A phase II trial has shown that the combination of the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinst) produces responses in brain metastases in patients with BRAF V600–mutant melanoma. These findings were reported by Davies et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study ...
The phase III ALCANZA trial has shown that brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) produces a higher global response rate vs physician’s choice of therapy in previously treated CD30-positive cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. These results were reported by Prince et al in The Lancet. Study Details In this...
Extended follow-up data demonstrated responses from nivolumab (Opdivo) in adult patients with relapsed or progressed classical Hodgkin lymphoma after autologous stem-cell transplant (ASCT), irrespective of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) therapy history. Results from the phase II CheckMate-205 study ...
Updated results from the ELIANA clinical trial demonstrated CTL019 (tisagenlecleucel) remission rates are maintained at 6 months in relapsed/refractory pediatric and young adult patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). These data from this pivotal trial of CTL019 show that 83% (52...
Long-term follow-up data from the DYNAMO study, which met its primary endpoint of overall response rate (ORR; P = .0001) at the final analysis, was presented at the 22nd Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) (Abstracts S777, E1130). DYNAMO is a phase II clinical study...
On June 23, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved betrixaban (Bevyxxa) for the prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in adult patients hospitalized for an acute medical illness who are at risk for thromboembolic complications due to moderate or severe restricted mobility...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about 28 million people younger than age 65 are uninsured, compared with more than 48 million in 2010, before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. A review of current evidence concerning the relationship between health insurance...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tobacco use and exposure accounts for about one-third of all cancer-related deaths in the United States. Moreover, exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke is attributable to more than 7,000 lung cancer–related deaths each year in ...
A statement from ASCO Past President Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FACP, FASCO, expressed the Society’s strong opposition to the Administration’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, which includes a 21% funding cut for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a 20% funding cut for the National Cancer ...
ASCO submitted comments to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the agency’s proposed guidance for industry on demonstrating the interchangeability of biosimilars with a reference product. The Society reiterated its strongly held position that physicians and patients should have the...
ASCO has announced the launch of its Center for Research & Analytics (CENTRA), which aims to make an array of cancer data available to the oncology community and provide consultation and support for research and analysis. To help guide the program, ASCO has appointed Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer,...
Check out some of the newest Cancer.Net patient-friendly videos produced by ASCO. These videos give people with cancer and their families and friends an additional option for receiving oncologist-approved information. New topics include an introduction to prostate cancer, early-stage breast...
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Director of Medical Oncology, Assistant Dean for Cancer Research, Emory University School of Medicine; Roberto C. Goizueta Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research, Deputy Director, Winship Cancer Institute ASCO Member since ...
In most cases, oncology doctors and nurses only assess their patients’ symptoms during regular checkups. Between visits, patients typically report symptoms only if there is a more severe problem. A study, funded in part by the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) of ASCO, suggests increased...
As the economics and management of health care change, it has become essential for the clinician to evolve as well in order to navigate these changing waters. Whether you are a medical student, a senior oncologist, or an advanced practice provider, the necessity is the same: understanding the...
On June 22, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted regular approvals to dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) administered in combination for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with BRAF V600E mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test. These ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the monoclonal antibody daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst) and dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies including lenalidomide...
In a single-center retrospective analysis reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Wiesenthal et al found that among patients dying in a hospital, those with palliative care in place at final admission received less diagnostic testing and other services not associated with promoting patient...
In the phase II BIRCH trial, atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was found to produce higher response rates as first-line or subsequent therapy in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with higher levels of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. Study findings were...
Several breast cancer experts weighed in on the findings of the APHINITY trial. At an ASCO press briefing, Harold Burstein, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and breast cancer specialist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, pointed out that investigators estimated a ...
The results of the long-awaited APHINITY trial are in, and although the phase III study met its primary endpoint, it failed to establish dual HER2 blockade as the optimal adjuvant treatment for early HER2-positive breast cancer. After 3 years of follow-up, the addition of pertuzumab (Perjeta) to...
On June 22, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted regular approval to the combination of rituximab and hyaluronidase human (Rituxan Hycela) for adult patients with follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The approval provides a...
Seattle Genetics has discontinued its phase III CASCADE clinical trial of front-line vadastuximab talirine (SGN-CD33A) in older acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. The phase III CASCADE clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating vadastuximab talirine...
Findings from a retrospective study showed that women who became pregnant after an early breast cancer diagnosis, including those with estrogen receptor–positive tumors, did not have a higher chance of cancer recurrence and death than those who did not become pregnant.1 Matteo Lambertini, MD, of...
This issue of The ASCO Post discusses a recent trial reported by Strosberg et al in The New England Journal of Medicine that is the first phase III randomized international multicenter clinical trial evaluating lutetium Lu-177 dotatate as a peptide receptor radionuclide therapy in midgut...
“This is a watershed moment in the treatment of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Often studies show only incremental improvements with a new treatment. This is different. Alectinib [Alecensa] shows a dramatic increase in efficacy that is also accompanied ...
