In the phase II AMEERA-3 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the selective estrogen receptor degrader amcenestrant did not improve progression-free survival vs physician’s choice of endocrine therapy in patients with estrogen...
The combination of curettage and cryosurgery may be a safe and effective treatment method for patients with basal cell carcinoma, according to a novel study published by Backman et al in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Background The incidence of skin cancer is continuing to...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Yen Nien (Jason) Hou, PharmD, DiplOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on ...
Cervical cancer is a serious problem in many low- and middle-income countries such as the African country of Rwanda. Although the cervical cancer rate in Rwanda remains more than twice the U.S. rate, there has been improvement in recent years that cancer research organizations can learn from to...
ASCO has issued new clinical guidance for treating patients with gastrointestinal cancers amid a nationwide shortage of carboplatin and cisplatin. The two chemotherapy agents, in extremely short supply, are essential to treating an array of gastrointestinal cancers—such as esophageal, pancreatic,...
A study investigating the effect of Medicaid expansion on racial disparities in mortality among patients with gastrointestinal malignancies has found that the initiative was associated with a greater reduction in 2-year mortality rates among Black patients living in states with Medicaid expansion...
In newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer lacking a BRCA mutation, the addition of durvalumab and olaparib to standard therapy significantly improved progression-free survival, in a planned interim analysis of the international phase III DUO-O trial presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting1 and...
In an analysis of the phase III GLOW trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Talha Munir, MBBS, and colleagues found that fixed-duration ibrutinib/venetoclax produced higher rates of undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) vs chlorambucil/obinutuzumab in previously untreated...
For comments on the phase III DIPLOMA trial, which found outcomes comparable between minimally invasive and open distal pancreatectomy, The ASCO Post interviewed Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, the Jerald L. & Carolynn J. Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology & Global Health;...
For patients with fully resectable pancreatic cancer, a minimally invasive surgical approach—laparoscopic or robotic—was shown to be comparable to open distal pancreatectomy in the multicenter randomized phase III DIPLOMA trial. These results were presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting and at a...
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the United States and the second-leading cause of cancer death.1 It also offers a sobering example in the national conversation on racial disparities in cancer care. Despite a deeper scientific understanding of the disease—as well as ...
The addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib to endocrine therapy significantly improved invasive disease–free survival in women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, early-stage breast cancer. These results of the phase III NATALEE trial were reported by lead author Dennis J. Slamon,...
Rimas Vincas Lukas, MD, of Northwestern University, was the formal discussant of this plenary session abstract on the INDIGO trial findings. “Because of its slowly progressive nature, glioma is insidious. The impact of the disease and its treatments has important consequences for patients,...
The KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib may be effective at suppressing cancer growth not only within the lungs but also in brain metastases for patients with KRAS G12C–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a new study published by Negrao et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
Investigators have found that older breast cancer survivors—particularly those exposed to chemotherapy—may experience greater epigenetic aging and poorer outcomes than those without a history of cancer, according to a new study published by Rentscher et al in Cancer. Background Epigenetic aging...
A novel, automated liquid biopsy test—the Liquid Biopsy for Breast Cancer Methylation assay—may be effective at predicting early disease progression and potential survival outcomes in patients with metastatic breast cancer after as little as 1 month of treatment, according to a study published by...
Medicare beneficiaries could save between $228.1 million and $2.15 billion per year if insurers operating the U.S. government's Medicare Part D plans purchased seven generic oncology drugs at the same prices obtained by the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC), according to a new study...
Researchers have found that preoperative stereotactic radiosurgery is associated with low rates of tumor recurrence, adverse radiation effects, and meningeal disease in patients with metastatic brain tumors, according to a novel study published by Prabhu et al in JAMA Oncology. Background As...
Investigators have found that federal cancer research funding tends to be allocated more heavily toward cancers that occur more often in non-Hispanic White patients than those that occur more frequently in other racial and ethnic groups, according to a new study published by Haghighat et al in the...
In a single-institution phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rashidi et al found that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) did not reduce the risk of infection in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) or patients with acute myeloid...
When my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer 25 years ago, her medical team suggested we undergo genetic testing for the BRCA gene mutation. I knew that being a BRCA carrier put me at greater risk for breast and ovarian cancers, but I had no idea it also increased my risk for pancreatic cancer....
Guest Editor’s Note: Despite its high prevalence, cancer pain remains undertreated. Racial disparities present further challenges to assessing and managing pain. Music therapy, a nonpharmacologic intervention, has been documented to be effective in controlling cancer pain. In this article, Kevin T. ...
A new study presented at Digestive Disease Week 2023 has shown that just 4% of patients with obesity who underwent bariatric surgery developed obesity-associated cancer in a 10-year follow-up, compared with 8.9% among those who did not have a weight-loss procedure.1 These findings indicate that the ...
The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) continues to urge Congress to robustly fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in Fiscal Year 2024. In testimony submitted to the Senate Committee on...
The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab led to improved overall survival and progression-free survival in women with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer in the final protocol-specified overall survival analysis of the KEYNOTE-826 trial presented at ...
