In the final weeks of 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced three approvals of anticancer therapeutics. These decisions brought the total number of new anticancer therapeutics approved …
Read More
January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. Given that January was named after the Roman god Janus, whose two faces allowed him to look both backward into the old year and forward into the new one, it seemed a good time to look back at the progress we made against cervical cancer in 2018 and to look for ways to build on the progress and further reduce the incidence and mortality of the disease in the future.
Read More
In addition to world-class training in patient care, physician-scientists also require experience in laboratory and clinic-based research to ensure that they stay up-to-date with the pace of medical progress. As such, many fellowship programs offer dedicated research time, often for a year or longer, to these young physician-scientists, providing them with sufficient expertise to contribute to laboratory-based research projects or clinical trials that will advance medical practice and improve patient outcomes.
Read More
In 2018, we witnessed significant momentum in several hot areas of cancer research, including immunotherapy and precision medicine. Researchers have amassed exponential amounts of knowledge in these areas of scientific inquiry in recent years, and 2018 saw many of these gains culminate into innovative treatments for cancer patients.
Read More
The staff of Cancer Research Catalyst was pleased to introduce a new feature this year: Editors’ Picks, a monthly collection of articles selected by the editors of the eight scientific journals published by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). To wrap up the year, here are the editors’ choices for December. As always, these articles are freely available for a limited time.
Read More
On September 6, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Association for Cancer Research hosted a public workshop, Non-clinical Models for Safety Assessment of Immuno-Oncology Products. Academics, industry, regulators, and biomedical research funders gathered to review the state of the science and discuss opportunities to develop better non-clinical approaches for safety assessment and dose selection for immuno-oncology products in patients, with specific focus on immune checkpoint stimulators and inhibitors (ICS/ICI).
Read More
The 41st San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 4-8, drew more than 7,500 attendees from more than 90 countries. The Symposium offered the latest clinical, translational, and basic research, providing a forum for interaction and communication among researchers, health professionals, and those with a special interest in breast cancer.
Read More
One of the most watched areas in the immuno-oncology field is the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Carl June, MD, professor in immunotherapy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is a pioneer in the CAR T field; he helped to treat the first child with CAR T-cell therapy, which was experimental at the time. Emily Whitehead, who was treated with CAR T cells in 2012 for acute lymphoblastic leukemia after she relapsed twice following treatment with chemotherapy, remains in complete remission today.
Read More
The past two weeks have seen a flurry of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals of new treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). On Nov. 21, 2018, the FDA approved both glasdegib (Daurismo) and venetoclax (Venclexta) for treating patients with newly diagnosed AML who are age 75 or older, or who have chronic health conditions or diseases that prevent them being treated with the standard intensive chemotherapy. A week later, on Nov. 28, 2018, the agency approved gilteritinib (Xospata) for treating patients whose AML tests positive for a mutation in the FLT3 gene.
Read MoreRadiotherapy is a mainstay of cancer treatment. In recent years, improved technology has allowed many cancer patients to receive more targeted doses of radiation, which can improve efficacy and spare …
Read More
Pancreatic cancer remains a challenging disease to treat, with a five-year survival rate of less than 9 percent, according to recent statistics. Unlike many other cancers, which can now be treated with checkpoint blockade immunotherapy, pancreatic cancer often does not respond to this type of treatment. One potential reason for this lack of efficacy is that pancreatic tumors tend to be nonimmunogenic, meaning that the cancer fails to elicit a strong immune response.
Read More