Tag Archives: european

Trastuzumab should remain as standard of care for HER2-positive breast cancer, trial suggests — ScienceDaily

This study, being presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress in Madrid, reveals that when used as a single HER2-targeted therapy in addition to standard chemotherapy, trastuzumab offers a better outcome than does lapatinib (Tykerb), says Edith A. Perez, M.D., deputy director at large, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and director of the Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Dr. Perez is co-chair of ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization study). …

Crizotinib treatment effective against ROS1-positive lung cancer, study suggests

“Prior to this study, there were a handful of reports describing marked responses to crizotinib in individual patients with ROS1-positive lung tumors,” says Alice Shaw, MD, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, lead author of the NEJM report. “This is the first definitive study to establish crizotinib’s activity in a large group of patients with ROS1-positive lung cancer and to confirm that ROS1 is a bona fide therapeutic target in those patients.” Crizotinib currently is FDA-approved to treat non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC) driven by rearrangments in the ALK gene, which make up around 4 percent of cases…

Adding cediranib to chemotherapy improves progression-free survival for metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer, phase II trial shows

In Europe, about 70% of patients with cervical cancer are cured by either surgery or chemo-radiotherapy. Those patients with recurrent or secondary cancer have a very poor outlook. Only about 20-30% have tumour shrinkage after conventional chemotherapy and survival is usually less than one year. In the phase II CIRCCa trial, researchers compared two groups of patients with relapsed or metastatic cervical cancer given conventional chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel plus either cediranib (34 patients) or an identical looking placebo tablet (35 patients). …

Pertuzumab adds 16 months survival benefit to trastuzumab and chemotherapy treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer — ScienceDaily

CLEOPATRA was a pivotal phase III study where researchers evaluated the safety and efficacy of pertuzumab, trastuzumb and chemotherapy in 808 patients with previously untreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer has historically been one of the most aggressive forms of the disease. “In CLEOPATRA we evaluated whether dual HER2 blockade by combining the antibody pertuzumab with trastuzumab and chemotherapy would help people live longer (overall survival, OS) or live longer without their disease worsening (progression-free survival, PFS),” explains lead author Dr Sandra Swain from Washington Hospital Center, Washington, USA…

More than 70% of young oncologists in Europe suffer symptoms of burnout

“Oncology is an exceptionally rewarding career, but it can be demanding and stressful at times,” said Dr Susana Banerjee, lead author of the study and a consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Trust in London, UK. “Oncologists make complex decisions about cancer management, supervise the use of toxic therapies, work long hours, and continually face patients suffering and dying,” she said…

Breath temperature test could identify lung cancer

The research, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich, suggests that testing the temperature of breath could be a simple and noninvasive method to either confirm or reject the presence of lung cancer. Many research teams have been looking at the possibility of using breath tests for a number of cancers. This is the first study looking at breath temperature as a marker in lung cancer. The researchers enrolled 82 people in the study who had been referred for a full diagnostic test after an x-ray suggested the presence of lung cancer…

Is Europe putting cancer research at risk?

The proposed wording of the regulation stipulates ‘explicit and specific patient consent’, meaning that researchers would have to approach patients every single time research is planned in order to consult their data or use tissue samples stored for research purposes. “Hope for patients facing a life-threatening disease like cancer is based on advances in research,” said Kathy Oliver, Chair of the International Brain Tumour Alliance [3]…