Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) biopsy specimens were found to be reliable material for evaluating DLL3 expression, and high levels of DLL3 in SCLC are correlated with poor survival trends. Researchers from Guangdong General Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences in China presented...
In a research letter to JAMA Oncology, Hwang et al detailed the outcomes of patients with metastatic lung cancer receiving an inhibitor of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) or its ligand (PD-L1) with or without thoracic radiotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital. Study Details The...
New subgroup analysis from the phase III REVEL trial of ramucirumab (Cyramza) in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan. Specifically, these...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Dreyling et al, the phase II CHRONOS-1 trial has shown a high response rate and durable responses with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor copanlisib (Aliqopa) in adults with relapsed or refractory indolent lymphoma who had received...
At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan, Pfizer announced full results from the phase II clinical trial of the investigational, next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor lorlatinib. The agent exhibited clinically...
At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced data evaluating nivolumab (Opdivo) and nivolumab plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in previously treated small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients whose...
In a French phase III trial, maintenance rituximab (Rituxan) improved event-free survival vs observation after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in younger patints with mantle cell lymphoma. These findings were reported by Le Gouill et al in The New England Journal of Medicine. Study...
On October 9, Clovis Oncology announced that the company submitted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for rucaparib (Rubraca) as maintenance treatment of patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer...
National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers have found that for the most common high-risk type of human papillomavirus (HPV) to cause cervical cancer, an important viral gene may need to have a precise DNA sequence. The findings, published by Mirabello et al in Cell, contribute to a better...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Barroso-Sousa et al evaluated the incidence of endocrine dysfunction in patients receiving currently approved immune checkpoint inhibitors for various advanced solid tumors. Patients who received combination therapy were found to...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Balar et al, first-line pembrolizumab (Keytruda) produced durable responses in cisplatin-ineligible patients with locally advanced and unresectable or metastatic urothelial cancer in the phase II KEYNOTE-052 trial. The trial supported the accelerated approval...
David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, reviews the clinical data and ongoing trials evaluating immunotherapy in the setting of relapsed or refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia and discusses major adverse events of treatment.
On October 9, AstraZeneca announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for osimertinib (Tagrisso) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation–positive non–small cell lung ...
Trastuzumab (Herceptin) therapy for breast cancers that express the HER2 protein does not increase the risk of complications at the surgical site in women who undergo immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy, according to findings published by Shammas et al in the Journal of the American...
In a propensity score–matched analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Mokdad et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy had a survival benefit vs observation after preoperative chemoradiotherapy and resection in patients with locally advanced gastroesophageal cancer. Study Details The study...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Goetz et al, an interim analysis in the phase III MONARCH 3 trial has shown a significant progression-free survival benefit with the addition of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) to a nonsteroidal aromatase...
Although lymphodepletion chemotherapy followed by an infusion of CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells has produced high response rates in phase I studies of patients with refractory CD19-positive B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia...
A self-controlled clinical trial by Hanai et al investigating the efficacy of cryotherapy for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with breast cancer treated with paclitaxel has found that cryotherapy resulted in a clinically and statistically significant...
A Swedish population-based observational study has shown that comorbidity is a significant factor in other-cause but not prostate cancer–specific mortality after adjustment for patient, tumor, and treatment factors among men with prostate cancer. The findings were reported in the Journal of...
Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk of 13 types of cancer—and these cancers account for about 40% of all cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2014—according to the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Overall, the...
Breast cancer specialist Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, was born in Manhasset, Long Island, and grew up several miles east in Muttontown, New York. Since tiny Muttontown didn’t have its own school system, Dr. Partridge went to high school in nearby Locust Valley, a town on Long Island’s North Shore,...
ON JULY 31, 2017, nivolumab (Opdivo) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of patients 12 years and older with DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) and microsatellite instability– high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer progressing following treatment with a fluoropyrimidine,...
PATIENTS WITH DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer display a high level of microsatellite instability (MSI-H)1 and demonstrate poor chemosensitivity and shorter overall survival than patients with mismatch repair–proficient (pMMR) metastatic metastatic colorectal...
THE PHASE II CHECKMATE 142 TRIAL has shown that nivolumab (Opdivo) produces durable responses in previously treated recurrent or metastatic DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR)/ microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) colorectal cancer. These study findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology...
Studies show that only about one-third of patients with acute myeloid leukemia who have detectable amounts of cancer cells in their blood at the time of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation will be alive 3 years later, compared with nearly three-quarters of those patients without minimal...
FOR THE first time, an inhibitor of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway (taselisib) used in combination with endocrine therapy in the neoadjuvant setting improved response rates over endocrine therapy alone—with good tolerability—in women with early breast cancer, according to the phase...
EVIDENCE CONTINUES to mount for the benefits of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibition in ovarian cancer. Rucaparib (Rubraca) maintenance therapy after response to platinum-containing therapy significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer compared ...
