The invited discussant of the phase III ENGOT-EN5/GOG-3055/SIENDO trial was Amit M. Oza, MD, MBBS, Head of the Division of Medical Oncology & Hematology at University Health Network/Mount Sinai, Director of Clinical Research and Clinical Cancer Research Unit at Princess Margaret Hospital, and ...
Imagine this. You are a large pharmaceutical company that launches an international randomized phase III trial to assess whether one of your drugs improves the outcome of patients with a common type of cancer. The trial was solidly backed by preclinical evidence that the drug target was essential ...
The invited discussant of the RELATIVITY-047 trial, Adil Daud, MBBS, said the findings1 “mark a major advance for immunotherapy beyond CTLA-4 and PD-1” as upfront treatment for advanced melanoma. However, the findings trigger a host of questions for clinicians. Dr. Daud is Co-Director of the...
New findings from a large national study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) show cancer survivors in the United States who reported medical financial hardship had a higher mortality risk than cancer survivors without financial hardship. Medical financial hardship was measured...
Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, of the Yale University School of Medicine, discusses how patients may benefit in the coming decade from discoveries about agents that target KRAS, and how important the approval of sotorasib turned out to be, as well as other agents in the research pipeline. Dr. LoRusso...
Sotorasib, the first KRAS G12C inhibitor approved for the treatment of KRAS G12C–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), continues to demonstrate meaningful and durable efficacy at 2-year follow-up in the phase II CodeBreaK 100 trial. At a median follow-up of 15.3 months, 2-year overall...
“OlympiA is clearly a practice-changing trial, and olaparib should be offered to patients meeting the entry criteria for the study,” said Mark E. Robson, MD, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr. Robson was invited to discuss the findings of...
“Refugees and displaced people may see their cancer treatment interrupted, or they may develop a new cancer while they are in host countries. They often present with advanced disease and suffer more complications. These patients have poor outcomes because of poor hygiene and living conditions, as...
Nothing can really prepare you for cancer, but it helped that I have dedicated my life in service to others as a minister and advocate for social justice and health equity in breast cancer survivorship. Before my own breast cancer diagnosis in 2016, I had spent years as a volunteer for several...
Although The Social Conquest of Earth was published a decade ago, it is worth revisiting, because, as oncology luminary Harold Varmus, MD, stressed: “It is a tour de force that we ignore at our planet’s peril.” Its author, Edward O. Wilson, PhD, known as “the father of sociobiology,” died at the...
In a recently published paper in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 R. Donald Harvey, PharmD, BCOP, FCCP, FHOPA, of Emory University, Atlanta, and coleagues reflected on the growth in availability of oral anticancer therapies over the past decade and noted that as these treatments are easy to take ...
New research published by Lowry et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found the rate of mammography participation by breast cancer survivors has been steadily declining since 2009, particularly among younger survivors. The researchers reviewed a nationwide commercial...
Advanced radiotherapy techniques may reduce the risk of severe and debilitating toxicity associated with radiation, but not all patients have equal access to these modalities, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Retrospective analysis of the...
In this edition of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Antônio Drauzio Varella, MD, a Brazilian oncologist, educator, scientist, and medical science popularizer in the press and television, as well as a best-selling author. Antônio Drauzio Varella, MD, was born in 1943 in ...
COVID-19 may have caught the world off guard in 2020, but in the 2 years since the pandemic began, several effective monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs have emerged to protect the most vulnerable patients. The ASCO Post spoke with Gunjan L. Shah, MD, a hematologic oncologist at Memorial...
Guideline-directed medical therapy for the prevention and treatment of cardiotoxicity is improving quality of life and oncologic outcomes associated with breast cancer treatment, according to Jean-Bernard Durand, MD, FACP, FCCP, FACC, FHFSA, Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas MD...
The combination of nivolumab plus cabozantinib achieved a continued survival benefit compared with sunitinib in patients with untreated clear cell metastatic or advanced renal cell carcinoma, according to a final overall survival analysis of the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial.1 Additionally,...
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the number of attacks on health-care facilities continues to mount. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of March 16, there have been 43 attacks on health facilities, including 34 attacks that have directly impacted health facilities and...
The invited discussant of the CodeBreaK 100 data, E. Gabriela Chiorean, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Clinical Director of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, found the efficacy of ...
Gabriel A. Brooks, MPH, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, was invited to discuss the results of the ACCENT/IDEA database analysis of early treatment discontinuation in stage III colon cancer. Although the results confirm the...
In patients with resectable microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H)/mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, dual checkpoint inhibition with ipilimumab and nivolumab given as neoadjuvant therapy led to a pathologic complete response rate of 58.6%,...
The phase II ANCHOR CRC study, the largest prospective study of BRAF inhibitor–based therapy as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, has met its primary endpoint, with 47.8% of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer responding to first-line treatment with encorafenib,...
The invited discussant of the CodeBreaK 100 data, E. Gabriela Chiorean, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Clinical Director of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, found the efficacy...
Promising activity in metastatic pancreatic cancer was shown by sotorasib, an inhibitor of the KRAS G12C mutation, in the phase I/II CodeBreaK 100 study presented by John H. Strickler, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, during the...
