Dave Levitan

An intervention aimed at improving diet and exercise among elderly cancer survivors worked well and had durable effects in a new study of more than 600 people.

High levels of certain immunogenomic and inflammatory markers are associated with cancer-related fatigue in some survivors, according to a review of existing literature.

In patients with advanced NSCLC and without any mutation in the EGFR gene, docetaxel provides significantly improved progression-free survival compared to erlotinib, according to a phase III randomized trial.

Final results of the PARAMOUNT study in non-squamous non–small-cell lung cancer confirmed improved survival with continuation pemetrexed maintenance therapy.

The idea of adding the targeted EGFR inhibitor cetuximab to standard chemotherapy took a hit, as results from the SELECT phase III trial showed no improvement in efficacy when cetuximab was combined with pemetrexed in patients with recurrent or progressive non–small-cell lung cancer.

Patients with EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer had improved progression-free survival and better quality of life with new drug afatinib than with standard chemotherapy, according to results from a large phase III trial.

The use of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), for diagnosing lung cancer may have to be rethought. According to an analysis of data from a national prospective trial, FDG-PET has substantially lower sensitivity and specificity than in previously published studies.

A new analysis of four large European trials of cutaneous melanoma patients showed a substantial survival advantage for women, most likely explained by underlying biologic differences.

The addition of sorafenib to isolated limb infusion therapy with melphalan did not improve responses in a new phase I trial of patients with in-transit extremity melanoma.

Maintenance therapy with bevacizumab following combination therapy with bevacizumab, pemetrexed, and carboplatin could be an effective treatment for patients with advanced, nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a new study.

The American Lung Association recently released new guidelines for lung cancer screening, recommending low-dose computed tomography screening in high-risk smokers.

Though the calcium-dependent chloride channel DOG1 is strongly expressed in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), a new laboratory study suggests that methods targeting it for therapies in treating these cancers are still a ways off.

The presence of a mutation in the MEK1 gene in melanoma patients does not cause resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy in patients that also carry a BRAF mutation, according to a new study. Previously, experts believed that resistance to the drugs in BRAF-mutated melanoma patients could likely be blamed on the concurrent mutation in MEK1.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found an eight-fold increase in melanoma incidence among young women between 1970 and 2009 in an epidemiological study. The increase was not as striking among young men, but there was still a four-fold jump in melanoma cases over those four decades.

Body mass index appears to be inversely associated with the risk for lung cancer, even after smoking status is carefully taken into account. A new prospective study found this association was restricted to current and former smokers and was actually stronger after adjustments for smoking were made.

Scotland will soon begin a large prospective trial of early screening for lung cancer in high-risk patients using a simple blood test. The test, called EarlyCDT-Lung, has been in use and trials in the United States for more than two years.

Children diagnosed with non-central nervous system cancers at a very young age tend to reach some neurodevelopmental milestones later than healthy children, according to a new study.

Oral nutritional interventions can improve quality of life and overall nutritional intake in some cancer patients, but do not appear to have any effect on mortality outcomes, according to a recent meta-analysis.

In spite of screening recommendations that now begin only at 50 years of age, breast cancer is often diagnosed in women under the age of 40, and there are specific challenges to management of the disease in this younger population.

Triple-negative breast cancers represent a challenge for patients and clinicians, with poorer prognosis and fewer treatment options than other breast cancer subtypes. Recently, though, there have been suggestions that targeting pathways that repair DNA within tumor cells could provide benefit beyond the currently available treatments.

Treatments vary widely for metastatic breast cancer patients, though an analysis suggests that costs per patient are relatively similar across a number of different treatments.

Though there is still disagreement, a new study presented at the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco suggests that annual mammography and palpation of breast masses remain critical tools in early breast cancer diagnosis.

A new study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco shows that there is no survival difference between having a mastectomy or breast conservation therapy in women under the age of 40.