As reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract LBA4) and simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine by Matthew D. Hellmann, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 227 trial has shown that nivolumab plus ipilimumab improved overall survival vs ...
GUEST EDITOR Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief of Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate...
End-of-Life Oncology is a new occasional column in The ASCO Post that will explore how to ensure the care received by terminally ill patients is in alignment with their end-of-life goals and wishes. In this inaugural installment, The ASCO Post talked with Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS,...
Today, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced its decision to award the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, MD; Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, FRS; and Gregg L. Semenza, MD, PhD, for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen...
Recurrent high-grade glioblastoma has a poor prognosis, with a median overall survival of 6 to 9 months. Treatment is limited, partly because immunotherapy has not yet been shown to be effective in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of this tumor. A novel treatment approach involving...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Stephanie de Boer, MD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology, Leiden University Medical Center, and colleagues, a post hoc updated survival analysis of the phase III PORTEC-3 trial has shown a significant overall survival benefit of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy ...
In an individual patient data meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pietrantonio et al found that microsatellite instability (MSI) status was a strong prognostic marker in patients with resectable gastric cancer. The study involved data from 1,556 patients with resectable...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Khodadoust et al found that pembrolizumab was active in patients with advanced relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome. In the U.S.-based multicenter trial, 24 patients with advanced mycosis fungoides (n = 9) or...
As reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract LBA13) and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ronald de Wit, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CARD trial has shown improved imaging-based progression-free survival and overall...
In the phase III VELIA/GOG-3005 trial—reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract LBA3) and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine—Robert L. Coleman, MD, and colleagues found that the use of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor ...
Patients with advanced lung cancer might soon be offered a blood test that could help decide the best treatment for them, instead of relying on tumor biopsy analysis. New data from the BFAST trial presented by Gadgeel et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract ...
As reported in TheNew England Journal of Medicine by Seock‑Ah Im, MD, PhD, of Seoul National University College of Medicine, and colleagues, an interim analysis in the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial has shown an overall survival benefit with the addition of the cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) ...
In the past few weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions in prostate cancer, urothelial cancer, myelofibrosis, breast cancer, pediatric brain cancer, leukemia, and skin cancer. Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Niraparib in Metastatic...
Discussant of the LIBRETTO-001 trial, Robert Doebele, MD, PhD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, was enthusiastic about the response rates reported in this preliminary trial. “Older trials of multikinase inhibitors have shown response rates in the range of ...
Selpercatinib (LOXO-292), a RET kinase inhibitor, demonstrated antitumor activity in the lungs and brain and durable responses with acceptable tolerability in patients with RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to an updated analysis of the LIBRETTO-001 registration...
A study by Creutzberg et al investigated the survival outcome of combined adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy vs radiotherapy alone in women with endometrial cancer with high-risk features. The researchers found that 5-year recurrence-free survival varied according to a patient’s specific...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kim et al found that the addition of 2 years of ovarian function suppression during ongoing tamoxifen treatment improved disease-free survival vs 5 years of tamoxifen alone in patients with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer...
This week, we review two studies from a Presidential Symposium at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 focusing on the efficacy of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in patients with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.
The term “sexual and gender minorities” encompasses people whose sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or reproductive development varies from traditional, societal, cultural, or physiologic norms1 and includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. More than 3 ...
Formal discussant Myung-Ju Ahn, MD, of Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea, said that the CASPIAN results were similar to those of IMpower133, which found that the addition of the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to etoposide/carboplatin significantly...
The addition of the immune checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab to standard therapy significantly improved overall survival vs standard therapy alone for patients with previously untreated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to a preplanned interim analysis of the phase III CASPIAN...
In a Danish population-based cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bertelesen et al found that complete mesocolic lymph node excision was associated with reduced risk of recurrence vs noncomplete excision approaches among patients with stage I to III right-sided colon adenocarcinomas....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ursula A. Matulonis, MD, and colleagues found that niraparib maintenance therapy was associated with increased time without symptoms or toxicity (TWiST) vs routine surveillance among women with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer in...
A meta-analysis of 16 phase III randomized clinical trials evaluating programmed cell death protein 1/ligand 1 (PD-1/-L1) inhibitors either alone or in combination with chemotherapy for solid tumors has found that women derived significantly greater benefit from the addition of chemotherapy to...
Induction chemotherapy with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine or sequential FOLFIRINOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan) followed by surgical exploration induced high conversion rates in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, and conversion was associated with...
Superior recurrence-free survival benefit was observed with nivolumab vs ipilimumab—and was consistent across disease stage, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression levels, and BRAF mutation status—in patients with resected stage III/IV melanoma and a high risk of recurrence, according to ...
