“In many areas of the United States, the health-care system is facing critical workforce shortages. ASCO encourages public health officials and health-care facilities to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for managing health-care personnel with SARS–CoV-2 infection or...
A next-generation technology that focuses on protein expression at the single-cell level has yielded a wealth of information about “spatial connectivity” between cancer cells and their microenvironment. It also provided information on the benefit of adding the immune checkpoint inhibitor...
Nearly 200 years ago, Thomas Hodgkin for the first time described a peculiar disease with undulating fever, enlarged lymph nodes, and a big spleen. Its nature was obscure. It was a fatal illness, affecting mainly young adults and children. In 1865, Samuel Wilks named this illness Hodgkin’s...
Melanoma is often curable when detected and treated in its early stages. However, the disease can rapidly spread to other organs in the body and become deadly. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed the treatment of certain cancers, including melanoma, and improved patient care. But despite...
In the INTRIGUE trial, reported during the January 2022 session of the virtual ASCO Plenary Series, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ripretinib was not superior to sunitinib in the second-line treatment of patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) but was better tolerated.1...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Damodaran et al found that the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor copanlisib exhibited activity in patients who have tumors with PIK3CA mutations. The study is a subprotocol (Z1F) of the NCI-MATCH ECOG-ACRIN trial (EAY131), a ...
This past fall, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York expanded its adolescent and young adult (AYA) program with the establishment of the Lisa and Scott Stuart Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancers. The Stuart Center is now part of the increasing list of about 50 academic ...
In 2015, an unprecedented phenomenon occurred in the United States: according to the World Bank Group, the nation’s average life expectancy fell from 78.8 years in 2014 to 78.7 years in 2015, then to 78.5 years in 2017. The last time our life expectancy registered a similar decline was in the years ...
Patients with cancer undergoing active treatment were more likely to believe misinformation related to COVID-19 than those without a history of cancer, according to a new study published by Guidry et al in Patient Education and Counseling. “These findings help us better understand the threat of...
With a follow-up of at least 3 years, the results from the CheckMate 743 study represent the first long-term survival data in a phase III study evaluating first-line immune checkpoint inhibition in patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. Overall, 23% of patients treated with...
In a commentary published in The Lancet Oncology, Harpreet Singh, MD, and Richard Pazdur, MD, both of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), warned against the increasing number of oncology drug development programs based wholly or predominantly on data...
A recent study published by Conley et al in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment aimed to evaluate factors that influence the ability of people with metastatic breast cancer to adhere to their prescribed regimen of oral anticancer medication. Researchers found that multiple factors affected...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Fernandez et al found that scoring accuracy for low HER2 protein expression (0 or 1+) in breast cancer tissue on standard immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays was poor. As observed by the investigators, the findings pose issues for investigation of fam-trastuzumab ...
I was honored to contribute a chapter on the cancer care delivery system and how to improve it for the book A New Deal for Cancer: Lessons From a 50 Year War, edited by Abbe R. Gluck and Charles Fuchs, MD, MPH (Public Affairs, 2021). The book chronicles what has been accomplished in the 50 years...
Charles Shapiro, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on the study findings. “MA.32 is a large, randomized placebo-controlled trial of metformin in over 3,600 women with invasive breast cancer. The rationale for...
Jeffrey M. Farma, MD, FACS, Chief of the Division of General Surgery and Co-Director of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been elected a member-at-large for the Society of University Surgeons. According to the society, the member-at-large position is an important...
The ASCO Post asked Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of Medical Breast Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San...
The start of January 2014 was filled with excitement. I was undergoing fertility treatments to have a second child and was living my professional dream. I was a network news anchor and medical news reporter for a national broadcast network. Although I was exhausted from my grueling early morning...
Guest Editor’s Note: Mindfulness has gained immense popularity in recent years. Growing evidence suggests the benefits of mindfulness-based practices, which include concentration meditation and guided imagery, for managing symptoms associated with cancer and its treatments. In this article,...
The benefits of ovarian function suppression were sustained long term for premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, according to updates from SOFT and TEXT, two randomized, controlled trials, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 A separate large...
Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and University of Utah Health welcome Amit Maity, MD, PhD. Dr. Maity will serve as Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology for the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah. Dr. Maity is a physician-scientist who currently...
Nilofer Azad, MD, Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Co-Director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, was invited to discuss the results of the phase III TOPAZ-1 study, which found an overall survival...
For the first time, a phase III study has shown an overall survival benefit for upfront treatment using immunotherapy plus chemotherapy in advanced biliary tract cancer. In the TOPAZ-1 trial, the addition of the anti–PD-L1 agent durvalumab to gemcitabine plus cisplatin significantly improved...
On February 2, 2022, City of Hope announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a network of oncology hospitals and outpatient care centers across the United States. City of Hope, in Duarte, California, now has expanded its...
Regulations that are developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must have some shelf-life before revisions are considered. The FDA has several mechanisms to provide patients with more rapid access to medicines. One such pathway is accelerated approval. Backward Glance at Accelerated...
