February 25, 2020 (View All Issues)
Patient-Reported Outcomes From IMbrave150: Better Quality of Life With Doublet
For the first-line treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, atezolizumab plus bevacizumab provided a significant overall survival benefit in the pivotal IMbrave150 trial. New findings from a prespecified analysis also showed numerous benefits for the doublet in terms of quality of life,...
Redefining What It Means to Have Precursor Myeloma
Studies have shown that all patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma had a preceding asymptomatic expansion of clonal plasma cells, clinically recognized as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smoldering multiple myeloma. According to C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, Professor of...
Value: Is the Benefit Worth the Cost?
AS A YOUNG CLINICIAN, I was interested in making a difference; it did not matter how much of a difference, as long as I could claim some patient benefit. And I really didn’t care what benefit: better survival, less local recurrence, shorter hospital stays, fewer narcotics—the specifics did not...
Two Novel Pegylated Agents Fail in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
Two novel treatments once thought to hold promise in the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer have not proved to be effective in phase III trials, investigators reported at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. When combined with standard chemotherapy, a pegylated form of human...
Use of Cell-Free DNA Methylation–Based Blood Test in Detecting Gastrointestinal Cancers
A noninvasive, blood-based, cell-free DNA test focused on the presence of DNA methylation appears to be highly sensitive in detecting gastrointestinal cancers and may pinpoint the tissue of origin in the vast majority of these cancers.1 The assay was developed based on findings from the...
Cancer in the Aging Population: ‘Leaving No One Behind’
With the motto of “leaving no one behind,” 420 delegates from 40 countries and 61 faculty members from 19 countries attended the Annual Meeting of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) in Geneva on November 14–16, 2019.
SIOG serves as a platform to discuss a myriad of aspects...
ESMO Immuno-Oncology 2019: Safety Analysis Results for First-Line Durvalumab Plus Platinum/Etoposide in Extensive-Stage SCLC
Few grade 3 or higher immune-related adverse events were observed in patients treated with first-line durvalumab plus platinum/etoposide for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to findings from the safety analysis of the phase III CASPIAN study presented by Özgüroğlu et al at...
Venetoclax Plus Dexamethasone Shows Activity in t(11;14) Multiple Myeloma
In a phase I/II study of patients with advanced multiple myeloma and t(11;14) translocations, the combination of venetoclax and dexamethasone showed strong, durable activity, even in patients refractory to daratumumab, study investigators reported at the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH)...
Study Finds ‘Bridge’ to CAR T-Cell Therapy May Be Detrimental to Survival
The use of bridging therapy before treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel was associated with worse overall survival in univariate, multivariate, and propensity score–matched analyses performed on data from the U.S. Lymphoma CAR T Consortium, investigators reported at the 2019 American Society of...
New ASCO Guideline Highlights Need to Improve Germline, Somatic Tumor Testing in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
A new ASCO clinical practice guideline provides clinicians and other health-care professionals with evidence-based recommendations on genetic and tumor testing for women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer.1
“We wanted to go over the evidence and make strong statements and recommendations...
ASCO/CCO Update Guideline for Selecting Systemic Treatment in Stage IV NSCLC Without Driver Mutations
ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have published an update to a joint guideline on systemic therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without driver mutations.1
“The treatment of stage IV NSCLC has become increasingly more complicated, and, with the advent of immunotherapy and the ...
No Improved Pathologic Complete Response With Atezolizumab in Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to chemotherapy with carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel failed to significantly improve pathologic complete response rates compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with early high-risk, locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer. According...
Mixed Results With Durvalumab Maintenance in HER2-Negative Advanced Breast Cancer
Given as maintenance therapy, the checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab significantly improved overall survival in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and yielded a numerical but not significant benefit as well for patients expressing programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), in...
Prevent Cancer Foundation Awards $1.1 Million in Cancer Research and Global Grants
The Prevent Cancer Foundation® has announced the funding of eight new United States–based researchers and four new cancer prevention and early detection projects in low- or middle-income countries. Research grants and fellowships awarded this year will increase cancer prevention and early detection ...
