In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Bernardo H.L. Goulart, MD, and colleagues found that higher out-of-pocket costs for tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) were associated with reduced adherence to and increased discontinuation of TKI therapy—as well as poorer overall...
Sentinel lymph node biopsy “had similar diagnostic accuracy and prognostic ability as lymphadenectomy in patients with high-grade endometrial cancer at greatest risk for nodal metastases,” according to the SENTOR trial, a prospective cohort study of 156 patients with clinical stage I disease. Using ...
Although the exact incidence of treatment-related lymphedema among cancer survivors is unknown—most likely due to its prolonged latency period—it can be a lifelong chronic side effect that negatively impacts survivors’ quality of life. Although the condition is often linked to treatment for breast...
Tebentafusp is a novel bispecific molecule consisting of an affinity-enhanced T-cell receptor fused to an anti-CD3 effector that can redirect T cells to target gp100-positive cells. The agent showed clinical benefit, including target lesion reduction, in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma,...
Cancer cases in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) have risen by 30% during the past 4 decades, with rates of kidney cancer increasing at the greatest rate, according to findings published by Scott et al in JAMA Network Open. The team said further research into screening, diagnosis, and treatment...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Nadler et al describe the development of an intervention at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, that succeeded in increasing referrals of patients with gastrointestinal cancer to a cancer rehabilitation program. As stated by the ...
Mortality rates after cancer surgery declined for Black as well as White patients during a recent 10-year period, although the mortality gap between the two groups did not narrow, according to new research published by Miranda Lam, MD, MBA, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open. The findings present...
Extended follow-up results from the phase III monarchE trial showed that adding the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor abemaciclib to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy continued to improve invasive disease–free survival in patients with high-risk, node-positive, early-stage, hormone receptor...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Institute, London, and colleagues, extended follow-up of the phase III KEYNOTE-426 trial shows continued progression-free and overall survival superiority with pembrolizumab/axitinib vs sunitinib alone in first-line treatment ...
In a 7-year follow-up of the phase III CALGB 40601/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, of Lineberger Comprehensive Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues found that neoadjuvant paclitaxel combined with a dual...
Prostate cancer has lagged behind other solid tumors with regard to molecularly targeted therapy and precision medicine, with no targeted therapies approved specifically in prostate cancer, but that has changed with the recent approval in 2020 of a PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor for...
A recent report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has undermined the evidentiary basis for the primary treatment of stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) while rating the evidence for the benefit of screening as “high.”1 According to David F. Yankelevitz, MD, these...
In October 2020, Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan ended her 2-year tenure as President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), a global organization with more than 1,198 members from 172 countries and territories committed to reducing the cancer burden and...
Genetic mutations linked to myeloproliferative neoplasms may emerge in childhood or even in utero, decades before they cause cancer, according to a late-breaking abstract presented today at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition by Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir, and ...
David Snyder, MD, Acting Chair, City of Hope Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Duarte, California, who was not involved in the ASCEMBL study, commented on the promise of asciminib: “The hope is this drug would be able to overcome resistance to other tyrosine kinase...
Since the introduction of imatinib almost 18 years ago, similar next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been approved for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), including dasatinib, nilotinib, bosutinib, and ponatinib. These drugs attack a similar target, making it more likely that resistance to...
Ruxolitinib was superior to best available therapy in achieving efficacy as determined by overall response and duration of response, with acceptable safety in adolescents and adults with steroid-dependent or steroid-refractory chronic graft-vs-host disease. Findings from the phase III REACH3 trial...
Sarcoma has bedeviled researchers for many years because of its heterogeneity. Sarcoma encompasses more than 100 different subtypes, which makes it difficult to design studies to identify effective therapies. As researchers dig deeper into the constellation of subtypes of sarcoma, some therapies...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions for agents to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), biliary tract cancer, and graft-vs-host disease. Priority Review for Loncastuximab Tesirine...
Findings from a subgroup analysis of the phase III PAOLA-1/ENGOT-ov25 study presented by Fujiwara et al at the ESMO Asia Virtual Congress 2020 showed that the addition of olaparib to bevacizumab maintenance following standard platinum-based therapy plus bevacizumab provided a progression-free...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ian E. Smith, MD, and colleagues, the phase III POETIC trial found that perioperative aromatase inhibitor therapy did not reduce the risk of disease recurrence in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive early breast cancer vs no perioperative...
On November 25, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to naxitamab (Danyelza) in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) for pediatric patients aged 1 year and older and adult patients with relapsed or refractory high-risk...
Oncology providers familiar with ASCO’s guideline on older adults with cancer are two to four times more likely to conduct a geriatric assessment on patients with cancer over the age of 65, according to the first international ASCO survey aimed at determining if and how often cancer providers are...
Global Cancer Institute (GCI), which is focused on improving survival rates for underserved patients with cancer worldwide, recently announced it has extended its programs to Bangladesh. The extension begins with the launch of monthly tumor boards, which help physicians and oncologists in...
In the French phase III Senti-MERORL trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Renaud Garrel, MD, PhD, of the University Hospital Center of Montpellier, France, and colleagues, found that sentinel node biopsy was equivalent to neck lymph node dissection in 2-year neck node...
