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 installment, Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on the use of...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, MD, FAANS, FACS, the James C. and Sarah K. Kennedy Dean of Research, Monica Flynn Jacoby Chair of Neurologic Surgery, and William J. and Charles...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and L. Jeffrey Medeiros explore the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
Recent improvements in overall and progression-free survival for patients with HER2-positive and estrogen receptor–positive breast cancers have not come at the expense of quality of life or symptom management, according to a pair of studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
Encouraging outcomes were achieved in patients with BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer who received neoadjuvant treatment with olaparib in a feasibility study led by Shannon N. Westin, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD...
The addition of the PD-1 inhibitor sintilimab to standard induction chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy resulted in a significant improvement in 3-year event-free survival, a manageable safety profile, and comparable quality of life in high-risk, locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma vs standard ...
As reported in The Lancet by Becker et al, an interim analysis of a European phase II study (ADMEC-O) showed that adjuvant nivolumab was associated with a numeric benefit in disease-free survival vs observation in patients with completely resected Merkel cell carcinoma. Study Details In the...
In the phase II KEYNOTE-B61 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Laurence Albiges, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that first-line pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib produced durable responses in patients with advanced non–clear cell renal cell carcinoma. As stated by the investigators,...
In a small phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Priscilla K. Brastianos, MD, and colleagues found that the BRAF-MEK inhibitor combination of vemurafenib and cobimetinib produced an objective response in almost all patients with newly diagnosed papillary craniopharyngiomas ...
In the phase III CONTACT-03 trial reported in The Lancet, Sumanta Pal, MD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the addition of atezolizumab to cabozantinib did not improve outcomes in patients with renal cell carcinoma whose disease progressed on or after prior immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment....
In a phase III trial (LASER301) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Byoung Chul Cho, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that lazertinib improved progression-free survival vs gefitinib in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As stated by the...
In a single-institution, phase I, first-in-human trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cowan et al found that the combination of the γ-secretase inhibitor (GSI) crenigacestat and B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy was tolerable and produced a high...
In a phase I/IIa study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Piotrowska et al found that the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor zipalertinib showed activity and an acceptable safety profile in previously treated patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and EGFR exon 20...
Researchers have revealed that combining pembrolizumab with other treatments may reduce the size of target tumors, resulting in a higher response rate for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a recent study published by Gutierrez et al in Nature Medicine. “We are...
This is Part 3 of Treatment Considerations in Renal Cell Carcinoma, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Brian Rini, Pedro Barata, and Kathryn Beckermann discuss the treatment of immunotherapy (IO)-refractory...
This is Part 1 of Treatment Considerations in Renal Cell Carcinoma, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Brian Rini, Pedro Barata, and Kathryn Beckermann discuss the role of adjuvant therapy for renal cell carcinoma...
In an analysis of National Wilms Tumor Study (NWTS) protocols reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oosterom et al identified the incidence of treatment-related severe hepatopathy in patients with Wilms tumor and described outcomes in these patients. Study Details The study involved data...
In an interim analysis of a Spanish pilot trial (CARTBCMA-HCB-01) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Oliver-Caldés et al found that an academically developed B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, ARI0002h, showed activity in patients with relapsed...
In a study of real-world prospective data—GOSAFE—reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Montroni et al found that the majority of patients aged ≥ 70 years undergoing colorectal cancer surgery showed maintained or improved quality of life and achieved functional recovery during follow-up....
In the phase IIb HERIZON-BTC-01 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, James J. Harding, MD, and colleagues found that zanidatamab—a bispecific antibody targeting two distinct HER2 epitopes—showed activity in previously treated patients with HER2-positive advanced biliary tract cancer. Study...
In the phase I/II BRUIN trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Anthony R. Mato, MD, and colleagues found that the noncovalent (reversible) Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor pirtobrutinib exhibited strong activity in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic...
Session co-moderator Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS, the Louisa and Rand Glenn Family Chair in Breast Cancer Research, Director of the Glenn Family Breast Center, and Director of Breast Medical Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, offered his thoughts on PHERGain to The...
The phase II PHERGain trial, which employed a response-adapted strategy in the treatment of early-stage, HER2-positive breast cancer, has shown promising results for the selective use of HER2 blockade and de-escalation of chemotherapy.1 Nearly all patients assigned to skip chemotherapy prior to...
About 50% of patients with metastatic prostate cancer may experience financial hardship as a result of their treatment, according to a new study published by Joyce et al in The Journal of Urology. Background "Our most significant finding may be that patients experience financial toxicity despite...
In a Korean phase Ib/II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kim et al found that trastuzumab combined with ramucirumab and paclitaxel showed activity in the second-line treatment of patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer whose disease...
The invited discussant of the VERSATILE-002 and CUE-101-01 trials, Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS, said both are examples of a growing interest in evaluating immunotherapeutic strategies and treatment sequences in early-stage head and neck squamous cell cancer as well as in metastatic disease. Dr. ...
