On December 18, W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, began her work as the 17th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Rathmell was selected by President Biden to succeed Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, who left NCI to become the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on...
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists may be effective at reducing the risk of colorectal cancer in patients with a higher body mass index (BMI) and diabetes, according to a recent study published by Wang et al in JAMA Oncology. Background Obesity is a chronic health condition that...
Pieter Sonneveld, MD, PhD, of the Netherland’s Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, discusses primary results from the Perseus trial, showing that for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are eligible for transplantation, the combination of daratumumab plus bortezomib, lenalidomide, and...
Older patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who were not candidates for the standard treatment of intensive chemotherapy had a median overall survival of 6.5 years on an alternative regimen of dasatinib and blinatumomab, according to long-term results...
The phase II PrE0405 trial met its primary endpoint, achieving a complete response rate of 85% in 33 patients with mantle cell lymphoma over age 60 who received bendamustine and rituximab, a standard chemoimmunotherapy regimen, along with venetoclax, which is investigational in this setting. The...
On December 15, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. The FDA previously granted accelerated approval to this combination for patients...
ASCO has elected Eric J. Small, MD, FASCO, to lead as its President beginning in June 2025. Dr. Small, a long-time ASCO member and volunteer, will take office as President-Elect immediately following the ASCO Annual Business Meeting in Chicago on June 3, 2025. An additional six ASCO members were...
On December 11, ConcertAI announced the acquisition of CancerLinQ, previously a subsidiary of ASCO. In conjunction with the acquisition, ASCO will maintain a multiyear cooperation agreement with CancerLinQ. Building on CancerLinQ’s mission when launched by ASCO in 2013, this new venture will...
Use of venetoclax may increase survival in non-Hispanic Black patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to recent findings presented by Wang et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 955). Background Although the standard treatment...
The targeted therapy bezuclastinib may be safe and effective at reducing markers of disease burden and improving symptoms in patients with nonadvanced systemic mastocytosis, according to recent findings published by Bose et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...
Patients with relapsed or refractory acute leukemia with rearrangement in the lysine methyltransferase 2A gene, a genetic marker known as KMT2A, who were treated with revumenib, a small-molecule inhibitor of menin-KMT2A interactions, saw an overall response rate of 63%, according to results from...
The Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor ruxolitinib plus the B-cell lymphoma 2 protein inhibitor navitoclax may be twice as effective at spleen volume reduction compared with standard-of-care ruxolitinib monotherapy in adult patients with intermediate- or high-risk myelofibrosis, according to new findings ...
Two new studies have demonstrated positive results from novel therapies targeting menin for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with specific gene mutations, according to findings presented by Jabbour et al (Abstract 57) and Issa et al (Abstract 58) at ...
Among patients who have acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with genetic mutations in NPM1, those with no residual leukemia cells in the blood based on high-sensitivity testing after two cycles of chemotherapy achieved high rates of overall survival at 3 years and saw no additional survival benefit from...
Newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma who received daratumumab along with the standard care regimen of bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (VRd) had significantly higher rates of survival without disease progression compared with those who received VRd alone. Results from the phase ...
Patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma who received ibrutinib in combination with venetoclax experienced significantly better rates of progression-free survival compared with patients who received ibrutinib and placebo, according to findings from the international phase III...
Early results from a new study have demonstrated that the novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy AT101 resulted in favorable complete response rates at higher dose levels in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to new findings simultaneously...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI) model may help physicians distinguish and identify prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis from essential thrombocythemia, according to new findings presented by Srisuwananukorn et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition...
Data presented at the 2023 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition suggest that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy remains a viable option for patients who have lymphoma that goes into remission before the cell therapy begins (Abstract 615). While the findings do not answer the...
Patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) who received a combination therapy including arsenic trioxide, all-trans retinoic acid, and ascorbic acid (AAA) in oral form with no or minimal chemotherapy showed high rates of survival and relapse-free survival at 3 years, according to new findings ...
For patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who have an early relapse or whose cancer doesn’t respond to first-line treatment, randomized trials have shown that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is superior to the historical standard of care, which included additional chemotherapy...
Among patients newly diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who were treated with two targeted agents and whose duration of treatment was determined by high-sensitivity testing for residual cancer cells in the blood, 97.2% were free of cancer progression and 2% had died at 3 years. By...
Researchers have found that patients with psychiatric or substance use disorders may have an increased risk of experiencing poorer outcomes such as early mortality following treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with venetoclax combination therapies compared with those without a recent history ...
Researchers identified a 75% higher rate of mortality among patients treated for multiple myeloma in real-world hospital settings compared with rates reported in clinical trials involving common therapies. The new findings were presented by Visram et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology...
Investigators have found that in the past decade, a majority of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) active R01 grants related to classical, nonmalignant hematology were led by male investigators, according to new findings presented by Khan et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology...
Researchers may have uncovered a close link between genetic factors and racial disparities in pediatric patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to new findings presented by Lamba et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 386)....
