Andrew Matthews, MD, of the Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, discusses findings from a large, multicenter study that showed superior outcomes with 7 + 3 chemotherapy (cytarabine continuously for 7 days, along with short infusions of an anthracycline on each of the first 3 days)...
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center presented preliminary results of an ongoing phase I clinical trial demonstrating successful retreatment with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for patients whose cancers relapsed after previous CAR T-cell therapy. ...
Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, and Patrizia Mondello, MD, PhD, both of the Mayo Clinic, discuss the 20% of patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) who relapse early and experience a poor prognosis. The researchers found that FLs with high levels of IRF4 expression are associated with a suppressive...
Results of a planned interim overall survival analysis of the phase III monarchE trial offer further support for the addition of abemaciclib to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk breast cancer, according to Stephen R.D....
In an early-phase trial, nearly three-quarters of patients who received talquetamab—a first-in-class, off-the-shelf, T-cell–redirecting bispecific antibody targeting both the GPRC5D and CD3 receptors—for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma saw a significant reduction in cancer burden within a...
Marleen Kok, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses the most important advances in early breast cancer treatment during the past year for patients with triple-negative, HER2-positive, and estrogen receptor–positive disease. Dr. Kok also addresses long-term treatment toxicities and...
Editor’s Note: ASCO was deeply saddened by the news that Dr. Jeff Ward passed away on November 3, 2022. In an interview with Dr. Ward this past summer, published in ASCO Connection (August 30, 2022), ASCO recognized Dr. Ward’s commitment to exceptional patient care and public advocacy. An...
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, when he was just 55 years old. He died 6 years later. The cancer was so aggressive, it took only a few weeks from the time he was diagnosed for the cancer to grow to the size of a softball, and even a radical prostatectomy couldn’t save his...
Researchers have found that liquid biopsies may be able to detect the blood disorder clonal hematopoiesis, which places patients at higher risk of developing blood cancers. The findings were presented at the 2022 European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)–National Cancer...
“Pregnancy confers a dual effect” on breast cancer risk, “with an initial transient increased risk for breast cancer that is followed by long-term protection over time,” Luis Zabala Blanco, Jr, MD, noted in an update on the pathology of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, which was presented at the ...
Breast cancer specialist Brittany L. Bychkovsky, MD, MSc, grew up primarily in Kansas; however, given that her father was a pilot, her childhood was not wholly centered in the Sunflower State. “When I was 12 years old, my mom, who was a schoolteacher, was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. Her ...
Guest Editor’s Note: In October, the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) held its 2022 Annual International Conference in a hybrid format (virtual and in Scottsdale, Arizona). It was centered on the basic science, education and training, and implementation of integrative oncology in diverse...
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 Bolivia. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, MSc, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the SWOG S1207 trial which was designed to evaluate the role of adjuvant everolimus in combination with adjuvant endocrine therapy among patients with high-risk, hormone...
The repercussions from the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, to overturn Roe v Wade, effectively ending a nearly 50-year federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing instead states to determine abortion access, are starting to be felt in the cancer care community. The ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, a physician-scientist who currently serves as President of the City of Hope National Medical Center and the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief...
From November 11 to 15, delegates from ASCO participated in the 2022 Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates (HOD). The AMA HOD is the principal policy-making body of AMA and meets twice a year to discuss pressing issues and establish policies the AMA uses...
A new ASCO guideline on the management of advanced colorectal cancer summarizes the latest treatments supported by quality data that could expand oncologists’ armamentarium and potentially improve survival outcomes.1 “[Colorectal cancer] remains the second-leading class of cancer deaths among men ...
Joseph A. Sparano, MD, of the Tisch Cancer Center at Mount Sinai Health System, discusses long-term clinical outcomes data that continue to show many women with early breast cancer can safely forgo chemotherapy, when guided by the 21-gene recurrence score result. The longer follow-up also showed...
The use of circulating tumor cell counts to guide the choice between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic, estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer provided overall survival benefits compared with physician’s choice of treatment,...
The next-generation selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) camizestrant improved progression-free survival compared to fulvestrant in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, according to results from the phase II SERENA-2 trial presented by Mafalda Oliveira, MD,...
Patients with breast cancer who paused their endocrine therapy while attempting to conceive experienced short-term rates of breast cancer recurrence similar to patients with breast cancer who did not pause their therapy for pregnancy—and many of them went on to conceive and deliver healthy babies,...
Chemotherapy-induced hair loss affects 65% of patients with cancer,1 and the psychosocial impact on these patients can be profound; it may include anxiety, depression, a negative body image, lowered self-esteem, and a reduced sense of well-being.2 In some instances, the fear of hair loss from...
Invited discussant Erica Michelle Stringer-Reasor, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the exploratory analysis of KEYNOTE-522 established the value of using residual...
An exploratory analysis of KEYNOTE-522, which established the benefit of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer, has now provided data to further describe prognosis and possibly guide treatment.1 In the study, presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting,...