Update on Project Facilitate at the Oncology Center of Excellence
OCE Insights is an occasional department developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Mitchell Chan, PharmD, BCPS, Regulatory Project Manager; Tamy Kim, PharmD, Associate Director of Regulatory ...
CMS Expands Coverage of Next-Generation Sequencing for Patients With Breast or Ovarian Cancer
On January 27, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) took action to cover U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved or –cleared laboratory diagnostic tests using next-generation sequencing (NGS) for patients with germline ovarian or breast cancer.
Over the last several years,...
Updates in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on allogeneic and autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation. For full...
Eileen Smith, MD, Named Chair, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope
Eileen Smith, MD, Medical Director of City of Hope’s Alpha Stem Cell Clinic, Associate Director of the Clinical Research Program, Clinical Professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, has been appointed the new Chair of the Department of Hematology &...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to Establish Riney Family Multiple Myeloma Initiative
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will establish the Riney Family Multiple Myeloma Initiative to help improve outcomes and accelerate understanding of the underlying biology for the most challenging types of myeloma. The initiative is being established with a $16.5 million gift from Paula and Rodger...
The EHE Foundation Receives $450,000 Award From the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The EHE Foundation announced it will receive a $450,000 award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to drive progress toward treatments and a cure for epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE), a rare vascular cancer diagnosed in about 20 individuals per year. The award recognizes The EHE...
ASCO Endorses Cancer Care Ontario Guideline on Bone Health and Bone-Targeted Therapies for Prostate Cancer
ASCO recently endorsed the Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline “Bone Health and Bone-Targeted Therapies for Prostate Cancer,” which was originally approved by CCO in 2017.1 The recommendations were based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant research and clinical trial reports...
BEACON-CRC: Quality of Life May Be Well Maintained With Targeted Treatment
For patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer harboring BRAF V600E mutations, the phase III BEACON-CRC study showed the benefit for combining two or three targeted agents vs the standard of care.1 The study has now also shown a benefit for the triplet and doublet in...
NCI’s James N. Kochenderfer, MD, Receives Clinical Research Achievement Award
James N. Kochenderfer, MD, Investigator in the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute has been named a Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Awardee by the Clinical Research Forum. Dr. Kochenderfer received the award for his research into the development of chimeric antigen receptor...
Data From Colorectal Cancer Cohorts of TAPUR Study Presented
Positive findings from three Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study cohorts on the potential benefit of molecularly targeted drugs in patients with advanced colorectal cancer were presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1-3
The TAPUR study is the first...
Pembrolizumab for BCG-Unresponsive, High-Risk Non–Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer
On January 8, 2020, pembrolizumab was approved for treatment of patients with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive, high-risk, non–muscle invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ with or without papillary tumors who are ineligible for or have elected not to undergo cystectomy.1,2
...
Stand Up To Cancer Announces Gastric Cancer Interception Research Team
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) recently announced that an international team of experts will take a new approach to fighting gastric cancer. The SU2C Gastric Cancer Interception Research Team: Early Detection and Interception of Diffuse and Intestinal Gastric Cancer was introduced at the SU2C Scientific ...
Poster to Bedside: Geriatric Oncology Research Updates From 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting
Functional status impairment, limited mobility, comorbidities, polypharmacy, and other aging-related manifestations are common in older individuals. These conditions complicate the oncologic management of older adults, who are underrepresented in clinical trials, even though they form...
Edna Cukierman, PhD, Receives Grant to Study Biology of Pancreatic Cancer
Edna Cukierman, PhD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, has received a $292,999 grant from Worldwide Cancer Research for a 2-year study of the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer cells. Dr. Cukierman, Associate Professor in the Cancer Biology Research Program and Co-Leader of the Marvin and Concetta...
Strong Activity Shown for Lisocabtagene Maraleucel CAR T-Cell Therapy in Aggressive Large B-Cell Lymphoma
Another CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy may be poised to enter the marketplace for aggressive relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, based on a high rate of rapid and durable complete responses achieved with lisocabtagene maraleucel. The phase I...
