On March 20, 2018, brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) was approved for the treatment of adult patients with previously untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma in combination with chemotherapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on the findings of the open-label phase III...
Susan G. Komen recently announced new advisory roles for 12 leaders in breast cancer. These women and men will join an esteemed group of breast cancer researchers, clinicians, and advocates who help guide the organization’s education and advocacy work, public health efforts, and research programs. ...
Elizabeth A. Raetz, MD, Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah and Primary Children’s Hospital, and Theodore P. Nicolaides, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, have joined Hassenfeld Children’s...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On May 1, 2018, tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), a...
The following medical facilities are certified, as of March 2020, to administer the U. S. Food and Drug Administration-approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy: axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta or “A”) for eligible patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah or ...
This past year’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of two chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies heralded a new era in both effective cancer treatments and the most expensive cancer drugs ever. Tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) was initially approved for the treatment of...
On May 15, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved epoetin alfa-epbx (Retacrit) as a biosimilar to epoetin alfa (Epogen/-Procrit) for the treatment of anemia caused by chronic kidney disease, chemotherapy, or use of zidovudine in patients with HIV infection. The biosimilar is...
On May 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) approved daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with bortezomib (Velcade), a proteasome inhibitor; melphalan, an alkylating agent; and prednisone—VMP—for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are ineligible for...
The publication of ASCO’s toxicity management guidelines for immune checkpoint antibodies by Brahmer and colleagues,1 reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, has been long awaited, considering more than 15 distinct indications have been granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The ...
The publication of the ASCO clinical practice guideline for the management of immune therapy–related adverse events—reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—represents an important next step in the incorporation of checkpoint blocking antibodies as standard cancer treatment modalities.1 The U.S....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Julie R. Brahmer, MD, of Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on management of immune-related adverse events in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.1 Immune...
Robert M. Arnold, MD, a researcher and physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), has been recently recognized by the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine for his efforts to train clinicians to have difficult end-of-life conversations. Dr. Arnold accepted the 2018 Eric G....
GUEST EDITOR Prevention in Oncology is guest edited by Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, Chair of ASCO’s Energy Balance Working Group and a member of ASCO’s Cancer Survivorship and Cancer Prevention Committees. Dr. Ligibel is Director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber...
Radiotherapy given in high doses over a shorter period of time is safe and effective for patients with prostate cancer, according to research from a phase III trial presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) 37 Conference.1 The treatment—called ultrahypofractionated...
The 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting was abuzz with more than 22,000 attendees from around the world who came to Chicago to hear the latest in basic science and clinical trial results. Here we present summaries of a few of the highlights from the AACR meeting...
Formal discussant of the study on BLU-667, Alexander Drilon, MD, Clinical Director, Early Drug Development Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, was enthusiastic about these early results. “We’ve known about RET for more than 30 years. To date, no targeted therapy has been...
A first-in-human study provides proof of concept that a novel oral agent targeted to RET genetic alterations is safe and active in RET-driven cancers. The agent, called BLU-667, achieved durable disease control in patients with lung and thyroid cancers harboring the RET oncogene, according to the...
Named by ASCO as Advance of the Year for both 2016 and 2017,1 and with more than 10 U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved indications—and more on the way—it’s safe to say the era of cancer immunotherapy is upon us. To prepare, physicians must understand not only which patients will benefit,...
To stem the rising tide of financial toxicity in cancer care, creative physician reimbursement strategies, by themselves, will not work, according to a thought leader in the field who advocated for elimination of the federal mandate against price negotiation, curbing the power of monopolies, and...
Children with nonbrainstem high-grade glioma could benefit from potentially life-extending treatment if genetic testing was used to personalize therapy as it is in many adults, new research published by Mackay et al in Cancer Cell reported. Scientists analyzed the DNA of children taking an...
Douglas Fearon, MD, Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and colleagues may have discovered how pancreatic cancer metastasizes to the liver following surgery, as reported by Pommier et al in Science. “This discovery is significant because for patients who undergo pancreatic cancer...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) covering 8 tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. Some of the key updates were presented at NCCN’s 23rd...
“In the era of improved systemic therapy, checkpoint blockade for metastatic melanoma and the ability to surgically resect all disease after treatment are associated with survival of 75%, better than what has been previously reported,” Danielle M. Bello, MD, said in summarizing study results during ...
On May 1, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified, high grade...
“Endocrine therapy remains the most effective and least toxic treatment for breast cancer, but we have many problems to solve. And there will have to be many different solutions,” according to George W. Sledge, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford...
“These are excellent results, both overall and for patients randomly assigned to nelarabine with either high-dose methotrexate or escalated-dose methotrexate,” said Howard Weinstein, MD, Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, who was not involved in this...
