Despite widespread awareness of the importance of screening for asymptomatic, early detection of cancer, screening tests exist for only five cancer types. With few recommended cancer screening tests and generally low adherence to cancer screening recommendations, it is difficult to detect cancer...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tian et al found that clonal hematopoiesis was associated with an increased risk of subsequent lung cancer, independent of known risk factors. Study Details Two nested case-control studies were performed. One included 832 incident lung cancer ...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and ASCO recently released a joint policy statement outlining the latest research on the use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and recommendations for regulating these products to protect public health. The...
The KRAS G12C inhibitor sotorasib demonstrated clinically meaningful anticancer activity with an acceptable safety profile in heavily pretreated patients with KRAS G12C–mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer, accordi�ng to a novel study published by Strickler et al in The New England Journal of...
New findings revealed that the highest mortality rates for prostate cancer among White male patients were found in the Western United States—including California—despite low incidence rates, according to a new study published by Schafer et al in European Urology. However, when compared with White...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bröckelmann et al, final results of the German Hodgkin Study Group phase II NIVAHL trial indicate nearly 100% progression-free survival and 100% overall survival at 3 years among patients with early-stage unfavorable classical Hodgkin lymphoma...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In the concluding half of this two-part installment, which began in our November 25 issue, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and Mrinal M. Patnaik continue to explore the current...
Despite the benefits of lung cancer screening, including the high cure rate when found by screening compared to being discovered based on symptoms, the uptake of this technique among those who are eligible and where the screening is fully covered by insurance remains dismally low, on the order of...
Diarrhea in patients with cancer is a well-known phenomenon with clear guidelines for prevention and management. However, it remains a condition with poorly explored consequences and a lack of sufficient and fast-acting treatments. In a webinar presented by members of the Multinational Association...
After a 4-year in-person hiatus because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the World Cancer Congress, hosted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), held its first hybrid in-person and virtual meeting in October in Geneva. The conference brought together more than 2,000 attendees from...
The cancer prevention and survival research organization World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) International recently launched the Global Cancer Update Programme, a new and updated version of the organization’s flagship research program, which was previously known as the Continuous Update Project. This ...
“Risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy allows a woman with a high-penetrance breast cancer-causing mutation to avoid an encounter with the experience of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment,” Seema A. Khan, MD, MPH, stated at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.1 For these women, by avoiding...
A microbiome-derived therapeutic vaccine (EO2401) has demonstrated immune responses and anticancer activity in combination with nivolumab and bevacizumab in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, one of the most difficult-to-treat cancers, according to data presented at the 2022 Society for...
Commenting on the DESTINY-Breast03 presentation at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Neelima Vidula, MD, a medical oncologist at Mass General Cancer Center, said: “The results highlight the important survival differences of T-DXd [fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki] compared to T-DM1...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) proved to be superior to the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), significantly improving progression-free survival and overall survival, in women with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer as ...
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the world, and nowhere more so than in the health-care arena. Significant changes happened almost overnight in the delivery of medical care to focus on the safety and convenience of patients, staff, and providers. Although pilot efforts to integrate telemedicine...
Just days before the publication of the 2022 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer on October 27, 2022,1 which showed a continued downward trend in cancer deaths, Karen Knudsen, MBA, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS), joined the First Lady Dr. Jill...
Researchers have discovered that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act may lead to better survival outcomes for young adult patients aged 18 to 39 years who have been newly diagnosed with cancer—particularly among those who identify as Hispanic or non-Hispanic Black—according to...
Clinical trials involving adult patients conducted within the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) over the past 4 decades are estimated to have extended the lives of U.S. patients with cancer by at least 14.2 million patient-years, according to a new study published...
Fox Chase Cancer Center was recently awarded a grant for $6 million over the course of 5 years to develop a new Cancer Prevention-Interception Targeted Agent Discovery Program (CAP-IT). The new National Cancer Institute (NCI) program was created to establish a pipeline for the discovery of new...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Stephen R.D. Johnston, MD, PhD, and colleagues, an interim analysis of overall survival in the phase III monarchE trial has shown no significant benefit with the addition of adjuvant abemaciclib to endocrine therapy in patients with hormone receptor–positive,...
