Physicians from Carolinas HealthCare System's Neurosciences Institute and Levine Cancer Institute are among the authors of a study published by Brown et al in JAMA. The study showed how among patients with one to three brain metastases, the use of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone, compared...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Zaretsky et al found that defects in interferon receptor signaling and antigen-presenting pathways were associated with acquired resistance to PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) inhibition in melanoma. Resistance Mutations Identified ...
Crinò et al found that ceritinib (Zykadia) was active overall and in central nervous system (CNS) metastases in patients with ALK-rearranged advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) previously treated with crizotinib (Xalkori) and chemotherapy, according to the ASCEND-2 phase II...
A new study indicates that delirium is relatively frequent and underdiagnosed by physicians in patients with advanced cancer visiting the emergency department. Delirium was similarly common among older and younger patients, which suggests that in the setting of advanced cancer, all patients should...
Treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced response in two-thirds of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of both autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) and brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris),...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chagtai et al of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) Renal Tumours Study Group found that chromosome 1q gain was associated with poorer event-free survival in patients with Wilms tumor treated with preoperative...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Niedzwiecki et al found that the ColDx gene-expression signature assay identified high-risk stage II colon cancer among patients in the phase III Alliance C9581 trial. This assay has been shown to be independently prognostic for...
Active surveillance has become an increasingly important alternative to surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment for men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer. However, what is the impact of active surveillance on health-related quality of life in patients selected or opting for this...
In a phase III trial reported by Navari et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, the addition of the antipsychotic agent olanzapine vs placebo to dexamethasone, aprepitant, or fosaprepitant, and a 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3–receptor antagonist reduced nausea and improved antiemetic...
Most adolescent survivors of childhood cancer have no reported psychological symptoms, but an analysis led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital found that those who do often have multiple symptoms and distinct symptom profiles. The findings, published by Krull et al in the Journal of Clinical...
Just 6 months after President Barack Obama announced the establishment of a National Cancer Moonshot Initiative to accelerate the pace of research discoveries, improve patient access and care, and encourage data-sharing, dozens of new initiatives to accomplish those and other goals were rolled out...
When I was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) at the age of 2 in 1974, not much was known about the cancer or the side effects of its treatment. Too young to understand what was happening to me, the burden fell to my parents and older sibling to protect and care for me. For more than...
In a phase I/Ib study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Davids et al found that ipilimumab (Yervoy; at a dose of 10 mg/kg) produced responses, including complete responses, in patients with relapsed hematologic cancer after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)....
Among women undergoing fertility treatment in the Netherlands between 1980 and 1995, the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) compared with non-IVF treatment was not associated with increased risk of breast cancer after a median follow-up of 21 years, according to a study published by van den...
ASCO recently released a clinical practice guideline update on ovarian suppression as part of the extant guideline on adjuvant endocrine therapy in hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, and the recommendations were summarized in the June 10, 2016, issue of The ASCO Post. Also in this issue,...
Few patients with advanced cancer and a short life expectancy have an accurate understanding of their illness, according to a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Andrew S. Epstein, MD, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues. The study involved 178...
In a long-term follow-up of a European trial reported by Isabelle Demeestere, MD, PhD, of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist treatment during chemotherapy in young women with lymphoma was...
A mindfulness-based stress-reduction program for breast cancer survivors was associated with psychological and physical symptom benefits during and at 6 weeks after intervention, according to a randomized trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Cecile A. Lengacher, RN, PhD, of the...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Elli Papaemmanuil, PhD, of the Cancer Genome Project, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and colleagues have identified 11 genomic subgroups in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) associated with distinct diagnostic features and clinical outcomes. AML...
A therapeutic modality of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture has been extensively investigated in Western medical settings. Its clinical use is increasingly common for the management of pain and other conditions. In the oncology setting, research demonstrates that acupuncture can...
James O. Armitage, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discusses how an increased understanding of the biology of lymphomas and their multiple subtypes has had a major impact on the ability to treat patients.
The National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences took up the issue of lung cancer screening at its mid-June workshop. Greta Massetti, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and chair of ...
A new study from the University of Illinois confirms a link between Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screenings and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer in women over age 65. However, most American health guidelines discourage women in that age range from receiving screenings unless they have...
A collaboration between multiple European institutions has uncovered a correlation between a rare mutation in colorectal cancers and a better prognosis, raising the possibility that patients with such tumors may not require chemotherapy after surgery. Findings were published by Domingo et al in The ...
The role of endocrine therapy for hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer is well established, and clinicians are strongly encouraged to consider one of several therapeutic options for the majority of patients who present with metastatic disease. The recent ASCO guideline on this topic, ...
Five-year survival data published by Chen et al in Blood suggest that the targeted therapy brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) may be curative in some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma whose disease has persisted despite receiving previous therapies. This multinational phase II study examined brentuximab...
