Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Cancer Care Goals for AYAs Change as End of Life Nears

April 15, 2025,
by Daryl McGrath


Many adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with advanced cancer don’t have discussions with their clinicians about how they want to approach palliative care until the final weeks of life, a study of medical records of nearly 2,000 young patients showed.The researchers also found that, as of more than 2 months before their deaths, few AYAs in the study had documented goals for care of any kind in their medical records, including things such as...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Darzalex Faspro, Sarclisa Approvals for Multiple Myeloma

January 7, 2025,
by Daryl McGrath


Two recent approvals by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broaden the initial treatment options for people who have a new diagnosis of multiple myeloma. 

On July 30, FDA approved an injectable form of the drug daratumumab that includes hyaluronidase (Darzalex Faspro) given with bortezomib (Velcade), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and dexamethasone for patients who are eligible for an autologous stem cell transplant. On September 20, FDA ap...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Pragmatica-Lung Cancer Treatment Trial

Pragmatica-Lung is a phase 3 clinical trial for people with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread beyond the lungs (stage 4 cancer). People in the trial will be assigned by chance (randomly) to receive either standard chemotherapy or a combination of the drugs ramucirumab (Cyramza) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda). These drugs have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat certain types of cancer, including some types of lung cancer. Ramucirumab is a targeted drug...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research

Research has shown that the most common type of ovarian cancer begins in the fallopian tubes, not in the ovaries. This discovery has led doctors to reconsider ways of preventing ovarian cancer.

Women who carry harmful or potentially harmful mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes are at increased risk of developing ovarian cancer.  Surgery to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes in these women is the recommended treatment method and can reduce their lifetime risk of getting ovarian cancer by 95...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Few People with Cancer Undergo Germline Testing

August 1, 2023,
by Daryl McGrath


Only a small percentage of people diagnosed with cancer undergo a type of genetic testing, called germline testing, that is highly recommended for those diagnosed with certain cancers. That is the latest finding from an ongoing NCI-funded study.

Tests that look for specific genetic changes in a patient’s tumor can help oncologists choose which treatments may be most effective for that individual. Such tests, often called biomarker tests, a...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Trastuzumab for Rare Form of Endometrial Cancer

August 13, 2020,
by Daryl McGrath


Some women with an aggressive type of endometrial cancer may live longer if they receive a drug that is commonly used to treat a form of breast cancer, according to updated results from a small clinical trial. 

Women in the trial had uterine serous carcinoma (USC) that had either spread beyond the uterus or returned after previous treatment and had high levels of HER2, a protein that can fuel the growth of cancer cells. Trastuzumab (Herce...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Adolescents Who Wouldn't Have Smoked May Be Drawn to E-Cigarettes

August 11, 2016,
by Daryl McGrath


Some adolescents who otherwise would never have smoked are using e-cigarettes, according to a study published July 11 in the journal Pediatrics. The findings suggest that adolescents are not just using e-cigarettes as a substitute for conventional cigarettes but that e-cigarettes are attracting new users to tobacco products.

E-cigarettes are electronic devices that create an aerosol by heating a liquid solution that often contains nicotin...

Cancer.gov • 6th January 2026

Immunotherapy Combination Approved for Advanced Kidney Cancer

May 10, 2018,
by Daryl McGrath


On April 16, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in combination as an initial, or first-line, treatment for patients with advanced kidney cancer whose disease has an intermediate or poor prognosis.

This is the first immunotherapy regimen to be approved by FDA for the initial treatment of patients with kidney cancer. Nivolumab was previously approved to treat patie...