A few weeks ago, a friend in the United States reached out to me about her sister in Rwanda, a woman in her 40s with no history of smoking. Her chest pain had progressively worsened to the point of becoming unbearable. CT imaging revealed a concerning lung mass highly suggestive of malignancy. One...
While there has been a recent increase among Medicare recipients in uptake of genomic testing that helps match patients with cancer to the most effective treatment for their tumor, many Medicare beneficiaries with cancer are still not receiving next-generation sequencing (NGS), according to a new...
There is a strong history of breast cancer in my family, and the fact that I have dense breasts adding to my risk of developing the disease, kept me vigilant about getting a yearly mammogram screening since I turned 32. The test never showed any suspicious lesions over the last nearly 2 decades,...
In the past few decades, the rapidly growing field of precision medicine has improved the survival of patients with lung cancer. Yet the benefits of these therapies do not reach all patients. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer, yet most patients are diagnosed ...
The plasma cell dyscrasia oral abstract session at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting featured several pivotal trials that advanced the field, including those highlighted here. Coverage of new treatments for amyloidosis will appear in a separate article. Mezigdomide-Based Regimen Improves...
More than 50 million Americans live in counties without a radiation oncology practice site and millions more are at risk, according to a new study published by Yu et al in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (Red Journal). The national analysis found that from 2018...
Targeting BCL2 family proteins may counteract acquired resistance to BRAF and MEK inhibition in patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma, according to findings from a preclinical study published in Nature Communications. “Targeted therapy works by shutting down the main signal driving...
Reprinted with permission from ASCO Connection, June 26, 2026. ASCO joins the oncology community in mourning the loss of Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD. As a medical oncologist specializing in thoracic/head and neck cancers, and as a molecular epidemiologist, Dr. Gillison definitively characterized the ...
Tile-based radiation therapy (TBRT) implanted at the time of resection outperformed standard postoperative stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) in the phase III Radiation One and Done Study (ROADS), improving surgical bed control and overall survival while maintaining a comparable safety profile,...
Mr. A was a young professional who walked into my outpatient clinic one morning with his mother by his side. He wore a warm smile, yet there was a quiet heaviness beneath it. A few months earlier, he had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and had undergone primary treatment. He was now...
A new Columbia University School of Nursing systematic review published by Algave et al in the journal Cancer reveals access to fertility preservation care remains limited and unequal for girls and young women with cancer. Each year, more than 85,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs)—individuals...
Two investigational KRAS inhibitors showed activity in previously treated KRAS-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings presented during the Clinical Trials Plenary Session at the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego. Elisrasib was ...
Existing agents such as statins and beta-blockers showed cardioprotective properties in select subgroups, but more treatments are needed to protect against heart failure in patients receiving treatment for cancer, according to findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis presented at the...
The international non-inferiority SENOMAC trial has confirmed that omitting completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is oncologically safe (ie, a less intensive approach does not compromise outcomes) and substantially reduces patient-reported arm morbidity in patients with one or two...
In 2013, during the ASCO Annual Meeting, Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, then ASCO’s Chief Medical Officer, presented a bold clinical trial concept during an educational session on the challenges of delivering precision medicine services in an oncology community care setting. The idea...
Patients with multiple myeloma who received a new immunotherapy combination had significantly longer progression-free survival and showed early signs of improved overall survival, according to findings from the phase III MonumenTAL-3 trial. Peter M. Voorhees, MD, Professor of Medicine at Wake...
Preparing for a patient I was going to see in breast oncology clinic, I noticed she was single and that her partner was female. The information system at the hospital I was working in included a patient photograph along with the usual demographic and clinical information. The photograph had caught ...
“Good morning, and welcome to the 62nd Annual Meeting of ASCO! ¡Buenos días, y bienvenidos a la sexagésima segunda reunión anual de ASCO! This is the world’s largest cancer research conference and the premier global platform for oncology innovation! But what brings us together today is not just...
Among the high-quality abstract presentations at ASCO and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), a few always stand out as particularly meritorious. The ASCO Post asked its Senior Deputy Editor, breast cancer specialist Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to offer his selection and thoughts on some...
Friends of Cancer Research announced the election of Richard Pazdur, MD, to its Board of Directors. Dr. Pazdur spent 26 years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he served as the founding director of the Oncology Center of Excellence and played a leading role in shaping the regulatory...
Results from the phase III frontMIND trial show that adding tafasitamab and lenalidomide to R-CHOP (rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) for first-line treatment can reduce tumor progression in patients with aggressive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma...
New findings from the phase III HARMONi-6 trial presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that the investigational bispecific antibody ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival compared with tislelizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with advanced...
Local radiotherapy may help control disease spread in patients with oligometastatic breast cancer, according to findings from the OLIGOMA trial presented during the Congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO 2026; Abstract 5611). “Currently, patients with oligometastatic ...
The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, in collaboration with the SWOG Cancer Research Network, has launched a new initiative to analyze paired original and recurrent tumor specimens from two practice-changing breast cancer clinical trials. Through the translational study EA1241, researchers will...
In a recent article in The ASCO Post, we discussed increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in oncology and how physician-complementing AI can empower oncologists to be even better at what they do.1The reason AI is needed is that increasingly many variables need to be considered in cancer...
