Morocco is an Arab country in North Africa. It covers 716,550 square kilometers and has a population of nearly 36 million. The median age is 29.3 years. Morocco’s estimated gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 was $122 million. As of 2019, Morocco’s health budget was equivalent to 4.5% of the total ...
This past October, in a virtually held ceremony of the General Assembly of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Anil K. D’Cruz, MBBS, MS, DNB, FRCS (Hon), Director of Oncology at Apollo Hospitals in Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, India, began his 2-year tenure as President of the global...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Chung-Han Lee, MD, and colleagues, findings in a cohort of the phase Ib/II Study 111/KEYNOTE-146 trial showed that the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab produced high response rates among patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma...
In a Dutch phase III trial (ARTDECO) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hulshof et al found that increasing the dose of radiation therapy in a definitive chemoradiation regimen did not improve local progression-free survival in patients with inoperable, locally advanced esophageal...
In a retrospective cohort study reported by Win et al in The Lancet Oncology, researchers in the International Mismatch Repair Consortium found marked variation in the risk of colorectal cancer in families with Lynch syndrome carrying the same pathogenic variant in DNA mismatch repair genes. The...
A new first-line standard of care may be emerging for recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, based on the findings of the global phase III JUPITER-02 trial presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by investigators from China.1 In the study, toripalimab, an anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody, ...
On June 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor avapritinib (Ayvakit) for adult patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis, including patients with aggressive systemic mastocytosis, systemic mastocytosis with an associated hematologic neoplasm, and...
On February 12, 2021, the cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor trilaciclib was approved for use to decrease the incidence of chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression in adult patients when administered prior to a platinum/etoposide–containing regimen or topotecan-containing regimen for...
Henry Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS, a cancer surgeon and researcher at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, told The ASCO Post that although this study is not practice-changing, it does offer a potential option for patients. “The advantage of this technique is that the procedure takes just...
As reported in The Lancet by Paul Baas, MD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, and colleagues, a prespecified interim analysis in the phase III CheckMate 743 trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in unresectable...
In a letter recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Rousseau and colleagues reported data on the spectrum of benefit from immune checkpoint blockade in hypermutated tumors.1 Indeed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently...
In a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, Benoit Rousseau, MD, PhD, and Michael B. Foote, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), and colleagues presented evidence that a high tumor mutational burden (TMB) threshold of 10 alone may not be sufficient to predict...
The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance has announced the winners of the 2021 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, awarded annually to cancer research scientists and physician-scientists based in the greater New York City area. The prize, totaling $3.6...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Xing Lv, MD, and colleagues found noninferior progression-free survival with induction therapy with the third-generation platinum lobaplatin/fluorouracil (5-FU) vs cisplatin/5-FU, followed by lobaplatin- vs cisplatin-based...
COVID-19 pandemic–related disruptions in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and research have varied worldwide and so have the responses to those disruptions. During the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care, members of the Global Forum of Cancer...
Clinical trial data show that adjuvant imatinib improves recurrence-free survival as well as overall survival, when administered for at least 3 years, among patients who undergo a macroscopically complete resection of a primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), Chandrajit P. Raut, MD, MSc,...
The members of the oncology community who spend time and energy addressing the growing global cancer burden in low- and middle-income countries have a kind of selfless dedication beyond the scope of the profession itself. One such medical oncologist was Gouri Shankar Bhattacharyya, MD, FRCP, a...
In a virtual visit to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on February 3, 2021, just 2 weeks after her husband, Joe Biden, was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, First Lady Jill Biden, EdD, recounted that, in her many years of travel across the United States, she learned that...
The use of palliative care in hospitals in the United States has steadily risen over the past decade, with almost universal access to services in large hospitals and academic medical centers. Despite this increased access and recommendations from ASCO that all patients with advanced cancer receive...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Immunotherapy and Precision Oncology, Xu et al found that the use of a Web-based lesion selection tool (LST) developed by the research team improved consistency in lesion selection for sequential biopsy. In addition, the tool improved the...
Immunotherapy following surgery significantly improved disease-free survival compared to placebo among patients with high-risk clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to results from the international phase III KEYNOTE-564 study presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Toni K....
The first results from the phase III CheckMate 648 study represent significant progress in the treatment of patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The trial evaluated first-line treatment with nivolumab plus chemotherapy or nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with advanced...
There are few, if any, more difficult clinical challenges than pancreatic cancer, a disease that continues to confound the oncology community’s quest for cure. Yet, incremental progress and unflagging optimism drive the way forward, thanks to the researchers and clinicians who have dedicated their...
An Australian study published by Chow et al in The Lancet Infectious Diseases found a 70% reduction in one type of human papillomavirus (HPV) in gay and bisexual men after the implementation of the school-based HPV vaccination program. The HYPER2 study found that there was a significant reduction...
Guest Editor’s Note: Healthful nutrition plays an important role throughout the cancer continuum. Given the proliferation of online dietary resources, there is a clear need for reliable information. In this article, Dr. Heather Greenlee describes the website Cook for Your Life, launched in...
