[News] Smoking cessation medications ineffective in US smokers
New research shows that pharmacotherapies for quitting smoking are ineffective in promoting long-term smoking cessation among US smokers. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - January 5, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Manjulika Das Tags: News Source Type: research
[Clinical Picture] A rare location of palpebral rhabdomyosarcoma
We report the case of a 2-year-old child with a tumour of the left upper eyelid, which had been growing rapidly for the past 2 weeks before he presented at the paediatric emergency department in July, 2014. On examination, the child was in good general health, afebrile, and presented with a substantial chemosis of the left eye, which was complicated with ptosis and preseptal cellulitis. On admission to the emergency department, several potential diagnoses were discussed: cellulitis, insect sting, post-traumatic haematoma, vascular tumour, and rhabdomyosarcoma (figure, A). (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Hafssa Essafi, Ibtissam Hajji, Souhaib Aboutoufail, Houda Ahammou, Leila Soltani, Abdeljalil Moutaouakil Tags: Clinical Picture Source Type: research
[Review] Systematic review of health-related quality of life and patient-reported outcome measures in gestational trophoblastic disease: a parallel synthesis approach
Gestational trophoblastic disease is a rare complication of pregnancy that can develop into cancer. Medical outcomes of gestational trophoblastic disease are well researched, but the effect of the disease on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) requires attention if care is to be improved. This systematic review was designed to establish the effect of gestational trophoblastic disease and its treatment on HRQOL and to identify the appropriateness of HRQOL measures. Quantitative studies found HRQOL in long-term survivors of gestational trophoblastic disease to be at or above population norms. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Jane Ireson, Georgina Jones, Matthew C Winter, Stephen C Radley, Barry W Hancock, John A Tidy Tags: Review Source Type: research
[Review] Leptomeningeal metastases in non-small-cell lung cancer
Leptomeningeal metastasis is a complication of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Diagnosis and monitoring of leptomeningeal metastasis are challenging, and are based on neurological, radiographic, and cerebrospinal fluid findings. Substantial progress has been made in several key aspects of management of leptomeningeal metastasis, including improved characterisation of the genetic profiles, generation of clinically relevant animal models, advances in cerebrospinal fluid liquid biopsy with improved cytology and genotyping analysis, and the development of therapeutic agents with greater CNS penetration. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Haiying Cheng, Roman Perez-Soler Tags: Review Source Type: research
[Review] Clinical trial design for local therapies for brain metastases: a guideline by the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases working group
The goals of therapeutic and biomarker development form the foundation of clinical trial design, and change considerably from early-phase to late-phase trials. From these goals, decisions on specific clinical trial design elements, such as endpoint selection and statistical approaches, are formed. Whereas early-phase trials might focus on finding a therapeutic signal to make decisions on further development, late-phase trials focus on the confirmation of therapeutic impact by considering clinically meaningful endpoints. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Brian M Alexander, Paul D Brown, Manmeet S Ahluwalia, Hidefumi Aoyama, Brigitta G Baumert, Susan M Chang, Laurie E Gaspar, Steven N Kalkanis, David R Macdonald, Minesh P Mehta, Riccardo Soffietti, John H Suh, Martin J van den Bent, Michael A Vogelbaum, Je Tags: Review Source Type: research
[Review] Clinical trial design for systemic agents in patients with brain metastases from solid tumours: a guideline by the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases working group
Patients with active CNS disease are often excluded from clinical trials, and data regarding the CNS efficacy of systemic agents are usually obtained late in the drug development process or not at all. In this guideline from the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases (RANO-BM) working group, we provide detailed recommendations on when patients with brain metastases from solid tumours should be included or excluded in clinical trials of systemic agents. We also discuss the limitations of retrospective studies in determining the CNS efficacy of systemic drugs. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: D Ross Camidge, Eudocia Q Lee, Nancy U Lin, Kim Margolin, Manmeet S Ahluwalia, Martin Bendszus, Susan M Chang, Janet Dancey, Elisabeth G E de Vries, Gordon J Harris, F Stephen Hodi, Andrew B Lassman, David R Macdonald, David M Peereboom, David Schiff, Ric Tags: Review Source Type: research
[Perspectives] A rare case of osteoblastoma from medieval Tuscany
In antiquity, tumours were less common conditions than nowadays, probably due to the shorter life expectancy of our ancestors, their different lifestyle and dietary habits, and their reduced exposure to risk factors such as environmental pollution. Additionally, it is not possible to obtain reliable cancer estimates through the analysis of ancient human remains. However, the field of paleopathology is inevitably biased because only bone lesions can be detected, limiting the evidence available to bone tumours, or metastasis to the bones originating from soft-tissue tumours. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Giulia Riccomi, Gino Fornaciari, Simona Minozzi, Giacomo Aringhieri, Valentina Giuffra Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
[Perspectives] Embracing the imperfect: new beginnings after cancer
If you had visited the Visual Arts Centre in Singapore in late May this year, you would have found yourself surrounded by a profusion of strange and beautiful spheroid objects, ranging in size from a grapefruit to a large pumpkin, but looking more like colossal pebbles washed up on a giant's cove. Made up of 174 unique sculptures, Beginnings represents the 174 lymph nodes removed from ceramicist Suan Ong's neck and chest after she was diagnosed with stage IV thyroid cancer. Using the bean-shaped lymph node as her inspiration, she spent 3 years creating the works, and through the process learned a lesson in accepting fallib...
