Taking part in an exercise program may improve pain, fatigue, and quality of life in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to recent findings presented by Hiensch et al at the 2024 European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC; Abstract 1). Background “Although there’s been quite a lot of...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Kater et al, the phase IIIb VENICE-1 trial has shown activity of venetoclax monotherapy in adult patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, including those with prior B-cell receptor–associated kinase (BCR) inhibitor treatment. Study...
The combination of the small molecule inhibitor of VEGFR fruquintinib and the chemotherapy paclitaxel presents a potential new second-line treatment of patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, according to data presented during the ASCO Plenary Series: February...
ASCO has released a new guideline on the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer in resource-constrained settings, where maximal setting–recommended treatments are not available.1 The guideline, designed for clinicians, policymakers, and patients, provides stratified recommendations...
On February 13, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved liposomal irinotecan (Onivyde) for use with oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and leucovorin in the first-line treatment of metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on the open-label NAPOLI 3...
The optimal management of high-risk prostate cancer remains a topic of ongoing investigation. The quest for therapy that maximizes cancer control while minimizing toxicity is constant. Over the past decade, there has been mounting evidence that the addition of a brachytherapy boost to external-beam ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kwak et al found that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels ≥ 0.1 ng/mL within 6 months after completion of radiotherapy were prognostic for poorer outcomes in patients with localized prostate cancer who did or did not also receive...
Adjuvant use of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free survival in patients with high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma vs observation after surgical resection, according to an interim analysis of the phase ...
“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade….” —Sir William Osler Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) accounts for approximately 5% to 7% of all lymphomas; the median age of patients with MCL is between 60 and 70 years. This lymphoma is generally considered incurable. Median survival in retrospective...
With a 5-year overall survival of close to 90% in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), there have been large treatment shifts over the past decade in this disease, which now includes “more disciplines than it did before,” commented medical oncologist Danielle Shafer, DO, of Inova Schar Cancer...
The combination of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib (multiple targets, including MET, AXL, VEGFR2, RET, and FLT ) plus the monoclonal antibody atezolizumab achieved statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with second-line novel hormonal therapy in...
On November 15, 2023, repotrectinib (Augtyro) was approved for locally advanced or metastatic ROS1 fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1 This is the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval that includes patients with ROS1-positive NSCLC who have previously received a ROS1...
On February 16, 2024, osimertinib (Tagrisso) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administraton (FDA) with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with tumors having EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R...
Managing patients with lung cancer in the current era of an increasing array of systemic treatments has become a complex balancing act of trying to improve outcomes and survival from a cancer perspective while taking the necessary treatment and monitoring steps for cardioprotection. With few...
On March 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the multitarget kinase inhibitor (Iclusig) with chemotherapy for adult patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). PhALLCON Efficacy was evaluated in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, and colleagues, the final prespecified analysis of distant metastasis–free survival in the phase III KEYNOTE-716 trial showed continued benefit with adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo in patients with resected stage IIB or...
Marcin R. Dzienis, MBBS, of Australia’s Gold Coast University Hospital, discusses the final analysis of KEYNOTE-B10, a phase IV study in which patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) received a first-line combination regimen of pembrolizumab plus...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Daniel E. Spratt, MD, and colleagues found that treatment with relugolix was associated with rapid achievement of sustained castration in patients with localized or advanced prostate cancer who were also receiving radiotherapy. Study Details The analysis...
The artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot ChatGPT version 3.4 may correctly answer a majority of the common genetic counseling questions related to gynecologic oncology, according to new findings presented by Patel et al at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SGO) 2024 Annual Meeting on...
In a phase II study (FASTRACK II) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Shankar Siva, MBBS, PhD, and colleagues found that stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) was effective in patients with primary kidney cancer who did not undergo resection. Study Details Seventy patients were enrolled in...
On March 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi), a CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small...
The combination of the nectin-4–directed antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin-ejfv plus the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab achieved favorable rates of progression-free survival, overall survival, and objective responses compared with chemotherapy among key subgroups of patients with previously...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Thomas Powles, MD, and colleagues, the phase III EV-302 trial has shown that the combination of the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin-ejfv and the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab improved progression-free and overall survival vs...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, David A. Palma, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) met criteria for efficacy and toxicity in patients with early non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). As stated by the investigators,...
Philip A. Salem, MD, Director Emeritus of Cancer Research at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston, was born and reared in Bterram, a village that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. “I had the most beautiful and blessed childhood, as I lived in a household dominated by a father who believed in the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Wagner et al, final analysis of the phase II AMPECT trial has shown a median duration of response of more than 3 years in patients with advanced malignant perivascular epithelioid cell tumors treated with nab-sirolimus. The primary analysis of the...
