September 10, 2022 (View All Issues)
Concurrent Chemoradiation Therapy With Weekly Cisplatin for Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
When combined with radiotherapy as definitive treatment of locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, cisplatin at a dose of 40 mg/m2 weekly is noninferior to cisplatin at 100 mg/m2 every 3 weeks, according to the results of the ConCERT trial.1 These findings were presented by Atul...
V. Craig Jordan, CMG, OBE, PhD, DSc, FMedSci, the ‘Father of Tamoxifen,’ Recounts a Life of Adventure and Science
In 2019, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed V. Craig Jordan, CMG, OBE, PhD, DSc, FMedSci, Companion of the Most Distinguished order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG), honoring his extraordinary scientific work in the development of selective estrogen receptor modulators, most notably...
Wall Street Doesn’t Believe in This Target
March 2, 2009. Just published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.1 And we even got the cover. Twists and turns of heat shock protein-90 (Hsp90), the chaperone, the evolutionary capacitor. Great name and important cancer target. People smiled when I talked about this at the Hsp90 conference. ...
Real-World Evidence Confirms Survival Benefit of Durvalumab in Locally Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
In locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), immunotherapy consolidation with the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab improved overall survival in the PACIFIC trial,1 thus leading to its use after chemoradiotherapy as a standard of care. Real-world evidence of durvalumab’s effect on overall and...
DART Trial: Concurrent Radiotherapy Plus Durvalumab Active in Older Patients With Locally Advanced Lung Cancer
Interim results of a phase II study have demonstrated the safety and feasibility of treating elderly and frail patients with locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with the monoclonal antibody durvalumab during and after radiation therapy, without chemotherapy. The results of a...
Can Patients With Low-Risk Nasopharyngeal Cancer Be Treated Safely With Radiotherapy Alone?
Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) alone may be considered an effective treatment option for “low-risk” T1–2N1 and T3N0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma, according to trial data presented by Jun Ma, MD, MS, Professor of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China,...
FDA Approves First Targeted Therapy for HER2-Low Breast Cancer
On August 5, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd, Enhertu), an intravenous infusion for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-low breast cancer. This is the first approved therapy targeted to patients with the...
Sylvester Researchers Receive $9.5 Million Grant to Study Esophageal Cancer
Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have received a $9.5 million National Cancer Institute Program Project (P01) grant to investigate esophageal adenocarcinoma.
“People with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease can develop a...
Activity Shown for Novel Immunotherapy Combination in Microsatellite-Stable Colorectal Cancer
Expanded data from the phase I C-800 study showed the immunotherapy combination of botensilimab and balstilimab appeared to be active in patients with microsatellite-stable (MSS) metastatic colorectal cancer. The findings were reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) World...
RATIONALE-306: Survival Benefit Attained With Tislelizumab in Advanced Esophageal Cancer
In patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the addition of the checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab to first-line chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival vs chemotherapy alone, according to an interim analysis of the global phase III RATIONALE-306 trial....
FDA Grants Accelerated Approval to Trastuzumab Deruxtecan for HER2-Mutant NSCLC
On August 11, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd; Enhertu) for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have activating HER2 mutations, as detected by an...
FDA Approves Crizotinib for ALK-Positive Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumors
On July 14, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved crizotinib (Xalkori) for adult and pediatric patients aged 1 year and older with unresectable, recurrent, or refractory inflammatory anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive myofibroblastic tumors.
Two Trials
The safety and...
FDA Approves Darolutamide for Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
On August 5, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved darolutamide (Nubeqa) tablets in combination with docetaxel for adult patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. The evaluation of efficacy was based on ARASENS (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02799602), a...
Companion Diagnostic to Identify Patients With Endometrial Cancer Eligible for Pembrolizumab Therapy Approved by the FDA
On August 11, 2022, Roche announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a label expansion for the Ventana MMR RxDx Panel. The Ventana MMR RxDx Panel is the first immunohistochemistry companion diagnostic test to aid in identifying patients whose solid tumors are deficient in DNA ...
FDA Approves Capmatinib for Metastatic NSCLC With MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutations
On August 10, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to capmatinib (Tabrecta) for adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have a mutation leading to mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) exon 14 skipping, as detected by an ...
