The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the American Urological Association (AUA) recently announced updates to their joint clinical guideline on adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy in patients with and without evidence of prostate cancer recurrence to include new...
In long-term follow-up of a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gomez et al confirmed superior outcomes with local consolidative therapy vs maintenance therapy or observation in patients with oligometastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the open-label,...
According to a study published by Kacew et al in the European Journal of Cancer, copy number alterations in the chromosome 3q arm may be linked to immunotherapy response in patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. In fact, this and other genetic markers may prove to be useful...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted designations in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, and Kaposi sarcoma; and the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) held votes on treatments for tenosynovial giant cell tumor and acute...
In a multi-institutional international analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Merath et al found that a textbook outcome was achieved in a minority of patients undergoing curative-intent resection of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Study Details The study involved data on 687 patients from 15 major...
A large study of postmenopausal women indicated that quitting cigarette smoking was associated with significantly reduced risk of bladder cancer. The most significant reduction in risk occurred in the first 10 years after quitting, with a modest but continued decline in later years. These results...
On May 16, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dalteparin sodium (Fragmin) to reduce the recurrence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pediatric patients 1 month of age and older. This is the first FDA-approved therapy to treat VTE in pediatric patients....
A phase III randomized clinical study evaluating the optimum dose of a combination chemotherapy regimen of oxaliplatin and capecitabine in the treatment of advanced gastroesophageal cancer in frail and elderly patients has found that the patients prescribed the lowest dose tested experienced less...
A phase III randomized trial (E3A06) by Lonial et al testing the effect of single-agent lenalidomide vs observation in patients with intermediate- or high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma has found that lenalidomide significantly reduces the risk of smoldering multiple myeloma progressing to active ...
Foundational research recently published by Schrock et al in Annals of Oncology may help patients with microsatellite instability (MSI)-high metastatic colorectal cancer decide whether to choose immunotherapy or chemotherapy as their first treatment option. “Immunotherapy is the new,...
Recently, the American Urological Association (AUA) released a new clinical guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of early-stage testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer among men ages 20 to 40. Although it is a less common form of cancer, about 9,600 American men...
As reported by Downer et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, findings from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study indicate that moderate alcohol consumption is safe for patients with prostate cancer. Study Details The prospective cohort study used data from the Health Professionals...
Elderly survivors of breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma face risk of brain metastasis later in life, and may require extra surveillance in the years following initial cancer treatment, according to results of a study published by Ascha et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, &...
A team of researchers have identified 34 genes that are associated with an increased risk for developing the earliest stages of ovarian cancer. The findings, published by Gusev et al in Nature Genetics, may help identify women who are at highest risk of developing ovarian cancer and pave the way...
Although arterial-phase hyperenhancement is a key feature of untreated or recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma, standard response assessment such as modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST) should be used with caution, particularly in the early phases after stereotactic body...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Christensen et al found that identification of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) by ultradeep sequencing of plasma cell-free DNA was highly prognostic for outcome in bladder cancer and permitted early detection of relapse. The study...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nie et al found a higher complete response rate with the addition of low-dose decitabine to the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor camrelizumab in anti–PD-1 treatment–naive patients with...
On May 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) as a single agent for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients who have an alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level ≥ 400 ng/mL and have been previously treated with sorafenib. REACH-2 Trial Approval was based on the...
NOT EVERY ONCOLOGIST grows up dreaming of becoming a doctor. In the Your Stories podcast episode “The Forest Ranger in a White Coat,” once-reluctant physician Stuart Spigel, MD, shares how becoming a patient changed his approach to practicing medicine with his son and fellow oncologist David...
THE ASCO ANNUAL Meeting is 5 bustling days of cutting-edge research presentations, educational sessions, and networking events. To enhance conference takeaways and connect attendees more closely with content from the 2019 Annual Meeting, ASCO will host a podcast listening station onsite at...
ASCO and ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation have a new partner in supporting innovative cancer research. For over 30 years, Swim Across America (SAA) has been hosting charity swims, with the proceeds being granted to fund high-risk, high-reward cancer research. SAA is among the newest organizations...
ASCO, the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) recently acknowledged receipt of a key clarification1 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on prescribing opioids to manage pain from certain conditions. The clarification...
ALTHOUGH IMMUNOTHERAPIES have had limited success in pancreatic cancer to date, findings from a molecular analysis of the tumor microenvironment suggest that certain subtypes may be more responsive to treatment. According to data presented at the 2019 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer...
AT THE 2019 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, William J. Gradishar, MD, FASCO, presented a vision of the future in the treatment of advanced hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.1 The refinement of disease subsets, the development of agents targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, the use of novel...
THE AMERICAN Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recognized Emil J Freireich, MD, FAACR, with the 2019 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research at the opening ceremony of this year’s AACR Annual Meeting. Dr. Freireich was honored for his work in establishing combination...
USE OF the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab after two or more prior lines of therapy led to responses in patients with advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in a pooled analysis of two clinical trials: phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 and phase II...
