Neoadjuvant immunotherapy had encouraging activity and demonstrated favorable safety in patients with resectable early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to two studies presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.1,2 This approach has the potential to boost the survival rate in...
Invited discussant of the NALA trial, Carlos H. Barrios, MD, of the Centro de Pesquisa em Oncologia and Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group in Porto Alegre, Brazil, said the results suggest that neratinib plus capecitabine “may represent an alternative for third-line treatment of...
In the global phase III NALA trial, treatment of metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer with neratinib plus capecitabine significantly improved progression-free survival, delayed the time to intervention for central nervous system disease, and showed a trend toward improved overall survival vs...
Eric P. Winer, MD, FASCO, Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Breast Cancer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, commented on Dr. Sparano’s presentation for The ASCO Post. “We already use information in...
Clinical risk factors add prognostic information that complements the 21-gene recurrence score, according to a new analysis from the landmark TAILORx trial.1,2 The integration of clinical risk with the recurrence score provides greater precision in determining recurrence risk and guiding the use of ...
I was born at the beginning of World War II in a country half way around the world from the fighting. As a child, I was immune to the carnage. My father was too old to be included, although his elder brother had been killed in World War I. Thousands of families in many countries lost a father, a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to provide oncologists with greater help in acquiring expanded access to investigational therapies. Deemed Project Facilitate, the pilot program was announced at a press briefing during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. Project Facilitate is essentially ...
“The end-of-study analysis of the CLEOPATRA trial demonstrates and confirms the long-term benefit of combined HER2-antibody therapy, with a significant number of ongoing responders,” said John T. Cole, MD, breast cancer specialist and Director of Clinical Cancer Research at Ochsner Health System...
The end-of-study analysis of the landmark CLEOPATRA trial shows that 37% of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer are still alive at 8 years, according to principal investigator Sandra M. Swain, MD, FACP, FASCO, Associate Dean for Research Development at Georgetown University Medical ...
Limiting ovarian cancer surgery to high-volume hospitals could improve survival but may also reduce access for many rural and underserved patients, a study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has found. The findings were published by Wright et al...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Phillips et al found that immune-related cutaneous adverse events in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors generally responded to symptom- and phenotype-directed dermatologic therapies, and that biologic therapies were effective in...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Long et al, the phase III ECHO-301/KEYNOTE-252 trial showed no improvement in progression-free or overall survival with the addition of the IDO1 inhibitor epacadostat to pembrolizumab in unresectable stage III or stage IV melanoma. Study Details In the...
Early detection and treatment through screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) has been investigated as a potential means of reducing lung cancer mortality for more than 2 decades. In 2011, a large U.S. study—the randomized National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)—reported a 20%...
Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) has been shown to be safe and effective for patients with grade 3 neuroendocrine neoplasms, according to research presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and published by Zhang et al in The...
Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after two cycles of lutetium-177 (Lu-177)-PSMA radioligand therapy has shown a significant predictive value for patient survival. The research was...
In a single-center retrospective analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Funt et al found that the presence of teratoma in advanced nonseminomatous germ cell tumors was associated with a greater risk for disease-related death. The study was a retrospective review of primary tumor...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Agochukwu et al validated the sexual interest and sexual satisfaction single-item measures of the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) in men who underwent radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. The study ...
In the phase II ECOG-ACRIN 1412 trial, presented by Nowakowski et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract 006), researchers sought to compare the addition of lenalidomide to R-CHOP (rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) vs...
Data presented by Lokhande et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract 360) focused on noninvasive strategies to guide patient stratification for relapsed mantle cell lymphoma. Researchers used an antibody-based platform to identify serum proteins in patients...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a new drug application for niraparib in the treatment of certain pretreated gynecologic cancers; granted Fast Track designation to a T-cell product; accepted investigational new drug applications for a myelopreservation agent and an...
On June 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bevacizumab-bvzr (Zirabev), a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin), for the treatment of five types of cancer: metastatic colorectal cancer; unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell ...
Just as newer drugs have significantly improved outcomes for patients with multiple myeloma in the past decade, newer imaging techniques are upgrading detection of the disease, leading to earlier treatment, but standards to help guide clinicians on the optimal use of advanced imaging have lagged...
New research published in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and presented by Jarushka Naidoo, MBBCh, at the NCCN 2019 Annual Conference suggests that institutions and networks that utilize immunotherapy should consider establishing multidisciplinary teams for...
The Dutch FaMRIsc study, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Saadatmand et al, found that the addition of screening magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to mammography resulted in identification of more breast cancers—and identification at an earlier stage—vs mammography alone among women...
In the Scandinavian phase III HYPO-RT-PC trial reported in The Lancet, Widmark et al found that ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy was noninferior to conventionally fractionated radiotherapy in failure-free survival in patients with intermediate- to high- risk prostate cancer. Study Details In...
