October 2011, Vol 2, No 6

On July 29, 2011, a 3-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated some patents held by Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation for methods of analyzing individuals’ gene sequences for the presence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, but upheld other related patents in a reversal of a lower court ruling.

The concurrent use of chemotherapy and thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) confers a greater survival benefit in patients with stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than a sequential use of these therapies, based on results from a phase 3 clinical study (Curran WJ, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2011;103: 1452-1460).

The population of cancer survivors is rapidly growing. More than 12 million Americans are alive after a cancer diagnosis: most are living at least 5 years and 16% are alive 20 years after diagnosis.

Whether women receive chemotherapy or surgery first as their initial treatment for breast cancer does not affect long-term localregional recurrence, according to a large case series from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, that was presented at the 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium.

San Francisco, CA—The debate over the clinical significance of occult micrometastases in the lymph nodes of patients with breast cancer continues.

San Francisco, CA—Accelerated partial breast irradiation using brachytherapy (APBIb) for breast cancer has been rapidly adopted in the United States, although its use varies by region, race, and ethnicity. Jona A. Hattangadi, MD, Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, reported the findings at the 2011 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, which was sponsored by 6 breast, oncology, and surgical societies.

San Francisco, CA—Several studies presented at the 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium shed light on the quality of breast cancer care received by women who are uninsured or receiving Medicaid.

San Francisco, CA—A novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, when added to the aromatase inhibitor exemestane (Aromasin), appears to restore sensitivity to the endocrine agent by significantly delaying recurrences and creating an increased survival trend.

New discoveries in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer abound, but what is just “noise”? What is in oncology that is interesting, intriguing, inspiring, yet still just “noise,” because the path to action “here and now” is missing, or not obvious?

The BCR-ABL inhibitor nilotinib (Tasigna) was developed as a selective treatment for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) who are not responding appropriately to imatinib (Gleevec) therapy.