AACR Annual Meeting 2023
SWOG S1512 Trial: Pembrolizumab Achieves High Response Rates in Rare Type of Melanoma
The immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab achieved high response rates in patients with unresectable metastatic desmoplastic melanoma, a rare invasive tumor type, according to the results of the p...
Expert Point of View: Lisa Newman, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCO
Commenting on this study on clinical genomic profiling for colorectal cancer, Lisa Newman, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCO, Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery and leader of the Multidisciplinary Breast Onco...
Retrospective Study Finds Black Patients With Colorectal Cancer Had Fewer Actionable Genomic Mutations Than White Patients
Black individuals have a higher incidence of colorectal cancer than White individuals, and their outcomes are worse. Undoubtedly, reasons for this are multifaceted, but the disparity in outcomes may b...
In Case You Missed It: Brief Highlights From Studies Presented During AACR 2023
Presented here are some highlights of preliminary studies presented at the 2023 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. These presentations provide signals for the utility of a...
Better Awareness of HPV-Associated Cancers Is Still Needed in the United States, Study Finds
Awareness of the link between the human papillomavirus (HPV) and HPV-associated cervical cancers has declined over time, and awareness of other HPV-associated cancers, such as oral, penile, and anal, ...
Genetic Sequencing May Identify Cancers Often Missed by Traditional Screening Guidelines
Whole-exome sequencing of a large database identified carriers of mutations associated with hereditary cancer syndromes (ie, hereditary breast and ovarian cancers and Lynch syndrome). What was surpris...
IMbrave050 Trial: Adjuvant Regimen of Atezolizumab Plus Bevacizumab in Resectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Adjuvant treatment with the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in recurrence-free survival compared with active surv...
Novel Bispecific Antibody for Multiple Myeloma Shows High Response Rates in Early Trial
The bispecific antibody REGN5459 achieved a 90.5% overall response rate when given at the two highest doses in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to the results of a phas...
Study Shows mRNA-Based Personalized Vaccine Plus Pembrolizumab Active in Melanoma for the First Time
The search for an effective cancer vaccine has been frustrating, but finally there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Adjuvant use of an investigational personalized mRNA vaccine (mRNA-4157) plus ...
Marcus O. Butler, MD, on Uveal Melanoma: Tebentafusp and Evidence of Tumor Response
Marcus O. Butler, MD, of Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses evidence of tumor response in orbital lesions treated with tebentafusp in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. Tebenta...
AEGEAN Trial Shows Benefit With Immunotherapy-Based Combination for NSCLC
Patients with treatment-naive resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with neoadjuvant durvalumab plus chemotherapy and adjuvant durvalumab monotherapy had improved event-free survival a...
Immunotherapy/Chemotherapy Combination Prolongs Survival in Advanced Biliary Tract Cancers
The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab to chemotherapy with cisplatin/gemcitabine as first-line therapy improved overall survival in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer, accord...
Lindsay L. Peterson, MD, on Exercise and Cancer Outcomes
Lindsay L. Peterson, MD, of the Washington University, St. Louis, discusses the value of physical activity in improving cancer prognosis, especially for patients with breast or colon cancer. Aerobic e...
Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE, on Strategies for Equitable Access to Cancer Clinical Trials
Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE, of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, discusses the ways in which community outreach, programs to help patients access cancer clinical trials, and insti...
Dario A. Vignali, PhD, on LAG3: The Third Checkpoint Inhibitor
Dario A. Vignali, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, discusses LAG3, the third inhibitory receptor to be used in the clinic. He describes the signaling mechanism this immunothera...
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, on Melanoma: New Data on a Cancer Vaccine Combined With Pembrolizumab
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University Langone, discusses efficacy and safety results from the phase II KEYNOTE-942 trial, which showed that a personalized m...
Christina M. Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH, on Resistance Exercise as Medicine: Improving Health and Cancer Outcomes
Christina M. Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses her research on the ways in which postdiagnosis exercise, particularly resistance exercise, can build strength and mu...
R. Katie Kelley, MD, on Biliary Tract Cancer: Data From KEYNOTE-966 on Pembrolizumab, Gemcitabine, and Cisplatin
R. Katie Kelley, MD, of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco, discusses phase III findings of the KEYNOTE-966 study, which showed that add...
Early Trial Results Show Potential Benefits of FGFR Inhibitors and PARP/ATR Inhibitor Combinations in Multiple Tumor Types
In three new clinical trials, researchers have found that the novel fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor pemigatinib and new poly (ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP)/ataxia telangiectasia and...
Patients With Brain Metastases From Renal Cell Carcinoma May Have Distinct Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment
Researchers have created the largest single-cell atlas of renal cell carcinoma brain metastases, with matched primary and extracranial metastases, which has potentially enabled them to discover key bi...
Study Identifies Mutations That May Be Associated With Poor Outcomes in Patients With NSCLC Treated With KRAS G12C Inhibitors
Researchers have discovered that co-occurring mutations in three tumor-suppressor genes—KEAP1, SMARCA4, and CDKN2A—may be linked with poor clinical outcomes in patients with KRAS G12C–mutant non–small...
Novel CAR T-Cell Therapy Under Study in Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma
Treatment with the allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy ALLO-316 resulted in encouraging response rates and disease control rates for patients with metastatic clear cell renal cel...
VT3989 May Be Safe, Effective in Patients With Advanced Mesothelioma and NF2-Mutant Solid Tumors
The yes-associated protein (YAP)/transcriptional enhancer activator domain (TEAD) inhibitor VT3989 may have been well tolerated with durable antitumor responses in patients with advanced malignant mes...
