Some patients who died within 1 month of being newly diagnosed with metastatic cancer in the United States received ineffective surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormonal therapy, according to a new study published by Sineshaw et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum. The study authors said the...
The latest edition of the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) review on recent cancer prevention and early detection efforts has found that although many strategies have been proven to reduce cancer risk, their application has been suboptimal in the United States, especially in socioeconomically...
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION for Cancer Research (AACR) recently recognized Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, FAACR, with the 13th Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research during the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Dr. DuBois is Dean of the College of...
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center recently announced the launch of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center in Boston. The Center will provide expert, compassionate, and cutting-edge care to young adult patients with colon and rectal cancer, with a focus on scientific discovery and...
In patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, the delivery of all radiotherapy and chemotherapy neoadjuvantly—with a shorter course of radiation—may improve the chance of complete response and downstaging over conventional treatment, according to investigators from Washington University, St....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Van Cutsem et al, treatment with encorafenib, binimetinib, and cetuximab for BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic colorectal cancer was associated with a manageable safety profile and evidence of activity in the safety lead-in to the phase III BEACON ...
A combination of the experimental histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor entinostat with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab showed clinical responses in patients with melanoma that had progressed on prior anti–PD-1 treatment, according to results from the phase...
ASCO’S CONQUER CANCER FOUNDATION is pleased to announce the recipients of the Gastrointestinal Cancers, Genitourinary Cancers, and Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium Merit Awards. Conquer Cancer Merit Awards recognize oncology fellows’ and trainees’ high-quality research submitted in abstracts to...
THE ANNUAL GASTROINTESTINAL CANCERS SYMPOSIUM took place earlier this year in San Francisco. In addition to important studies captured in our past few issues, The ASCO Post here briefly summarizes additional interesting studies. Adjuvant Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy in Colon Cancer...
Wells A. Messersmith, MD, of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, discusses results of recent clinical trials, emerging treatment options, and approaches that may improve outcomes in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Meric-Bernstam et al, the combination of pertuzumab and trastuzumab showed activity in HER2-amplified metastatic colorectal cancer in the phase IIa multiple basket study MyPathway. The study is evaluating activity of targeted therapies in nonindicated tumor...
In an analysis of the phase III CALGB/SWOG 80405 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Innocenti et al found that tumor mutational burden and microsatellite instability status affected overall survival in patients receiving first-line chemotherapy plus bevacizumab or cetuximab for...
At the end of 2015, I was dying. I was just 50 years old and a wife and mother of 2 teenage boys. Twelve years earlier, I had been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ in my left breast. Despite a modified radical mastectomy and removal of nearly all of the lymph nodes in my left underarm—which ...
On January 15, 2019, WebMD, an online and print health-care resource for consumers, presented its 2018 Health Heroes Award in New York City to 7 people who are making a difference in oncology care. The honorees include Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Wake...
In a linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Salz et al found that chronic opioid use varied by cancer among older cancer survivors. By 6 years after diagnosis, survivors were no more likely to be chronic opioid users...
In a UK population-based cohort study (Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Survivor Study) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bright et al found that subsequent primary neoplasms were most common in survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) breast, cervical, and testicular cancers, as well as Hodgkin...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. Gary Deng, MD, PhD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, explore the use of omega-3 fatty acids, which have...
JUST 2 MONTHS before Congress passed what to this day is America’s most sweeping anticancer legislation, President Richard Nixon came to Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to declare his administration’s historic commitment to the fight. “I have come here today for the purpose of making an...
A study evaluating a prognostic signature derived from integrating tumor budding, lymphocyte infiltration, and their spatial relationship has found that the method could more accurately stratify patients with stage II colorectal cancer at high risk for disease-specific death compared with...
Kentucky has been one of the most successful states in reducing its uninsured rate, which happened in part through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion that took effect on January 1, 2014. In the past, Kentucky has reported low rates of colorectal cancer screening, and has ranked ...
First launched in 2014, the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium introduced a nascent interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of both the physical and psychological symptoms of cancer to improve disease outcome and quality of life for patients. Today, it has evolved into a leading forum for...
The proportion of early-stage drug trials tackling the most common tumor types has declined sharply since the early 1990s, as less common cancers receive increasing attention in trials, according to new research presented by Sato et al at the TAT 2019–International Congress on Targeted...
The Lung Immune Prognostic Index (LIPI) calculated prior to the initiation of treatment may be used to stratify patients with diverse tumor types into groups that significantly associate with outcome following immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, according to a retrospective study presented at the...
A recent study by the American Cancer Society (ACS) has found that while colorectal cancer incidence in the United States is rapidly declining overall, colorectal cancer rates are increasing among young adults. According to the study, compared with adults born in the 1950s, those born in the 1990s...
New research published by Chopra et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network calls for much greater integration between cardiologists and oncologists for patients with coronary artery disease who are diagnosed with cancer. Coronary artery disease is the most...
