Researchers may have uncovered insights into the role of bacteria in the development of gastric cancer, according to a novel study published by Giddings et al in Helicobacter. The findings could pave the way for a more effective precancer treatment option. Background Gastric cancer is the fourth...
Digital technology may help to safely reduce the amount of time some patients with cancer spend receiving care—also referred to as “time toxicity”—according to a recent study published by Bange et al in NEJM Catalyst. Background Patients with cancer often spend a large amount of time on activities...
Offering genetic testing to patients with multiple myeloma may help physicians to determine which patients have the most aggressive types of the disease and how to target their malignancy more effectively, according to a recent study published by Kaiser et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
I’ve learned a lot about medicine over the years, but one thing I wasn’t taught was how to guide someone through the existential weight of dying. My education centered on diagnosing, curing, or at least managing disease—not on the delicate art of helping people and their loved ones cope with what...
The interference of gut bacteria could explain the ineffectiveness of immune checkpoint therapy in some patients with ovarian cancer, according to a recent study published by McGinty et al in Cancer Immunology Research. Background There are over 10,000 ovarian cancer–related deaths in the United...
NRG Oncology, the RTOG Foundation, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), announced the death of Felix Feng, MD, from cancer at age 48 on December 10, 2024. Dr. Feng was a George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Professor; Professor of Radiation Oncology, Urology and Medicine; Vice...
Short-course, higher-dose vaginal brachytherapy for endometrial cancer may demonstrate comparable efficacy to more frequent, lower-dose sessions, according to a recent study published by Suneja et al in JCO Oncology Advances. Background Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer type of the...
Each year in the United States, approximately 90,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs), defined as those between the ages of 15 and 39, are diagnosed with cancer, and about 9,300 die of the disease.1 Worldwide, the number of new cases of cancer in this age population tops 1,300,200—an increase of ...
Investigators may have uncovered notable pharmacokinetic differences between male and female patients in at least 14 anticancer drugs, according to a recent study published by Delahousse et al in ESMO Open. Background Many cancer drugs have a narrow therapeutic window. As a result, slight...
Patients with stage III or IV clear cell renal cell carcinoma may have achieved a successful anticancer immune response following initiation of a novel personalized cancer vaccine, according to a recent study published by Braun et al in Nature. Background The standard treatment for stage III or IV...
A novel bicistronic CD19/CD22-directed CAR T-cell therapy (B019) has demonstrated high remission rates, durable responses, and a favorable safety profile among children with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), including those with isolated or combined extramedullary...
The incidence of advanced prostate cancer rose and the mortality rate plateaued in most regions across the state of California following the decision to cease routinely screening all men for the disease, according to a recent study published by Van Blarigan et al in JAMA Network Open. The findings...
Two pivotal phase III trials presented at the 2024 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition mark a significant shift toward chemotherapy-free approaches in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), offering potentially more effective and tolerable treatment options for both...
Researchers have uncovered new heredity genes that may contribute to an increased risk of developing high-grade serous ovarian cancer, according to a recent study published by Subramanian et al in npj Genomic Medicine. Background High-grade serous ovarian cancer is one of the most prevalent and...
A novel system using standing surface acoustic waves may effectively and precisely separate circulating tumor cells from red blood cells, according to a novel study published by Kouhkord and Naserifar in the Physics of Fluids. Background Cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020—nearly...
Researchers have identified factors that could determine whether donor lymphocyte infusion—a type of adoptive cell therapy—will result in remission among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who have relapsed following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), according to a...
Results of a phase III study suggest that the addition of the immunotherapy agent blinatumomab—a bispecific T-cell engager targeting CD19—to standard chemotherapy may help to prevent relapse in more children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common pediatric cancer,...
Investigators may have uncovered an association between manufactured per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels in drinking water and the incidence of certain digestive, endocrine, lung, oral, and pharyngeal cancers, according to a novel study published by Li et al in the Journal of Exposure ...
Regular physical activity prior to a cancer diagnosis may be linked to a lower risk of disease progression and mortality, according to a recent study published by Mabena et al in British Journal of Sports Medicine. The findings revealed that even relatively low levels of physical activity may be...
A new University of Cincinnati (UC) Cancer Center study has identified a particular strand of microRNA as a promising new target for overcoming breast cancer treatment resistance and improving outcomes. The research was recently published in the journal Cancers. Study Background Study author...
The drug glucarpidase could serve as an antidote to kidney toxicity in patients receiving the chemotherapy agent methotrexate, according to a recent study published by Gupta et al in Blood. Background As a result of its ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, methotrexate is one of the most...
Tumor cells circulating in the blood are the germ cells of breast cancer metastases. They are rare and could not be propagated in the culture dish until now. A team from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the Heidelberg Stem Cell Institute HI-STEM, and the NCT Heidelberg has now succeeded...
Researchers have received a $3.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to examine the impact of social networks on the decision-making process among older patients with cancer. Background Many individuals have social networks, which includes those who offer a connection and have similar...
Cannabidiol (CBD) may not significantly change scan-related anxiety compared with placebo in patients with advanced breast cancer but may result in lower overall anxiety levels, according to a recent study published by Nayak et al in JAMA Network Open. Background Anxiety is common among adult...
