The advent of effective combination chemotherapies has changed the treatment landscape for metastatic pancreatic cancer, extending median survival and leading to durable responses in a subset of patients. However, perpetual chemotherapy is cumulatively toxic, leading to progressive bone marrow...
Marcus Noel, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, included SWOG S1505 in the presentation of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Highlights during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program. Susan Tsai, MD, MHS, a ...
The much-anticipated SWOG S1505 trial has failed to show that one preoperative regimen is better than another in resectable pancreatic cancer.1 “Perioperative modified FOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel appear to have similar efficacy, with acceptable safety and resectability rates,”...
The novel targeted agent infigratinib (BGJ398) showed clinically meaningful activity against chemotherapy-refractory cholangiocarcinoma in patients with fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR2) fusions and rearrangements. The confirmed overall response rate was 23% (34% confirmed/unconfirmed), the ...
Invited discussant of the ClarIDHy trial, Rachna T. Shroff, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona, and Chief of GI Medical Oncology at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, said positive findings for ivosidenib support the notion that “biliary cancer is a perfect example of...
Ivosidenib, an inhibitor of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), improved overall survival by almost 3 months in previously treated patients with advanced IDH1-mutated cholangiocarcinoma, compared with placebo, researchers of the global phase III ClarIDHy trial reported at the 2021 Gastrointestinal...
In 2007, sorafenib became the first approved systemic therapy for hepatocellular cancers and the first agent to improve overall survival in these patients.1 In a similar multikinase inhibitor strategy, lenvatinib was found to be noninferior to sorafenib in overall survival in the same patient...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Richard S. Finn, MD, of Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues, the phase III IMbrave150 trial has shown that anti–PD-L1 plus anti-VEGF therapy with...
In the treatment of resectable, locally advanced rectal cancer, researchers are trying to identify the most effective chemotherapy regimens, the best radiotherapy approaches, and the optimal sequence of these modalities. Two phase III trials presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program...
In an updated analysis of the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-177 trial of pembrolizu-mab for microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer, the benefit of first-line pembrolizumab continued beyond disease progression on the subsequent line of treatment, despite a high crossover to ...
With the widespread use of multigene panels for germline genetic testing, understanding the cancer risks associated with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants (ie, mutations) has become increasingly necessary. To identify which genes are breast cancer susceptibility genes, population studies...
“I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” —Marie Curie To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are two abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on...
Cancer researcher Alan Tackett, PhD, has been named Deputy Director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute (Cancer Institute) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Dr. Tackett, who is noted for his research in cancer biomarker discovery, is Professor in the UAMS...
The phase III ACIS trial met its primary endpoint at 6 months showing that apalutamide plus abiraterone acetate/prednisone (AAP) extended radiographic progression-free survival vs abiraterone acetate/prednisone alone in patients with chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate...
Cabozantinib achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful extension in progression-free survival compared with sunitinib in patients with metastatic papillary renal cell carcinoma, a relatively uncommon type of renal cell carcinoma, according to the randomized phase II SWOG 1500...
A dose-intensified approach to salvage radiotherapy failed to show superiority to a conventional-dose strategy in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer who had undergone radical prostatectomy, according to the phase III SAKK 09/10 trial presented at the 2021 Genitourinary Cancers...
Following disease progression on docetaxel, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted radionuclide therapy reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 37% vs cabazitaxel in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in the TheraP phase II trial reported at the 2021...
Enfortumab vedotin-ejfv continues to move the needle forward as a validated treatment option for advanced urothelial carcinoma. At the 2021 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, results from the phase III EV-301 study1 and EV-201 Cohort 22 provided support for the use of this agent in both patients...
The results of a large cohort study suggest that a proportion of patients with cutaneous melanoma could potentially avoid sentinel node biopsy, according to data presented by Moncrieff et al at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care (Abstract 59)....
Most people with cancer who are infected with COVID-19 produce antibodies at a rate comparable to the rest of the population—but their ability to do so depends on the type of malignancy and the treatments they’ve received, according to a new study published by Thakkar et al in Nature Cancer. The...
Adjuvant therapy with nivolumab, an anti–PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, after radical surgery improved disease-free survival in high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial cancer regardless of PD-L1 status, according to the results of the CheckMate 274 randomized phase III trial presented at the 2021...
On March 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with platinum and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy for patients with metastatic or locally advanced esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (tumors with epicenter 1–5 cm above the...
Alice P. Barr, MD, of the Carolinas Medical Center and Levine Cancer Institute, discusses results from a retrospective study, which showed that progression-free and overall survival appeared to be no different with open surgery and minimally invasive surgery for interval debulking after neoadjuvant ...
