Nikhil Khushalani, MD, Vice Chair for the Department of Cutaneous Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center, offers his thoughts on the role of immunotherapy in the treatment of advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). Dr. Khushalani discusses the three currently approved immunotherapeutic agents ...
Preoperative radiation therapy added to anti–PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibition led to a significant increase in T-cell infiltration in patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative early-stage breast cancer, according to findings from the phase II P-RAD trial presented at the 2025 San...
We read with interest the commentary by Stuart Lichtman, MD, FASCO,on “Advancing Geriatric Oncology: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going,“ in the October 25, 2025 issue of The ASCO Post.1 Dr. Lichtman outlines the challenges in delivering cancer care to the elderly population. Among these...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) presented the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology to Rainer Storb, MD, during the Society’s Annual Congress held in Orlando. Dr. Storb is Professor Emeritus, Clinical Research Division, at Fred Hutch in Seattle. First awarded in...
The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) offered a statement on the death of Dr. Ed Chu. Portions of that statement are provided here: “Dr. Chu has had a distinguished career as a physician-scientist, clinical investigator, educator/mentor, and senior leader at NCI-Designated...
Albert Einstein Collegeof Medicine and Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center shared news of the death of the Cancer Center’s Director, Edward Chu, MD, MMS, on November 13, 2025. The cause of death was glioma. Here is the statement: “We are deeply saddened to share the news that Dr. Ed...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced that Ross Levine, MD, has been named MSK’s new Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Dr. Levine previously served as Senior Vice President of Translational Research in Memorial Hospital (MH) and holds the Edward P. Evans Endowed Chair for...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) congratulates former President Joe Biden on completing his course of radiation therapy, which he marked by ringing the ceremonial bell alongside his radiation oncology care team. “President Biden’s bell-ringing milestone underscores the vital role ...
Although treatment advances in pediatric cancers have resulted in increases in overall 5-year survival for children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer, many pediatric survivors face chronic health conditions as they age, as well as financial, social, and psychological challenges, according to...
Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and former long-time head of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), is leaving the FDA. Dr. Pazdur has served the FDA for 26 years and is an expert in drug regulation....
A machine learning–based survival model, incorporating preoperative CT images and routinely available clinical data, outperformed standard clinical staging systems in predicting recurrence after surgery in patients with lung cancer, especially in stage I, and showed correlations with established...
During its recent Annual Meeting, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) honored the recipients of its 2025 Gold Medal awards and other prestigious distinctions. Here, The ASCO Post celebrates the achievements of these leading radiation oncology experts. Gold Medal The Gold Medal is...
In 2016, Filippo Milano, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Translational Science and Therapeutics Division, and Director of the Cord Blood Transplant Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, published the results of his landmark study investigating whether an alternative stem cell donor...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) will award three cancer researchers with this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The prize, named in honor of former MSK president Paul Marks, MD, recognizes a new generation of leaders who are making significant contributions to the...
Often referred to as a “silent killer,” ovarian cancer is the most lethal of female cancers. Issues of late detection and poor survival rates continue to persevere, leading to increasing levels of incidence and mortality. Data from the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition have stressed that ovarian...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has transformed treatment for patients with hematologic malignancies, achieving unprecedented responses in some patients, especially those diagnosed with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple...
Using a computational tool, DeepTarget, physicians were able to predict both primary and secondary targets of small-molecule agents for cancer treatment, according to findings from a study published in npj Precision Oncology. The study authors suggest that this represents a potentially significant...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Richard Pazdur, MD, has been appointed Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Dr. Pazdur is a 26-year veteran of the FDA and the Founding Director of its...
Armando E. Giuliano, MD, will receive the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award during the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). Dr. Giuliano is being recognized for his pioneering work on sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with breast cancer, which has transformed the...
In the global phase III SUNMO trial, the combination of a bispecific antibody and an antibody-drug conjugate was compared with rituximab plus gemcitabine and oxaliplatin (GemOx) in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who were ineligible for autologous...
The members of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recently elected four new officers to ASTRO’s Board of Directors: Catheryn M. Yashar, MD, FASTRO, President-Elect; Jonathan Strauss, MD, MBA, Secretary/Treasurer-Elect; Anita Mahajan, MD, FASTRO, Health Policy Council Vice Chair;...
In the spring of 2024, I was preparing to compete in a Half Ironman triathlon and was not surprised when I began experiencing tightness in my groin. I just figured it was the byproduct of specific endurance training I was doing in each discipline, including running, biking, and swimming, to get...
The Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the world’s first comprehensive center aimed at advancing research, treatment, and prevention of BRCA-related cancers, is honoring Alan D. D'Andrea, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with the 2025 BRCA...
Researchers have found that firefighters who battled the massive urban fires in the Los Angeles area in January 2025 developed physiologic changes that may increase their risk of diseases, including cancer. The research, which was published by Furlong et al in the Journal of Occupational and...
“Someday you will be a doctor, Fazlur, and help people,” were the prophetic words of a mother to her son and the driving force behind the early quest of Fazlur Rahman, MD, to become a physician. Born and raised in what is now Bangladesh, he experienced the death of his mother at the young age of ...
