As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Degnim et al have developed a model for predicting breast cancer risk among women with atypical hyperplasia on breast biopsy. Study Details The risk model (AH-BC) was developed using retrospective cohorts of women aged 18 to 85 years with...
Parenting concerns contributed significantly to the psychological distress of mothers with late-stage cancer, according to a study by University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers published by Park et al in the journal Cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) and granted Priority Review for atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin), paclitaxel, and carboplatin for the first-line treatment of metastatic nonsquamous...
On May 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with bortezomib (Velcade), a proteasome inhibitor; melphalan, an alkylating agent; and prednisone—VMP—for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are...
Early, ongoing screening of lymphatic function and immediate patient-administered therapies as needed are highly effective in improving outcomes for women at high risk for breast cancer–related lymphedema (BCRL). These were the findings of a new study presented at the American Society of ...
Modern, multimodality lumpectomy treatment significantly reduces the incidence of breast cancer recurrence at the original tumor site compared to historical protocols, according to a new study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) 19th Annual Meeting (Abstract...
Current restrictive genetic testing guidelines exclude many patients who harbor high-risk breast cancer mutations, according to two new studies presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) 19th Annual Meeting (Abstracts 402910, 404340). One study found that whether or not patients...
Women with breast cancer who underwent regular mammographic screening were diagnosed with earlier-stage disease and treated with significantly less aggressive therapies than those who delayed or never underwent screening, according to new research presented at the American Society of Breast...
A large population-based study by Soisson et al examining the long-term cardiovascular outcomes among survivors of endometrial cancer has found that women were at higher risk for a number of cardiovascular risks, including hypertension; diseases of the arteries, arterioles, and capillaries;...
In an article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stilgenbauer et al reported findings from the full population of the phase II trial that supported the 2016 approval of venetoclax (Venclexta) in the treatment of previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with 17p deletion....
Researchers have found that women with advanced triple-negative breast cancer with a BRCA mutation were twice as likely to benefit from carboplatin as docetaxel—the current standard of care for these patients. These findings were published by Tutt et al in Nature Medicine. The trial is set...
In a meta-analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yamada et al found that patients with cystic fibrosis are at increased risk of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers vs the general population. Improved management of cystic fibrosis has led to increased life expectancy and increased incidence of...
In an Australian trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sherman et al found that use of a structured online writing exercise (My Changed Body) was associated with reduced body image distress and improved body appreciation among breast cancer survivors. Study Details My Changed...
On April 30, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dabrafenib (Tafinlar) in combination with trametinib (Mekinist) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations, as detected by an FDA-approved test, and lymph node involvement following...
The latest news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccination rates in the United States for human papillomavirus (HPV) is disappointing. It shows that in 2016, just 43.4% of adolescents (49.5% of females and 37.5% of males) were up-to-date with the recommended 3-dose HPV...
Updated results of a phase I/II study of durvalumab (Imfinzi) in locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma were reported by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology. Data from the ongoing study supported the recent...
Desmoplastic melanoma is a rare subtype of melanoma that is commonly found on sun-exposed areas, such as the head and neck, and usually seen in older patients. Treatment is difficult, as these tumors are often resistant to chemotherapy and lack actionable mutations commonly found in other types of...
A study examining the patient’s perspective on breast radiotherapy found that 68% of the patients surveyed responded that they had little or no prior knowledge of radiotherapy at the time of breast cancer diagnosis, making that an excellent time for physicians and other health-care professionals to ...
Nearly 85% of patients surveyed 6 or more months after completing radiotherapy as part of their treatment for breast cancer reported the side effects were not as bad as they had feared or expected. Approximately 92% of the 269 patients treated with breast conservation and 81% of the 58 patients...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Virginia G. Kaklamani, MD, Professor of Hematology/Oncology at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio and leader of the center’s breast cancer program, was born and reared in Athens, Greece. “I spent my formative years in Athens, where I attended school. My father is a physician and my mom’s a...
Despite steady declines in death rates in recent years, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in wealthy countries. In a study published by Andreano et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Yale researchers collaborated with investigators in Europe to examine lung cancer care and ...
In an Israeli case-cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hamood et al found that hormone therapy in breast cancer survivors was associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes. The study involved a cohort of 2,246 women from the Leumit health-care fund diagnosed with...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Schäfer et al, little difference in quality of life was observed over long-term follow-up between women receiving accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) with interstitial brachytherapy vs whole-breast irradiation (WBI) after breast-conserving...
On December 20, 2017, nivolumab (Opdivo) was granted regular approval for adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma with lymph node involvement or metastatic disease who have undergone complete resection.1,2 Nivolumab was previously approved for the treatment of patients with unresectable or...
