In the phase II POPLAR trial reported in The Lancet, Louis Fehrenbacher, MD, of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, and colleagues found that the investigational anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody atezolizumab improved overall survival vs docetaxel in patients with non–small cell...
As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by Berg et al, an analysis from the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) 6666 study indicates that use of ultrasound in primary screening for breast cancer resulted in increased detection of invasive cancers but more...
Adding the anti–vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) antibody ramucirumab to docetaxel improved progression-free survival among previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, reported Petrylak et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. ...
Treatment with adjuvant endocrine therapy and omission of chemotherapy on the basis of a 21-gene recurrence score ≤ 11 was associated with a high 3-year disease-free survival rate in women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, according to a trial reported in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by N. Lynn Henry, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline recommendations on the role of patient and disease factors in decisions on adjuvant systemic...
A prospective study examining a trimodality treatment approach in localized bladder cancer cases using adaptive image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy found that the bladder preservation rate at 3 years was 83%. These findings were published by Murthy et al in the International Journal ...
On March 30, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved defibrotide sodium (Defitelio) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with hepatic veno-occlusive disease, also known as sinusoidal obstructive syndrome, with renal or pulmonary dysfunction following hematopoietic...
Use of comprehensive geriatric assessment to guide therapy in elderly patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not improve treatment failure–free or overall survival but was associated with slightly reduced toxicity, based on the results of the phase III...
In a single-center retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, McDonald et al found that adding digital breast tomosynthesis to digital mammography reduced recall rates, increased cancer detection, and was associated with a numeric reduction in interval cancers. Study Details The analysis...
As summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, Ivey and colleagues demonstrated that assessing for NPM1-mutated gene transcripts by reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay is a feasible approach for measuring minimal residual disease after acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...
A retrospective review to evaluate the frequency of serum tumor marker testing “found a high rate of serum tumor marker testing overuse and extreme overuse in patients with advanced solid tumors,” Melissa K. Accordino, MD, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York,...
In the phase III GeparSepto-GBG 69 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Untch et al, neoadjuvant nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) improved pathologic complete response rate vs conventional solvent-based paclitaxel in women with early-stage breast cancer. Study Details In the open-label trial, 1,206 ...
A new American Cancer Society guideline provides clinicians with recommendations on key areas of clinical follow-up care for survivors of head and neck cancer, a growing population numbering approximately 436,060 and accounting for 3% of all cancer survivors living in the United States. The...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Powles et al, the dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor apitolisib was inferior to the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) in progression-free survival in a phase II trial in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma progressing on or after...
Many low- and middle-income countries do not have a defined medical specialty in surgical oncology, and lack an educational infrastructure to respond to the local burden of cancer, but a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) fellowship is succeeding in addressing this problem by training...
Treatment with enzalutamide (Xtandi) tripled median progression-free survival vs bicalutamide in patients with nonmetastatic or metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to the phase II STRIVE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Penson et al. Study Details In...
Increased surgeon experience was associated with markedly better short- and long-term survival in patients undergoing esophagectomy for esophageal cancer, according to a report by Markar et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study involved data from 1,821 patients who...
As reported by Hodi et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, use of conventional Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) to assess response may have underestimated the benefit of treatment with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the...
I have a history of fibrocystic breasts, which required biopsies to make certain the cysts were benign, and for years they were. But in 2009, my mammogram screening picked up a suspicious lump in my right breast, which turned out to be stage III estrogen receptor–positive/progesterone...
The increased rate of bilateral mastectomies, as shown in recently released data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is “perplexing,” Ismail Jatoi, MD, PhD, told The ASCO Post. “We are seeing more and more women with unilateral breast cancer opt for bilateral mastectomy,...
The relationship between disease and microbes was first proposed in the 17th century, but the basic standards for proving that infection causes disease were not laid down until 1883, when the German bacteriologists Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler provided the first evidence of the processes...
MARCH 2016 Methods in Clinical Research Workshop for Minority PhysiciansMarch 17-20 • Fort Lauderdale, FloridaFor more information:https://www.roswellpark.edu/education/diversity-clinical-research-workshop The 16th Multidisciplinary Management of Cancers: A Case-Based ApproachMarch 18-20 • Napa,...
PILOT Study Title: Feasibility of Assessing Blood Pressure Remotely in Childhood Cancer Survivors (Pilot Study-Survivor) Study Type: Interventional/randomized/parallel assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Purpose: To evaluate a high blood pressure...
My diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer at age 35 was a shock, also because I come from a family with no history of cancer. In disbelief, I was literally speechless—I lost my voice completely for several days. I grew up in the former Soviet Union and then in the newly independent Kyrgyzstan. My...
Patients with pancreatic cancer can obtain molecular tumor profiling through the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s Know Your TumorSM precision medicine initiative, a partnership with Perthera, a personalized medicine service company that facilitates the multi-omic profiling and generates the...
Two trials reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium evaluated bevacizumab (Avastin)-containing regimens in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and supported some, but not all, previous findings. The STEAM trial found some numerical differences but no...
