Articles related to Oncology, Medical

Recent trends in locally advanced rectal cancer treatment have focused on risk-stratification of patients and tailoring treatment to achieve the best outcome while limiting the impact on long-term quality of life. There has been increasing interest in watch-and-wait approaches to achieve organ preservation. This article provides an overview of some major developments in the multimodal treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer, reviews controversial issues of the watch-and-wait approach and opportunities to personally tailor and reduce treatment, and provides an algorithm example of how such a personalized, tailored, adaptive, and reduced treatment could look like in the future.

This multicenter, open-label, randomized phase III trial conducted in Japan compared 3 versus 6 months of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with curatively resected stage III colon cancer. Study participants received either a modified fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin, regimen, or capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) regimen. Five-year OS rates were comparable between the two groups: 87.0% in the 3-month treatment group and 86.4% in the 6-month treatment group. Peripheral sensory neuropathy lasting longer than 5 years was twice as common in the 6- compared with 3-month treatment group (16% v 8%, respectively) and in those receiving mFOLFOX6 compared with CAPOX (14% v 11%, respectively).

In a small study of the PD-1 blocker dostarlimab, 100% of patients with locally advanced mismatch repair–deficient Stage II or III rectal adenocarcinoma experienced remission. The study participants were treated with dostarlimab monotherapy infused every three weeks for six months. The original intent was to follow dostarlimab with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, but that turned out to be unnecessary.Read the study summary here.

In a 7-year study of 171,000 individuals with a mean age of 56 years, these researchers elucidate the hazard ratio for death from CVD or cancer and levels of daily coffee consumption.

Up to half of all patients with metastatic HER2+ breast cancer will eventually acquire brain metastases, which are associated with reduced overall survival and decreased quality of life. This comprehensive review examines current recommendations in 1st, 2nd, and later line therapies, discusses the status of novel agents, and provides recommendations to standardize care.

This randomized, open-label, phase III trial compared elacestrant, a novel, oral selective ER degrader, vs. standard of care endocrine monotherapy in patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who had one-two lines of endocrine therapy, required pretreatment with a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, and ≤ 1 chemotherapy. Elacestrant showed a significant PFS improvement versus SOC both in the overall population and in patients with ESR1 mutations.