Abstract discussant Anand Devaraj, MD, PhD, Professor in Thoracic Radiology at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, and Professor of Thoracic Radiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, highlighted the increased risk of second primary tumors among current...
Approximately 6% of patients with stage I to III lung cancer develop second primary lung cancer within 5 years of their initial diagnosis, according to research presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer.1 Analysis of data...
Abstract discussant Anand Devaraj, MD, PhD, a thoracic radiologist at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, and Professor of Thoracic Radiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, noted that both the Nederlands-Leuvens Longkanker Screenings Onderzoek (NELSON) trial...
Lung cancer screening has been shown to significantly reduce lung cancer mortality, but some management protocols have more benefit than others, according to data presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).1 Although the...
Interim results of a phase II study have demonstrated the safety and feasibility of treating elderly and frail patients with locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with the monoclonal antibody durvalumab during and after radiation therapy, without chemotherapy. The results of a...
The first discussant of the NADIM II study, Corinne Faivre-Finn, MD, PhD, Professor of Thoracic Radiation Oncology, University of Manchester, and Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, England, called the results “very impressive” but noted that...
In patients with resectable, stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the addition of neoadjuvant nivolumab to platinum-based chemotherapy significantly improved overall survival compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone, according to data presented by Mariano Provencio, MD, PhD, at the...
Discussant of the exploratory analysis of the POSEIDON trial, Chia Puey Ling, MBBS, MMed, MRCP, FRACP, PhD, a medical oncologist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, noted that although 30% of the mutation-evaluable population had KRAS mutations, only a small percentage of patients had co-mutated...
The addition of the CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab to durvalumab and chemotherapy in the first-line setting has already demonstrated an overall survival and progression-free survival benefit vs chemotherapy alone in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). According to data...
Dawn L. Hershman, MD, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, discusses findings that showed substantial variability in clinicians’ adherence to prescribing primary prophylactic colony stimulating factors in a pragmatic trial. Although the ability to opt out of the intervention...
Justin M. Barnes, MD, of the Washington University School of Medicine, discusses the ways in which Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act seems to affect distant diagnoses and cancer deaths per year, the differences in the impact of expansion between Black and White patients in the United ...
Barbara Eichhorst, MD, of the German CLL Study Group and the University of Cologne, discusses phase III findings from the GAIA/CLL13 trial, which showed that time-limited treatment with venetoclax, obinutzumab, and ibrutinib or venetoclax plus obinutzumab improved progression-free survival compared ...
John B.A.G. Haanen, MD, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses recent phase III findings, which show that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) improve progression-free survival compared with ipilimumab by 50% in patients with advanced melanoma after not responding to anti–PD-1...
A common, spontaneous mutation in blood stem cells, which has been linked to a higher risk of blood cancer and cardiovascular disease, may promote these diseases by altering the stem cells’ programming of gene activity and the mix of blood cells they produce, according to a study co-led by...
It may soon be possible to identify group 4 medulloblastomas from more aggressive group 3 tumors. Research based on a little-explored part of RNA that creates proteins may lead to the development of better-targeted therapies, according to investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center....
On September 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to futibatinib (Lytgobi) for adults with previously treated, unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) gene fusions or...
A large prospective analysis, published by Bayle et al in Annals of Oncology, evaluated differences between tissue and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) next-generation sequencing (NGS) with a large cancer gene panel. The investigators compared the impacts of both methods in terms of molecular tumor...
Esophageal adenocarcinoma is a type of cancer affecting the mucus-secreting glands of the lower esophagus and is the most common form of esophageal cancer. It is often preceded by Barrett’s metaplasia, a deleterious change in cells lining the esophagus. Though the cause of esophageal adenocarcinoma ...
A research team led by Matthias Preusser, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Oncology and Head of the Clinical Division of Oncology at the Medical University of Vienna, had already demonstrated that patients with cancer may benefit from a third vaccination to protect them against COVID-19. A recent...
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling in Dobbs v Jackson overruled Roe v Wade, returning an individual’s right to access abortion services to state law. New findings led by researchers at the American Cancer Society published by Jiang et al in The Lancet Oncology showed that more...
On September 28, the Lasker Foundation announced the winners of the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 2022 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the 2022 Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award. Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award Richard O. Hynes, PhD, of the...
Marleen Kok, MD, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, discusses the initial results from the BELLINI trial, which tested whether short-term preoperative nivolumab, either as monotherapy or in combination with low-dose doxorubicin or novel immunotherapy combinations, can induce...
Pebbles Fagan, PhD, MPH, has assumed the role of Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control for the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Dr. Fagan, an expert on tobacco-related health disparities and co-founder of the...
An unhealthy gut triggers changes in normal breast tissue that may help breast cancer metastasize, according to new, early research from the University of Virginia (UVA) Cancer Center published by Feng et al in Cancer Immunology Research. The researchers found that when the gut microbiome is...
Black patients of African descent tend to be diagnosed more frequently with prostate cancer and have higher mortality rates than patients of other races and ethnicities. Despite this substantial disparity, few prospective studies focused on maximizing the recruitment of African American patients...