Cancer care is increasingly complicated by the presence of comorbidities, which affect nearly two-thirds of patients at the time of diagnosis and can influence treatment decisions, participation in clinical trials, and overall outcomes. During 2024 JADPRO Live, M. Edie Brucker, DNP, MPH, ARNP,...
Consuming a high-fiber diet after undergoing stem cell transplantation may help to reduce the risk of graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) by cultivating a healthy gut microbiome, according to research presented by Paredes et al at the 2024 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...
A bacterial toxin may accelerate the spread of colorectal cancer to other parts of the body, according to a recent study published by He et al in Cell Host & Microbiome. The findings could pave the way for novel tools to detect metastatic colorectal cancer early and determine which patients may ...
The soaring number of cancer survivors since the National Cancer Act of 1971 was enacted into law provides a snapshot of the profound progress made against cancer over the past half-century: 3 million survivors in the 1970s,1 compared to more than 18 million today, and that number is expected to...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) honored Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) health scientist Mary Hulihan, DrPH, for their leadership on issues of importance to hematology research and practice at the 2024 ASH Annual Meeting &...
Targeting certain bacterial strains linked to cancer with treatments or vaccines may help to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, urothelial carcinoma, and prostate cancer, according to a novel study published by Mäklin et al in The Lancet Microbiome. Background The bacterium Escherichia coli is...
It’s not news that some viruses, including human papillomavirus, human immunodeficiency virus, Epstein-Barr, and hepatitis B, can cause or accelerate the development of cancer. But a recent story in The Washington Post about rare cancers being diagnosed in individuals who had previously been...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with medical oncologist Yüksel Ürün, MD, about his clinical and research career in oncology. Dr. Ürün is Professor of Medicine at the Ankara University School of Medicine in Turkey. After...
Researchers have demonstrated that a targeted intervention may increase screening rates in patients who do not adhere to current colorectal cancer screening recommendations, according to a recent study published by Reuland et al in JAMA Network Open. Background Colorectal cancer screening is often...
Functional precision medicine—in which information is obtained from direct perturbations of tumor-derived living cells that enable immediate translatable, personalized data to guide patient therapy—has its roots dating back more than 50 years.1 However, advances in two- and three-dimensional...
An international, multidisciplinary team of neuro-oncology researchers and physicians has developed new clinical practice recommendations for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods to more accurately diagnose, monitor, and treat patients with brain cancer. The guidelines were described in...
The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center announced the launch of a new study funded by a $2.3 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to develop a novel technique to visualize where genetically modified immune cells go after being administered in patients with cancer. Background During...
Presurgical treatment with the novel drug vidutolimod and the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab may improve outcomes in patients with stage III cutaneous melanoma, according to a recent study published by Davar et al in Cancer Cell. The findings supported the development of vidutolimod for...
Researchers may have uncovered a novel strategy to detect cancer cells with a liquid biopsy that’s designed to be simpler, faster, and more informational than current methods, according to a recent study published by Walker et al in the nanoscience publication Small. Study Methods and Results In...
Researchers have uncovered insights into a novel investigational vaccine aimed at preventing triple-negative breast cancer. The findings by Rhoades et al were presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2024 Annual Meeting (Abstract 631) and simultaneously published in the Journal...
The novel trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (TROP2)-directed antibody-drug conjugate datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) vs docetaxel conferred a numerical improvement in overall survival in previously treated patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the phase III,...
At the 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), more than 7,000 clinicians and scientists gathered in San Diego in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). In this supplement to The ASCO Post, we review impactful abstracts from...
Researchers may have uncovered the immune basis for the development of myocarditis in patients with cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to a recent study published by Blum et al in Nature. The findings revealed changes in specific types of immune and stromal cells in the heart...
Researchers have identified genes that breast cancer cells may use to survive in the bloodstream after escaping the low-oxygen regions of a tumor, according to a novel study published by Godet et al in Nature Communications. Each of the genes may serve as a potential therapeutic target to prevent...
Researchers from the Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the David Geffen School of Medicine, and the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) were awarded a $2.5 million grant from the independent charitable organization Bristol Myers Squibb...
The addition of the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab to standard neoadjuvant gemcitabine/cisplatin chemotherapy has demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in survival compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in cisplatin-eligible patients with muscle-invasive bladder...
Presurgical treatment with the novel drug vidutolimod and the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab may improve tumor control in patients with stage III cutaneous melanoma, according to a recent study published by Davar et al in Cancer Cell. The findings provided insights that could help advance...
Researchers have discovered a novel strategy to detect cancer cells with a liquid biopsy designed to be simpler, quicker, and more informational compared with current methods, according to a recent study published by Walker et al in Small. Background Current methods for detecting cancer cells may...
Just weeks or even days or hours away from death, the majority of conscious terminally ill patients often experience growth and meaning in their lives and the absence of fear through end-of-life dreams and visions, according to research by Christopher W. Kerr, MD, PhD. Dr. Kerr is Chief Executive...
The novel trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (TROP2)-directed antibody-drug conjugate datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) vs docetaxel conferred a numerical improvement in overall survival in previously treated patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the phase III,...
ASCO’s 2022 State of the Oncology Workforce in America report presented a dismal picture of the representation of Hispanic/Latinx oncologists in the field. According to the report, despite initiatives aimed at increasing diversity in the nearly 13,400 oncology workforce, which includes about 36%...