INVITED STUDY discussant Michael J. Overman, MD, Professor of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, is a co-investigator on CheckMate 142, which led to the approval of another immunotherapy doublet—nivolumab plus ipilimumab—in patients...
THE COMBINATION of durvalumab and tremelimumab prolonged median overall survival by 2.5 months compared with best supportive care alone in patients with advanced treatment-refractory colorectal cancer. These findings, which are from the randomized phase II Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) CO.26...
Over the past week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted multiple Priority Reviews and accepted a supplemental new drug application: Priority Review for Entrectinib in NTRK Fusion–Positive Solid Tumors and Metastatic, ROS1-Positive NSCLC This week, the FDA accepted new drug...
ON JANUARY 22, 2019, 23andMe received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for a genetic health risk report on the hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome MUTYH-associated polyposis. The clearance follows the FDA’s authorization for 23andMe’s BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants) Genetic...
The proliferation of immunotherapeutics in the treatment of cancer over the past decade has revolutionized the way many cancers are treated, especially lung cancer and melanoma, as well as some blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, drastically improving outcomes for many patients with...
Although colorectal cancer rates in older adults have been decreasing in the United States since the mid-1980s, incidence rates for the cancer have been increasing among young and middle-aged adults, according to a study by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Based on the new data, in 2018, the ACS...
The first report from a phase II, multicenter clinical trial has found that a newer, more aggressive form of radiation therapy—stereotactic ablative radiation—can extend long-term survival for some patients with stage IV cancers, while maintaining their quality of life. The study was...
A new study has found rates are increasing for 6 of 12 cancers related to obesity in younger adults in the United States, with steeper increases in progressively younger ages and successively younger generations. The study, published by Sung et al in The Lancet Public Health, also looked at rates...
World Cancer Day 2019—February 4—highlights the need for urgent action to increase early-stage cancer detection, screening, and diagnosis to significantly improve patients’ chances of survival. Taking place with the theme of “I Am and I Will,” World Cancer...
In a Japanese phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hayashi et al found that standard site-specific treatment based on gene-expression profiling was not associated with better outcomes vs empirical paclitaxel and carboplatin in patients with cancer of unknown primary site....
In a single-center retrospective case series analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Smith et al found that a watch-and-wait approach was associated with a high rate of rectal preservation and pelvic tumor control in patients with rectal cancer with complete clinical response to neoadjuvant therapy,...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Gray et al found that constitutional loss of function single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the pattern recognition receptors FPR1, TLR3, and TLR4 were not associated with preferential benefit of oxaliplatin in colorectal cancer. As...
Surgery is an integral part of treatment of elderly patients with solid malignancies. The times we are living in will be remembered by health-care providers for the significant “contradictions” in the medical and surgical care of elderly patients with cancer. On the one hand, it has been...
In a news item reported in The Lancet Oncology, The Lancet journalist Manjulika Das reviewed two U.S. retrospective studies indicating that patients diagnosed with cancer are at increased risk of suicide. High Standardized Mortality Ratio In one study, published by Zaorsky et al in Nature...
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...
On January 22, 23andMe received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for a genetic health risk report on MUTYH-associated polyposis, a hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome. The clearance follows the FDA’s authorization for 23andMe’s BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants)...
Pieter Tanis, MD, PhD, of Amsterdam University Medical Centers, discusses study findings on adjuvant hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in patients with colon cancer who are at high risk of peritoneal metastases (Abstract 482).
Francesca Battaglin, MD, of the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase III study data on genetic variants used to predict the efficacy of cetuximab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (Abstract 564).
Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase III study findings on S-1/oxaliplatin vs uracil and tegafur/leucovorin as adjuvant chemotherapy for high-risk stage III colon cancer (Abstract 484).
Carl C. Schimanski, MD, PhD, of the Municipal Hospital Darmstadt, discusses phase II study findings on adjuvant immunotherapy with tecemotide after colorectal cancer liver metastasectomy (Abstract 480).
The delivery of all radiotherapy and chemotherapy neoadjuvantly—also known as total neoadjuvant therapy—has improved complete response and downstaging rates compared to treatment after surgery in patients with rectal cancer. In a study presented by Chapman et al at the 2019...
Patients with advanced or perforated colon cancer may be at elevated risk of peritoneal metastases. Since many patients with peritoneal metastases are diagnosed at a late stage, researchers sought to study the effectiveness of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in the adjuvant...
According to a new American Cancer Society report published by Susan M. Gapstur, PhD, MPH, American Cancer Society Senior Vice President of Behavioral and Epidemiology Research, and colleages in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the highest priority in a national cancer control plan is the...
A steady 25-year decline has resulted in a 27% drop in the overall cancer death rate in the United States between 1991 and 2016. The data come from “Cancer Statistics, 2019,” the American Cancer Society’s annual report on cancer rates and trends. The report was published by Siegel et al in CA: A...
The phase II CCTG CO.26 trial evaluated whether the combination of durvalumab, a programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor, and tremelimumab, an anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) antibody, plus best supportive care improved survival vs best supportive care ...