Deputy Editor of The ASCO Post, Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, recently spoke with gynecologic cancer expert Sharmila K. Makhija, MD, MBA, about her journey to her current position as Founding Dean and Chief Executive Officer of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Bentonville, Arkansas. Raised by...
Like many young boys, David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, loved sports and dreamed about playing college football. He attained that dream, but along the way, family tragedy and a personal battle with a life-threatening disease reshaped his worldview and accelerated his ambitions as a...
Lymphoma expert Jane N. Winter, MD, grew up on the south shore of Long Island in New York. “My dad sold cars in my great uncle’s dealership after a failed foray into business after World War II. My mom graduated high school at 16 to go to work to help support her family. When my younger brother...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lüchtenborg et al found that the incidence of cancer increased in the prison population in England between 1998 and 2017; those with cancer were less likely to receive curative treatment and had poorer overall survival vs patients with cancer in the...
In a phase I/II NRG Oncology Group study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Landen et al found that the addition of ruxolitinib to front-line paclitaxel/carboplatin neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interval debulking surgery improved progression-free survival in patients with stage III to IV ...
In an analysis of clinical trials reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Brooks et al found no differences in long-term outcomes with the use of axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) vs sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB)—usually paired with adjuvant radiotherapy—among patients with breast...
In a Swedish cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Liang et al found that among individuals with no family history of colorectal cancer and a negative first screening colonoscopy, the interval to repeat colonoscopy could be extended beyond the currently recommended 10 years. Study Details The...
The Immune-Related Adverse Events (irAE) Consortium has launched ASPIRE and STORIES with the aim of uniting clinicians, researchers, and patients to advance clinical care and advocacy. As the indications for immune checkpoint inhibitors in oncology have rapidly expanded over the past decade, the...
The profound progress in cancer care since President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 into law is evidenced by the soaring number of cancer survivors since the law went into effect. In the 1970s, there were 3 million cancer survivors1; today, there are more than 18 million, and...
Serving as ASCO’s 60th President over the past year has been an honor and a privilege, said Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, FASCO, who will end her Presidential term during ASCO’s Annual Meeting, being held from May 31 to June 4, 2024, in Chicago, and welcome incoming President Robin Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO,...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Toni K. Choueiri, MD, FASCO, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, the third prespecified interim analysis of overall survival in the phase III KEYNOTE-564 trial has shown significant benefit with adjuvant...
Guest Editor’s Note: Children with cancer and their caregivers face physical and psychosocial challenges during and after treatment. Dance/movement therapy has been used to improve well-being, promote healthy coping, and mitigate the impact of illness, but limited knowledge exists regarding its...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Joel Neal, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III CONTACT-01 trial has shown no significant improvement in overall survival with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor atezolizumab (multiple targets, including MET, AXL, VEGFR2, RET, and FLT) plus the...
On April 30, 2024, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published a final recommendation statement on screening for breast cancer.1 The USPSTF now recommends that all women undergo screening for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40 and continuing through age 74. More...
In an Indian single-center phase III trial (D-TORCH) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Santhosh et al found that the nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory topical diclofenac gel significantly reduced the risk of capecitabine-associated hand-foot syndrome vs placebo gel in patients with breast ...
Evidence from a small early trial called COBALT-RCC provides proof of concept for use of an allogeneic off-the-shelf CD70-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy called CTX130 in patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). CTX130 is engineered using gene-editing...
The female partners of patients with prostate cancer may experience quality-of-life issues that impact their sexual well-being, according to a recent study published by Loeb et al in European Urology Oncology. Background Prostate cancer—one of the most common cancer types in U.S. men—and its...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Naci et al identified the degree to which initial U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals of cancer drugs based on immature overall survival data were subsequently followed by reporting of overall survival results. Study Details The study...
In the phase II RELATIVITY-060 study, results of which were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Susanna Hegewisch-Becker, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of the LAG-3–blocking antibody relatlimab to first-line nivolumab plus chemotherapy did not improve the objective...
In a German-Austrian phase II study (TITAN-TCC) reported in JAMA Oncology, Grimm et al described outcomes with the use of nivolumab plus ipilimumab as an immunotherapeutic boost in metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Study Details In the multicenter trial, 169 patients were enrolled into two cohorts...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Cannon et al, findings in a cohort of the phase II Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) basket study showed that the combination of pertuzumab and trastuzumab was active in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer with...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) in 1996, covering eight tumor types. Currently, guidelines are available for more than 60 tumor types, subtypes, and related topics. The NCCN’s 29th Annual Conference...
Results from the Prognostic Immunophenotyping in Myeloma Response (PRIMeR) study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Marcelo C. Pasquini, MD, MS, and colleagues, found that undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) status at 1 year after autologous hematopoietic cell...
In a Chinese phase III trial (CRTCOESC) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jia et al found that neither capecitabine nor XELOX (capecitabine, oxaliplatin) improved 2-year overall survival vs cisplatin/fluorouracil as part of definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with...
In the phase III WF-97116 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rapp et al found that treatment with the cognitive enhancer donepezil did not improve memory or other cognitive functions vs placebo in breast cancer survivors with cancer-related cognitive impairment 1 to 5 years after...
