This past year, President Joe Biden announced the appointment of six members to the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB; see related article). This board plays a crucial role in advising and assisting the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in setting the activities of the national...
Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States, and the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2023, it is estimated that about 52,550 individuals died from the...
In a retrospective cohort study of 160 patients with cancer who were suspected of having immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-induced myocarditis, published in JACC: CardioOncology, Osnat Itzhaki Ben Zadok, MD, MSc, and colleagues found that severe ICI-induced myocarditis seemed to be linked to...
A first-in-class, claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2)-targeted antibody-drug conjugate may prove to be an effective treatment option for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer, according to data presented during the ASCO Plenary Series: November 2023.1 (The ASCO Plenary Series is...
A newly published guideline update from ASCO and Ontario Health provides evidence-based recommendations on the use of systemic therapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC).1 Recommendations cover where novel agents fit in the treatment landscape, the management of disease in older patients with...
Invited discussant of the PSMAfore trial, Christopher J. Sweeney, MBBS, Director of the South Australian Immunogenics Cancer Institute, University of Adelaide, Australia, congratulated the authors for a well-powered, controlled phase III trial. “The study showed clear documentation of...
On October 16 and 17, 2023, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) welcomed more than 350 attendees from over 75 countries to its World Cancer Leaders’ Summit in Long Beach, California, to discuss some of the most challenging issues facing patients with cancer worldwide. The theme of...
The use of lutetium-177–labeled PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) improved radiographic progression–free survival by 57% in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who experienced disease progression on an androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibitor compared with changing to a new AR pathway...
Immunotherapy pioneer Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Biden. It is the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. Dr. Rosenberg is Chief of the Surgery Branch at the Center for Cancer Research at the National...
On October 16, 2023, pembrolizumab was approved for use with platinum-containing chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment and as single-agent adjuvant treatment in patients with resectable (tumors ≥ 4 cm or node-positive) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based ...
Except for a series of unexplained multiple broken bones and inexplicable excruciating pain in my right hip and leg, I had no other hallmarks of multiple myeloma when I was diagnosed with the disease at age 48 in 2014. My blood test values were all normal, and I didn’t have anemia or kidney damage. ...
Investigators have found that implementing the updated World Health Organization (WHO) screening guidelines may effectively reduce the cervical cancer mortality rate in patients residing in low- and middle-income countries, according to two recent studies published by Simms et al and Hall et al in...
Translational research is a key ingredient in guiding both genetic and pharmacologic cardioprotective approaches in patients being treated for cancer, according to international experts from the International Cardio-Oncology Society and the Global Cardio-Oncology Symposium (GCOS) committee. Fadi N. ...
This is Part 2 of Evolving Skin Cancer Management, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Pauline Funchain, Alison Vidimos, and Lisa Zaba review how the multidisciplinary team comes together to treat cutaneous squamous...
Invited discussant Bonny Morris, PhD, RN, MSPH, of the American Cancer Society, underscored the significance of the study’s findings for the veteran community. “There are more than 50,000 veterans diagnosed with cancer each year, with the most common cancers being prostate, lung, and colorectal,”...
A decade-long journey toward improving end-of-life care for patients with advanced cancer has demonstrated positive effects on survival, health-care use, and cost of care, according to data presented at the 2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1 Post hoc analysis of an advance care planning...
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can safely and effectively treat patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), especially during first remission, according to data presented at the 2023 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 4988). Results of the...
Age, race, and sex have significant implications for survival rates of patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), according to data presented at the 2023 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 5185). Findings from the largest U.S. population–based BPDCN study...
The data developed over the past few years have overwhelmingly favored geriatric assessment as part of the routine care for older patients with cancer. It has become the standard of care. ASCO has recently published a Practical Geriatric Assessment to aid in the implementation of this vital...
At the 2023 Global Cardio-Oncology Summit in Madrid, in a joint session with ASCO and the International Cardio-Oncology Society, Anita Arnold, DO, FACC, MBA, Director, Noninvasive Cardiology, and Director of Cardio-Oncology, Lee Memorial Health Systems, Fort Myers, Florida, discussed the...
Adding the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) to the HER2-targeted agent tucatinib extended progression-free survival by about 2 months vs treatment with T-DM1 alone among patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, according to...
Researchers have uncovered that psilocybin-assisted therapy may be safe and effective in patients with cancer and comorbid major depressive disorder, according to two novel studies published by Agrawal et al and Beaussant et al in Cancer. Background Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic chemical found in...
In a French study of more than 7,000 childhood cancer survivors published by Charrier et al in JACC: CardioOncology, researchers reported that the occurrence of a second malignant neoplasm among these survivors seemed to be associated with an increased risk of cardiac disease occurrence and risk at ...
On December 18, W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, began her work as the 17th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Rathmell was selected by President Biden to succeed Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, who left NCI to become the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on...
