July 10, 2018 (View All Issues)
KEYNOTE-407: Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy Benefits Response, Survival in Squamous NSCLC
THE COMBINATION of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus platinum-based chemotherapy improved overall survival, response rates, and duration of response in patients with advanced squamous cell non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared with chemotherapy alone irrespective of programmed cell death ligand 1 ...
With Compassion Toward None, With Technology for All?
Imagine health care in the not too distant future…
JOHN IS GOING about his usual Saturday at home, when his health-care–enabled smart watch alerts him to a sudden rise in his heart rate. As he is wondering about the reason, he feels a sharp pain in his left lower quadrant. The tachycardia...
Pooled Study Analysis Explores the Use of CDK4/6 Inhibitors in Metastatic Breast Cancer
RESEARCH TO DATE has not been able to identify a subgroup of patients with estrogen receptor–positive HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who do not derive benefit from the addition of inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases 4/6 (CDK4/6) to endocrine therapy, according to a study by the U.S. Food ...
Ibrutinib Plus Venetoclax in CLL: High MRD-Negativity Rates, Reduced Risk for Tumor-Lysis Syndrome
A REGIMEN COMBINING ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and venetoclax (Venclexta) in previously untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) greatly reduced the risk of venetoclax-associated tumor-lysis syndrome and led to promising rates of undetectable minimal residual disease (MRD) in the phase ...
With European Protocol, Maintenance Therapy Improved 5-Year Survival in Rhabdomyosarcoma
THE ADDITION OF 6 months of maintenance chemotherapy in the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma improved 5-year survival by 13%, in the European RMS2005 Maintenance study reported at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 “At the end of this long, not-easy study, we concluded that maintenance is an effective and ...
Chemotherapy-Free Regimen Comparable to Rituximab-Chemotherapy as Front-Line Therapy for Follicular Lymphoma
IN PATIENTS with previously untreated advanced follicular lymphoma, the chemotherapy-free combination of rituximab (Rituxan) plus lenalidomide (Revlimid), the so-called R-squared (R2) regimen, yielded outcomes as good as those in patients who received standard rituximab-chemotherapy, in the interim ...
More Evidence of Benefit With Immunotherapy and Chemotherapy in Nonsquamous Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
ATEZOLIZUMAB (TECENTRIQ) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) plus a platinum doublet (ABCP) improved overall survival by 22% compared with bevacizumab plus a platinum doublet (BCP) in patients with advanced wild-type (without an identified mutation) nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according...
Genome Sequencing of Blood Samples May Lead to Detection of Early- Stage Lung Cancer
IF THE INITIAL promise of research presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting bears fruit, we may one day have a simple blood test to screen for early-stage lung cancer and possibly other cancers. Although it is still very early days for this test, an initial report from the ongoing Circulating...
Study of PI3K Inhibitor Added to Fulvestrant in Advanced Breast Cancer Affirms Proof-of-Principle
IN PATIENTS with advanced breast cancer harboring a PIK3CA mutation, the addition of the PI3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor taselisib to endocrine therapy with fulvestrant (Faslodex) significantly improved progression-free survival compared with fulvestrant alone, in the international phase III SANDPIPER...
CAR T-Cell Therapy: Updated Data Remain Favorable in Heavily Pretreated Patients With Myeloma
IN AN UPDATE of a phase I trial, a heavily pretreated population of patients with multiple myeloma continued to respond to the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy bb2121.1 The results presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting confirmed previous findings for bb2121 in the dose-escalation...
Early Data Suggest TLR9 Agonist May Combat PD-1 Resistance in Advanced Melanoma
COMBINING CMP-001, a Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist, plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) appears to overcome resistance to anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) therapy, according to a preliminary phase Ib study.1 Adding CMP-001 to pembrolizumab was well tolerated, with antitumor efficacy ...
Evidence Builds for Tumor Mutational Burden as Biomarker in Lung Cancer
TUMOR MUTATIONAL burden is emerging as a predictive biomarker for the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as other tumor types. However, experts say tumor mutational burden has hurdles to overcome. At the 2018 Annual Meeting of...
