In an international phase II trial (Mayo Clinic Phase 2 Consortium–NCI-9742) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ma et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) was active in previously treated recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Study Details In the study, 44 evaluable...
As reported by Armand and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, extended follow-up of the phase II CheckMate 205 trial continues to show benefits and good tolerability of nivolumab (Opdivo) treatment in relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous ...
In the international PRECISION trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Kasivisvanathan et al found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted biopsy resulted in a significantly higher rate of diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer and a lower rate of diagnosis of...
The ASCO Post mourns the loss of ASCO Past President James F. Holland, MD, FASCO, on March 22, 2018. Dr. Holland was the Distinguished Professor of Neoplastic Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. His wife of many years, Jimmie C....
A phase I/II trial has shown that the addition of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) to bendamustine is active in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. The study findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by Owen A. O’Connor, MD, of the Center for Lymphoid Malignancies, Columbia University...
The proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib (Kyprolis) has taken on an increasing role in the treatment of multiple myeloma, but new research from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania shows the therapy may come with the risk of cardiovascular problems in a higher-than-expected...
An interim analysis of a phase II trial reported by Jones et al in The Lancet Oncology indicates that venetoclax (Venclexta) produces a response in a high proportion of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) progressing on or after ibrutinib (Imbruvica) treatment. John C. Byrd, MD, of...
A phase II study (ACE-LY-004) reported in The Lancet by Michael Wang, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues showed durable responses with the Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor acalabrutinib (Calquence) in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma....
“I think I found the trial that is going to save your life,” Stefanie Joho’s sister said after checking out the ClinicalTrials.gov website. “And sure enough, it did. That is not an exaggeration. That is exactly what happened,” Ms. Joho, a health advocate and consultant based in Philadelphia, told...
Physicians can be proactive in alerting patients to possible adverse effects of immunotherapy and in encouraging patients to report them. “It is important to emphasize that whenever a patient develops a new symptom, always considering that this might be an immune-related side effect. We need to...
“Immunotherapy has a completely different side-effect profile than chemotherapy, and that has caught physicians off guard,” noted Drew Pardoll, MD, PhD, in an article published earlier this year in The Washington Post.1 Since then, efforts have moved forward on several fronts to bring physicians,...
I’m sure every cancer survivor feels this way, but my diagnosis, in 1997, of stage III germ cell testicular cancer couldn’t have come at a worse time in my life. I was nearing the end of a 60-city tour with my figure skating show Stars on Ice, when a nagging pain in my abdomen became so severe I...
On March 23, 2018, ASCO President Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, issued the following statement: The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) applauds Congress for its bipartisan support of the omnibus spending bill that significantly boosts our nation’s investment in biomedical research. By...
Thomas A. Gallo, MS, MDA, was named 2018–2019 President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) during its 44th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit on March 16, 2018, in Washington, DC. Mr. Gallo is Executive Director of the Virginia Cancer Institute in Richmond. ACCC...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Oncology Research Program (ORP) announced the selection and implementation of the iEnvision medical affairs platform, developed by Envision Technology Solutions. The NCCN ORP supports research through collaborations with pharmaceutical companies...
On March 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the indication for nilotinib (Tasigna) to include treatment of first- and second-line pediatric patients 1 year of age or older with Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase. In the United ...
Postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer who took the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole for 2 years after an initial 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy received an equal benefit to those who took the drug for 5 additional years. The trial results suggest that a shorter...
At the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), Michael Gnant, MD, FACS, of the Medical University of Vienna presented the 9-year median follow-up of a trial looking at the length of extended aromatase inhibitor therapy. At least four other recently presented or published trials have...
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected five members to serve on the AACR Board of Directors for the 2018–2021 term and four members to serve on the Nominating Committee for the 2018–2020 term. These new directors and committee members began their terms at...
James C. Wittig, MD, has been appointed Chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at the Morristown Medical Center and Medical Director of Orthopedic Oncology within the Atlantic Health System. Dr. Wittig will be responsible for ensuring quality, academic excellence, and optimal operational...
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at Northwell Health has selected Baylor College of Medicine’s Huda Zoghbi, MD, as the winner of the sixth annual Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine. The prize, which includes a $50,000 award, will be presented to Dr. Zoghbi in early June at the New York...
Yale Cancer Center has launched the Yale Center for Immuno-Oncology. The new center will build on Yale Cancer Center’s international leadership in immunobiology, cancer immunology, and development of novel cancer immunotherapies. It is a partnership between Yale Cancer Center and the Department of...
The Consortium of Universities for Global Health, Perlmutter Cancer Center, and the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health are issuing the “New York Challenge,” an ambitious campaign to end cervical cancer worldwide. They are challenging all nations to achieve a 70% human...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on preventing cancer. These studies are investigating a multitude of methods, including educational interventions; imaging devices; dietary changes/supplements; weight management;...
Survival of patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas is increasing, and with that comes the need, in some cases, for solid organ transplantation, often because of treatment-related toxicity. The factors involved in organ transplant among lymphoma survivors were discussed by Philip J....