KRAS mutational status in patients with unresectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer predicts a worse response to hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) pump chemotherapy, according to research presented by Kolbeinsson et al at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2021 International Conference on...
An observational study of 10,592 patients from the National Cancer Database with stage IIB/IIC melanoma who had undergone surgical resection demonstrated a significant survival advantage with immunotherapy. The research was presented by Wong et al at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2021...
An analysis of 58 peripheral blood specimens from patients with rectal and esophageal cancers demonstrated that circulating hybrid cells may be a novel, noninvasive biomarker with potential for monitoring treatment response and disease progression to help guide decisions for further therapy,...
On March 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tivozanib (Fotivda), a kinase inhibitor, for adult patients with relapsed or refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma following two or more prior systemic therapies. TIVO-3 Efficacy was evaluated in TIVO-3 (ClinicalTrials.gov...
Feasibility assessments for clinical trials are conducted to establish that prospective trial sites can safely and effectively meet study goals and protocol requirements; however, a new research statement from ASCO asserts that current standards are “costly, inconsistent, inefficient, labor...
“It has been a long time coming to see a positive randomized phase III study with a checkpoint inhibitor in relapsed mesothelioma,” said the study’s invited discussant, Rina Hui, MBBS, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead Hospital, University of Sydney,...
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 Hou, PharmD, DipIOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on...
“There is progress whether ye are going forward or backward! The thing is to move.” —Edgar Cayce To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are a few abstracts selected from the meeting...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to a novel immunotherapy for the treatment of ovarian cancer as well as Breakthrough Therapy designation to treatments for HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and previously treated thyroid cancer....
Final analysis of a collaborative intergroup study confirmed the efficacy of adjuvant treatment with imatinib in patients with localized gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in terms of prolonged relapse-free survival. In the high-risk subgroup, there was a trend toward a better long-term imatinib ...
On March 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to lorlatinib (Lorbrena) for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, as detected by an FDA-approved test. The FDA also approved the...
At the 2021 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, Motzer et al presented the clinical results of the CLEAR trial, adding a novel regimen, lenvatinib plus pembrolizu-mab, to the growing armamentarium of first-line treatments for patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The...
Each year, following the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to offer his picks of the most important and most clinically relevant research presented at this meeting. The following are summaries of studies that caught Dr. Abraham’s attention from ...
When advising the younger members of our medical community on career decisions, I always list “access to the best mentorship” as the most important priority. By the time we hit residency, we have all proven ourselves able to extract from a book or a journal the facts essential to the practice of...
In an updated analysis of the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-177 trial in microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer, the benefit of first-line pembrolizumab continued beyond disease progression on the subsequent line of treatment, despite a high crossover to immunotherapy for...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this occasional special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Kenya. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Allison Magnuson, DO, of the University of Rochester Medical Center & Wilmot Cancer Institute, and Mina S. Sedrak, MD, MS, of the City of Hope National Medical Center, along with colleagues, have developed a novel risk tool—the Cancer and Aging...
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic approaches in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). For full...
The novel targeted agent infigratinib (BGJ398) showed clinically meaningful activity against chemotherapy-refractory cholangiocarcinoma in patients with fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR2) fusions and rearrangements. The confirmed overall response rate was 23% (34% confirmed/unconfirmed), the ...
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on the assessment and treatment of patients with B-cell and T-cell non-Hodgkin...
The ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic have been felt in every area of health care. In our medical specialty, oncology, clinical trials of new treatments were upended by COVID-19. In the early months of the pandemic, widespread interruptions in trial enrollment prevented some patients...
Although optimal regimens are still being determined, checkpoint inhibition has clearly established itself in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, as judged by the number of abstracts on the topic at the 2021 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The ASCO Post brings readers short summaries of ...
On February 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cemiplimab-rwlc (Libtayo) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression (tumor proportion score [TPS] > 50%) as determined by an FDA-approved...
Ruxolitinib was superior to best available therapy in achieving efficacy as determined by best overall response and duration of response, with acceptable safety in adolescents and adults with steroid-dependent or steroid-refractory chronic graft-vs-host disease effects. These findings were shown in ...
Stem cell transplants are not frequently offered to older patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to a study from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMTCTN 1102), these patients may indeed achieve a survival benefit from stem cell transplant. As...
The first phase III study to evaluate the subcutaneous form of daratumumab has met its primary endpoint, investigators of the APOLLO trial reported at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 The triplet of daratumumab, pomalidomide, and low-dose dexamethasone ...
Engineering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to overcome CD58 loss may be a way to boost responses in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who do not respond to treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel and other CAR T-cell therapies, according to a study presented at the 2020...