The cumulative incidence of endocrinopathies steadily increased over time in aging survivors of childhood cancers, according to an analysis of data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study reported by Mostoufi-Moab et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study included...
Self-administered relaxing acupressure and stimulating acupressure were both associated with reduced persistent fatigue vs usual care in breast cancer survivors, according to a randomized clinical trial reported by Zick et al in JAMA Oncology. However, only relaxing acupressure had significant...
A large observational study examining the variation in breast density assessment among radiologists in clinical practice has found a wide variation—from 6.3% to 84.5%—in the percentage of mammograms rated as showing dense breasts, which persisted after adjusting for patient...
A nationwide project is enlisting patients with breast cancer to share their tumor samples and clinical information. Launched in October 2015, the Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) Project has enrolled more than 2,000 patients from all 50 states and is yielding information that will be shared with...
The success of using social media to push forward causes for social good was a driving factor in the launch this past October of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Project (MBC project), which aims to accelerate the understanding of what makes patients with metastatic breast cancer genetically unique....
Sarah S. Donaldson, MD, FASCO, of Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, is the recipient of the Inaugural Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. Throughout her decades-long career, Dr. Donaldson has mentored countless trainees and young oncologists,...
At the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, researchers reported encouraging results for several new drugs and treatment strategies for breast cancer. The ASCO Post brings you brief summaries of a select few. Abemaciclib Trial The cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor abemaciclib produced responses...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, focusing on clinical trials on therapeutics in different types of leukemia, multiple myeloma, follicular lymphoma, and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit...
“This is a tremendous advance. If we had a drug that could achieve these results we would rush to use it. This is also personalized medicine that alerts the health-care team when symptoms need addressing. And it is very important that using the app led to appropriate use of scans and tests, which...
Web-based applications have invaded mainstream culture and grabbed the attention of multitudes of people around the world. According to a study presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, an app may also contribute to extending the lives of people with cancer and, at the same time, reduce...
In patients with low-grade serous carcinoma, maintenance hormonal therapy reduced the risk of recurrence by 77%, compared with surveillance, in a retrospective cohort from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study was reported by David Marc Gershenson, MD, at the 2016 ASCO...
Sunil Verma, MD, Professor and Head of the Department of Oncology and Medical Director of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre of the University of Calgary in Canada, was the study’s formal discussant. He cited several limitations of the study: It was an open-label study, was initially a phase II study but ...
In the second-line metastatic breast cancer setting, the addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to trastuzumab (Herceptin)/capecitabine did not significantly improve progression-free survival, results of the phase III PHEREXA trial showed.1 This is the first randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of ...
Two studies presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting focused on the use of combination immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma. Updated results from the phase III CheckMate 067 trial centered on the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) compared...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schmitz et al have developed and validated a risk score for CNS relapse—the Central Nervous System International Prognostic Index (CNS-IPI)—in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan]...
Smith et al found no improvement in overall survival with cabozantinib (Cometriq) vs prednisone in patients with previously treated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, in the phase III COMET-1 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Cabozantinib, which inhibits MET, VEGF...
Results of two pivotal breast cancer trials reported at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting confirmed the practice-changing findings that resulted from earlier findings. PALOMA-2 The phase III PALOMA-2 trial confirmed results from the smaller, open-label phase II PALOMA-1 trial that led to the U.S. Food...
Day-to-day psychological stress and adverse life events are unlikely to increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new prospective study published by Schoemaker et al in Breast Cancer Research. Women with breast cancer often consider stress as a likely cause of their ...
Nivolumab, a checkpoint inhibitor approved for patients with squamous and nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 2015, is not cost-effective when compared to treatment with docetaxel, chemotherapy medication. However, a Swiss analysis showed the cost-effectiveness of nivolumab is...
FOLFOX (oxaliplatin, leucovorin, fluorouracil [5-FU]) seems to be a safer and more reliable regimen than ECF (epirubicin, cisplatin, 5-FU) and irinotecan/cisplatin as a backbone for treatment in future studies of metastatic esophageal and gastroesophageal junction cancers. This finding from the...
Misunderstandings about prognosis between patients with advanced cancer and their doctors was common, according to a study by Gramling et al in JAMA Oncology—and the vast majority of patients didn't know that their doctors held different opinions about how long they might live. “We've...
Restoring tumor-specific immunity is a treatment strategy that works well in melanoma and lung cancer patients. Now a new study out of the Oregon Health & Science University (OSHU) Knight Cancer Institute is reviving hope that the approach also may help men with life-threatening prostate...
Findings in a classical Hodgkin lymphoma cohort in the phase Ib KEYNOTE-013 trial, reported by Armand et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicate that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is active in patients with disease progressing on or after brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) treatment. Study Details ...
A receptor protein that is the target of the breast cancer drug trastuzumab (Herceptin) is needed for proper heart blood vessel development, reported researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. They published their findings this month in a paper ...