Delivering stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT also called stereotactic ablative radiotherapy) in one or four treatment sessions led to similar outcomes in patients with up to three lung metastases (ie, oligometastatic disease) in the phase II randomized SAFRON II trial. The study, conducted...
Matthijs Oudkerk, MD, Professor of Radiology at the University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands, and Principal Investigator for Radiology of the NELSON Lung Cancer Detection Study, stressed that detecting individuals who have early-stage lung cancer with more virulent biologic behavior is...
A recent report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has undermined the evidentiary basis for the primary treatment of stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) while rating the evidence for the benefit of screening as “high.”1 According to David F. Yankelevitz, MD, these...
Caring for older adults with cancer is the purview of every oncologist. Over the next 30 years, the older adult population (65 years and older) will represent the fastest-growing segment of the world population. Globally, the number of persons 80 years and older is expected to triple from 143...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will collaborate on Project Livin’ Label, a new educational initiative that aims to foster broad understanding of specific oncology product labels and increase awareness of recent oncology drug FDA...
Editor’s Note: The following essay was first published in 2011. It is being reprinted here with permission from the author and publisher. In 2020, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) now includes more than 5,000 members; the annual meeting convenes more than 3,200...
In the November 10, 2020, issue of The ASCO Post, the article “Cancer on the Global Stage: Incidence and Cancer-Related Mortality in Chile” contained errors with regard to the head shots of the coauthors. A photo of Augusto León G-H, MD (the son of another coauthor with a similar name), was...
Colombia is located in the northwestern corner of South America, geographically privileged with coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Andean region, and the Amazon rainforest. Based on its population of nearly 50 million (see Table 1), Colombia is the second largest country in South...
Endometrial cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in the United States, and the seventh most common cause of cancer death among women.1 This year, nearly 66,000 women will be diagnosed with the cancer, and about 12,600 will die of the disease.2 And although endometrial cancer is one of...
Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, Co-Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was born and reared in North Platte, a small city located in the west-central part of Nebraska. “My love of science was sparked and nurtured by my father, who was a chemistry professor for...
Among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, symptoms were commonly underrecognized in reports of pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue, with younger patients and Black patients having significantly increased odds of symptom underrecognition. These findings were reported by Reshma...
For this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Bhawna Sirohi, FRCP, who is currently the lead medical oncologist at the Apollo Proton Cancer Centre in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Along with her work in the clinic and her research endeavors, Dr....
Craig Jordan, PhD, University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center member and Chief of the Hematology Division in the CU School of Medicine, was awarded a 2020 National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award. This 7-year grant supports investigators with outstanding records of...
Women who undergo mastectomy with reconstructive surgery as part of breast cancer treatment may face the risk of persistent use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs, according to data presented by Jacob Cogan, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS3-08)....
A large meta-analysis of breast cancer survivors of childbearing age indicated that they are less likely than the general public to become pregnant and may face a higher risk of certain complications, such as preterm labor. However, most survivors who do become pregnant deliver healthy babies and...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present the Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib and Medeiros explore extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid neoplasms (MALT lymphomas). For each quiz...
Patients aged 65 or older with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer who did not receive radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery had higher rates of local recurrence but similar 10-year survival rates when compared to patients who received postoperative radiation therapy, according ...
In a retrospective analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Clark et al found that new prescriptions for systemic anticancer treatment in England initially declined significantly after societal lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they then increased to higher than prepandemic...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Jensen and colleagues found that clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) involving DNA repair genes can interfere with prostate cancer plasma cell-free DNA testing used to determine eligibility for poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor...
In October 2020, Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan ended her 2-year tenure as President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), a global organization with more than 1,198 members from 172 countries and territories committed to reducing the cancer burden and...
On December 8, ASCO issued comprehensive recommendations to guide the cancer community’s eventual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying lessons learned during the pandemic, ASCO’s Road to Recovery Report: Learning From the COVID-19 Experience to Improve Clinical Research and Cancer Care...
Caron A. Jacobson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from the ZUMA-9 C2 study, an ongoing trial that is exploring axicabtagene ciloleucel in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 2100).
Matthew S. Davids, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, summarizes three key studies from a session he co-moderated on ibrutinib plus venetoclax for first-line treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), long-term responses to these agents for ...
Paul G. Richardson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, gives his expert perspective on three important studies in multiple myeloma: long-term results from the IFM 2009 trial on early vs late autologous stem cell transplant in patients with newly diagnosed disease; the effect of high-dose...
David T. Teachey, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses data showing that cranial radiation might be eliminated in most children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and that bortezomib may improve survival in children with T-cell lymphoblastic ...