The phase II PrE0405 trial met its primary endpoint, achieving a complete response rate of 85% in 33 patients with mantle cell lymphoma over age 60 who received bendamustine and rituximab, a standard chemoimmunotherapy regimen, along with venetoclax, which is investigational in this setting. The...
Use of venetoclax may increase survival in non-Hispanic Black patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to recent findings presented by Wang et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 955). Background Although the standard treatment...
Elranatamab may be safe and effective in Black patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to new findings presented by Varshavsky-Yanovsky et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 3333). Background Elranatamab—an...
Patients with relapsed or refractory acute leukemia with rearrangement in the lysine methyltransferase 2A gene, a genetic marker known as KMT2A, who were treated with revumenib, a small-molecule inhibitor of menin-KMT2A interactions, saw an overall response rate of 63%, according to results from...
Researchers may have uncovered a new type of targeted therapy for patients with advanced myelofibrosis, according to new findings presented by Watts et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 750). Background Historically, there have been few...
Two new studies have demonstrated positive results from novel therapies targeting menin for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with specific gene mutations, according to findings presented by Jabbour et al (Abstract 57) and Issa et al (Abstract 58) at ...
Among patients who have acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with genetic mutations in NPM1, those with no residual leukemia cells in the blood based on high-sensitivity testing after two cycles of chemotherapy achieved high rates of overall survival at 3 years and saw no additional survival benefit from...
Newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma who received daratumumab along with the standard care regimen of bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (VRd) had significantly higher rates of survival without disease progression compared with those who received VRd alone. Results from the phase ...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI) model may help physicians distinguish and identify prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis from essential thrombocythemia, according to new findings presented by Srisuwananukorn et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition...
Data presented at the 2023 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition suggest that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy remains a viable option for patients who have lymphoma that goes into remission before the cell therapy begins (Abstract 615). While the findings do not answer the...
For patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who have an early relapse or whose cancer doesn’t respond to first-line treatment, randomized trials have shown that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is superior to the historical standard of care, which included additional chemotherapy...
Researchers have found that patients with psychiatric or substance use disorders may have an increased risk of experiencing poorer outcomes such as early mortality following treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with venetoclax combination therapies compared with those without a recent history ...
Researchers identified a 75% higher rate of mortality among patients treated for multiple myeloma in real-world hospital settings compared with rates reported in clinical trials involving common therapies. The new findings were presented by Visram et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology...
Investigators have found that in the past decade, a majority of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) active R01 grants related to classical, nonmalignant hematology were led by male investigators, according to new findings presented by Khan et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology...
An ASCO guideline has been developed to inform the use of systemic treatments for metastatic, well-differentiated gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs).1 The guideline helps fill a knowledge gap among community oncologists in particular, who typically do not see many of these rare ...
On October 11, 2023, the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib (Braftovi) with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib (Mektovi) was approved for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a BRAF V600E mutation, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test.1,2 The FDA...
Syed Ali Abutalib, MD, is taking his talents to the recently affiliated Aurora Health Care, now part of Advocate Health, one of the largest integrated health systems in the United States. He accepted a new position at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, where he is now Director of the...
Invited discussant Krishnansu Tewari, MD, Associate Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of California, Irvine, said two new approaches for locally advanced cervical cancer, as described at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023, represent...
In patients with newly diagnosed, locally advanced cervical cancer, induction chemotherapy prior to chemoradiation therapy led to a 35% reduction in the risk for disease recurrence or death (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.65; P = .013) and a 39% reduction in the survival hazard (HR = 0.61; P = .04),...
Discussant of these abstracts on the Oncology Care Model (OCM), Kerin B. Adelson, MD, MHCDS, Chief Quality and Value Officer at The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, suggested the OCM was beneficial for both patients and health professionals despite the lack of clear positive ...
Based on the results of the phase III BEATcc trial, there is no longer doubt that immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed the treatment landscape in cervical cancer—and there is no place for “skeptics” of this approach, according to Bradley J. Monk, MD, FACS, FACOG, Director and Principal...
Although significant progress has been made to reduce the gap in health outcomes of minority or underserved patients, meaningful steps forward still need to be made to improve health disparities. Countless studies have shown, in general, that affluent White individuals have better health outcomes...
ASCO discussant Elizabeth Smyth, MD, a consultant medical oncologist at Oxford University Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom, commented on the EDGE-Gastric trial. This regimen, which evaluated dual checkpoint blockade with next-generation agents, aims to...
Initial findings from the global phase II EDGE-Gastric trial indicate the potential for two novel immune checkpoint inhibitors to improve outcomes in advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. The findings were reported at the November 2023 ASCO Plenary Session by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, Chief of...
Targeted treatment with ribociclib plus hormone therapy provided significant invasive disease–free survival benefits in patients with early-stage hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer at risk of disease recurrence. Results from the phase III NATALEE trial, led by researchers at The ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Nina Shah, MD, Global Head of Multiple Myeloma Clinical Development and Strategy, Hematology, Oncology Research and Development at AstraZeneca. She is a hematologist who specializes in...