The world of hematologic malignancies continues to move forward at a robust pace despite the challenges of the COVID era. Although some areas of clinical trials and basic research suffered short-term stoppages or delays due to the pandemic, the studies presented at the 2020 American Society of...
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Yale University, discusses results from the LUNG-MAP Master Protocol, which support the planned use of circulating tumor DNA for enrollment onto LUNG-MAP substudies, with a positive finding meriting inclusion in study; a negative finding, while considered inconclusive,...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to treatments for KRAS G12C–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high-risk, bacillus Calmette-Guérin–unresponsive non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. A new drug application for a therapy for Waldenström’s...
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 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Khurana et al found that up to 24% of patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) receiving standard immunochemotherapy are excluded from participation in clinical trials on the basis of organ function eligibility...
This week, we’re again focusing on research presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer Singapore, which was moved to a virtual format and held January 28 to 31, 2021, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll hear about findings in...
Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of LungenClinic, discusses results from the IMpower133 study of carboplatin plus etoposide with or without atezolizumab in patients with untreated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (Abstract OA11.06).
Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of the LungenClinic, discusses the results from KEYNOTE-799, which explored a new strategy to increase the intensity of treatment in patients with unresectable, locally advanced, stage III non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract OA02.03).
“On the eve of his inauguration, the Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) congratulates Joseph R. Biden, Jr, the 46th President of the United States. “ASCO shares the President’s commitment to ensuring equitable high-quality cancer care for every American, and recently released a policy...
The Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) and ASCO have approved a joint guideline for the treatment of stage II to IVA nasopharyngeal carcinoma.1 The guideline was drafted by a panel of Chinese and U.S. experts and provides, for the first time, a clear set of recommendations for the use of...
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...
In a registry-based observational study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Anastasia Chalkidou, PhD, and colleagues found that stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) was associated with high overall survival and low rates of toxicity in patients with extracranial oligometastatic cancers. The...
Jill Feldman, a patient advocate who has lost five family members to lung cancer and is herself a 12-year cancer survivor living with EGFR-positive disease, describes her family history of cancer, how she has worked with her physicians for more than a decade to survive her own diagnosis, and the...
Luis M. Montuenga, PhD, of the University of Navarra, discusses the potential contributions of biomarkers, promising biomarker panels being tested and published, the need to standardize biospecimen collection, and how to improve the sensitivity of these biomarkers (Abstract PL05.06).
Bruce E. Johnson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers his expert perspective on single-arm drug approvals for targeted agents between 2016 and 2020, the need for biomarker testing, and the societal costs of drug development (Abstract PL04.03).
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Yale University, discusses two key abstracts from the ADAURA trial: the use of osimertinib as adjuvant therapy for resected EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer; and patient-reported outcomes, which showed a benefit in disease-free survival and maintenance of...
Justin F. Gainor, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses two key phase II studies on non–small cell lung cancer: nivolumab vs nivolumab plus ipilimumab in EGFR-mutant disease and the oral selective AXL inhibitor bemcentinib with pembrolizumab in advanced disease (Abstracts OA01.06 and...
Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of the LungenClinic, discusses findings of the KEYNOTE-598 study, which showed that pembrolizumab plus ipilimumab was more toxic and offered no more benefit in terms of efficacy than pembrolizumab plus placebo in first-line therapy for patients with metastatic high...
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...
Jill Feldman, a patient advocate and lung cancer survivor, discusses the current challenges and potential solutions to including more people of color and those in underserved communities in clinical trial research (Abstract PL04.06).
This week, we’re hearing from two thoracic oncologists on research presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer Singapore, which was moved to a virtual format and held January 28 to 31, 2021, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, discusses Lung-MAP studies in which a higher tumor mutation burden determined by next-generation sequencing was linked to overall and progression-free survival across two immunotherapy trials, and was independent of PD-L1 status (Abstract...
Using a host immune classifier (HIC) test for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may provide better predictors of treatment response and improve outcomes, according to research presented by Akerley et al at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2020 World...
