Journal Spotlight
TITAN Confirms Survival Benefit of Apalutamide Plus ADT in Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Now, Move Therapy Forward
Neal D. Shore, MD, FACS
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Chi et al1—and summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post—the prespecified final overall survival analysis of the phase III TITAN trial1-3 has confirmed a clear overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival benefit with the combination ...
Treatment of Relapsed Myeloma: Options Include New Drugs, Novel Combinations
Shaji K. Kumar, MD
The treatment paradigm for multiple myeloma continues to evolve at a rapid pace with the introduction of new drugs and the development of drug combinations, particularly the initial approach to the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.1 One major shift in the treatment of newly diagnosed mu...
Subcutaneous Daratumumab Added to Pomalidomide Plus Dexamethasone Improves Progression-Free Survival in Multiple Myeloma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and colleagues, the phase III APOLLO trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with the addition of subcutaneous (SC) daratumumab to oral pomalidomide/dexam...
Prevalence of Germline BRCA Mutations in Indian Women With Ovarian Cancer
Jame Abraham, MD, FACP
Ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynecologic cancers, with 313,959 new cases and 207,252 deaths reported worldwide in 2020.1 Since there is no effective screening method, ovarian cancer in general is diagnosed in its late stage. The 5-year survival rate in women with ovarian cancer is less t...
High Prevalence of Germline BRCA Mutations in Indian Women With Ovarian Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In a prospective cross-sectional study reported in JCO Global Oncology, Sudeep Gupta, MBBS, MD, DM, of Tata Memorial Centre, and colleagues found that Indian women with ovarian cancer not selected for study based on clinical factors had a high prevalence of germline pathogenic or likely pathogenic B...
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617: A First-in-Class Radioligand Therapeutic in Metastatic Prostate Cancer
David R. Wise, MD, PhD
Based on the findings of the phase III VISION trial, reported by Sartor et al1 and summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) is the first of the prostate-specific membrane antigen–targeted cancer theranostics to demonstrate a survival-prolonging benefit for men with m...
Adding LuPSMA to Standard Care Improves Outcomes in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Oliver Sartor, MD, of the School of Medicine, Tulane University, and colleagues, the phase III VISION trial has shown prolonged progression-free and overall survival with lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) radioligand therapy plus standard care vs st...
Maintained Benefit of Apalutamide Plus Androgen-Deprivation Therapy Shown in Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
Matthew Stenger
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kim N. Chi, MD, of BC Cancer and Vancouver Prostate Centre, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III TITAN trial showed significant benefit of apalutamide plus androgen-deprivation therapy vs placebo plus androgen-depriva...
Adjuvant Pembrolizumab Improves Distant Metastasis–Free Survival in Resected High-Risk Stage III Melanoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Alexander M.M. Eggermont, MD, of Princess Máxima Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and colleagues, the pivotal phase III EORTC 1325/KEYNOTE-054 trial has shown significant improvement in the secondary endpoint of distant metastasis–free survival, as well as cont...
High Prevalence of Previously Undiagnosed Emphysema Among Individuals Undergoing Low-Dose CT Screening for Lung Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In a prospective cohort study reported in Clinical Imaging, David Steiger, MD, of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, and colleagues in the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) identified emphysema in ...
NCI-MATCH Subprotocol Finds Nivolumab Active in Mismatch Repair–Deficient Cancers Other Than Colorectal Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In a study (NCI-MATCH trial subprotocol, arm Z1D) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nilofer S. Azad, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medicine Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer, and colleagues found that nivolumab was active in mismatch repair (MMR)-deficient noncolorectal cancers.1 As...
No Progression-Free Survival Benefit With First-Line Avelumab Plus Chemoradiotherapy in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Nancy Y. Lee, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III JAVELIN Head and Neck 100 trial has shown no improvement in progression-free survival with the addition of the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab to chemoradiotherapy in patients wi...
