An opportunity to detect pancreatic cancer at stages where early intervention can greatly extend life and even make cure possible seems to be on offer, according to findings from a study of a new liquid biopsy method based on so-called exosomes: subcellular molecules shed into the circulation by cancer cells. At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego, Peter Goodwin talked with Ajay Goel, PhD, AGAF, senior author of the study and Chair of the Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics in the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope in Los Angeles ..read more

Designed with the help of artificial intelligence to recognize multiple genetic features of each patient’s tumor, a small clinical trial of a personalized therapeutic vaccine has shown durable tumor-specific immune responses in patients with surgically resected HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell cancer. The vaccine also prevented relapse in some patients. At the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, Olivier Lantz, MD, PhD, Head of the Clinical Immunology Laboratory at the Institut Curie Hospital in Paris, reported data using a “neoantigen-based vaccine” specifically designed to recognize multiple ge ..read more

Higher rates of satisfaction and psychosocial well-being and low complication rates were reported by patients who had a new mesh-supported prepectoral method of breast reconstruction using titanized mesh pockets after their surgery for breast cancer. At the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference in Milan, Stefan Paepke, MD, from the Interdisciplinary Breast Centre at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, said the technique prevents the unnatural breast mobility patients can experience after reconstruction, sometimes called jumping breasts. After reporting his group’s 24-month follow-u ..read more

The value of adding a radiation boost to postoperative radiotherapy for patients younger than 50 with early breast cancer has been confirmed by 10 years of data from the Young Boost trial conducted in the Netherlands. However, by randomizing patients between the standard radiation boost and a lower dose boost, the study demonstrated comparable efficacy for the two boost regimens, with less toxicity among patients receiving the low boost. The trial findings were reported by Sophie Bosma, MD, PhD, Radiation Oncologist from The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam at the 14th European Breast ..read more

A 30-year-long population-based study, reported at the 14th European Breast Cancer conference held in Milan, Italy, showed that breast-conserving therapy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) had become increasingly effective in preventing the emergence of breast cancer over the long term, but that there were still unanswered questions. The population-based Netherlands Cancer Registry retrospective cohort study of 25,719 women with DCIS diagnosed from 1989 up to 2021 (all of whom were treated with standard conservative therapy) found there were successes and limitations with the current standard ..read more

Artificial intelligence is being harnessed by a team of researchers at Leicester University in the United Kingdom to predict the risk of lymphedema (and potentially other toxicities) from the use of postoperative radiation therapy for breast cancer. The 2024 European Breast Cancer Conference heard the latest news on an artificial intelligence tool that promises to help cancer clinicians individualize radiotherapy regimens after surgery to minimize toxicity. Tim Rattay, MBChB, PhD, Associate Professor in Breast Surgery in the Leicester Cancer Research Centre at the University of Leicester and ..read more

New data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-756 clinical trial show that adding pembrolizumab immunotherapy to chemotherapy before and after surgery for high-risk breast cancer (which was estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative) resulted in better outcomes for patients regardless of their age or menopausal status. The findings were presented at the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference by KEYNOTE-756 study co-author Heather McArthur, MD, MPH, Clinical Director of the Breast Cancer Program and Komen Distinguished Chair in Clinical Breast Research a ..read more

Offering MRI-guided partial breast irradiation before surgery to patients with low-risk breast cancer could become the norm, according to Yasmin Civil, MD, in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands, who reported 5-year results from the ABLATIVE trial to the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference. The researchers found that single-dose, MRI-guided, partial breast irradiation given before breast-conserving surgery achieved durable pathologic complete remissions in low-risk breast cancer, as well as held out the prospect of surgery-free treatment for some pat ..read more

About a quarter of all patients with newly diagnosed triple-negative breast cancer will not benefit from neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy with an agent such as pembrolizumab—even though it improves outcomes among the remaining majority.   At the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference, held in Milan, Italy, Laura van ’t Veer, PhD, Program Leader of the Breast Oncology Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, reported findings from the I-SPY2 TRIAL showing that analysis of “response predictive subtypes” identified a subset of patients with triple-ne ..read more

An early study of patients (Phase I/II) with acute myeloid leukemia found that a new three-drug combination therapy greatly improved outcomes—both in patients with relapsed or refractory disease and as initial therapy.  The new research involved adding quizartinib that targets fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) oncogene. Mutations of FLT3 are present in nearly a third of all AML tumors. The internal tandem duplication mutation of FLT3, in particular, is associated with poor prognosis in AML. So, it was hypothesized that targeting FLT3 could help in treating FLT3-mutated AML. First autho ..read more