On June 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a fixed-dose combination of sofosbuvir, 400 mg, plus velpatasvir, 100 mg (Epclusa) to treat adult patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) either with or without cirrhosis. For patients with moderate to severe cirrhosis...
According to the European phase III PENELOPE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kurzeder et al found that adding pertuzumab (Perjeta) to investigator’s choice of chemotherapy did not improve progression-free survival in women with low-HER3 mRNA–expressing...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Chapuis et al, concurrent use of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) antigen-4 (CTLA-4) blockade with ipilimumab (Yervoy) and adoptively transferred antigen-specific CTLs produced enduring responses in patients with stage IV melanoma. Study...
The College of American Pathologists (CAP), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) announced today the open comment period for the revised evidence-based guideline, “Molecular Testing Guideline for Selection of...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced June 27 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to nivolumab (Opdivo) for the potential indication of unresectable locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that has progressed on or after a...
In the phase I/II CheckMate 032 study, nivolumab (Opdivo) alone and with ipilimumab (Yervoy) demonstrated activity in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) progressing after at least one previous platinum regimen, as reported in The Lancet Oncology by Antonia et al. Study Details In the...
President Barack Obama has tapped Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, LLD, Georgetown University Professor and Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, to serve as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB). He will serve a 6-year term. The 18 ...
At my last screening mammogram in 2015, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The technician took the usual four x-rays of my breasts, and I was told I could leave. So it was especially shocking to get a phone call from the radiologist a week later telling me that I had to come back for an additional ...
The first clinical trial to compare standard-of-care chemotherapy with molecularly tailored therapy (also known as precision medicine) for metastatic pancreatic cancer is now enrolling patients at multiple sites around the country. Patients who have been treated with one round of chemotherapy for...
The American Medical Association (AMA) has introduced the 21 members of its Board of Trustees for the coming year, following elections held during the Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates. Andrew W. Gurman, MD, an orthopedic hand surgeon, was sworn in as the 171st President of the AMA. In...
A review of more than 50 studies (many randomized controlled trials) concluded that surgery and radiation therapy “remain standard-of-care treatment options” in the management of ductal carcinoma in situ.1 The review continues the widely reported discussion on managing ductal carcinoma in situ,...
Two clinician-scientists whose groundbreaking work has shown how the human body’s own immune system can fend off cancer will share the 2016 $100,000 Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Science, the University of Michigan’s A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute announced....
Over the years, my patients have been my most important teachers. I’ve learned so much from them about human nature and the resilience of the human spirit. When my time came to pass through the fire and confront the same challenges they and their families face so bravely and with such compassion, ...
Scientific Name: Cimicifuga racemosa Common Names: Black snakeroot, rattlesnake root, squawroot, bugbane, bugwort Brand Names: Remifemin, Menofem, Klimadynon Overview A perennial plant native to the eastern United States and Canada, black cohosh root was used by Native Americans to treat colds,...
Curtis Pesmen is a well-regarded writer who has authored six books of nonfiction as well as numerous articles for publications such as Esquire and The New York Times. He also has served as founding editor of LIVESTRONG Quarterly and often speaks and writes on patient advocacy. Shortly after...
In his new book, Sharks Get Cancer, Mole Rats Don’t: How Animals Could Hold the Key to Unlocking Cancer Immunity in Humans, James S. Welsh, MD, examines a wide array of animal and human biologic phenomena, searching for clues that might help us unlock the full power of the human immune system....
The Genomic Data Commons (GDC), a unified data system that promotes sharing of genomic and clinical data among researchers, was launched on June 6 with a visit from Vice President Joe Biden to the operations center at the University of Chicago. An initiative of the National Cancer Institute (NCI),...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has named Michael Dyer, PhD, Chair of the Department of Developmental Neurobiology. “A true visionary in his field, Dr. Dyer is a remarkable scientist who has worked tirelessly to unravel some of the long-held mysteries of childhood cancer,” said James R....
JULY The 5th International Inflammatory Breast Cancer ConferenceJuly 9-10 • Boston, MassachusettsFor more information:www.hmscmeregistration.org/events/breast-cancer-new-horizons-current-controversies/custom-21-857304c388f143b7840614d1bb151442.aspx 24th Biennial Congress of the European Association ...
A 65-year-old patient with widely metastatic pancreatic cancer was emergently transferred to our facility in the early hours of the morning with free air suggestive of a perforated viscus. The patient is from a small town several hundred miles away from our academic center, which can be quite...
CancerLinQ LLC, recently announced that it has completed agreements with 36 vanguard oncology practices from around the country to begin implementing the tool. According to physicians at the vanguard practices, gaining access to the experience of oncology practices across the country motivated...
For the first time in ASCO’s history, the Society has endowed its own Young Investigator Award (YIA), illustrating its continued commitment to investing in the future of cancer research. Ongoing support of this kind will ensure that the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF), ASCO’s philanthropic arm, is...
Asia is currently experiencing an unprecedented rate of growth in its aging population. This “silver tsunami” has translated into a burgeoning number of older patients with cancer, as cancer is a disease of aging. However, unlike their Western counterparts, elderly patients with cancer in Asia are ...
Lajos Pusztai, MD, DPhil, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Breast Medical Oncology and Co-Director of Cancer Genetics Research Program at Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, commented on KEYNOTE-012. He remarked that the overall response rate of 18.5% to the single agent is similar to...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as one of the most promising new areas of drug development in oncology. Broad activity has been observed for these agents across a spectrum of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Muro and colleagues now...