Sacituzumab Govitecan-hziy Improves Survival vs Single-Agent Chemotherapy in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Aditya Bardia, MD, of the Division of Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III ASCENT trial has shown prolonged progression-free and overall survival with the Trop-2–directed antibody-drug conj...
Mortality Risk With Adjuvant vs Early Salvage Radiotherapy in Men With Adverse Pathology at Radical Prostatectomy for Prostate Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In a retrospective cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Derya Tilki, MD, of Martini-Klinik Prostate Cancer Center, University Hospital-Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, and colleagues found that adjuvant radiotherapy was associated with reduced risk for all-cause mortality vs early s...
Adjuvant Nivolumab Improves Disease-Free Survival in High-Risk Muscle-Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported inThe New England Journal of Medicine by Dean F. Bajorin, MD, of the Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CheckMate 274 trial has shown improved disease-free survival with adjuvant nivolumab vs placebo amon...
Is Tumor Mutational Burden Predictive of Survival Outcomes in Solid Tumors Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors?
Matthew Stenger
In a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, Benoit Rousseau, MD, PhD, and Michael B. Foote, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), and colleagues presented evidence that a high tumor mutational burden (TMB) threshold of 10 alone may not be sufficient to predict im...
Dual PI3Kδ/CK1ε Inhibitor Umbralisib in Relapsed or Refractory Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Nathan H. Fowler, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues, a phase IIb trial (UNITY-NHL) has shown that the dual PI3Kδ/casein kinase (CK)1ε inhibitor umbralisib produced durable responses in patients with relapsed or...
Addition of Adavosertib to Gemcitabine Improves Outcomes in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet, Stephanie Lheureux, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, and colleagues, found that the addition of the oral Wee1 inhibitor adavosertib to gemcitabine significantly improved progression-free and overall survival in platinum-resistant/refractory...
Pembrolizumab Improves Progression-Free Survival vs Brentuximab Vedotin in Relapsed or Refractory Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by John Kuruvilla, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-204 trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with pembrolizumab vs brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed...
Lessons From Pneumococcal Vaccine Responses in Patients With CLL in an Evolving Vaccine Landscape
Raamis Khwaja, MD; Philip A. Thompson, MBBS (Hons); and Nitin Jain, MD
The role of vaccines in mitigating the significant morbidity and mortality associated with infections in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a developing field of study, punctuated by the advent of novel therapeutic agents and pressing questions regarding the global SARS–CoV-2 vaccination efforts....
Sacituzumab Govitecan-hziy in Urothelial Carcinoma Progressing After Platinum-Based Chemotherapy and Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy
Matthew Stenger
In a cohort of the phase II TROPHY-U-01 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Scott T. Tagawa, MD, MS, of Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, and colleagues, found that the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy produced durable responses in patients with metastatic urothel...
ASCO Releases New Recommendations on Systemic Therapy Dosing for Adults With Obesity and Cancer
Jasenka Piljac Žegarac, PhD
ASCO has approved new recommendations for the appropriate dosing of systemic anticancer agents in adults with obesity and cancer.1 The guideline update was based on evidence collected from a systematic review of the literature published between November 1, 2010, and March 27, 2020, regarding dosing ...
EV-301 Trial: Enfortumab Vedotin-ejfv Improves Overall Survival vs Chemotherapy in Previously Treated Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Centre, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III EV-301 trial has shown improved overall survival with the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin-ej...
Postoperative Mortality and Complications After Cancer Surgery in High- vs Low- or Middle-Income Countries
Matthew Stenger
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet, the GlobalSurg Collaborative found that 30-day mortality after surgery for colorectal and gastric cancers, but not breast cancer, was higher in low- or middle-income countries vs high-income countries.1 Among all patients, mortality rates followi...
Disease Risk Associated With Protein-Truncating and Rare Missense Variants in Breast Cancer Risk Genes
Matthew Stenger
In a study reported in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, Leila Dorling, PhD, of the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Departments of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues in the international Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), ide...