Outcomes in Patients With Melanoma Treated With Anti–PD-1 Antibody Beyond Disease Progression
A POOLED analysis by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shown a benefit of treatment beyond disease progression on Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) in some patients receiving anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) antibodies for unresectable or...
Treatment Beyond Disease Progression in Melanoma: Challenge Centers on Knowing Who May Benefit
Dr. Weiss is Assistant Professor (Medical Oncology), Developmental Therapeutics, Melanoma Program, Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Sznol is Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology); Co-Director, Cancer Immunology Program, Yale Cancer Center Co-Director, Yale SPORE in Skin Cancer, New Haven, Connecticut.
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Carnegie Corporation Honors Antoni Ribas, MD
THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION of New York named University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Professor Antoni Ribas, MD, an honoree as part of its Great Immigrants Initiative, a program honoring a selected group of naturalized citizens who have made notable contributions to the progress of American...
Mariusz A. Wasik, MD, Joins Fox Chase as Chair of Pathology
MARIUSZ A. WASIK, MD, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Pathology at Fox Chase Cancer Center and Jeanes Hospital. He will also serve as Associate Director of the Cancer Center, a position he assumed on July 2, 2018.
As Chair of Pathology and a key member of Fox Chase’s leadership...
A Humble Beginning Built on Commitment: The Life and Times of Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, FACP
In this edition of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed medical oncologist Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, Executive Director at the West Cancer Center, Memphis. Dr. Schwartzberg’s major research interests are new therapeutic approaches to breast cancer,...
Testicular Cancer Survivors and Adequate Screening for Long-Term Heart Disease
TESTICULAR CANCER is among the most common cancers in young men. The majority of patients are cured of their disease, but a newly published study shows many remain at risk for later complications from chemotherapy or other treatments. The study, published by Mohammad Abu Zaid, MD, Assistant...
Outcomes of Tisagenlecleucel Therapy in Children and Young Adults With B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Shannon L. Maude, MD, PhD, of Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues, the phase II ELIANA trial has shown that the anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) ...
Ensuring High-Quality Oncology Care for Patients With Intellectual Disabilities
Despite significant gains in improved access to public places, transportation, and job opportunities for people with disabilities since the enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, the long history of discrimination in the social and medical treatment of people with disabilities is ...
Raising Awareness of the Financial Impact of Cancer on Young Adult Survivors
GUEST EDITOR
Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology explores the unique physical, psychosocial, social, emotional, sexual, and financial challenges adolescents and young adults with cancer face. The column is guest edited by Brandon Hayes-Lattin, MD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine and...
Mindfulness in Cancer Care: Hype or Help?
GUEST EDITOR
Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief, Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
“Mindfulness” has gained significant popularity in the lay press in...
Christine M. Eischen, PhD, Receives Professorship in Cancer Research at Thomas Jefferson
Christine M. Eischen, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Cancer Biology at Thomas Jefferson University and co-leader of the Molecular Biology & Genetics Program at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, was recently invested as the inaugural Herbert A. Rosenthal, MD ’56 Professor...
Steven T. Rosen, MD, Inducted Into AIMBE College of Fellows
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Provost and Chief Scientific Officer, Steven T. Rosen, MD, has been inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Dr. Rosen was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers in recognition of...
Marc E. Lippman, MD, MACP, FRCP, Returns to Georgetown’s Cancer Center
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center announces the return of physician-scientist Marc E. Lippman, MD, MACP, FRCP, as Professor of Oncology and Medicine at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
From 1988 to 2001, Dr. Lippman served as Director of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive...
Three Cancer Researchers Share Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science
The 2018 Tang prize in Biopharmaceutical Science is being shared by three cancer researchers, including targeted cancer therapy researcher John Mendelsohn, MD, former President of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Tony Hunter, PhD, Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute;...
