Rachel E. Sanborn, MD, of the Providence Cancer Institute, discusses three key abstracts on EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer: a final overall survival analysis of bevacizumab plus erlotinib; concurrent osimertinib plus gefitinib for first-line treatment; and first-line treatment with a...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Jean-Yves Blay, MD, and colleagues, the phase III INVICTUS trial has shown that the oral KIT and PDGFRα tyrosine kinase inhibitor ripretinib prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) whose...
Advances in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and some of their associated symptoms were presented during EHA25 Virtual, an ongoing online conference from the European Hematology Association (EHA). Advances in the Treatment of High-Risk CLL: CLL2-GIVe Results In the CLL2-GIVe trial, the...
In the Japanese phase III JIPANG trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kenmotsu et al found that adjuvant therapy with pemetrexed/cisplatin did not result in superior recurrence-free survival but was better tolerated than vinorelbine/cisplatin in patients with completely resected...
Black and Hispanic children admitted to pediatric intensive care units for cancer treatment have significantly higher death rates than non-Hispanic white patients, according to findings from a study published by Laurens et al in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Nationwide, 8.5% of black and 8.1%...
Kathleen N. Moore, MD, Associate Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Director of the Oklahoma TSET Phase I Clinical Trials Program, Stephenson Cancer Center, Oklahoma City, underscored the importance of studying patients with stable disease and less robust partial response, not just those with...
An updated analysis of the phase III VELIA/GOG-3005 trial, presented during the 2020 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer Webinar Series,1 suggested synergy between the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor veliparib and platinum chemotherapy in the...
On May 29, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two combination regimens: ramucirumab (Cyramza) was approved in combination with erlotinib for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)...
On may 8, 2020, selpercatinib was granted accelerated approval for the following indications: Adult patients with metastatic RET fusion-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) Adult and pediatric patients ≥ 12 years of age with advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer who...
On May 8, 2020, olaparib was granted an expanded indication to include use in combination with bevacizumab for first-line maintenance treatment of adult patients with advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line...
Between 2001 and 2016 in the United States, Asian/Pacific Islander men experienced the greatest increase in the incidence of testicular germ cell tumors, followed by Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native men, according to a study published by Ghazarian et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers...
A safety and patient-reported outcome analysis from the IMpower150 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Martin Reck, PhD, and colleagues, indicated that atezolizumab plus bevacizumab and chemotherapy appeared to be a manageable and tolerable regimen when compared with atezolizumab ...
On April 22, 2020, the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adult patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who have received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was...
An analysis of 59 prostate cancer clinical trials based in North America and Europe found that the vast majority of enrollees were non-Hispanic white men, according to a study published by Rencsok et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The proportion of white participants in...
The RET inhibitor pralsetinib showed activity in patients with a broad variety of tumors harboring RET gene fusions, according to results from the phase I/II ARROW trial, presented by Vivek Subbiah, MD, and colleagues during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (Abstract 109). “This trial shows...
Disparities in cancer mortality rates between black and white Americans date back more than 60 years. Now, a study by the American Cancer Society comparing person-years of life lost and lost earnings due to premature cancer mortality by race/ethnicity has quantified the economic burden due to...
Lung cancer specialist Narjust Duma, MD, was born and reared in Mérida, Venezuela, a city nestled on a plateau in the Venezuelan Andes. “I’m the daughter of two surgeons. After my parents divorced, I lived with my mother and spent a lot of time at the hospital where she worked. When she was in...
Results of the NRG Oncology phase III clinical trial NRG-GY004 indicated that the addition of the investigational agent cediranib to olaparib and standard platinum-based chemotherapy did not improve progression-free survival outcomes for women with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer; however,...
Internationally recognized immune-oncology melanoma expert Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, FASCO, was born and reared in Staten Island, not far from where he would shape his noted career at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, New York. “I went to Princeton University and, during my ...
Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, FASCO, knew from the start of his medical career that if treatments for cancer were to become curative, research in new therapies would have to move away from the mainstay one-size-fits-all approach of systemic chemotherapy to an innovative, personalized strategy that ...
Patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a mutation that leads to mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) exon 14 skipping had a 46.5% objective response rate to the targeted therapy drug tepotinib, as shown in a study presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program...
In a study of patients with early-stage cervical cancer presented by Balaya et al during the Gynecologic Cancer Oral Abstract Session of the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (Abstract 6006), researchers assessed disease-free and disease-specific survival to determine whether sentinel lymph node...
On May 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ramucirumab (Cyramza, injection, 10 mg/mL solution) in combination with erlotinib for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19...
Data from the global TERAVOLT Consortium, which is investigating the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients with thoracic cancers, have found that these patients are at high risk for hospitalization and death. Prior use of chemotherapy was associated with an increased risk of mortality, as was...
