The use of a simplified treatment regimen by oncologists—along with management recommendations and 24/7 support provided by a limited and dedicated group of academic disease experts—resulted in a decrease in early deaths from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). In the multicenter prospective trial...
The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel was deemed safe and showed encouraging signs of efficacy in a small pilot trial involving patients with lymphoma of the brain and/or spinal cord, according to findings presented by Caron A. Jacobson, MD, MMSc, and colleagues ...
A new clinical tool may pinpoint which patients with clonal hematopoiesis are at highest risk for cancer progression, according to new findings presented by Weeks et al at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 926). Background Clonal hematopoiesis—a...
A three-drug combination that showed success at sending patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) into deep remissions in a clinical trial may be effective at treating patients with high-risk types of the disease, according to new findings presented by Ryan et al at the 2022 American Society ...
Patients of non-European ancestry and especially those of low socioeconomic status are more likely to receive the most specialized types of allogeneic stem cell transplantation that require the highest level of care, according to new findings presented by Fingrut et al at the 2022 American Society...
A previous analysis by Khurana et al on the impact of inclusion/exclusion criteria in clinical trial design for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) found that up to 24% of patients treated with standard immunochemotherapy were excluded based on five lab-based criteria alone. A new...
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center presented preliminary results of an ongoing phase I clinical trial demonstrating successful retreatment with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for patients whose cancers relapsed after previous CAR T-cell therapy. ...
People undergoing a stem cell transplant for cancer do not derive any benefit from a restrictive diet that is commonly prescribed to prevent infections, according to a new trial presented by Stella et al at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 169)....
The results of a new study answer some questions and raise new ones about the optimal treatment strategy for children and young adults living with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or lymphoblastic leukemia (LBL). The randomized study is the first to test whether the use of a shorter, higher-dose...
Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) whose disease relapsed or did not respond to initial chemotherapy had similar outcomes when they proceeded directly to allogeneic stem cell transplantation compared with those who underwent intensive salvage chemotherapy to achieve complete remission...
In a recent trial of the European MCL Network, people with mantle cell lymphoma who received the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib had rates of progression-free survival and overall survival that were on par with the current standard of care (high-dose immunochemotherapy followed by...
Chemotherapy followed by endocrine therapy led to more cancer-related cognitive impairment compared with endocrine therapy alone in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer at 36 months, according to patient-reported responses. These findings—from a substudy of the phase ...
Editor’s Note: ASCO was deeply saddened by the news that Dr. Jeff Ward passed away on November 3, 2022. In an interview with Dr. Ward this past summer, published in ASCO Connection (August 30, 2022), ASCO recognized Dr. Ward’s commitment to exceptional patient care and public advocacy. An...
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, when he was just 55 years old. He died 6 years later. The cancer was so aggressive, it took only a few weeks from the time he was diagnosed for the cancer to grow to the size of a softball, and even a radical prostatectomy couldn’t save his...
Researchers have found that liquid biopsies may be able to detect the blood disorder clonal hematopoiesis, which places patients at higher risk of developing blood cancers. The findings were presented at the 2022 European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)–National Cancer...
Breast cancer specialist Brittany L. Bychkovsky, MD, MSc, grew up primarily in Kansas; however, given that her father was a pilot, her childhood was not wholly centered in the Sunflower State. “When I was 12 years old, my mom, who was a schoolteacher, was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. Her ...
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 Bolivia. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
The National Academy of Medicine recently announced the election of 90 regular members and 10 international members during its annual meeting. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated...
The repercussions from the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, to overturn Roe v Wade, effectively ending a nearly 50-year federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing instead states to determine abortion access, are starting to be felt in the cancer care community. The ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, a physician-scientist who currently serves as President of the City of Hope National Medical Center and the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief...
A new ASCO guideline on the management of advanced colorectal cancer summarizes the latest treatments supported by quality data that could expand oncologists’ armamentarium and potentially improve survival outcomes.1 “[Colorectal cancer] remains the second-leading class of cancer deaths among men ...
The use of circulating tumor cell counts to guide the choice between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic, estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer provided overall survival benefits compared with physician’s choice of treatment,...
Chemotherapy-induced hair loss affects 65% of patients with cancer,1 and the psychosocial impact on these patients can be profound; it may include anxiety, depression, a negative body image, lowered self-esteem, and a reduced sense of well-being.2 In some instances, the fear of hair loss from...
Molecular testing and genomic testing are now considered standard of care in breast cancer, guiding treatment decisions in early breast cancer and targeted therapies in the metastatic setting. “But tumors evolve,” Virginia Kaklamani, MD, DSc, reminded participants at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sonneveld et al, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III CASTOR trial has shown a significant overall survival benefit with daratumumab plus bortezomib/dexamethasone (D-Vd) vs bortezomib/dexamethasone alone (Vd) in patients with...
