October 25, 2019 (View All Issues)
FLAURA Trial: First-Line Osimertinib Improves Overall Survival in EGFR-Mutated Advanced Lung Cancer
First-line treatment with osimertinib extended overall survival compared with the older tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib in patients with EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to late-breaking final overall survival results of the phase III FLAURA...
Long-Term Survival Outcomes With New Treatments for Advanced Melanoma: Questions Still in Need of Answers
The major treatment advances for melanoma can be attributed to anti–-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (anti–CTLA-4; ipilimumab) and anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1; nivolumab, pembrolizumab) immune checkpoint inhibitors and the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors...
The Future of the Radiation Abscopal Response
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
–Robert Frost
One of the first patients I encountered after residency was a 26-year-old woman with a single brain metastasis from melanoma. For anonymity, let’s call her Anna. Anna had...
Three Phase III Trials Suggest Paradigm Shift With PARP Inhibitors in Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is typically a second-tier newsmaker at the world’s premier oncology conferences, but at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019, this tumor type generated universal buzz. Impressive findings were presented for three PARP inhibitors in front-line maintenance...
Phase III Evidence Supports Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy Plus Chemotherapy for Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Immunotherapy has changed the treatment paradigms for melanoma, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and renal cancer. Now, checkpoint inhibitor therapy is making inroads in triple-negative breast cancer—one of the most difficult-to-treat aggressive types of breast cancer.
The addition of the checkpoint...
Studies Suggest Early Salvage Radiotherapy May Be Preferable to Adjuvant Radiotherapy After Prostatectomy
Early salvage radiotherapy appears to be a better choice after radical prostatectomy for men with prostate cancer than adjuvant radiotherapy, according to late-breaking results from the RADICALS-RT trial and the ARTISTIC meta-analysis of three trials that included RADICALS-RT. Observation after...
$5 Million Gift to Advance Ovarian Cancer Research
The chairman emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies has made a $5 million gift to the University of Arizona Cancer Center. The gift from Leonard A. Lauder supports the clinical and translational research of David S. Alberts, MD, an expert in the field of ovarian cancer research and treatment.
...
Ceritinib Active in Treating Brain Metastases in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The ALK inhibitor ceritinib demonstrated efficacy in patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and active brain metastases, according to the results of the ASCEND-7 trial reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019.1 Substantial intracranial...
Landmark Studies Show Clear Overall Survival Benefit for CDK4/6 Inhibitors in Advanced Breast Cancer
CDK4/6 inhibitors clearly improve overall survival in advanced breast cancer, as this prized endpoint was robustly demonstrated in two landmark phase III trials reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019. Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD, of the University of California,...
Role of Radiotherapy for Patients With Refractory Lymphoma Receiving CAR T-Cell Therapy
Although the role of radiotherapy in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for lymphoma is still evolving, radiotherapy “would be an ideal bridging therapy” for patients with chemorefractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, stated George Mikhaeel, MD, Professor of Radiation Oncology and...
ASTRO Honors 2019 Gold Medalists, Honorary Member, and Other Award Recipients
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recognized the recipients of its 2019 Gold Medal awards and other high-profile honors at the 2019ASTRO Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Gold Medalists
Walter J. Curran Jr, MD; Silvia C. Formenti, MD, FASTRO; and Thomas R. Mackie, PhD, were awarded the ...
Out-of-Pocket Costs for Oral Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Survival in Advanced Lung Cancer
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors have changed the paradigm of care for advanced EGFR- and ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but not all patients taking these drugs may receive the same benefit. The results of a recent retrospective analysis suggest that higher out-of-pocket costs for...
Community Health Workers May Improve Value of End-of-Life Cancer Care
The results of simple interventions involving community health workers suggest that improvements in value-based cancer care need not come from health-care professionals. According to data presented at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium,1 reliance upon community health workers trained to assess...
Zanetta Lamar, MD, Joins Florida Cancer Specialists
Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) welcomes Zanetta Lamar, MD, to the statewide practice. She is practicing medical oncology and hematology in the Naples Goodlette office.
