Cisplatin is one of the most effective chemotherapy agents, used in just under half of pediatric cancer cases. Permanent hearing loss is a common side effect of this medication, but previous studies have been too small and too varied to accurately characterize this risk. In a new study published by ...
In a policy review reported in The Lancet Oncology, Terpos et al presented updated recommendations from the Bone Working Group of the International Myeloma Working Group on the treatment of multiple myeloma–related bone disease. The recommendations cover: bisphosphonate use/dosing and management of ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by McDermott et al, findings in a cohort of the phase II KEYNOTE-427 study showed that pembrolizumab monotherapy produced durable responses as first-line treatment for advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma. In a separate cohort of the study,...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, and colleagues, an interim analysis in the phase III KEYNOTE-598 trial showed no improvement in overall or progression-free survival with the addition of ipilimumab to pembrolizumab in previously untreated patients with...
In a Japanese phase III trial (JCOG1007; iPACS) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kanemitsu et al found that the addition of primary tumor resection to chemotherapy did not improve overall survival vs chemotherapy alone in patients with asymptomatic primary colorectal cancer tumors and...
The combination of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab showed superiority over sunitinib in terms of overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate in patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to results of the phase III CLEAR trial. The CLEAR study ...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Breakthrough Therapy designation to asciminib for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); a Breakthrough Device designation to an assay designed to help select patients with cachexia for treatment with an investigational therapeutic; and an...
As reported in Blood Advances by Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, FASCO, FRCP, and colleagues, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) has issued evidence-based guidelines intended to assist patients, clinicians, and other health-care professionals in decisions regarding the prevention and treatment of...
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, several elective surgeries for renal cell carcinoma were delayed, with an unknown impact on outcomes for patients. In a retrospective study, researchers from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey explored the impact of surgical delays for these patients...
New analyses from the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial are being presented at the 2021 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. These new findings demonstrate clinically meaningful, sustained efficacy benefits as well as quality-of-life improvements with the combination of nivolumab and cabozantinib compared...
People living in regions with high levels of outdoor artificial light at night may face a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer, according to a study published by Zhang et al in the journal Cancer. Link Between Nighttime Light and Cancer Risk Over the past century, nightscapes—especially in...
In a phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Sherif S. Farag, MD, PhD, of Indiana University School of Medicine, and colleagues, found that the addition of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4; CD26) inhibitor sitagliptin to tacrolimus and sirolimus prophylaxis resulted in a...
As reported in The Lancet by Paul Baas, MD, and colleagues, a prespecified interim analysis in the phase III CheckMate 743 trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. The...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Davendra P.S. Sohal, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that neither of two perioperative chemotherapy regimens was associated with improved overall survival in patients with resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma compared with historical rates in...
The field of allogeneic stem cell transplantation continues to improve survival for patients with previously incurable blood cancers. However, up to 50% of patients who undergo transplantation with donor cells will develop chronic graft-vs-host disease, a potentially deadly condition that can also...
William Gradishar, MD, the Betsy Bramsen Professor of Breast Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Deputy Director for the Clinical Network of the Lurie Cancer Center, commented on the findings of the ASCENT biomarker analysis in the closing panel discussion. The...
In commenting on the results of the phase II PRIMO trial of the PI3K inhibitor duvelisib by Pro et al, Deepa Jagadeesh, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Lymphoma and Bone Marrow Transplant Program, and Taussig Cancer Institute, observed that while response...
A growing body of evidence is showing a strong association between diet and breast cancer risk and survival, particularly high glycemic load and sugar intake. Two large population studies at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium supported these observations.1,2 Findings from the Nurses’...
Invited discussant of the ClarIDHy trial, Rachna T. Shroff, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona, and Chief of GI Medical Oncology at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, said positive findings for ivosidenib support the notion that “biliary cancer is a perfect example of...
Ivosidenib, an inhibitor of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), improved overall survival by almost 3 months in previously treated patients with advanced IDH1-mutated cholangiocarcinoma, compared with placebo, researchers of the global phase III ClarIDHy trial reported at the 2021 Gastrointestinal...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS, and colleagues, the NCI-MATCH trial’s phase II subprotocol EAY131-Y has shown activity of the pan-AKT inhibitor capivasertib in a range of metastatic tumors with an AKT1 E17K mutation. The phase II trial enrolled 35 evaluable adult patients...
Treatment with the immunotherapy nivolumab with or without cisplatin-based chemotherapy following radical surgery significantly improved disease-free survival in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma, irrespective of their PD-L1 status, according to a study that will be presented by...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Alice T. Shaw, MD, PhD, Global Head of Translational Clinical Oncology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research,* and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CROWN trial has shown that first-line lorlatinib significantly improved...
Gene therapy pioneer Arthur W. Nienhuis, MD, the fourth Director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, died on February 3 at age 79. Under his leadership, the hospital grew exponentially in both size and scientific stature. “At St. Jude, the nature of our work requires a bold, ambitious...
