THE TREATMENT approaches for multiple myeloma, both newly diagnosed and relapsed disease, continue to undergo major transformation as new agents and combinations are being introduced.1 This change has been driven by the introduction of novel drug classes such as monoclonal antibodies, as well as...
A single dose of a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor before resection for melanoma may predict clinical outcomes for patients. Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania—who documented this finding in the largest cohort of patients to be...
In the international phase III LION study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Harter et al found that lymphadenectomy did not improve progression-free or overall survival vs no lymphadenectomy in women with advanced ovarian cancer. Study Details The trial enrolled 647 women with...
The FDA recently issued announcements on a Fast Track designation, a Priority Review, two supplemental new drug applications, an investigational new drug application, and a marketing clearance. The agency also released a safety communication on cancer-related surgery. Fast Track Designation for...
With advances in the field, the number of haploidentical stem cell transplants being performed (ie, using human leukocyte antigen [HLA] half-matched donor stem cells) has been increasing. In recognition of evolving strategies to improve outcomes, a group of transplant physicians started the...
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation named nine scientists with novel approaches to fighting cancer the 2019 recipients of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award. Five early career scientists will receive initial grants of $400,000 over 2 years. Another 4 awardees who demonstrated...
NYU Langone Health’s Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center recently announced a philanthropic gift to establish a Center for Blood Cancers. The center will house a new program for multiple myeloma care and research, along with NYU Langone Health’s other blood cancer programs. It will also...
Biologic age—a DNA-based estimate of a person’s age—may be associated with development of breast cancer, according a report published by Kresovich et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Study Methods Scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health...
Darolutamide—an investigational androgen receptor inhibitor—significantly improved metastasis-free survival in men with high-risk nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer vs placebo in the large phase III ARAMIS trial.1 Men treated with darolutamide had a median metastasis-free survival...
On February 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved trastuzumab and hyaluronidase-oysk (Herceptin Hylecta) for subcutaneous injection for the treatment of certain patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer (node-positive, or node-negative and estrogen receptor/progesterone...
In a phase I/II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Bardia et al found durable responses with the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy in patients with heavily pretreated, metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. The monoclonal antibody sacituzumab targets the...
The number of guideline-recommended biomarkers to be assessed in patients with newly diagnosed, metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is increasing. These biomarkers include both predictive targets—including EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, RET, MET, and ERBB2—and prognostic...
INVESTIGATORS FROM Australia have identified a genetic mutation that causes resistance to the targeted drug venetoclax in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to research presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition1 and...
THE LARGEST PROSPECTIVE trial of hydroxyurea for sickle cell anemia has shown that this treatment is feasible, accepted, well tolerated, and safe for children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Hydroxyurea has long been the standard of care for treating children with sickle cell anemia in developed...
Mrinal S. Patnaik, MBBS, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Oncology and a consultant in hematology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, commented on the MEDALIST trial for The ASCO Post. “Given its unique mode of action, relative ease of administration, and excellent tolerability,...
IN THE RANDOMIZED, double-blind, phase III MEDALIST trial, the experimental drug luspatercept significantly reduced the need for frequent red blood cell transfusions in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and ring sideroblasts. With luspatercept, 37.8% of patients remained...
IN A PHASE III TRIAL reported during the Plenary Session at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, single-agent ibrutinib and ibrutinib/rituximab were associated with superior progression-free survival vs...
In sunny San Diego, the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition welcomed nearly 30,000 attendees who were eager to present, learn, network, and cheer the joint achievements of many researchers. The packed meeting was filled with important information from...
“IN THIS era of immunotherapy, it is highly possible, and potentially probable, that radiation therapy may become not just a form of locoregional and palliative treatment, but an essential component of our systemic treatments of cancer,” according to Zachary S. Morris, MD, PhD, Vice-Chair,...
AXICABTAGENE CILOLEUCEL (also known as CAR19) is an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat selected hematologic malignancies.1 To appreciate the clinical trial findings summarized here, from selected abstracts presented at the ...
TISAGENLECLEUCEL IS an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat selected hematologic malignancies.1,2 To appreciate the clinical trial findings summarized here, from selected abstracts presented at the 2018 American Society of...
ON FEBRUARY 6, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationFDA approved caplacizumab-yhdp (Cablivi) injection, in combination with plasma exchange and immunosuppressive therapy, for the treatment of adult patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP). “Patients with aTTP endure...
REPORTERS FOR The ASCO Post captured the following summaries of noteworthy studies presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. In HER2-Negative Metastatic Disease, CTCs Frequently HER2-Positive ALMOST HALF of all patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer have circulating...
INVITED STUDY discussant Michael J. Overman, MD, Professor of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, is a co-investigator on CheckMate 142, which led to the approval of another immunotherapy doublet—nivolumab plus ipilimumab—in patients...
The largest study to date addressing the common problem of perioperative direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) management has shown that patients with atrial fibrillation can safely stop taking their anticoagulant for 1 day before and after procedures with a low risk of bleeding and for 2 days before...
