (MM) patients is attributable to active disease, age and co-morbidities. Rate of early toxic deaths is 10% with conventional chemotherapy mainly due to infection and renal failure. Novel agents have improved MM outcome at the expense of newer toxi city. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 18, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Sara Bringhen, Massimo Offidani, Salvatore Palmieri, Francesco Pisani, Rita Rizzi, Stefano Spada, Andrea Evangelista, Nicola Di Renzo, Pellegrino Musto, Magda Marcatti, Roberto Vallone, Sergio Storti, Annalisa Bernardini, Riccardo Centurioni, Enrico Aitin Source Type: research

Concern over cost of and access to cancer treatments: A meta-narrative review of nivolumab and pembrolizumab studies
The incidence of cancer is growing all over the world (Ferlay et al., 2015). However, total mortality has been reduced in the last two decades because of a lot of strategies such as smoke fighting, vaccination campaigns, improvement in surgical and radiotherapy approaches (Gyawali et al., 2018), as well as early diagnosis of cancer and the introduction of new therapies (Zhang et al., 2016). There are currently over 700 different types of pharmacological treatments for cancer in the pipeline of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Yu, 2016), and current knowledge of the biology of cancer means more promising therapeutic ...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 16, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: C ássia Rita Pereira da Veiga, Claudimar Pereira da Veiga, Ana Paula Drummond-Lage Source Type: research

Immuno-oncology in GI tumours: Clinical evidence and emerging trials of PD-1/PD-L1 antagonists
The use of Immune checkpoint inhibitors constitutes an emerging therapeutic field for the therapy of gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies following the recent FDA approvals of PD-1 inhibitors for esophago-gastric adenocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and for microsatellite-instable tumors, which are mainly colorectal cancers. This paper reviews the clinical evidence end of 2017 and discusses the clinical development programs of atezolizumab, avelumab, durvalumab, nivolumab and pembrolizumab in GI-tract cancers: since 2014, these antagonists of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis have gained approval for use in numerous other tumors. (Sou...
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 12, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Alexander Stein, Moehler Markus, Trojan J örg, Goekkurt Eray, Arndt Vogel Source Type: research

Pharmacokinetic variability of anticoagulants in patients with cancer-associated thrombosis: clinical consequences
The use of anticoagulants in patients with cancer is challenging as several co-morbidities modifying pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters and significant drug-drug interactions with concomitant anti-neoplastic therapies may lead to PK variability resulting in increased risk of thrombosis or bleeding.Data on the management of patients with cancer-associated thrombosis (CAT) in real life are scarce since patients with cancer presenting with significant comorbidities tend to be excluded from large trials. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 9, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Audrey Bellesoeur, Audrey Thomas-Schoemann, Marie Allard, David Smadja, Michel Vidal, J érôme Alexandre, François Goldwasser, Benoît Blanchet Source Type: research

Addition of targeted agents to chemotherapy for persistent or recurrent ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
The majority of epithelial ovarian cancer patients who achieve a full remission following first-line chemotherapy would finally develop recurrent disease. However, the optimal management of recurrent ovarian cancer (ROC) remains undefined. The preset meta-analysis aims to evaluate the role of novel targeted agents (TAs) in the treatment of ROC in terms of response, overall survival and toxicities. (Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology)
Source: Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology - July 2, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Xiao Li, Yuchan Mao, Qiwen Wu, Yuanyuan Liu, Qianqian Wu, Binghuan Wen Source Type: research