Prasad S. Adusumilli, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses ongoing CAR T-cell therapy clinical trials for solid tumors, the key determinants of success for developing this treatment, and some study results to date (Abstract PL03.05).
More than a year since the new coronavirus crisis began, its impact on cancer care has been stark, with “50% of governments (having) cancer services partially or completely disrupted because of the pandemic,” said André Ilbawi, MD, of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Department of...
A study presented by Nobuyuki Takahashi, MD, of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) Singapore (Abstract OA11.05) demonstrated that there may be an inherited ...
Patient-reported outcomes from the phase III CROWN study showed that time to treatment deterioration in chest pain, dyspnea, and cough was comparable between those who received lorlatinib and patients who took crizotinib. The research was presented at the International Association for the Study of...
Silvia Novello, MD, PhD, of the University of Turin, discusses phase III results from the ITACA trial, which explored the notion of improving survival by customizing treatment and reducing toxicities for patients with completely resected stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract...
A study presented by researchers with the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan confirmed low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening may be feasible in a predefined, never-smoking, high-risk population. The research was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer...
Two presentations based on data from the ADAURA clinical trial advanced previous research that demonstrated improved disease-fee survival outcomes for patients with surgically resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving osimertinib, while also maintaining quality of life. The data were...
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...
Dean Fennell, FRCP, PhD, of the University of Leicester, discusses phase III results from the CONFIRM trial, which sought a standard immunotherapy treatment to improve overall survival for patients with mesothelioma who have relapsed after taking pemetrexed and cisplatin. Globally, the incidence of ...
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 ...
Neoadjuvant treatment with single-agent atezolizumab for patients with stage IB to IIIB lung cancer resulted in a major pathologic response rate of 21% and pathologic complete response rate of 7% in the primary analysis of the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium 3 (LCMC3) study. The findings were...
Emil J Freireich, MD, an oncologist who developed groundbreaking therapies for childhood leukemia and came to be recognized as a founding father of modern clinical cancer research, passed away on February 1. He was 93. Dr. Freireich was a faculty member at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
Giorgio V. Scagliotti, MD, PhD, of the University of Torino, talks about why he believes that many more patients with lung cancer can be cured within the next 4 years, given decreases in mortality rates, widespread use of targeted treatments and immunotherapies, and earlier diagnoses as a result of ...
At a press briefing held by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), researchers presented new data that revealed factors relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, and income continue to be significant barriers to those living with lung cancer. The press briefing is...
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...
The phase II CodeBreak 100 trial has validated the power of KRAS inhibition with sotorasib (AMG 510) in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In a follow-up to phase I data, the phase II cohort of the study has now shown a durable response rate of 37.1%, a disease control rate...
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet, Knight et al found that 30-day mortality after surgery for colorectal and gastric cancers was higher in low- and middle-income countries vs high-income countries (LMICs), with the difference only partly accounted for by patient or disease...
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...
Sometimes there just is no escaping cancer. I thought I had done everything right. I was diligent about adhering to my annual physical exams, including mammograms, and routinely performed breast self-exams to spot any early changes in my breasts. Still, in the summer of 2015, I was diagnosed with...
Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah has been awarded a 5-year, $3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve Utah’s colorectal cancer screening rates. The program will build on an ongoing partnership between HCI’s Center for Health...
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...
Nearly 500 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have earned the lifetime distinction of AAAS Fellow. The Fellows are elected each year by their peers serving on the Council of AAAS, the organization’s member-run governing body. The title recognizes important...
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has named Christian Hinrichs, MD, as Chief of the Section of Cancer Immunotherapy and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology and Metabolism Center of Excellence, along with Eileen White, PhD, Deputy Director and Chief Scientific Officer at Rutgers Cancer...
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce this department on Global Health-Care Equity. On an occasional basis, we will publish interviews between Guest Editor, Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, and another oncologist or cancer care specialist spanning regions around the world. Our goal is to...
Five Innovation Discovery Grants (IDG) have been awarded to faculty from Mass General Brigham for scientific advancements, as the highly competitive IDG program exceeds $3.5 million in grants since inception. Each of the five potential patient health and health-care delivery breakthroughs for 2020...