Journal Spotlight
Possible Impact of Nurse Navigation Program in Achieving Equitable Care and Outcomes in Minority vs White Patients
Matthew Stenger
In a single-institution study reported in Cancer, Bei Hu, MD, of the Department of Hematologic Oncology and Blood Disorders, Levine Cancer Institute/Atrium Health in Charlotte, and colleagues found that use of a dedicated nurse navigation program contributed to redressing the recognized inequities i...
Maintenance Daratumumab Prolongs Progression-Free Survival in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Philippe Moreau, MD, of the University Hospital Hôtel-Dieu, Nantes, and colleagues, an interim analysis of part 2 of the phase III CASSIOPEIA trial has showed significantly prolonged progression-free survival with maintenance daratumumab vs observation following...
No Disease-Free Survival Difference With Longer Anastrozole Treatment After Endocrine Therapy in HR-Positive Breast Cancer
Matthew Stenger
In an Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group phase III trial (ABCSG-16/SALSA) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Michael Gnant, MD, of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, and colleagues found no difference in disease-free survival with 2 vs 5 years...
KEYNOTE-564 Trial: Adjuvant Pembrolizumab Improves Disease-Free Survival in High-Risk Renal Cell Carcinoma
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial has showed improved disease-free survival with adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo after nephrectomy in high-risk patients...
Addition of Ipatasertib to Abiraterone Plus Prednisolone Improves Radiographic Progression–Free Survival in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer With PTEN Loss
Matthew Stenger
In a phase III trial (IPATential150) reported in The Lancet, Christopher Sweeney, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, found that the addition of the AKT inhibitor ipatasertib to abiraterone and prednisolone produced a significant improvement in radiographic progression-free survival...
Noninferior Progression-Free Survival and Reduced Cardiovascular Toxicity With Acalabrutinib vs Ibrutinib in Previously Treated CLL
Matthew Stenger
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by John C. Byrd, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III ELEVATE-RR trial has shown noninferior progression-free survival with the more-selective Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor acalabrutinib...
Sacituzumab Govitecan-hziy Improves Survival vs Single-Agent Chemotherapy in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The ASCO Post Staff
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...
Margetuximab-cmkb Plus Chemotherapy Prolongs Progression-Free Survival in Heavily Pretreated HER2 Positive Breast Cancer
The ASCO Post Staff
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III SOPHIA trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with margetuximab-cmkb plus chemotherapy vs trastuzu...
Reduction in Ipsilateral Recurrence Risk With Radiotherapy vs Observation After Lumpectomy for Good-Risk DCIS
Matthew Stenger
In an analysis of long-term outcomes from the phase III NRG/RTOG 9804 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Beryl McCormick, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues found that whole-breast irradiation vs observation was associated with a reduced risk of all and in...
Cabozantinib Prolongs Progression-Free Survival in Previously Treated Radioiodine-Refractory Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Marcia S. Brose, MD, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, the phase III COSMIC-311 trial has shown that cabozantinib produced a numerically higher objective response rate and significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs pla...
Resurgence of COVID-19 Infection in a Large Highly Vaccinated U.S. Health System Workforce
Matthew Stenger
In a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jocelyn Keehner, MD, of the University of California San Diego Health (UCSDH), and colleagues describe a marked resurgence of COVID-19 infections among fully vaccinated workers in the UCSDH workforce in July 2021.1 The resurgence appe...
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...
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...
Adding First-Line Nivolumab to Chemotherapy Improves Survival in Gastric, Gastroesophageal Junction, and Esophageal Adenocarcinomas
Matthew Stenger
As reported in The Lancet by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 649 trial has shown that the addition of first-line nivolumab to chemotherapy resulted in improved overall and progression-f...
Study Shows Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy to Be ‘Viable Option’ for Surgical Staging of Endometrial Cancer
The ASCO Post Staff
Sentinel lymph node biopsy “had similar diagnostic accuracy and prognostic ability as lymphadenectomy in patients with high-grade endometrial cancer at greatest risk for nodal metastases,” according to the SENTOR trial, a prospective cohort study of 156 patients with clinical stage I disease. Using ...
IMagyn050 Trial: Addition of Atezolizumab to Bevacizumab and Chemotherapy for Newly Diagnosed Stage III or IV Ovarian Cancer
The ASCO Post Staff
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kathleen N. Moore, MD, and colleagues,1 the phase III IMagyn050/GOG 3015/ENGOT-OV39 trial has shown that the addition of atezolizumab to bevacizumab and chemotherapy did not significantly improve progression-free survival in patients with newly diag...
Overall Survival With Olaparib vs Placebo Maintenance in Patients With Platinum-Sensitive Relapsed Ovarian Cancer and BRCA1/2 Mutation
The ASCO Post Staff
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Andrés Poveda, MD, and colleagues, the phase III SOLO2/ENGOT-Ov21 trial has shown a large numeric but statistically nonsignificant improvement in the secondary endpoint of overall survival with olaparib tablet maintenance therapy vs placebo in patients with plat...
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 ...
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...
