In a population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Spencer et al found that mean weekly radiotherapy courses for cancer and attendance for receipt of fractions declined significantly during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. However, use of hypofractionated radiotherapy...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Fransson et al, analysis of patient-reported quality of life in the Scandinavian phase III HYPO-RT-PC trial showed no significant differences at up to 6 years of follow-up between patients receiving ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy vs conventionally...
Silvia Novello, MD, PhD, of the University of Turin, discusses phase III results from the ITACA trial, which explored the notion of improving survival by customizing treatment and reducing toxicities for patients with completely resected stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract...
A study presented by researchers with the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan confirmed low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening may be feasible in a predefined, never-smoking, high-risk population. The research was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer...
Two presentations based on data from the ADAURA clinical trial advanced previous research that demonstrated improved disease-fee survival outcomes for patients with surgically resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving osimertinib, while also maintaining quality of life. The data were...
On February 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to tepotinib (Tepmetko) for adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) exon 14–skipping alterations. VISION Trial Efficacy was...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Hope S. Rugo, MD, and colleagues, the phase III SOPHIA trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with margetuximab-cmkb plus chemotherapy vs trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who experienced disease...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, members of the international Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) identified the risk of disease associated with germline protein-truncating and rare missense variants of putative susceptibility genes in a large population of breast ...
As reported by Olszewski et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, members of The Burkitt Lymphoma International Prognostic Index Consortium have developed an index—the Burkitt Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (BL-IPI)—that provides “robust discrimination of survival” among adult patients...
Dean Fennell, FRCP, PhD, of the University of Leicester, discusses phase III results from the CONFIRM trial, which sought a standard immunotherapy treatment to improve overall survival for patients with mesothelioma who have relapsed after taking pemetrexed and cisplatin. Globally, the incidence of ...
Molecular profiling allows clinicians to identify the molecular and genetic signatures that help to deliver treatments that are highly specific to a tumor. This tool has made possible a number of advances in the past year that are improving care for patients with gastrointestinal cancers. In...
On February 27, 2020, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology published a case study that described two patients from Wuhan, China, who had recently underwent lung lobectomies for adenocarcinoma and were retrospectively found to have had COVID-19 at the time of surgery. Eleven months later, the lung...
In patients with relapsed malignant mesothelioma, treatment with single-agent nivolumab led to a significant improvement in both overall and progression-free survival in the phase III CONFIRM trial. These findings were presented by Dean A. Fennell, FRCP, PhD, Professor and Chair of Thoracic Medical ...
Neoadjuvant treatment with single-agent atezolizumab for patients with stage IB to IIIB lung cancer resulted in a major pathologic response rate of 21% and pathologic complete response rate of 7% in the primary analysis of the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium 3 (LCMC3) study. The findings were...
According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2020, 89,500 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) aged 15 to 39 were diagnosed with cancer, and of these, 84.6% are expected to survive their cancer for 5 years after diagnosis. However, the results from a study by De et al published in the Journal of...
Emil J Freireich, MD, an oncologist who developed groundbreaking therapies for childhood leukemia and came to be recognized as a founding father of modern clinical cancer research, passed away on February 1. He was 93. Dr. Freireich was a faculty member at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet, Lheureux et al found that the addition of the oral Wee1 inhibitor adavosertib to gemcitabine significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with platinum-resistant/refractory recurrent ovarian cancer. As related by the investigators, the...
In the French phase III SENIOR trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oberic et al found that the addition of lenalidomide to subcutaneous rituximab plus attenuated-dose CHOP (mini-CHOP; cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) did not improve overall survival in...
Giorgio V. Scagliotti, MD, PhD, of the University of Torino, talks about why he believes that many more patients with lung cancer can be cured within the next 4 years, given decreases in mortality rates, widespread use of targeted treatments and immunotherapies, and earlier diagnoses as a result of ...
At a press briefing held by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), researchers presented new data that revealed factors relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, and income continue to be significant barriers to those living with lung cancer. The press briefing is...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-598 study, the addition of ipilimumab to pembrolizumab increased toxicity without boosting efficacy as first-line therapy for metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with high expression of PD-L1, according to research presented at International...
The phase II CodeBreak 100 trial has validated the power of KRAS inhibition with sotorasib (AMG 510) in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In a follow-up to phase I data, the phase II cohort of the study has now shown a durable response rate of 37.1%, a disease control rate...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kumar et al identified outcomes and patterns of relapse in pediatric patients with medulloblastoma. The investigators found that time to relapse and postrelapse survival was associated with subgroup and that the majority of relapses involve...
In a phase Ib/II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, David A. Sallman, MD, and colleagues found that the combination of azacitidine and the first-in-class small-molecule agent eprenetapopt produced high response rates in patients with TP53-mutant myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)....
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Larbi et al found that a high proportion of patients with cancer and their caregivers were unfamiliar with available complementary and integrative medicine services. The primary barriers to accessing complementary and integrative...
