Dominik P. Modest, MD, of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, discusses phase III study findings showing sotorasib plus panitumumab vs trifluridine/tipiracil or regorafenib benefits patients with chemorefractory metastatic colorectal cancer in terms of improved clinical outcomes and better...
Yasunobu Ishizuka, MD, of Japan’s Aichi Cancer Center, discusses study results showing that scheduling infusions of nivolumab monotherapy before mid-afternoon for patients with metastatic gastric cancer may alter treatment efficacy. Several studies have suggested that circadian rhythm is essential...
Milind M. Javle, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II results on tinengotinib, a next-generation FGFR inhibitor that seems to overcome acquired resistance and shows efficacy in patients with cholangiocarcinoma with other FGFR alterations who are not eligible...
Lorraine A. Chantrill, PhD, MBBS, of Australia’s Wollongong Hospital, New South Wales, discusses phase II findings on the combination of nab-paclitaxel plus carboplatin as a first-line treatment for patients with gastrointestinal neuroendocrine carcinomas. According to Dr. Chantrill, this regimen...
Jennifer Yon-Li Wo, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the local failure rate of non-ablative hypofractionated radiation therapy in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab and nivolumab compared to ablative SBRT to treat metastatic microsatellite-stable colorectal ...
Riccardo Lencioni, MD, of the University of Pisa School of Medicine, discusses phase III results from the EMERALD-1 study of durvalumab plus bevacizumab plus TACE (transarterial chemoembolization) in patients with embolization-eligible unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Compared with TACE...
Van K. Morris, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II results on using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a predictive biomarker of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage II colon cancer. During the trial, no improvement in ctDNA clearance was observed...
In patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy, a more intensified regimen of abiraterone acetate/prednisone plus apalutamide improved outcomes and did not lead to decrements in specific domains of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) vs treatment with...
The phase III KEYNOTE-564 study has reported that adjuvant pembrolizumab provides a significant improvement in overall survival for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma at high risk of recurrence after surgery. This study is significant, as it represents the first phase III study to show...
Patients with muscle-invasive urothelial cancer and a high risk of recurrence after surgery may have a new treatment option. The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology announced positive results from the phase III AMBASSADOR (A031501) trial for the adjuvant treatment of patients with localized...
The incidence and mortality of cervical cancer may be rising in patients residing in low-income areas of the United States, according to a recent study published by Amboree et al in the International Journal of Cancer. Study Methods and Results In the recent study, investigators used the...
The development of any type of secondary cancer following chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy may be rare, according to a recent study published by Ghilardi et al in Nature Medicine. Background Secondary cancers, including T-cell lymphomas, are known risks of cancer treatments such as...
Anant Ramaswamy, DM, of Tata Memorial Centre, discusses phase III results of a study that added docetaxel to a doublet regimen of fluorouracil or capecitabine and oxaliplatin, which did not improve overall survival in patients with advanced gastroesophageal junction and gastric cancers. Continuing...
Frank Kullmann, MD, of Germany’s Klinikum Weiden, discusses results from the ALPACA trial, which suggest a dose-reduced regimen with alternating cycles of gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine monotherapy after three induction cycles of standard gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel is feasible and...
Manish A. Shah, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses phase III findings of the KEYNOTE-590 study, which shows that, after 5 years, the use of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improved survival with durable efficacy, compared with placebo plus chemotherapy, in patients with untreated...
Harry P. Erba, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Leukemia Program in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapy at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, told The ASCO Post he was not surprised by one of the key findings reported by Smith et ...
Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with extrapelvic nodal or visceral metastasis who were treated with the combination of cabozantinib plus atezolizumab had significantly improved time to disease progression compared with those who were treated with hormonal therapy. This ...
A recent study, published by Wang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, conducted as part of the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE), may provide new insights into how diet may affect aging in adult survivors of childhood cancer. This study, involving 3,322 participants aged 18 to 65, found that ...
Unintentional weight loss may be associated with an increased risk of receiving a cancer diagnosis within the next year, according to a recent study published by Wang et al in JAMA. Background Patients with advanced cancer often experience weight loss. However, weight loss is often not thought to...
Decisions regarding the rationing of chemotherapy are commonplace in many countries around the world—including those where patients must pay for chemotherapy out of pocket—and increasingly so in cancer settings that treat both well-off and socioeconomically disadvantaged patients. However, these...
The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) had an immensely impactful year of advocacy work, which is possible only with guidance and passion from our members. In partnership with the ASCO’s Government Relations Committee, five advocacy priorities were identified for the year: Protecting...
Invited discussant of the abstracts on the virtual mind-body fitness program and the BRIDGE intervention from the 2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Daniel Curtis McFarland, DO, MS, of Wilmot Cancer Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, New York, said they highlight the unmet need...
Recent studies by multidisciplinary teams at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Massachusetts General Hospital are illuminating novel ways to address health-care challenges faced by patients with cancer. The research, presented at the 2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, highlights the...
Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University, and Dan Vogl, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, shared their thoughts on the PERSEUS trial for The ASCO Post. Dr. Nooka noted that ...
The addition of the CD38 monoclonal antibody daratumumab to a standard regimen for patients with newly diagnosed transplant-eligible multiple myeloma significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs standard treatment in the phase III PERSEUS trial. The study was reported as a late-breaking...