Tumor genomic profiling of resected cholangiocarcinomas may reveal mutations targetable with agents currently being used for other cancers, according to the results of a study presented at the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care.1 Among patients...
In the second interim analysis of the phase III CATNON trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Martin J. van den Bent, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that adjuvant temozolomide—but not temozolomide concurrent with radiotherapy—was associated with an overall survival benefit in patients with newly...
In the Huntsman at Home Real-World Trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mooney et al found that an oncology hospital-at-home program reduced unplanned health-care utilization and costs vs usual care among patients with cancer discharged from the hospital. Study Details In the study, ...
There are an estimated 500,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States, a number that will increase exponentially in the coming years. Over half of all childhood cancer survivors will have received cardiotoxic therapies during primary cancer treatment or relapse. For these survivors, there...
In a Dutch study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Jan M. Leerink, PhD candidate, of Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam Department of Clinical and Experimental Cardiology, and colleagues found that the addition of ejection fraction measurement at the time of first surveillance echocardiogram...
The EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial, recently reported in The Lancet and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, showed an improvement in progression-free and overall survival with cemiplimab-rwlc in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high PD-L1 expression (tumor proportion score...
The 2021 Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Symposium was held in a virtual format on February 11–13 and featured the latest developments in the understanding and treatment of genitourinary cancers. The impact of prostate cancer therapies on outcomes in older adults continues to be a growing area of...
Early-onset colorectal cancer incidence rates in the United States have nearly doubled between 1992 and 2013—up from 8.6 to 13.1 per 100,000 individuals—with most of that increase due to early-onset cancers of the rectum. A new study published by Archambault et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum focused on ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Lori J. Wirth, MD, and colleagues, a phase II trial of lenvatinib in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer was stopped for futility after an interim analysis. Study Details In the international multicenter trial, 34 patients received lenvatinib...
Although the incidence of cervical cancer has decreased by 1.03% a year over the last 16 years—likely due to screening or human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination—other HPV-related cancers are increasing in both men and women, according to a study by Liao et al presented at a presscast in advance of...
Prompted by a rise in cases of colorectal cancer in people younger than 50, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended that individuals at average risk for the disease begin screening exams at age 45 instead of the traditional age of 50. The guideline changes, published in...
Single-agent pembrolizumab achieved durable responses and promising survival in patients with locally advanced or recurrent/metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, according to the second interim analysis of the phase II KEYNOTE-629 study, which was presented at the virtual American...
In a cohort of a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Amod A. Sarnaik, MD, and colleagues found that the tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy lifileucel produced durable responses in patients with metastatic melanoma previously treated with checkpoint inhibitors and BRAF-...
Treatment with abemaciclib, an orally available inhibitor of CDK4/6, has been associated with venous thromboembolic events (VTE), elevated aminotransferases (EAT), and interstitial lung disease (ILD). Although more episodes of VTE, EAT, and ILD were reported in patients receiving abemaciclib plus...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kim N. Chi, MD, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III TITAN trial showed significant benefit with apalutamide plus androgen-deprivation therapy vs placebo plus androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with metastatic...
PRESERVE 4 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04863248)—a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study of trilaciclib administered prior to docetaxel in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the second- and third-line setting who have previously...
Late this past year, a group of oncologists led by Philippe E. Spiess, MD, MS, FRCS(C), FACS, Assistant Chief of Surgical Services and Senior Member in the Department of Genitourinary Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center and Professor in the Department of Urology at the University of South Florida;...
On February 22, 2021, cemiplimab-rwlc was approved for first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; locally advanced who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation therapy or metastatic) whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression (tumor...
Although head and neck cancers include multiple histologies and primary sites, squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) originating in the oropharynx, oral cavity, larynx, or hypopharynx are the most common. Today, we recognize several different types of head and neck diseases, primarily those that are human ...
In a study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Emily S. Lau, MD, of the Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues found that the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors was significantly associated with an increased risk of future...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ronald C. Chen, MD, MPH, and colleagues quantified cancer screening deficits in the United States associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and identified differences in deficits according to region and socioeconomic status. Study Details The...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Lai et al found that although the majority of men who have initiated active surveillance for prostate cancer are followed by urologists, some are managed by physicians in other specialties, and that testing and subsequent treatment patterns vary across...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Eyck et al, 10-year follow-up of the Dutch CROSS trial has shown a continued overall survival benefit with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy plus surgery vs surgery alone in patients with locally advanced resectable esophageal or gastroesophageal...
More news has emerged from this week’s meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC). The group voted 8 to 0 in favor of continuing the accelerated approval for pembrolizumab in sorafenib-pretreated patients with hepatocellular carcinoma; 6 to 2...
Editor’s note: Dr. Gale is an authority on medical response to nuclear and radiation accidents and participated in rescue efforts at the Chernobyl disaster, as well as at Goiania, Tokaimura, and Fukushima, among other radiation and nuclear accidents. Anyone reading the popular press or even...