Allyson Ocean, MD, a medical oncologist and attending physician in gastrointestinal oncology at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, commented on the Know Your Tumor study. “This study by Pishvaian et al highlights the importance of genomics in guiding treatment decisions in ...
Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who have homologous repair damage response mutations may derive considerable benefit from treatment with platinum agents, according to an analysis of patients in the Know Your Tumor Program presented by Michael Pishvaian, MD, PhD, of Georgetown University,...
The number of guideline-recommended biomarkers to be assessed in patients with newly diagnosed, metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is increasing. These biomarkers include both predictive targets—including EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, RET, MET, and ERBB2—and prognostic...
REPORTERS FOR The ASCO Post captured the following summaries of noteworthy studies presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. In HER2-Negative Metastatic Disease, CTCs Frequently HER2-Positive ALMOST HALF of all patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer have circulating...
INVITED STUDY discussant Michael J. Overman, MD, Professor of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, is a co-investigator on CheckMate 142, which led to the approval of another immunotherapy doublet—nivolumab plus ipilimumab—in patients...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, AlDubayan et al found that inherited pathogenetic variants in the checkpoint kinase 2 gene (CHEK2), among inherited pathogenetic DNA-repair gene (DRG) alterations, were associated with susceptibility to testicular germ cell tumors. The study involved screening ...
AS PART of The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here is an update on seven different studies on new therapeutics in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Among the treatments highlighted here are the erythroid maturation...
The burgeoning pipeline of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) in multiple myeloma was on full display at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. A bispecific antibody also made its debut in this busy...
Squamous cell carcinoma of the lung represents approximately one-quarter (26.4%) of all lung cancers diagnosed in Appalachian Kentucky, where death from lung cancer is higher than the national average. Researchers sought to characterize genetic alterations specifically found in lung squamous cell...
When added to first-line chemotherapy in patients with untreated metastatic HER2-positive esophageal, gastroesophageal junction, and gastric adenocarcinoma, the combination of pembrolizumab and trastuzumab produced responses in 87% of patients, with 100% of patients experiencing disease control and ...
ADVANCES IN treating breast cancer over the past 20 years have brought us to the point where treatment can be confidently de-escalated for some patients, and immunotherapy and precision decision-making may change the way breast cancer is treated for others, William Gradishar MD, FASCO, told the...
Pioneering hematologist J. Evan Sadler, MD, PhD, an expert in the study and treatment of blood-clotting disorders, died December 13, 2018, at his home in Clayton, Missouri, following a brief illness. He was 67. His death was announced in a news item from the Washington University School of...
A subset of patients with aggressive prostate cancer are carriers of germline BRCA2 mutations, which are also linked to hereditary breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Study findings also showed family members of patients with prostate cancer who carry BRCA2 and DNA-repair...
Scientists have developed a new test that scans the shapes of tumor cells to select women with especially aggressive ovarian cancer. A team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, created an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that looks for clusters of cells within tumors with misshapen...
A study investigating the clinicopathologic features of BRAF V600E– and V600K–mutant melanomas and whether genotype affects response to immunotherapy found that the mutations not only have different clinical phenotypes, but also different molecular features and different...
FOUR AND A HALF YEARS AGO, author Neil Canavan attended a scientific conference to learn what he could about the then-emerging field of immunotherapy for cancer. After a presentation by Zelig Eshhar, PhD, principal investigator in the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science...
At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress, important studies were presented for every cancer type. Here, The ASCO Post offers some snapshots of lung cancer studies that may inform approaches to treating this common cancer, which—despite the advances in recent years—remains...
“When people don’t respond [to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy] as well as they should, it may be that the T cells are depleted and functionally exhausted. The mechanism of exhaustion is in part mediated by checkpoint-related killing. By thwarting that process with pembrolizumab...
On December 19, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved olaparib (Lynparza) for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic BRCA-mutated advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer...
Researchers recently discovered that by testing the level of nucleotide excision repair (NER) gene expression, pediatric oncologists may be able to determine the likelihood of early relapse (less than 3 years) in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). These findings were published by...
At a press conference where the ECOG-ACRIN E1912 presentation and related issues were discussed, session moderator Aaron T. Gerds, MD, MS, of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, was quite enthusiastic about these results. “I believe these results should change clinical practice....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued the following new approvals and designations: Priority Review for Atezolizumab in Combination With Chemotherapy for the Initial Treatment of Extensive-Stage SCLC The FDA accepted a supplemental biologics license application...
Although overall cancer survival rates continue to improve among all age groups in the United States—there are currently an estimated 15.5 million cancer survivors, and that number is expected to increase to 20.3 million by 20261—survival rates for adolescents and young adults with cancer (AYAs)...
Liquid biopsy–based assessment of PIK3CA mutational status served as a better indicator of progression-free survival compared with analysis of tissue biopsy in patients with breast cancer enrolled in the phase III SOLAR-1 clinical trial, according to data presented by Juric et al at the 2018...
On October 16, 2018, the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor talazoparib (Talzenna) was approved for the treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.1,2 Patients must be selected for...
