A routine blood test may predict how long patients with cancer in palliative care will survive, researchers reported at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore. “Cancer patients in palliative care want honest and accurate prognostic information but this information needs to be shared...
A brain-boosting protein plays an important role in how well people respond to chemotherapy, researchers reported at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore. A study (Abstract 497O_PR) found that patients with cancer suffering from depression have decreased amounts of brain-derived neurotrophic...
In the phase III OAK trial reported in The Lancet by Rittmeyer et al, treatment with the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody atezolizumab (Tecentriq) improved overall survival vs docetaxel in previously treated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results of the trial...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to rucaparib (Rubraca) to treat women with advanced ovarian cancer who have been treated with two or more chemotherapies and whose tumors have a specific gene mutation (deleterious BRCA) as identified by an FDA-approved...
The first data on rare sarcomas in Asian patients were presented in three studies at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore. Just half of patients with advanced angiosarcoma received chemotherapy, although it improved overall survival. CIC-rearranged sarcomas were associated with a much worse...
In a case report in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tran et al at the National Cancer Institute describe response to adoptive transfer of ex vivo expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes containing T cells targeting personalized cancer neoepitopes in a patient with lung metastases from...
Asian patients with head and neck cancer live longer with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) immunotherapy than the overall population, according to a subanalysis of the KEYNOTE-012 trial presented at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress in Singapore. “Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is the seventh most...
Translational research in pancreatic adenocarcinoma has been limited by the difficulty of obtaining sufficient quality and quantity tumor tissue from patients. A study by Pietrasz et al assessing the feasibility and prognostic value of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in pancreatic adenocarcinoma has...
Regorafenib (Stivarga) improved overall survival vs placebo in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who had experienced disease progression on sorafenib (Nexavar) treatment, according to the phase III RESORCE trial reported by Bruix et al in The Lancet. Study Details In this double-blind trial, ...
Around 20% of patients with breast cancer in Sweden do not complete endocrine therapy, according to research that will be reported at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress (Abstract 62O_PR), to be held December 16–19 in Singapore.The study in over 5,500 women found that younger patients and those who...
Studies suggest that approximately 30% to 40% of women with breast cancer report persistent hot flashes. Nocturnal hot flashes are among the most problematic because they can contribute to poor sleep. A new study published by Garland et al in Menopause shows that electroacupuncture may be effective ...
Integrating palliative care into the treatment of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for cancers like leukemia and lymphoma can improve their quality of life, relieve symptoms associated with the procedure, and reduce depression and anxiety, not only during the 3- to 4-week ...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, a long-time ASCO member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as the President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2018. She will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2017. Additionally, three new members were elected to...
Patients whose lung cancer spreads to their brain typically have only 4 to 6 months left to live, but research presented by Chinese doctors suggests that using icotinib increases progression-free survival in these patients compared to whole-brain irradiation and chemotherapy combined. Yi-Long Wu,...
Patients who received first-line ceritinib experienced a 45% risk reduction for advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)–positive on–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared to a control group that received chemotherapy, according to research presented at the IASLC 17th World...
A revised tumor classification based on more than 70,000 non–small cell lung cancer patients and 6,100 small cell lung cancer patients is now available to lung cancer specialists around the world in the form of the 8th edition of the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) classification. The...
Aleix Prat, MD, PhD, of the University of Barcelona, discusses in Spanish study findings on intrinsic subtype as a predictor of pathologic complete response following neoadjuvant dual HER2 blockade without chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer (Abstract S3-03).
In a phase I study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rudin et al found that rovalpituzumab tesirine, a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate directed against delta-like protein 3 (DLL3), produced responses in patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer (SCLC). DLL3 is a target identified in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Saro H. Armenian, DO, MPH, of City of Hope, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on prevention and monitoring of cardiac dysfunction in survivors of adult cancers. Recommendations were developed by an expert panel using a ...
Patients in Chandigarh, India, waited an average of 4 months before seeking a cancer diagnosis, according to a recent study. Some patients waited less than a week before seeing a doctor—while others waited 3 years. The researchers will report their findings at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress ...
The LUME-Meso phase II trial in patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival. The data, presented at the 17th IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Vienna (Abstract 4191 #OA22.02), showed nintedanib (Ofev) plus...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Hellman et al, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) showed promising activity as first-line treatment in patients in the non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cohort of the phase I CheckMate 012 study. Study Details In the...
In the phase III AURA3 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicineby Mok et al, osimertinib (Tagrisso) significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) vs platinum/pemetrexed (Alimta) among patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M–positive non–small...
On Tuesday, December 13, President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, landmark legislation designed to improve and accelerate the pace of biomedical research in the United States. ASCO Chief Executive Officer Clifford Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, attended the White House signing ceremony...
In part 1 of the phase II ARIEL2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Swisher et al found that the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib was associated with prolonged progression-free survival among patients with relapsed platinum-sensitive high-grade ovarian carcinoma who had...
In the international phase III FALCON trial reported in The Lancet, Robertson et al found that progression-free survival was improved with intramuscular fulvestrant (Faslodex) vs oral anastrozole in endocrine therapy–naive women with hormone receptor–positive locally advanced or...