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Catherine Lucas Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
[Perspectives] Yale Cancer Center Precision Medicine Tumor Board: two patients, one targeted therapy, different outcomes
A 71-year-old male patient was diagnosed with localised prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 10 and was initially treated with radiotherapy and leuprolide. 2 years later, he developed oligometastatic recurrence in the scapula, which was irradiated, and he continued on leuprolide therapy. After another 3 years, he developed recurrence with widespread adenopathy, for which he received multiple lines of therapy including docetaxel, sipleucel-T, enzalutamide, and abiraterone over 5 years. He was then referred to the Yale Cancer Center and enrolled in two successive clinical trials, with disease progression. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Michael Cecchini, Zenta Walther, Jeffrey L Sklar, Ranjit S Bindra, Daniel P Petrylak, Joseph P Eder, Sarah B Goldberg Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
[Corrections] Correction to Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1565 –66
Cohen PA. Questioning the value of margin status in treated cervical precancer. Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1565 –66—In this Comment, the opening phrase should have read “Cervical carcinoma is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide”. This correction has been made to the online version as of Dec 29, 2017. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Corrections Source Type: research
[Corrections] Correction to Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1493 –501
Tawbi HA, Burgess M, Bolejack V, et al. Pembrolizumab in advanced soft-tissue sarcoma and bone sarcoma (SARC028): a multicentre, two-cohort, single-arm, open-label, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol 2017; 18: 1493 –501—The appendix of this Article has been updated. This correction has been made to the online version as of Dec 29, 2017. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Corrections Source Type: research
[Correspondence] PD-1 inhibition in sarcoma still needs investigation – Authors’ reply
We appreciate the opportunity to respond to Maud Toulmonde and Antoine Italiano's letter. SARC028 was a phase 2 study evaluating the safety and activity of PD-1 inhibition in advanced bone and soft tissue sarcomas and emphasised collection of biospecimens to explore immune-related biomarkers.1 We used objective response as our primary endpoint because this was a signal-finding study. We limited the soft tissue sarcoma cohort to ten patients in each of four common soft tissue sarcoma subtypes to obtain pilot data. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Hussein A Tawbi, Vanessa Bolejack, Melissa Burgess, Scott Schuetze Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research
[Correspondence] PD-1 inhibition in sarcoma still needs investigation
In their Article, Hussein Tawbi and colleagues1 suggest that pembrolizumab might have clinical activity in patients with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma or dedifferentiated liposarcoma. However, the SARC028 trial was not designed to specifically assess the activity of pembrolizumab in undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma or dedifferentiated liposarcoma, and this study was negative for its primary endpoint. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Maud Toulmonde, Antoine Italiano Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research
[Correspondence] Dacomitinib in NSCLC: a positive trial with little clinical impact – Authors' reply
Alfredo Addeo has noted two issues in our trial1 of dacomitinib versus gefitinib in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC): the fact that we did not discuss central nervous system (CNS) penetration by dacomitinib and the similar progression-free survival in the Asian and non-Asian intention-to-treat (ITT) subpopulations. (Source: The Lancet Oncology)
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Yi-Long Wu, Tony S Mok Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research
[Correspondence] Dacomitinib in NSCLC: a positive trial with little clinical impact
I have read with great interest the report of the ARCHER 1050 trial by Li-Yong Wu and colleagues.1 The findings showed the superiority of dacomitinib over gefitinib in terms of progression-free survival in patients with stage IIIB/IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with the common EGFR mutation. The results were initially presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting and, at that time, it was the first time that a second-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) showed a clear and clinically significant improvement in terms of progression-free survival (14 ·7 months [95% CI 11·1–16·6] with dacomitinib vs 9·2 mon...
Source: The Lancet Oncology - December 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Alfredo Addeo Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research
