February 2014

During the course of a 74-year life cut short by his sudden death in 2008, Folkman changed the world repeatedly with bold ideas that ranged from implantable pacemakers and subcutaneous birth control to an entirely new field of medical study: how diseases like cancer recruit blood vessels from the body via angiogenesis.

The first results from the I-SPY 2 trial, which is evaluating novel agents in the neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer, show encouraging possibilities for veliparib (ABT-888) and neratinib (PB272).

Although breakthrough successes are generating a renaissance for anticancer immunotherapies, the framework for translating promising research results into clinical practice remains very much under construction.

Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD, and John Byrd, MD, are leading researchers in the emerging field of Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibition in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other B-cell malignancies.

Eribulin mesylate (Halaven) proved safe and effective as first-line therapy for locally recurrent or metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer in final phase II clinical trial results

As melanoma becomes more prevalent and more lethal in the United States, a multidisciplinary approach for treating inoperable in-transit metastases has proved to be a viable and valuable option.

A greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying lymphoid malignancies has fostered the development of targeted therapies, including those aimed at B-cell signaling pathways.

The lack of documented superiority in a given randomized oncology trial may not indicate the absence of clinical utility but rather the presence of equivalent favorable activity for each of the two agents.

During the past 15 years, minimally invasive general surgery has rapidly expanded to include laparoscopic and robotic techniques for cholecystectomy, colectomy, gastric weight loss, and other procedures

A personalized vaccine being tested as a therapy for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) improved patient survival compared with standard treatments

As PARP inhibitors continue to emerge as a novel class of anticancer agents, BMN 673 has entered late-stage clinical development as a treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose tumors test positive for germline BRCA1/2 mutations.

The big story in oncology research for the past several years has been the emergence of immunotherapy as a viable strategy for attacking many different tumor types.