Hypofractionated radiotherapy to the prostate bed proved to be noninferior to conventionally fractionated radiotherapy after prostatectomy regarding gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects, according to the results of the phase III NRG Oncology GU003 trial, presented at the 2021 American...
An updated analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial continues to support the use of adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo in patients with renal cell carcinoma at high risk of recurrence, according to a presentation at the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.1 At 30 months of follow-up,...
Invited discussant Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, Director of the Bladder Cancer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said: “Antibody-drug conjugates are a major weapon in the way forward in bladder cancer…. The EV-103 trial evaluated neoadjuvant therapy with enfortumab vedotin-ejfv, one of two...
For patients with stage III colon cancer, early discontinuation of adjuvant chemotherapy leads to worse outcomes—but early discontinuation of oxaliplatin did not. These findings, which came from an analysis of the large ACCENT and IDEA clinical trials databases, were presented at the 2022 ASCO...
Research published in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network examined data from the Ontario Cancer Registry from September 25, 2016, through September 26, 2020, to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of new cancer cases detected. The researchers found...
We are all following the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine with surprise and horror. I’m sure few readers of The ASCO Post imagined the invasion of a European country by its European neighbor was possible again, naively thinking wars like this ended with the Allied victory in World War II. But...
An updated analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial continues to support the use of adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo in patients with renal cell carcinoma at high risk of recurrence, according to a presentation at the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.1 At 30 months of follow-up,...
ASCO sent comments to leadership of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) regarding the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act (PREVENT Pandemics Act). This legislation aims to improve the nation’s public health and...
I still remember having to sit down with her three siblings on that afternoon. It was drizzling, cloudy, and cool—Mother Nature in agreement with the heaviness of what had just taken place. I held them tight. I knew the words I would utter next would change their lives forever. I paused for 10...
In a commentary published recently in The Lancet Oncology,1 Harpreet Singh, MD, and Richard Pazdur, MD, both of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), warned against the increasing number of oncology drug development programs based wholly or predominantly...
Advances over the past 3 decades in improvements in cancer prevention and screening strategies and more effective diagnostics and therapies in cancer care have led to unprecedented declines in death rates from all cancers, including prostate, gynecologic, and colorectal/anal cancers. The fastest...
Breast cancer specialist Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, FACP, grew up in the East Bay area of Northern California, the youngest of five children. “My mother was a traditional stay-at-home mom, and my father was a probation officer. I come from a long line of artists; my great-grandfather on my mother’s side...
New recommendations for treating advanced breast cancer, coming from a panel of experts at the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Sixth International Consensus Conference (ABC6), were recently published.1 The report highlights advances that have resulted in robust improvements in overall survival for...
Pembrolizumab monotherapy is an established treatment strategy for relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma. In combination with chemotherapy, the checkpoint inhibitor is also showing value in the front-line setting and further boosting outcomes in the relapsed setting, according to...
Laura Bukavina, MD, MPH, a Urologic oncology fellow at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been awarded the ASCO Genitourinary Conquer Cancer Merit Award. She presented the winning abstract, which characterizes the gut microbiome of patients with bladder cancer, at the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary (GU) Cancers ...
I returned home to the United Arab Emirates in 2017, following my oncology fellowship training and work experience in the United States. I immediately realized that I am now dealing with a considerably different cancer patient population in terms of age of onset, stage at presentation, awareness...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Gerardo Colón-Otero, MD, Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Past Chair of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, and Vice Dean at Mayo Clinic Alix School of...
In a small study of patients with locally advanced mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) rectal cancer, treatment with the anti–PD-1 agent dostarlimab-gxly alone led to a clinical complete response rate of 100%. The findings of this study from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) were reported...
Patients treated for Merkel cell carcinoma face a 5-year recurrence rate of 40%—markedly higher than the recurrence rates for melanoma and other skin cancers, according to research published by McEvoy et al in JAMA Dermatology. Additionally, in the study cohort of more than 600 patients, 95% of...
David Cescon, MD, PhD, Clinician Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, was the invited discussant of the two MONALEESA analyses.1,2 He noted that the most recent overall survival analysis, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021,...
Updated results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial confirmed the key takeaway from the previous analysis: adjuvant chemotherapy benefits premenopausal women but not postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative disease, one to three positive lymph nodes, and a 21-gene Oncotype DX ...
Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, the Alan and Jill Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, commented on NIMBUS1 for The ASCO Post. She said obtaining information on tumor mutational burden is simple, as it is...
Updated results from the pivotal KEYNOTE-522 trial have confirmed the benefit of neoadjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer.1 The results were presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD,...