This week, we'll discuss the findings of a study that examined the prevalence of KRAS G12C mutations across different populations. Then, we'll hear recent news about FDA oncology drug approvals in the month of January.
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet, Knight et al found that 30-day mortality after surgery for colorectal and gastric cancers was higher in low- and middle-income countries vs high-income countries (LMICs), with the difference only partly accounted for by patient or disease...
Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tobacco use remains a serious public health threat. In addition to tobacco-related death and disease, smoking also increases the risk of the most severe impacts of COVID-19. The American Lung Association has released its 19th annual “State of Tobacco Control”...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kerkmeijer et al, the Dutch/Belgian phase III FLAME trial has shown that the addition of a focal boost to the intraprostatic lesion in patients receiving external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) improved biochemical disease–free survival—without worsening ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Quénet et al, the French phase III PRODIGE 7 trial has shown that the addition of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to cytoreductive surgery did not improve overall survival—and was associated with an increase in postoperative late...
In a phase II trial (ABA2) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Watkins et al found that the addition of T-cell costimulation blockade with abatacept to calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)/methotrexate (MTX)–based graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis resulted in reduced rates of acute graft-vs-host...
Press conference moderator Virginia Kaklamani, MD, of UT Health San Antonio, and Leader of the Breast Cancer Program, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, weighed in on this study. “This study compared patients’ reports with physicians’ reports about the severity of symptoms. It is a...
Physicians may commonly underrecognize radiation-associated symptoms and their severity compared with self-reports of patients with breast cancer, according to a large study comparing patient-reported outcomes with physician assessments of four common radiation-associated symptoms: pain, pruritus, ...
A study led by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that shortening a traditional 45-day course of radiation to a 5-day course delivered in larger doses was safe and as effective as conventional radiation for men with high-risk...
A nationwide panel of experts has developed the first mammography guidelines for older survivors of breast cancer, providing a framework for discussions between survivors and their physicians on screening in survivors’ later years. The guidelines, published today by Rachel A. Freedman, MD, MPH, and ...
To mark World Cancer Day on February 4, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) will give voice to and say thank you to the nurses, doctors, researchers, volunteers, advocates, and other caregivers in oncology from around the world, as well as government agencies, who have worked through...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Luis Paz-Ares, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 9LA trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab plus two cycles of chemotherapy vs four cycles of chemotherapy alone in patients with stage IV or recurrent non–small...
In an analysis of data from the IDEA collaboration reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Timothy J. Iveson, MD, FRCP, and colleagues found that 3 months (vs 6 months) of adjuvant CAPOX (capecitabine and oxaliplatin) may be a potential treatment option for patients with high-risk colorectal...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Weiser et al have developed a "third-generation" clinical calculator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), which incorporates molecular and clinicopathologic characteristics and provides an accurate prediction of disease recurrence...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted Priority Review to nivolumab as either adjuvant or first-line therapy in several types of gastric cancers, as well as to a novel PD-1 inhibitor for locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal. The FDA also...
Marco Ruella, MD, of Perelman School of Medicine and Scientific Director of the Lymphoma Program, University of Pennsylvania, commented on this study on CD58 aberrations: “This is a very important study because it describes a possible new mechanism for relapse after CAR-T19 immunotherapy in...
Engineering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to overcome CD58 loss may be a way to boost responses in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who do not respond to treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel and other CAR T-cell therapies, according to an experimental study presented...
A study published by Wang et al in JTO Clinical and Research Reports compared surgeries performed at one Chinese hospital in 2019 with a similar date range during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers found that routine thoracic surgery and invasive examinations were performed safely during the...
A modeling study of global demand for cancer surgery and estimated surgical and anesthesia workforce requirements between 2018 and 2040 showed a predicted increase, which could especially impact low-income countries. These findings were published by Perera et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Erica L. Mayer, MD, and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial showed no improvement in invasive disease–free survival with the addition of adjuvant palbociclib to ongoing endocrine therapy in patients with hormone receptor...
In a Chinese single-institution phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lu et al found that early interdisciplinary supportive care with a focus on nutrition and psychological status was associated with improved overall survival vs standard care in previously untreated...
In a phase II trial (SWOG S1406) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of vemurafenib to irinotecan and cetuximab significantly improved progression-free survival in previously treated patients with BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic...
ASCO has announced that the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting will be an online-only experience, taking place from June 4 to 8, 2021. The Society issued the following statement on the Meeting: We had hoped for a return to an in-person meeting, as we all miss the opportunity to see and engage with our...
Four years after patients with melanoma were treated with a personalized cancer vaccine, the immune response caused by the vaccine remained robust and effective in keeping cancer cells under control, according to a new study published by Hu et al in Nature Medicine. The findings demonstrate the...
Patients with inactive cancer who are not currently undergoing treatment also face a significantly higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, according to a new study published by Sun et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum. The findings underscore the importance of COVID-19 mitigation, like social...