In an interim analysis of the German phase II IMMUNED trial reported in The Lancet, Lisa Zimmer, MD, of University Hospital Essen, and colleagues found that adjuvant nivolumab plus ipilimumab and nivolumab alone significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival vs placebo in patients with resected...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bradley J. Monk, MD, and colleagues, the phase III MEK Inhibitor in Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (MILO)/ARRAY-162-311/ENGOT-ov11 trial showed that the MEK1/2 inhibitor binimetinib did not improve progression-free survival vs physician’s choice...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Véronique Diéras, MD, and colleagues, the phase III BROCADE3 trial showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival with the addition of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib to carboplatin and paclitaxel in patients with...
On September 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved oral azacitidine (Onureg; also known as CC-486) for the continued treatment of adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who achieved first complete remission or complete remission with incomplete blood count recovery...
A new study from the American Cancer Society has found health insurance coverage disruptions in the prior year led to issues with health-care access and affordability for currently insured cancer survivors. The study was published by Zhao et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention....
In a patient-level meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chiara Cremolini, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan (FOLFOXIRI) plus bevacizumab was associated with significantly greater overall survival vs...
The first-line setting for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) now has become more complicated, according to data presented during the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer Virtual...
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a debilitating and enduring adverse effect of many antineoplastic agents, which negatively impacts the quality of life of patients with cancer and survivors. Current pharmacotherapy has limited efficacy and causes undesirable effects. In this...
For patients with non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) marked by RET gene fusions, the targeted therapy selpercatinib was well tolerated and achieved durable objective responses in the majority of participants in the phase I/II LIBRETTO-001 trial, according to researchers from The University of...
In an Austrian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Berghoff et al found that 0.4% of consecutive patients with cancer treated at Medical University of Vienna tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between March 21 and May 4, 2020, after implementation of institutional and governmental...
Public momentum for efforts to address structural and systemic racism has led many health-care institutions to consider how they can work to bring about positive change. In this column, drawing on important recent work by Kimani Paul-Emile, JD, PhD, Professor of Law at Fordham University School of ...
The Society of Gynecologic Oncology announced with sadness the death of Wendy Noelle Ericsson, an advocate and champion of the Foundation for Women’s Cancer, an advocacy group supporting research, education, and public awareness of gynecologic cancers. Ms. Ericsson’s death was due to complications...
Measuring serum levels of tamoxifen among premenopausal women being treated for invasive breast cancer identified a “worryingly high proportion of patients, one in six, who were nonadherent to therapy at only 1 year after treatment prescription,” researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical...
The COVID-19 pandemic is an additional competing risk to factor in when making decisions about anticancer treatment for older adults. It poses a potential barrier to equal and evidence-based management of cancer in this group of patients. Implementing geriatric assessments in routine clinical...
The dramatic advances in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple myeloma over the past 20 years have resulted in significant improvements in overall survival, with 5-year relative survival rates now around 50% and more than 60% for patients younger than age 70.1 The proteasome inhibitors...
The Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors have been one of the most exciting advances in the tre atment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and have led to the development of chemotherapy-free treatments for both treatment-naive as well as relapsed or refractory CLL based on studies where...
William G. Kaelin, Jr, MD, will receive a Distinguished Scientist Award from the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) on October 12, during the 2020 AACI/Cancer Center Administrators Forum Annual Meeting. Due to COVID-19–related restrictions on travel and gatherings, the meeting will...
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 July 31, 2020, tafasitamab-cxix, a CD19-directed...
A vaccine for COVID-19 is currently the Holy Grail, but even if an effective vaccine were developed on a fast-track timetable, it may be effective in only a percentage of people, judging by existing flu vaccines, which show efficacy rates of approximately 45% and vary year by year. Until we have a...
As reported inThe Lancet Oncology by Jean-Yves Blay, MD, of Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France, and colleagues, the phase III INVICTUS trial has shown that the oral KIT and PDGFRα tyrosine kinase inhibitor ripretinib significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with...
Oncologists should consider screening all patients with cancer for the hepatitis B virus (HBV) prior to starting systemic anticancer therapy, with a focus on tests that use the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc), total Ig or IgG, and antihepatitis B surface...
In the time of COVID-19, there is much to learn about the intersection of coronavirus and cancer. One area of concern has been whether immunotherapies increase the risk of mortality in patients with cancer who also have COVID-19 infection. “To what extent immune checkpoint inhibition affects...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Abida and colleagues, the phase II TRITON2 trial has shown that rucaparib produces durable responses in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with deleterious BRCA1 or BRCA2 alterations. The trial supported the May 2020...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Duffy et al, final results of the UK Age Trial show that initiation of annual mammography screening for breast cancer at age 40 was associated with a significant reduction in breast cancer mortality at 10 years compared with screening beginning at age 50 years, ...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Xuan et al found that sorafenib maintenance after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation significantly reduced the risk of relapse vs no maintenance therapy in patients with FLT3–internal tandem duplication (ITD)–positive...