In the 50 years now since my fellowship training, there have been major advances in the diagnosis, staging, prognostic scoring, treatment, and response assessment of lymphomas. To conjure up the future, we must first appreciate the present by understanding how it arose from the past.1 So, a trip in ...
Each year, nearly 85,000 Americans are diagnosed with bladder cancer, and about 17,500 individuals die from the disease. Urothelial carcinoma is the most frequent type of bladder cancer, constituting over 90% of cases in industrialized nations. Up to two-thirds of advanced urothelial carcinomas are ...
Eytan Ruppin, MD, PhD, has been appointed Deputy Director of the Translational Research Institute as well as Director of Integrative Data Sciences in the Division of Surgical Research at Cedars-Sinai Cancer. “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ruppin to Cedars-Sinai as a prestigious senior scientist ...
President Joe Biden has completed his course of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, which he recently marked by ringing the ceremonial bell alongside his radiation oncology care team. According to a report from People, President Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden shared the moment on her Instagram...
There is a perception among many scientists that scientific fraud is a rare occurrence, resulting from the actions of a few isolated bad actors. However, an extensive investigation by Reese A.K. Richardson, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation, Kellogg School ...
In early 2023, I began experiencing serious symptoms that were not easily explained away, including deep vein thrombosis in my left leg, extreme weight loss, bruising, wheezing, and shortness of breath so severe that it was difficult to walk my dog more than a few feet without gasping for air. For...
Use of PAM50 subtyping allowed clinicians to determine which patients with recurrent prostate cancer were most likely to benefit from the addition of apalutamide hormonal therapy to salvage radiotherapy, according to findings from the phase II BALANCE trial (NRG GU006). These results were presented ...
Growing up in Draksharamam, a small village in India, Neelima Denduluri, MD, FASCO, was attracted to the field of medicine after witnessing her grandfather, a general practitioner in the village, care for patients so poor he often provided medical services at no cost. Although Dr. Denduluri’s...
On August 14, 2025, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) announced that Phil Knight, a cofounder of Nike, and his wife, Penny, donated $2 billion to the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. The record-setting gift is the largest single donation ever made to a U.S. university, college, or academic ...
Patients with cancer who received mRNA-based COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immune checkpoint therapy were twice as likely to be alive 3 years after beginning treatment, according to a recent study. These findings, which include more than 1,000 patients treated between August 2019 and...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announced the election of three new members to its Executive Committee for terms starting after the 2025 ASH Annual Meeting, taking place December 6 to 9 in Orlando, Florida. Alison Loren, MD, MSCE, will serve a 1-year term as Vice President followed by...
Cornelia Ulrich, MS, PhD, has been elected by the members of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) to serve as Vice President/President-Elect of AACI’s Board of Directors. Dr. Ulrich is Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman...
Armando E. Giuliano, MD, will receive the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award during the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). Dr. Giuliano is being recognized for his pioneering work on sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with breast cancer, which has transformed the...
John L. Cameron, MD, FACS, a surgeon who radically improved the mortality rates of the Whipple procedure, was honored with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award at the ACS Clinical Congress 2025 in Chicago. The award recognizes a surgeon who exemplifies...
In the phase III HARMONi trial, when ivonescimab was given with carboplatin plus pemetrexed, vs the chemotherapy regimen alone, after a third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, patients with EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had a significant delay in disease progression.1...
Bijal Shah, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, summarizes his presentation on the role of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), touching on its use in the front-line setting for newly diagnosed patients with high risk-features as well as in patients with...
Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, was sworn in on September 29 as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Dr. Letai takes the helm of the world’s most prestigious cancer research agency...
James R. Doty, MD, Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and a pioneer in both neurosurgical innovation and the scientific study of compassion, died on July 16, 2025. He was 69. Dr. Doty’s death occurred after prolonged hospitalization for medical complications from surgery in...
ASCO extends its thanks and appreciation to Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, for his decade of leadership and dedication as the inaugural Principal Investigator of the groundbreaking Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study. The ASCO-sponsored TAPUR study is a...
ASCO is deeply saddened by the loss of past president Harvey M. Golomb, MD, FASCO, a pioneer in the study of interferon as cancer treatment. Dr. Golomb passed away on August 20, 2025; he was 82. From the beginning of his medical career, Dr. Golomb was a committed member of ASCO. He joined the...
City of Hope® has been awarded an up to $23.7 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant will help City of Hope to create a biomap of tumor changes that cause immunotherapy resistance in advanced ...
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is one of the success stories among the hematologic malignancies. Now, with decades of data informing its management, it is time to change some of the practices to which clinicians have become accustomed, said leukemia expert Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, FASCO, Professor...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) recently announced that Jeffrey A. Drebin, MD, PhD, has been named Chief Physician Executive. A renowned surgeon-scientist, Dr. Drebin previously served as Chair of the Department of Surgery and brings decades of leadership and clinical experience...
Constipation, a frequent and distressing side effect of cancer treatment, remains underdiagnosed and undertreated—particularly when driven by opioids. Opioid-induced constipation is distinct from functional constipation and requires tailored approaches to assessment and management. During a...
Microbes inside cancerous tumors can influence the spread of disease and the effectiveness of treatment, and those roles make them appealing targets for new therapies. Tumor microbiota–based tools could also help identify high-risk patients and those most susceptible to metastases, and possibly be...