Monica L. Baskin, PhD, will serve as the next Director of VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, pending approval by the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors in September. She is also expected to be named the Lipman Chair in Oncology. Dr. Baskin is the first female director of Massey and the first Black woman to be named director of a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center. She will begin in the Director’s role on August 3.
The members of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recently elected five new officers to ASTRO’s Board of Directors.
Higher tumor cell density in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer receiving irinotecan-intensified neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy was associated with improved survival outcomes compared with those treated with standard chemoradiotherapy, according to findings from a post-hoc analysis of the phase III ARISTOTLE trial that was published in eBioMedicine.
In a global phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Gao et al, dabrafenib plus trametinib significantly improved progression-free survival and overall response rate compared with placebo in previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic, radioactive iodine–refractory, BRAF V600E–positive differentiated thyroid cancer.
On July 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved zidesamtinib (Jideytro), a ROS1 selective inhibitor, for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received a prior ROS1 kinase inhibitor. The approval comes ahead of the original target action date of September 18, 2026, and follows the FDA's Breakthrough Therapy and Orphan Drug designations.
Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD Maura Gillison did not chase awards. She chased answers, and especially clinically impactful answers. That distinction between the pursuit of recognition and the pursuit of truth defined everything about her as a scientist, a clinician, and a person. She was direct...
Higher tumor cell density in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer receiving irinotecan-intensified neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy was associated with improved survival outcomes compared with those treated with standard chemoradiotherapy, according to findings from a post-hoc analysis of the...
A panel of ASCO experts voted to approve ASCO’s first guideline on ctDNA testing in patients with solid tumors or lymphoma on November 18, 2025.1 The guideline addresses four overarching clinical questions: when ctDNA testing should (or should not) be used to (1) support cancer diagnosis; (2)...
There is a strong history of breast cancer in my family, and the fact that I have dense breasts adding to my risk of developing the disease, kept me vigilant about getting a yearly mammogram screening since I turned 32. The test never showed any suspicious lesions over the last nearly 2 decades,...
A retrospective multicenter case series published by Patil et al in JAMA Dermatology found high-dose oral vitamin D therapy to be associated with rapid symptomatic and objective improvement in chemotherapy- and radiation therapy–induced skin toxicities, without treatment-related adverse events....
The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) submitted formal comments (see https://bit.ly/4xYRg1j) to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to the 2026 CMS Interoperability Standards and Prior Authorization for Drugs proposed rule. If finalized, this rule will require...
A multicenter, retrospective case-control study by the iTNM Consortium demonstrated that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based T staging had similar discrimination to traditional digital rectal examination (DRE)-based clinical staging for biochemical recurrence, distant metastasis, and overall...