After earning her medical degree with honors from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Dr. -Lamar...
Friends of Cancer Research Hosts Annual Leadership Awards
On September 24, 2019, Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) hosted its 23rd Annual Cancer Leadership Awards Reception. The event honored individuals who have been champions of cancer research and steadfast advocates for patients: Anna Barker, MA, PhD, Professor and Director, Transformative...
FDA Issues Drug Safety Communication on Lung Inflammation Linked to Treatment With CDK4/6 Inhibitors
On September 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a drug safety communication warning that palbociclib, ribociclib, and abemaciclib—used to treat some patients with advanced breast cancer—may cause rare but severe inflammation of the lungs. The agency approved new warnings about...
2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Announced
Today, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced its decision to award the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, MD; Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, FRS; and Gregg L. Semenza, MD, PhD, for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen...
Debating the Role of Chemoimmunotherapy in the First-Line Setting of CLL
The advent of new targeted agents for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has ushered in a golden age of treatment, leading to longer, more durable periods of disease control. Not all oncologists are convinced, however, that improvements in progression-free survival alone warrant dispensing with...
Pembrolizumab/Lenvatinib in Advanced Endometrial Carcinoma Without Microsatellite Instability–High or Mismatch Repair–Deficient Disease
On September 17, 2019, the combination of pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma that is not microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) and who have disease progression...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Receives $5 Million Gift to Create the Center for Myelodysplastic Syndromes
A $5 million gift from the Edward P. Evans Foundation will create the Edward P. Evans Center for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The gift will help Dana-Farber in transformative collaborative research aimed at treating, preventing, and ultimately curing MDS....
Susan G. Komen Names Three Recipients of the 2019 Brinker Awards for Scientific Distinction
Susan G. Komen recently named Jane Visvader, PhD; George Lindeman, MBBS, PhD; and Matthew J. Ellis, BSc, MB, BChir, PhD, FRCP, as this year’s recipients of the Brinker Awards for Scientific Distinction. The 2019 Brinker Award winners will deliver keynote lectures at the upcoming 2019 San...
5-Year Follow-up of KEYNOTE-006 Trial of Pembrolizumab vs Ipilimumab in Advanced Melanoma
In a post hoc 5-year follow-up of the KEYNOTE-006 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Caroline Robert, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Sud, and colleagues found that pembrolizumab maintained overall and progression-free survival benefits over ipilimumab in advanced melanoma.1 In ...
A Pioneer in Breast Cancer Clinical Trials, Norman Wolmark, MD, FACS, Looks Back on His Practice-Changing Accomplishments
GUEST EDITOR
Dr. Abraham is the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic.
For this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with breast cancer...
Asciminib/Imatinib in Patients With Previously Treated CML
In a phase I trial, the combination of the BCR-ABL1 inhibitor asciminib and the small-molecule kinase inhibitor imatinib showed preliminary efficacy, safety, and tolerability in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) resistant to or intolerant of treatment with two or more prior tyrosine...
ASCO Breakthrough: Effect of ATM Mutations on Response to Radiotherapy
Somatic mutations of DNA damage repair genes like ATM and BRCA1 or BRCA2 may result in poor disease prognosis and chemotherapy resistance. However, a study by Lee et al presented at ASCO Breakthrough: A Global Summit for Oncology Innovators (Abstract 130) investigated the possibility that these...
Vipul Patel, MD, and Craig Reynolds, MD, Join AON Board
The American Oncology Network, LLC (AON), whose mission is to support the long-term viability of community oncology, has named Vipul Patel, MD, and Craig Reynolds, MD, to its Board. The AON Board provides strategic guidance to its growing network of physicians and physician practices, currently in...
How Cancer.Net Is Changing to Help Young Adults and Teenagers With Cancer
A diagnosis of cancer always comes as a surprise. Life does not prepare any of us for telling our friends and family that we have cancer, and this can be especially difficult for young adults and teenagers. Cancer interrupts their lives at a time when it is least expected. Life goals,...
