No Gestational Diabetes-Cancer Link; Cholesterol and Cancer; Oncologist Saves Umpire

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News, features, and commentary about cancer-related issues

by
Charles Bankhead,

Senior Editor, MedPage Today,


August 9, 2024

A study of 700,000 Danish women showed that gestational diabetes did not increase the risk of breast cancer. (U.S. News & World Report)

Billy Bean, the second openly gay former Major League Baseball player, died of acute myeloid leukemia at the age of 60. (ESPN)

The FDA formally reprimanded the Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) company Mirati Therapeutics for making “false or misleading claims and representations” on a web site about the benefits of adagrasib (Krazati) for KRAS G12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.

Combining cholesterol-lowering statins with AKT inhibitors potentially killed triple-negative breast cancer cells in a preclinical translational study, suggesting the drug combination may provide a new, effective treatment. (Cancer Research)

People with a history of using non-statin cholesterol-lowering drugs had a lower risk of developing liver cancer. (Cancer)

Merck stopped a phase III trial of an investigational fixed-dose combination of the anti-TIGIT antibody vibostolimab and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer after an interim analysis showed the trial was unlikely to meet its primary endpoint of overall survival.

A surgical oncologist attending a Little League baseball game helped save the life of an umpire who had been hit in the throat by a foul ball. (Oncology News Central)

Adding a cancer vaccine to pembrolizumab did not improve survival in metastatic/recurrent head and neck cancer, Ultimovacs said.

Individualized cancer therapy based on a tumor’s protein expression showed promise in an early clinical study, stimulating an impressive immune response alone and when used in conjunction with pembrolizumab. (Cancer Discovery)

Adding isatuximab (Sarclisa) to standard pretransplant induction therapy led to statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, Sanofi announced.

Radiation therapy after breast cancer surgery provided protection against cancer recurrence for up to 10 years. (The Lancet Oncology)

Interactions between neurons that produce serotonin and tumor cells appear to stimulate growth and development of ependymoma, a type of brain cancer that affects children. (Nature)