Over the past 7 years, the introduction of combined endocrine therapy with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors resulted in a dramatic improvement in outcomes for patients with metastatic, hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Early attempts to modulate the cell cycle with ...
On February 9, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released the AACR Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Research and Patient Care. According to findings contained within the report, patients with cancer are not only at an increased risk for developing severe COVID-19, but...
New research published by Shulman et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network confirmed that mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 are just as safe for people with cancer as they are for cancer-free individuals. Researchers from a single institution tracked short-term side effects from ...
Mirek Fatyga, PhD, of Mayo Clinic Arizona, discusses his findings on overall survival in patients with locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer who are treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy or conventionally fractionated radiotherapy. He notes that a high dose of > 50 Gy to the...
The invited discussant of the SOLSTICE trial1 was Demetris Papamichael, MB, BS, Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre and Associate Professor at St. George’s Hospital and Medical School, University of London. He said that although the study concluded...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating a possible increased risk of death associated with umbralisib (Ukoniq), a kinase inhibitor including PI3K-delta and CK1-epsilon, approved to treat marginal zone and follicular lymphomas. The FDA determined that initial findings from the...
Hyaluronic acid is a known presence in pancreatic tumors, but a new study published by Kim et al in eLife has shown that hyaluronic acid can also act as a nutrient to fuel pancreatic cancer metabolism. These findings provide insight into how pancreatic cancer cells grow and indicate new...
Treating women diagnosed with a certain type of early-stage breast cancer with the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab after surgery may reduce the risk of the cancer returning, according to a report published by Ali et al in Scientific Reports. The research team from the University of Saskatchewan...
As Vice President, in 2016, Joe Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot with the mission to accelerate the rate of progress against cancer. The cancer and patient community and medical researchers responded with energy and ingenuity. On February 2, President Biden announced the reigniting of the Cancer ...
On January 31, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a second COVID-19 vaccine, which has been known as the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals aged 18 years and older; the approved vaccine will be marketed as Spikevax. “The FDA’s approval of [the...
The era of precision oncology, in which molecular biomarkers are used to help guide drug delivery, has dovetailed with the emerging issues of value-based care and cost containment. To shed light on these issues and more, The ASCO Post spoke with Hanna K. Sanoff, MD, MPH, Clinical Medical Director...
As reported in the Journal of Oncology by Reinhard Dummer, MD, and colleagues, the phase III COMBI-i trial has shown no significant progression-free survival benefit with the addition of the anti–PD-1 antibody spartalizumab to dabrafenib and trametinib in patients with no prior systemic treatment...
Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, of City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and AccessHope, discusses results from a phase I/II study of regorafenib and pembrolizumab in refractory microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer. Although the trial did not meet its primary endpoint, the median overall survival is...
Writing a comprehensive book about breast cancer that is also concise and highly readable is no easy task. However, the authors of The Breast Cancer Book: A Trusted Guide for You and Your Loved Ones have done that and more by deftly communicating science and medical content for the lay public....
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this occasional special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Burundi. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
Tennessee Oncology, one of the largest providers of oncology care in the country, announced that Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) effective January 1, 2022. Natalie Dickson, MD, President and CMO, will remain in her role as President of the company while...
A greater understanding of the mutational landscape in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has identified key oncogenes, such as EGFR, ALK, ROS, RET, and BRAF, among others. These discoveries, coupled with the availability of specific targeted small-molecule inhibitors, have transformed the...
“Fifty years ago, just a few days before the new year, former President Richard Nixon signed into law the National Cancer Act (NCA), setting a clear national priority to conquer cancer. “At the time the bill was signed into law, pioneers in our field had already made substantial discoveries, but we ...
Building on its long history of advancing health equity in cancer care, ASCO recently released “The ASCO Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan: A Legacy of Commitment, A Future of Promise for Individuals with Cancer.” The plan aims to infuse equity into all of the organization’s...
Jonathan Wesley Riess, MD, MS, has been appointed Medical Director to oversee UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Thoracic Oncology Program. Dr. Riess replaces David R. Gandara, MD, who will soon be co-directing a new center in experimental cancer therapeutics. Dr. Riess’ appointment is...
After almost a century of limited efficacy of cancer immunotherapy,1 the breakthrough happened in 2012 with the discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors,2,3 leading to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo. Yet about 40% of patients on immune...
The ASCO Post asked Joseph Mikhael, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation and Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center), to comment on the GMMG-HD7...
As a first-line treatment of inter-mediate- or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the addition of the antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin-piiq to standard-of-care therapy resulted in a 27% reduction in the relative risk of disease progression, relapse, or death, with a similar safety...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with lisocabtagene maraleucel could prove to be the new standard-of-care treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma in the second-line setting, according to data presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH)...
The Board of Directors of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Karen L. Kelly, MD to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Spring 2022. Dr. Kelly, a renowned medical oncologist, is an active, long-standing...