Harry Klein, PhD, on MatchMiner: An Open-Source AI Precision Medicine Trial Matching Platform
Harry Klein, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses MatchMiner, a software platform launched in 2017, that matches patients with appropriate clinical trials of targeted therapies. The platfor...
Karriem S. Watson, DHSc, on Early Engagement in Clinical Trials for Underrepresented Communities
Karriem S. Watson, DHSc, MPH, of the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program, discusses the importance of engaging in clinical trials for those who are underrepresented in biomedical ...
Sherry X. Yang, MD, PhD, on Breast Cancer: New Recurrence Score Data From the TAILORx Trial
Sherry X. Yang, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses findings from the TAILORx trial, which showed that, despite chemotherapy, patients with high recurrence scores continue to have a p...
Timothy A. Yap, MD, PhD, on New Findings on Treating Solid Tumors With PARP and ATR Inhibitors
Timothy A. Yap, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses safety and efficacy data on three different PARP inhibitors combined with the ATR inhibitor camonsertib in pati...
Whole-Exome Sequencing May Help Identify Individuals With Cancer Predisposition Syndromes Missed by Current Screening Guidelines
Researchers revealed that 39.2% of patients who consented to whole-exome sequencing and were identified as carriers of predisposition genes for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer or Lynch syndrome d...
Investigational Deep Learning Model May Help Stratify Risk of Distant Recurrence in Patients With Endometrial Cancer
An investigational deep learning model requiring one histopathologic slide may be effective at predicting the risk of distant recurrence in patients with endometrial cancer, according to novel finding...
Olaparib Plus Ceralasertib May Benefit Pediatric Patients With Cancer Who Have DNA Replication and/or Damage Repair–Deficient Tumors
Researchers have found that a combination of the PARP inhibitor olaparib and the investigational ATR inhibitor ceralasertib showed clinical benefit in pediatric patients with solid tumors exhibiting D...
Pierce K.H. Chow, PhD, MBBS, on Hepatocellular Carcinoma: New Data From the IMbrave050 Trial of Atezolizumab, Bevacizumab, and Active Surveillance
Pierce K.H. Chow, PhD, MBBS, of the National Cancer Centre, Singapore and Duke-NUS Medical School, discusses phase III findings showing that, for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma at high risk of...
Diana Azzam, PhD, on Pediatric Cancers: Efficacy of a Precision Medicine Approach
Diana Azzam, PhD, of Florida International University, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, discusses her study results, which showed that treatment protocols guided by functional ...
Bispecific Antibody REGN5459 Shows Activity in Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma
Although the 5-year relative survival rate for multiple myeloma is improving—up from 34.6% in 1998 to 53.9% in 2016—due to the approval of more effective therapies, multiple myeloma remains incurable,...
Liquid Biopsy–Based Multicancer Early Detection Test May Find Early-Stage and Low DNA–Shedding Cancers
Although plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) tests represent a promising approach for cancer screening, different methodologies vary in performance and many liquid biopsy tests show decreased performance in ...
Study Explores Genomic Basis of Racial Disparities Among Patients With Colorectal Cancer
Black individuals are disproportionately affected by colorectal cancer. They have the highest rates of the disease of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, and are about 20% more likely to ...
Study Finds Lung Cancer Incidence Rates Vary Significantly Among Florida’s Black and Hispanic Ethnic Subgroups
An analysis of lung cancer incidence rates showed wide variations among the racial and ethnic subgroups in Florida’s Black and Hispanic population, according to data presented by Cranford et al at the...
Awareness of the Link Between HPV and Cervical Cancer Has Declined Between 2014 and 2020
Americans have become less aware that the human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer in recent years, according to survey data presented by Adjei Boakye et al at the American Association for Ca...
Sherry X. Yang, MD, PhD, on Breast Cancer: New Recurrence Score Data From the TAILORx Trial
Sherry X. Yang, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses findings from the TAILORx trial, which showed that, despite chemotherapy, patients with high recurrence scores continue to have a p...
John V. Heymach, MD, PhD, on NSCLC: New Data on Durvalumab Plus Chemotherapy From the AEGEAN Trial
John V. Heymach, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the AEGEAN trial, which showed that patients with treatment-naive, resectable, non–smal...
IMbrave050: Recurrence-Free Survival With Adjuvant Atezolizumab Plus Bevacizumab for HCC
Adjuvant therapy with atezolizumab and bevacizumab improved recurrence-free survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following surgical resection or ablation, according to results from...
Single-Agent Pembrolizumab May Benefit Patients With Advanced Desmoplastic Melanoma
Monotherapy with pembrolizumab led to clinical responses in 89% of patients with unresectable metastatic desmoplastic melanoma, according to results from the phase II S1512 clinical trial presented by...
Personalized mRNA-Based Cancer Vaccine Plus Pembrolizumab for High-Risk Melanoma
mRNA-4157/V940, a personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine, in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab improved recurrence-free survival compared with pembrolizumab alone in patie...
First-Line Pembrolizumab Plus Gemcitabine/Cisplatin May Improve Overall Survival in Advanced Biliary Tract Cancer
The addition of pembrolizumab to gemcitabine and cisplatin improved overall survival in patients with untreated metastatic or unresectable biliary tract cancer, according to results from the phase III...
Neoadjuvant Durvalumab Plus Chemotherapy Followed by Adjuvant Durvalumab in Patients With Resectable NSCLC: AEGEAN Trial
Treatment-naive patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received neoadjuvant durvalumab plus chemotherapy and adjuvant durvalumab monotherapy had improved event-free survival a...