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase II results from the TRIO-US B-12 TALENT study, which showed that patients with localized, hormone receptor–positive, HER2-low breast cancer who are treated with fam-trastuzumab...
The HER3-directed antibody-drug conjugate patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd) showed activity in patients with heavily pretreated HER3-expressing metastatic breast cancer in a phase I/II study. Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, Associate Director, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, presented these...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Patrick M. Forde, MB, BCh, of Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 816 trial has shown improved pathologic complete response rate and event-free survival with the addition of nivolumab to platinum-based...
Molecular testing and genomic testing are now considered standard of care in breast cancer, guiding treatment decisions in early breast cancer and targeted therapies in the metastatic setting. “But tumors evolve,” Virginia Kaklamani, MD, DSc, reminded participants at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast...
Ruth O’Regan, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, discusses the Breast Cancer Index (BCI), a genomic assay that can assess the risk of late distant recurrence (5–10 years after diagnosis) of hormone receptor–positive, early-stage breast cancer. Among premenopausal women with this...
Compared with capecitabine-based regimens, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) led to higher response rates and longer survival in the third-line setting for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer previously treated with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), according to results from ...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recognized the recipients of its 2022 Gold Medal awards and other high-profile honors during an awards ceremony at the 2022 ASTRO Annual Meeting in San Antonio. ASTRO Gold Medal Wendell R. Lutz, PhD, and Tim R. Williams, MD, FASTRO, were awarded...
Many radiation oncologists tend to discuss the sexual side effects of radiation therapy, specifically brachytherapy, with men more often than with women, according to a two-part study reported at the 2022 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 At a high-volume cancer...
Patients with localized, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-low breast cancer treated with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) in the neoadjuvant setting had an overall response rate of 75% without combining the agent with anastrozole and 63% in combination with anastrozole, according to...
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) given prior to sorafenib improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and time to disease progression in patients with unresectable advanced hepatocellular cancer vs sorafenib alone, including those with macrovascular invasion, according to the...
The statistics are grim: Worldwide, pancreatic cancer is the 12th most common cancer and the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality.1 In the United States, the malignancy has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers. It is currently the third leading cause of cancer-related death after...
Among premenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, early-stage breast cancer enrolled in the SOFT trial, those with a high score on the Breast Cancer Index genomic assay had an increased risk of distant recurrence—and those with a low score on the Breast Cancer Index may have benefited...
Non-Hispanic Black patients with lymph node–positive, hormone receptor (HR)–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer experienced worse outcomes compared with the outcomes of non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Hispanic patients—despite similar 21-gene recurrence scores—according to new findings presented by ...
On December 5, Novartis announced the pivotal phase III PSMAfore study of lutetium (Lu-177) vipivotide tetraxetan, a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted radioligand therapy, met its primary endpoint. The therapy demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful...
In the phase Ib/II JAVELIN PARP Medley trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD, and colleagues found that the combination of the anti–PD-L1 agent avelumab and the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor talazoparib produced objective response rates in patient subgroups with ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Laetsch et al, the 3-year update of the phase II ELIANA trial showed durable responses and a manageable safety profile with tisagenlecleucel for the treatment of pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute...
New research has shed light on how skewed X chromosome inactivation may be linked to the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a novel study published by Roberts et al in eLife. Background Because the X chromosome has so many more genes than the Y chromosome, in every cell...
Diagnosing early-stage lung cancer using low-dose computed tomography (CT) screenings may improve patients’ long-term survival rate, according to long-term findings from the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2022 Annual...
In a study reported as a research letter in JAMA, Shahmoradi et al found that the incidence of cervical cancer decreased or remained stable in U.S. women between 2001 and 2019, except for an increase in the 30- to 34-year-old age group in more recent years. As stated by the investigators, “A recent ...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI) blood testing technology—known as DELFI (DNA evaluation of fragments for early interception)—may successfully detect more than 80% of hepatocellular carcinomas, according to a new study published by Foda et al in Cancer Discovery. The findings were also...
More than 1.4 million patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020 globally, but the molecular characteristics of the disease remain unexplored for the majority of patients around the world. In the final days of the Movember campaign, which every year in November aims to raise awareness of...
Using intraoperative ultrasound to guide surgery for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ may yield better results than the standard technique of using a wire inserted into the breast, according to a new study published by Esgueva et al in the European Journal of Cancer. The findings were also...
Lori Wilson, MD, FACS, was the first woman to hold the surgical oncology division chief position at Howard University Hospital and the first woman to be promoted to full professor in surgery at Howard University College of Medicine. Known as a fierce advocate for patients with cancer in underserved ...
A RECENT REPORT published in Neuro-Oncology1 exposes an alarming reality for children, adolescents, and families facing pediatric brain cancer across the country. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) funded this groundbreaking report by the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with C.S. Pramesh, MS, FRCS, Director of the Tata Memorial Hospital and Professor and Head of Thoracic Surgery at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India. Dr. Pramesh is the Convener of the...