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Time Toxicity Increases Among Older Adults With Metastatic Cancer

Older adults with metastatic cancer are increasingly spending more time in hospitals, at medical appointments and interacting with the health care system, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. For the study, researchers assessed a Medicare database to identify people age 66 or older who were diagnosed with metastatic cancer between 2008 and 2019 and who survived at least one year after their diagnosis. The study, which assessed data from people with breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer, found patients spent a mean time of 40.1 to 62.9 days—or 11% to 17% of the year after diagnosis—receiving health care outside the home. While the number of days people spent admitted to institutions, such as hospitals and nursing facilities, remained constant, the number of days for ambulatory care—defined as same-day appointments for testing, treatment or imaging—rose between 2008 and 2019. People with breast cancer had the largest increase in time commitment, with the number of days receiving care rising from 44.9 days to 57.6 days. “These findings align with qualitative work we have done in which patients with advanced-stage cancer and their care partners say their entire life is consumed by health care,” Arjun Gupta, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at City of Hope Cancer Center in Phoenix, told Healio. “They are sometimes going in for labs on Monday and a scan on Tuesday. They see their oncologist on Wednesday and get an infusion on Thursday. This isn’t just a physical and logistical struggle. It is an emotional reminder of their illness every day.”

Combination Biomarker Test Increases Accuracy of Pancreatic Cancer Detection

A tumor biomarker, called CA19-9, is commonly used to monitor for treatment response and progression once a person has pancreatic cancer. But data published in Clinical Cancer Research found a blood panel that measures for three other proteins plus CA19-9 improved the ability to detect signs of cancer when compared with testing for just CA19-9. In the study, which looked at blood samples from people with different stages of pancreatic cancer and healthy controls, overall accuracy for any stage of pancreatic cancer improved from 82.7% with testing for CA19-9 alone to 91.9% with the four-marker panel. “We all know that in the general population, pancreatic cancer is a rare disease, maybe 10 in 100,000,” Kenneth S. Zaret, a study author and biochemist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told MedPage Today. “We’re aiming for the high-risk population, which means people who have a first-degree relative with pancreatic cancer or who have particular genetic chances, such as BRCA1 for breast cancer, which can also elicit pancreatic cancer, and various other triggers.”

Colorectal Cancer Becomes Leading Cause of Cancer Death in People Under 50

A research letter published in JAMA found that colorectal cancer is now the top cause of cancer death in people under 50—superseding other leading causes of cancer-related deaths in this age group, including lung and bronchus cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, and brain cancer. From 2014 to 2023, colorectal cancer deaths increased by 1.1% per year in people under 50. In addition, colorectal cancer incidence rates in this age group increased by 1.4% per year since 2000, while rates in adults over 50 declined 3.1% annually, according to an article in Health. Lilian Chen, a colon and rectal surgeon at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told Health that the report is a wake-up call. “Every other leading cancer death rate is declining. That tells us something fundamentally different is happening with colorectal cancer in younger adults,” she said.

CD4/6 Inhibitor Delays Progression in Hormone-positive, HER2-positive Metastatic Breast Cancer

The CDK4/6 inhibitor Ibrance (palbociclib), used in combination with hormone therapy, was first approved to treat hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer in 2015. New research shows Ibrance can also lengthen progression-free survival for people with metastatic hormone receptor-positive, HER2-positive disease when used alongside standard HER2-targeted therapy. In a phase III clinical trial of 518 people whose cancer did not progress after chemotherapy and HER2-targeted treatment, all participants received maintenance treatment with HER2-targeted therapy and hormone therapy. Half also received Ibrance. After a median follow-up of 53.5 months, those who received Ibrance lived a median of 44.3 months without disease progression, compared with 29.1 months for those who received standard maintenance alone, according to results published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which were first presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in 2024. “The ability to meaningfully extend progression-free survival with a well-tolerated regimen offers new hope for individuals living with this challenging subtype of metastatic breast cancer,” Otto Metzger, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the principal investigator of the trial, told Cancer Network.