People of color diagnosed with lung cancer face worse outcomes compared to White Americans, according to the American Lung Association’s third annual State of Lung Cancer report. The 2020 State of Lung Cancer report tracks the toll of lung cancer by state, and for the first time, this year’s report ...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhu et al found that the addition of irinotecan to neoadjuvant capecitabine chemoradiation (CapIriRT)—with irinotecan dosing guided by UGT1A1 genotype—followed by capecitabine/irinotecan (XELIRI) significantly improved...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Anand P. Jillella, MD, and colleagues found that physician education on the main causes of death during induction treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)—and comanagement of cases with expert physicians—resulted in a low early mortality rate...
In a United Arab Emirates single-institution study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Al-Shamsi et al found a high rate of COVID-19 infection among asymptomatic patients with solid tumors undergoing cancer treatment. Study Details The study included 109 patients receiving treatment for ...
In a Chinese phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gao et al found that prophylactic recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) and minimal-dose decitabine reduced the risk of relapse vs no intervention among patients with high-risk, minimal residual...
On October 2, 2020, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) was approved for first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.1-3 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the open-label phase III CheckMate 743 trial...
As recently reported in The Lancet Oncology and reviewed in the October 10, 2020, issue of The ASCO Post, the phase III BROCADE3 trial has shown that the addition of veliparib to carboplatin and paclitaxel improved progression-free survival in previously treated BRCA-mutated advanced breast...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, the phase III DANUBE trial showed that durvalumab monotherapy did not prolong overall survival vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with...
A strategy of front-line maintenance treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab combined with best supportive care improved both progression-free and overall survival vs best supportive care alone across prespecified subgroups of patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that had...
At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 2020 Virtual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies, William Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, reviewed current data on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including promising new combinations of modern...
What a difference 20 years have made! In the year 2000, the results of the ECOG 1594 trial were reported at the plenary session of the ASCO Annual Meeting. The study demonstrated comparable outcomes between four different platinum-based chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of metastatic...
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pelster et al found that nivolumab plus ipilimumab produced durable responses and improved survival outcomes in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. Study Details The trial enrolled 35 patients at The...
As reported inThe New England Journal of Medicine by Alexander Drilon, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues and by Lori J. Wirth, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues, the phase I/II LIBRETTO-001 trial has shown marked activity of the RET kinase ...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Thomas Powles, MD, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, the phase III JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial found that maintenance treatment with avelumab plus best supportive care significantly improved overall survival...
Yet another blow has been dealt for the alkylating agent trabectedin in advanced ovarian cancer. The international phase III INOVATYON study found no improvement in overall or progression-free survival for trabectedin plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PEG-LD) vs carboplatin/PEG-LD in patients...
Two different phase III studies found that combining an anti–PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor (pembrolizumab in KEYNOTE-361) with platinum-based chemotherapy or with another checkpoint inhibitor (the anti–CTLA-4 antibody tremelimumab in DANUBE) failed to significantly improve overall or...
In a systematic review and network meta-analysis of 14 trials reported in JAMA Oncology, Sonbol et al found that atezolizumab plus bevacizumab outperformed other regimens in the first-line treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and identified preferred treatments in refractory disease. As...
In a first-in-human phase I trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Salamero et al identified toxicities and activity associated with iadademstat, an oral first-in-class lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A (LSD1) inhibitor, in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid...
A nonsurgical treatment option for rectal cancer that preserves quality of life may be safe for selected patients, according to a new study comparing it with standard surgical treatment. These findings were published by Beard et al in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and were...
In an Italian phase II trial (GIMEMA LAL2116) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Foà et al found that first-line induction and consolidation treatment with dasatinib plus blinatumomab produced a high rate of molecular response in adults with Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute...
The advent of effective combination chemotherapies has changed the treatment landscape for metastatic pancreatic cancer, extending median survival and leading to durable responses in a subset of patients. However, perpetual chemotherapy is cumulatively toxic, leading to progressive bone marrow...
Adagrasib (MRTX849), a novel agent that targets a mutated form of the KRAS gene—the most commonly altered oncogene in human cancers, and one long considered “undruggable”—caused tumor shrinkage in most patients in a clinical trial, with manageable side effects, researchers reported at the 32nd...
Joan H. (Rosen) Marks, a pioneer in genetic counseling, died on September 14, 2020. She was 91. Ms. Marks received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in 2019, in recognition of her contributions and leadership to the College and to society, the ...
As first-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer, pembrolizumab added to chemotherapy improved overall survival in the KEYNOTE-590 population. Not only did patients with high PD-L1 expression benefit, the value of checkpoint inhibition was observed for the whole population, the trial’s...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it has awarded six new clinical trial research grants to principal investigators from academia and industry, totaling more than $16 million over the next 4 years. These grants, awarded through the Congressionally funded Orphan Products Grants...
