Publications by authors named "John Schallenkamp"

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess if adding the PARP inhibitor talazoparib to the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab could enhance outcomes for patients with SLFN11-positive extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) after initial treatment.
  • A total of 106 patients were randomized into two groups, showing that the combination therapy (talazoparib plus atezolizumab) led to improved progression-free survival compared to atezolizumab alone, though overall survival rates remained similar between the two groups.
  • While the combination therapy improved progression-free survival, it also resulted in higher rates of severe hematological side effects, such as grade 3 anemia, highlighting the need for careful patient selection based on genetic markers
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Article Synopsis
  • The study assesses the effectiveness of a dual checkpoint inhibition therapy (ipilimumab and nivolumab) on advanced non-epithelial ovarian cancers (NEOCs) in patients who have no other effective treatments available.
  • In a clinical trial involving 17 patients, the therapy showed a 25% overall response rate in those with granulosa cell tumors, with some patients experiencing significant progression-free survival and overall survival benefits.
  • However, the therapy had serious side effects, leading to treatment discontinuation in 18% of participants and no positive responses noted in carcinosarcoma cases.
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Purpose: To investigate the utility of Sm lexidronam (Quadramet) in the setting of men with prostate cancer status post radical prostatectomy who develop biochemical failure with no clinical evidence of osseous metastases.

Patients And Methods: Trial NRG Oncology RTOG 0622 is a single-arm phase 2 trial that enrolled men with pT2-T4, N0-1, M0 prostate cancer status post radical prostatectomy, who meet at least 1 of these biochemical failure criteria: (1) prostate-specific antigen (PSA) > 1.0 ng/mL; (2) PSA > 0.

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Importance: A recent randomized radiation dose-escalation trial in unresectable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 0617) showed a lower survival rate in the high-dose radiation therapy (RT) arm (74 Gy) than in the low-dose arm (60 Gy) with concurrent chemotherapy.

Objective: The primary QOL hypothesis predicted a clinically meaningful decline in quality of life (QOL) via the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT)-Lung Cancer Subscale (LCS) in the high-dose RT arm at 3 months.

Design, Setting, And Patients: The RTOG 0617 trial was a randomized phase 3 study (conducted from November 2007 to November 2011) in stage III NSCLC using a 2 × 2 factorial design and stratified by histology, positron emission tomography staging, performance status, and irradiation technique (3-dimensional conformal RT [3D-CRT] vs intensity-modulated RT [IMRT]).

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Background: The Institute of Medicine recommended that survivors of cancer and their primary care providers receive survivorship care plans (SCPs) to summarize cancer treatment and plan ongoing care. However, the use of SCPs remains limited.

Methods: Oncology providers at 14 National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program hospitals completed a survey regarding their perceptions of SCPs, including barriers to implementation, strategies for implementation, the role of oncology providers, and the importance of topics in SCPs (diagnosis, treatment, recommended ongoing care, and the aspects of ongoing care that the oncology practice will provide).

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Purpose: To define clinical and dosimetric parameters correlated with the risk of clinically relevant radiation pneumonitis (RP) after thoracic radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: Records of consecutive patients treated with definitive thoracic radiotherapy were retrospectively reviewed for the incidence of RP of Grade 2 or greater by the Common Toxicity Criteria. Dose-volume histograms using total lung volume (TL) and TL minus gross tumor volume (TL-G) were created with and without heterogeneity corrections.

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Purpose: To describe the relative positions and motions of the prostate, pelvic bony anatomy, and intraprostatic gold fiducial markers during daily electronic portal localization of the prostate.

Methods And Materials: Twenty prostate cancer patients were treated supine with definitive external radiotherapy according to an on-line target localization protocol using three or four intraprostatic gold fiducial markers and an electronic portal imaging device. Daily pretherapy and through-treatment electronic portal images (EPIs) were obtained for each of four treatment fields.

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