This roundup highlights a new drug combination that slows the spread of advanced prostate cancer, a novel artificial intelligence (AI) conversation tool to advance research for precision oncology and a breast cancer combination therapy that comes with challenging side effects but may improve cancer outcomes.
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New Drug Combo Slows Advanced Prostate Cancer
A large international study called CONTACT-02 led by Sumanta Pal*, M.D., chair of City of Hope’s kidney and bladder cancer disease team, demonstrated that a new drug combination may delay the worsening of advanced prostate cancer but did not help patients live longer.
The Phase 3 clinical trial included men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) whose disease had spread to other organs. Study participants had already tried one type of hormone-blocking medicine like enzalutamide or abiraterone, but it wasn’t effective.
The research was based on synergy seen with this combination in other genitourinary cancers. Scientists wanted to know if a combination of two drugs — cabozantinib (which targets cancer growth) and atezolizumab (which helps the immune system fight cancer) — could work better than switching to another hormone treatment.
The study included 575 men from 24 countries. Half of the patients were given cabozantinib and atezolizumab, while the other half switched to a different hormone therapy. The goal was to see which group lived longer without their cancer getting worse and which group lived longer overall.
Patients who received cabozantinib and atezolizumab lived about 6.3 months on average before their cancer got worse, compared to 4.2 months for those who switched hormone therapy. This means the combination treatment did a better job of slowing the cancer’s growth. However, there was no significant difference in overall survival — both groups lived about 15 months on average.
Half of the patients on the combination treatment experienced side effects like high blood pressure or anemia, compared to about 1 in 4 patients in the hormone therapy group. Some had to stop treatment because of these issues, though no deaths were caused by the treatments.
More research is still needed to find out if certain groups of patients might benefit more than others. Dr. Pal specializes in studying novel immunotherapy combinations with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes. For more information, see The Lancet Oncology paper.
* Dr. Pal is a paid consultant to Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, the maker of atezolizumab.
New Artificial Intelligence Assistant Helps Scientists Unlock Cancer Clues
In a major step forward for cancer research, City of Hope’s Enrique Velazquez Villarreal, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., led a team that developed a new AI tool to help researchers quickly uncover connections between genes and disease — without needing to write a single line of code. The tool, called AI-HOPE, acts like a super-smart assistant for medical researchers. It allows users to ask complex scientific questions in plain English and automatically analyzes large sets of clinical and genetic data to provide evidence-based answers.
Traditionally, analyzing biomedical data has required highly trained data scientists and could take weeks or even months. With AI-HOPE, scientists no longer need to know programming or advanced statistics. They simply ask a question and AI interprets the query, searches the data and delivers results — along with the supporting scientific evidence. Velazquez Villarreal, assistant professor in City of Hope’s Department of Integrative Translational Sciences, noted that AI-HOPE removes technical barriers, empowering any trained medical researcher to explore complex questions through intuitive language-based interaction.
To demonstrate the tool’s effectiveness, the researchers tested AI-HOPE using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), one of the world’s most comprehensive cancer databases. AI-HOPE correctly identified that TP53 gene mutations are more common in patients with late-stage colorectal cancer than in those with early-stage disease and that KRAS mutations are associated with poorer outcomes when patients are treated with the chemotherapy drug FOLFOX.
These findings are consistent with years of prior research — validating AI-HOPE’s ability to independently generate accurate evidence-based insights. Unlike many cloud-based tools, AI-HOPE runs entirely on secure, local systems, ensuring that sensitive patient information remains protected — an important advantage for hospitals and research institutions. The system is also highly adaptable and scalable, making it suitable for studying other diseases, treatments and medical conditions. As such, AI-HOPE represents a powerful tool for advancing precision medicine, where therapies are customized to each patient’s unique genetic profile.
For more information, read the Bioinformatics article.
Bone Drug Denosumab May Boost Breast Cancer Response to Therapy — But Comes With a Catch
A new study suggests that the bone-protecting medication denosumab may boost a breast cancer patient’s response to treatment, yet it also increases the risk of severe side effects when combined with the immunotherapy pembrolizumab.
Led by City of Hope endocrinologist Karen Tsai, M.D., and Alexis LeVee, M.D., former City of Hope chief fellow, the researchers evaluated 425 women with Stage 1 through 4 breast cancer. Those who received denosumab experienced nearly double the rate of serious immune-related side effects compared to those who received no bone therapy.
Despite the elevated risk, denosumab-treated patients showed a higher — but not statistically significant — tumor response rate. Survival outcomes were similar across all groups.
The findings highlight a potential tradeoff between toxicity and efficacy, underscoring the need for further clinical trials to explore this combination therapy.
Further studies are planned to better understand the risks and potential benefits of this drug combination. For more information, see The Oncologist paper.
Research Funding
Behnam Badie, M.D., received a $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a project entitled “Novel Neurosurgical Device for Evacuation of Intracerebral Hematoma.”
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About City of Hope
City of Hope's mission is to make hope a reality for all touched by cancer and diabetes. Founded in 1913, City of Hope has grown into one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and one of the leading research centers for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses. City of Hope research has been the basis for numerous breakthrough cancer medicines, as well as human synthetic insulin and monoclonal antibodies. With an independent, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center that is ranked a Top 5 “Best Hospital” in the nation for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report at its core, City of Hope’s uniquely integrated model spans cancer care, research and development, academics and training, and a broad philanthropy program that powers its work. City of Hope’s growing national system includes its Los Angeles campus, a network of clinical care locations across Southern California, a new cancer center in Orange County, California, and cancer treatment centers and outpatient facilities in the Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix areas. City of Hope’s affiliated group of organizations includes Translational Genomics Research Institute and AccessHope. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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