On May 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ramucirumab (Cyramza, injection, 10 mg/mL solution) in combination with erlotinib for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19...
On May 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of people with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have not received prior systemic therapy. The review of this application...
The final results of the randomized phase II ECOG-ACRIN E3311 trial were presented by Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, and colleagues during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (Abstract 6500) and in today's Head and Neck Cancer Oral Abstract Session. The trial, conducted in patients undergoing...
As reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program by Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, and colleagues (Abstract 9001), the phase III KEYNOTE-604 trial has shown that first-line pembrolizumab plus etoposide/platinum significantly prolonged progression-free survival and prolonged overall survival at a...
In an analysis of the pivotal phase III HER2CLIMB trial to be reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, Nancy U. Lin, MD, and colleagues found that tucatinib, a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is highly selective for HER2, plus trastuzumab/capecitabine significantly improved...
The first trial of immunotherapy for gestational trophoblastic tumors proved effective in almost 50% of patients resistant to single-agent chemotherapy, French investigators reported in an abstract presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program.1 The results of the phase II TROPHIMMUN trial ...
A large cohort study by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on patients with cancer has found that all-cause 30-day mortality and severe illness were significantly higher in this population than previously reported in the general population. Mortality and severe...
Although 84% of children with cancer survive 5 years or more, children with refractory, relapsed, and progressive high-risk malignancies have a poor median survival of 9.5 months. The German INFORM registry is a large prospective, noninterventional, multicenter study collecting clinical and...
Data from the global TERAVOLT Consortium, which is investigating the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients with thoracic cancers, have found that these patients are at high risk for hospitalization and death. Prior use of chemotherapy was associated with an increased risk of mortality, as was...
Lecia V. Sequist, MD, who was not involved in the ADAURA study, said this would be a practice-changing study. Dr. Sequist is the Landry Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Innovation in Early Cancer Detection at Massachusetts General Hospital....
Adjuvant osimertinib significantly improved disease-free survival compared with placebo in patients with stage IB to IIIA EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent complete resection of primary tumor and received chemotherapy if indicated. These results from the first interim...
Like many professional organizations in the public sphere, ASCO regularly confronts policy issues. Because we are a large organization, and because we represent many constituencies, we are frequently called upon to offer our advice to the federal government. Our members must sometimes wonder where...
It has been 5 years since ASCO has been part of a new publication, the last being the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP). As the ASCO Board and leadership evaluated the publication mix we recognized there was a gap that needed to be filled. The Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), now 25 years old, ...
Sharing his perspective on KEYNOTE-177 with The ASCO Post was Axel Grothey, MD, Director of GI Cancer Research at the West Cancer Center, OneOncology, Memphis. “This is a very important, highly anticipated study,” he said. “It’s the first randomized trial of any checkpoint inhibitor in...
For the first time, upfront treatment with immunotherapy has improved—in fact, doubled—median progression-free survival in a subset of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. The findings are from the interim analysis of the randomized open-label phase III KEYNOTE-177 trial comparing the...
“These data are solid, showing a 7-month improvement in overall survival in patients with stable disease or better after first-line chemotherapy. This is roughly a 50% improvement in survival, which is clinically meaningful. Also, progression-free survival was significantly increased with...
Maintenance therapy with avelumab and best supportive care significantly prolonged overall survival vs best supportive care alone in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma that did not progress on first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, according to an interim analysis of the phase III...
In a retrospective study of registry data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mehta et al identified alternative donor sources for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) that were associated with better graft-vs-host disease (GVHD)-free (GRFS) and chronic GVHD–free (CRFS) relapse-free...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Goyal et al found that use of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) self-assessment tool during weekly on-treatment physician visits was associated with reduced symptom severity vs routine symptom management in patients...
As reported by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, the phase III ClarIDHy trial has shown that the isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) inhibitor ivosidenib improved progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with advanced IDH1-mutant chemotherapy-refractory...
Two novel biomarkers have been found to correlate with improved outcomes with immunotherapy in metastatic breast cancer and may help to identify the patients most likely to benefit from this treatment, according to exploratory studies reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
Cancer-related fatigue is a prevalent and potentially persistent issue among breast cancer survivors. A study presented by Di Meglio et al at the ESMO Breast Cancer Virtual Meeting 2020 (Abstract 183O) has now shown that existing recommendations and proven strategies for reducing fatigue—which can...
Final analysis of the LOTUS trial has shown numerically longer overall survival with ipatasertib plus paclitaxel vs placebo plus paclitaxel in patients with inoperable locally advanced/metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. In all biomarker-defined subgroups (PTEN normal or low, PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN ...
At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Breast Cancer Virtual Meeting 2020, Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, of Baylor University Medical Center, reported results from an interim analysis of the PHranceSCa study (Abstract 80O). The study investigators found that over 80% of patients preferred...
