Just weeks after my wedding in late summer of 2017, I had a sudden bout of abdominal pain so severe that it sent me to the emergency room. I was just 29 years old and in great physical shape. In the emergency room, a physician examined me and was about to release me with a prescription for a...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nitin Jain, MD, and colleagues found that the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax was highly active in previously untreated high-risk and older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In the study, 80 ...
GUEST EDITOR Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief of Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the...
Over the past several decades, the field of psychosocial oncology has matured into an invaluable subspecialty that helps patients with cancer and their caregivers deal with the existential issues that arise in cancer, especially in the advanced-disease setting. In an effort to add to this...
In the phase II CLARITY trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hillmen et al found that the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax resulted in high rates of minimal residual disease eradication in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In the...
To learn more about the processes that lead to chemotherapy-associated cardiotoxicity, a team of researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) conducted a study to investigate whether early changes in energy-related metabolites in the blood—measured shortly after...
Findings from a small phase I study investigating a nonengineered, multiantigen-specific T-cell therapy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer has found that the therapy had clinical activity and was safe and well tolerated. The early results suggest that the immune cell therapy may provide a...
New research published by Li et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has identified a way to help clinicians caring for patients with multiple myeloma to predict blood clots in order to take preventive action. The researchers established a set of risk factors to...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Van Tine et al found that infusion-related reactions occurred in 14.4% of patients receiving olaratumab in clinical trials, with grade ≥ 3 events occurring in 2.3%. (Olaratumab was withdrawn from the global market on April 25, 2019, based...
Blood and intratumoral regulatory T-cell activity may one day provide a method for predicting breast cancer relapse, according to findings published by Wang et al in Nature Immunology. “This is the first success linking a solid tumor with blood biomarkers—an indicator of whether a...
Patients with biliary tract cancer have an altered genetic architecture in some immune system receptor systems, according to research published by Cornillet et al in Gastroenterology. Research Findings Researchers at Karolinska Institutet investigated the genetic architecture of two large genetic ...
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, explore the current...
Despite an avalanche of novel therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the past decade in the treatment of multiple myeloma, including proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs, this blood cancer remains largely incurable, and nearly 13,000 people are expected...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel hematology and oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On February 22, trifluridine/tipiracil...
Patients with cancer who took cholesterol-lowering statin medication following radiation therapy of the chest, neck, or head had significantly reduced risk of suffering a stroke—and possibly other cardiovascular complications—according to research published by Boulet et al in...
The MAVORIC study—presented by Scarisbrick et al at the 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML; Abstract 034)—examined the efficacy of mogamulizumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets the CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), in patients with previously treated mycosis...
A fixed-duration regimen of venetoclax plus obinutuzumab demonstrated superior progression-free survival, complete response rates, and minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity compared with chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab as first-line therapy for older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia...
ONEONCOLOGY, a clinical partnership between three community oncology practices—Tennessee Oncology, New York Cancer and Blood, and West Cancer Center, and other independent community oncologists, recently announced three new appointments to the group's executive team: Natalie Dickson, MD, as Chief...
Excluding skin cancer, colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent and lethal cancer among both men and women in the United States.1 Although the risk of developing colorectal cancer increases with age—more than 90% of cases occur in people aged 50 or older2—recent research shows that the...
NYU Langone Health has opened the doors to a new multispecialty outpatient facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. This new location features the capabilities of the Perlmutter Cancer Center. Previously, patients received radiation treatment at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn and chemotherapy and other...
Nonmetastatic (M0) castration-resistant prostate cancer arises in the subset of men with biochemically recurrent disease (ie, rising prostate-specific antigen [PSA] level after definitive therapy in the absence of metastases) who develop PSA progression after chronic exposure to...
In a phase III ARAMIS trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Karim Fizazi, MD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy, Universite Paris-Sud, Villejuif, France, and colleagues found that the androgen-receptor antagonist darolutamide significantly prolonged metastasis-free survival vs placebo ...
An international group of researchers has found that antibodies to the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) may develop in the body between 6 to 40 years prior to a clinical diagnosis of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and their presence indicates a strong increased risk of the disease....
The speed at which older individuals with blood cancers are able to walk 4 meters (about 13 feet) holds information about their overall health and may help to predict survival and unplanned hospital visits, according to study published by Liu et al in Blood. The association was...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation for momelotinib in myelofibrosis, granted Priority Review to a biologics license application for luspatercept in myelodyslastic syndromes and beta-thalassemia, granted Orphan Drug designation for a new chemical...