Formal discussant of the ARASENS trial, Elisabeth I. Heath, MD, FACP, Professor of Oncology and Associate Center Director, Translational Sciences, at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, commented on the changing paradigm in prostate cancer treatment. “The narrative is changing to triplet therapy, ...
Invited discussant Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, Director of the Bladder Cancer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said: “Antibody-drug conjugates are a major weapon in the way forward in bladder cancer…. The EV-103 trial evaluated neoadjuvant therapy with enfortumab vedotin-ejfv, one of two...
The combination of nivolumab plus cabozantinib achieved a continued survival benefit compared with sunitinib in patients with untreated clear cell metastatic or advanced renal cell carcinoma, according to a final overall survival analysis of the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial.1 Additionally,...
On March 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved lutetium Lu-177 vipivotide tetraxetan (Pluvicto) for the treatment of adult patients with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have been treated with androgen receptor...
Although appendectomy is still the most effective treatment for acute appendicitis, nonoperative management is increasingly common, as recent studies—such as one published in November 2020 in The New England Journal of Medicine and a second published in December 2021 in the same journal—have shown...
A new therapeutic strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that initially primes the tumor with an immune checkpoint inhibitor before using a multikinase inhibitor has shown efficacy in a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Kikuchi et al reported that the new...
A combination therapy caused tumors to shrink or stabilize in 75% of patients with recurrent or persistent estrogen receptor (ER)-positive endometrial cancer, results from a recent clinical trial show. Trial leaders from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presented the findings at the Society of...
The cost of cancer care is substantially impacting the lives of patients with cancer and survivors, forcing them to make significant lifestyle changes and causing some to incur long-term medical debt. According to a new Survivor Views survey from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network...
Formal discussant of the ARASENS trial, Elisabeth I. Heath, MD, FACP, Professor of Oncology and Associate Center Director, Translational Sciences, at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, commented on the changing paradigm in prostate cancer treatment. “The narrative is changing to triplet therapy, ...
The combination of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor niraparib plus abiraterone acetate and prednisone as first-line therapy significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival vs abiraterone and placebo alone in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA)—an investigational radiolabeled small molecule—significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival when added to the standard of care compared with the standard of care alone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
Invited discussant Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, Director of the Bladder Cancer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said: “Antibody-drug conjugates are a major weapon in the way forward in bladder cancer…. The EV-103 trial evaluated neoadjuvant therapy with enfortumab vedotin-ejfv, one of two...
Gabriel A. Brooks, MPH, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, was invited to discuss the results of the ACCENT/IDEA database analysis of early treatment discontinuation in stage III colon cancer.1 Although the results confirm the...
In the French phase III ESTIMABL2 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Leboulleux et al found that no use of radioiodine was noninferior to radioiodine ablation in the occurrence of functional, structural, or biologic events among patients undergoing thyroidectomy for low-risk...
ASCO submitted comments in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2023 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters proposed rule. The rule includes proposed changes to standards for issuers and marketplaces and reinstates many...
I still remember having to sit down with her three siblings on that afternoon. It was drizzling, cloudy, and cool—Mother Nature in agreement with the heaviness of what had just taken place. I held them tight. I knew the words I would utter next would change their lives forever. I paused for 10...
In a commentary published recently in The Lancet Oncology,1 Harpreet Singh, MD, and Richard Pazdur, MD, both of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), warned against the increasing number of oncology drug development programs based wholly or predominantly...
Priyanka Sharma, MD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center in Westwood, the invited discussant of the poster, noted that the DAISY study asked whether HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugates—in this case, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd)—have activity beyond the conventional...
New recommendations for treating advanced breast cancer, coming from a panel of experts at the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Sixth International Consensus Conference (ABC6), were recently published.1 The report highlights advances that have resulted in robust improvements in overall survival for...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said the “fascinating” findings of the study reported by Bouzid et al make it worthy of an ASH Plenary Session...
Pembrolizumab monotherapy is an established treatment strategy for relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma. In combination with chemotherapy, the checkpoint inhibitor is also showing value in the front-line setting and further boosting outcomes in the relapsed setting, according to...
Stefano Cascinu, MD, of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Università Vita-Salute, IRCCS-Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, was the invited discussant of KEYNOTE-5901 and CheckMate 649.2 “These landmark studies could change the treatment paradigm of advanced esophageal and gastric cancers. They...
A recent study published by Conley et al in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment aimed to evaluate factors that influence the ability of people with metastatic breast cancer to adhere to their prescribed regimen of oral anticancer medication.1 Researchers found that multiple factors affected...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Gerardo Colón-Otero, MD, Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Past Chair of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, and Vice Dean at Mayo Clinic Alix School of...
Christopher Willett, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, shared his thoughts on the findings of the study by Lumish et al1 with The ASCO Post. He first noted the shift in recent years toward total neoadjuvant therapy in the...
In patients with resectable microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H)/mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, dual checkpoint inhibition with ipilimumab and nivolumab given as neoadjuvant therapy led to a pathologic complete response rate of 58.6%,...