‘Black Boxes’ and Survival; Mixed News for New Drugs; Does a Positive Attitude Help?

Opening the “black boxes” of cancer survivorship care. (UC Riverside, Social Science & Medicine)

Older age and smoking were the two most important factors for 5-year risk of developing any type of cancer. (American Cancer Society, Cancer)

A review of FDA approvals of new cancer drugs over almost a 20-year period showed substantial benefits for progression-free survival but minimal effect on overall survival. (Journal of Clinical Oncology)

A phase III trial of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer failed to show improvement in overall survival or radiographic progression-free survival versus chemotherapy alone, Merck announced.

Metformin failed to blunt the adverse effects of androgen deprivation therapy on body weight, waist circumference, and other metabolic parameters in men with locally advanced prostate cancer. (International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology & Physics)

A phase I/II trial evaluating adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to chemoradiation for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer showed evidence of short-term disease control before being stopped because of slow accrual. (BJU International)

The hospital-owned pharmaceutical venture Civica has begun selling a generic version of the popular prostate cancer drug abiraterone (Zytiga), the venture’s latest effort to shake up the pharma industry and drive down drug prices. (Wall Street Journal)

Does a positive attitude affect outcomes in cancer? (Journal of Clinical Oncology)

The Environmental Protection Agency is warning residents who live near ethylene oxide-emitting medical sterilizing plants in more than a dozen states about an increased cancer risk.

Public health messages centered on urinary symptoms of prostate cancer may hamper early detection efforts. (Bloomberg)

Innate Pharma announced that an AstraZeneca-sponsored phase III trial of the monoclonal antibody monalizumab plus cetuximab for advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck reached the stopping point for futility.

Final regulatory guidance from the FDA recommends including patients with incurable cancers in clinical trials even when the patients meet criteria for exclusion.

Belgium-based Celyad Oncology announced the FDA has lifted a clinical hold on a phase Ib of the company’s allogeneic NKG2D CAR T-cell therapy plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for treatment-refractory microsatellite stable/mismatch repair-proficient metastatic colorectal cancer.

For the first time in almost a decade, fewer people made a serious effort to quit smoking in 2020, coinciding with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (American Cancer Society, JAMA Network Open)

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