“The distressing intersection of COVID-19 and cancer requires the use of large registries to acknowledge diversity,” stated Solange Peters, MD, PhD, President of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), in her keynote speech at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual...
Scientists have newly discovered three genetic changes that increase the risk of breast cancer in men. These findings were published by Maguire et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The researchers identified three common variations in DNA that predispose men to developing breast...
In the phase III VIALE-A trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Courtney D. DiNardo, MD, and colleagues found that venetoclax plus azacitidine significantly improved overall survival vs azacitidine alone in previously untreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Susan M. Domchek, MD, and colleagues, the combination of olaparib and durvalumab showed activity in a cohort of patients with germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer enrolled in a phase I/II basket study (MEDIOLA). Study Details In the...
Novel targeted therapies have increased the likelihood of cure and prolonged survival in many patients with advanced breast cancer (Table 1), but these new agents also carry toxicity profiles that vary greatly from those of traditional chemotherapy. During the ASCO20 Virtual Education Program,...
Results from a recent clinical trial indicated that for older adults with advanced cancer, initiating aspirin treatment may increase their risk of disease progression and mortality. These findings were published by McNeil et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Study Background and...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first liquid biopsy companion diagnostic that also uses next-generation sequencing technology to identify patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and specific types of EGFR mutations. The FDA also granted Fast Track...
A study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute investigating mortality trends in lung cancer by subtype has found that population-level mortality from individuals with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) fell sharply from 2013 to 2016, and that survival after diagnosis improved...
Patients with light-chain amyloidosis may soon have a new standard of care, according to data presented during the 25th European Hematology Association (EHA25) Virtual Annual Congress.1 Results of the phase III ANDROMEDA study have shown that adding subcutaneous daratumumab to the triplet...
As reported in The Lancet by Matthew D. Galsky, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tisch Cancer Institute, New York, and colleagues, the phase III IMvigor130 trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival with first-line atezolizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy vs...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 Matthew D. Galsky, MD, of The Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and colleagues found that maintenance pembrolizumab produced additional responses and improved progression-free survival vs...
Two recently reported phase III trials have shown the benefits of combination therapy vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Brian I. Rini, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues, the ...
Nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer arises in the subset of men with biochemically recurrent disease (ie, rising prostate-specific antigen [PSA] level after definitive therapy in the absence of metastases) who develop PSA progression after chronic exposure to androgen-deprivation...
In the phase III ARAMIS trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy, Universite Paris-Sud, Villejuif, France, and colleagues found that the androgen-receptor (AR) antagonist darolutamide significantly prolonged metastasis-free...
Positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging with the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted radiotracer fluorine F-18 DCFPyL (PyL) successfully identified areas of occult metastasis in men with biochemically recurrent metastatic castration-resistant prostate...
Discussant Scott T. Tagawa, MD, MS, of Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, congratulated Dr. Hofman and coauthors on this first randomized trial of any PSMA-targeted therapy and was cautiously optimistic about the targeted radioligand treatment being adopted as post-docetaxel therapy in men with...
Initial results of the randomized phase II TheraP trial showed that therapy directed to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) with lutetium-177–labeled PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) significantly improved prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response compared with cabazitaxel in men with metastatic...
On June 22, 2020, the oral nuclear export inhibitor selinexor was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), not otherwise specified, including DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma, after at least two lines of systemic...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Catherine A. Shu, MD, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and colleagues found that neoadjuvant treatment with atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel/carboplatin produced a major pathologic response in 57% of patients and pathologic complete...
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the virtual edition of the 25th European Hematology Association Annual Congress (EHA25 Virtual), here are a few abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on clinical research in Hodgkin and marginal zone lymphomas. Omission of...
On June 18, 2020, the EZH2 inhibitor tazemetostat was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) whose tumors are positive for an EZH2 mutation, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test, and who have...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology®, covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. During the NCCN’s 25th Annual Conference, which was held virtually during ...
Although NTRK gene fusions occur in less than 5% of gastrointestinal cancers, it looks like they can be targeted successfully with NTRK inhibitors. In a pooled analysis of three clinical trials, 50% of such patients responded to entrectinib, in an updated analysis presented during the 2020 virtual...
Patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who are dependent on red blood cell transfusions have limited options, especially if they are no longer responding to erythropoiesis-stimulating agents. Research presented during the virtual edition of the 25th European Hematology Association ...
As outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic spiked across the country earlier this year, federal health officials and cancer societies advised people to delay seeking routine cancer screenings, including mammograms and colonoscopies, to keep them out of medical centers and away from potential exposure to ...