Support Your Patients With ASCO Answers Fact Sheets
Direct, easy to understand, and in a convenient single-page format, ASCO Answers fact sheets introduce patients and their caregivers to types of cancer and cancer-related topics, including diagnosis, treatment, and side effects. Each fact sheet includes a topic overview, illustration, methods for...
ASCO’s Journal of Global Oncology Informs Cancer Care Everywhere
As part of ASCO’s commitment to improving cancer care delivery and outcomes around the world, it publishes the Journal of Global Oncology (JGO). JGO Editorial Board member Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, has been a proponent of global thinking and global action in cancer care throughout his career. Dr....
Top Research From 2019 Quality Care Symposium Focuses on Cost of Cancer Care, Patient Participation in Clinical Trials
The 2019 Quality Care Symposium took place September 6–7, 2019, in San Diego. Abstracts presented at the symposium focused on efforts to improve the quality of care for patients with cancer. Highlights from this year’s meeting included research on the cost of care and patient participation in...
Leave a Legacy of Hope
By including a planned gift to Conquer Cancer ®, the ASCO Foundation, in your estate plans, you can help make a dramatic difference for patients with cancer years into the future.
With just one small change to your will or trust, your planned gift of any size will deliver a big impact, and:
- ...
Why Do You Live to Conquer Cancer?
Oncologists are a special breed of physician who enter a patient’s life during one of the most distressing and often traumatic life experiences: a cancer diagnosis. That’s just the start of the journey, which can last many years and involve great successes and disappointments. This unique...
Behind the Breakthroughs: The Family Plan
Developed by Conquer Cancer, the Your Stories podcast series shares unscripted conversations among patients, doctors, and the family and friends who conquer cancer with them. The series also includes transcripts of conversations.
Oncologist Sonali M. Smith, MD, and her husband, Norm Smith, MD,...
Conquerors Circle Recognizes Donors
The Conquerors Circle is Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation’s appreciation society for donors who contribute $1,000 annually. In recognition of their generous and loyal support, Conquerors Circle members receive special recognition, which includes exclusive offerings for the ASCO Annual Meeting.
...
American College of Clinical Pharmacology Honors Peter Wiernik, MD, With Distinguished Service Award
The American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP) presented Peter Wiernik, MD, with the Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award at the ACCP’s Annual Meeting in September. Dr. Wiernik is Director of the Cancer Research Foundation of New York. The Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial...
Addressing the Gap in Integrative Oncology Education
In 2018, the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor launched the Integrative Oncology Scholars Program, with the goal of teaching oncology health-care providers how to evaluate the scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety of complementary therapies for patients with cancer. The...
Cancer Researcher Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD, Returns to West Virginia to Lead Her Alma Mater
Nationally regarded melanoma researcher Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD, was born in La Jolla, California, a seaside community surrounded by ocean bluffs and beaches within the city of San Diego. She was reared in a Navy family that moved from the West Coast to the East Coast during her childhood,...
ASCO Breakthrough: Breast Cancer Gene-Expression Signature May Help Predict Recurrence Postradiotherapy
Researchers have identified a gene pattern that may help predict which patients with breast cancer will have early or late disease recurrence following radiation therapy. The ability to predict the timing of recurrence could change—and improve—treatment strategies and determine the length of...
2019 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Recipients in Cancer Research
The National Institutes of Health(NIH) has recently announced the names of two recipients of the 2019 Director’s Pioneer Awards whose research focuses on cell biology: Jennifer H. Elisseeff, PhD, is focusing onregenerative immunotherapies, and Valentina Greco, PhD, is studying the role of stem...
Lung Cancer Program at NYU Langone Joins Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group
NYU Langone Health has become one of 23 institutions selected for inclusion in the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group (TSOG). A North American thoracic surgery clinical trials network, TSOG aims to improve the understanding of thoracic oncologic diseases and ...
Roswell Park Names Thaer Khoury, MD, Chief of Breast Pathology
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has announced the promotion of staff member Thaer Khoury, MD, to Chief of Breast Pathology within the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at the Center’s campus in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Khoury has served on staff at Roswell Park since 2006,...