In late August, experts from around the globe convened in Basel, Switzerland, at the 2019 Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC) to discuss controversial areas related to the management of advanced prostate cancer. Although the full proceedings of the conference will be published in...
Fit elderly patients aged 70 years and older with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma were able to undergo rigorous treatment that provided benefit similar to that observed in younger patients. However, elderly patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma classified by geriatric assessment ...
Patients with thymic carcinoma that has progressed following treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy may benefit from treatment with lenvatinib, according to findings from a phase II study reported by Itoh et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract ...
Patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma demonstrated prolonged progression-free survival with the addition of atezolizumab to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy vs treatment with chemotherapy alone, according to phase III data from the IMvigor130 study presented by...
Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, also commented on this phase I study of AMG 510. “Although it is a little bit early to tell and the number of patients with non–small cell lung cancer treated is still small, AMG 510 is the first potential true breakthrough in the...
The investigational KRAS inhibitor AMG 510 yielded clinical activity in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to updated results of a small ongoing phase I trial reported at the 2019 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) World Conference on...
Recurrent high-grade glioblastoma has a poor prognosis, with a median overall survival of 6 to 9 months. Treatment is limited, partly because immunotherapy has not yet been shown to be effective in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of this tumor. A novel treatment approach involving...
Longer-term follow-up of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are treated with immunotherapy have appreciably extended survival at 5 years, suggesting that for some patients, this disease can be managed as a chronic condition. These findings are based on two presentations ...
Nicoletta Colombo, MD, of Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, discusses the efficacy of lenvatinib/pembrolizumab in metastatic endometrial cancer. The combination showed antitumor activity, regardless of tumor microsatellite instability or DNA mismatch repair status (Abstract 994O).
Patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma with an isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation showed clinical benefit and improved progression-free survival (PFS) when treated with ivosidenib vs placebo, according to results presented by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, at the European Society for Medical...
GUEST EDITOR Addressing the evolving needs of cancer survivors at various stages of their illness and care, Palliative Care in Oncology is guest edited by Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD, FASCO. Dr. Von Roenn is ASCO’s Vice President of Education, Science, and Professional Development. It has been well...
Patients with advanced or metastatic HER2-negative breast cancer with a germline BRCA mutation demonstrated significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) with the addition of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib to chemotherapy (comprised of carboplatin/paclitaxel)...
After treatment with R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone), rituximab maintenance therapy seems to provide no additional benefit for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in first complete remission, according to data from a phase III trial.1...
Mansoor R. Mirza, MD, of Copenhagen University Hospital, offers his perspective on three studies presented in the Presidential Symposium: the PRIMA/ENGOT-OV26/ GOG-3012 trial (niraparib for newly diagnosed advanced disease); the PAOLA-1/ENGOT-ov25 trial (olaparib plus bevacizumab maintenance...
Patients with advanced RET fusion–positive thyroid cancer and RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer had high rates of response following treatment with selpercatinib, according to findings from the phase I/II LIBRETTO-001 trial presented by Wirth et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
Patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was metastatic to the brain at baseline demonstrated whole-body, intracranial, and extracranial responses following treatment with ceritinib, according to findings from the phase II ASCEND-7 study presented by Chow et al at the...
Angela Lamarca, MD, PhD, of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, discusses findings from a study that showed new staging criteria should be considered for patients diagnosed with liver metastases in the absence of other extrahepatic tumor spread (Abstract 731P).
Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London Barts Cancer Institute, discusses pathologic complete response data from a phase III study of pembrolizumab/chemotherapy vs placebo/chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment, followed by pembrolizumab vs placebo as 6-month adjuvant treatment for ...
Patients with advanced colon cancer and plasma samples containing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were less likely to achieve 2-year disease-free survival with oxaliplatin-based adjuvant treatment than patients with ctDNA-negative samples, according to findings presented at the European Society for...
Two studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress showed the efficacy of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in patients with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer. In the PRIMA/ENGOT-OV26/GOG-3012 study, presented by González Martín et al (Abstract LBA1;...
Treatment tailored by comprehensive molecular gene-expression analysis of tumors from patients with carcinomas of an unknown primary site did not improve progression-free survival vs empiric chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin/gemcitabine. Fizazi et al presented these findings at the European...
An update of results of the phase III CheckMate 067 trial at 5 years presented by Larkin et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress showed that both nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab and nivolumab alone provided significant improvements in overall survival,...
The novel FLT3 inhibitor gilteritinib prolonged survival in patients with FLT3-mutated relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) across all mutation cohorts, including NPM1, DNMT3A, DNMT3A/NPM1, and WT1, with the greatest benefit seen in patients with NPM1 and DNMT3A co-mutations,...
After 6 years of follow-up, extended treatment with ibrutinib showed sustained progression-free survival benefit and depth of response in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), including those with high-risk genomic features,...