When added to first-line chemotherapy in patients with untreated metastatic HER2-positive esophageal, gastroesophageal junction, and gastric adenocarcinoma, the combination of pembrolizumab and trastuzumab produced responses in 87% of patients, with 100% of patients experiencing disease control and ...
The Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP), the first precision medicine trial in lung cancer supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is undergoing a major expansion to include patients with all non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). The trial previously tested treatments for people ...
THE MULTIARM, multicollaborative BEAT AML umbrella trial demonstrated the feasibility of using next-generation sequencing to assign treatment tailored to individual genomics of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) within 7 days. This may prove to be a major advance, since typically...
In the phase III AHL2011 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Casasnovas et al found that positron-emission tomography (PET)-guided treatment produced good outcomes in newly diagnosed advanced Hodgkin lymphoma, allowing de-escalation of induction to ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and...
ADJUVANT CAPECITABINE added to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy failed to significantly improve disease-free or overall survival in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer in the large phase III CIBOMA/2004-01_GEICAM/2003-11 (CIBOMA/GEICAM) trial.1 However, extended treatment with...
Forty-six medical advocacy organization and professional societies have called on President Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to end the government shutdown and, in...
Here is an update on several different studies focusing on novel treatments for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. The featured therapeutics include the oral agent selinexor in...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib. The FDA’s approval of this oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor was based on the results of the phase III...
ASCO has elected Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, to serve as its President for the term beginning in June 2020. She will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2019. Six new members were also elected to the ASCO Board of ...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib. The FDA’s approval of cabozantinib was based on results from the phase III CELESTIAL trial....
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dellapasqua et al found that neoadjuvant treatment with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist degarelix was more effective than the GnRH agonist triptorelin in achieving ovarian function suppression (OFS) in...
FOUR AND A HALF YEARS AGO, author Neil Canavan attended a scientific conference to learn what he could about the then-emerging field of immunotherapy for cancer. After a presentation by Zelig Eshhar, PhD, principal investigator in the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science...
HERE IS AN UPDATE on six different studies featured at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Topics focused on novel treatments for myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia, as well as systemic mastocytosis. Myelofibrosis ABSTRACT...
In patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), fixed-duration venetoclax -(Venclexta) combined with rituximab (Rituxan) reduced the risk of disease progression or death compared with standard-of-care bendamustine/rituximab, according to longer-term follow-up of the...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a revolutionary approach to treating hematologic malignancies. As experience with this strategy is gained, researchers are learning more about how to optimize responses, especially in patients with “immune exhaustion,” who have a suboptimal initial...
High drug prices are the number one health-care concern of many Americans. The average price of a cancer drug rose from less than $10,000/yr before 2000 to more than $170,000/yr in 2017.1-3 Between 1995 and 2013, the launch price of cancer drugs increased by 10% to 12% every year, and the average...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kater et al, high undetectable minimal residual disease (MRD) rates persisted after the end of venetoclax (Venclexta)/rituximab (Rituxan) treatment in the phase III MURANO trial in relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and were ...
As reported by Horwitz et al in The Lancet, the phase III ECHELON-2 trial showed that brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (CHP) improved progression-free and overall survival vs cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) in...
LAURIE H. SEHN, MD, Chair, Lymphoma Tumour Group, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, said these results are not unexpected and support de-escalation in selected patients. “The FLYER trial evaluates treatment with four cycles compared with six cycles of cyclophosphamide,...
THE REGIMEN of four cycles of rituximab (Rituxan)/cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone (R-CHOP) plus two cycles of rituximab was noninferior to that of six cycles of R-CHOP in younger patients with favorable-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to the results of...
On December 6, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin), paclitaxel, and carboplatin for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic, nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no EGFR or...
BOOKMARK Title: Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors, and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood LeukemiaAuthor: Tim WendelPublisher: ILR PressPublication date: April 2018Price: $24.95, hardcover, 256 pages Tim Wendel is a journalist and author of several noted books, mostly concerning sports. In...
Four breast cancer researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center have received nearly $1 million from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) to further breast cancer research from the most basic biology of a cancer cell to developing innovative new...
In a new study presented by Summers et al at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 967), patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who received a first stem cell transplant after CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy were less...
A new study suggests that it may be safet to reduce the standard course of treatment for younger patients with low-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) by two cycles of chemotherapy. The trial, which tracked patients for a median of more than 5 years and up to 11 years, showed 4 cycles of...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Voss et al found that adding the mutation status of prognostic genes to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) risk model improved the prognostic performance of the model in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. The study involved...
An antibody that binds simultaneously to two distinct regions of the HER2 receptor to block the growth of cancer cells has shown antitumor activity in a number of cancers, including those of the esophagus, stomach, and bowel. Updated results from a phase I clinical trial of the treatment, called...
