As reported in JAMA Oncology by the Integrative Analysis of Lung Cancer Etiology and Risk (INTEGRAL) Consortium for Early Detection of Lung Cancer, incorporating biomarkers into a lung cancer risk prediction model may improve performance compared with risk based on age and smoking exposure alone....
A new study from the Stanford Cancer Institute found that young women who are treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer but have residual tumor in either the breast or lymph nodes have higher chances of recurrence compared to those with no evidence of any residual invasive...
People who received complementary therapy for curable cancers were more likely to refuse at least one component of their conventional cancer treatment, and were more likely to die as a result, according to researchers from Yale Cancer Center and the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness...
MANY IN the cancer research and National Institutes of Health (NIH) community are mourning the loss of long-time National Cancer Institute (NCI) senior leader Alan S. Rabson, MD, who died on July 4 at the age of 92. With a distinguished scientific career that spanned 6 decades and included...
I’ve been a loyal ASCO member since the early 1970s (aka “back in the day”) and wanted to share a growing pet peeve. I thought of attacking an individual author, but my sense tells me the source of my annoyance is really now a cultural problem and one that can only be fixed at the editor level....
Despite the fact that my father was a smoker and I watched him die a horrible death from lung cancer in the 1970s, until 4 years before my own lung cancer diagnosis in 2012, I, too, was a heavy smoker for most of my adult life. Still, cancer was the farthest thing from my mind when I made an...
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dezheng Huo, MD, of the University of Chicago, Chicago, and colleagues described the long-term outcomes of women with vaginal and cervical clear cell adenocarcinoma associated with prenatal exposure to the synthetic nonsteroidal...
A study reported in JAMA Oncology by Anne Marie McCarthy, PhD, of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues identified the risk of interval breast cancer after negative screening mammography, including the risk of poor-prognosis breast cancer. The...
A NEW INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Advances in Cell & Gene Therapy, recently published its inaugural issue in May 2018. The new publication aims to provide a forum for authors to share their newest results, views, and visions in the field of cell and gene therapy. The journal will be published on a...
ON JUNE 13, 2018, bevacizumab (Avastin) was granted approval for treatment of epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by single-agent bevacizumab, for stage III or IV disease after initial surgical resection1,2. The...
ASCO HAS ENDORSED the recommendations in the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) clinical practice guidelines for integrative therapies during and after breast cancer.1,2 The guidelines “are clear, thorough, and based on the most relevant scientific evidence,” wrote the ASCO expert panel that...
RECOMMENDATIONS IN the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) clinical practice guidelines for integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment “are clear, thorough, and based on the most relevant scientific evidence,” concluded an ASCO expert panel that reviewed the guidelines.1,2...
ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation presented more than $7.3 million in grants and awards to exceptional oncology researchers at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting. ASCO and Conquer Cancer congratulate the recipients and offer their profound thanks to those who generously supported these awards. Visit...
In 2015, Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization ACT (MACRA), which aims to move Medicare toward reimbursement based more on outcomes and values, a goal, in theory, shared by the oncology community. To shed light on the complicated and problematic attempt to restructure the...
On June 4, 2018, pegfilgrastim-jmdb (Fulphila) was approved as a biosimilar to pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) to decrease infection risk in patients with nonmyeloid cancer receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy associated with a significant incidence of febrile neutropenia.1,2 Approval Basis Approval...
In an article published recently in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, FACP, FRCP (Edin), FASCO, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues reviewed opportunities, issues, and challenges posed by the advent of biosimilar medications, focusing on...
LUNGevity Foundationhas announced the launch of a new lung cancer awareness campaign called 234. The social media campaign utilizes graphic animation to engage the public in understanding facts about lung cancer. “Our goal with the 234 campaign is to educate the general public about the...
Prior to ASCO’s 2016 endorsement of the Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline on active surveillance in the management of localized prostate cancer,1 most men—over 90%—diagnosed with low-risk localized disease were treated with active therapy.2 Today, about 50% of American men with low-risk disease...
Critics of health-care consolidation have cited higher costs of chemotherapy administration as an example of how mergers drive up costs. A new study by Kalidindi et al in The American Journal of Managed Care found that although drug administration costs in hospitals are higher,...
A new study by Meulepas et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that computed tomography (CT) scans may increase the risk of brain tumors. The use of CT scans has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades. CT scans greatly improve diagnostic capabilities,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin) as a first-line treatment for people with advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver...
Difficult-to-treat, cancer-related fatigue is a common, distressing clinical issue. It impedes daily activities, severely affecting patients’ quality of life. Compounding the problem is a lack of consensus on an effective pharmacologic intervention. Acupressure is a traditional Chinese medicine...
EARLY IN 2018, olaparib tablets (Lynparza) were granted regular approval for treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who have been treated with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, or metastatic setting.1,2...