This is Part 3 of Optimizing Outcomes for Patients With Locally Advanced and Metastatic NSCLC, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Melissa Johnson, Vamsidhar Velcheti, and Helena Yu discuss the neoadjuvant treatment ...
In a phase II trial (FIRSTMAPPP) reported in The Lancet, Eric Baudin, MD, and colleagues found that the multikinase inhibitor sunitinib was active in patients with metastatic progressive pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas. As stated by the investigators, “No randomized controlled trial has ever...
The use of imaging midtreatment for human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma may guide the use of deintensified chemoradiotherapy, according to a phase II study from the University of Michigan presented by Regan et al at the 2024 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck...
In an International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership study reported in The Lancet Oncology, McPhail et al found wide interjurisdictional variation in the use of radiotherapy among patients with newly diagnosed common cancers in Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Study Details The...
Positive results with the use of belantamab mafodotin-blmf in the phase III DREAMM-7 study were presented during the ASCO Plenary Series: February 2024.1 In relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, DREAMM-7 evaluated the use of the regimen belantamab mafodotin, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (BVd)...
When Pat Garcia-Gonzalez’ stepson, Max, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in 1988 at the age of 14, the Internet was still in its infancy and decades away from the networking resource it has become today. Told that Max would need an allogeneic stem cell transplant to survive, the...
First-line treatment with the PARP inhibitor olaparib plus the androgen biosynthesis inhibitor abiraterone acetate and the steroid prednisone improved progression-free survival and response rates compared with either treatment alone (ie, olaparib or abiraterone plus prednisone) in patients with...
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’” —Marcus Aurelius To complement The ASCO Post’s extensive coverage of the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are two important abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on induction and...
Long-term follow-up of the phase III KEYNOTE-590 trial confirms the benefit of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in advanced esophageal cancer. As compared with chemotherapy alone, after a median of follow-up of almost 59 months, patients treated with the chemoimmunotherapy...
Michael Crump, MD, of the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, expressed some concerns about the study presented by Shadman et al in patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). “These data should be interpreted with caution. The patient...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has become an established biomarker of measurable or molecular residual disease (MRD) after curative-intent surgery in patients with colorectal cancer. The research focus is now on linking ctDNA to long-term outcomes and using it to guide treatment decisions—which was...
For perspective on CheckMate 8HW, The ASCO Post interviewed Alan P. Venook, MD, FASCO, the Madden Family Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of California San Francisco and the Shorenstein Associate Director for Program Development at the Helen...
In the phase III CheckMate 8HW trial, previously untreated patients with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) nonresectable or metastatic colorectal cancer derived significant benefit from an immunotherapy doublet, with nivolumab plus ipilimumab reducing the...
In the third prespecified interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial,1 adjuvant treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab significantly improved overall survival compared with placebo in patients with intermediate- or high-risk clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, a...
For patients with treatment-naive, locally advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the addition of two checkpoint inhibitors to chemotherapy significantly improved not only progression-free survival but also overall survival, in the randomized, phase III SKYSCRAPER-08 trial...
On March 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) in combination with cisplatin and gemcitabine for the first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. CheckMate 901 Efficacy was evaluated in CheckMate ...
In an Indian single-center phase III trial (D-TORCH) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Santhosh et al found that topical diclofenac gel significantly reduced the risk of capecitabine-associated hand-foot syndrome vs placebo gel in patients with breast or gastrointestinal cancer who were ...
On March 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the CD22-targeted antibody-drug conjugate inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa) for pediatric patients aged 1 year and older with relapsed or refractory CD22-positive B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Study WI203581...
In an analysis reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Gurney et al identified factors associated with an increased risk of myeloid neoplasms after chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Study Details Investigators identified adults who received CAR T-cell therapy between June 2016 ...
In a phase I/II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Naval Daver, MD, and colleagues found that pivekimab sunirine (IMGN632), a novel CD123-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, showed activity in patients with CD123-positive relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Study Details...
As reported by Marie Plante, MD, and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine, the phase III CX.5 SHAPE trial has shown noninferiority of simple vs radical hysterectomy in terms of pelvic recurrence in women with low-risk cervical cancer. Simple hysterectomy was associated with a reduced...
This is Part 3 of Targeting Endocrine Resistance in HR-Positive/HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Kevin Kalinsky, Manali Bhave, and Ruth O’Regan discuss the treatment of...
This is Part 1 of Targeting Endocrine Resistance in HR-Positive/HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Kevin Kalinsky, Manali Bhave, and Ruth O’Regan discuss the treatment of...
Postoperative adjuvant therapy—both chemoradiotherapy and radiotherapy alone—for human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma may be safely de-escalated, according to results presented by Thorstad et al at the 2024 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium...