As reported in The Lancet by Becker et al, an interim analysis of a European phase II study (ADMEC-O) showed that adjuvant nivolumab was associated with a numeric benefit in disease-free survival vs observation in patients with completely resected Merkel cell carcinoma. Study Details In the...
Investigators have discovered that cetuximab in addition to concurrent radiotherapy may be safe and effective at treating patients with locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, according to a recent study published by Chang et al in Oncotarget. Treatment for locally advanced cutaneous...
Researchers have uncovered how non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors may develop drug resistance over time and identified the APOBEC3A protein as a potential target for novel cancer therapeutics, according to a study published by Isozaki et al in Nature. The findings point to potential...
Assessments of the health impacts of the nonsugar sweetener aspartame were released today by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO)/Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Citing “limited...
Researchers have uncovered a potential link between chemotherapy-induced changes to gut bacteria and weight gain seen in patients with breast cancer, according to a recent study published by Walker et al in BMC Medicine. The findings may help to identify approaches to avoid obesity-related diseases ...
New research could warrant reconsideration of current screening guidelines to include a poorly recognized cause of Lynch syndrome, according to a novel study published by Hitchins et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The findings suggest that the guidelines leave a...
In a study of real-world prospective data—GOSAFE—reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Montroni et al found that the majority of patients aged ≥ 70 years undergoing colorectal cancer surgery showed maintained or improved quality of life and achieved functional recovery during follow-up....
Investigators have found that millions of dollars could be saved annually across the Veterans Health Administration by reconsidering how immune checkpoint inhibitors are delivered, according to a new study published by Bryant et al in Health Affairs. The findings suggested that if vials of immune...
Researchers have found that fecal microbiota transplants from healthy donors may be safe and show potential in improving response rates to immunotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma, according to a phase I study published by Routy et al in Nature Medicine. Background While immunotherapy...
About 50% of patients with metastatic prostate cancer may experience financial hardship as a result of their treatment, according to a new study published by Joyce et al in The Journal of Urology. Background "Our most significant finding may be that patients experience financial toxicity despite...
The invited discussant of the VERSATILE-002 and CUE-101-01 trials, Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS, said both are examples of a growing interest in evaluating immunotherapeutic strategies and treatment sequences in early-stage head and neck squamous cell cancer as well as in metastatic disease. Dr. ...
When I felt a large mass in my left breast as I was drying off from a shower on Thanksgiving Day, in 2007, I instinctively knew it was cancer. My mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 38, just 7 years older than I was at the time, and died 4 years later. I was 6 when she was...
Guest Editor’s Note: Psychological distress is highly prevalent in women diagnosed with premenopausal breast cancer and has a significant negative impact on their quality of life. Thus, effective strategies are urgently needed to reduce the symptom burden. In this installment of The ASCO Post’s...
The global population is aging rapidly. Currently, there are more than 703 million people worldwide aged 65 and older, representing 9.1% of the global population. It is estimated that this percentage will grow to 15.9%—1.5 billion people—by 2050.1 And with that growing aging population will come...
After a 4-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASCO’s Breakthrough meeting is returning to Asia from August 3–5, 2023, in Yokohama, Japan, and will also be livestreamed (https://conferences.asco.org/breakthrough/welcome). Launched in 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand, “Breakthrough is ASCO’s...
Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, FASCO, Director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues conducted a randomized study to evaluate the impact of a telephone-based ...
The implementation of a collaborative program between North American and Mexican medical institutions to achieve sustainable, high-quality care at a public hospital in the United States–Mexico border region for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has resulted in significant improvement ...
On December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 into law, establishing a national cancer program that included the National Cancer Institute (NCI), other research institutes, and federal and nonfederal programs; funding for 15 new cancer research centers and...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, guest editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Isabel T. Rubio, MD, PhD, Head of Breast Surgical Oncology at Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Madrid. Dr. Rubio is active in many societies and is a founding member and...
As a relatively rare subtype, lobular breast cancer is not well understood by many oncologists. At the 2023 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Tari A. King, MD, FASCO, described how it differs from its more common counterpart, ductal breast cancer, in terms of characteristics, prognosis, and optimal...
Formal discussant of KEYNOTE-671, Mark Awad, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, was optimistic about these data. “A hazard ratio of 0.58 for event-free survival and signals favoring overall survival in stage II to III non–small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] are truly impressive....
My father is deaf. Born deaf, he is now 75 years old. He uses his voice, but he sounds strange to a hearing person when he speaks. He uses lip-reading techniques to communicate. A year ago, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. We did his oncology itinerary together. My father cannot go alone to...
Patients with intermediate-risk rectal cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy with selective use of pelvic chemoradiation therapy had disease-free survival that was noninferior to the standard approach using pelvic chemoradiation, according to findings from the randomized phase III PROSPECT...
The phase III ADAURA trial previously found that adjuvant use of osimertinib improved disease-free survival for completely resected EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with stage IB, II, or IIIA disease.1 The final analysis of ADAURA, which was presented at the 2023 ASCO...
The expansion of Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act may be associated with the largest increases in critical palliative care services for patients with advanced cancers in the United States, according to a new study published by Han et al in Health Affairs. The findings uncovered how...
