Andreas du Bois, MD, PhD, of Kliniken Essen Mitte, discusses the NORA and INOVATYON studies of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer, detailing the findings for women in China with platinum-sensitive disease and women internationally who received trabectedin and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin...
Black and Hispanic patients with cancer were more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than White patients, based on the findings of a study of more than 477,000 patients to be presented by Potter et al at the upcoming virtual 2020 ASCO Quality Care Symposium (Abstract 84). About the Study...
A study of more than 500 patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 at a large cancer center in Boston found that Black patients with cancer and COVID-19 were twice as likely to be hospitalized due to complications related to the virus as compared to White patients. Black patients were also more...
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer Black and Hispanic patients with cancer used telehealth (including phone encounters and video visits) compared to White patients, according to findings from an analysis of data from New York City hospitals. Significant disparities in the use of...
A 2018 study by Cathcart-Rake et al in the journal Cancer on the rates of acquisition of sexual orientation and gender identity data among community oncology practices found that only 24% of these practices routinely asked patients about their sexual orientation, and only 10% asked about gender...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have improved outcomes for patients with a variety of cancer types, including those with advanced colorectal cancers that test positive for microsatellite instability/mismatch repair deficiency (MSI-high/MMRd). While testing rates for patients with MSI-high/MMRd...
Over the past year (December 2019–September 2020), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for therapeutic agents used in breast cancer. Pertuzumab/Trastuzumab/Hyaluronidase-zzxf On June 29, 2020, the FDA approved a new fixed-dose...
In the post-trastuzumab era, a number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved targeted agents for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer are available, but there is no preferred option for third-line treatment and beyond. At the 2019 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Shanu Modi, MD,...
In an analysis of the pivotal phase III HER2CLIMB trial reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, Nancy U. Lin, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found that tucatinib, a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is highly selective for HER2, plus...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III IMpower110 trial has shown significantly prolonged overall survival with first-line atezolizumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)...
In a retrospective analysis reported in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics, Joseph Abi Jaoude, MD, of the American University of Beirut Medical Center, and colleagues found that a radiation boost did not reduce the risk of local recurrence among women with...
New agents for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer should be coming soon to your clinic, according to Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program and Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of...
Here we present summaries of several additional clinical trials in HER2-positive breast cancer reported over the past year. Jame Abraham, MD, Chair of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the Taussig Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic, shared his perspective on several of these trials presented ...
Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, said that margetuximab is one of three new “exciting” drugs in the HER2-positive setting with different mechanisms of action; the other two are tucatinib and trastuzumab deruxtecan. “Margetuximab is a modified version of trastuzumab...
The second interim analysis of the phase III SOPHIA trial demonstrated a significant, though modest, improvement in progression-free survival, response rate, and clinical benefit with the addition of margetuximab to chemotherapy vs trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive...
In the phase II monarcHER trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sara M. Tolaney, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues, found that the combination of abemaciclib, fulvestrant, and trastuzumab prolonged progression-free survival vs trastuzumab plus standard-of-care...
Neratinib is an oral pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for two indications. The first is as adjuvant treatment of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer following adjuvant trastuzumab therapy. The second is in combination with...
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists who have made a decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world. Harvey J. Alter, MD; Michael Houghton, ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kater et al, 4-year progression-free and overall survival were significantly greater with venetoclax plus rituximab vs bendamustine plus rituximab in the phase III MURANO trial in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, and colleagues found differences in patient reports of acute toxicities according to fractionation scheme of whole-breast radiotherapy for breast cancer, with pain being reported more frequently in Black vs White...
A pilot study comparing liquid biopsy with tissue-based testing showed that liquid biopsy delivered results approximately 10 days faster than tissue biopsy, according to research presented by Nir Peled, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)...
Next-generation sequencing of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) obtained from blood samples may improve diagnostic testing in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and may also be faster and less expensive than standard tissue profiling, according to research presented by Natasha B. Leighl, ...
On October 2, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) as first-line treatment for adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. CheckMate 743 Efficacy was investigated in CheckMate 743, a randomized,...
This week, we’ll be reviewing results from several reports on lung cancer presented during the ESMO Virtual Congress 2020. The findings focus on the use of radiotherapy, biomarkers, targeted treatments, and immunotherapy.
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, of the Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone, discusses the 4-year recurrence-free and overall survival results from the CheckMate 238 study, which showed adjuvant nivolumab continues to be an effective treatment, vs the comparator ipilimumab, for patients with resected...
Invited study discussant Lisa A. Carey, MD, the Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research and Deputy Director of Clinical Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, framed her remarks as a tale of two trials. Dr. Carey asked these...
Based on some unexpected negative results, oncologists using atezolizumab for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer should pair it with nab-paclitaxel, not paclitaxel. In contrast to the overall survival benefit shown for atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel in the previous IMpassion130...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to therapies for pretreated patients with multiple myeloma and pediatric patients with ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma; granted Fast Track designation to novel agents in gastric/gastroesophageal junction...
In the Japanese RESPECT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sawaki et al found that noninferiority of adjuvant trastuzumab alone vs with chemotherapy was not shown for disease-free survival among women with HER2-positive breast cancer between the ages of 70 and 80 years. However, a...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Paolo A. Ascierto, MD, and colleagues, 4-year results of the CheckMate 238 trial show the continued benefit of adjuvant nivolumab vs ipilimumab in recurrence-free and metastasis-free survival in patients with resected stage IIIB–IIIC or IV melanoma, with no...
For patients with rectal adenocarcinoma treated with neoadjuvant therapy followed by operative resection, “achieving a pathologic complete response is associated with excellent long-term disease-free and overall survival,” according to the results of a study reported by Naomi M. Sell, MD, MHS, of...
Findings from ASCO’s fourth annual National Cancer Opinion Survey showed the toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on patients with cancer and the concerns over delays in scheduling cancer screenings. In addition, a majority of survey respondents acknowledged that racism can impact the care a person ...
Residents of counties that experience persistent poverty face a disproportionately high risk of cancer mortality, according to a study published by Jennifer L. Moss, PhD, and colleagues in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Persistent Poverty Areas of persistent poverty are defined...
In an analysis of long-term data from NRG Oncology’s RTOG 9408 trial reported in JAMA Network Open, Zumsteg et al found that patients with favorable vs unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer had improved overall survival, and that androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) vs no ADT was associated...
In the Chinese phase III SANET-ep trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Xu et al found that surufatinib improved progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with advanced extrapancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Surufatinib is a novel small-molecule inhibitor that targets VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2,...
In the phase III DANUBE trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that durvalumab monotherapy did not prolong overall survival vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with largely metastatic urothelial carcinoma with high PD-L1...