February 25, 2022 (View All Issues)
Similar Efficacy but Better Tolerability for Ripretinib vs Sunitinib in Second-Line GIST Therapy
In the INTRIGUE trial, reported during the January 2022 session of the virtual ASCO Plenary Series, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ripretinib was not superior to sunitinib in the second-line treatment of patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) but was better tolerated.1...
Understanding How LGBTQI+ Cancer Survivors Experience Cancer Care
Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning, intersexed (LGBTQI+) community face numerous challenges and barriers when accessing the health-care system in the United States, including cancer care; as a result, they may be at greater risk for developing cancer and...
(My) German Hodgkin Story
Nearly 200 years ago, Thomas Hodgkin for the first time described a peculiar disease with undulating fever, enlarged lymph nodes, and a big spleen. Its nature was obscure. It was a fatal illness, affecting mainly young adults and children. In 1865, Samuel Wilks named this illness Hodgkin’s...
GALAXY Trial: Circulating Tumor DNA Appears Prognostic in Resected Colorectal Cancer
The use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assays in early-stage colorectal cancer is highly prognostic for recurrence and may help identify patients who could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, according to findings from the GALAXY trial, presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers...
KRYSTAL-1: Adagrasib Controls Disease in Gastrointestinal Malignancies Beyond Colorectal Cancer
A disease control rate of 100% was achieved in gastrointestinal cancers treated with the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib in the phase II KRYSTAL-1 trial, presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 The population included primarily those with pancreatic cancer; other noncolorectal ...
High Response Rate Seen With Nivolumab Added to Encorafenib and Cetuximab in BRAF V600E–Mutated Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
The combination of the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib with cetuximab and nivolumab produced responses in 50% of patients and disease control in 96% of patients with microsatellite-stable BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer in a phase I/II trial reported at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal...
In Case You Missed It: Brief Highlights From the 2021 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
COVID has upended our world, and medical conferences have had to adapt to ever-shifting sands depending on the behavior of the variants of the virus that emerge. The 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition was no exception, offering a hybrid meeting for in-person...
PANTHER: No Significant Benefit for Pevonedistat Plus Azacitidine in Higher-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome
The phase III PANTHER trial, which evaluated pevonedistat plus azacitidine vs azacitidine alone in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and low–blast count acute myeloid leukemia (AML), failed to meet its primary endpoint of event-free survival, though lessons...
Improved Outcomes With Time-Limited Venetoclax Combinations vs Chemoimmunotherapy in Fit Patients With CLL
Administering time-limitedcombination regimens of venetoclax plus obinutuzumab or venetoclax plus obinutuzumab and ibrutinib was superior to chemoimmunotherapy in achieving undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) in the peripheral blood at month 15 in fit patients with chronic lymphocytic...
SOLSTICE Trial: Trifluridine/Tipiracil Plus Bevacizumab in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
For the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy, trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab as first-line therapy was no more effective than capecitabine plus bevacizumab, investigators from the phase III SOLSTICE trial reported in a European Society for...
Tebentafusp-tebn for Unresectable or Metastatic Uveal Melanoma
On January 25, 2022, tebentafusp-tebn, a bispecific gp100 peptide-HLA–directed CD3 T-cell engager, was approved for treatment of adults with HLA-A*02:01–positive, unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma.1
Supporting Efficacy Data
Approval was based on findings in the open-label, multicenter...
Single-Cell Spatial Connectivity Analysis Offers ‘Unprecedented’ Information in Breast Cancer
A next-generation technology that focuses on protein expression at the single-cell level has yielded a wealth of information about “spatial connectivity” between cancer cells and their microenvironment. It also provided information on the benefit of adding the immune checkpoint inhibitor...
Centralizing Care for Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer to Improve Long-Term Survivorship
This past fall, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York expanded its adolescent and young adult (AYA) program with the establishment of the Lisa and Scott Stuart Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancers. The Stuart Center is now part of the increasing list of about 50 academic ...
ASCO and American Cancer Society Announce Collaboration to Empower People With Cancer Information They Can Trust
ASCO and the American Cancer Society (ACS) initiated a collaboration to ensure that people can easily find the trusted, expert-approved cancer content they need when turning to either organization for information. As an initial step, the organizations are cross-sharing select cancer prevention,...
ASCO Updates Guidance on Use of Abemaciclib and Endocrine Therapy in Patients With High-Risk Early Breast Cancer
A rapid update to the ASCO guideline on optimal adjuvant chemotherapy and targeted therapy for early breast cancer provides guidance on the use of the oral cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor abemaciclib with endocrine therapy in patients with high-risk early breast cancer.1 The...