For the first time in more than 20 years, patients with sickle cell disease may have another treatment option to reduce painful vaso-occlusive crises, according to data presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 Results of the phase II, randomized,...
Moderator of the session, Mark Crowther, MD, MSc, FRCPC, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Leo Pharma Chair in Thromboembolism Research at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada, said that the CASSINI study represents a major advance in the management and prevention of a very...
Results of a recent study suggest that direct oral anticoagulants can reduce the risk of thromboembolism in patients with cancer who are starting a new systemic therapy regimen, without significantly increasing the risk of major bleeding. Data presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting &...
Initial findings from a first-in-human trial have provided proof of principle for a groundbreaking approach to gene therapy for sickle cell disease, according to data presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 Early results of genetic targeting of...
Pioneering hematologist J. Evan Sadler, MD, PhD, an expert in the study and treatment of blood-clotting disorders, died December 13, 2018, at his home in Clayton, Missouri, following a brief illness. He was 67. Dr. Sadler was the Director of Hematology, the Ira M. Lang Professor of Medicine, and a ...
Over the past week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted multiple Priority Reviews and accepted a supplemental new drug application: Priority Review for Entrectinib in NTRK Fusion–Positive Solid Tumors and Metastatic, ROS1-Positive NSCLC This week, the FDA accepted new drug...
GUEST EDITOR Dr. Abraham is the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic. In this installment of the Living a Full Life series of articles, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, interviewed Norman E. ...
Bexarotene is a retinoid approved for the treatment of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) who have not responded to at least one previous treatment regimen. Hypertrigylceridemia is the most frequent adverse event related to treatment with bexarotene in CTCL. Even with prophylactic...
Scientists have identified genetic variations in a fourth gene that are associated with an increased risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in Hispanic children. These findings were published by Qian et al in Blood. The gene is ERG, a transcription factor that is also...
In the phase III ARAMIS trial reported by Fizazi et al at the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (Abstract 140) and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that the androgen receptor antagonist darolutamide significantly prolonged metastasis-free...
A large, retrospective study analyzing 5 years of data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) found that African American men with chemotherapy-naive, metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer who were treated with abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide lived 20% longer compared with...
As reported in JAMA Dermatology, Jianqiang Wu, MD, PhD, and Gary S. Wood, MD, found that the widely available nonprescription topical antimicrobial agent gentian violet has potent activity against cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) in studies in vitro and ex vivo. The study involved high-throughput ...
The proliferation of immunotherapeutics in the treatment of cancer over the past decade has revolutionized the way many cancers are treated, especially lung cancer and melanoma, as well as some blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, drastically improving outcomes for many patients with...
AS PART of The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here is an update on seven different studies on new therapeutics in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Among the treatments highlighted here are the erythroid maturation...
A study published by Cook et al in JAMA Oncology focused on whether treatment with checkpoint inhibitors is both safe and effective in patients with advanced cancer who are also human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive. Because checkpoint inhibitors manipulate the immune system, the concern has...
A research team is using a branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning to better target immunotherapy to those who will benefit. In a recent study published by Leiserson et al in PLOS One, the team used data from a clinical trial of patients with bladder cancer to...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved caplacizumab-yhdp (Cablivi) injection, the first therapy specifically indicated, in combination with plasma exchange and immunosuppressive therapy, for the treatment of adult patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP), a...
In a Dutch-Belgian study (CYPTAM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sanchez-Spitman et al found no associations between CYP2D6 genotypes or levels of endoxifen (active metabolite of tamoxifen) and clinical outcomes in patients receiving adjuvant tamoxifen for early-stage breast cancer....
The benefit of adding venetoclax to a hypomethylating agent or low-dose cytarabine in the front-line treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was evident from a number of studies reported at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (see Table 1). For elderly...
In the randomized, double-blind, phase III MEDALIST trial, the experimental drug luspatercept significantly reduced the need for frequent red blood cell transfusions in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and ring sideroblasts. With luspatercept, 37.9% remained transfusion-free ...
As reported by Solomon et al in The Lancet Oncology1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, results from a global phase II study of the third-generation ALK inhibitor lorlatinib showed a high overall response rate and high intracranial response rate for patients with advanced ALK-positive...
Injection of a genetically modified virus that induces the body’s own immune cells to attack metastatic melanoma effectively treated almost 40% of patients with tumors that could not be surgically removed, according to findings published by Louie et al in the Journal of the American...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stadtmauer and colleagues found that second autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) or RVD (lenalidomide, bortezomib, dexamethasone) consolidation as post-AHCT interventions did not improve outcomes vs single...
In a phase Ib trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Hassan et al found that the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 antibody avelumab produced durable responses and a high rate of disease control in some patients with advanced unresectable mesothelioma progressing after platinum and pemetrexed...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for a new indication for pemetrexed (Alimta) for injection in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and platinum chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell...