Archived Oncology News Headlines
We have been archiving all OBR daily news stories since March 2008. Use the box below to search our archives for specific articles and content.
Please note: we do not "host" news articles on our website. When a media source removes an article from their website the link becomes inactive, and you will only be able to see the date, title, first sentence and media source that published the article.
Study Shows an Investigational Urine Test Can Predict High-Risk Prostate Cancer in Men Who Choose ‘Watchful Waiting’
(FHCRC) Feb 2, 2012 - Initial results of a multicenter study coordinated by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center indicates that two investigational urine-based biomarkers are associated with prostate cancers that are likely to be aggressive and potentially life-threatening among men who take a “watchful waiting,” or active surveillance approach to manage their disease.
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Planned Parenthood Says Komen Decision Causes Donation Spike
(Washington Post) Feb 1, 2012 - Donors reacting to the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood contributed $650,000 in 24 hours, nearly enough to replace last year’s Komen funding, Planned Parenthood executives said Wednesday.
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AB Soars 72% as Cancer Drug Beats Pfizer’s Sutent: Paris Mover
(Bloomberg) Feb 2, 2012 - AB Science SA soared 72 percent after a clinical trial showed the company’s experimental cancer drug masitinib worked better than a Pfizer Inc. medicine on gastrointestinal tumors.
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J&J’s Zytiga For Prostate Cancer Too Expensive, U.K. Cost Agency Says
(Bloomberg) Feb 1, 2012 – A Johnson & Johnson prostate-cancer medicine discovered in England and developed with funds from U.K. charities is too expensive for the country’s National Health Service.
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Breast Cancer Surgery Rules Are Called Unclear
(New York Times) Jan 31, 2012 - Nearly half of women who had lumpectomies for breast cancer had second operations they may not have needed because surgeons have been unable to agree on guidelines for the most common operation for breast cancer, a new study finds. It also hints that some women who might benefit from further surgery may be missing out on it.
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FDA Approves Gleevec for Expanded Use in Patients with Rare Gastrointestinal Cancer
(FDA) Jan 31, 2012 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today granted Gleevec (imatinib) regular approval for use in adult patients following surgical removal of CD117-positive gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Today’s action also highlights an increase in overall patient survival when the drug is taken for 36 months rather than the standard 12 months of treatment.
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Gaining on Prostate Cancer
(Wall Street Journal) Feb 1, 2012 - Drug companies have scored a string of recent successes against advanced prostate cancer, ending a long drought during which there seemed to be few weapons to combat the disease.
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Four-Week Vaccination Regimen Knocks Out Early Breast Cancer Tumors, Penn Researchers Report
(Abramson Cancer Center) Jan 30, 2012 - Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania report that a short course of vaccination with an anti-HER2 dendritic cell vaccine made partly from the patient’s own cells triggers a complete tumor eradication in nearly 20 percent of women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), an early breast cancer.
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Pricey Surgery Robots Lack Clear Benefits: Study
(Reuters) Jan 30, 2012 - As robots march into operating rooms across the nation, some doctors are getting worried that patients might not be better off with the costly machines.
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F.D.A. Approves Drug for an Advanced Skin Cancer
(NYT/Prescriptions blog) Jan 30, 2012 - The first drug for an advanced form of the most common type of skin cancer won approval from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday.
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US FDA Approves Roche and Curis Skin Cancer Drug
(Fox Business/Dow Jones Newswires) Jan 30, 2012 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a drug developed by Roche Holding AG and Curis Inc. to treat advanced cases of basal cell skin cancer, the most common type of skin cancer.
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Cell Therapeutics Pulls Cancer Drug After CEO Boasted About Approval Chances
(The Street) Jan 30, 2012 - Cell Therapeutics withdrew its U.S. approval application for the experimental lymphoma pixantrone due to unresolved and undisclosed "communications" with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the company said.
