In a German prospective registry study (SenTa) reported in JAMA Surgery, Kuemmel et al found that targeted axillary dissection alone after neoadjuvant systemic therapy was associated with outcomes similar to those obtained with targeted axillary dissection plus axillary lymph node dissection in...
Understanding the complexities of health disparities within cancer care requires an exploration beyond immediate clinical factors. According to Elisa Rodriguez, PhD, MS, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, geography plays a critical role in defining health outcomes in...
A new ASCO guideline rapid update provides updated recommendations for the management of stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These updated recommendations made by the ASCO expert panel cover treatment options for patients with resected disease and specific genetic mutations as well as...
Patients with pancreatic cancer who were treated with the benzodiazepine lorazepam had shorter progression-free survival periods than patients who were not, according to study results published by Cornwell et al in Clinical Cancer Research. In contrast, patients who were treated with the...
Researchers have identified genes that may be associated with breast cancer and could eventually be included in tests to identify high-risk patients, according to a recent study published by Wilcox et al in Nature Genetics. Background Currently, genetic tests for breast cancer consider a few genes...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Özgüroğlu et al, extended follow-up of the phase III EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial has shown continued benefit in overall and progression-free survival with first-line cemiplimab-rwlc vs chemotherapy in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with...
A Vietnamese prospective study by Hanh Thi-Hue Nguyen, BS, and Le Son Tran, PhD, both of the Medical Genetics Institute and Gene Solutions, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and colleagues, investigating the feasibility and performance of a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analyzing test in the early...
Grim, grimmer, and grinding are among the terms reported in the press to describe the current chemotherapy shortage.1,2 And, “it is not going away,” Mark J. Ratain, MD, FASCO, Chief Hospital Pharmacologist, University of Chicago Medicine, told The ASCO Post. “This is a progressive problem like...
New approaches are offering hope for better outcomes in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to Suchita Pakkala, MD, of Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta. She shared her thoughts on using PARP inhibitors and antibody-drug conjugates at the 2023 Debates and...
Long-molecule scars may help identify patients with BRCA1- and BRCA2-deficient cancer types, according to a recent study published by Setton et al in Nature. Background Once DNA is damaged by toxins, radiation, or normal cell division, human cells must continually fix DNA breaks to survive. When...
Pancreatic cancer has the poorest 5-year survival rate (12.5%) relative to all other cancers. In 2023, about 64,050 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and approximately 50,550 will die of the disease. A retrospective study investigating the impact of palliative care medicine on the...
In a study (STOP-CA) reported in JAMA, Neilan et al found that atorvastatin reduced the risk of decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy for the treatment of lymphoma. Study Details In the U.S.-Canadian double-blind trial, 300...
In a preplanned analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pfeiler et al found that higher body mass index (BMI) reduced the risk of neutropenia and treatment discontinuation in patients with early hormone receptor–positive breast cancer receiving adjuvant...
Treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy achieved an objective response rate of 32% in platinum-ineligible patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who experienced disease progression on an immune checkpoint inhibitor, according to the primary analysis of the...
“Clinically, the implications [of the THOR trial] are clear in that all metastatic urothelial cancers should be tested for FGFR mutations,” stated invited discussant Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, of Yale School of Medicine. “This should be done at the beginning of treatment for metastatic disease, as it...
The results of recent trials of PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor plus second-generation androgen receptor inhibitor combinations have had varying results in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Some trials suggest the benefit is confined to those with BRCA mutations and/or...
Presented here are summaries of three abstracts from the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting that are pertinent for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The first two focus on men with homologous recombinant repair (HRR) gene alterations, including BRCA1/2. In the first study,...
“Hats off to the investigators for the first comparison of triplet to doublet in advanced renal cell carcinoma. This is also the first results using a contemporary control group. The study met its primary endpoint,” said Sumanta K. Pal, MD, FASCO, Co-Director of the Kidney Cancer Program, City of...
The addition of cabozantinib to nivolumab plus ipilimumab prolonged progression-free survival in untreated intermediate-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to the first results of the phase III COSMIC-313 trial. These findings were presented as a Presidential Symposium ...
The 3-year follow-up of the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial demonstrates superior outcomes with the combination of nivolumab plus cabozantinib vs the former standard-of-care sunitinib as first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma.1 These benefits were achieved with the...
David A. Braun, MD, PhD, of Yale Cancer Center, was the formal discussant of the abstract on the 4-year follow-up of the CLEAR trial. “We have made remarkable progress [in advanced renal cell carcinoma] and are now in the combination era of immunotherapy-based therapy and immunotherapy-based...
It is an exciting time in the development of new treatments for urologic cancers. There have been a number of major changes both in advanced disease and in the perioperative setting over the past year. Urothelial and Bladder Cancers In urothelial cancer, at last, we have randomized data supporting...
On August 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the HEPZATO KIT, a melphalan hepatic delivery system, as a liver-directed treatment for adult patients with metastatic uveal melanoma and unresectable hepatic metastases affecting less than 50% of the liver and no extrahepatic...
Insights on findings from the phase II MonumenTAL-1 trial1 were offered by Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Medical Director of the Winship Data and Technology Applications Shared Resource, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School ...
