OncoBreak: 'Just Not Ready' for Hospice; Old Drugs, New Diseases

— News, features, and commentary about cancer-related issues

MedicalToday

An oncologist talks about the challenges of broaching the issue of hospice care with terminally ill patients who are (ASCO Connection)

A recently reported negative study and attention-grabbing positive studies by competitors have dispensing dire predictions about nivolumab's (Opdivo) prospects as a blockbuster, at least in lung cancer. (Seeking Alpha, limited access)

Speaking of nivolumab, its manufacturer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, with the methods the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review used in a for non-small cell lung cancer, suggesting the methods shortchanged the PD-1/PD-L1 drug class.

The FDA granted accelerated approval to the (Lartruvo) for use with chemotherapy in a subgroup of patients with soft-tissue sarcoma.

A study of a genomic assay produced the first molecular signature to after treatment with radiation therapy. (The Lancet Oncology)

Meanwhile, the continues to attract attention as a potential aid to cancer treatment, this time in a preclinical study of a leukemia precursor condition. (Blood, abstract only)

In the same issue of Blood, laboratory studies showed that -- a class that includes the psoriasis drug apremilast (Otezla) -- have anticancer activity in a variety of B-cell malignancies.

Despite decades of data and warnings, 11 of the 15 cancers that still involve tobacco and alcohol, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine)

Maintaining could play a role in maintaining the health of survivors of childhood cancers, according to a study out of Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Chemotherapy -- still the first approach for the most common type of bladder cancer -- kills most of the cancer cells, say researchers from Weill Cornell, but leaves behind some cells with altered genetics that may .

  • author['full_name']

    Charles Bankhead is senior editor for oncology and also covers urology, dermatology, and ophthalmology. He joined in 2007.