New data on molecular biomarkers in advanced prostate cancer are accumulating at a fast pace. The studies in this area can now be broadly grouped in two distinct areas—those that broadly relate to androgen signaling and those that relate to DNA-repair pathways. The Androgen-Signaling Pathway With...
In the TOPARP-A phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Joaquin Mateo, MD, of the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden in London, and colleagues, found that the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) produced a high response rate in patients with previously treated ...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Adam Ivey, MSc, from Guy’s Hospital, London, and colleagues found that a leukemia-specific marker consisting of mutation in the gene encoding nucleophosmin (NPM1) can be used to identify minimal residual disease in peripheral blood in...
“New!” “Improved!” “Throw out that old [fill in the blank] and go buy a new [fill in the blank]!” Sound familiar? The key to marketing is to convince customers that they need a product without which they had previously been quite happy. All too often, this strategy is accompanied by a caveat emptor ...
The benefits of rehabilitation in traumatic spinal injuries are well established. Recently, studies have shown similarly positive results in cancer-related spinal injuries, indicating that rehabilitation can play a complementary role in the care management of this patient population....
Increased travel distance to a cancer treatment facility negatively impacts the likelihood that patients with stage II/III rectal cancer will receive radiation therapy to treat their disease, according to a study analyzing 26,845 patient records from the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) published...
Chan et al found that 1 year of treatment with the HER1, 2, and 4 tyrosine kinase inhibitor neratinib improved invasive disease–free survival vs placebo after trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based adjuvant therapy in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, in the phase III ExteNET...
Hypofractionated radiotherapy was not noninferior to conventionally fractionated radiotherapy in late genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicity in patients with prostate cancer in the Dutch phase III HYPRO trial. These findings were reported by Aluwini et al in The Lancet Oncology. An earlier...
Although overall survival rates for patients with cancer continue to soar—with 14.5 million cancer survivors today1—most of that gain is among pediatric and older adult patients. For adolescents and young adults with cancer—defined by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as those in the 15- to...
Myeloma is a disease of aging, with a median age at diagnosis in the United States of 69 years.1 As the population ages, forecasts estimate that, within 20 years, 3 of every 4 people diagnosed with multiple myeloma in the United States will be between the ages of 64 and 84 years.2 In anticipation...
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, did more than make it possible for millions of Americans to afford health care; it also established an abbreviated approval pathway for biologic products that are “biosimilar” to, or shown to be “interchangeable” with, a U.S....
On February 26, 2016, obinutuzumab (Gazyva) was approved for use in combination with bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) followed by obinutuzumab monotherapy for treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma who have relapsed after or are refractory to a rituximab (Rituxan)-containing regimen.1,2...
Intravenous pegylated (PEG) Escherichia coli (E coli) asparaginase was associated with similar toxicity and efficacy compared with intramuscular native E coli L-asparaginase in children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, according to the results of a phase III trial (DFCI 05-001).1 ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Heikki Joensuu, MD, PhD, of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues, the second planned analysis in the Scandinavian Sarcoma Group XVIII/AIO trial showed a recurrence-free survival benefit and a continued overall survival ...
In a phase III trial (SWOG S9005) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 YongLi Ji, MD, PhD, and Claire Verschraegen, MD, of the University of Vermont Cancer Center; and colleagues found no benefit of treatment with the antiprogestin agent mifepristone vs placebo in patients with...
For oncology professionals looking to maximize their learning and networking opportunities, ASCO will be offering two types of Pre–Annual Meeting Educational Programs ahead of its 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago this summer. Offered since 2012, Pre–Annual Meeting Seminars are a series of in-depth...
On February 19, 2016, palbociclib (Ibrance) was approved for use in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) for treatment of hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following endocrine therapy.1,2 In February 2015, palbociclib in...
Soon after effective therapies for some childhood malignancies were first identified, early leaders in our field had concerns about what would happen to surviving patients as they aged. In 1975, Giulio D’Angio, MD, one of the founders of modern pediatric radiation oncology, presciently called for...
On February 26, 2016, everolimus (Afinitor) was approved for treatment of adult patients with progressive, well-differentiated, nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal or lung origin that are unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic.1,2 The drug was previously approved for...
Proton-beam radiation therapy may be an attractive option for reirradiation of recurrent head and neck cancer, with encouraging disease control and survival rates and improved toxicity rates compared to photon reirradiation, according to John Han-Chih Chang, MD. Most head and neck cancers present...
Efforts to reduce the late toxicity associated with chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer have focused on radiation therapy dose de-escalation in select populations, according to James Melotek, MD, a radiation oncologist at the University of Chicago. “Patients...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved everolimus (Afinitor), an mTOR inhibitor, for the treatment of adult patients with progressive, well-differentiated nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal (GI) or lung origin with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic ...
Surgeons are clearly more comfortable in the operating room than the laboratory, but there is a place for them in translational cancer research as well, according to one surgeon who has led cutting-edge research in pancreatic cancer. “Translational studies require access to patients, to tissue, and ...
On March 26, 2013, ASCO announced that it had completed a prototype of CancerLinQ™, the Society’s groundbreaking health information–technology initiative to achieve higher quality, higher value cancer care with better outcomes for patients. At this year’s 2016 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Robert S. ...