Case reports on 13 patients with cancer suggest that patients taking the immunotherapeutics ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) may be at higher-than-normal risk of developing autoimmune joint and tissue diseases, including inflammatory arthritis, according to a preliminary study by Johns...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Planchard et al found that combined MAPK pathway inhibition with the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) resulted in a high response rate in patients with BRAF V600E–mutant non–small cell...
Mark A. Dickson, MD, has been fascinated by science and medicine since he was in high school. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1999, Dr. Dickson pursued a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York. Once he decided on a...
The demand for radiotherapy across all European countries will increase by an average of 16% between 2012 and 2025, with the highest expected increase being for prostate cancer cases (24%), according to a new study published by Borras et al in Radiotherapy and Oncology.1 These projections came...
With the advent of the Papanicolaou (Pap) test and population-based screening, along with the development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, cervical cancer has become a largely preventable disease for many. However, in India, cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality. To...
In 2015, four new drugs were approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: panobinostat (Farydak), daratumumab (Darzalex), elotuzumab (Empliciti), and ixazomib (Ninlaro). Of them, the first three are drugs with unique new targets, whereas ixazomib is the...
In the phase III TOURMALINE-MM-1 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Philippe Moreau, MD, of the University Hospital Hôtel Dieu, Nantes, France, and colleagues found that adding the oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro) to lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) Oncology Research Program (ORP) has awarded eight grants to investigators to support clinical and preclinical studies of mirvetuximab soravtansine (IMGN853) and advance scientific knowledge of its uses in ovarian and other folate receptor alpha...
Although oncology has moved toward a personalized approach to care, medical decision-making within the context of multidisciplinary care has broad public health implications. To shed light on this and other relevant issues, The ASCO Post recently spoke with William Dale, MD, PhD, of the University ...
Sarah Cannon announced the promotion of David Spigel, MD, as Chief Scientific Officer. The new appointment supports the continuous expansion of clinical research and drug development programs, which provides patients with access to novel therapies at the earliest stages. As Chief Scientific...
Question 1: Which statement about the classification of tumors of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues is true? Correct Answer: A. The revised WHO classification defines distant disease entities that can be reliably diagnosed using proposed criteria. Expert Perspective WHO last updated its...
WHO last updated its classification of tumors of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues with a fourth edition of its WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues, in 2008, as part of a series of WHO Classification of Tumours monographs. This year, with the support of the...
Although new gastrointestinal cancers are on the rise, advancements in their treatment, as well as the upcoming results of perioperative trials, could prove to be “clinical practice game-changers,” declared Thomas J. George, Jr, MD, FACP, at the 2016 Community Oncology Conference in Orlando,...
Samir Gupta, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego, who has led trials of colorectal cancer screening, commented on this study for The ASCO Post. Although there are approximately 138,000 new colorectal cancer diagnoses a year in the United States, only...
Colorectal cancer is being increasingly diagnosed in persons younger than age 50, the age at which colorectal cancer screening is usually initiated. According to Elie Sutton, MD, of Mount Sinai West Hospital in New York, a review of cases in the National Cancer Data Base revealed that between...
Formal discussant Taofeek Kunle Owonikoko, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, commented that this preliminary study looks promising for a new antibody-drug conjugate. “To me, what is intriguing about these data is the efficacy signal in the third-line setting, especially for the ...
Initial encouraging news from a first-in-human trial suggests that the antibody-drug conjugate rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) may turn out to be a new option for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) whose tumors overexpress delta-like protein 3 (DLL3). Study results were presented at the...
Not so FAST? The study discussant Peter C. Enzinger, MD, Director of the Center for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Boston, viewed the findings of the FAST trial as promising but voiced several considerations, as did Gulam A. Manji, MD, PhD,...
A schedule of once-daily radiation therapy (66 Gy) was no better than a twice-daily schedule (45 Gy) for optimization of chemoradiotherapy in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to the eagerly anticipated results of the phase III CONVERT trial, presented at the...
A strategy of matching molecular abnormalities in patients’ tumors to therapies targeted to those abnormalities is gaining ground, according to preliminary results of the phase IIb MyPathway study presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 These are still early days for this “matching” strategy,...
Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), engineered from a patient's own immune cells, have been successful for treating blood cancers, but using CARs for solid tumors has been limited by side effects to normal tissues containing the protein targeted by the engineered cells. Now, in a report published...
During the 2016 Annual Meeting, ASCO announced the creation of the Allen S. Lichter Visionary Leader Award to recognize ASCO members who have transformed the oncology field or significantly advanced the mission of ASCO, the Conquer Cancer Foundation, or CancerLinQ, LLC, through their leadership,...
Moderating a press conference where Dr. Chen presented his study findings, Patricia Ganz, MD, Director of Cancer Prevention and Control Research at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, called this study “interesting and important.” She continued:...
As reported in JAMA, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued new recommendations for colorectal cancer screening. In brief, the USPSTF recommends colorectal cancer screening starting at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years (grade A recommendation = “The USPSTF...
The role of intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer has been debated for a long time. According to a new study presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, a combination of IP and intravenous (IV) chemotherapy appears more effective than IV chemotherapy alone in...