In the phase I/II MonumenTAL-1 trial, the novel bispecific antibody talquetamab produced responses in more than 70% of heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma.1 Of note, the safety profile confirmed results of the phase I portion of the study (recently published in TheNew England Journal...
Urvi A. Shah, MD, Assistant Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, moderated the session where the MagnetisMM trial updates1,2 were reported and was interviewed by The ASCO Post. Elranatamab vs Teclistamab Dr. Shah noted...
Ciara L. Freeman, MD, PhD, Assistant Member, Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, was impressed with the CARTITUDE-4 findings. She said “treaters and patients” will be “watching this space” to see how the results change the...
The next-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor zanubrutinib demonstrated superior progression-free survival compared with ibrutinib, with an improved cardiac safety profile, in the first head-to-head comparison between these two BTK inhibitors in relapsed or refractory chronic...
“Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the paradigmatic success story in hematology,” said Joseph C. Alvarnas, MD, Professor in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplant, Vice President of Government Affairs, and Chief Clinical Advisor for AccessHope at City of Hope...
The standard of care could be changing for adults with newly diagnosed BCR-ABL–negative B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who achieve measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity after induction chemotherapy. In the phase III E1910 trial by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, an...
New research has confirmed the superiority of lisocabtagene maraleucel over the standard of care for the second-line treatment of primary refractory or early relapsed large B-cell lymphoma, according to data presented by lead study author Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at...
The addition of nivolumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, to chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival in adults and children with advanced classical Hodgkin lymphoma with reduced toxicity compared with standard-of-care brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy, according to the...
The past several months have brought significant advances within the field of hematologic oncology. Here we will review some key updates focusing on pivotal clinical trials and new drug approvals. Advances in Lymphoma Presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting, SWOG S1826 compared nivolumab plus...
Researchers have identified a novel parameter of T cells that may help oncologists anticipate which patients are most likely to develop immunotherapy toxicity. The findings, published by Ostmeyer in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, could lead to improved treatments for a variety of ...
In a Swedish study (Mammography Screening with Artificial Intelligence [MASAI]) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lång et al found that artificial intelligence (AI)-supported screen reading was associated with a similar cancer detection rate and a lower screen-reading workload vs standard double...
Penile squamous cell carcinoma is a rare type of penile cancer with limited treatment options. An international study has found that the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors may offer clinical benefits for some patients with advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma. These findings were published by...
Researchers have found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose sarcopenia in patients with head and neck cancer. The tool may be used to improve treatment and supportive care for patients, according to a report published by Ye et al in JAMA Network Open. “Sarcopenia is an indicator...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. With this installment, we launch a new series of articles on commercially available chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Syed Ali Abutalib, MD, and Jennifer N. ...
A report published by Kwan et al in the journal Cancer provides new information that may help oncologists answer one of the most common questions they hear from breast cancer survivors: Is it safe to drink alcohol? The findings suggest drinking alcohol is not associated with an increased risk of...
In the phase III EVEREST trial reported in The Lancet, Christopher W. Ryan, MD, and colleagues found that adjuvant everolimus was not associated with a significant improvement in event-free survival vs placebo in patients at high risk of disease recurrence following surgery for renal cell...
A new World Economic Forum report released June 26, 2023, highlights the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care and the importance of public-private collaboration in driving its global adoption.1 The report—“Scaling Smart Solutions With AI in Health: Unlocking...
On June 20, 2023, the PARP inhibitor talazoparib was approved for use with enzalutamide in homologous recombination repair (HRR) gene–mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the multicohort, double-blind TALAPRO-2 trial...
Two studies presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting challenge the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors as part of upfront treatment of advanced hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. The first, the SONIA trial, found that first-line treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors led to greater toxicity...
As we detailed in our Special Report “Surviving, but Not Always Thriving, After Cancer,” in the May 25, 2023, issue of The ASCO Post, the combination of advances in more effective therapies to treat cancer, gains in early detection, and sharp declines in tobacco use have led to a staggering 33%...
New research published by Ou et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network evaluated how an important analysis on adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced colon cancer impacted prescribing patterns. The IDEA collaboration included more than 12,000 patients with stage III colon...
Experts have suspected that depression and anxiety may increase cancer risk by affecting a person’s health-related behaviors or by having biological effects on the body that support cancer development. Some research has supported an association among depression, anxiety, and cancer incidence,...
A study covering the northeast region of Colombia found nearly 12% of patients with a high body mass index (BMI) being treated for breast cancer at a regional center experienced cardiotoxicity during chemotherapy. The study will be presented at the upcoming American College of Cardiology Latin...
In patients with N2 and N3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma, adjuvant treatment with concurrent gemcitabine and cisplatin significantly improved progression-free survival, with acceptable toxicity, over fluorouracil plus cisplatin, according to a phase III trial reported from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer...
Presented here are summaries of three abstracts from the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting that are pertinent for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The first two focus on men with homologous recombinant repair (HRR) gene alterations, including BRCA1/2. In the first study,...
The American College of Physicians (ACP) suggested screening asymptomatic, average-risk adults for colorectal cancer at age 50 years, according to updated clinical guidelines published by Qaseem et al in the Annals of Internal Medicine. New ACP Clinical Guidelines Colorectal cancer has the fourth...