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New Avastin Tests Add to Confusion Over Use in Breast Cancer
(Los Angeles Times) Jan 30, 2012 - Now, confusingly, Avastin is back in the news again — this time, with positive results in two early trials of women with early-stage breast cancer whose tumors have not traveled beyond the breast or nearby lymph nodes.
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Ziopharm to Continue Cancer Drug Trial
(Reuters) Jan 30, 2012 - Ziopharm Oncology Inc. said an independent data monitoring committee has recommended continuation of a late-stage study of its drug to treat patients with a type of soft-tissue cancer.
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FDA Approves Inlyta to Treat Patients With a Type of Advanced Kidney Cancer
(FDA) Jan 27, 2012 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Inlyta (axitinib) to treat patients with advanced kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) who have not responded to another drug for this type of cancer.
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Cancer Screenings Remain Low for Minorities and the Uninsured, CDC Report Says
(Forbes) Jan 26, 2012 - A first-of-its kind federal study that looked at cancer screening rates in the U.S. has found that the percentage of Americans tested for three major types of cancer is inadequate. Asians, Hispanics, and the uninsured had particularly lower chances of being screened, the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute said.
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Infinity Stops Cancer Drug Trial, Shares Dive
(Reuters) Jan 27, 2012 - Infinity Pharmaceuticals pulled the plug on a mid-stage trial of its experimental pancreatic cancer drug as it failed to show benefit over a placebo, wiping off over 41 percent of its market value.
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Gene Test May Aid Early-Stage Lung Cancer Patients
(San Francisco Chronicle) Jan 27, 2012 - In a finding that could improve the survival odds for early-stage lung cancer patients, UCSF researchers determined a new molecular test can predict more accurately than current diagnostic methods which tumors are more likely to be aggressive and turn deadly.
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2 Biotech Firms Bolster Their Drug Pipelines Through Deals
(NYT/Dealbook) Jan 26, 2012 - Two big biotechnology companies announced on Thursday that they would buy smaller companies that are harnessing novel technologies to develop drug treatments for leukemias and lymphomas.
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NICE Final "No" For Avastin, Erbitux and Vectibix
(Pharma Times) Jan 26, 2012 - The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued final guidance not recommending the use of Roche's Avastin (bevacizumab), Merck Serono's Erbitux (cetuximab) or Amgen's Vectibix (panitumumab) for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer that has progressed after first-line chemotherapy.
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Roche: Avastin-Based Regime Helps Colorectal Cancer Patients
(Fox Business/Dow Jones Newswires) Jan 26, 2012 - Roche Holding AG Thursday said a phase III study in metastatic colorectal cancer met its primary endpoint of overall survival, and patients who received Avastin plus standard chemotherapy as initial treatment cancer and then continued on Avastin with a different chemotherapy after their cancer progressed lived significantly longer than those who received only chemotherapy in the second-line setting.
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Avastin Before Breast Cancer Surgery Could Help Save Lives
(ABC News) Jan 25, 2012 - Taking Avastin before breast cancer surgery could significantly shrink tumors and reduce the chance of recurrence in women with less common but more aggressive forms of breast cancer, according to two new studies.
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ASCO Calls on Congress to Take Action on Medicare Reimbursement
(ASCO in Action) Jan 24, 2012 - ASCO, along with nearly 70 medical societies, is urging Congress to permanently stop a reckless cycle of scheduled cuts and short-term patches to Medicare by eliminating the broken Sustainable Growth Rate formula.
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Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutations Survive Ovarian Cancer at Higher Rates than Those Without Mutations
(NCI) Jan 24, 2012 - Results from a National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored multicenter study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on January 25, 2012, provides strong evidence that BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation carriers with ovarian cancer were more likely to survive in the five years following diagnosis than were women with ovarian cancer who do not have mutations in these genes.
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New Cancer Drugs: Affordable by the 1 Percent?
(The Fiscal Times) Jan 23, 2012 - Julie Grabow, an oncologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, recently prescribed an exciting new therapy for a 60-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer.
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