Mindfulness Training for Men Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer Who Are on Active Surveillance
GUEST EDITOR
Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief of Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate...
City of Hope Enrolling Patients With Brain Tumors in First-of-Its-Kind Clinical Trial
City of Hope has opened a first-in-human clinical trial for patients with recurrent glioblastoma. The trial is the first to combine City of Hope’s chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that target the IL13Rα2 antigen common on brain tumor cells in combination with nivolumab and ipilimumab.
...
The Art of Medicine: Our Role as Patient Advocates
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 essays,...
Physical Activity Delays Disease Progression and Lowers Risk of Adverse Events in Patients With Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Patients who were being treated with chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer and who reported engaging in physical activity had a significantly longer progression-free survival and reduced risk for treatment-related adverse events than did those reporting less physical activity, according to...
National Clinical Trials Consultant, Linda L. Hogan, Dies at Age 72
Linda L. Hogan died on August 30, 2019, following a 25-year history of living with breast cancer and a more recent diagnosis of advanced lung cancer. She was born on November 29, 1946, in Farmington, Maine, and was the only child of Eleanor Sidell (Hogan) Stevens of Madison/Waterville, Maine, and ...
Two New $1 Million Research Grants Focus on Metastasis of Melanoma
The American Cancer Society and Melanoma Research Alliance have selected two new promising projects in a second round of funding under a partnership between the two organizations. The first grants funded through the partnership, in 2018, focused on advancing research to reduce side effects...
Fedratinib for Myelofibrosis
On August 16, 2019, fedratinib was approved for the treatment of adults with intermediate-2 or high-risk primary or secondary (post-polycythemia vera or post-essential thrombocythemia) myelofibrosis.1,2
Supporting Efficacy Data
The approval was based on findings from the phase III double-blind...
POLE/POLD1 Mutations and Outcomes With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy
In a research letter published in JAMA Oncology, Feng Wang, MD, PhD, and colleagues identified the frequency of mutations in DNA polymerase epsilon (POLE) and delta 1 (POLD1) genes across cancer types and found that these mutations were associated with better survival outcomes among patients...
Prior Antibiotic Treatment and Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in Patients With Cancer
In a study presented in a brief report in JAMA Oncology, David J. Pinato, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that past—but not concurrent—use of broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy was associated with poorer treatment outcomes in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors for various cancers in...
Addition of Induction Gemcitabine/Cisplatin to Chemoradiotherapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Yuan Zhang, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of gemcitabine/cisplatin induction chemotherapy to standard platinum-based chemoradiotherapy improved recurrence-free survival vs chemoradiotherapy alone in...
Swallowing-Related Quality of Life After Radiotherapy vs Surgery for Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
In the phase II ORATOR trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Anthony Nichols, MD, and colleagues found a statistical but not clinically meaningful improvement in swallowing-related quality of life outcomes 1 year after treatment with radiotherapy vs transoral robotic surgery and neck dissection...
Susan G. Komen Strengthens Advocacy Efforts With Launch of Komen Center for Public Policy
Susan G. Komen recently unveiled the Susan G. Komen Center for Public Policy, which is part of the organization’s growing efforts to fight for the interests of those impacted by breast cancer among state and federal policymakers. Through the Center, Komen will educate and mobilize breast cancer...
Salk Scientist Tony Hunter, PhD, Receives National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award
Tony Hunter, PhD, a British-American biologist who is a Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has received a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award, which supports accomplished leaders in cancer research. He will receive more than $7,500,000...
A Clinical Trial Was the Right Choice for Me
Nothing prepared me for a diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the fall of 2016. I had none of the typical symptoms of the cancer, such as night sweats, enlarged lymph nodes, or fatigue. In fact, my energy level was as high as ever, as I traveled around the country for business,...
Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, Honored for Leadership in National Lung Screening Trial
The Prevent Cancer Foundation recently honored Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, with the James L. Mulshine, MD, Leadership Award for his work leading the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), the first large-scale clinical trial for low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening. The award...