The 2006 publication of the National Cancer Institute’s report Closing the Gap: Research and Care Imperatives for Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer highlighted the lack of improvement in cancer survival among people between the ages of 15 and 39 compared to children and older adults...
The E2810 trial was conducted to determine whether treatment with the oral drug pazopanib following surgery to remove further metastases in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma would improve their disease-free survival. Results from the study—which showed that primary endpoint of...
OneOncology, the national partnership of independent community oncologists, announced that it is entering into a new partnership with Arizona Blood & Cancer Specialists. The new practice will be the fourth to join OneOncology, a network already comprising 227 physicians practicing at 62 sites...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has recognized Cornelis J.M. Melief, MD, PhD, with the seventh AACR–Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology. Dr. Melief is Emeritus Professor at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, as well as...
BOOKMARK Title: Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of BloodAuthor: Rose GeorgePublisher: Metropolitan BooksPublication date: October 2018Price: $27.00, hardcover, 368 pages Blood has been mythologized and misunderstood since the earliest records of humankind and still ...
Against the backdrop of the online crowd-sourcing initiative PCROWD and other research by faculty investigators on precursor conditions that may develop into leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), or multiple myeloma, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has opened the Center for the Prevention of...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic regimens for plasma cell dyscrasias, particularly multiple myeloma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit ...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel hematology and oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. Early in 2019, ibrutinib was approved for...
As reported in The Lancet by Tony S.K. Mok, MD, of Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues, the KEYNOTE-042 trial has shown an improvement in overall survival with pembrolizumab vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung ...
An interim analysis of the large Pediatric MATCH trial found that 24% of children and young adolescents with cancers refractory to current treatments had been assigned to treatment with investigational targeted study agents based on genetic alterations detected in their tumors,1 which is more than...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jain et al found that the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax was highly active in previously untreated high-risk and older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In the study, 80 patients...
Cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took a median of 6.5 years to advance from the first clinical trial in adults to the first trial in children, according to a study published by Neel et al in the European Journal of Cancer. “Despite knowing that these...
Nationally regarded cancer immunologist Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, was born and reared in Georgetown, Guyana, on South America’s North Atlantic coast, noted for being the only South American country in which English is the official language. Her parents were descendants of indentured immigrants...
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ruxolitinib (Jakafi) for steroid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) in adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older. REACH1/Study INCB 18424-271 Approval was based on the REACH1 trial/Study INCB 18424-271, an...
CITY OF HOPE recently received $7.5 million in grant awards to study the rare blood cancer cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded two grants valued at $6.3 million over 5 years to City of Hope’s Steven Rosen, MD, and Christiane Querfeld, MD, PhD, so they can develop...
Despite the increasing public awareness of the danger of the overuse of prescription opioids, drug overdose deaths continue to rise in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1999 to 2017, nearly 400,000 people died of an overdose involving...
Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed to improve the reimbursement currently given to hospitals that provide chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to patients with blood cancer as part of the Fiscal Year 2020 Inpatient Prospective Payment System...
The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health (SKCC) recently welcomed Anjali Mishra, PhD, and Nitin Chakravarti, PhD, to its team of researchers focused on hematologic cancers. Both Drs. Mishra and Chakravarti are Assistant Professors in the Department of Medical Oncology. Dr. Mishra is a...
On May 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved venetoclax (Venclexta) in combination with obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for the treatment of adult patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). Approval was based on the CLL14...
The AIM at Melanoma Foundation recently announced the grand opening of the first branch of the International Melanoma Tissue Bank Consortium (IMTBC) at the Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). The Pittsburgh site is the first of six global locations of the...
With increasing knowledge on the key role of the tumor microenvironment in lymphomagenesis, treatments for indolent B-cell lymphoma, especially follicular lymphoma, are mechanistically moving toward a more immunomodulatory approach. Chemotherapy-free regimens are an attractive alternative to...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute recently announced the opening of the first Lynch Syndrome Center dedicated to providing genetic counseling and testing for those at risk for the syndrome and delivering a new model of coordinated care for those living with the disease. A common and underdiagnosed...
Hematology experts Gareth Morgan, MD, PhD, and Faith Davies, MD, have joined the Center for Blood Cancers at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center and will lead its multiple myeloma program. About Dr. Morgan Dr. Morgan, the Center’s Director of Multiple Myeloma Research, previously served...
Marcie L. Riches, MD, MS, Director of Clinical Research and Data Quality and Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic Medical Director, and Clinical Associate Chief of Hematology/Oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, commented on the study of tabelecleucel for The ASCO Post. At the...
ASCO and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) have released an update to existing guidelines for use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents to manage anemia in patients with cancer.1 “The current update aims to increase awareness of recent developments regarding the use of...