An ASCO guideline has been developed to inform the use of systemic treatments for metastatic, well-differentiated gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs).1 The guideline helps fill a knowledge gap among community oncologists in particular, who typically do not see many of these rare ...
On October 11, 2023, the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib (Braftovi) with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib (Mektovi) was approved for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a BRAF V600E mutation, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test.1,2 The FDA...
Syed Ali Abutalib, MD, is taking his talents to the recently affiliated Aurora Health Care, now part of Advocate Health, one of the largest integrated health systems in the United States. He accepted a new position at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, where he is now Director of the...
Invited discussant Krishnansu Tewari, MD, Associate Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of California, Irvine, said two new approaches for locally advanced cervical cancer, as described at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023, represent...
In patients with newly diagnosed, locally advanced cervical cancer, induction chemotherapy prior to chemoradiation therapy led to a 35% reduction in the risk for disease recurrence or death (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.65; P = .013) and a 39% reduction in the survival hazard (HR = 0.61; P = .04),...
In patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, the addition of the PD-L1–inhibiting monoclonal antibody atezolizumab to first-line chemotherapy plus the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab significantly improved all efficacy outcomes and yielded a median overall survival that exceeded 2.5 ...
Although significant progress has been made to reduce the gap in health outcomes of minority or underserved patients, meaningful steps forward still need to be made to improve health disparities. Countless studies have shown, in general, that affluent White individuals have better health outcomes...
ASCO discussant Elizabeth Smyth, MD, a consultant medical oncologist at Oxford University Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom, commented on the EDGE-Gastric trial. This regimen, which evaluated dual checkpoint blockade with next-generation agents, aims to...
Initial findings from the global phase II EDGE-Gastric trial indicate the potential for two novel immune checkpoint inhibitors to improve outcomes in advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. The findings were reported at the November 2023 ASCO Plenary Session by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, Chief of...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Nina Shah, MD, Global Head of Multiple Myeloma Clinical Development and Strategy, Hematology, Oncology Research and Development at AstraZeneca. She is a hematologist who specializes in...
ASCO and the oncology community are deeply saddened by the death of medical oncologist Worta J. McCaskill-Stevens, MD, MS, on November 15, 2023. Dr. McCaskill-Stevens served as Chief of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology and Prevention Trials Research Group and Director of the...
Lung cancer incidence overall has been declining in the United States since 1992—and since 2006–2007 for both men and women by 2.7% annually and 1.1%, respectively—and overall mortality rates have declined in both men and women because of smoking cessation efforts and advances in therapy and early...
Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH, Executive Director of Research at the LUNGevity Foundation, in Chicago, shared his thoughts with The ASCO Post on the INCREASE trial’s findings and their potential impact on clinical practice. As Dr. Roy explained, neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy remains the current standard ...
Final overall survival results from the MONARCH 3 trial were reported in a late-breaking presentation during the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS01-12). MONARCH 3 evaluated abemaciclib in combination with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) compared with an AI alone as initial...
Session moderator S. Vincent Rajkumar, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and Chair of the Mayo Clinic Myeloma, Amyloidosis, and Dysproteinemia Group, commented on the GMMG-CONCEPT trial and other studies in newly diagnosed patients. “There are two strategies to...
Women aged 50 or older who had less-frequent mammography 3 years after curative surgery for early-stage breast cancer had similar outcomes as women who had annual mammography, according to results from the Mammo-50 trial presented at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS03-02)....
Patients with low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who skipped adjuvant radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery had comparable 5-year outcomes to those with high-risk DCIS who received adjuvant radiotherapy, according to results from the E4112 clinical trial presented at the 2023 San...
Comprehensive profiling of fusion RNAs present in a large cohort of metastatic breast tumors revealed unique fusion mutations that may be therapeutically targetable, according to results presented at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS03-09). Fusion mutations occur when a...
Susan G. Komen presented its 2023 Breast Cancer Awards to four physician-scientists and one research advocate for their contributions to advancing breast cancer discoveries and improving patient outcomes. The five recipients were recognized at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Awards event in San...
Researchers have revealed significant differences in the genetic characteristics of HER2-low advanced breast cancers, which may lead to the development of novel therapeutics for patients, according to recent findings presented by Kahn et al at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract...
Investigators have found that estrogen levels measured through blood tests may be predictive of which individuals at high risk of breast cancer will benefit from aromatase inhibitors, according to a recent study presented by Cuzick et al at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract...
For the treatment of advanced melanoma that is refractory to anti–PD-1 antibodies, there is no standard approach. The various options, with a look to the future, were discussed by Melinda L. Yushak, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Hematology and Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine, at...
Almost all postmenopausal patients aged 50 to 69 with stage I hormone receptor–positive breast cancer and low scores on a common genetic test who opted out of adjuvant radiotherapy were disease-free 5 years after surgery, according to results from the IDEA clinical trial presented at the 2023 San...
Two studies led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrated clinical benefit from novel targeted therapies, which may offer new treatment options for patients with metastatic hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer. The data were shared in oral...