In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Caron A. Jacobson, MD, and colleagues found that commercial use of the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma was associated with an overall...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Stephanie L. Graff, MD, and colleagues found that patients with breast cancer seen by a physician with training in using an established pathway for genetic counseling and testing referral were more frequently referred for such services vs patients seen...
Adam C. Palmer, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with other cancer therapies to provide patients with more chances of a response. In principle, similar benefits may result from sequential or biomarker-stratified treatments,...
Nasser K. Altorki, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses study findings that suggest neoadjuvant low-dose focal stereotactic body radiation plus immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is safe and causes no surgical delays in early-stage lung cancer, and that major pathologic response rates are...
Findings from the first international prostate cancer quality-of-life study showed that significant numbers of men treated for the disease are struggling with continence and sexual problems after treatment. Results suggest that any treatment apart from active surveillance may negatively affect...
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Native American or Alaska Native and non-Hispanic Black people have the highest rates of hospitalization or death from COVID-19, followed by Hispanics and Latinos. A large population-based study using a smartphone app ...
In a Chinese trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chang et al found that the addition of antithymocyte globulin to standard graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis reduced the risk of acute graft-vs-host disease in patients undergoing human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling donor...
As reported in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology by Simron Singh, MD, MPH, and colleagues, the Commonwealth Neuroendocrine Tumour Research Collaboration (CommNETs) and North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS) have collaborated to produce a best practice guideline for the diagnosis and...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Heinrich et al, the phase I NAVIGATOR trial showed that the PDGFRA and KIT kinase inhibitor avapritinib produced a response in patients with PDGFRA D842V–mutant gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). The study supported the January 2020 approval of...
Syed A. Abutalib, MD, of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, talks with Miguel-Angel Perales, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, about the challenges and concerns related to transplants for patients with hematologic malignancies who are particularly vulnerable to infection with the...
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) have announced a new collaboration to foster participation in oncology clinical trials to more fully reflect the diversity of people at risk for or living with cancer. The joint ASCO-ACCC initiative...
Kicking off the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer earlier this week, Anthony Fauci, MD, gave the keynote lecture, “Coronavirus Infections: More Than Just the Common Cold.” As Dr. Fauci told listeners, “[COVID-19]—and other infectious...
People of any age with serious underlying health conditions are at greater risk for contracting the coronavirus, and cancer survivors are particularly vulnerable to becoming infected with COVID-19, since many cancer therapies can lead to immunosuppression. To reduce exposure to the virus, the...
In a Dutch population-based observational cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Rovers et al found that adjuvant systemic chemotherapy was associated with improved overall survival vs active surveillance after upfront resection of isolated synchronous colorectal peritoneal metastases. Study...
In a phase Ib/II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Daniel V.T. Catenacci, MD, and colleagues found that the combination of margetuximab and the anti–PD-1 therapy pembrolizumab showed evidence of activity in patients with previously treated HER2-positive gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. As...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Brunt et al, 10-year follow-up in the FAST trial of women with early breast cancer showed greater risk for photographic- and physician-assessed normal tissue effects with an adjuvant radiotherapy regimen of 30 Gy in 5 once-weekly fractions—but not...
Andrew H. Wei, MBBS, PhD, of The Alfred Hospital, Monash University, discusses phase III data from the VIALE-C trial, which appear to support the use of venetoclax plus low-dose cytarabine as a front-line treatment for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia, as well as for those who cannot...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to pembrolizumab for the second-line treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma, and also accepted a supplemental new drug application for selinexor for pretreated patients with multiple myeloma....
A longitudinal analysis of health-related quality of life in patients from German Hodgkin Study Group trials, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kreissl et al, showed a “high and persistent” amount of health-related quality-of-life deficits in survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma. The...
In a pooled analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Igor Puzanov, MD, MSCI, and colleagues identified objective response rates and progression-free and overall survival rates with pembrolizumab treatment among patients with advanced melanoma according to BRAF V600E/K–mutation status and prior BRAF/MEK...
The combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma on the basis of findings from the phase III IMbrave150 trial, which showed superior overall and progression-free...
This week, we’ll discuss the efficacy of the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab for patients with advanced gastric cancer. We’ll also highlight key points from the recent USPSTF draft recommendation on CT screening for lung cancer. Finally, we’ll review a regulatory approval in metastatic...
Eric Zhou, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses an existing online program called SHUTi (Sleep Healthy Using the Internet), that he and his team adapted to the needs of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. After six online cognitive behavior therapy sessions delivered over 8...
Results from the first study using uEXPLORER to conduct total-body dynamic positron-emission tomography (PET) scans in patients with cancer suggested that it can be used to generate high-quality images of metastatic cancer. The research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular ...
New research outlines the role of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in the detection and management of recurrent disease in prostate cancer patients. In initial results from a multicenter trial assessing the impact of F-18 DCFPyL...