The following essay by Elias Jabbour, MD, is adapted, with permission, from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and...
“This is a very exciting study. Acupuncture is another tool to address arthralgias associated with aromatase inhibitor therapy,” said Kathryn Ruddy, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. “I don’t think every patient with joint pain will opt for this for a variety of reasons, including...
Participation in clinical trials may overcome health disparities in the treatment of advanced or recurrent ovarian cancer, according to a study presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SGO) 2018 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer (Abstract 6). The study evaluated the effect of ...
Although aromatase inhibitors are highly effective as adjuvant therapy in metastatic breast cancer and for prevention of breast cancer, the side effects can be difficult to tolerate and often lead to discontinuation of therapy. A phase III randomized trial has found that acupuncture may relieve...
The phase III IMpower150 study met its coprimary endpoint of overall survival (OS) at interim analysis and showed that first-line treatment with the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) plus carboplatin and paclitaxel (chemotherapy) helped patients with advanced...
The average number of moderate or marked side effects reported by patients with breast cancer is lower if they are treated with radiotherapy to part of the breast or a reduced dose to the whole breast, rather than with standard whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT), according to new findings presented...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Gettinger et al, 5-year follow-up of patients receiving nivolumab (Opdivo) in a phase I study (CA209-003) in previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has shown prolonged survival and durable responses in a subgroup...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fader et al found that the addition of trastuzumab (Herceptin) to carboplatin/paclitaxel improved progression-free survival among women with HER2-overexpressing uterine serous carcinoma. HER2 has been found to be overexpressed in...
In a Korean study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Choi et al found that antibiotic treatment for Helicobacter pylori was associated with a significant reduction in metachronous gastric cancer in patients who had undergone endoscopic resection of early gastric cancer or high-grade...
ARMO BioSciences, Inc, recently announced the completion of the first interim analysis in its phase III SEQUOIA trial in patients with pancreatic cancer. The Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) for SEQUOIA, a clinical trial studying pegilodecakin (AM0010) plus FOLFOX (leucovorin,...
Women with small, low-grade, well-defined breast tumors and a genetic profile that shows they are at low risk of the cancer metastasizing have only a 1.4% risk of locoregional recurrence within 5 years, according to new results from a large randomized trial of nearly 7,000 patients. This low risk...
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common type of skin cancer, affecting more than 3 million Americans every year. Moreover, nonmelanoma skin cancer incidence is growing at an exponential rate—between 1976–1984 and...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Michalski et al, long-term follow-up in the NRG Oncology/RTOG 0126 trial showed no significant difference in overall survival with dose-escalated vs standard-dose radiotherapy in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. High-dose radiotherapy was associated...
In an Asian phase III noninferiority trial (AXEPT) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Xu et al found that modified XELIRI (mXELIRI, capecitabine plus irinotecan) was noninferior in overall survival vs standard FOLFIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil, and irinotecan), both given with or without bevacizumab...
In the phase III MURANO trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Seymour et al, the combination of the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) with rituximab (Rituxan) markedly improved progression-free survival vs bendamustine plus rituximab in patients with relapsed or refractory...
A combination of the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and the DNA repair–blocking agent niraparib (Zejula) can be significantly more effective than either drug alone in women with hard-to-treat ovarian cancer, a phase I/II clinical trial led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers...
Sentinel lymph node biopsies may be safely avoided for some women, according to research presented at the 11th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-11). Two new studies show that women with either triple-negative or HER2-positive types of breast cancer, whose cancers respond well to chemotherapy ...
On March 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for nivolumab (Opdivo) in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy) for the treatment of adults with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to blinatumomab (Blincyto) to treat adults and children with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who are in remission but still have minimal residual disease (MRD). In patients who have achieved remission after...
According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of death among men and women, killing about 84,000 men and 71,000 women each year. Although lung cancer–related death rates in the United States have declined steadily since 1990 in men, they did not start to decline...
Linda D. Bosserman, MD, FACP, FASCO, has been named Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP), an ASCO publication. Dr. Bosserman is a recognized leader in cancer care delivery with a deep understanding of the issues impacting all types of oncology practices. "We are delighted ...
In the E3805 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Morgans et al found that chemohormonal therapy with docetaxel and androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) was associated with poorer quality of life (QOL) at 3 months but better QOL at 12 months vs ADT alone in metastatic hormone-sensitive ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stanulla et al found that a gene profile including somatic deletions in the lymphoid transcription factor–coding gene IKZF1 and deletions in other genes was associated with minimal residual disease (MRD)-dependent very-poor prognosis...
Frozen section evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy has a higher false-negative rate than in the primary surgical setting, particularly for small tumor deposits. However, it is unknown whether similar false positive rates occur after chemotherapy. Researchers led by...
One in five women diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States will be diagnosed after the age of 65, suggesting that the recommended age to stop cervical cancer screening should be reconsidered, according to research presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SGO) 2018 Annual ...