The artificial-intelligence platform Watson for Oncology (WFO) achieved a high degree of concordance with the recommendations of a panel of oncologists in a double-blinded validation study, according to results presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 6 to 10...
Postmenopausal women with breast cancer who took aromatase inhibitors demonstrated endothelial dysfunction, a predictor of cardiovascular disease, according to study results presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 6 to 10 (Abstract s5-07). Aromatase inhibitors are...
S.P. Somashekhar, MBBS, MCh(Onco), of the Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Centre, discusses a study to assess the performance of IBM's artificial intelligence platform in comparison to a multidisciplinary tumor board (Abstract S6-07).
Mothaffar Rimawi, MD, of the Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses phase II findings from a study evaluating pathologic complete response in patients with HR-positive, HER2-positive disease treated with neoadjuvant docetaxel, carboplatin, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab with or...
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, summarizes two studies on using duloxetine for aromatase inhibitor–associated musculoskeletal symptoms, and aromatase inhibitors’ effect on endothelial function and heart disease (Abstracts S5-06 and S5-07).
Lisa A. Carey, MD, and Maki Tanioka, MD, both of the University of North Carolina, discuss study findings on weekly paclitaxel and trastuzumab with or without lapatinib for HER2-positive breast cancer (Abstract S3-05).
Lisa A. Carey, MD, of the University of North Carolina, and Ingrid A. Mayer, MD, of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discuss the current studies on neoadjuvant systemic treatment in the triple-negative disease setting.
Lisa A. Carey, MD, of the University of North Carolina, discusses a session she moderated on key data presented at SABCS, and gives her expert views on putting the research data into clinical practice.
Joseph A. Sparano, MD, of the Montefiore Medical Center, discusses the tumor microenvironment of metastasis score and its association with early distant recurrence in HR-positive, HER2-negative early-stage breast cancer (Abstract S4-04). To view a short film on capturing imaging inside breast...
Until 1957, the prevailing thought was that since cancers develop in normal patients, they are not recognized as foreign by the immune system. That changed when Richmond T. Prehn, MD, and his laboratory assistant, Joan Main, showed that tumors induced by chemical carcinogens in mice could...
The investigational immunotherapeutic IMC-20D7S was found to be well tolerated and somewhat active in patients with advanced melanoma, including one complete response, according to the results of a phase I/Ib trial reported by Danny N. Khalil, MD, PhD, and colleagues in Clinical Cancer Research....
Although adjuvant chemotherapy decreases the risk of breast cancer recurrence, it is associated with distressing side effects, including hair loss. A prospective randomized trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the Orbis Paxman Hair Loss Prevention System (OPHLPS), a scalp-cooling device that ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chakravarthy et al found that human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven tumors accounted for 4.1% of nonoropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. HPV-positive tumors were associated with poorer survival and reduced...
In a secondary analysis from the NRG Oncology RTOG 0617 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stephen G. Chun, MD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues found that use of intensity-modulated vs three-dimensional...
CancerLinQ LLC has announced that George A. Komatsoulis, PhD, will be its first Chief of Bio-Informatics. This marks another step toward the organization’s goal of making the CancerLinQ® platform the premier system for unlocking patient data from millions of electronic health records, breaking...
Reports of rare, but in some cases fatal, cardiac complications when the checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) are used in combination should be taken seriously but should not scare patients away from potentially life-saving drugs, according to Javid J. Moslehi, MD. Dr....
Cardiovascular toxicities associated with cancer treatments are not new. What is new, and what has prompted recent articles in The New England Journal of Medicine,1,2 is the explosion of cancer therapies, which has dramatically changed the natural course of many cancers but can lead to cardiac,...
Ruth O’Regan, MD, of the University of Wisconsin, and Ann H. Partridge, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss study findings from a session Dr. O’Regan moderated on three major trials addressing anastrozole after tamoxifen in HR-positive early breast cancer, letrozole in HR-positive...
Among women enrolled in the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study I (IBIS-I), those who had certain symptoms of menopause—nausea/vomiting and headaches—were significantly less likely to be adherent to the assigned medication 4.5 years after starting the treatment, according to...
“I am greatly saddened by the death of former Congressman Melvin R. Laird, who, over the course of his distinguished career in public service, played a key role in advancing biomedical research and the mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Our thoughts are with his family and the...
Although my diagnosis of stage IIIB melanoma 5 years ago came as a shock, in hindsight, it shouldn’t have been so surprising. I had noticed a small freckle-like lesion on my upper left thigh that had become itchy and occasionally bled, but it didn’t fit the ABCDE (Asymmetry, Border irregularity,...
Presurgical treatment with the investigational therapeutic abemaciclib, either alone or in combination with the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole, reduced levels of Ki67, a marker of cell proliferation, in hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer cells, compared with anastrozole...
Scientific Names: Valeriana officinalis, Valeriana radix Common Names: Garden valerian, Indian valerian, Pacific valerian, garden heliotrope Overview A perennial flowering plant prevalent in Europe, Asia, and North America, valerian has a long medicinal history as a relaxant. Its potential as a...
The investigational PI3K inhibitor buparlisib, in combination with endocrine therapy, improved outcomes for patients with hormone receptor–positive advanced breast cancer that had progressed after treatment with everolimus (Afinitor) plus exemestane, according to data from the phase III...