Question 1 Which of the following is one of the four major criteria for the diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia? Correct Answer: A. Platelet count ≥ 450 × 109/L. Expert Perspective The diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia requires that all four major criteria or the first three major...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib and Medeiros explore the recently updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
EARLY IN 2018, abiraterone acetate tablets (Zytiga) in combination with prednisone were approved for the treatment of metastatic high-risk castration-sensitive prostate cancer.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS based on the findings of the phase III LATITUDE trial, in which 1,199 patients...
Medicine is a family tradition for Hanna K. Sanoff, MD, MPH. “I was born and reared in a suburb just outside of Philadelphia and lived there my whole life until after college. I was one of those people who always knew they wanted to be a doctor. There were four generations of physicians on my...
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Groot et al found that the risk of subsequent malignant neoplasms was increased in the long-term follow up of patients receiving cisplatin or radiotherapy for testicular germ cell cancer. Risk vs General Population The study involved...
Patients with cancer receiving anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) therapies who develop lesions, eczema, psoriasis, or other forms of autoimmune diseases affecting the skin may experience those adverse reactions on a delay—sometimes even after treatment has...
Mailing colorectal cancer screening tests to patients insured by Medicaid increased screening rates for this population, reported researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. In collaboration with the Mecklenburg County Health Department in...
The gains in insurance coverage with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have already translated into improved health for young women with gynecologic cancers, who are getting diagnosed at earlier stages of their disease because of ACA benefits. That’s the conclusion of a new ...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Autio et al found that prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)–targeted docetaxel nanoparticle (BIND-014) treatment was active in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Study Details In the multicenter trial,...
A study published by Patil et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology explores the occurrence and treatment of brain metastases in stage IV ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer. ROS1-Positive Disease vs Other Genetic Mutations Importantly, and in contrast with the findings ...
The randomized, phase III TOURMALINE-MM3 study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating single-agent oral ixazomib (Ninlaro) as a maintenance therapy resulted in a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) vs placebo. The trial evaluated the effect of ixazomib as a...
“What is a reasonable plan of follow-up for patients with cancers for which early detection of metastatic disease offers no advantage?” Posing that question during his Presidential Address at the 2018 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium, Kelly M. McMasters, MD,PhD,...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has recently released The NCCN Guidelines for Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which includes resources for better-informed medical decision-making. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients with AML is endorsed by the Aplastic Anemia and MDS...
An analysis of cancer registry data from a California hospital system showed that women with head and neck cancer were less likely to receive intensive chemotherapy (35% vs 46%) and radiation (60% vs 70%) compared to men. Controlling for factors such as age and serious medical conditions, a...
It would be impossible to cover all of the important presentations from the 5,000-plus abstracts accepted for the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting. In addition to our regular meeting coverage of the top news stories, the following highlights focus on novel investigational approaches to therapy for various...
As first-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer, the oral taxane tesetaxel produced a 45% confirmed response rate and was well tolerated, producing little alopecia or neuropathy, according to Andrew D. Seidman, MD, and colleagues from several cancer centers. Dr. Seidman, of Memorial Sloan...
Shannon Westin, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, served as an ASCO expert for the press briefing and made several comments. “What we’re learning is that among tumors with...
When it comes to how much end-of-life care a patient with cancer receives, geography may, indeed, be destiny, according to new research led by Harvard Medical School that found differences in this type of cancer care across different parts of the country. The findings, published by Keating et al...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the indication for ribociclib (Kisqali) in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for premenopausal or perimenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer as initial...
In a study that many consider to be practice-changing, Lynch syndrome, a hereditary cancer predisposition syndrome, was found in many persons who would not ordinarily be suspected of having it.1 The study, which was presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, has implications for broader testing...
In an individual patient-level analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shi et al found that progression-free survival could serve as a surrogate endpoint for overall survival in the first-line treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The study involved data from 7,507...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Abou-Alfa and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III CELESTIAL trial has shown a significant improvement in overall and progression-free survival with cabozantinib (Cabometyx) vs placebo in patients with sorafenib...
ASCO expert David Graham, MD, FASCO, of the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, was encouraged by the IMpower131 findings. “This is one more example of how immunotherapy is making steady gains against a number of cancers. Immunotherapy has been shown to be effective in other...
Patients with advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had a greater benefit from first-line treatment with the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in the randomized, phase III, IMpower131 clinical trial.1 At the landmark of 12-month...
At the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) and its collaborators presented the 8-year updates of the key modern trials of ovarian function suppression after local treatment for young women with resected breast cancer.1 These updates...
Selma Ugurel, MD, of the Skin Cancer Center Essen at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, discussed the Merkel cell carcinoma presentations at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting. “Immunotherapy is of high interest in Merkel cell because of the high immunogenicity of the tumor—viral-induced and...
At the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, investigators presented long-term follow-up data for immunotherapy in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma and new data for its use in the neoadjuvant setting. The results drew high interest from attendees and a number of questions were raised following the...