Cancer Research: Gene therapy, surgery could mean eight more months for sickest brain cancer patients ♦ Immunotherapy drug improves survival for common form of lung cancer

Immunotherapy drug improves survival for common form of lung cancer In a head-to-head clinical trial comparing standard chemotherapy with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab, researchers found that people with squamous-non-small cell lung cancer who received nivolumab lived, on average, 3.2 months longer than those receiving chemotherapy

Possible new combination chemotherapy for patients with advanced prostate cancer A role for combination therapy using two or more chemotherapy agents at the same time has not been well studied. This week, however, results of a clinical trial may change the perspective on a role for combination chemotherapy in advanced disease.

Risks of whole brain radiation therapy added to radiosurgery outweigh benefits for patients with limited brain metastases Whole Brain Radiation Therapy is associated with significantly worse cognitive function than radiosurgery, and should no longer be used in the adjuvant setting after radiosurgery to treat cancer patients with brain metastases.

Immunotherapy combo increases progression-free survival in advanced melanoma patients Treating advanced melanoma patients with either a combination of the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab and ipilimumab or nivolumab alone significantly increased progression-free survival over using ipilimumab alone

Gene therapy, surgery could mean eight more months for sickest brain cancer patients As the most malignant of primary brain cancers, glioblastomas are frustratingly difficult to treat. Surgery is often risky and cannot remove all of the tumor, and chemotherapy eventually becomes ineffective for most patients. Median survival is around 15 months for patients with this tumor, and the quality of life in the last five months is often quite poor