Ian Chau, MD, of The Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses an analysis from the CheckMate 648 study on quality-adjusted time without symptoms and toxicity in patients with unresectable advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab and nivolumab plus...
Subgroup analyses of the randomized double-blind phase III MATTERHORN trial continue to show the benefit of adding perioperative durvalumab to standard chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced, resectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer. Detailed findings on pathologic complete...
On January 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued safety labeling change notification letters to all manufacturers of licensed B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed and CD19-directed genetically modified autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies requiring ...
Over 50% of all melanoma diagnoses among White patients in the United States may in fact be overdiagnoses, according to a recent study published by Adamson et al in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Background “Cases of cutaneous melanoma have risen significantly in the [United States] over the last 40...
Investigators have found that only a minority of patients with Lynch syndrome may be receiving aspirin as chemopreventive therapy, according to new findings presented by Singhal et al at the 2024 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (Abstract 19). Background “[Patients] with Lynch syndrome are...
George D. Demetri, MD, FASCO, Director of the Sarcoma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was awarded the J.E. Wallace Sterling Lifetime Achievement Award in Medicine from the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association (SMAA). Dr. Demetri, an alumnus of the Stanford University School of Medicine,...
The road to my breast cancer diagnosis in 2018 was long and tortuous. For 3 years leading up to the diagnosis, I had imaging scans and tissue biopsies every 3 months because of suspicious masses in my breasts. The uncertainty was so destabilizing that I was in a constant state of emotional unrest....
Late in 2023, Richardson et al shared the results of a phase I/II clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03374085). They concluded that the “all-oral combination of mezigdomide plus dexamethasone showed promising efficacy in patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.”1 Mezigdomide ...
Ken Kato, MD, PhD, of Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital, discusses the first comprehensive findings on biomarkers from the CheckMate 648 study. These results further corroborate the clinical efficacy of nivolumab plus chemotherapy and nivolumab plus ipilimumab in the first-line treatment of...
Long-term follow-up of the phase III KEYNOTE-590 trial has confirmed the benefit of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in advanced esophageal cancer. As compared with chemotherapy alone, after a median follow-up of almost 59 months, patients treated with the chemoimmunotherapy combination were three...
In the phase III CheckMate 8HW trial, previously untreated patients with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer derived significant benefit from an immunotherapy doublet of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in the first-line setting, which...
Rory M. Shallis, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology) at Yale School of Medicine, shared his thoughts on the use of revumenib in histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2A-rearranged (KMT2A-rearranged) leukemia, as reported in the phase II AUGMENT-101 trial. In an interview with The ASCO...
Michael K. Gibson, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses phase III findings on chemotherapy plus camrelizumab in the ESCORT-NEO trial of patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; and phase III SKYSCRAPER-08 results on first-line tiragolumab plus atezolizumab ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post ’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Naoto T. Ueno, MD, PhD, FACP, Director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. Along with his duties leading the cancer center, Dr. Ueno leads translational breast cancer research...
The novel artificial intelligence (AI)-based Molecular Twin Precision Oncology Platform may be capable of identifying biomarkers that may outperform the standard test for predicting pancreatic cancer survival, according to a recent study published by Osipov et al in Nature Cancer. Background...
Investigators may have uncovered some of the factors associated with the selection of active surveillance over surgery or radiation therapy in patients with low-risk prostate cancer, according to a recent study published by Xu et al in Cancer. Background Guidelines for low-risk prostate cancer that ...
In May 2023, The ASCO Post launched a new feature, View From the Top: The Future of Cancer Care Delivery, which explores how leaders in oncology are developing strategies to ensure continued innovative oncology care in an ever-changing health-care environment. In this installment, Guest Editor Jame ...
Results from the first phase III clinical trial evaluating radioligand therapy in the first-line setting demonstrated that treatment with lutetium Lu-177 dotatate significantly improved progression-free survival and objective response rates in patients with high-grade gastroenteropancreatic...
The addition of durvalumab and bevacizumab to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who were eligible for embolization. According to the study authors, this is the first trial to demonstrate...
On January 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the FGFR inhibitor erdafitinib (Balversa) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma with susceptible FGFR3 genetic alterations, as determined by an FDA-approved companion diagnostic test, whose...
A novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK)-cell therapy may be effective at treating patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies, according to a novel study published by Marin et al in Nature Medicine. Study Methods and Results In the new phase I/II trial, researchers...
Following surgery to remove a colorectal tumor, patients may have molecular measurable residual disease (MRD). Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), or liquid biopsy, may be used to detect molecular MRD in patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer and to determine whether they may benefit from...
The role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), or liquid biopsy, as a predictive tool to guide and monitor cancer treatment remains unclear, after the first prospective randomized phase II trial evaluating clearance of ctDNA in patients with stage II colon cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy did not ...
Results from the phase III SKYSCRAPER-08 study found that combining PD-L1 and T-cell immunoglobulin and ITM domain (TIGIT) inhibitors plus chemotherapy in the first-line setting extended survival in an Asian population of patients with metastatic or locally advanced esophageal squamous cell...
Investigators may have uncovered molecular evidence of racial disparities in the receipt of precision medicine, according to a recent study published by Yamada et al in npj Precision Oncology. Background Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer type diagnosed in both male and female...