Addition of Copanlisib to Rituximab Improves Progression-Free Survival in Relapsed Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Matthew J. Matasar, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III CHRONOS-3 trial has shown that the addition of the pan-class I PI3K inhibitor copanlisib to rituximab significantly improved progression-free survival vs rituximab...
Dual Immune Checkpoint Blockade With Nivolumab and Ipilimumab for Treatment of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Samuel Rosner, MD, and Patrick M. Forde, MBBCh
In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of mesothelioma have been a keen area of investigation for this immunogenic solid tumor. With recent publications, principally findings from CheckMate 743 by Baas et al1 (reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post), combination immune check...
Oral Azacitidine Improves Overall Survival vs Placebo as Maintenance Therapy for AML in First Remission
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Andrew H. Wei, MB, BS, PhD, of the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, Monash University, Melbourne, and colleagues, the phase III QUAZAR AML-001 trial has shown prolonged overall survival with oral azacitidine maintenance therapy vs placebo ...
Is High Tumor Mutational Burden Predictive of Immune Checkpoint Blockade Efficacy Across All Cancer Types?
Thierry André, MD, and Romain Cohen, MD, PhD
In a letter recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Rousseau and colleagues reported data on the spectrum of benefit from immune checkpoint blockade in hypermutated tumors.1 Indeed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently ap...
Cabozantinib With Nivolumab for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: A New Front-Line Standard
Neal S. Chawla, MD, and Sumanta K. Pal, MD, FASCO
The pace of clinical research in metastatic renal cell carcinoma is faster than ever. Over the past 5 years, we have seen data from six phase III clinical trials evaluating combination strategies with checkpoint inhibitors. The era began with data from CheckMate 214, evaluating nivolumab with ipili...
Adjuvant Nivolumab Improves Disease-Free Survival vs Placebo in Resected Esophageal or Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ronan J. Kelly, MB BCh, MBA, of The Charles A. -Sammons Cancer Center at Baylor University Medical Center, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CheckMate 577 trial has shown a significant improvement in disease-free survival wit...
Nivolumab/Ipilimumab Improves Overall Survival vs Chemotherapy in First-Line Treatment for Unresectable Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet by Paul Baas, MD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, and colleagues, a prespecified interim analysis in the phase III CheckMate 743 trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in unresectable mal...
First-Line Cemiplimab-rwlc Improves Outcomes vs Platinum-Doublet Chemotherapy in Advanced NSCLC With PD-L1 Expression ≥ 50%
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet by Ahmet Sezer, MD, of Başkent University, Adana, Turkey, and colleagues, the phase III EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial has shown improved overall and progression-free survival with cemiplimab-rwlc vs platinum doublet chemotherapy among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cance...
First-Line Nivolumab Plus Cabozantinib Improves Progression-Free and Overall Survival vs Sunitinib in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial has shown that the combination of nivolumab and cabozantinib improved progression-free survival and o...
Improving Prediction of Risk for 10-Year Left-Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Survivors of Childhood Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In a Dutch study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Jan M. Leerink, PhD candidate, of Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam Department of Clinical and Experimental Cardiology, and colleagues found that the addition of ejection fraction measurement at the time of first surveillance echocardiogram imp...
FDA ODAC Meeting Focuses on ‘Dangling’ Accelerated Approvals of Anti–PD-1/PD-L1 Antibodies
Matthew Stenger
In a perspective in The New England Journal of Medicine, Julia A. Beaver, MD, and Richard Pazdur, MD, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), discussed issues surrounding “dangling” accelerated approvals of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies—ie, approvals for whic...
First-Line Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy in PD-L1–Positive Locally Recurrent Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet by Javier Cortes, MD, of the International Breast Cancer Center, Quiron Group, Madrid and Barcelona, and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III -KEYNOTE-355 trial has shown that the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy improved progression-free surviv...
Are Prevalent Cardiovascular Risk Factors Associated With Increased Risk of Subsequent Cancer?
Matthew Stenger
In a study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Emily S. Lau, MD, of the Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues found that the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors was significantly associated with an increased risk of future cancer,...