STAYING UP-TO-DATE in the fast-paced world of oncology literature is a daunting task at best. To assist with that task, The ASCO Post has assembled an assortment of studies recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Sorafenib Dosing and Outcomes in Hepatocellular Cancer IN A...
IN PATIENTS with malignant pleural mesothelioma, combination immunotherapy with two checkpoint inhibitors in the second or third line of treatment extended survival to at least 15 months in the MAPS2 trial,1 sponsored by the Intergroupe Francophone de Cancérologie Thoracique (IFCT) and reported at ...
OSIMERTINIB (TAGRISSO) showed encouraging results as first-line therapy for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the phase III FLAURA trial, according to results presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
“IN 2008, I presented the IPASS results. FLAURA has beaten me to the ground. The results exceeded expectations, and FLAURA is undoubtedly a positive study,” stated formal discussant Professor Tony Mok, MD, FASCO, Chair of Department of Clinical Oncology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “It is ...
OSIMERTINIB (TAGRISSO) showed encouraging results as first-line therapy for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)–mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the phase III FLAURA trial, according to results presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Barbera et al found that a province-wide effort to improve symptom screening and management has increased the frequency of screening but has not improved opioid prescription rates in elderly cancer patients with severe pain. A previous study...
In the phase III SIMPLIFY-1 noninferiority trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mesa et al found that the selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1 and 2 inhibitor momelotinib was noninferior to ruxolitinib (Jakafi) in spleen response, but not symptom response, in JAK inhibitor–naive...
Palliative care professionals are invited to participate in a unique project sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. Collinge and Associates, Inc, is seeking interdisciplinary professionals to help develop and evaluate a new online continuing education (CE/CME) course on the use of integrative...
FORMAL DISCUSSANT, Manuela Schmidinger, MD, of the Medical University of Austria, Vienna, commented on the CheckMate 214 findings. “We have just seen a change in the paradigm in the treatment of metastatic renal cell cancer.” “More than a decade ago, VEGF [vascular endothelial growth factor]...
A CHANGE IN PARADIGM may be on the horizon for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. According to the results of CheckMate 214, the combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus nivolumab (Opdivo) outperformed the standard of care—sunitinib (Sutent)—for first-line treatment, with improved...
NICHOLAS TURNER, MD, of The Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK, called the findings of MONARCH 3 “practice-changing.” The cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors have answered the need for agents that target the biology of estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, ...
THE VALUE OF cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors in advanced breast cancer became ever more certain with the announcement of interim data from MONARCH 3, which evaluated abemaciclib in combination with endocrine therapy as first-line therapy for hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative...
EARLY IN our careers, few of us imagined that a vaccine could one day prevent cancer. Now, there is a vaccine that keeps the risks from human papillomavirus (HPV) at bay, and yet universal adoption of the HPV vaccine has been incomplete. As a result of misinformation about the vaccine—and its...
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Iyengar et al found that consolidative stereotactic ablative radiotherapy improved progression-free survival vs maintenance therapy alone in patients with limited metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details...
As reported in JAMA by Giuliano et al, 10-year overall survival in the ACOSOG Z0011 (Alliance) trial with sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND) alone was noninferior to that with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in women with clinical T1 or T2 invasive breast cancer, no palpable axillary...
Earlier this year, at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, former Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, PhD, launched the Biden Cancer Initiative, their new venture to continue the fight to make progress in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and care. The Biden Cancer Initiative will...
A higher-dose, shorter form of radiation is safe, effective, and no more damaging to the breast tissue or skin of breast cancer patients under age 50 than it is in older patients. This is the finding of a study led by researchers from Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University (NYU)...
Investigators at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson uncovered potential new proteins that contribute to the development and progression of several types of lymphoma. Their findings were published by Adams et al in Clinical Cancer Research. The researchers focused their attention on...
On September 22, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) approved nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer which has progressed after chemotherapy. This approval was based on the phase III ...
A systematic review and meta-analysis has found no association between vasectomy and high-grade, advanced, or fatal prostate cancer but a weak association with any prostate cancer. These findings were reported in JAMA Oncology by Bimal Bhindi et al. R. Jeffrey Karnes, MD, of the Mayo Clinic,...
The phase III Checkmate 238 trial has shown improved recurrence-free survival with adjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) vs ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with resected advanced melanoma. The findings were reported by Jeffrey Weber and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine. Study Details In the ...
My father, who was a physician, taught me at an early age to pay attention to any changes in my body. His advice has stood me in good stead for more than 83 years and probably saved my life more than once. In 1984, just before I turned 50, something was bothering me about my right breast. I could...
Although checkpoint inhibitor–based immunotherapy has revolutionized treatment for a variety of cancers, the majority of patients with cancer do not respond to the therapy, and a subset of patients may even experience hyperprogression. Many patients also experience some degree of...