AI Breath Test IDs Cancers; More Grief for Prior Auth; Imatinib Discoverer Resigns

A breath test supported by artificial intelligence achieved 94% accuracy for detecting four common types of cancer, including 95% accuracy for detecting early disease. (Scientific Reports)

In a new survey, radiation oncologists blamed prior authorization delays for multiple harms to patients, including hospitalizations, treatment abandonment, and even deaths. (American Society for Radiation Oncology)

Cancer treatment increasingly includes personalized therapies before surgery, according to a report from the American College of Surgeons’ National Cancer Database.

An online survey of people with a history of cancer suggested that many patients would not trade faster access to new cancer drugs for the uncertain survival benefit associated with surrogate endpoints that are often used to support FDA accelerated approval. (Lancet Oncology)

Brian Druker, MD, whose discovery of imatinib (Gleevec) paved the way for targeted cancer therapies, announced his resignation as head of the Knight Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon, asserting that leadership of Oregon Health & Science University had “forgotten our mission.” (Willamette Week)

Primary results of a phase III trial showed that adding tumor-treating fields (a form of low-level electrical current) to chemotherapy improved survival in pancreatic cancer versus chemotherapy alone, Novocure announced.

Enrollment has begun in a clinical trial to evaluate a “pill-on-a-thread” device to screen for Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor to esophageal cancer in many patients. (Clinical Trials Arena)

A former researcher at Nemours Children’s Health in Wilmington, Delaware, admitted to falsifying and incorrectly reporting data in two NIH-funded studies. (Retraction Watch)

More than 70% of a small group of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in a phase II trial achieved complete responses to an investigational cellular immunotherapy, including all four patients with BCG-unresponsive disease, Protara Therapeutics announced.

High-intensity focused ultrasound for newly diagnosed prostate cancer achieved a rate of salvage therapy-free survival similar to radical prostatectomy, but with fewer adverse effects, a prospective study showed. (European Urology)

CAR T-cell therapy enhanced with interleukin-15 showed preliminary activity against glypican-3-expressing hepatocellular carcinoma in adults and various solid tumors in pediatric patients. (Baylor College of Medicine, Nature)

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