Genetic mutations linked to myeloproliferative neoplasms may emerge in childhood or even in utero, decades before they cause cancer, according to a late-breaking abstract presented today at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition by Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir, and ...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Siegel et al found that never-smokers accounted for 12.5% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer in seven U.S. states during a recent 6-year period, with women accounting for a higher proportion than men. Study Details The study included...
Results from a phase II study presented by Nicholas J. Short, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 464) showed that first-line treatment with a regimen of chemotherapy combined with the monoclonal antibody blinatumomab...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Cullinane et al found that higher levels of plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were associated with poorer disease-free survival in patients with both early and advanced breast cancer, with the association being stronger with ...
Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir, of Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge, discusses how her team used large-scale whole-genome sequencing to precisely time the origins of a blood cancer and measure how it grew. The information could provide opportunities for early diagnosis and...
David Snyder, MD, Acting Chair, City of Hope Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Duarte, California, who was not involved in the ASCEMBL study, commented on the promise of asciminib: “The hope is this drug would be able to overcome resistance to other tyrosine kinase...
Since the introduction of imatinib almost 18 years ago, similar next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been approved for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), including dasatinib, nilotinib, bosutinib, and ponatinib. These drugs attack a similar target, making it more likely that resistance to...
Sagar Lonial, MD, of the Emory University School of Medicine, summarizes key papers presented in a session he co-moderated on how second-generation CAR T cells can be used to treat patients with multiple myeloma (Session 653).
In the phase II ZUMA-5 trial, axicabtagene ciloleucel led to responses in 92% of patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with the cellular immunotherapy. These findings were reported by Caron Jacobson, MD, MMSc, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual...
An analysis by Bhalla et al of multiomics data from newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma has identified 3 main patient groups and 12 prognostic subgroups (as well as potential vulnerabilities in each subgroup) based on five data types generated from genomic and transcriptomic patient...
The BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax can be safely added to standard therapies for some high-risk myeloid blood cancers, and in early studies, the combination showed improved outcomes, according to two reports presented by Jacqueline S. Garcia, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology ...
A subcutaneous injection of the BCMAxCD3 bispecific antibody teclistamab was found to be safe and elicited responses in a majority of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to findings from a multi-institutional phase I study presented by Alfred L. Garfall, MD, and...
A research team from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on various environmental surfaces in outpatient and inpatient hematology/oncology settings. The study revealed extremely low detection of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental surfaces across multiple outpatient...
Curtis Lachowiez, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses an interim analysis of a phase Ib/II study showing that venetoclax plus chemotherapy represents an effective regimen, particularly in patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed or refractory acute myeloid...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) presented Mohandas Narla, DSc, of the New York Blood Center, with the 2020 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology. Dr. Narla is being recognized for his significant contributions to hematology through his groundbreaking research, his ...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor Ari Melnick, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, and Courtney DiNardo, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, with the 2020 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for their significant research contributions to the treatment...
A phase I/II study found that IMGN632, a novel CD123-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, was tolerable and resulted in a 29% overall response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare but aggressive form of leukemia. Treatment with the...
A study presented by Christopher Gibson, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 80) has revealed for the first time that clonal hematopoiesis may confer a health benefit in allogeneic stem cell or bone marrow transplants....
Although the immunotherapy axicabtagene ciloleucel has significantly improved treatment outcomes for some patients with large B-cell lymphoma, not all patients benefit. In a new study presented by Robbie G. Majzner, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting ...
Stem cell transplants are not frequently offered to older patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to a study from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMTCTN 1102), these patients may indeed achieve a survival benefit from stem cell transplant. As...
The 2020 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition, held in a virtual format this year, began this weekend. We’re featuring three studies on the podcast this week from the meeting.
Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, and Radhika Gangaraju, MD, both of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, University of Alabama at Birmingham, discuss findings that showed survivors of bone marrow transplants are at a 7- to 12-fold higher risk of coronary heart disease than a sibling comparison ...
Emmanuel Bachy, MD, PhD, of the Hospices Civils de Lyon, discusses the final analysis of a phase III study of adding romidepsin to chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Adding romidepsin did not improve progression-free survival and was associated with high...
Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from a multicenter trial that compared reduced-intensity allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation to hypomethylating therapy or best supportive care in patients aged 50 to 75 with advanced myelodysplastic syndromes...
The ASH Research Collaborative COVID-19 Registry for Hematology provides up-to-date information on outcomes and the course of illness for a group of patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19. In general, registry data showed that hematologic malignancies increase the risk of severity of...