In the Literature

Cervical cancer remains an important public health issue. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued an update to its 2003 cervical cancer screening recommendations based on current evidence (Moyer VA, on behalf of the USPSTF. Ann Intern Med. 2012;156:880-891).
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Results from two phase 1 clinical trials—one evaluating an anti–PD-1 antibody (Topalian SL, et al. N Engl J Med. 2012; 366:2443-2454) and the second evaluating an anti–PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) antibody (Brahmer JR, et al. N Engl J Med. 2012;366:2455-2465)—suggest that targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway may be beneficial in treating certain types of solid tumors, including advanced melanoma, non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and renal-cell cancer.
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New data suggest that regorafenib, a unique inhibitor of several kinase-associated cancers, has a wide-range activity in this patient population (George S, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30:2401-2407).
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Newly reported results of a phase 2 clinical trial have shown that treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate brentuximab vedotin achieves high response rates in patients with relapsed or refractory HL whose disease has progressed even after receiving autologous stem-cell transplant (auto-SCT) salvage therapy (Younes A, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30:2183-2189).
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A combination of ipilimumab and the granulocyte-macrophage colonystimulating factor-transduced allogeneic prostate cancer cells vaccine (GVAX) was feasible and tolerable in an openlabel phase 1 study in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (van den Eertwegh AJM, et al. Lancet Oncol. 2012;13:509-517).
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When oral navitoclax (ABT-263) was evaluated in an open-label, phase 2 study in adult patients with recurrent and progressive small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) who had received at least 1 prior therapy, this Bcl-2 inhibitor showed only limited activity (Rudin CM, et al. Clin Cancer Res. 2012;18;1-7).
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Ipilimumab—added in a phased regimen to paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy—increased progressionfree survival (PFS) and immune-related PFS in a randomized, double-blind, international, phase 2 study of previously untreated adult patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
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In a single-arm, phase 2 study, inotuzumab ozogamicin, a CD22 monoclonal antibody conjugate, showed potential utility as a monotherapy that may improve the often poor prognosis for patients with refractory or relapsed acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL; Kantarjian H, et al. Lancet Oncol. 2012;13:403-411).
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Current reimbursement policies for cancer chemotherapies do not ensure that the value and cost of therapies are commensurate with outcomes.
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Assessments of the value of cancer therapies have been based on the assumption that stakeholders care most about average or median gain in survival or quality-adjusted survival.
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