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1 week ago | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Patients with rectal cancer requiring total mesorectal excision (TME) surgery often undergo laparoscopic procedures owing to the advantages of minimal tissue trauma and rapid recovery, although oncological outcomes remain controversial. Now, data from the randomized, prospective multicentre REAL trial provide high-quality evidence supporting the use of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery.
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2 weeks ago | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) adenocarcinoma with disease progression on first-line therapy have various treatment options available, although the most-effective agent remains uncertain. Now, data from the phase III DESTINY-Gastric04 trial confirm the superiority of trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) over ramucirumab plus paclitaxel in this setting.
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2 weeks ago | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Earlier data from the phase III CheckMate 816 trial led to the approval of nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy for patients with resectable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Now, 5-year follow-up data from this trial confirm that this approach improves overall survival (OS).
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4 weeks ago | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Individuals with pulmonary nodules detected through lung cancer screening or incidentally often require lung biopsy sampling to differentiate between malignant and benign lesions. Navigational bronchoscopy and CT-guided transthoracic biopsy are both widely used for this purpose, although the comparative performance of these two approaches has been uncertain.
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1 month ago | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Patients with resectable mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) rectal cancer receiving extended neoadjuvant therapy with the anti-PD-1 antibody dostarlimab have previously been shown to have a 100% clinical complete response (cCR) rate. Now, an update from this trial confirms this excellent response rate and provides data on the durability of many of these responses, as well as on the efficacy of this approach in patients with other resectable dMMR solid tumours.
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2 months ago | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
The HIF2α inhibitor belzutifan has shown promising activity in patients with tumours arising in the context of Von Hippel–Lindau disease (VHL), an autosomal-dominant cancer predisposition syndrome arising from the deletion or inactivation of VHL. Now, long-term follow-up data from the phase II LITESPARK-004 trial demonstrate the durable activity of this agent as monotherapy in this population.
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Mar 6, 2025 | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Most patients undergoing surgery for locally advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) cancer will require chemotherapy; however, the optimum approach, including the most effective regimen and whether perioperative chemotherapy is more effective than an adjuvant-only approach, remains uncertain. Now, 5-year follow-up data from the phase III RESOLVE trial provide evidence supporting the use of adjuvant S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) in these patients.
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Feb 13, 2025 | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Most women with newly diagnosed breast cancer remain alive and recurrence-free for many years after complete surgical resection. Thus, whether all these women require annual follow-up mammography remains uncertain. Now, data from the phase III Mammo-50 trial demonstrate that most women can safely undergo follow-up mammography at 2-yearly or 3-yearly intervals.
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Feb 6, 2025 | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Patients with resectable mid–low rectal cancers often undergo total mesorectal excision (TME) surgery. Over the past decade, considerable research interest has been focused on minimally invasive TME procedures that might offer improved perioperative outcomes and preservation of sphincter function, including laparoscopic and transanal approaches. Despite some evidence of an increased risk of local recurrence with the transanal approach, only limited data on long-term outcomes are available.
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Jan 2, 2025 | 
nature.com | Peter Sidaway
Axillary nodal status provides important information on the prognosis of women with invasive breast cancer. However, the required sentinel lymph node biopsy sampling procedure and the associated risks of surgical complications have raised questions regarding the necessity of this procedure in women undergoing breast-conserving surgery for early stage disease. Now, data from INSEMA, a prospective, randomized, non-inferiority trial, confirm that this procedure can safely be avoided.