A first-in-human study presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) 2020 Annual Meeting and published by Zhang et al in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine has demonstrated the safety and favorable pharmacokinetic and dosimetry profile of Cu-64 EBRGD, a new, relatively...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Frumovitz et al, there were no significant differences in quality of life, a secondary endpoint, for women undergoing open vs minimally invasive radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer in the phase III LACC trial. There were, however, differences in...
In an analysis from the International Society of Pediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma Group (SIOPEN) High-Risk Neuroblastoma 1 (HR-NBL1/SIOPEN) trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Holmes et al found that surgeon-assessed complete macroscopic excision was associated with improved...
Mark J. Ratain, MD, of the University of Chicago, and Daniel Goldstein, MD, of the Rabin Medical Center, discuss the challenges of achieving cancer care value, evolution of the “more-is-better” philosophy when it comes to oncology drugs, and highlights of the First International Summit on...
Alice Mims, MD, Associate Professor of Hematology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–The James, shared her insights on the VIALE-A study. “The results of the VIALE-A study have been highly anticipated and are exciting, given the improvement seen in both overall survival and...
In the phase III VIALE-A trial, venetoclax added to azacitidine led to a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in response rates and overall survival, as compared with azacitidine alone, in treatment-naive predominantly elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) ineligible for...
For people with cancer who have a mental health disorder, getting mental health treatment may help them live longer, a new study published by Berchuck et al in JAMA Oncology suggests. In the retrospective study, of more than 50,000 veterans treated for lung cancer within the Veterans Affairs (VA)...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has proved to be a valuable treatment option for patients with lymphoma in whom other therapies have failed. In clinical trials, the cellular immunotherapy was shown to provide durable remissions for nearly 40% of patients with large B-cell lymphoma....
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Blagden et al found lower mean global quality-of-life scores on longitudinal analysis among women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer who received weekly vs every-3-week paclitaxel in platinum-based regimens in the ICON8 trial. The ICON8 trial showed no...
In an Australian study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Piercey et al found that routine blood tests have little utility in detecting relapse or progression of disease during active surveillance of patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. As stated by the investigators, “Patients with...
A retrospective analysis from the BIG 2-98 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Desmedt et al showed poorer disease-free and overall survival with increasing baseline body mass index (BMI) in women receiving adjuvant docetaxel-based chemotherapy but not among those receiving...
Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers her perspective on near-equivalence, Bayesian noninferiority, and the value of cancer drug optimization.
Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers her perspective on near-equivalence, Bayesian noninferiority, and the value of cancer drug optimization.
Two new studies led by Renuka Iyer, MD, Section Chief for Gastrointestinal Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and published in Oncotarget and Cancer, respectively, highlight possible new treatment options for patients with neuroendocrine tumors. SurVaxM The first report,...
Lung cancer in nonsmokers is a diverse and distinct disease from lung cancer in smokers and is likely to respond differently to targeted treatments, according to results from a new study published by Chen et al in the journal Cell. Scientists studied a patient population in Taiwan with high rates...
According to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, an investigational vaccine designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—mRNA-1273—was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults. These interim results were...
In an Australian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sim et al found that the osteoanabolic agent teriparatide improved the rate of resolution of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw lesions vs placebo in a population of patients who had previous exposure to either...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Hayek et al found that exercise intolerance was more common among adult survivors of childhood cancer than among matched controls and that it was associated with a greater likelihood of emotional distress, poorer attainment of social roles, and poorer...
“The IKEMA trial is based on the interest of adding a CD38 naked antibody to a carfilzomib-plus-dexamethasone skeleton, a protocol nearly identical to the recently presented CANDOR trial,” said Craig Hofmeister MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute...
The addition of the CD38 antibody isatuximab-irfc to carfilzomib and dexamethasone nearly halved the risk of disease progression or death in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, the interim analysis of the phase III IKEMA trial has shown.1 “Isatuximab plus carfilzomib and...
Mark J. Ratain, MD, of the University of Chicago, talks about why ibrutinib—which can lead to cardiotoxicities—should be studied at a lower dose for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Data suggest a reduced dose may prevent dose interruption due to adverse events and may have a better...
Compared with younger patients, older patients with cancer face unique challenges because many of them have age-related decreases in health-related quality of life. This can be a result of many factors, such as comorbidities, mental health, physical impairment, and financial stressors. A diagnosis...
In a preplanned secondary analysis of the BRE12-158 trial published in JAMA Oncology, Milan Radovich, PhD, and colleagues found that the presence of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the plasma of women who have received neoadjuvant treatment for stage I, II, or...
Medications commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure may also reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, according to new research published by Cheung et al in the journal Hypertension. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) are often prescribed...
In an Italian phase IIb/III study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Mazzaferro et al found evidence that liver transplantation after tumor downstaging was associated with improved event-free and overall survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The study was closed early due to changes in...