Author: NewsCancer

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $5.5 billion to tie up remaining lawsuits that claim its talc products caused ovarian cancer.The drugmaker, which has been fighting talc-related lawsuits for more than a decade, said that the settlement is conditioned on at least 95% of remaining claimants participating.A U.S. bankruptcy court judge denied a $9 billion settlement proposed by company subsidiary Red River Talc last year that would have been one of the biggest mass tort settlements in history.Johnson & Johnson decided not to appeal that ruling and instead fight on in court.A federal judge last week ordered plaintiffs in…

Dr. Shadman addresses when to switch within the BTKi class versus changing mechanism of action. For intolerance to covalent BTKis, every available covalent agent should be tried before declaring class intolerance. Prospective data show that patients can often tolerate second-generation agents after ibrutinib intolerance, and acalabrutinib to zanubrutinib switching is also supported by data. Rare life-threatening events such as subdural hematoma may justify switching to venetoclax-based therapy due to bleeding risk as a class effect.For progressive disease on a covalent BTKi, within-class switching to another covalent agent is not appropriate due to shared resistance mechanisms, particularly the C481S BTK mutation…

Elaine’s stories explore the boom in new obesity treatments, new drug payment models, the ways companies are affected by FDA changes, and the emerging psychedelics drug sector. She co-writes The Readout newsletter, and co-hosts STAT’s weekly biotech podcast, The Readout Loud. You can reach Elaine on Signal at elaineywchen.70.Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have reiterated concerns that Replimune does not have adequate data to support an approval of its investigational skin cancer treatment, as the biotech tries for the third time to seek clearance for its highly controversial drug. In briefing documents released Tuesday ahead of a meeting…

CancerNetwork® spoke with Tiba Al Sagheer, PharmD, BCOP, BCACP, pharmacy quality improvement coordinator for transplant and cellular therapy at Miami Cancer Institute of Baptist Health South Florida, about her presentation titled “Thresholds and Therapeutics: A Precision Approach to CAR T Toxicity Management,” at the 2026 National ICE-T Conference in Orlando, held in July 2026.1 She discussed where current toxicity grading criteria fall short and how biomarkers and CAR T-cell expansion inform escalation decisions.Although new guidelines from organizations like the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) may help elucidate ways to monitor and mitigate emergent toxicities associated with cellular…

Few investigational therapies in melanoma have had a regulatory path as winding as vusolimogene oderparepvec (RP1), the oncolytic herpes-virus-based immunotherapy. Paired with nivolumab (Opdivo), RP1 has produced durable responses in patients with advanced melanoma who progressed on anti–PD-1 therapy, and up to this point, the combination has now received 2 complete response letters (CRLs) on its way toward a third FDA decision. With an advisory committee meeting expected in late July 2026 and a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date of August 2, 2026, on the calendar, here is a step-by-step look back from 2022 to present day and…

Dr. Shadman presents a case of a 68-year-old woman with symptomatic CLL requiring treatment. She has unmutated IGHV but no del(17p) or TP53 mutation, ECOG performance status 0, no significant comorbidities, and prefers oral therapy. She is professionally active, works full-time, and lives far from the clinic with strong preference for minimal clinic visits. Laboratory findings show white blood cell count 85,000, hemoglobin 9.2 g/dL, platelets 95,000, with bulky lymphadenopathy and enlarged spleen on examination.Dr. Lipsky notes that no treatment options are excluded by her molecular profile: all strategies including continuous and time-limited approaches remain available. The most influential factor…

Cordonnier C, Einarsdottir S, Cesaro S, Di Blasi R, Mikulska M, Rieger C, et al. Vaccination of haemopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: guidelines of the 2017 European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia (ECIL 7). Lancet Infect Dis. 2019;19:e200–12.Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  Rieger CT, Liss B, Mellinghoff S, Buchheidt D, Cornely OA, Egerer G, et al. Anti-infective vaccination strategies in patients with hematologic malignancies or solid tumors—Guideline of the Infectious Diseases Working Party (AGIHO) of the German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology (DGHO). Ann Oncol. 2018;29:1354–65.Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  Miller PDE, Patel SR, Skinner R, Dignan F, Richter…

Archie Goodburn, who has brain cancer and finished 7th in the men’s 50m breaststroke final at the Commonwealth Games, wants for the disease to get ‘the funding it deserves’.

Melanoma is a highly aggressive malignancy in which dysregulated ubiquitin-dependent signaling contributes to tumor progression. OTUD4 is frequently downregulated in melanoma, but the functional significance of this alteration remains unclear. Here, we identify OTUD4 as a dual-mode deubiquitinase that suppresses melanoma progression by coordinating K48- and K63-linked polyubiquitination. OTUD4 directly binds and stabilizes CYLD by counteracting K48-linked polyubiquitination, whereas it independently binds BCL3 and counteracts BCL3 K63-linked polyubiquitination. OTUD4 depletion promotes BCL3 ubiquitination and nuclear translocation in melanoma cells, leading to increased melanoma cell proliferation and tumor growth in clonogenic and xenograft assays. Clinically, expression of OTUD4 and CYLD progressively…

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has offered to pay as much as $5.5bn (£4.14bn) to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits in the US alleging that its baby powder and other products containing talcum cause ovarian cancer.The proposed landmark settlement aims to close a long-running legal battle that has weighed on the New Jersey-based healthcare giant for years.J&J has denied that its talc-based products caused cancer and has changed the formula of its widely used baby powder.Erik Haas, the firm’s vice president of litigation said on Monday, external that the allegations are “meritless” and that J&J was willing to settle in…