My patient with metastatic colon cancer was sitting across from me after being absent for several months. His cancer had been under excellent control on chemotherapy, but now he was having worse pain and shortness of breath. Despite our calls, he had not kept his appointments. We were 6 feet apart, ...
In an Italian phase II trial (GIMEMA LAL2116) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robin Foà, MD, of Sapienza University of Rome, and colleagues, found that first-line induction and consolidation treatment with dasatinib and blinatumomab produced a high rates of molecular response as...
Numerous studies over the past 4 decades have chronicled the lack of progress in improved outcomes for adolescents and young adults (AYAs)—defined by the National Cancer Institute as those ranging in age from 15 to 39—diagnosed with cancer compared with children and older adults diagnosed with the...
Despite decades of research, multinational clinical trials, regular guideline updates by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and coordinated efforts by ASCO and other major oncology organizations, the management strategy for prostate cancer remains controversial. To keep the oncology community ...
The largest single-arm trial evaluating pembrolizumab in relapsed malignant pleural mesothelioma has demonstrated an “impressive” duration of response, according to a presentation during the virtual edition of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2020 North America...
Post-hysterectomy image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) was superior to three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) in reducing the side effects of pelvic radiation while achieving similar tumor control in women with high-risk cervical cancer, according to the final...
Sintilimab, an anti–PD-1 antibody, in combination with a bevacizumab biosimilar as first-line therapy significantly improved survival compared to sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, according to findings presented by Ren et al at the ESMO Asia Virtual Congress 2020...
As reported in The Lancet by Grosicki et al, the phase III BOSTON trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with once-weekly selinexor plus bortezomib/dexamethasone vs twice-weekly bortezomib/dexamethasone in previously treated patients with multiple myeloma. Study Details...
Clinical benefit was provided by the FGFR1–4 inhibitor futibatinib in patients with refractory intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring FGFR2 gene fusions or other rearrangements, including those enrolled in Asian countries. These findings were presented by Furuse et al at the ESMO Asia Virtual...
Envafolimab (also known as KN035), a novel PD-L1 antibody, demonstrated antitumor activity and was safe in patients with diverse, advanced microsatellite instability–high/mismatch repair–deficient (MSI-H/dMMR) tumors, according to findings presented by Shen et al at the ESMO Asia Virtual Congress...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD, of the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, and colleagues, the phase III ASCEND trial showed significantly prolonged progression-free survival with acalabrutinib monotherapy vs investigator’s choice of either...
In the treatment of adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), use of newer antibodies and de-intensification of chemotherapy have greatly improved outcomes, according to Hagop Kantarjian, MD, FASCO, who has been very involved in much of the research in ALL treatment. Dr. Kantarjian, Professor ...
Population-wide screening for genetic variants linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers may be cost-effective in women between the ages of 20 and 35, according to a study published by Guzauskas et al in JAMA Network Open. However, screening for older women was not cost-effective, the...
In a 7-year follow-up of the phase III CALGB 40601/Alliance neoadjuvant trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fernandez-Martinez et al found that paclitaxel combined with trastuzumab/lapatinib was associated with improved survival outcomes vs paclitaxel/trastuzumab in women with...
In a Canadian prospective cohort study (SENTOR) reported in JAMA Surgery, Cusimano et al found that sentinel lymph node biopsy showed “acceptable diagnostic accuracy” compared with lymphadenectomy in detecting nodal metastatic disease in patients with intermediate- and high-grade endometrial...
Deaths from cancer accounted for more than 4 million potential years of life lost in 2017, according to a study published by Minkyo Song, MD, PhD, and colleagues in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. While the cancer types with the highest death rates per capita accounted for the...
In the French phase III STIC CTC trial reported in JAMA Oncology, François-Clément Bidard, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that choice of first-line chemotherapy vs endocrine therapy in hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer based on circulating tumor cell count...
Studies have shown that utilizing a PARP inhibitor in the management of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and BRCA1/2 mutation is clinically beneficial. New research published by Wu et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network sought to determine whether such...
In a study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Brajcich et al found that higher-rated surgical technical skill was associated with significantly improved long-term survival in patients undergoing surgery for colon cancer. Study Details In the study, surgeons were recruited from the...
A new study published by Stacey A. Fedewa, PhD, and colleagues in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that state-level lung cancer screening rates were not aligned with the national lung cancer burden. The report provides the first population-based state-level screening data for...
In a United Arab Emirates single-institution study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Al-Shamsi et al found a high rate of COVID-19 infection among asymptomatic patients with solid tumors undergoing cancer treatment. Study Details The study included 109 patients receiving treatment for ...
Launched in 2018 at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, the Integrative Oncology Scholars Program has trained 50 oncology professionals in evidence-based complementary therapies in the treatment of patients with cancer. Another 50 trainees are expected to complete the program by ...
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blok et al found a significant association between an increased number of cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy and a reduced risk of metachronous contralateral testicular cancer. As noted by the investigators, patients with testicular...
As the world continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, ASCO is committed to providing the most current information and resources to its members and the larger oncology community to help ensure that patients with cancer receive high-quality care. Here, members of the ASCO International Affairs...
On October 2, 2020, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) was approved for first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.1-3 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the open-label phase III CheckMate 743 trial...