The combination of symptoms I began experiencing in the spring of 2007, including night sweats so severe they woke me from a sound sleep and midline chest wall swelling so extreme I needed a larger shirt size, drove me to seek immediate medical attention. A series of imaging and blood tests...
SIX HOSPITAL systems across the country are launching a new research collaboration to improve the reporting and management of cancer treatment–related symptoms. The initiative, known as the SIMPRO Research Center, will integrate the use of patient-reported outcomes into the routine practice of...
For the past 50 years or more, oncologists have designed their treatment plans around the three pillars: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Now, with a series of recent successes, immunotherapy is rapidly reemerging as the fourth pillar in the oncologic armamentarium. Despite major advancements...
When you give to ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation, your donation provides grants to researchers around the world. Research fuels the breakthroughs in cancer prevention and treatment needed for every cancer, every patient, everywhere. “Year after year, we meet patients who credit their successful...
A combination of the chemotherapy drug azacitidine with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated an encouraging response rate and overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to findings from a phase II study published...
In a global phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Solomon et al found that lorlatinib (Lorbrena) showed high overall and intracranial activity in patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were treatment-naive or who had received crizotinib (Xalkori)...
THE NUMBER of international practices certified in delivering high-quality cancer care based on rigorous standards established by ASCO is increasing. The Medisprof Cancer Center in Romania joins six other practices in Brazil, Greece, and Spain in achieving ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice...
A study of 112 patients with metastatic solid tumors found that the use of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based smartphone app reduced both the severity of patients’ reported pain and hospital admissions. After an 8-week period, patients who used the AI-powered app to monitor and address...
THE ANTI–PROGRAMMED cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was found to have antitumor activity in patients with high-risk non–muscle invasive bladder cancer who were nonresponsive to bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), according to the preliminary results of the ...
AS AN INTERNIST, I strived to give patients hope by prescribing therapies that increased their chance—their hope—of the best outcome and by encouraging them with hopeful words. My own hope was to care for patients until I was old. Just weeks after celebrating my 36th birthday, I was diagnosed with ...
A health-care system is evaluated by various metrics: one is how it cares for its most vulnerable patients. The United States spends far more on health care than any nation in the world, yet access to high-quality oncology services remains elusive to certain minority populations—none more so than...
In an analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology by Robak et al, bortezomib, rituximab [Rituxan], cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (VR-CAP) significantly prolonged overall survival vs rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) in a phase III trial ...
Treatment of renal cell carcinoma with stereotactic radiation therapy is as safe and effective for patients with one kidney as it is for those with two, according to an analysis of an international data set presented by Correa et al at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society for...
A highly sensitive blood test that detects minute traces of cancer-specific DNA has been shown to accurately determine whether patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) are free from cancer following radiation therapy. Findings were presented by...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, and colleagues, and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, the phase III CELESTIAL trial has demonstrated that cabozantinib (Cabometyx) improved the median overall survival to 10.2 months in comparison to 8 months...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ghassan K. Abou‑Alfa, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III CELESTIAL trial has shown a significant improvement in overall and progression-free survival with cabozantinib...
The global burden of cancer is huge and growing. In 2018, there will be > 18 million new cancer cases and 9.6 million deaths.1,2 Although several recent articles have reviewed cancer in developing countries, few have focused on the Palestinian territories. There are several reasons for that,...
Even before James P. Allison, PhD, made an appearance at the Fourth International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science Into Survival in New York City, the excitement among attendees was palpable. Earlier that day, October 1, 2018, Dr. Allison and Tasuku Honjo, MD, PhD, of Kyoto...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hensley et al, a phase III NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group study assessing adjuvant chemotherapy vs observation in disease-free patients with uterus-confined high-grade leiomyosarcoma was stopped due to accrual futility; available data...
Although digital mammography is effective in detecting early-stage breast cancer and in reducing mortality, high recall rates after a screening mammogram often result in unnecessary medical procedures, including breast biopsies, medical costs, and psychological stress for patients. A...
The cancer burden in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with a 99% Hispanic population, is substantially different from that of Hispanics in the continental United States, according to Cancer Statistics for Hispanics/Latinos, 2018. The report, published every 3 years, found that men in Puerto Rico...
There is a lot of breast cancer in my family history. My mother was diagnosed with the disease at 44, and my paternal grandmother died of breast cancer when she was just 33, so I’ve always been diligent about performing breast self-exams— often weekly—to ensure that if I did get breast cancer, it...
Bernard Lown, MD, was born in Lithuania, the son of a rabbi. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 14, where his scientific precocity bloomed. After attaining his medical degree from John Hopkins University School of Medicine, he pursued his passion of raising international awareness of...