Based on prior studies in patients with melanoma and lung cancer as well as overall response and duration of response rates in open-label, multiple cohort trials involving 131 adults and 36 children, the combination was approved for the new indication (treatment of unresectable or metastatic solid tumors with a BRAF V600E mutation in patients ≥6 years old who have progressed following prior treatment and have no satisfactory alternative treatment options). Adults with BRAF V600E mutation-positive solid tumors, such as low-grade glioma (LGG), anaplastic thyroid cancer, biliary tract cancer, small intestine cancer, and high-grade glioma (HGG), were enrolled in the new trials, along with 36 children with BRAF V600 refractory or recurrent LGG or HGG. The overall response rate (ORR) served as the trial’s main measure of success, and out of the 131 adults who participated, 54 (41%) had an objective reaction. Among the most prevalent tumor types in the clinical trials, the ORR for biliary tract cancer was 46%, HGG was 33%, and LGG was 50%. Children’s ORR was 25%.

Researchers examined the OTC drug shopping patterns of 153 women before being diagnosed with ovarian cancer and compared them to the patterns seen in 120 women without ovarian cancer. Participants in the study also answered questions regarding the symptoms they had and the number of times they had seen their general practitioner in the year preceding a cancer referral or diagnosis. Eight months before diagnosis, there was a substantial difference in the OTC drug buying habits of women with and without ovarian cancer. Up to nine months prior to diagnosis, there was a rise in the purchasing of dyspepsia medications.

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the RTOG clinical target volumes (CTVs) and PSMA PET-defined recurrence topography, as well as to analyze the patterns of prostate bed (PB) recurrence in prostate cancer patients who had PSA persistence (BCP) or biochemical recurrence (BCR) following radical prostatectomy.

By using mass cytometry (CyTOF) analysis, the researchers profiled plasma cells (PCs) and their B cell lymphopoiesis in BM samples from patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, smoldering multiple myeloma (MM), and active MM in order to better understand the heterogeneity of MM.

The assessment of response to radiation-based therapies can be complicated by persistent or changing imaging features, and this field of study is still in active development even though imaging-based response assessment systems have been validated for the evaluation of response to ablative locoregional therapies. Research is still needed to address the shortcomings of current imaging criteria for evaluating tumor response to these novel techniques, despite the increased application of radiation-based local-regional therapies for the treatment of HCC following technological advancements and a better understanding of tumor biology.

A group of UK researchers has created a novel prostate cancer (PaC) screening test (EpiSwitch) that, when combined with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, has a high degree of accuracy for detecting the cancer. The test is based on measurement of five chromosome conformations that were first discovered in association with advanced PaC. The EpiSwitch test has a high positive predictive value for the diagnosis of PaC (92%) and a high negative predictive value (94%) when used in conjunction with the PSA level as a continuous variable, according to the researchers. The study’s authors advocated for additional research to investigate the test’s efficacy in larger patient samples, even though it was based on a scant number of patient samples.