ASCO and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) have released a joint statement with 12 clinical trial reporting recommendations that address the unique efficacy, toxicity, and combination/sequencing aspects of immuno-oncology (IO) treatments. These recommendations, jointly published in the ...
The ASCO Nominating Committee has selected 15 distinguished ASCO members as candidates for open leadership positions within the Society, including: The office of President-Elect Three seats on the Society’s Board of Directors Three seats on the Nominating Committee Biographical information and...
Each year, we call upon the ASCO members to place their votes to select our Society’s future leaders. This year, we are asking that you not only vote for the open leadership positions, but also for a proposed bylaw change. ASCO’s mission is more urgent than ever in today’s landscape of fast-moving ...
On September 28, 2018, cemiplimab-rwlc (Libtayo) was approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma or locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma who are not candidates for curative surgery or curative radiation.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval...
Despite growing national awareness of health-care inequities, the plight of rural Americans diagnosed with cancer has persistently remained inadequate. Speaking with The ASCO Post, Jan Probst, PhD, Professor at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, noted, “We...
The phase III DUO trial, reported by Flinn et al and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, has led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a novel B-cell receptor (BCR) kinase inhibitor, duvelisib (Copiktra), which targets phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-δ/γ in patients...
As reported in Blood by Ian W. Flinn, MD, PhD, Director of the Lymphoma Research Program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute, and colleagues, the phase III DUO trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-δ/γ inhibitor duvelisib...
In response to the opioid-overdose epidemic, several measures have been put in place, such as the reclassification of hydrocodone as a Schedule II opioid and new requirements for physician review of prescription drug–monitoring program databases in most states. Moreover, the Surgeon General and...
As part of the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative, the National Cancer Institute has awarded $6.3 million to Nicholas Mitsiades, MD, of the Baylor College of Medicine, and a collaborative team at Baylor College of Medicine to establish a Minority Patient-Derived Xenograft Development and Trial...
The University of Pittsburg Medical Center (UPMC) recently announced the opening of a new radiotherapy center in Villa Maria, Italy, which will become part of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center network when it opens to patients later this year. The new center, named the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at...
Amar Kishan, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and a member of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, will receive the 2018 Publication Award from the Radiation Oncology Institute in recognition of a study highlighting the value of...
The link between inflammation and cancer is a field of growing interest in the oncology community. Biologists have theorized that simultaneous DNA damage and cell division during inflammation could lead to cancer. To shed light on this important issue, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Jennifer...
Allen Kachalia, MD, JD, will be appointed Director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and Senior Vice President of Patient Safety and Quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine, starting December 1. During his nearly 20-year career in medicine, Dr. Kachalia has served in a variety...
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society recently announced a $1,175,000 commitment by the Schwartz Ward Family Foundation of Chicago to support two research initiatives. These funds will support two grants in the society’s Career Development Program: Christiane Querfeld, MD, PhD, of City of Hope, is...
When detected early, liver cancer is highly treatable and, in many cases, curable, yet the number of new cases of liver cancer in the United States has increased by 43% in the past 16 years, whereas the incidence of other cancers is on the decline. This past October, during Liver Cancer Awareness...
On September 27, 2018, dacomitinib (Vizimpro) received approval for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletion or exon 21 L858R substitution mutations, as detected by a test approved by the...
On November 2, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to lorlatinib (Lorbrena) for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on crizotinib (Xalkori) and at least one other ALK ...
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 August 27, 2018, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) was approved...
New research by Lichtensztajn et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network examined disparities in care for Latino men with prostate cancer. A team of researchers from UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stanford Cancer Institute, and...
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...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Vergote et al, a pooled analysis of individual patient data in long-term follow-ups of the phase III EORTC 55971 and CHORUS trials indicated that overall survival is similar with neoadjuvant therapy vs upfront debulking surgery in advanced tubo-ovarian cancer....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ogura et al found that lateral lymph node dissection (LLND) reduced the risk of lateral local recurrence in patients with lateral nodes ≥ 7 mm undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiation or radiation and total mesorectal excision in clinical...
Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, knew from the start of his medical career that if treatments for cancer were to become curative, research in new therapies would have to move away from the mainstay one-size-fits-all approach of systemic chemotherapy to an innovative, personalized strategy that...
In a 2-year follow-up of the phase III SUPREMO trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Galina Velikova, PhD, of the Leeds Cancer Centre, St. James’s University Hospital, United Kingdom, and colleagues found worse chest wall symptoms in women with intermediate-risk breast cancer who did vs did not...
Three prominent medical organizations have issued a new clinical guideline for physicians treating men with early-stage prostate cancer using external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Developed by a panel of experts from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), ASCO, and the American...
The Atlantic Health System, an integrated health-care delivery system, recently announced a partnership with the Translational Genomics Research Institute, an affiliate of City of Hope, and Origin Commercial Ventures to create a new platform to deliver economically viable immunotherapies and other...
Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, MPH, PhD, of St. Louis University, discusses study findings on married cancer survivors with advanced stage disease who were less likely to die by suicide, highlighting the value of supportive care in cancer survivorship (Abstract 181).
Telemedicine—the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients via telecommunications technology—has changed the way oncology care is delivered in rural parts of the world. Patients in rural areas are now able to connect remotely with their physicians without having to deal with the time, expense, and ...
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) announced that Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS, a colorectal surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, will be joining the ACS Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care (DROPC) as Medical Director of Cancer Programs. Dr. Nelson comes to the ACS from her...
Allison S. Betof Warner, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for immunotherapy and combination treatments, identifying the agents that lead to toxicities, and ways to manage them.
Charles von Gunten, MD, PhD, of OhioHealth, discusses the critical need for opioids to manage cancer pain as well as the myth of addiction, which may impede best care.
Eric Roeland, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the wide variation among physicians in preventing vomiting from highly emetogenic chemotherapy (Abstract 74).
Charles Gawad, MD, PhD, an assistant member in the Departments of Oncology and Computational Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has been selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive a Director’s New Innovator Award. Established in 2007, this award supports...
Randomized clinical trials have been providing high-quality evidence for decades, but there are limitations to the traditional design. At the 2018 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, George J. Chang, MD, MS, FACS, FASCRS, discussed the need to modernize clinical trials, so they continue to provide...
Katherine C. Lee, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses her study findings that showed older patients with metastatic cancer who survived emergency general surgery experienced higher intensity end-of-life care than similar patients who did not undergo surgery (Abstract 56).
The study’s invited discussant, Sandro Pignata, MD, of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Napoli in Italy, called the data from AGO OVAR 2.21 “very strong.” He added: “We now have robust evidence from a trial of more than 600 patients, in which previous bevacizumab (Avastin) was allowed, that...
Mihir M. Kamdar, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses study findings on a smartphone app called ePAL, which significantly reduces pain and pain-related hospital admissions by combining patient-reported outcome data and artificial intelligence via a telemedicine platform (Abstract 76).
For patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who receive platinum-based retreatment, the more suitable partner for bevacizumab (Avastin) may be carboplatin plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, rather than carboplatin and gemcitabine, according to the results of a phase III ENGOT/GCIG Intergroup...
Mary E. Johnson, author of Stay With Me Awhile, discusses her play, a compilation of vigil stories from across cultures and religions, and the profound impact the performances have had on audience members.
Betty R. Ferrell, PhD, of City of Hope, discusses the many advances in immunotherapy and the drugs’ effect on patients’ quality of life, including psychological well-being.
Elizabeth Jane Cathcart-Rake, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses the frequency of side effects from immunotherapy, the need to closely monitor those receiving this treatment, and the role of clinicians in educating their patients on toxicities (Abstract 184).
The paper’s invited discussant, Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, of the Institut de Cancérologie Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, said OpACIN-neo attained its goal of reducing toxicity and maintaining efficacy. The regimen of two courses of ipilimumab (Yervoy) at 1 mg/kg plus nivolumab (Opdivo) at 3...
In patients with stage III melanoma, a reduced-dose neoadjuvant immunotherapy combination was well tolerated and led to high pathologic response rates, in the phase II OpACIN-neo trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress.1 “Neoadjuvant ipilimumab (Yervoy) at...
Formal discussant of the ERA 223 trial, Daniel Heinrich, MD, of Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway, reminded listeners at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress that radium-223 was developed in Norway. “When the ALSYMPCA results came out, we were celebrating....
The combination of radium-223 plus AAP (abiraterone acetate [Zytiga] and prednisone) was not superior to placebo plus AAP in the phase III ERA 223 trial, which enrolled men with asymptomatic bone-predominant metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.1 Patients treated with the combination had ...
Formal discussant Viktor Grünwald, MD, PhD, of the Hannover Medical School, Germany, agreed that the results of JAVELIN Renal 101 were impressive, but he was more cautious about accepting avelumab (Bavencio)/axitinib (Inlyta) as a new standard of care without longer follow-up and quality-of-life...
In the JAVELIN Renal 101 phase III study, the combination of the immune checkpoint inhibitor avelumab (Bavencio), a programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) blocking antibody, plus the tyrosine kinase inhibitor axitinib (Inlyta) significantly improved progression-free survival in previously untreated...
Mary K. Buss, MD, MPH, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Candice A. Johnstone, MD, MPH, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, discuss a session they co-chaired on the perspective of stakeholders on the cost of cancer care, what drives patients’ preferences when faced with mounting medical ...
Formal discussant of this trial, Amanda Psyrri, MD, PhD, of the University of Athens Medical School, Attikon Hospital, Athens, Greece, commented on these results, suggesting they would affect clinical practice “tomorrow.” “Cisplatin/radiotherapy remains the standard of care for low-risk human...
In the United States and European countries, many oncologists are using cetuximab (Erbitux)/radiotherapy instead of cisplatin/radiotherapy in the treatment of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer, based on the belief that cetuximab is equally effective with less toxicity than...