Despite studies showing the benefits of early palliative care in improving the quality of life of patients with advanced cancer (including reducing symptoms of depression),1 a recent survey of oncologists found there is broad variation in the appropriate utilization of this care.2 Conducted by...
Although most oncology program directors and associate or assistant program directors consider themselves clinician-educators, they receive little to no formal medical education training to nurture trainees into clinician-educator careers and do not have a clinician-educator track for their...
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, ASCO, together with its partners the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health, began assembling resources to establish a network of oncology professionals to help Ukrainian patients with cancer find...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) announced that John E. Dick, PhD, FAACR, Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, and Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of...
Faith E. Davies, MD, a nationally renowned hematology expert, has been appointed the inaugural Director of the Center for Blood Cancers at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. Dr. Davies currently serves as Professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and...
Several recent studies examining the global burden of cancer on adolescents and young adults (AYAs) show the growing magnitude of the disease’s impact on the lives of individuals between the ages of 15 and 39. Although considered a rare occurrence, cancer in this age group has risen by...
The Pezcoller Foundation–American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research was presented to Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, at the Association’s 2022 Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans. Dr. Rosenberg was honored for his discovery and ...
Millions of elective surgeries and medical procedures were canceled or postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, research shows that COVID-19 restrictions were also associated with significant delays in breast cancer care.1 Findings of a cohort study, which compared breast cancer care before and...
The toll of cancer on children, especially those living in low-resource countries, is staggering. Each year, an estimated 400,000 children and adolescents worldwide develop cancer,1 and despite improved survival rates, the global 5-year net childhood cancer survival rate is only 37.4%,2 making...
Invited discussant of the NeoCOAST trial, Edward B. Garon, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, praised the study: “NeoCOAST is an impressive study that showed numerical benefit when...
Use of multiple immune pathway inhibitors appears to be superior to checkpoint inhibitor therapy alone as neoadjuvant therapy for resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the results of the phase II NeoCOAST trial presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, a faculty member of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she is Chief of the Breast Cancer Program. Her current research focuses on the development of novel ...
A triplet regimen consisting of the PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor olaparib, metronomic (the chronic administration of low, equally spaced doses of) cyclophosphamide, and metformin demonstrated activity in elderly, heavily pretreated patients with recurrent, advanced endometrial...
In a subanalysis from the Dutch IMPACT-MBC study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, van Geel et al found that qualitative whole-body 16α-[fluorine F-18]fluoro-17β-estradiol positron-emission tomography/computed tomography ([F-18]FES-PET) was highly accurate in predicting estrogen...
Patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation therapy may be less likely to require opioids or a feeding tube if they received a higher dose of prophylactic gabapentin before their treatment, findings from a team of radiation oncologists showed. Their report, published by Ma et al in JAMA ...
Invited study discussant of the use of ipilimumab plus nivolumab in resistant melanoma, at the AACR Annual Meeting 2022, Mario Sznol, MD, of Yale University Cancer Center, indicated that the substantial increase in progression-free survival at 6 months was not maintained. “The durable...
A sizable proportion of patients with advanced melanoma will experience disease progression on anti–PD-1 therapy, and the optimal treatment of such patients represents an unmet need. Two studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 explored separate...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by François-Clément Bidard, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III EMERALD trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival with the oral selective estrogen receptor (ER) degrader elacestrant vs standard endocrine therapy among patients with...
Men taking either of the two most common oral medications for advanced prostate cancer who had also undergone hormone therapy to treat their disease were at higher risk of serious metabolic or cardiovascular issues than patients who were receiving hormone therapy alone, according to findings...
Researchers have found a way to identify lung cancer at the cellular level in real time during a biopsy, which may enable detection of the disease earlier and with more confidence. The findings, published by Kennedy et al in Nature Communications, demonstrated that an imaging agent detected via...
Two oncologists who are now heads of oncology development for pharmaceutical companies discussed the future of cancer drugs at the Community Oncology Alliance’s 2022 Community Oncology Conference. They were Johanna Bendell, MD, Global Head of Oncology, Pharma Research, and Early Development at...
Tumors send out signals that impair normal blood flow, which makes them hard to treat with multiple therapies, including radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy. Impaired blood supply creates an environment low in oxygen levels, which causes the tumors to take on aggressive...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types, subtypes, and topics. During the NCCN’s 27th Annual Conference, which was again...
New findings from researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published by Shukla et al in Nature Communications reported the results of using a comprehensive sequencing approach on 114 pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients with solid tumors. The researchers found that their...
Although community oncology practice may have been changing before the COVID-19 pandemic, it amplified industry trends. At the 2022 Community Oncology Alliance’s Community Oncology Conference, a panel of experts discussed issues related to the future of community cancer care, including...
Treatment with the anti–PD-1 therapy nivolumab after surgery helped reduce cancer recurrence in patients with urothelial cancer of the bladder or other sites in the urinary tract that had invaded the muscle and therefore posed a high risk for recurrence, according to clinical trial results...