As the cancer community marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) is starting a new 5-year program aimed at accelerating progress in breast cancer control. “While the incidence of breast cancer is generally higher in more developed regions, ...
The National Minority Quality Forum announced that Anthony Fauci, MD, will receive its 2020 Bernard J. Tyson Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes health-care leaders who have helped to decrease health disparities and to build sustainable healthy communities. Dr. Fauci—who has served as...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 presented several abstracts with good news for patients with lung cancer. Long-term follow-up of immunotherapies showed excellent survival, a promising new ALK inhibitor improved outcomes compared with the standard of care, the...
In the phase II ALIENOR trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Isabelle Ray-Coquard, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of bevacizumab to paclitaxel did not improve the 6-month progression-free rate among women with relapsed ovarian sex cord–stromal tumors. Study Details The study, performed in...
Neoadjuvant combination therapy with the anti–CTLA-4 therapy tremelimumab and the anti–PD-1 therapy durvalumab was well tolerated and showed early signs of activity in patients ineligible to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy, all of whom had tumors with high-risk features that are associated...
In a multi-institutional cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Eitz et al found that hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (HSRT) to the resection cavity in patients with brain metastases appears to be associated with an “excellent risk-benefit profile.” As stated by the investigators, “For...
In the phase III SORCE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eisen et al found no benefit of sorafenib vs placebo as adjuvant therapy in patients with renal cell carcinoma at intermediate or high risk of disease recurrence. Study Details The double-blind trial included 1,711 patients...
Results from a nonrandomized, dose-escalation phase I clinical trial investigating the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor vorinostat in combination with the mTOR inhibitors sirolimus or everolimus found the combination therapies showed activity in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Schmoll et al, the phase III PETACC 6 trial has shown no benefit of the addition of preoperative and adjuvant oxaliplatin to preoperative capecitabine-based chemoradiation and adjuvant capecitabine in patients undergoing total mesorectal excision...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Srikala S. Sridhar, MD, MSc, FRCPC, and colleagues found no difference in progression-free survival with nab-paclitaxel vs paclitaxel in patients with platinum-refractory metastatic urothelial cancer. Study Details In the investigator-initiated...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Véronique Diéras, MD, of the Institut Curie, Paris, and Centre Eugène Marquis, Rennes, and colleagues, the phase III BROCADE3 trial has shown a significant improvement in progression-free survival with the addition of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)...
Changing from routinely prescribing opioids for patients who were having a lumpectomy or excisional biopsy to instead routinely prescribing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs] resulted in a sharply decreased opioid prescription rate with “no difference in the proportion of patients...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kimberly P. Dunsmore, MD, of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, and colleagues, the phase III Children’s Oncology Group AALL0434 trial has shown that the addition of nelarabine to standard therapy improved...
The lockdown phase of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and continued measures, such as social distancing, while necessary, are disrupting cancer care in ways that will have consequences for months, if not years, to come. Studies are showing that delayed or suspended cancer treatments,...
For patients with progressing HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer previously treated with trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), no single regimen is an established standard of care. More than 50% of these patients will develop brain metastasis, and thus far, treatments...
Although most patients with breast cancer are considered to have an overall excellent prognosis, 600,000 people still die annually of the disease around the world. Even in HER2-positive breast cancer, a subtype that has seen a transformation of outcomes in the past 2 decades, there’s still room for ...
The past 2 years have seen a dramatic change in the standard of care for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer whose disease has progressed on trastuzumab. Promising new agents and combinations for later lines of therapy may also challenge current treatment strategies, according to...
In the phase III JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that maintenance treatment with avelumab plus best supportive care significantly improved overall survival vs best supportive care alone among patients whose...
Here we present summaries of several additional clinical trials in HER2-positive breast cancer reported over the past year. Jame Abraham, MD, Chair of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the Taussig Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, shared his perspective on several of these trials presented ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kater et al, 4-year progression-free and overall survival were significantly greater with venetoclax plus rituximab vs bendamustine plus rituximab in the phase III MURANO trial in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia....
Next-generation sequencing of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) obtained from blood samples may improve diagnostic testing in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and may also be faster and less expensive than standard tissue profiling, according to research presented by Natasha B. Leighl, ...
On October 2, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) as first-line treatment for adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. CheckMate 743 Efficacy was investigated in CheckMate 743, a randomized,...
In the phase III DANUBE trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that durvalumab monotherapy did not prolong overall survival vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with largely metastatic urothelial carcinoma with high PD-L1...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Gallamini et al, the final analysis of the phase III GITIL/FIL HD0607 trial has shown that consolidation radiotherapy did not improve progression-free survival vs no further treatment in patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma and a baseline large...
Pralsetinib (also known as BLU-667) showed activity in patients with advanced RET mutation–positive medullary thyroid cancer, including high rates of durable response, disease control, and 18-month progression-free survival. These findings were presented by Hu et al at the ESMO Virtual Congress...