October 2012, Vol 5, No 7

Meta-Analysis Actually Shows Fewer Serious Adverse Events
Ameta-analysis reported at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Ameri­can Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) supports the new guidelines that recommend weight-based chemotherapy dosing for obese cancer patients.^1,2 Read More ›

Although preliminary, a recent ex­perimental study published online in the journal Genetics (Wallace MD, et al. Genetics. 2012;192: 385-396) found that lack of the neurofibromin 1 (NF1) gene was observed in more than 1 of every 4 experimentally induced breast cancers. The study findings also suggest that tamoxifen will not be effective in cancers that lack the NF1 gene. Read More ›

The incidence of heart failure and cardiomyopathy were significantly increased in women with breast cancer treated with trastuzumab either alone or in combination with anthracycline-based chemotherapy, according to the results of a recent large, population-based, retrospective cohort study. Read More ›

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved regorafenib (Stivarga, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who have been previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin-, and irinotecan-based chemo­therapy, an anti-VEGF therapy, and, if KRAS wild type, an anti-EGFR therapy. Regorafenib approval was granted on September 27, 2012. Read More ›

On October 4, 2012, the FDA and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all healthcare professionals cease use and remove from pharmaceutical inventory any product produced by the New England Com­pounding Center (NECC). Read More ›

The American Society of Clini­cal Oncology 2012 Breast Can­cer Symposium, held September 13-15 in San Francisco, California, offered all members of the cancer team an upfront view of new data and an opportunity for one-on-one interaction with experts. The following are a few research items of interest to oncology pharmacists. Read More ›