ESMO

Vienna, Austria—In a head-to-head comparison of 2 treatments for meta­static renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC), pazopanib (Votrient) showed similar efficacy to sunitinib (Sutent), with a 1-month survival advantage for sunitinib, which was associated with fewer side effects and an increased quality of life (QOL), suggested Robert J. Motzer, MD, Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and an attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York.

A review of 34,000 patients with cancer in an insurance claims database showed that during the first 12 months after the diagnosis of cancer, the overall cost of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) was approximately $100,000 per patient, reported Duke University researchers at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology.

Vienna, Austria—Promising preliminary results for 2 novel prostate can-cer drugs—ODM-201 and OGX-427—were reported at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress. Both drugs were studied for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Vienna, Austria—The updated analyses of 2 major studies of drugs that were recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirm the benefits of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer and of regorafenib (Stivarga) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Vienna, Austria—In the first head-to-head phase 3 clinical trial, the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) proved more effective than standard chemotherapy with pemetrexed (Alimta) or docetaxel (Taxotere) as a second-line treatment for patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the ALK genetic abnormality.

Vienna, Austria—More support for the continuation of treatment with bevacizumab beyond disease progression in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer was reported at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, validating a small but growing body of pre­vious data.

A consortium of world cancer specialists, economists, and policymakers is tackling the issue of equitable cancer care in the face of rising cost of care in high-income countries.

The development of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer has a significant impact in terms of morbidity and mortality and healthcare costs, according to a “real-world analysis” reported at the 2011 European Multi - disciplinary Cancer Congress.

Stockholm, Sweden—The use of everolimus (Afinitor) together with the aromatase inhibitor exemestane (Aromasin) more than halved the risk for disease progression in patients with advanced breast cancer, adding an average of 4 disease-free months, investigators reported at the 2011 European Society for Medical Oncology European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress.