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Showing 10251 - 103002017 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium
The 2017 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium took place October 27–28 in San Diego. Photos shown here, from left to right, as follows: 1. Eduardo Bruera, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center leads a group of attendees on a poster walk and discussion; 2. Charles Loprinzi, MD,...
How Effective Communication Is Integral to Patient-Centered Care
Communicating effectively with patients with advanced cancer not only helps patients and their family members successfully transition to palliative and end-of-life care, it can prevent physicians from experiencing professional burnout, according to Robert M. Arnold, MD, Distinguished Service...
First ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology Presented to Laurence Zitvogel, MD, PhD
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has granted the newly established ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology to Laurence Zitvogel, MD, PhD, for her innovating and internationally recognized achievements in the field. Dr. Zitvogel is Professor of Immunobiology at the University of Paris XI...
International Trials Reveal New Findings in the Management of Breast and Ovarian Cancers
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, held in Madrid, featured important news including at least seven practice-changing or potentially practice-changing trials, which are covered in recent issues of The ASCO Post. Here we present additional highlights of studies in breast ...
Quick Takes on Studies in Noncolorectal Gastrointestinal Cancers
In this roundup, The ASCO Post offers a glance at key findings from studies in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress from investigators around the world. Docetaxel-Based Triplet in Gastric Cancer The superiority of...
FDA Approves Novel Therapies for Lymphoma Indications
IN OCTOBER, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two novel agents for lymphoma indications: -acalabrutinib (Calquence), a kinase inhibitor, for the treatment of adults with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy; and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), a...
CHEST 2017: American College of Chest Physicians Unveils New Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has become standard practice, mostly due to the results of the National Lung Screening Trial. Related evidence continues to evolve, informing the benefits and risks of low-dose CT in clinical practice. Mazzone et al presented new ...
CHEST 2017: Gender, Language, and Treatment Setting as Barriers in Screening and Patient Care in Lung Cancer
Two new studies from CHEST 2017, held recently in Toronto, reveal disparities in lung cancer screening and care that may impact detection as well as mortality and survival rates in the disease. Risk Status and Screening The first study from Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington,...
ENDEAVOR Trial Endeavors to Make Case for Carfilzomib: Despite Survival Advantage, Should We Be Surprised?
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! That’s what home buyers are frequently cautioned about before purchasing a property. For trialists, and more importantly, practicing oncologists, a study’s design, akin to a property’s location, must be taken into account prior to buying into the results and changing ...
Results From Phase III ARROW Study of Once-Weekly Carfilzomib in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma
On October 23, topline results of the phase III ARROW trial were announced, showing carfilzomib (Kyprolis) administered once weekly at 70 mg/m2 with dexamethasone allowed relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients to live 3.6 months longer without their disease worsening than...
Adjuvant Dabrafenib/Trametinib Combination Granted FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Stage III Melanoma With BRAF V600 Mutation
On October 23, Novartis announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for dabrafenib (Tafinlar) in combination with trametinib (Mekinist) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation following...
The Liver Meeting: Daily Aspirin May Reduce Risk for Hepatitis B Virus–Related Liver Cancer
A new study presented at The Liver Meeting, held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, found that daily aspirin therapy was significantly associated with a reduced risk in hepatitis B virus (HBV)–related liver cancer (Abstract 223). According to AASLD’s...
The Liver Meeting: Direct-Acting Antiviral Medications as Hepatitis C Treatment May Reduce Risk of Liver Cancer
A new study presented at The Liver Meeting—held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases—found that eradication of the hepatitis C virus induced by direct-acting antiviral medications is associated with a 71% reduction in the risk of liver cancer (Abstract 142)....
Jeremy Hirst, MD, on My Patient Needs Opiates and Benzodiazepines: What Should I Do?
Jeremy Hirst, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, offers concrete advice on assessing the need for these medications, using them safely, and knowing when to deprescribe them.
Long-Term Survivors of Childhood Cancer Prone to ‘Job Lock’ due to Worries About Losing Health Insurance
The results of a national cancer survey reveal a significant number of childhood cancer survivors are worried about keeping their health insurance, to the point of letting it affect their career decisions. The findings were published by Kirchhoff et al in JAMA Oncology. Anne Kirchhoff, PhD,...
ASHG 2017: Quantifying Breast Cancer Risk Based on Rare Variants and Background Risk
Rare variants combined with background genetic risk factors may account for many unexplained cases of familial breast cancer, and knowing the specific genes involved could inform choice of prevention and treatment strategies, according to findings presented in a plenary session at the American...