Patients with breast cancer younger than 40 generally present with a characteristic profile—later-stage disease and more aggressive tumors with poorer prognosis—according to findings from a new study analyzing one of the largest patient data sets compiled to investigate age-related breast cancer...
Telephone outreach coupled with scheduling assistance significantly increased screening mammography setup and follow-through in a population characterized by low rates of screening mammography and high rates of advanced breast cancer at diagnosis. These are findings from a new study conducted by...
The majority of women with multiple tumors in a single breast reported good or excellent satisfaction with the cosmetic results of lumpectomy, despite loss of significant breast volume and often multiple incisions. These findings are from an ongoing multicenter prospective trial examining the...
On May 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) and two cycles of platinum-doublet chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no epidermal...
On May 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved brigatinib (Alunbrig) for adult patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA-approved test. The FDA also approved the Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit...
On her wedding day, a father—who happens to have colorectal cancer—walks his daughter down the aisle. His oncologist, Rona Yaeger, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, helped him mark this milestone. Currently, patients with BRAF-mutant colorectal cancers face a poor prognosis. Dr....
The doctor-patient relationship, a time-honored tradition based on trust and cooperation, is critical for vulnerable patients, as they experience a heightened reliance on the physician’s competence, skills, and good will. That same trust is critical on the public health stage, when a nation is...
The symptoms of low-grade oligodendroglioma first appeared in the summer of 2003, when I was 12, but they were vague enough—mild headaches and occasional weird sensations on my right side—to ignore. In the fall, I tripped and fell during a game of rollerblade hockey with my classmates and started...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays, historical...
In 2003, Nina Kadan-Lottick, MD, MSPH, established the regional Yale HEROS multidisciplinary research and clinical program for long-term survivors of childhood cancer survivors, which is the first of its kind in Connecticut and one of the first in the United States. She intends the HEROS program to ...
In 1980, Paul G. Marks, MD, became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), the oldest and largest private cancer center in the world. Over his 19-year reign, he is credited with setting MSK on a more scientific course by encouraging innovative...
Most who leave a mark in life are noted for a single contribution; few are remembered for the breadth of their contributions. Such a man was John W. Yarbro, MD, PhD, who, near the end of his rich life, stepped foot on Antarctica, completing his desire to have visited all of the world’s seven...
Rosemary Yancik, PhD, a medical sociologist, was best known for her talent of bringing a group of experts together who shared her interests in improving the prevention and management of cancer in elderly patients. She served many years at the National Institutes of Health in both the National...
My journey in cancer medicine started in June 1968, when I traveled from Lebanon to New York to begin my fellowship in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since then, and on a daily basis, I have been actively engaged in the treatment of patients with cancer and in cancer...
The human drama within the oncology world is a never-ending story of triumph, tragedy, and all of the valiant efforts and human emotions in between. The doctor-patient relationship in oncology is deeper and longer than in most medical specialties due to the life-and-death stakes at play after a...
A new study by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Genome Analysis Network, a collaborative group with investigators in the United States, Canada and Europe, provides the most comprehensive look to date at the effect of ancestry on the molecular makeup of normal and...
The text and photograph here are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, The Radium Era: 1916–1945 by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photograph appears courtesy of Stanley B. Burns, MD, and The Burns...
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences recently announced its newest members, with the election of 276 artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Among those inducted were numerous researchers and scientists involved in the care of patients with...
Insomnia is a persistent sleep disorder that affects nearly 60% of people with cancer, diminishing their quality of life.1,2 Chronic insomnia disorder is defined by trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early three times per week for 3 months or more.3 Standard care comprises...
Medical images for a wide range of diseases, including COVID-19, can now be more easily viewed, compared, and analyzed using a Web-based imaging platform developed by Massachusetts General Hospital and collaborating researchers. The Open Health Imaging Foundation (OHIF) Web viewer was originally...
A clinical trial investigating a two-drug immunotherapy combination will soon be available to patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized clinical researchers at the center to conduct...
A new study has begun recruiting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, to determine how many adults in the United States without a confirmed history of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have antibodies to the virus. The presence of antibodies in...
The management of pediatric brain and spinal cord tumors is extremely complex, as are the survivorship issues in this highly vulnerable patient population. To shed light on the current clinical reality in this setting, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Katherine E. Warren, MD, an internationally...
The Moffitt Cancer Center has announced the appointment of John Cleveland, PhD, as Center Director and Executive Vice President of the Tampa-based, National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center. Dr. Cleveland joined Moffitt in 2014 as Associate Center Director of Basic...
In this edition of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with John Craig Venter, PhD, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human, microbial, and environmental genomic research. A...
In 2019, the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center began planning a demonstration program, called Cancer Care at Home, to broaden the delivery of oncology treatments to patients in the home setting. The existing services offered by Penn...