B-cell–depleting immunotherapy may cause B-cell aplasia and impair the body’s immune response. A retrospective, multicentric French study of patients with lymphoma and persistent COVID-19 infection has found that those treated with B-cell–depleting therapies within the previous 12 months had nearly ...
Due to concerns that patients with cancer may be at higher risk for contracting the coronavirus—and may have more severe complications if infected—during the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and clinical practices have changed protocols to routine cancer care to reduce patients’ exposure to the virus....
Administering colorectal cancer screening kits through a socially distant drive-by flu vaccination clinic increased access to colorectal cancer screening among Black Americans, according to results presented by Washington et al at the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer (Abstract S02-04)....
As reported by Olszewski et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, members of The Burkitt Lymphoma International Prognostic Index Consortium have developed an index—the Burkitt Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (BL-IPI)—that provides “robust discrimination of survival” among adult patients...
On February 27, 2020, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology published a case study that described two patients from Wuhan, China, who had recently underwent lung lobectomies for adenocarcinoma and were retrospectively found to have had COVID-19 at the time of surgery. Eleven months later, the lung...
In patients with relapsed malignant mesothelioma, treatment with single-agent nivolumab led to a significant improvement in both overall and progression-free survival in the phase III CONFIRM trial. These findings were presented by Dean A. Fennell, FRCP, PhD, Professor and Chair of Thoracic Medical ...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-598 study, the addition of ipilimumab to pembrolizumab increased toxicity without boosting efficacy as first-line therapy for metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with high expression of PD-L1, according to research presented at International...
Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tobacco use remains a serious public health threat. In addition to tobacco-related death and disease, smoking also increases the risk of the most severe impacts of COVID-19. The American Lung Association has released its 19th annual “State of Tobacco Control”...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Quénet et al, the French phase III PRODIGE 7 trial has shown that the addition of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to cytoreductive surgery did not improve overall survival—and was associated with an increase in postoperative late...
A nationwide panel of experts has developed the first mammography guidelines for older survivors of breast cancer, providing a framework for discussions between survivors and their physicians on screening in survivors’ later years. The guidelines, published today by Rachel A. Freedman, MD, MPH, and ...
To mark World Cancer Day on February 4, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) will give voice to and say thank you to the nurses, doctors, researchers, volunteers, advocates, and other caregivers in oncology from around the world, as well as government agencies, who have worked through...
ASCO has announced that the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting will be an online-only experience, taking place from June 4 to 8, 2021. The Society issued the following statement on the Meeting: We had hoped for a return to an in-person meeting, as we all miss the opportunity to see and engage with our...
In a U.S. population-based, case-control study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hu et al identified the prevalence of and risk associated with germline pathogenic variants in established and candidate breast cancer predisposition genes. Study Details The study involved 32,247 women...
Women older than age 70 diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer had significantly improved overall survival if they received adjuvant and/or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to an analysis of data from more than 16,000 women enrolled in the National Cancer Database. The estimated 5-year...
In the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies with unique characteristics, still targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), are looking promising. At the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition,...
IFM 2009 showed that autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) combined with lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (RVd) results in a significantly better progression-free survival than RVd alone in newly diagnosed patients with myeloma.1 “The data favor immediate ASCT, as transplant resulted in ...
If your patient were an older woman opting for hormonal therapy after surgically excised ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which hormonal agent would you recommend for the prevention of disease recurrence: tamoxifen or anastrozole? According to long-term follow-up of the large, randomized IBIS...
Positive results have now been reported in phase III trials of two oral taxanes in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. At the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, treatment with tesetaxel and reduced-dose capecitabine resulted in an improvement in progression-free survival of about 3...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this occasional special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Burkina Faso. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of...
On December 18, 2020, selinexor was approved for use in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy.1,2 Selinexor received accelerated approval in 2019 for use in combination with dexamethasone for...
On December 16, 2020, margetuximab-cmkb (margetuximab) was approved for use in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received two or more prior anti-HER2 regimens, at least one of which was for metastatic disease.1,2...
GenesisCare has appointed its first Global Chief Medical Officer, Walter J. (Wally) Curran, Jr, MD, FACR, FASCO. This appointment follows the recent acquisition of integrated cancer care provider 21st Century Oncology, increasing access to advanced cancer care for patients in more than 290...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chang et al found that atrial fibrillation occurs in a substantial proportion of patients who have undergone allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and is associated with poor outcomes. Study Details The...
In a Spanish phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Piulats et al found that nivolumab/ipilimumab produced a “modest” improvement in overall survival vs historical rates achieved with chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma ineligible...
In a phase III U.S. Intergroup trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alan F. List, MD, and colleagues found that treatment with lenalidomide plus epoetin alfa increased the rate of major erythroid response vs lenalidomide alone in patients with lower-risk, non-del(5q) myelodysplastic...
Researchers have documented a substantial decline in cancer and precancer diagnoses at the Northeast's largest health-care system (Massachusetts General Brigham) during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a drop in the number of cancer screening tests performed. These findings were...