Adjuvant osimertinib significantly improved disease-free survival compared with placebo in patients with stage IB to IIIA EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent complete resection of primary tumor and received chemotherapy if indicated. These results from the first interim...
The successful treatment of malignant lymphoma has been one of the great achievements in medical oncology, but certainly more work is needed to define key biologic targets as well as molecular markers for a more accurate definition of prognosis following therapy. In day-to-day practice, unanswered...
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Yale Cancer Center, discusses data from the ADAURA study, which showed that compared with placebo, osimertinib as adjuvant therapy after complete tumor resection reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death by 79% in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract...
On May 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved brigatinib (Alunbrig) for adult patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA-approved test. The FDA also approved the Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays, historical...
Insomnia is a persistent sleep disorder that affects nearly 60% of people with cancer, diminishing their quality of life.1,2 Chronic insomnia disorder is defined by trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early three times per week for 3 months or more.3 Standard care comprises...
As the worldwide cases of the coronavirus started to mount in February and March, medical societies and organizations monitoring the escalating COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international and domestic travel made the difficult decision to postpone or cancel their scientific conferences. On...
When I chose my Presidential theme for the 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting, “Unite and Conquer: Accelerating Progress Together,” in early 2019, I never imagined it would take on a new meaning 12 months later. The world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, and, even as we practice social distancing, I...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Fumiko Chino, MD, and colleagues found that while the incidence of opioid-related death has increased in both the general population and in patients with cancer in recent years, opioid-related death is far less common among individuals with ...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Shu et al found that neoadjuvant treatment with atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel/carboplatin produced a major pathologic response in 57% of patients and a complete pathologic response in 33% of patients with resectable, predominantly stage IIIA...
ASCO has released the ASCO Special Report: A Guide to Cancer Care Delivery During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which provides detailed guidance to oncology practices on the immediate and short-term steps that could be taken to help protect the safety of patients and health-care staff before resuming more ...
Low-intensity cystoscopic surveillance may be a viable option for patients with high-risk, non–muscle invasive bladder cancer, according to data from a paper presented to the media during a special session moderated by the American Urological Association (AUA) on May 15. The research was also...
In an article published in Science, Lawrence Corey, MD; John R. Mascola, MD; Anthony S. Fauci, MD; and Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, describe the composition and aims of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-led Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) partnership....
On May 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the first-line treatment of adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have high programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression (PD-L1 stained ≥ 50% of tumor cells or...
Qi Liu, PhD, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discusses data that suggest that patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer who had a past medical history of pneumonitis were more likely to experience treatment-associated pneumonitis in response to immune checkpoint inhibitors or...
In a Childhood Cancer Survivor Study analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Barlow-Krelina et al found that consistent physical activity vs consistent inactivity was associated with reduced neurocognitive problems and greater improvement in neurocognitive domains during long-term...
Over the past few weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designations for an antibody-drug conjugate in the treatment of gastric and lung cancers. The Agency has also issued Orphan Drug designations for agents being investigated in chronic myeloid...
On May 15, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) at ≥ 1%, as...
Although the live 2020 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Conference was canceled, more than 100 posters scheduled for presentation are now available online, as part of the NCCN 2020 Virtual Annual Conference. The ASCO Post has summarized some of the clinical trial updates we found ...
Patients with non–immune-infiltrated “cold” tumors have low frequencies of intratumoral tumor-reactive, checkpoint-positive cytotoxic lymphocytes, making them less responsive to checkpoint blockage than patients with immune-infiltrated “hot” tumors. A phase II study by Alain P. Algazi, MD, and...
Edward B. Garon, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine, discusses results from a small study in METex14-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer and brain metastases. The trial suggested capmatinib showed antitumor activity in the brain, regardless of...
Edward B. Garon, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, discusses KEYNOTE-189 trial findings that showed adding pembrolizumab to pemetrexed plus platinum—which previously was found to improve overall and progression-free survival—is also safe and has...
Byoung Chul Cho, MD, PhD, of Yonsei Cancer Center and Severance Hospital, discusses the STK11 and KEAP1 mutations in non–small cell lung cancers, and their relationship to the efficacy of pembrolizumab monotherapy vs platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line treatment for PD-L1–positive advanced...
Continuous dosing with dabrafenib and trametinib improved progression-free survival in patients with BRAF-mutated advanced melanoma compared with an intermittent-dosing strategy, according to results of the phase II SWOG S1320 randomized trial reported at the opening Plenary Session of the 2020...
In the phase III REACH2 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Zeiser et al found that the JAK1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib improved response rate vs investigator’s choice of therapy in patients with glucocorticoid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic stem...
People who received information from the Screen to Save program, a culturally tailored initiative from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD), increased their knowledge of colorectal cancer and indicated willingness to adopt potentially preventive...