In 2017, I noticed a roadside billboard touting the benefits of low-dose computed tomography (CT) imaging for lung cancer screening. The message probably saved my life. The public service campaign, called Saved by the Scan from the American Lung Association, included an Internet address where I...
Gladys Magaly Rodriguez, MD, was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, a city situated along the banks of the Rio Grande. At age 6, her family immigrated to Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town of some 30,000 people that is predominantly Latinx and Spanish speaking. “Even though I lived and attended school...
Lymphoma expert Alex Herrera, MD, was born in Miami; his parents were just 19 years old when he was born. Dr. Herrera’s father was born in Puerto Rico to Cuban and Ecuadorian parents. His mother was born in Cuba and came to the United States via Operation Peter Pan, the clandestine program that...
In an analysis from the HOPE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mina S. Sedrak, MD, MS, and colleagues found that approximately one-fifth of older women with early-stage breast cancer received a relative dose intensity (RDI) of neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy that was below...
In a Swedish study (GÖTEBORG-2) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hugosson et al found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted prostate biopsy was associated with a lower risk of overdiagnosis of clinically insignificant prostate cancer compared with MRI-targeted and...
On December 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated labeling for capecitabine tablets (Xeloda) under Project Renewal, an Oncology Center of Excellence initiative aimed at updating labeling information for certain older oncology drugs to ensure information is clinically...
On December 14, U.S. Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the Comprehensive Cancer Survivorship Act (CCSA)—legislation that will address...
The novel drug modakafusp alfa has shown early promise in combating relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to new findings presented by Vogl et al at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 565). Background Modakafusp alfa is a fusion protein...
The novel MinimuMM-seq technique may make it possible to detect tumor cells in individuals at higher risk for multiple myeloma, assess the risk of disease progression in patients with myeloma, and track genetic changes in tumor cells over time from a single blood sample, according to a new study...
On December 14, Monica M. FACS, Bertagnolli, MD, FASCO, Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), released the following statement: I was very recently diagnosed with early breast cancer. The prognosis is very favorable. The cancer is hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer...
Richter syndrome is an aggressive lymphoma that develops in up to 1% of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and it serves as an example of histologic transformation. While recent advances have transformed the treatment landscape of CLL, Richter syndrome remains associated with poor...
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...
Long-term recurrence and survival data are now available from the groundbreaking TAILORx trial. With 12 years of follow-up, the updated analysis—reported by Sparano et al at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) 2022 (Abstract GS1-05)—confirms the original findings that chemotherapy may...
Anand P. Jillella, MD, of Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, discusses results from the ECOG-ACRIN EA9131 Trial, which showed that using a simplified treatment algorithm and management recommendations made by a group of specialists, resulted in a dramatic improvement in 1-year survival of ...
Andrew Matthews, MD, of the Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, discusses findings from a large, multicenter study that showed superior outcomes with 7 + 3 chemotherapy (cytarabine continuously for 7 days, along with short infusions of an anthracycline on each of the first 3 days)...
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. ...
Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, and Patrizia Mondello, MD, PhD, both of the Mayo Clinic, discuss the 20% of patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) who relapse early and experience a poor prognosis. The researchers found that FLs with high levels of IRF4 expression are associated with a suppressive...
Results of a planned interim overall survival analysis of the phase III monarchE trial offer further support for the addition of abemaciclib to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk breast cancer, according to Stephen R.D....
In an early-phase trial, nearly three-quarters of patients who received talquetamab—a first-in-class, off-the-shelf, T-cell–redirecting bispecific antibody targeting both the GPRC5D and CD3 receptors—for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma saw a significant reduction in cancer burden within a...
Marleen Kok, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses the most important advances in early breast cancer treatment during the past year for patients with triple-negative, HER2-positive, and estrogen receptor–positive disease. Dr. Kok also addresses long-term treatment toxicities and...
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...
“Pregnancy confers a dual effect” on breast cancer risk, “with an initial transient increased risk for breast cancer that is followed by long-term protection over time,” Luis Zabala Blanco, Jr, MD, noted in an update on the pathology of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, which was presented at the ...
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 ...
Guest Editor’s Note: In October, the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) held its 2022 Annual International Conference in a hybrid format (virtual and in Scottsdale, Arizona). It was centered on the basic science, education and training, and implementation of integrative oncology in diverse...
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...