For patients with difficult-to-treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), continuing to take ibrutinib (Imbruvica) before, during, and after receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy may be associated with less severe adverse effects and better responses compared with outcomes for a...
A therapeutic vaccine may boost antibodies and T cells, helping them infiltrate human papillomavirus (HPV)-related head and neck cancer tumors. Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania tested the immunotherapy in two groups of patients with advanced head and...
The link between inflammation and cancer is a field of growing interest in the oncology community. Biologists have theorized that simultaneous DNA damage and cell division during inflammation could lead to cancer. To shed light on this important issue, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Jennifer...
The invited discussant for the CheckMate-142 findings was Julien Taieb, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Paris Descartes University in France. Dr. Taieb called the findings “impressive” but said longer follow-up is needed, especially since median outcomes have not yet been reached. After a...
As reported by Hwang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, subsequent molecular profiling of histologically diagnosed central nervous system supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors (CNS-PNET) in patients showed molecular and clinical heterogeneity that strongly affected prognosis. The ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Latham et al found that microsatellite instability (MSI) and/or mismatch repair deficiency (MMR-D) is predictive of Lynch syndrome across a greater than heretofore recognized breadth of the solid tumor spectrum. As noted by the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Slavin et al determined the prevalence of a set of germline cancer predisposition gene mutations incidentally identified by cell-free circulating tumor DNA (cfDNA) testing in patients with advanced solid tumors. Study Details The study...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will recognize Victor Hoffbrand, DM, FRCP, FMed Sci, of the University College London, with the 2018 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology, the Society’s highest honor. Dr. Hoffbrand will be recognized for his contributions to...
A highly sensitive blood test that detects minute traces of cancer-specific DNA has been shown to accurately determine whether patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) are free from cancer following radiation therapy. Findings were presented by...
Bhisham Chera, MD, of the University of North Carolina, discusses using human papillomavirus found in plasma circulating tumor DNA to monitor cancer recurrence in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer (Abstract LBA6).
A new analysis of genetic data from a large prospective registry and clinical data from several randomized trials indicates that African American patients may have comparatively higher cure rates when treated with radiation therapy than Caucasian patients. The study, which is the first report...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Maria I. Carlo, MD, of the Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer, and colleagues found a high prevalence of germline mutations in cancer susceptibility genes in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In this cohort study,...
The Gabriella Miller Kids First Data Resource Center, a collaborative effort supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund, announced the launch of its new Data Resource Portal to help accelerate the discovery of precision-based treatments for pediatric disorders, thanks to a...
To gain further insight into, among other things, optimizing big data and the latest on hormonal breast cancer treatment, The ASCO Post recently spoke with pioneering oncologist Christopher C. Benz, MD, a breast cancer specialist and Director of the Cancer & Developmental Therapeutics Program, ...
Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, has received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that provides $6.5 million in funding over 7 years. The grant will fund research to create new bioinformatics resources and identify...
A phase III trial presented by Jiang et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress showed activity of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor therapy in advanced hormone receptor–positive breast cancer (Abstract 283O_PR). Endocrine therapies are the foundation of...
Nearly 1 in 4 patients with advanced cancer treated at a community practice cancer network in the United States received innovative drugs matched to DNA mutations in their tumors. These results, to be reported by Alvarez et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress...
IN APRIL 2018, the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca) was granted approval for maintenance treatment of patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy.1,2...
Breast cancer specialist Jennifer K. Litton, MD, was born and reared in Leominster, Massachusetts, a small city in the north central part of the state. “I went to parochial schools until seventh grade and then went on to high school in Worcester. Although I enjoyed science early on, I was...
Analysis of male- and female-derived tumor samples revealed differences in prognostic biomarkers, genes that drive cancer, and in regulation of key pathways that may predict responses to treatment, according to results published in two studies in Cancer Research, one by Li et al and the other...
A therapeutic vaccine may boost antibodies and T cells, helping them infiltrate human papillomavirus (HPV)-related head and neck cancer tumors. Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania tested the immunotherapy approach in two groups of patients with...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently permitted marketing of the ClonoSEQ assay, a next-generation sequencing–based test for minimal residual disease in patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or multiple myeloma. “At the FDA, we’re continuing to...
Germline mutations in the breast cancer–susceptibility genes 1 and 2 (BRCA1/2) increase the risk for cancer due to an inability to repair DNA double-strand breaks, and about 5% of patients with unselected breast cancer carry a germline BRCA mutation.1 These DNA repair–deficient tumors are...
Because neuroendocrine tumors are not one disease but a continuum of diseases, ranging from well-differentiated tumors to poorly differentiated and small cell tumors, treatment approaches can vary greatly. At the 2018 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology conference, held on Sea Island,...
Angiosarcoma of the head, face, neck, or scalp is a rare cancer associated with high rates of local recurrence, distant metastasis, and poor prognosis. Because angiosarcoma is so rare, it is difficult to conduct large-scale research in the cancer. To address this issue, the Broad Institute of MIT...