THE 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting was held March 29 to April 3 in Atlanta. In addition to our regular coverage of news stories from the meeting, here are some brief highlights of additional noteworthy studies. Stage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Surgery or No ...
“THIS REPRESENTS the fruits of years of research. Umbralisib is a more potent and selective PI3K inhibitor targeted to the delta isoform. This provides a more precise target for drugs that block that protein, and it more effectively disables signaling. The B cell is central to the survival of...
UMBRALISIB—an investigational PI3K-delta inhibitor—produced impressive results as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma, according to an interim analysis of the phase II UNITY-NHL trial presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
COMBINING TWO established immunotherapy agents achieved tumor shrinkage in rare, aggressive, extrapancreatic high-grade neuroendocrine tumors, according to the results of SWOG S1609, a phase II clinical basket trial also known as DART (Dual Anti– CLTA-4 and Anti–PD-1 Blockade in Rare Tumors). The...
THE ADDITION of the MET inhibitor savolitinib to the EGFR inhibitor osimertinib led to activity in patients with MET-amplified, EGFR-mutated non–small lung cancer (NSCLC) with acquired resistance to previous therapies, according to interim results from two expansion cohorts of a phase Ib clinical...
CLINICAL TRIALS are vital for advancing cancer care for our patients. Each trial represents an unanswered problem for which researchers are committed to solving. Designing, funding, recruiting, and completing a trial are tremendous undertakings for each researcher, physician, patient, and...
ACCORDING TO DATA from a small prospective study presented at the 2019 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer Symposium,1 neoadjuvant immunotherapy significantly prolonged relapse-free survival vs adjuvant immunotherapy in patients with stage III or oligometastatic stage IV melanoma intended...
A 12-year retrospective clinical study of patients who received peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) for malignant neuroendocrine tumors demonstrated the long-term effectiveness of this treatment, which also allows patients to maintain a high quality of life. The study was published by...
The University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has launched a study to determine how financial assistance for costs associated with clinical trial participation might increase enrollment, particularly among low-income patients and racial and ethnic minorities....
In a phase I trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Raje et al found that bb2121, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), was safe in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Investigators reported ...
According to findings published by Drucker et al in JAMA Dermatology, patients undergoing health-care screening practices for skin cancer have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed—particularly for squamous cell and basal cell carcinomas—than those who do not. Researchers...
Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced a final rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that will require direct-to-consumer television advertisements for prescription pharmaceuticals covered by Medicare or Medicaid to include the list price—the ...
Published by Rodon et al in Nature Medicine, results of the WINTHER study showed that RNA profiling together with DNA testing matches more patients with advanced cancer to personalized therapies than DNA profiling for tumor mutations alone. The WINTHER trial aimed to...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Innocenti et al found that consensus molecular subtype of colorectal cancers was highly prognostic for outcomes in patients receiving first-line treatment for advanced disease in the phase III CALGB/SWOG 80405/Alliance trial. CALGB/SWOG...
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), exposure to certain environmental factors, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may increase the risk of developing bladder cancer, according to new data presented this week at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). The...
Nipple-sparing mastectomy complication and implant failure rates have decreased significantly since introduction of the procedure, while the patient population undergoing nipple-sparing mastectomy increasingly includes more advanced cancers and women traditionally considered at risk for...
In the phase III NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG)-252 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Walker et al found no progression-free survival benefit of postsurgical intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy vs intravenous (IV) chemotherapy, each combined with bevacizumab, in...
Findings from a secondary analysis of the phase III OLYMPUS trial were presented by Kleinmann et al during the Plenary Session at the 2019 American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting (Abstract LBA-16). Results showed that instillation of UGN-101, an investigational formulation of mitomycin ...
Prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment are ever-changing, with new research showcasing different ways to identify and manage patients with the disease. Three new abstracts—highlighting how beta-blockers may impact prostate cancer risk, the advantages and disadvantages of using magnetic...
Surveillance of women at risk for breast cancer–related lymphedema using bioimpedance spectroscopy was more effective in preventing lymphedema progression than traditional arm circumference measurement when each was combined with immediate compression therapy. These were the results of an...
Tumor hormonal status, possible ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) on initial biopsy, and imaging results following neoadjuvant chemotherapy may help physicians predict whether surgery might be safely eliminated for HER2-positive breast cancer that is traditionally treated aggressively....
On May 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1; Kadcyla) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer who have residual invasive disease after neoadjuvant taxane- and trastuzumab-based treatment. Patients should be...
The latest results from the REQUITE project, which aimed to discover what makes patients more likely to experience adverse effects after radiotherapy, have shown that a combination of biologic markers and certain genetic changes can predict radiation sensitivity. In addition, the international team ...
A single high dose of radiation that can be delivered directly to a treatment site within a few minutes is a safe and effective technique for treating men with localized, low-risk prostate cancer, according to a study presented by Tharmalingam et al at ESTRO 38, the annual congress of the ...