In the German phase II FIRE-4.5 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stintzing et al found that the addition of cetuximab vs bevacizumab to FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan) did not improve objective response rate in the first-line treatment of...
Researchers have found that repeated COVID-19 vaccination may increase the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing the infections in patients with lymphoma, particularly after four doses, according to a new study published by Wijaya et al in The Lancet. Background Patients with lymphoma often have...
Investigators have called into question the health benefit of extended surveillance for patients whose pancreatic cysts have not changed size for at least 5 years and had no worrisome features, according to a new study published by Chhoda et al in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology....
In a prospective study (SYMPLIFY) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nicholson et al found that a circulating tumor DNA methylation-based multicancer early detection diagnostic test showed promise in predicting a diagnosis of cancer in symptomatic patients referred from primary care for...
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to end race-conscious college admissions. In reaction to the Court’s ruling, and its potential effect on reversing progress toward increasing diversity in the nation’s physician workforce, ASCO released the following statement from Chief Executive Officer...
Patients with polycystic ovary syndrome may not have a higher risk of ovarian cancer than those without the condition; however, postmenopausal patients with polycystic ovary syndrome may have twofold the risk of developing ovarian cancer, according to recent findings presented by Frandsen et al at...
Female survivors treated for Hodgkin lymphoma may face declining fertility at a younger age, according to recent findings presented by Drechsel et al at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) 2023 Annual Meeting (Abstract O-083). The new research also suggested that the...
Researchers have identified seven potential risk factors for early-onset colorectal cancer in male patients and developed a novel risk evaluation model, according to a recent study published by Imperiale et al in Cancer Prevention Research. The findings may help 45- to 49-year-old patients accept...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Martin F. Kaiser, MD, and colleagues found that daratumumab plus low-dose cyclophosphamide, lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (Dara-CVRd) used as induction and extended consolidation therapy in newly diagnosed patients with...
About 50% of LGBTQ+ patients and survivors of cancer may be concerned about facing discrimination in a health-care setting, according to a new survey from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). The new findings demonstrated that these concerns and experiences with...
The combination of curettage and cryosurgery may be a safe and effective treatment method for patients with basal cell carcinoma, according to a novel study published by Backman et al in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Background The incidence of skin cancer is continuing to...
Investigators have found that artificial intelligence (AI) language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT may accurately identify appropriate imaging tests for breast cancer screenings and breast pain, according to a recent study published by Rao et al in the Journal of the American College of Radiology....
Women of African descent may have an elevated risk of being diagnosed with advanced endometrial cancer and developing aggressive tumors compared with White women, according to a recent study published by Medina et al in Cancer. Background Endometrial cancer is classified as endometrioid or the more ...
Yoshie Umemura, MD, was recently appointed as Chief Medical Officer of the Ivy Brain Tumor Center and Chief of Neuro-Oncology and the William and Joan Shapiro Chair of Neuro-Oncology at Barrow Neurological Institute. Dr. Umemura plans to build on the Ivy Center’s clinical trials program and...
The immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab achieved high response rates in patients with unresectable metastatic desmoplastic melanoma, a rare invasive tumor type, according to the results of the phase II SWOG S1512 trial presented at the 2023 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
Commenting on this study on clinical genomic profiling for colorectal cancer, Lisa Newman, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCO, Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery and leader of the Multidisciplinary Breast Oncology Programs at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, commended the authors for...
Black individuals have a higher incidence of colorectal cancer than White individuals, and their outcomes are worse. Undoubtedly, reasons for this are multifaceted, but the disparity in outcomes may be partly explained by genomic differences, documented in a large retrospective study presented at...
Testing for the emergence of ESR1 mutations should be routine at disease recurrence or progression for patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer whose disease is being managed with endocrine therapy, according to an ASCO guideline rapid recommendation...
Presented here are some highlights of preliminary studies presented at the 2023 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. These presentations provide signals for the utility of an off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product in renal cell carcinoma, an...
By embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), oncology practices can work toward better patient outcomes and a more effective health-care system, according to Richard L. Martin III, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Health Equity and Community Engagement at Tennessee Oncology. At the 2023...
In newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer lacking a BRCA mutation, the addition of durvalumab and olaparib to standard therapy significantly improved progression-free survival, in a planned interim analysis of the international phase III DUO-O trial presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting1 and...
Researchers have revealed that the KDM5D gene on the Y chromosome, which is upregulated in KRAS-mutated colorectal cancer, may be responsible for increasing tumor cell invasiveness and reducing antitumor immunity in male patients, according to a recent study published by Li et al in Nature. The new ...
For comments on the phase III DIPLOMA trial, which found outcomes comparable between minimally invasive and open distal pancreatectomy, The ASCO Post interviewed Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, the Jerald L. & Carolynn J. Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology & Global Health;...
Researchers have found that the loss of the Y chromosome, a common impact of the aging process in men, may help cancer cells evade the body’s immune system and result in aggressive bladder cancer—but it may also render the disease more vulnerable and responsive to immune checkpoint...
Formal discussant of this late-breaking presentation, Roisin E. O’Cearbhaill, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented: “MIRASOL is confirmatory of SORAYA, the trial that led to FDA accelerated approval. The impressive data of MIRASOL show an overall survival advantage in ...