The risk of invasive breast cancer in men may be associated with self-reported infertility, according to a study published by Swerdlow et al in the journal Breast Cancer Research. The authors interviewed 1,998 males in England and Wales diagnosed with breast cancer, with 112 (5.6%) also...
CoVac-1, a multipeptide COVID-19 vaccine candidate, elicited immunogenicity in patients with cancer and disease-related or treatment-related immunoglobulin deficiency in a phase I/II trial reported at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022.1 These patients are...
Recent research underlines the importance of following up with a colonoscopy exam after a positive result on an at-home stool test to screen for colorectal cancer. The test, known as the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), checks for traces of blood in patient-collected stool samples, which can be an...
The first bladder cancer drug targeting a cancer-driving gene mutation has been used relatively little despite its clear efficacy in a clinical trial, suggests a report published as a research letter by Nimgaonkar et al in JAMA Oncology. Researchers analyzed a large, nationwide database of cancer...
The first-in-human, first-in-class trial of the next-generation PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) 1–selective inhibitor AZD5305 suggests this drug may be a welcome advance over its U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved predecessors in the treatment of solid tumors with alterations in...
A study published by Jackson et al in Cancer Discovery investigated the reasons for decreased remission rates for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. "CAR T-cell therapy is a promising treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, especially for...
The use of a polygenic score incorporating variations in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values that are not due to cancer may allow for more precise PSA screening, according to findings of a large genome-wide association study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
New research published by Ramsey et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has found that the inclusion of the smoking cessation tool Electronic Health Record–Enabled Evidence-Based Smoking Cessation Treatment (ELEVATE) into electronic health records may increase...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a novel strategy to reduce immune-related adverse events caused by immunotherapy by targeting the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). The study, published by Hailemichael et al in Cancer Cell, establishes a proof of concept ...
The advent of PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors has changed the treatment landscape of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but only approximately 20% of patients treated with immunotherapy will be alive at 5 years. According to Melissa L. Johnson, MD, Director, Lung Cancer Research,...
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance on the use of radiation therapy to treat patients with brain metastases. Evidence-based recommendations guide the multidisciplinary planning and delivery of advanced radiation therapy techniques to...
A survey of oncology registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs)1 found that most of those surveyed were not using a validated assessment tool to identify food insecurity but expressed interest in obtaining the Six-Item Short Form of the Food Security Survey Module.2 The six-item food insecurity...
Food insecurity, particularly as it affects cancer survivors, is a serious problem, according to a survey of oncology registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.1 “Despite these concerns, most oncology RDNs interviewed are not using...
Guest Editor’s Note: Cancer and its treatments are associated with both physical and psychological symptoms that can have substantial impact on patients’ quality of life. Music therapy is a complementary modality that is being increasingly used for cancer symptom management. In this article, Joke...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and L. Jeffrey Medeiros explore the updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD, was born in a small village in Hebei, a province in the Central China region. “I grew up in a poor village with less than 1,000 people. We had no medical services in our village, so we had to travel to the city to see a doctor, which was quite some distance away. In the...
The human epidermal growth factor (HER) family of receptors are a well-established therapeutic target. Indeed, seminal studies conducted nearly 2 decades ago identified a key association between activating mutations in the kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, also known as...
ASCO and Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, will recognize researchers, patient advocates, philanthropists, teachers, and global oncology leaders who have reshaped cancer care around the world with the Society’s highest honors at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Hear from select award...
J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD, has been named Scientific Director and Executive Vice President of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Taylor steps into the role during a pivotal time of growth for the hospital. Under its $11.5 billion, 6-year strategic plan, the institution’s scientific...
In the Dutch CONCERVE study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kremer et al found that the absence of FAM19A4/miR124-2 DNA methylation was associated with a high rate of clinical regression of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia over 24 months among women treated with a...
Natural killer (NK) cells derived from donated umbilical cord blood, activated with a novel bispecific antibody targeting CD16A and CD30 known as AFM13, have yielded responses in patients with pretreated and refractory CD30-positive lymphoma. The overall response rate was 89%, with 53% complete...
When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1996, I was given 3 years to live. At the time, there was little understanding of this disease, which was termed incurable. There were no new treatments, few drugs in the pipeline, hardly any clinical trials, and no multiple myeloma community or...
“In the past decade, major improvements in treating lung cancer have come from identification of mutations and development of drugs to target those mutations: EGFR, ALK, RET, HER2, and others. Finally, we can add KRAS as a druggable target,” stated invited discussant Mark Awad, MD, PhD, Clinical...
Ongoing evaluation of novel, targeted, and immunotherapies has led to exciting advances across the array of hematologic malignancies over the past year. The availability of new treatment options, along with emerging data on novel combinations and sequencing approaches, is rapidly changing...