Immunotherapeutics that target human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype 16 appear to boost the activity of pembrolizumab in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Two examples were presented in posters at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting.1,2 The phase II VERSATILE-002 trial evaluated PDS0101,...
This is Part 3 of Updates in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, a three-part video roundtable series. In this video, Dr. Naveen Pemmaraju and Dr. Gabriela Hobbs discuss goals of care in primary myelofibrosis. The patient is a 27-year-old woman who presents to the clinic after 6 months of...
When I felt a large mass in my left breast as I was drying off from a shower on Thanksgiving Day, in 2007, I instinctively knew it was cancer. My mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 38, just 7 years older than I was at the time, and died 4 years later. I was 6 when she was...
Guest Editor’s Note: Psychological distress is highly prevalent in women diagnosed with premenopausal breast cancer and has a significant negative impact on their quality of life. Thus, effective strategies are urgently needed to reduce the symptom burden. In this installment of The ASCO Post’s...
The global population is aging rapidly. Currently, there are more than 703 million people worldwide aged 65 and older, representing 9.1% of the global population. It is estimated that this percentage will grow to 15.9%—1.5 billion people—by 2050.1 And with that growing aging population will come...
On May 19, 2023, epcoritamab-bysp was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)–not otherwise specified, including DLBCL arising from indolent lymphoma, and high-grade B-cell lymphoma after two ...
Results from a series of randomized, controlled trials have prompted an update to the ASCO guideline on venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis and treatment in patients with cancer. The revised guideline, which had last been updated in 2019, is available from the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1...
After a 4-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASCO’s Breakthrough meeting is returning to Asia from August 3–5, 2023, in Yokohama, Japan, and will also be livestreamed (https://conferences.asco.org/breakthrough/welcome). Launched in 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand, “Breakthrough is ASCO’s...
The implementation of a collaborative program between North American and Mexican medical institutions to achieve sustainable, high-quality care at a public hospital in the United States–Mexico border region for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has resulted in significant improvement ...
On December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 into law, establishing a national cancer program that included the National Cancer Institute (NCI), other research institutes, and federal and nonfederal programs; funding for 15 new cancer research centers and...
In the primary overall survival analysis of ZUMA-7, second-line treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel significantly improved overall survival compared with high-dose therapy plus autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-HCT) in patients with early relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma....
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, guest editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Isabel T. Rubio, MD, PhD, Head of Breast Surgical Oncology at Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Madrid. Dr. Rubio is active in many societies and is a founding member and...
David A. Braun, MD, PhD, of Yale Cancer Center, was the formal discussant of the abstract on the 4-year follow-up of the CLEAR trial. “We have made remarkable progress [in advanced renal cell carcinoma] and are now in the combination era of immunotherapy-based therapy and immunotherapy-based...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Jianming Xu, MD, of Fifth Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, corresponding author Harry H. Yoon, MD, of the Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III RATIONALE-306 trial has shown...
As a relatively rare subtype, lobular breast cancer is not well understood by many oncologists. At the 2023 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Tari A. King, MD, FASCO, described how it differs from its more common counterpart, ductal breast cancer, in terms of characteristics, prognosis, and optimal...
At extended follow-up, lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab showed sustained superiority over sunitinib for overall and progression-free survival as first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma.1 The majority of the benefit was observed in intermediate- and poor-risk subgroups, according to the...
Axillary management decisions made during surgery may be associated with aggressive treatment of limited nodal disease, according to data presented at a press briefing at the 2023 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting.1 Results of a large National Cancer Database study revealed that...
At the ASCO session on the phase II DESTINY-PanTumor02 trial on T-DXd, the invited discussant, Kohei Shitara, MD, commented: “As expected, this trial demonstrated a very impressive response rate and duration of response” and “showed T-DXd [fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki] to be a potential new...
Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) may prove to be beneficial in a variety of treatment-refractory solid tumors that express HER2, according to findings from the international phase II DESTINY-PanTumor02 trial presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 For patients with the highest HER2...
The addition of nivolumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, to chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival in adults and children with advanced classical Hodgkin lymphoma with reduced toxicity compared with standard-of-care brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy, according to the...
Neoadjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy followed by surgery and then adjuvant pembrolizumab led to significantly improved event-free survival in patients with resectable stage II and III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared with platinum-based chemotherapy...
Ciara L. Freeman, MD, PhD, Assistant Member, Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, was impressed with the CARTITUDE-4 findings. She said “treaters and patients” will be “watching this space” to see how the results change the...
Compared with the standard of care for relapsed multiple myeloma, a single infusion of ciltacabtagene autoleucel was associated with a significant 74% reduction in the risk of disease progression in patients with lenalidomide-refractory multiple myeloma after one to three relapses, the phase III...
My father is deaf. Born deaf, he is now 75 years old. He uses his voice, but he sounds strange to a hearing person when he speaks. He uses lip-reading techniques to communicate. A year ago, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. We did his oncology itinerary together. My father cannot go alone to...