Prior authorization of medical procedures, services, and medications has been a standard requirement of health-care providers for decades. Rising health-care costs, specifically the escalating prices of cancer drug therapies, have led to a new focus by payers, providers, and policymakers on prior...
This has been a year of firsts and seconds for Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO. This past October, Dr. Bertagnolli became the 16th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the first woman and the first clinical trials cooperative group chair to hold that position. Then, 2 months...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology, Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami, said the COMMANDS trial delivered promising results for the treatment of lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). “Without question, the COMMANDS study met its...
ASCO has issued new clinical guidance for treating patients with gastrointestinal cancers amid a nationwide shortage of carboplatin and cisplatin. The two chemotherapy agents, in extremely short supply, are essential to treating an array of gastrointestinal cancers—such as esophageal cancer,...
Three clinical trials demonstrated positive results from the targeted therapy erdafitinib for patients with multiple tumor types harboring FGFR alterations. The data were presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting. Erdafitinib is an oral medication that blocks the activity of FGFR signaling...
Ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen–targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, significantly slows or stops progression of multiple myeloma when compared with standard-of-care treatments among patients with lenalidomide-refractory disease. Results from the...
Bobbie J. Rimel, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Mansoor R. Mirza, MD, of Denmark’s Rigshospitalet and Copenhagen University Hospital, discuss new findings on dostarlimab-gxly plus carboplatin/paclitaxel, which improved progression-free survival while maintaining health-related quality of...
Narjust Florez, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Filippo Gustavo Dall’Olio, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, discuss circulating tumor DNA tumor fraction, and its link to survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with maintenance durvalumab in the...
In a phase II clinical trial, investigators found that 42% of patients with brain metastases benefited from treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, with 7 of the 57 patients in the trial surviving for longer than 2 years. The study authors cautioned that these benefits must be ...
The HER2-targeted bispecific antibody zanidatamab demonstrated durable responses in patients with treatment-refractory HER2-positive biliary tract cancer, according to research presented by Shubham Pant, MD, and colleagues at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 4008). The results were also...
Researchers have found that the bacteria, fungi, and viruses within the tumors of patients with colorectal cancer varied significantly depending on whether they were diagnosed with early-onset or late-onset disease, according to new findings presented by Weinberg et al at the 2023 ASCO Annual...
A new global health initiative, the Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition, may be capable of reducing the burden of suffering and death from cancer in low- and middle-income countries by improving patient access to essential cancer medicine. Gilberto Lopes, MD, FASCO, MBA, will highlight...
ASCO and Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, will recognize researchers, patient advocates, philanthropists, teachers, and global oncology leaders who have reshaped cancer care with the Society’s highest honors at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Hear from select award recipients at the...
Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, MMSc, Director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Institute, grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee. While his school friends were attending camp, he spent his summers working on the family farm. “Perhaps the hardest work I’ve ever done was haying on a hot, humid night in July,...
Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, FASCO, Director of Pelvic Malignancies Program at Lifespan Cancer Institute and Director of Medical Oncology at Rhode Island Hospital was born and reared in Guam. He also is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Surgery at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. “I am...
Researchers have identified 116 genes as key molecular vulnerabilities for multiple myeloma, according to a novel study published by de Matos Simoes et al in Nature Cancer. The findings demonstrated the potential for these genes to act as leads and help researchers discover new therapeutic options...
The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) has called for greater action for World No Tobacco Day on May 31, 2023 in light of a new study published by Safiri et al in Cancer Medicine, which found that 2.5 million tobacco-related cancer deaths were reported in 2019. The UICC is a global...
Researchers have found that patients with cancer-related fatigue who practiced qigong may have demonstrated clinically significant improvements in their fatigue burden after 10 weeks, according to a new study published by Zimmerman et al in Integrative Cancer Therapies. The findings revealed that...
Early-phase data from the SOLTI TOT-HER3 and ICARUS-BREAST01 trials suggest that the novel HER3-directed antibody-drug conjugate patritumab deruxtecan may have beneficial activity in patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative and triple-negative breast cancer subtypes, according to...
The respected members of the oncology community listed here are among some of those who passed away in 2022–2023. The ASCO Post remembers them, their lives, and their contributions to cancer research and treatment. Robert J. Gillies, PhD Moffitt Cancer Center and the global research community lost ...
In December 2019, Robert A. Winn, MD, became the second Black physician to lead a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center when he took the helm of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center. Dr. Winn’s basic science research, which has been...
Today is the era of the multidisciplinary oncology care approach, cancer staging facilitates precision in documenting disease extent, all of which improved the quality of patient care. However, in the United States, the Rai staging system is still the most commonly used clinical staging system for...
Manali Patel, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine (Oncology) at Stanford University, grew up in Shelby, a small town in the textile and farming community of Western North Carolina, among mill workers and other blue-collar laborers. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Dr. Patel’s early life was...
Susan K. Parsons, MD, MRP, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and Founding Director of the Reid R. Sacco Adolescent and Young Adult Program for Cancer and Hereditary Blood Disorders at Tufts Medical Center, grew up on a working dairy farm in Sharon Springs,...
On May 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the optimized, high-affinity radiohybrid prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging agent flotufolastat fluorine-18 (Posluma). Flotufolastat F-18 is indicated for PET imaging of...