This week marks our 100th episode of the podcast! We launched at the start of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, and this week, we’re reporting major findings from the 2021 Annual Meeting, including adjuvant therapy for patients with BRCA-mutated breast cancer, LuPSMA for metastatic prostate cancer, and ...
Debora S. Bruno, MD, of Seidman Cancer Center at Cleveland Medical Center, discusses study findings that show Black patients with advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer tend to be less likely to undergo biomarker testing or to be treated in clinical trials than White patients....
Results from the phase II MyPathway basket trial found that the HER2-targeted therapies pertuzumab and trastuzumab demonstrated durable activity in patients with a wide variety of tumors marked by HER2 amplification or overexpression, although responses were limited in those with KRAS mutations....
Jaap Verweij, MD, PhD, FASCO, was born in 1953 in Velsen, a municipality situated on both sides of the massive North Sea Canal in the Netherlands. His father was a sea captain, and other close family members also plied the oceans for a living in the fishing or transport industries. Dr. Verweij...
The field of geriatric oncology has developed steadily over the past several decades, thanks to the dedication of a close-knit community of oncologists who have devoted their careers to advancing multidisciplinary care for older patients with cancer. One such leader is Silvio Monfardini, MD, past...
Over the past year (May 2020–May 2021), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved and expanded indications for many drugs related to the treatment of different types of cancers and adverse events. The new approvals and accelerated approvals are listed below. PEMBROLIZUMAB (KEYTRUDA) in...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Hong et al found that prior frequent emergency department use was the strongest predictor of postdiagnosis emergency department visits among patients with a new diagnosis of cancer. Study Details The study involved data from adults...
In a population-based study reported in JAMA Oncology, Susan M. Domchek, MD, and colleagues found “no clinically meaningful differences” in the prevalence of germline pathogenic variants in 12 established breast cancer susceptibility genes between Black and non-Hispanic White women with breast...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Arjun V. Balar, MD, and colleagues, the phase II KEYNOTE-057 trial showed that pembrolizumab produced enduring responses in a cohort of patients with high-risk non–muscle invasive bladder cancer unresponsive to bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) who were ineligible ...
On May 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sotorasib (Lumakras) as the first treatment for adult patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have a KRAS G12C genetic mutation and who have received at least one prior systemic therapy. This is the first approved ...
Patients with breast cancer who experience disease progression on neoadjuvant systemic therapy tend to have poor survival outcomes, even after surgical management, according to a study presented during the 2021 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting.1 Findings from the retrospective...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nasser K. Altorki, MD, and colleagues found that neoadjuvant durvalumab plus stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) resulted in a markedly higher major pathologic response rate vs durvalumab alone in patients with early-stage...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Khaki et al found that although the use of anticancer systemic therapy during the last 30 days of life in patients with cancer has decreased overall since the first approval of a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, the use of PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors...
Adding sintilimab to a regimen of gemcitabine and platinum demonstrated clinical benefit over gemcitabine and platinum alone as first-line therapy in patients with locally advanced or metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These results from the ORIENT-12 trial were published by...
In the second interim analysis of the phase III CATNON trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Martin J. van den Bent, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that adjuvant temozolomide—but not temozolomide concurrent with radiotherapy—was associated with an overall survival benefit in patients with newly...
“Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.” —Hippocrates To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the...
The EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial, recently reported in The Lancet and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, showed an improvement in progression-free and overall survival with cemiplimab-rwlc in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high PD-L1 expression (tumor proportion score...
As reported in The Lancet by Ahmet Sezer, MD, of Başkent University, Adana, Turkey, and colleagues, the phase III EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial has shown improved overall and progression-free survival with cemiplimab-rwlc vs platinum doublet chemotherapy among patients with advanced non–small cell lung...
Breast cancer screening took a sizeable hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research showing that the number of screening mammograms completed in a large group of women living in Washington state plummeted by nearly half. Published by Amram et al in JAMA Network Open, the study...
Researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology leaders who have worked to reshape cancer care around the world are among the recipients of ASCO’s Special Awards—the Society’s highest honors—and the Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards from Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation. “The...
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 26th Annual Conference, which was held virtually...
On May 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to amivantamab-vmjw (Rybrevant), a bispecific antibody directed against epidermal growth factor and MET receptors, for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and...
The selective RET inhibitor selpercatinib is now approved for RET fusion–positive lung and thyroid cancers. New evidence presented at the virtual edition of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021 shows that selpercatinib is active against other RET fusion–positive...
The 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting kicked off this week with a premeeting presscast, where data from five studies to be presented at the conference were discussed. On this podcast, we’ll hear from two authors featured in that presscast about findings in non–small cell lung cancer and the effect of...