In the phase III NETTER-1 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues found that the addition of the targeted radiotherapeutic agent lutetium Lu-177 dotatate to the long-acting repeatable (LAR)...
The joint American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), College of American Pathologists (CAP), Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), and ASCO guideline reported by Sepulveda et al, and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, represents a collaboration of three pathology societies and ASCO ...
In 2011, crizotinib (Xalkori) became the first effective targeted therapy for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Now data from a phase III trial show that alectinib (Alecensa), a second-generation ALK inhibitor, outperformed crizotinib, the current...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Antonia R. Sepulveda, MD, PhD, of Columbia University, and colleagues, a joint guideline on the use of molecular biomarkers for evaluation of colorectal cancer has been developed by an expert panel from the American Society for Clinical Pathology...
According to Srikala S. Sridhar, MD, MSc, FRCPC, of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada, “It’s an exciting time in the field of urothelial cancer,” thanks to the emergence of new therapies such as the immune checkpoint inhibitors and other approaches that aim to improve both...
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has endorsed a report that outlines key action items to be taken immediately to accelerate progress toward ending cigarette smoking in adults.1 Issuing its Executive Summary Report, the Core Team for Tobacco Control and Smoking...
Accelerating the discovery of targeted cancer therapies requires defining the targets present in individual tumors, and there are two main ways to do this, David B. Solit, MD, told participants at the inaugural OncoSET Symposium: Emerging Approaches to Precision Medicine in Chicago.1 The...
Jeffrey L. Molter has joined NYU Langone Medical Center in a newly created position of Director of Cancer Center Communications of its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center. Mr. Molter comes to Perlmutter Cancer Center after serving for the past 4 years as Director of Media and Public...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a hot area of research and development in hematologic malignancies and, more recently, some solid tumors. Results have been particularly good in acute lymphocytic leukemia, and one or more CAR T-cell products may be getting close to approval by the ...
ASCO President Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, released the following statement on June 8: ASCO congratulates Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, on the announcement of his continued service as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A renowned researcher and skilled administrator, Dr....
On June 12, ASCO President Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, released the following statement: ASCO congratulates Norman “Ned” Sharpless, MD, on his appointment as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). ASCO is encouraged that NCI will have at its helm an accomplished researcher with...
Physicians gathered at the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) elected Barbara L. McAneny, MD, FASCO, MACP, an oncologist from Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the new President-Elect of the physicians’ organization. Following a year-long term as President-Elect, Dr. McAneny will...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded SWOG clinical trials program has added 3.34 million years of life for patients with cancer in the United States because of successful therapies that were validated through its trials. When analyzed, the investment for each year of life gained since the...
ASCO spokespersons at the press briefing lauded the results with larotrectinib and called for broader testing for tropomyosin receptor kinase fusions. The data for larotrectinib “bring us into a new era where treatment is truly based on mutation, not location,” said Sumanta Kumar Pal, MD, a...
Larotrectinib, an oral inhibitor of tropomyosin receptor kinase, showed “striking” activity in adult and pediatric patients with the genetic aberrations known as tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) fusion, researchers reported at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Of 55 patients treated with...
Richard S. Finn, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, commented on MONARCH 2 and the field of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibition in general in an interview with The ASCO Post. “MONARCH 2 is confirmatory for the role of CDK4/6 inhibition in estrogen...
In the treatment of metastatic estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, a highly significant 45% reduction in progression was achieved with abemaciclib, combined with fulvestrant (Faslodex), in the global phase III MONARCH 2 trial, reported at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting by George W. Sledge, MD,...
Formal discussant of this paper, Allison Kurian, MD, MSc, of Stanford University School of Medicine, said: “I think these results are practice-changing. Toxicity and quality of life were better with olaparib [Lynparza].” Dr. Kurian noted that the study did not report correlative biomarkers for...
The PARP INHIBITOR olaparib (Lynparza) improved progression-free survival in women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer that was either hormone receptor–positive or triple-negative in patients who had a germline BRCA mutation.1,2 These results of the international, randomized, open-label,...
LATITUDE Trial ASCO expert Sumanta Pal, MD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California, commented on the LATITUDE trial at a press conference. “In 2014, docetaxel added to hormonal therapy showed an improved survival benefit in two trials—CHAARTED and STAMPEDE. It was no ...
The addition of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) plus prednisolone/prednisone to standard androgen-deprivation therapy improves survival in men starting treatment for locally advanced or metastatic, hormone--naive prostate cancer, according to the results of two potentially practice-changing studies...
“No man is an island entire of itself; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” —John Donne (1624) This statement is almost certainly true—and sadly in a negative way not just for the UK but for...
Formal discussant of the trial, Monika K. Krzyzanowska, MD, MPH, of the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto, Canada, commented on this trial assessing patient-reported outcomes for symptom monitoring. “This abstract is relevant to all of us, regardless of what cancers we treat or where we...
According to Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, more than 260,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States in 2016, most of whom were diagnosed with early-stage (stage I or II) disease. For this demographic, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network®...