Upfront use of nelarabine plus standard Children’s Oncology Group–augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (aBFM) chemotherapy boosted survival rates in children and young adults with newly diagnosed T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-LL), according to the...
The opportunity to serve as ASCO President is the greatest honor of my professional career. It has been a pleasure and a highly rewarding experience to interact with our members and members of ASCO’s Board, executive leadership, and professional staff during my tenure. The year has allowed me to...
With all the advances in oncology care over the past decade, the most important contribution to high-quality care remains the personal connection between oncologist and patient, said Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, ASCO President-Elect, who will take the reins as ASCO’s 55th President...
The ASCO Post obtained comments about the Persephone trial results from two breast cancer experts. William M. Sikov, MD, is Associate Director of Clinical Research at the Program in Women’s Oncology at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and Associate Professor of Medicine and of...
The noninferiority phase III Persephone trial could shake up the standard of care for adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin), showing that patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer derived as much benefit from 6 months of trastuzumab as 12 months, according to research from the United Kingdom ...
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Smith et al describe successful use of oxybutynin to treat hot flashes in a patient receiving androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer. As noted by the authors, nonhormonal treatments for menopausal hot flashes in women ...
A meta-analysis of patient-level data reported by Lambertini et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicated that temporary ovarian suppression with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa) during chemotherapy was effective in preserving ovarian function and fertility in premenopausal...
ASCO and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) have announced that they are working to co-create a pathway to provide doctors with a flexible way to maintain board certification. Beginning in 2020, oncologists will be able to choose from two different assessment pathways. They may take an ...
Patients with cancer have an increased risk of developing blood clots, with roughly one in five experiencing venous thromboembolism (VTE)—either deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Although there are many causes and risk factors for VTE, patients with cancer are...
In an interim analysis of a European trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Saussele et al found that discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with deep molecular response was associated with good molecular relapse-free survival,...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lee et al determined risk levels for interval invasive second breast cancers after negative surveillance mammography and identified factors associated with higher risk. Study Details The study involved 65,084 surveillance mammograms...
In the phase III NGR015 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gregorc et al found no benefit of adding NGR-hTNF to best investigator choice of treatment in patients with previously treated malignant pleural mesothelioma. NGR-hTNF consists of human TNFα conjugated to the tumor-targeting ...
Surgical oncologists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine may have developed an improved scoring system for predicting survival in people with colorectal cancers that have metastasized to the liver. According to the researchers, the system, called the Genetic and Morphological...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Sandini et al found that neoadjuvant therapy in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was associated with loss of adipose tissue but not muscle wasting. In addition, the study showed that an increase in skeletal muscle tissue was...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, McCarthy et al identified the risk of interval breast cancer after negative screening mammography, including risk of poor-prognosis breast cancer. Study Details The study involved mammography data from the Population-Based Research Optimizing Screening...
As reported in JAMA, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued updated recommendations on prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer. To inform the recommendations, the USPSTF reviewed evidence on benefits and harms of PSA-based screening and treatment of...
Findings in a phase I trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Pernas et al indicate activity of the combination of the CXCR4 chemokine receptor antagonist balixafortide plus eribulin in previously treated HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The CXCR4–stromal cell-derived factor-1α...
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Huo et al described long-term outcomes of women with vaginal and cervical clear cell adenocarcinoma associated with prenatal exposure to the synthetic nonsteroidal estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES). As noted by the authors, women...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has named Wui-Jin Koh, MD, as Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, a newly created position for the nonprofit alliance of top U.S. cancer centers. Dr. Koh will add additional physician representation at NCCN headquarters, which...
On May 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved epoetin alfa-epbx (Retacrit) as a biosimilar to epoetin alfa (Epogen/Procrit) for the treatment of anemia caused by chronic kidney disease, chemotherapy, or use of zidovudine in patients with HIV infection. Epoetin alfa-epbx is also...
A randomized clinical trial evaluating the use of mobile and sensor technology to remotely monitor symptoms in patients receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer found that use of this technology reduced severe symptoms related to cancer and its treatment compared with usual care....
Persephone, a large phase III randomized noninferiority study conducted in the United Kingdom comparing 6 months to 12 months of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer has found 6 months of trastuzumab to be noninferior to 12 months of the therapy. In addition,...
A large randomized phase III clinical trial by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) investigating the safety and efficacy of adding nelarabine (Arranon) to COG-augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster chemotherapy (aBFM) to treat newly diagnosed patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic...
A Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)-supported randomized clinical trial of cancer survivors showed that 8 weeks of either acupuncture or cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) decreased the severity of insomnia among cancer survivors, though improvements were greatest...