FLAG-GO Achieves Deeper Remission Than FLAG-IDA in Favorable-Risk AML
Gemtuzumab ozogamicin, once approved in 2000 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), was taken off the market in 2010 due to toxicity concerns. Idarubicin has been used in place of gemtuzumab ozogamicin in some chemotherapy regimens. Gemtuzumab ozogamicin was reintroduced to the market...
Using Machine Learning to Prompt Serious Illness Conversations
Despite research showing that among patients with cancer, early advance care planning conversations lead to care that is in alliance with patients’ goals and wishes, especially at the end of life,1 most patients die without having discussions about their treatment goals and end-of-life...
Rami K. Daya, MD, Leads Perlmutter Cancer Center’s New Location in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Hematologist/oncologist Rami K. Daya, MD, will lead a team of cancer experts at New York University (NYU)/Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center’s new multidisciplinary, ambulatory location in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. As Director of Medical Oncology at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn, he will oversee all...
Postmenopausal Estrogen and Risk of Breast Cancer: What Is the Real Story?
I am responding to an article in the January 25, 2020, issue of The ASCO Post on the conclusion of the 19-year follow-up on the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) presented by Rowan T. Chlebowski, MD, PhD, at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: Postmenopausal estrogen administration does not ...
Neoadjuvant Cisplatin for BRCA-Mutation Carriers: Pruning the Dead Branches
At the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Nadine Tung, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, presented a multisite study called INFORM, run by the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium.1 It compared single-agent cisplatin with a “classic” combination of doxorubicin and...
The Ohio State–James Cancer Repository Program Now Accepting Oral Cancer Therapy Donations for Patients in Need
Individuals are now able to donate no-longer-needed oral cancer therapy drugs to other persons with cancer through new state rules spearheaded by the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove...
Searching for Evidence-Based Reassurance Where None Could Be Found
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical...
New Center for Indigenous Cancer Research at Roswell Park Has Regional Focus, Global Reach
Growing up on the Seneca Nation in Western New York, Rodney Haring, PhD, MSW, learned the concept of “The Good Mind,” largely from the matrilineal voices in his community. He calls this philosophy, which is one of the shaping principles of the Haudenosaunee people, “a strength from awareness of...
Cancer Has Made Me the Person I Am, and I’m Grateful
The only clue that I was harboring a life-threatening cancer came as I was driving to a golf lesson in the fall of 2006, and I casually rubbed the left side of neck and felt a tiny bump. Although I wasn’t alarmed at the time, I did point out the mass to my primary care physician when I...
Hematologist Usama Gergis, MD, MBA, Joins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center
The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health (Sidney Kimmel) welcomes Usama Gergis, MD, MBA, as Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant and Immune Cellular Therapy Program and Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology, Division of Hematological Malignancies.
Dr. Gergis joins Sidney...
New Cancer Center Established at Johns Hopkins University
The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research has announced the creation of the Mark Foundation Center for Advanced Genomics and Imaging at the Johns Hopkins University, which will receive initial funding of $5 million over 2 years. Scientists from the Mark Foundation will collaborate with Johns Hopkins...
Collaborative Team Receives Funding to Enhance Participation of Black Women in Cancer Clinical Trials
A team of leaders in patient advocacy and education at the Black Women’s Health Imperative, Friends of Cancer Research (Friends), and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) have been approved for a funding award through the Eugene Washington Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Awards ...
Using Antioxidants and Other Supplements With Chemotherapy May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence and Mortality
Using antioxidants and other dietary supplements before and during adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer may increase the risk of recurrence and “to a lesser extent, death,” according to an analysis of dietary and nutritional data from a phase III trial, published in the Journal of Clinical...
Jason Luke, MD, FACP, Receives Sy Holzer Endowed Immunotherapy Research Award
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center immunologist Jason Luke, MD, FACP, has been presented with the Sy Holzer Endowed Immunotherapy Research Fund Award to advance innovative research in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Luke, a medical oncologist and clinical investigator, ...
