Articles related to Oncology, Radiation

Researchers reported the finding—the longest known CLL remission after CAR T-cell therapy—in Nature. The patients received an infusion of genetically engineered autologous T cells as part of a phase 1 clinical trial in 2010.

A special tribute to Dr. John Cox, a Professor at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a practicing medical oncologist for more than 25 years in Dallas, Texas. He remains committed to transforming cancer care and enhancing the quality of patient care.

The BILCAP study established capecitabine as the adjuvant standard of care for patients after curatively resected biliary tract cancer (BTC). This publication presents the long-term data of that study. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the median OS was 49.6 months in the capecitabine group compared with 36.1 months in the observation group.

Short-term radiotherapy with preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery (total neoadjuvant therapy, TNT) was compared to standard long-term chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. At a median follow-up of 35.0 months, 3-year DFS was 64.5% and 62.3% in the TNT and CRT groups, respectively. There was no significant difference in metastasis-free survival or locoregional recurrence, but the TNT group had better 3-year overall survival than the CRT group (86.5% v 75.1%; P = .033). Treatment effects on DFS and overall survival were similar regardless of prognostic factors. The prevalence of acute grade III-V toxicities during preoperative treatment was 26.5% in the TNT group versus 12.6% in the CRT group (P < .001).

This meta-analysis examined 1,212 published articles and abstracts, of which the 30 fulfilling their criteria were analyzed to evaluate the effect of vitamin D levels on OS, PFS, and secondarily on time to treatment, relapse rate, and non-relapse mortality in patients with hematologic malignancies. Lower vitamin D level at diagnosis was related to a significantly impaired prognosis for myeloid and lymphoid malignancies, as previously reported.

This retrospective cohort study included 2,833 patients with stage IB to IIIA NSCLC who enrolled in the Adjuvant Lung Cancer Enrichment Marker Identification and Sequencing Trial (ALCHEMIST) screening study from August 18, 2014, to April 1, 2019. Although 93% received surgical resection, just 53% had adequate lymph node dissection and 57% received any adjuvant chemotherapy. The authors suggest more effort at optimizing use of proven therapies in this patient population.