Solid Tumors

Men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer can safely undergo radiation administered in larger fractions for 4 weeks (moderate hypofractionation) as an alternative to conventional radiation administered for 8 weeks, according to the results of a randomized, controlled, noninferiority clinical trial presented at ASCO 2016.

The first randomized trial to compare robotic-assisted prostatectomy with conventional open radical prostatectomy found no meaningful differences between these techniques in urinary and sexual function or in the rate of positive surgical margins in men with localized prostate cancer in the first 12 weeks after surgery (Yaxley JW, et al. Lancet. 2016 Jul 26. Epub ahead of print).

Extending aromatase inhibitor therapy with letrozole for an additional 5 years beyond standard treatment with letrozole improved disease-free survival (DFS) and reduced the rate of new contralateral breast cancer in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer.

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) shows promise as primary therapy in patients with cisplatin-ineligible, locally advanced metastatic urothelial (bladder) cancer, according to data from the IMvigor210 study presented at ASCO 2016.

The multitarget stool DNA test, a noninvasive screening tool for colorectal cancer (CRC), demonstrated potential for identifying cancer and advanced adenomas in community-based individuals who had previously not followed national screening recommendations, reported Mark Prince, MD, MBA, Director of Gastroenterology, USMD Health System, Arlington, TX, at the 2016 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

A new article by a New York surgical team confirms that there is a survival benefit from an emerging therapy for difficult-to-treat soft-tissue tumors, but that it is not without a steep price for some patients.

More than 33% of patients with heavily pretreated advanced melanoma are still alive at 5 years after starting nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy, reported F. Stephen Hodi, Jr, MD, Director of the Melanoma Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, at the 2016 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting.

“Intralesional therapy is here to stay,” said Sanjiv S. Agarwala, MD, Section Chief, Hematology/­Oncology, St Luke’s University Health Network, Easton, PA, who moderated a debate on this topic at the recent HemOnc Today Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies meeting.