Invited discussant of the October 2022 ASCO Plenary session, Jean Lundberg Wright, MD, commended the authors on an “extremely well-done study, with findings applicable to patients today in clinics where barriers are not prohibitive.” She also noted several limitations to the currently available...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provided recommendations on the use of radiation therapy and systemic therapy after surgery to treat patients with endometrial cancer, according to a newly updated clinical guideline published by Harkenrider et al in Practical Radiation Oncology....
Second-line treatment with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) led to significantly longer overall survival compared with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, according to updated results from the DESTINY-Breast03 phase III clinical trial...
Iris C. Gibbs, MD, FACR, FASTRO, of Stanford Medicine in California and Chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Council on Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, was an invited discussant for this study on physician assessment of sexual dysfunction in women vs men receiving...
Many radiation oncologists tend to discuss the sexual side effects of radiation therapy, specifically brachytherapy, with men more often than with women, according to a two-part study reported at the 2022 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 At a high-volume cancer...
According to a recent article published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, cancer care in the United States exceeded $208 billion in 2020 and is expected to surpass $240 billion by 2030.1 These estimates are driven largely by a growing and aging population. The expenditures...
The statistics are grim: Worldwide, pancreatic cancer is the 12th most common cancer and the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality.1 In the United States, the malignancy has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers. It is currently the third leading cause of cancer-related death after...
Formal discussant of the PCS5 trial, Sophia C. Kamran, MD, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, said the goal of trials like this one is to optimize...
In patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer—including patients with visceral crises—those treated with ribociclib plus endocrine therapy had fewer adverse events and significantly longer progression-free survival compared to those treated with combination...
The incidence of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) has surged in recent years—possibly because of the growing use of textured breast implants. Considering this trend, some patients with breast cancer who undergo mastectomy may wonder if the benefits of getting reconstructive implants are worth...
Residual tumors from Black patients with estrogen receptor–positive/HER2-negative primary breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a higher risk score associated with a biomarker of distant metastatic recurrence compared with tumors from White patients, according to new findings...
Among premenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, early-stage breast cancer enrolled in the SOFT trial, those with a high score on the Breast Cancer Index genomic assay had an increased risk of distant recurrence—and those with a low score on the Breast Cancer Index may have benefited...
Non-Hispanic Black patients with lymph node–positive, hormone receptor (HR)–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer experienced worse outcomes compared with the outcomes of non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Hispanic patients—despite similar 21-gene recurrence scores—according to new findings presented by ...
In a cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Chen et al found that postmenopausal breast cancer survivors with exercise patterns categorized as active or moderately active had significantly reduced risk for all-cause mortality compared to those with patterns categorized as insufficiently...
New research has shed light on how skewed X chromosome inactivation may be linked to the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a novel study published by Roberts et al in eLife. Background Because the X chromosome has so many more genes than the Y chromosome, in every cell...
Patients older than 65 years may be undergoing unnecessary cervical cancer screenings, and more public health data may be needed on the utilization of cervical cancer screening–associated services among older patients to prevent potential harm and unnecessary costs, according to a new study...
Twenty percent of patients are likely to forgo additional testing after an abnormal finding on a screening mammogram if there is a deductible, according to new findings presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2022 Annual Meeting. Background As health-care costs and insurance...
Diagnosing early-stage lung cancer using low-dose computed tomography (CT) screenings may improve patients’ long-term survival rate, according to long-term findings from the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2022 Annual...
Preclinical research has shown that mantle cell lymphoma is so critically dependent on the FOXO1 protein that by blocking its activity with an experimental drug, the cancer’s growth may be slowed, according to a new study published by Jang et al in the Journal of Clinical Investigation....
More than 1.4 million patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020 globally, but the molecular characteristics of the disease remain unexplored for the majority of patients around the world. In the final days of the Movember campaign, which every year in November aims to raise awareness of...
November is Caregiver Awareness Month, and timely findings from a study published by Amonoo et al in the journal Blood Advances suggested that, among caregivers of patients undergoing a stem cell transplant, how someone approaches coping can influence the levels of anxiety, depression, and poor...
Patients with cancer who are living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection had an increased epigenetic age compared with patients with cancer living without the HIV infection, according to a new study presented by Coghill et al at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer may be less likely to survive if their initial treatment fails to eradicate the tumor completely and they have high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in their residual tumors, according to a new study published by Miglietta et al in the European...
Using intraoperative ultrasound to guide surgery for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ may yield better results than the standard technique of using a wire inserted into the breast, according to a new study published by Esgueva et al in the European Journal of Cancer. The findings were also...
Lori Wilson, MD, FACS, was the first woman to hold the surgical oncology division chief position at Howard University Hospital and the first woman to be promoted to full professor in surgery at Howard University College of Medicine. Known as a fierce advocate for patients with cancer in underserved ...