The ASCO Post asked Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of Medical Breast Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) lengthened progression-free survival and improved the objective response rate compared with the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) after trastuzumab and taxane therapy in women with HER2-positive metastatic...
The ASCO Post asked Joseph Mikhael, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation and Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center), to comment on the GMMG-HD7...
The ASCO Post invited myeloma expert Philip L. McCarthy, MD, Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, to comment on the trials evaluating early detection of myeloma at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual ...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In ...
As a first-line treatment of intermediate- or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the addition of the antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin-piiq to standard-of-care therapy resulted in a 27% reduction in the relative risk of disease progression, relapse, or death, with a similar safety...
When I got the call from the radiology department telling me I had to come back for a follow-up mammogram right before Christmas of 2020, I wasn’t surprised or initially concerned. I have dense breasts, and my first mammogram 2 years earlier had also detected suspicious areas in one of my breasts...
In December 2021, Nobel laureates, cancer center directors, physicians, scientists, politicians, public health officials, and patient advocates gathered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National...
On February 2, 2022, Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, Board Chair of the Association for Clinical Oncology, issued the following statement: “The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) applauds President Biden for his decision to relaunch the Cancer Moonshot with ambitious and worthy ...
Jenny C. Chang, MD, the Emily Herrmann Chair in Cancer Research and Director of the Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, found the results from imaging mass cytometry to be exciting and intriguing.1 The researchers examined “spatial connectivity” among cancer...
The GAIA trial raises some important points, according to Susan M. O’Brien, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Irvine, California. Dr. O’Brien co-moderated the session where Dr. Eichhorst presented study results. “The CLL14 trial...
Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning, intersexed (LGBTQI+) community face numerous challenges and barriers when accessing the health-care system in the United States, including cancer care; as a result, they may be at greater risk for developing cancer and...
An interim analysis of an ongoing phase III study indicated that using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to guide stereotactic body radiotherapy for patients with prostate cancer reduced side effects associated with the treatment. The findings were presented at the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers...
Two different trials presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition found that fixed-duration treatment with ibrutinib and venetoclax achieved deep and sustained undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) status when used as first-line therapy for...
The GAIA trial raises some important points, according to Susan M. O’Brien, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Irvine, California. Dr. O’Brien co-moderated the session where Dr. Eichhorst presented study results. “The CLL14 trial...
In 2015, an unprecedented phenomenon occurred in the United States: according to the World Bank Group, the nation’s average life expectancy fell from 78.8 years in 2014 to 78.7 years in 2015, then to 78.5 years in 2017. The last time our life expectancy registered a similar decline was in the years ...
In a commentary published in The Lancet Oncology, Harpreet Singh, MD, and Richard Pazdur, MD, both of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), warned against the increasing number of oncology drug development programs based wholly or predominantly on data...
I was honored to contribute a chapter on the cancer care delivery system and how to improve it for the book A New Deal for Cancer: Lessons From a 50 Year War, edited by Abbe R. Gluck and Charles Fuchs, MD, MPH (Public Affairs, 2021). The book chronicles what has been accomplished in the 50 years...
Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, the Alan and Jill Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, commented on NIMBUS1 for The ASCO Post. She said obtaining information on tumor mutational burden is simple, as it is part ...
The ASCO Post asked Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of Medical Breast Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San...
The start of January 2014 was filled with excitement. I was undergoing fertility treatments to have a second child and was living my professional dream. I was a network news anchor and medical news reporter for a national broadcast network. Although I was exhausted from my grueling early morning...
Updated results from the pivotal KEYNOTE-522 trial have confirmed the benefit of neoadjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer.1 The results were presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD,...
Two different trials presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition found that fixed-duration treatment with ibrutinib and venetoclax achieved deep and sustained undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) status when used as first-line therapy for...
Over the past 7 years, the introduction of combined endocrine therapy with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors resulted in a dramatic improvement in outcomes for patients with metastatic, hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Early attempts to modulate the cell cycle with ...
Hyaluronic acid is a known presence in pancreatic tumors, but a new study published by Kim et al in eLife has shown that hyaluronic acid can also act as a nutrient to fuel pancreatic cancer metabolism. These findings provide insight into how pancreatic cancer cells grow and indicate new...
In an interview with The ASCO Post, Hanno R. Hock, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, highlighted the study’s “very nice response rate” and “encouraging data” while also noting that a pediatric-based treatment regimen in fit adults ...
Kerryn Reding, PhD, MPH, RN—whose research focuses on reducing cancer incidence and improving survival, with particular interests in lifestyle interventions and biomarkers of risk—was born in Australia, but her family moved to Iowa when she was a toddler. “Both of my parents were in health care. My ...