In this episode, we discuss news from the Annual Congress of the European Hematology Association in multiple myeloma, catch up on a study presented at ASCO on gastric cancer, and review a recently published paper on prostate cancer development in World Trade Center first responders.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are ineligible for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT). The application received approval ...
Final analyses from the ALCANZA study, a phase III trial investigating brentuximab vedotin vs physician’s choice for the treatment of CD30-positive cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), were presented by Horwitz et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract...
Today, the American Association for Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center, and Biden Cancer Initiative hosted a congressional briefing titled “Let’s End HPV-Related Cancers” in Washington, DC. In conjunction with this briefing, leading health organizations and...
The ROBUST trial compared the addition of lenalidomide to R-CHOP (rituximab plus cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine/prednisone) vs placebo/R-CHOP in previously untreated, prospectively selected, CD20-positive patients with activated B-cell–like (ABC)-type diffuse large B-cell...
An abstract presented by Camus et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract 138) found that targeted genotyping of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in classical Hodgkin lymphoma at diagnosis “may help to assess early treatment response in complement to...
In the French phase III PHARE trial reported in The Lancet, Pivot et al found that noninferiority of 6 months vs 12 months of adjuvant trastuzumab combined with standard chemotherapy could not be demonstrated for disease-free survival in HER2-positive early breast cancer. An earlier interim...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ricciuti et al found better outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving baseline prednisone equivalent of ≥ 10 mg daily for...
In the phase II TOPACIO/KEYNOTE-162 trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Vinayak et al found evidence of activity of combined niraparib and pembrolizumab in a cohort of patients with advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, with higher response rates seen in patients with BRCA mutations or ...
The MAVORIC study—presented by Scarisbrick et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract 034)—examined the efficacy of mogamulizumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets the CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), in patients with previously treated mycosis...
In an abstract presented by Rushton et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract 004), researchers found that patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with specific mutations in relapse-enriched genes may be at a higher risk of treatment failure. The...
In a report published in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Keshvani et al found that transitioning from inpatient to outpatient ambulatory infusional EPOCH (etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin)-based chemotherapy in patients with lymphoma at a safety net hospital...
In an analysis of the phase II GETUG-AFU 26 NIVOREN study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Flippot et al found that nivolumab had limited activity in patients with previously untreated brain metastases from clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The study assessed nivolumab in patients with ...
In the phase III GOG 258 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Matei et al found that 6 months of adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy plus radiation therapy did not improve relapse-free survival vs chemotherapy alone in stage III or IVA endometrial cancer. In the open-label...
A DIAGNOSIS of any life-threatening cancer or other serious illness has always been a world-shaking event for those touched by significant disease, and most of us have known—or will know—the frustration, helplessness, and desperate sense of urgency provoked by the words, “The disease is worsening,...
ASCO OFFERS tools and resources designed specifically for caregivers who are supporting someone with cancer. The ASCO Answers Guide to Caregiving includes advice for talking with family and the health-care team, trackers for symptoms and medications, and more. A simple one-page worksheet,...
ASCO is one of the premier professional societies that is guiding oncologists throughout the world. Whether you are a medical student or an early-career oncologist, ASCO has a lot to offer. A main focus of ASCO is to promote and provide guidance to trainees and early-career oncologists. I consider...
EARLY REGISTRATION is now open for the ASCO Research Community Forum (RCF) 2019 Annual Meeting. The ASCO RCF Annual Meeting brings together physician investigators and research staff from across the country for 2 days of learning and collaboration. The meeting offers colleagues from a variety of...
The work of nine researchers who have previously received funding from Conquer Cancer is featured in ASCO’s Clinical Cancer Advances 2019. Visit CONQUER.ORG/CCA for more details. New Approaches in Leukemia In two separate trials, Conquer Cancer researchers joined forces to improve treatment for...
The 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting included groundbreaking science that has the potential to influence oncology care for years to come—but how should that science be applied in practice? The National Library of Medicine–indexed 2019 ASCO Educational Book aims to answer that question with compelling,...
A noninferiority phase III trial, previously reported in The Lancet, has established the standard of care in human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oral cancer, according to Andy M. Trotti, MD, a radiation oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Data from the NRG Oncology RTOG 1016 trial ...
THIS CLINICAL TRIALS Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies that focus on different techniques; treatments; and technology for oral, head, and neck cancers. More specifically, these trials are evaluating different drug combination regimens for both tumor treatment and pain...
Recent technologic improvements in radiotherapy now offer an unprecedented opportunity to enhance immune response, and going forward, may play a role in the definitive treatment of head and neck cancer, according to William Stokes, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at...
Patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related head and neck cancer stand to benefit greatly from immunotherapy, according to Nabil F. Saba, MD, FACP, Director, Head and Neck Medical Oncology Program, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta. He added, immunotherapy will likely play...
Despite progress being made in cancer survivorship—there are currently nearly 17 million cancer survivors in the United States1—not everyone is benefiting equally, especially those patients living in rural communities across America. According to “The State of Oncology Practice in America, 2018:...