Amid Health-Care Workforce Shortages, Staffing Guidance Should Ensure Protection of Individuals With Cancer
“In many areas of the United States, the health-care system is facing critical workforce shortages. ASCO encourages public health officials and health-care facilities to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for managing health-care personnel with SARS–CoV-2 infection or...
Moonshot Expansion Offers Opportunity to Increase Equity in Cancer, Recover Progress on Screening
On February 2, 2022, Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, Board Chair of the Association for Clinical Oncology, issued the following statement:
“The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) applauds President Biden for his decision to relaunch the Cancer Moonshot with ambitious and...
New Guideline Offers Most Comprehensive Summary to Date of Therapies for Brain Metastases
In an effort to synthesize findings from multiple guidelines on various management approaches for brain metastases, ASCO, the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO), and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) spearheaded the development of a novel publication to inform and update physician...
ASTRO Issues Clinical Guideline on External-Beam Radiation Therapy for Primary Liver Cancers
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance on the use of external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) to treat adults with primary liver cancers. The guideline, ASTRO’s first for primary liver cancers, is published in Practical Radiation Oncology.1
...
FDA Approves Tebentafusp-tebn for the Treatment of Unresectable or Metastatic Uveal Melanoma
On January 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak) for the treatment of adult patients with HLA-A*02:01–positive, unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma.
Tebentafusp’s approval establishes several firsts: as the first T-cell receptor...
Studies Show That Laws to Limit Opioid Prescribing Have Hampered Pain Control for Patients With Cancer
In 2015, an unprecedented phenomenon occurred in the United States: according to the World Bank Group, the nation’s average life expectancy fell from 78.8 years in 2014 to 78.7 years in 2015, then to 78.5 years in 2017. The last time our life expectancy registered a similar decline was in the years ...
M. Eileen Dolan, PhD, Named Deputy Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center
The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) has appointed renowned cancer researcher M. Eileen Dolan, PhD, as its Deputy Director.
Dr. Dolan, Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, has spent the past 8 years working as UCCCC’s Associate Director for Cancer...
Reflecting on the Past 50 Years of Cancer Progress and Looking Ahead to the Next 50 Years of Advances
In December 2021, Nobel laureates, cancer center directors, physicians, scientists, politicians, public health officials, and patient advocates gathered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National...
Bispecific Antibodies With Multiple Targets Moving Forward in Multiple Myeloma
Poor outcomes are observed in patients with myeloma who are refractory to multiple classes of therapies, with the average patient experiencing disease progression in up to 6 months and living no longer than 6 to 15 months. Patients often rapidly cycle through regimens that use less effective or...
Expert Point of View: Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, FACP
Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, FACP, Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, commented on the promising emergence of bispecific T-cell engaging (bispecific) antibodies, as represented by studies presented at the 2021...
As a Black Woman, I Knew I Had to Advocate for the Best Breast Cancer Care
When I got the call from the radiology department telling me I had to come back for a follow-up mammogram right before Christmas of 2020, I wasn’t surprised or initially concerned. I have dense breasts, and my first mammogram 2 years earlier had also detected suspicious areas in one of my breasts...
Why Some Patients With Cancer Are Reluctant to Receive COVID-19 Vaccination: Survey Shows Need to Improve Patient-Physician Communication
“My doctor has not told me to get the vaccine.” That was the number one reason patients with cancer gave in a survey at an outpatient infusion therapy clinic for not having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Rivalling that reason were concerns about safety and fear of vaccine side...
Neoadjuvant Cemiplimab-rwlc for Patients With Resectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Marron et al found that neoadjuvant treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor cemiplimab-rwlc in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma produced a high level of pathologic tumor necrosis at resection ...
European Genome-Wide Association Study of Genetic Variants in Alcohol-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma
In a case-control genome-wide association study among persons of European ancestry reported in The Lancet Oncology, Trépo et al identified common genetic variants associated with the risk of alcohol-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Study Details
The study involved a discovery cohort of...
Effect of ADT Use and Duration in Combination With Definitive Radiotherapy for Localized Prostate Cancer
In an individual patient-level meta-analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Amar U. Kishan, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) to definitive radiotherapy prolonged metastasis-free and overall survival in patients with localized prostate cancer. Longer ...
Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, Takes Helm of American College of Surgeons
Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, formally assumed the role of Executive Director of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on January 1, 2022, ushering in a new era of leadership for the educational and professional society for surgeons. Dr. Turner succeeds David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, MAMSE, who led ...
The Greek Alphabet in Waves
The first 6 months of fellowship in a nutshell:
Waves.
July
A move back to the waves of the Atlantic
Calmly and incessantly recoiling while
The Greek alphabet regains traction.
August
The fallout of
Delta.
Telemedicine for goals of care,
While reciting the ABCs of chemotherapy.