Two Lenvatinib Combinations Improve Progression-Free Survival vs Sunitinib Alone in First-Line Treatment of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Robert J. Motzer, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), and colleagues, the phase III CLEAR trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival with lenvatinib/pembrolizumab and with lenvatinib/everolimus vs sunitinib and prolong...
First-Line Nivolumab/Ipilimumab Plus Chemotherapy Improves Overall Survival vs Chemotherapy in Stage IV or Recurrent NSCLC
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Luis Paz-Ares, MD, of the Universidad Complutense & CiberOnc, Madrid, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 9LA trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab plus two cycles of chemotherapy vs four cycles of chemotherapy al...
First-Line Atezolizumab Plus Platinum-Based Chemotherapy vs Chemotherapy Alone in Advanced Urothelial Cancer
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet by Matthew D. Galsky, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tisch Cancer Institute, New York, and colleagues, the phase III IMvigor130 trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival with first-line atezolizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy vs platinum-bas...
Continued Progression-Free and Overall Survival Superiority of First-Line Pembrolizumab/Axitinib vs Sunitinib
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Institute, London, and colleagues, extended follow-up of the phase III KEYNOTE-426 trial shows continued progression-free and overall survival superiority with pembrolizumab/axitinib vs sunitinib alone in first-line treatment...
Presalvage Radiotherapy PSA Levels and Outcomes With Long-Term Antiandrogen Therapy in Prostate Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In an analysis from the NRG/RTOG 9601 trial reported in JAMA Oncology,1Robert T. Dess, MD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues found that men with higher prostate-specific antigen (PSA) presalvage radiotherapy levels after prostatectomy had a ...
KEYNOTE-427: First-Line Pembrolizumab Shows Activity in Advanced Clear Cell and Non–Clear Cell Kidney Cancers
Matthew Stenger
As reported in two articles in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by David F. McDermott, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and colleagues, the phase II KEYNOTE-427 study showed that pembrolizumab monotherapy produced durable responses as first-line treatment in cohorts of patients with ad...
Clinical Breast Examination Screening Results in Lower Stage at Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Reduced Breast Cancer Mortality in India
Matthew Stenger
In an Indian study reported in the British Medical Journal, Indraneel Mittra, MD, PhD, of Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, and colleagues at Tata Memorial Centre found that breast cancer screening with clinical breast examination vs active surveillance resulted in youn...
IMbrave150 Trial: Atezolizumab Plus Bevacizumab Improves Survival in Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma
The ASCO Post Staff
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Richard S. Finn, MD, of Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues, the phase III IMbrave150 trial has shown that anti–PD-L1 plus anti-VEGF therapy with atezolizum...
Fam-Trastuzumab Deruxtecan-nxki Shows Benefit in Refractory Colorectal Cancer
The ASCO Post Staff
Having recently gained approval in metastatic breast cancer, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) is now proving its worth in metastatic colorectal cancer, according to results of the phase II DESTINY-CRC01 study in patients with HER2-positive disease.1 T-DXd is an antibody-drug conjugate consis...
Female Breast Cancer Surpasses Lung Cancer as the Most Commonly Diagnosed Cancer Worldwide
The ASCO Post Staff
Cancer ranks as a leading cause of death in every country in the world, and, for the first time, female breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, overtaking lung cancer, according to a collaborative report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the International Agency for Research on...
Once-Weekly Selinexor Plus Bortezomib/Dexamethasone vs Twice-Weekly Bortezomib/Dexamethasone in Multiple Myeloma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet by Sebastian Grosicki, MD, of the Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, and colleagues, the phase III BOSTON trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with once-weekly selinexor plus bortezomib/dexamethasone vs twice-weekly bortezomib/dexa...
Continued Survival Benefit With Durvalumab Plus Chemotherapy vs Chemotherapy Alone in Extensive-Stage SCLC
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Jonathan W. Goldman, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues, updated results from the phase III CASPIAN trial show maintained improvement in overall survival with first-line durvalumab plus platinum/eto...