Expensive Cancer Drugs Don’t Work if Patients Can’t Afford Them
Eight years ago, I was having a series of colds I couldn’t shake and pain that radiated throughout my back. Still, my symptoms weren’t concerning until, on Halloween morning in 2010, I stepped out of bed and fell to the floor in excruciating pain, unable to move. A visit to the emergency room and a ...
A Medical Oncologist Urges Men to Keep Their Prostates
With the development of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in the early 1990s, the urology community advocated for population screening of all men of a certain age, igniting a heated argument about the test’s clinical value vs potential harms that has not abated to this day. Moreover,...
FDA Approves Encorafenib and Binimetinib in Combination for Unresectable or Metastatic Melanoma With BRAF Mutations
On June 27, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib (Braftovi) and the MEK inhibitor binimetinib (Mektovi) in patients with advanced BRAF V600–mutant melanoma, as detected by an FDA-approved test.1 Dual targeting of the MAPK...
Benjamin Djulbegovic, MD, PhD, Named Director of New City of Hope Research Program
Benjamin Djulbegovic, MD, PhD, Professor and Director of Research in City of Hope’s Department of Supportive Care Medicine, has been named Director of Evidence-Based Medicine and Comparative Effectiveness Research (CEBR), a new program at City of Hope designed to improve patient outcomes by fully ...
Tanya Dorff, MD, Joins City of Hope Department of Medical Oncology
Tanya Dorff, MD, has joined City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center as Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology, heading the genitourinary cancers program.
Dr. Dorff’s area of expertise is in prostate cancer, but she also has experience in other genitourinary tumor...
Oxybutynin for Androgen Deprivation–Associated Hot Flashes in Prostate Cancer
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Thomas J. Smith, MD, of Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, and colleagues described the successful use of oxybutynin to treat hot flashes in a patient receiving androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT)...
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in End-of-Life Care Among Patients With Lung Cancer
Significant disparities in the quality of end-of-life lung cancer care were found among racial/ethnic minorities, with higher odds of experiencing potentially preventable medical encounters during end of life as compared with non-Hispanic whites. These findings were published by Siddharth...
Socioeconomic and Racial Disparities in Management of Brain Metastases
Increasing use of a potentially life-saving treatment for metastatic cancer is leaving many vulnerable patients behind, according to a new study from Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital published by Benjamin H. Kann, MD, of Yale University School of Medicine, and colleagues in the Journal...
Apalutamide in Nonmetastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs.
Earlier this year, apalutamide (Erleada) was approved...
Lessons in the Chill of Early Morning
The following essay by Sushil Bhardwaj, MD, is adapted, with permission, from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and
Excerpt From the 2018 ASCO Presidential Address: ‘Delivering Discoveries: Expanding the Reach of Precision Medicine’
In my area of research, lung cancer, precision medicine is indeed transforming the treatment of this disease and has important implications for other cancers and for the future of our patients with cancer. Today’s achievement of being able to systematically identify genomic changes that can be...
Today’s Breakthroughs Require Year-Round Support
PROMISING BREAKTHROUGHS in cancer care don’t just happen overnight; they result after years of hard work by the brightest minds in cancer research. Yet many are unaware of the vast resources necessary to fuel cutting-edge research projects. Increasing awareness around this issue is vital to...
ASCO Resource Helps Patients Learn About Cancer Costs
HELP YOUR patients understand the financial impact of a cancer diagnosis with the ASCO Answers Managing the Cost of Cancer Care booklet. This booklet provides information about key financial categories for cancer care; an easy-to-understand explanation of health insurance coverage; information...
New Fellows Begin 2018–2019 ASCO Health Policy Fellowship Program
TREVOR ROYCE, MS, MD, MPH, and Sheetal Kircher, MD, are the 2018–2019 ASCO Health Policy Fellows. Now entering its third year, the fellowship program offers oncologists the opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to shape regulatory and legislative policies that directly ...
ASCO Supports NCI-Designated Cancer Centers’ Goal of Eliminating HPV-Related Cancers
ASCO HAS officially endorsed a statement by the 70 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers calling for increased human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and screening to eliminate HPV-related cancers. The full uptake of the vaccine and screening could prevent 12,000 cervical...