NCI Appoints Satish Gopal, MD, MPH, as Director of Center for Global Health
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has named Satish Gopal, MD, MPH as Director of the Center for Global Health.
Dr. Gopal is a physician-scientist who led the cancer program for the University of North Carolina (UNC) Project-Malawi, a research and care collaboration between the University of...
Effect of Volume-Based CT Screening on Lung Cancer Mortality in High-Risk Patients
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Harry J. de Koning, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the Dutch/Belgian NELSON trial has shown a significant reduction in 10-year lung cancer mortality with volume-based low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening vs no screening in high-risk men.
...
Pooled Analysis of Body Mass Index and Overall Survival With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in NSCLC
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kichenadasse et al found that high body mass index was associated with improved overall survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with atezolizumab.
As noted by the investigators, there are data showing that high BMI is...
Cemiplimab in Locally Advanced Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Migden et al, a phase II trial has shown activity of cemiplimab in patients with locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. The trial supported the September 2018 U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of cemiplimab in this setting. In this report, ...
Does Treating Individuals for H pylori Infection Reduce Gastric Cancer Risk in Those With a Family History of the Disease?
In a large Korean single-center study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Choi et al found that eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection was associated with a reduced risk of gastric cancer in individuals with a family history of gastric cancer in first-degree relatives.
As...
Nobel Laureate Stanley Cohen, PhD, Dies at 97
Stanley Cohen, PhD, co-recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, died on February 5, 2020. The Nobel Laureate was recognized for his discovery of epidermal growth factor and its receptor. He shared the prize with Rita Levi-Montalcini, MD, a former colleague, who was recognized...
More Choices, More Flexibility With New Maintenance of Certification Pathway
Beginning this year, oncology specialists will have the opportunity to pursue a more flexible and less burdensome path to maintaining recertification. The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)/ASCO Medical Oncology: Learning & Assessment (MOLA) is a lower-stakes Maintenance of...
Nebraska Oncology Society Supports Young Investigators, Expands Footprint Through Collaboration
The Nebraska Oncology Society (NOS) is now the fourth ASCO state affiliate committed to supporting Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, by funding a Young Investigator Award (YIA).
“There’s a great need for oncologists in clinical practice, in general,” said NOS President Ralph Hauke, MD,...
QOPI Round 1 Now Open for Data Abstraction: Improve Quality Practice-Wide
ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) Round 1 of reporting is open for data abstraction. Round 1 will close on June 5, 2020, and final reports will be available approximately 4 weeks later.
To get started, go to the registration portal at myqopi.asco.org/registration/login.aspx and...
ASCO Submits PCOP Model to HHS Advisory Group Assigned to Recommend Alternative Payment Models
ASCO submitted its Patient-Centered Oncology Payment (PCOP) model for consideration by the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC). PTAC is an advisory group to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which sends recommendations to the Secretary of HHS on...
Preliminary Study Finds ASCO Decision Aid May Improve Quality of Serious Adverse Events Reporting
Sponsors of clinical trials conducted under investigational new drug applications are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to report serious adverse events that are unexpected and suspected to be related to the drug. However, contrary to FDA guidance, investigators often send...
Stock Your Practice for Cancer Awareness Month in March With ASCO Answers Materials
ASCO Answers patient education materials have everything you need to stock your practice for cancer awareness month in March. From comprehensive guides to single-page fact sheets, ASCO Answers is your go-to resource for trusted oncologist-approved patient education.
Check out the following popular ...
Join the Conquerors Community
Monthly giving is an efficient and effective way to help conquer cancer every month of the year. Monthly gifts to Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, are processed automatically, which helps reduce costs and allows your donation to have the greatest possible impact in funding the research...
Your Stories Podcast: Patient Advocate Jane Coulbourne Remembered in ‘Clinical Trials & Tribulations'
The late Jane Coulbourne turned cancer into an opportunity to help others. Jane’s husband, William Coulbourne, and her friend, Susan Braun, MA, FASCO, proudly recall Jane’s work to transform patient care and their commitment to fulfilling her final wish in the latest episode of Your Stories, the...