Laurence Buisseret, MD, PhD, of Belgium’s Institut Jules Bordet, discusses phase II results from the SYNERGY trial, which tested first-line chemoimmunotherapy of durvalumab, paclitaxel, and carboplatin with or without the anti-CD73 antibody oleclumab in patients with advanced or metastatic...
State-run Medicaid insurance, expanded in 2014 as part of the Affordable Care Act, has resulted in decreased metastatic cancer incidence rates as well as decreased overall cancer mortality rates, and has averted over 1,000 deaths due to cancer per year. About 12% of the improvements in cancer...
A cancer navigation program can reduce overall costs when deployed in collaboration with a statewide Medicare Advantage health plan across a wide range of practice types, according to findings to be presented by Worland et al at the upcoming 2022 ASCO Quality Care Symposium (Abstract 4). A...
Substituting biosimilars, generics, and clinically appropriate lower-cost drugs for established, costlier drugs was shown to be an effective way to reduce the total cost of care, by 5% or so, while maintaining the quality of care for patients with cancer. Even small shifts toward lower-cost drugs...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced Loïc Le Marchand, MD, PhD, MPH, as the recipient of the 2022 AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities. Dr. Le Marchand presented his award lecture, “Translating Multiethnic Epidemiological Research...
The European Society For Medical Oncology (ESMO) launched its annual congress, held September 9–13, 2022, just as this issue of The ASCO Post was going to press. Watch upcoming issues for comprehensive coverage of the live congress, following 2 years of virtual meetings and remote presentations due ...
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs)1 and overturned Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, which recognized a federal constitutional right to end a pregnancy up to the point of viability. This decision opened the door for states to...
Julien Taïeb, MD, PhD, of Paris Descartes University, discusses phase II results from the SAMCO-PRODIGE 54 trial, which shows the efficacy and safety of avelumab in the second-line treatment of patients with deficient DNA mismatch–repair microsatellite-instability metastatic colorectal cancer....
September 24 is World Cancer Research Day, an initiative organized by a collaboration of professional societies, research organizations, and other institutions. In advance of the event, the following declaration was published in order to outline the goals of the initiative: Cancer is projected to...
Three-quarters of surveyed people preferred to do a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) rather than undergo a colonoscopy for their regular colorectal cancer screening, according to a new Cedars-Sinai study published by Makaroff et al in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “One of the big issues...
Physical activity may be associated with improved outcomes for patients undergoing postoperative treatment for stage III colon cancer, according to findings from a new study out of Pennington Biomedical Research Center published by Brown et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study assessed ...
New, long-term use of opioids after lung cancer surgery was linked to a 40% increased risk of death from any cause within the following 2 years, according to findings published by Oh et al in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. Persistent postoperative pain has been reported in up...
Nizar M. Tannir, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III findings from the PIVOT-09 study, which compared bempegaldesleukin plus nivolumab with the investigator’s choice of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (either sunitinib or cabozantinib) in patients with...
On September 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to selpercatinib (Retevmo) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors with a rearranged during transfection (RET) gene fusion and disease progression on or following prior systemic...
On September 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to selpercatinib (Retevmo) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a RET gene fusion (as detected by an FDA-approved test). The FDA also approved the Oncomine ...
A novel imaging technique may significantly improve the accuracy of the diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) compared to clinical and dermoscopic examinations alone, according to new research presented at the 31st European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress. The study found...
Little is known about patients with cancer’s social welfare and how it affects their health outcomes. To address this, researchers at University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine and partnering institutions assessed the prevalence and impact of various social risk factors in patients...
New data show that the immuno-oncology drug atezolizumab may be a safe and effective treatment for patients with stage IB to IIIB non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prior to surgery, according to a study led by researchers with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James...
Researchers at The Marvin and Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center have found that a new synthetic lethal agent could be an effective treatment for pancreatic cancers with DNA damage repair (DDR) defects. Igor Astsaturov, MD, PhD, a co-director of the Institute...
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found that risk factors historically linked to cancer mortality vary regionally across the lower 48 United States—such that they believe those differences should be considered in developing tailored public-health interventions. Dong et al...
On September 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sodium thiosulfate (Pedmark) to reduce the risk of ototoxicity associated with cisplatin in pediatric patients aged 1 month and older with localized (nonmetastatic) solid tumors. Efficacy was evaluated in two multicenter,...
Certain genetic variants found in prostate tumors of men of African descent were associated with African ancestry, according to two studies presented at the 15th American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial and Ethnic Minorities...
Black women treated with neoadjuvant endocrine therapy for breast cancer were more likely to benefit than White women if treated at an earlier disease stage, but less likely to benefit than White women if treated at a later disease stage, according to results presented at the 15th American...
Nearly one in four families of pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) enrolled in a clinical trial experienced food insecurity, and almost half of the families eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) did not receive benefits. In addition, receiving SNAP ...
In a large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS), men and women who drank two or more servings of sugar-sweetened beverages per day had a 5% increased risk of death from an obesity-related cancer, including gastrointestinal, postmenopausal breast, endometrial, and kidney...