Abby R. Rosenberg, MD, on Promoting Resilience in Young Cancer Patients: Results From the PRISM Trial
Abby R. Rosenberg, MD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital, discusses study findings on a skills-based intervention that helped teens and young adults with cancer manage stress to improve their quality of life and reduce distress (Abstract 176).
Areej El-Jawahri, MD, on A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-Life Care
Areej El-Jawahri, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses a video tool that helps overcome communication barriers so that patients can make more informed decisions for end-of-life care and their preferences are respected.
Sandip Patel, MD, on Immunotherapy: New Developments and Toxicity Challenges
Sandip Patel, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses diagnosing and managing immune-related adverse events from immune checkpoint blockade and the toxicities of these treatments.
Jamie Jacobs, PhD, on Early Integrated Palliative Care: The Positive Effects
Jamie Jacobs, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses study results that showed integrating oncology and palliative care early in the course of treatment helps people with incurable lung and gastrointestinal cancers cope better and have an improved quality of life and less...
FDA Approves New Treatment for Adults With Mantle Cell Lymphoma
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to acalabrutinib (Calquence) for the treatment of adults with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy. “Mantle cell lymphoma is a particularly aggressive cancer,” said Richard...
Anthony L. Back, MD, on Physician Burnout: The Response That’s Needed
Anthony L. Back, MD, of the University of Washington, talks about how clinicians can protect themselves from burnout and develop resilience. The default approach––“pretending we are not affected by stress”––often backfires, he says, and makes caregivers more susceptible to workplace pressures.
Michael Hoerger, PhD, on Early Palliative Care: Study Results
Michael Hoerger, PhD, of Tulane University, discusses the effect on quality of life, depression, and end-of-life care when physicians focus on coping or on decision-making and advance care planning (Abstract 154).
Jacob J. Strand, MD, on Dealing With Opioid Use Disorders
Jacob J. Strand, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses tips and tools that clinicians can use to develop universal precautions for prescribing opioids in oncology and palliative care practice.
Thomas J. Smith, MD, on Palliative Care and Outpatient Treatment: Expert Perspective
Thomas J. Smith, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discusses successful models of integrating palliative care into outpatient oncology.
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Rising Number of Seamless Clinical Trials in Oncology
The number of early-phase trials in oncology that adopted a seamless approach—as opposed to a traditional trial approach with defined phase I, II, and III plans—is rising, with data from the majority of them presented after 2014, according to a study presented by Barata et al at the...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: NCI-MATCH Reaches Central Patient-Screening Goal
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) clinical trial has achieved the goal of screening nearly 6,000 patients in just under 2 years, according to data presented by Chen et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Noninvasive Computational Imaging Approach May Help Predict Response to Immunotherapy
A computational imaging-based signature of immune-cell infiltration in and around a tumor could predict patients’ responses to treatment with anti–programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immunotherapies, according to data from a study presented by Sun et...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Colorectal Cancer Test Could Detect Early Cancer-Causing Genetic Biomarkers With High Degree of Sensitivity
An investigational test that screens for colorectal cancer could detect genetic mutations that are indicative of the disease with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity, according to results of a study presented by Powell et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular...
Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, on Palliative Care in Oncology: A Fellows Curriculum
Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, of OhioHealth, discusses an online curriculum that changed younger physicians’ use of palliative medicine in practice during the year after fellowship training (Abstract 202).
Eric Roeland, MD, on Symptom Management: Expert Perspective
Eric Roeland, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, summarizes key papers delivered at the Palliative Care Symposium on managing insomnia, fatigue, nausea, and the ways in which physical therapy and nausea can reduce the side effect burden.
FDA Approves Axicabtagene Ciloleucel for Large B-Cell Lymphoma
On October 18, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma...
Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, Testifies Before Congress on NIH Funding System
Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, President and Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, recently delivered the following testimony and answered questions from members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. His remarks...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Tipifarnib Shows Durable Antitumor Activity in HRAS-Mutant Head and Neck Cancer
Preliminary results from a phase II open-label trial of tipifarnib, a farnesyltransferase inhibitor, in patients with HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) were presented by Alan L. Ho, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Tazemetostat as Treatment for Certain Pediatric Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors
Children with relapsed or refractory malignant rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcomas, or poorly differentiated chordomas with a particular genetic defect tolerated treatment with the investigational drug tazemetostat well, and some had objective and durable responses, according to data from a phase ...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Colorectal Cancers May Mutate to Escape Immune System Detection
Whole-exome sequencing revealed that colorectal cancers with high mutational load (microsatellite instability–high, or MSI-H) predominantly use “immunoediting” to escape immune surveillance, while colorectal cancers with low mutational load (microsatellite stable, or MSS) use...