Thomas J. Herzog, MD, to Serve as Board President-Elect of the GOG Foundation, Inc, for Gynecologic Malignancies
The GOG Foundation, Inc (GOG-F), Board of Directors recently announced the election of Thomas J. Herzog, MD, as its next President, succeeding Larry J. Copeland, MD, who has served in this role since 2017. Under Dr. Copeland’s leadership, the GOG-F has experienced unprecedented growth in its...
ASCO Updated Guideline of Biomarkers in Metastatic Breast Cancer Supports PIK3CA, BRCA1/2, PD-L1 Testing
ASCO has issued a new practice guideline update on the use of biomarkers in the management of metastatic breast cancer.1 The updated guideline revisits recommendations from the 2015 guideline and addresses topics that have emerged since then in the move toward personalized medicine in metastatic...
Reconciliation Bill Focuses on Health-Care Provisions
Update: On August 7, 2022, the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a broad climate, tax, and health-care reconciliation bill, with a vote of 51 to 50. During a review of the IRA, the Senate parliamentarian removed provisions from the bill that would have required drug companies to pay...
Neurosurgeon Ashish Shah, MD, Returns to Sylvester to Head Clinical Trials and Translational Research on Brain Tumors
Ashish Shah, MD, has assumed the newly created position of Director of Clinical Trials and Translational Research and principal investigator in the Section of Virology and Immunotherapy at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Brain Tumor Initiative (BTI) at the University of Miami Miller...
IASLC Names Co-Chairs of the 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer
Three thoracic oncologists were named co-chairs of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), which will take place September 9–12 in Singapore. Co-chairs work with IASLC to plan the annual research meeting, select program track...
Association of Community Cancer Centers Announces 2022 Innovator Award Winner, Ochsner Cancer Institute
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) recently announced that Ochsner Cancer Institute in New Orleans is a recipient of a 2022 ACCC Innovator Award. The award recognizes Ochsner Cancer Institute’s Chemotherapy Care Companion program—a digital technology system that allows the cancer...
Allison Institute Announces Creation of Scientific Advisory Board
The James P. Allison Institute at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, recently announced the establishment of its scientific advisory board to provide strategic guidance and evaluation of its research portfolio and programs. The 11-person advisory board will be co-chaired by ...
Study Shows 2 Million Life-Years Lost and $21 Billion in Lost Earnings Annually From Smoking-Associated Cancer
A recent study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) reported that nearly 123,000 cancer deaths, or close to 30% of all cancer deaths, were from cigarette smoking in the United States in 2019, leading to more than 2 million person-years of lost life and nearly $21 billion in...
How EQRx Aims to Reengineer the Health-Care System to Produce More Effective, Less Costly Cancer Drugs
The numbers are dizzying. The costs of cancer care in the United States are rising so fast that by 2030, it is projected the national cancer-attributable costs will total more than $246 billion, up from $183 billion in 2015—a 34% increase.1 And although the total global economic burden of cancer is ...
EQRx Pricing Strategy: Not a Win for Everyone but a Key First Step to Expand Access to Cancer Care
EQRx is an economics professor’s dream company. It is the perfect example of the principle of substitution. EQRx provides quality, lower-cost drugs in high-cost categories that may substitute for the higher-priced options. Although the profit margin for each drug unit is smaller than the...
Bispecific Antibodies and the Dawn of a New Era in Treatment of Multiple Myeloma
“I think the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be at the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning!” —Steve Jobs
Relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma remains a treatment challenge. Promising responses have been demonstrated with bispecific antibodies, with a...
An Aggressive Type of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Threatened My Life
I was just 31 and about to give birth to my fourth child, Yitzchok, when I received a diagnosis of primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma. The news was terrifying and crippling. For months, I had been experiencing shortness of breath, coughing, and a pain in my left shoulder, all of which were...
BRCA Gene Testing for Men: MSK Launches Cancer Screening Clinic
Perhaps the best known of all cancer predisposition genes are inherited mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. They were originally associated with an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Later studies revealed that they also increased the risk of prostate and pancreatic cancers and, in...