Despite the extraordinary progress against cancer in the United States—illustrated by the continuing decline in the overall mortality rate, which fell by 33% between 1991 and 2020, and the increasing numbers of cancer survivors (over 18 million and climbing)—the burden of cancer remains...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Xu et al found that higher levels of preoperative plasma kidney injury molecule-1 (pKIM-1) distinguished renal cell carcinoma from benign renal masses. As stated by the investigators, “Both clear cell and papillary renal cell carcinoma...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Im et al found that genetic variants associated with a risk of treatment-related type 2 diabetes mellitus among childhood cancer survivors of African or European ancestry posed a higher risk of diabetes among those of African ancestry. As...
In an analysis of the EUROCARE-6 data set reported in The Lancet Oncology, Milena Sant, MD, and colleagues found that patients with lymphoid neoplasms from European countries with greater health expenditure had improved 10-year age-standardized relative survival. Study Details The study involved...
In a phase Ib study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Van Tine et al established the recommended phase II dose of oral unesbulin in combination with dacarbazine for patients with locally recurrent, unresectable or metastatic, relapsed or refractory leiomyosarcoma. Unesbulin is a small...
Standard-of-care treatment comprising venetoclax plus hypomethylating agents was found to be safe and effective in some patients aged 80 years and older with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a recent study published by Madarang et al in Blood Neoplasia. Background Older adult patients...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sayan et al, analysis of long-term findings from the phase III Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Trial 05-043 showed that whole-pelvic radiation therapy (WPRT) was associated with favorable survival outcomes vs prostate-only radiation therapy (PORT)...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Watson et al identified risk factors for osteoradionecrosis of the jaw and developed a classification system for the condition in patients receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. Study Details The study...
In an analysis of data from the PORTEC-1, -2, and -3 trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wakkerman et al found that older age was associated with more aggressive tumor features and poorer outcomes in patients with endometrial cancer. Study Details The analysis included data from 1,801...
ASCO’s new policy statement highlights the need for formalized efforts to address health-related social needs and outlines ways to address social determinants of health (SDOH) in cancer care. Social determinants are defined as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, which...
New research findings have highlighted the importance of personalized treatment approaches with the monoclonal antibody durvalumab based on mismatch repair (MMR) status in newly diagnosed patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer, according to data presented during the Society of...
Treatment with the first-in-class PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody cadonilimab plus XELOX (capecitabine, oxaliplatin) chemotherapy demonstrated a survival advantage for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma as first-line treatment, regardless of PD-L1...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Howard A. Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, and colleagues, a patient-reported outcome (PRO) analysis from the phase III TOPAZ-1 trial showed no “detrimental effect” with the addition of durvalumab to gemcitabine/cisplatin in patients with advanced biliary tract...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Montagna et al found that patients with breast cancer with nodal downstaging after neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a low rate of axillary recurrence, with no difference observed for staging with targeted axillary dissection vs sentinel lymph...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ann H. Klopp, MD, PhD, and colleagues, results from an NRG Oncology/GOG trial showed “excellent” progression-free survival outcomes with radiation therapy alone for local recurrences of endometrial cancer, with the addition of cisplatin in...
Investigators have examined the historical evolution of Community Outreach and Engagement initiatives at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and NCI-designated cancer centers and provided recommendations to guide future efforts, according to a recent study published by Pohl et al in CA: A Cancer...
Saruparib, a first-in-class PARP1-selective inhibitor, was reported to have favorable safety and anticancer activity in heavily pretreated patients with breast cancer harboring homologous recombination–repair (HRR) mutations, according to the results of the phase I/II PETRA study presented at the...
In a phase III study (ORANGE II PLUS) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fichtinger et al found that among patients with indications for hemihepatectomy suitable for both laparoscopic and open approaches, of whom the majority had cancer, the laparoscopic approach was associated with a...
In an analysis of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in the DESTINY-Breast02 trial published in The Lancet Oncology, Tanja Fehm, MD, and colleagues found that general health status/quality of life was maintained over time with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs physician’s choice of therapy...
In patients with ovarian cancer, second-look surgery may find a role again. The evaluation of measurable residual disease (MRD) using second-look laparoscopy identified more women who had detectable MRD after front-line treatment than did circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), according to a study...
In a U.S. retrospective cohort study (SPOTLIGHT) reported in JAMA Network Open, Mooradian et al found that a substantial proportion of patients with unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not receive consolidation durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy—but those who did had...
In a research letter published by Andres et al in JACC: CardioOncology, staff from Royal Brompton Hospital, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London described their experience over 10 years in the UK’s first cardio-oncology service. Study Details The study involved data from the initial ...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI) model may accurately predict which patients with cancer may require mental health services during cancer care, according to a recent study published by Nunez et al in Communications Medicine. Background Mental health has been shown to have a significant impact...
In a Chinese study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hu et al found that sequential CD7 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) without graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis was effective in patients with...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in JAMA Network Open, Schaverien et al found that a strategy of premastectomy radiotherapy and immediate breast reconstruction was feasible in patients undergoing surgery for breast cancer. Study Details A total of 49 patients with cT0–T3, N0–N3b breast...