Internationally renowned for his pioneering research in combining high-dose radiation therapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer to improve patient survival, ASCO’s President-Elect Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, is dedicating his tenure as President to...
The discussant of the fuzuloparib abstract at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting was Thomas Herzog, MD, Deputy Director of the University of Cincinnati (UC) Cancer Center and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UC College of Medicine. He said that these data have already led to...
Heather A. Wakelee, MD, of Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the primary disease-free survival results of IMpower010, a phase III study that compared adjuvant atezolizumab vs best supportive care after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage resected non–small cell lung...
Patients with resected early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab following cisplatin-based chemotherapy had a 34% reduction in the risk of disease recurrence compared with best supportive care, according to the results from the phase III IMpower010 ...
In the United States, Black and Latinx individuals have higher cancer mortality rates than patients of other races. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014, many states expanded Medicaid eligibility, promising significant gains in coverage for racial minorities. But it...
As reported in The Lancet by Menon et al, long-term follow-up in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) showed that reductions in the diagnosis of stage III or IV ovarian cancer with annual multimodal screening compared with no screening did not translate into a mortality...
Melanocytic nevi are nonmalignant growths that arise from pigment-producing cells of the skin. They are mostly found in sun-exposed areas; however, they also can be found in sun-protected areas, such as the palms, soles of the feet, and nail beds, where they are known as acral nevi. While the...
In a single-institution retrospective study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Sinha et al found disparities in electronic health record (EHR) patient portal enrollment according to age, sex, race/ethnicity, and primary language among oncology patients. Study Details The study involved ...
Long-term cardiac safety and efficacy have been confirmed for the combination of pertuzumab plus trastuzumab in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, according to the final analysis of the phase II BERENICE trial reported by Chau T. Dang, MD, and colleagues at the ESMO Breast...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Olson et al found that pembrolizumab plus low-dose ipilimumab produced durable responses in patients with advanced melanoma whose disease had progressed on immediate prior PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor therapy. Study Details In the U.S....
Except in patients with no smoking history, the addition of chemotherapy to immunotherapy does not add benefit as a first-line treatment in patients with stage IV nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high expression of PD-L1, according to real-world experience. Outcomes from the U.S. ...
PRESERVE 4 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04863248)—a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study of trilaciclib administered prior to docetaxel in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the second- and third-line setting who have previously...
ASCO and Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) have jointly published an update1 to the 2017 ASCO guideline2 regarding systemic therapy recommendations for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with driver alterations. Guideline Co-Chair Nasser H. Hanna, MD, of the Indiana University Simon...
A significant survival advantage accrued to patients with stage IIB and IIC cutaneous melanoma who received adjuvant immunotherapy, a large retrospective cohort study reported at the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care.1 The 3-year overall...
On February 22, 2021, cemiplimab-rwlc was approved for first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; locally advanced who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation therapy or metastatic) whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression (tumor...
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. In this article, Nirupa Raghunathan, MD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on the increasing use...
The combination of the PI3K inhibitor copanlisib plus the monoclonal antibody rituximab reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 48% compared with placebo plus rituximab in patients with relapsed indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), according to the results of the phase III CHRONOS-3...
“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” —Bernard Williams To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting...
Formal discussant of the CheckMate 816 trial, Jhanelle E. Gray, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, said that both neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies have been shown to improve overall survival and relapse-free survival in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). “Overall, neoadjuvant outcomes compare...
Although head and neck cancers include multiple histologies and primary sites, squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) originating in the oropharynx, oral cavity, larynx, or hypopharynx are the most common. Today, we recognize several different types of head and neck diseases, primarily those that are human ...
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response rates compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with resectable stage IB to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the results of the CheckMate 816 study...
Futibatinib—a selective, fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor—demonstrated anticancer activity in patients with advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and FGFR2 fusions or rearrangements. These findings are based on the primary results of the phase II FOENIX-CCA2 trial, which were...
Research recently published by Valencia et al in the journal Cancers found that advanced-stage kidney cancer is more common in Hispanic American and Native American patients than in non-Hispanic White patients. Using data from the National Cancer Database and the Arizona Cancer Registry,...
There is currently no consensus on what quality end-of-life care for children with cancer looks like, or how to measure and deliver it; however, investigators recently assembled an expert panel to help fill this void. In a study published by Emily Johnston, MD, MS, and colleagues in the journal...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review designation to treatments for surgically resected, high-risk, muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma and epidermal growth factor receptor exon 20 insertion mutation–positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)....
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Sun et al found that first-line immune checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy was associated with better overall survival among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with PD-L1 expression ≥ 50% and KRAS variant vs KRAS...