In rapid succession, the SPARTAN study results were presented at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, the data were published in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 and the drug apalutamide -(Erleada) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for men with previously...
In a dose-finding, dose-expansion phase Ib trial (JAVELIN Renal 100) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues determined the maximum tolerated dose of the immune checkpoint inhibitor avelumab (Bavencio)...
In a phase Ib trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wrangle et al found evidence of activity of the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and the interleukin (IL)-15 superagonist ALT-803 in patients with previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ALT-803 targets the shared...
Skin cancer survivors know firsthand that the disease is most treatable when detected early, so they’re more likely to be vigilant about skin exams—and new research shows that such vigilance pays off. After studying more than 900 cases of melanoma reported through the Health...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hwang et al found little difference in the efficacy and safety of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-designated breakthrough vs nonbreakthrough cancer drugs and found that breakthrough drugs were not more likely to represent a novel...
In a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Weil et al found that splenectomy and splenic radiation significantly increased the risk of infection-related late mortality among 5-year survivors of childhood cancer. Study Details The study...
Tesaro recently announced results from the QUADRA study, which was designed to assess the clinical benefit of niraparib (Zejula) treatment in heavily pretreated patients with ovarian cancer. Results successfully achieved the prespecified primary endpoint and demonstrated niraparib monotherapy...
On April 30, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) in combination for the adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma with BRAF V600E or V600K mutations (as detected by an FDA-approved test) and involvement of...
On April 23, Epizyme, Inc, announced that U.S.-based enrollment of new patients into tazemetostat clinical trials is temporarily on hold. Following a safety report of a pediatric patient who developed a secondary lymphoma, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a partial clinical hold...
Eli Lilly and Company recently announced additional results from its global, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III RANGE trial evaluating ramucirumab (Cyramza) in combination with docetaxel in patients with locally advanced or unresectable or metastatic urothelial carcinoma whose...
Research from the Yale School of Public Health has found that the majority of published papers analyzing the cost-effectiveness of a widely used test for breast cancer used a study design that can increase bias. These findings were published by Wang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
In a propensity-score matching analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Polanco et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a survival benefit vs observation among patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who underwent resection after pathologic complete response following neoadjuvant ...
In a Swedish study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jansson et al identified an increased risk of non–low-risk prostate cancer among men with prostate cancer who had with brothers diagnosed with non–low-risk disease. Study Details The study involved 4,262 pairs of...
In a report from the Children’s Oncology Group AREN0533 study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dix et al found improved survival outcomes with a modified approach to treatment of favorable-histology Wilms tumor with lung metastases. Study Details The National Wilms Tumor Study...
Radiotherapy given in high doses over a shorter period of time is safe and effective for patients with prostate cancer, according to research from a phase III trial presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) 37 Conference (Abstract OC-0599). The...
A simple test of handgrip strength may be a good indicator of short- and long-term survival in patients with stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to new findings presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) 37 Conference (Abstract PV0041)....
An analysis of elderly patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated in a phase II trial of radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy has shown that they were less likely to benefit than younger patients if the two treatments were given at the same time. These findings were presented ...
A rare but potentially serious complication following radiation treatment for cervical cancer is a narrowing of the tube that takes urine from the kidneys to the bladder (the ureter), which can lead to kidney damage and sometimes life-threatening infections. This is called ureteral stricture and,...
As reported by Hussain et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, long-term follow-up of the phase III SWOG S9921 trial showed that the addition of adjuvant mitoxantrone and prednisone (MP) to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) did not improve survival and increased death from other malignancies in ...
In an update from the WECARE (Women’s Environmental Cancer and Radiation Epidemiology) study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reiner et al found that women with invasive breast cancer are at increased risk of contralateral breast cancer even in the absence of deleterious...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Alexander N. Shoushtari, MD, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, a single-center experience has shown a very high rate of clinically significant immune-related adverse events with nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) for advanced...
The final overall survival analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-006 trial showed maintained superiority of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) vs ipilimumab (Yervoy) in advanced melanoma. The results were reported by Jacob Schachter, MD, of the Ella Lemelbaum Institute for Melanoma, Sheba Medical Center, Tel...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, reviews the current data on the use of massage to...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kerns et al found that approximately 20% of testicular cancer survivors treated with cisplatin-based regimens had high cumulative burden of morbidity (CBM) scores and identified factors associated with risk for increased morbidity. Study...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib and Landgren review the underlying data that shaped the updated International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) diagnostic criteria for...