People who have received organ transplants face an elevated risk of developing cancer, primarily due to immunosuppression from medications to prevent organ rejection, as well as underlying medical conditions. An important unresolved question relates to the contribution of cancer to years of life lost among transplant recipients, which is a measure of the impact of cancer on premature death. This question was explored recently in a study published by Wiley early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

A study led by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed a significant overall survival benefit with ribociclib plus endocrine therapy for postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) metastatic breast cancer. This is the first demonstration of a survival advantage with a front-line CDK4/6 inhibitor in postmenopausal patients with HR+/HER 2- advanced breast cancer.

More than half of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) bearing a mutation in the HER2 gene had their tumors stop growing or shrink for an extended time after treatment with a drug that hitches a chemotherapy agent to a highly targeted antibody, an international clinical trial led by investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has found.

A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that treating women with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer with the HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) significantly prolongs the length of time the disease is controlled and cancer growth is halted when compared to the current standard of care, trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1).

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent studies in basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. This special edition features oral presentations by MD Anderson researchers at the virtual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 on novel therapeutic approaches, including cell therapy for solid tumors, antibody drug conjugates targeting TROP2 and neoadjuvant pembrolizumab for advanced solid tumors with mismatch repair deficiencies.