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Gene Therapy Shows Early Efficacy Against Recurrent Brain Cancer
More than a quarter of patients with recurrent high-grade glioma treated with the retroviral vector Toca 511 (vocimagene amiretrorepvec) combined with Toca FC (an extended-release formulation of fluorocytosine, a prodrug of fluorouracil [5-FU]) were alive more than 3 years after...
New Biosimilar Educational Materials for Health-Care Professionals From the FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the release of new educational materials for health-care professionals about biosimilar and interchangeable products. The agency developed these educational materials to help increase understanding about these important new types of...
FDA Accepts sBLA for Nivolumab in Resected, High-Risk, Advanced Melanoma
On October 16, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for priority review its supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for nivolumab (Opdivo) to treat patients with melanoma who are at high risk of disease recurrence following complete...
Early Study Suggests Potential Role of Paclitaxel in Peripheral Neuropathy and Possible Preventive Measures
In discovering how certain chemotherapy drugs cause peripheral neuropathy, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found a potential approach to preventing this common and troublesome side effect of cancer treatment. Their findings were published by Pease-Raissi et al in Neuron. The...
FDA Approves Intravenous Rolapitant for Delayed Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting
On October 25, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved intravenous (IV) rolapitant (Varubi) in combination with other antiemetic agents in adults for the prevention of delayed nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of emetogenic cancer chemotherapy, including,...
CELESTIAL Trial: Cabozantinib Meets Primary Endpoint of Overall Survival in Patients With Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma
On October 16, Exelixis announced that its global phase III CELESTIAL trial met its primary endpoint of overall survival, with cabozantinib (Cabometyx) providing a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in median overall survival compared to placebo in patients with...
Potential Treatment of Chordoma With PI3K Inhibitors
Patients with chordoma—a rare bone cancer of the skull and spine—could be helped by existing treatments, suggest scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, University College London Cancer Institute, and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. In the largest...
FDA Grants Priority Review for Olaparib in Metastatic Breast Cancer
On October 18, AstraZeneca and Merck & Co announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and granted Priority Review to a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the use of olaparib (Lynparza) tablets in patients with germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative...
2017 ASCO Palliative Care: Yoga Can Be an Effective Supportive Therapy for People With Lung Cancer and Their Caregivers
In a feasibility trial of people with advanced lung cancer receiving radiation therapy and their caregivers, yoga was beneficial to both parties. These findings will be presented by Milbury et al at the upcoming 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium in San Diego (Abstract 125). ...
2017 ASCO Palliative Care: People With Leukemia and Their Oncologists Have Vastly Different Perceptions of Prognosis
A study of 100 people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving chemotherapy found that patient and physician perceptions of treatment risk and the likelihood of a cure varied widely. Overall, patients tended to overestimate both the risk of dying due to treatment and the likelihood of a cure....
Erratum: Adoptive Cell Therapy—Act 1: The Beginning
In the September 25, 2017, issue of The ASCO Post, page 1, the date of approval was cited incorrectly for the genetically engineered T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved tisagenlecleucel on August 30, 2017. The T-cell therapeutic is approved for...
Moffitt Cancer Center Holds Leadership Series in New York
Moffitt Cancer Center has made a lasting commitment to the prevention and cure of cancer, working fervently in the areas of patient care, research, and education to advance further in fighting this disease, according to Alan F. List, MD, Moffitt’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. List,...
Effectiveness of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Melanoma
Research presented at the 9th World Congress of Melanoma supports the updated guideline recommendation that sentinel lymph node biopsy be performed in more patients newly diagnosed with melanoma, as it has the potential to save lives due to the information the procedure provides. This biopsy can...
Intratumoral Plasmid IL-12 With Electroporation in Stage III/IV Melanoma
OncoSec Medical Incorporated presented new clinical data on ImmunoPulse IL-12 (intratumoral pIL-12 [tavokinogene telseplasmid] with electroporation) at the 9th World Congress of Melanoma. “We are excited to share updated data from our phase II clinical monotherapy trial with ImmunoPulse ...