This year has marked unprecedented progress against cancer—as well as challenges. According to findings in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics, 2026 report, the 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined has reached a milestone of 70% for individuals diagnosed between 2015...
During her Presidential address at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, Robin T. Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, assessed how artificial intelligence (AI) is driving knowledge into action in the field of oncology, and acknowledged that “we are now at the crossroads of long-imagined possibilities and actionable...
Although treatment advances have increased the 5-year relative survival rates across all age groups, including a 15% increase for adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 39 years,1 it varies widely for some cancers among AYAs who are diagnosed with cancer. For example, AYAs have substantially worse ...
A telephone-based weight loss intervention improved physical function and other patient-reported outcomes among women with early-stage breast cancer and overweight or obesity, according to findings from the health outcomes (HO)-1 substudy of the phase III Breast Cancer WEight Loss (BWEL) trial...
ASCO has issued a new clinical practice guideline on the use of systemic therapy for treatment of different types of thyroid cancer, a field that has changed substantially in recent years.1 “Despite a rather rapidly evolving field of targeted and nontargeted systemic agents in the management of...
Is artificial intelligence (AI) poised to practice medicine? It may be already. Earlier this year, the state of Utah allowed Doctronic, a health technology company using AI to make clinical decisions autonomously, to renew prescriptions for patients who request the service. Although Utah’s pilot...
At the first and second interim analyses of the phase III LITESPARK-011 trial, treatment with the novel first-in-class hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor belzutifan plus lenvatinib improved progression-free survival, produced a higher objective response rate, and showed a trend...
Guest Editor’s Note: Nocturia, waking up from sleep more than once to urinate, is prevalent in survivors of prostate cancer and is associated with a diminished quality of life and a higher mortality than the general population. The evidence supporting current treatment options for nocturia is weak. ...
Monitoring for relapse with an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered peripheral blood-based tool called AlloHeme demonstrated greater sensitivity in predicting relapse after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) than ...
Updated results from the phase II BRCAAway trial showed that first-line treatment with abiraterone and prednisone plus olaparib resulted in a median overall survival of more than 5 years in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer harboring BRCA1/2 and/or ATM alterations.1...
Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) has claimed a large share of the HER2-positive breast cancer landscape, even finding room among tumors previously thought to be HER2-negative. The DESTINY series of trials are international studies investigating T-DXd as a potential treatment option for eligible...
Patients with advanced platinum-resistant ovarian cancer who had experienced disease progression on standard therapy exhibited clinical benefit when treated with the investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) QLS5132, according to results from a phase I clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov...
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can identify small groups of cells most responsible for driving aggressive cancers. The tool, called SIDISH, offers scientists a clearer path to designing targeted therapies by showing which cells inside a tumor are most strongly...
A population of patients with highly refractory follicular lymphoma achieved long-standing responses with few significant adverse events from odronextamab monotherapy, according to findings of the ELM-2 study. The study outcomes were published by Tessoulin et al in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma &...
As the data continue to show, the incidence of breast, testis, and other cancers are on the rise in adolescent and young adults (AYAs) between the ages of 15 and 39, with increases of 30% over the last 4 decades.1 And while potential explanations for this rapid increase have included obesity,...
Prompting strategies on two large language models improved how the artificial intelligence (AI) interpreted pain and fatigue reported by survivors of childhood cancers for better symptom monitoring and care, according to findings published in Communications Medicine. The study authors noted that...
In patients with CALR exon 9–mutated myelofibrosis who were resistant or intolerant to prior Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor therapy, or ineligible for such treatment, the first-in-class mutant calreticulin–specific monoclonal antibody INCA033989, given as monotherapy or in combination with...
The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to provide highly personalized oncology care for patients and improve outcomes has been decades in the making. In a 1987 editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, pioneering nephrologist and health economist William B. Schwartz, MD,...
Patients with leptomeningeal metastasis have historically had few treatment options. Now, researchers have found a combination of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor tucatinib and the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, plus the chemotherapy capecitabine, may improve symptoms and extend survival in some...
A novel KRAS G12D inhibitor produced disease control in almost 80% of patients with heavily pretreated advanced or metastatic KRAS G12D–mutated pancreatic cancer in an early-phase study reported at the 2026 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Of 41 evaluable patients treated with single-agent...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a new platform, called the FDA Adverse Event Monitoring System (AEMS), for analyzing adverse events from drugs and products. The platform consolidates multiple prior reporting systems in an effort to modernize and increase transparency into...
Vivek Subbiah, MD, has been appointed as the inaugural associate director for drug development and precision oncology at the Stanford Cancer Institute, with a planned start date in spring 2026. In this role, he will lead the Early Drug Development Program to expand access to innovative treatments...
Researchers have identified that the reporting of venous and arterial thrombotic events in cancer clinical trials is inconsistent and potentially inaccurate, according to a comments article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 “Mandatory and uniform reporting of all [venous and arterial...
A novel KRAS G12D inhibitor produced disease control in almost 80% of patients with heavily pretreated advanced or metastatic KRAS G12D–mutated pancreatic cancer in an early-phase study reported at the 2026 ASCO Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium.1 Of 41 evaluable patients treated with...
Among the high-quality abstract presentations at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), a few always stand out as particularly meritorious. Each year, The ASCO Post asks its Senior Deputy Editor, breast cancer specialist Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to offer his top picks for most...