On February 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy) for patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative (immunohistochemistry [IHC] 0, IHC 1+, or IHC 2+ with a negative in situ...
The newly identified category of “HER2-low” breast cancer has raised many new issues in this malignancy now that the DESTINY Breast-041 trial determined that fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) may effectively treat this tumor. Among the issues are challenges in accurately identifying just...
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, known as SPHINKS, capable of performing advanced computational analyses to identify potential therapeutic targets for patients with glioblastoma multiforme. The platform may also have applicability in other cancers, according to...
According to a review published by Ashley et al in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, preexisting dementia may complicate cancer care and increase the risk of worse clinical outcome and inferior patient experience. People living with dementia are more likely to have cancer diagnosed at an...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Morton et al, the European phase III FOxTROT trial has shown that neoadjuvant plus adjuvant oxaliplatin/fluoropyrimidine resulted in a reduced risk of residual disease or disease recurrence vs adjuvant oxaliplatin/fluoropyrimidine in patients with...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Heiden et al developed a surgical quality metric scoring system—the Veterans Affairs Lung Cancer Operative quality (VALCAN-O) score—that was associated with overall survival in U.S. veterans undergoing curative-intent surgery for early-stage non–small cell lung...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eric J. Chow, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the use of dexrazoxane was associated with long-term protection of heart function in childhood cancer survivors who received doxorubicin for their cancer. According to the study investigators,...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Coltin et al found that survivors of childhood medulloblastoma in Ontario were at an increased risk of numerous adverse health outcomes compared with matched noncancer controls. Study Details In the study, all 5-year...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Cheng et al found that higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers measured after surgery—but before receipt of chemotherapy—were associated with poorer outcomes in patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in the CALGB/SWOG 80702 trial of adjuvant...
In a first-in-human, phase I, dose-escalation and dose-expansion study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mrinal M. Gounder, MD, and colleagues identified the dose and schedule for further evaluation of the oral MDM2 inhibitor milademetan in a population of patients with advanced...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Josephine M.N. Lopes Cardozo, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that a higher score on a polygenic risk score consisting of 313 common genetic variants (the PRS313) was generally associated with more favorable tumor characteristics in patients...
In a U.S. cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Voruganti et al found that the uptake of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been associated with “modest” improvements in overall survival, particularly among older patients. As...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bhatia et al found that boys were significantly more likely than girls to be diagnosed with childhood cancers in India. Study Details The retrospective multicohort study involved individual data from patients aged 0 to 19 years from hospital-based records ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that several B-cell–related gene signatures provided better prediction of pathologic complete response and event-free survival than tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) levels among patients with...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corey W. Speers, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the sensitivity to endocrine therapy (SET2,3) index and the 21-gene breast recurrence score (RS) were not correlated in defining prognosis among postmenopausal patients with estrogen...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) significantly improved disease-free survival vs routine follow-up in patients with hepatocellular...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, McDonald et al found that receipt of blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) was associated with an increased risk of subsequent malignant neoplasms of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. As stated by the investigators, “Survivors of BMT are at increased risk of...
New research shows that patients with type 2 diabetes may experience a substantially higher rate of cancer mortality than the general population—by 18% for all cancers combined, 9% for breast cancer, and as much as 2.4-fold for colorectal cancer—according to a new study published by Ling et al in...
In a study reported in a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, Mata et al found that U.S. individuals of African ancestry and Hispanic patients made up an increasing proportion of patients undergoing next-generation sequencing of tumor samples over a 9-year period ending in...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis of KIT exon mutations may help predict which second-line therapy is best for patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), according to data presented by Bauer et al during the January ASCO Plenary Series session (Abstract 397784). An...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wang et al identified mutations linked to high tumor mutation burden in microsatellite-stable (MSS) gastrointestinal cancers that may be associated with efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Study Details Molecular alterations in 48,606...
As reported in The Lancet by Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, and colleagues, updated results of the phase III DESTINY-Breast03 trial showed significantly improved overall survival with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive unresectable or...
In a Taiwanese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hsu et al found that survivors of childhood and adolescent cancers were at a significantly increased risk of multiple major psychiatric disorders compared to those without cancer. Study Details The study used data from a...
Precision medicine has revolutionized cancer treatment—but only for patients who have access to treatments. Nearly 2 million people in the United States are diagnosed each year with cancer, but access to targeted treatments varies widely, and only about half of the eligible people receive them,...
In the United States, Black American patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have notably worse survival outcomes compared to White patients. In addition, Black patients are less likely to receive intensive chemotherapy and undergo allogeneic stem cell transplants. Many researchers have reported ...
Oxidative stress is a key factor in the development of many diseases including cancer. Antioxidants prevent cellular damage by neutralizing free radicals and are being investigated as potential therapeutic strategies against cancer. In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology...
In a study (Advancing Survivors Knowledge; ASK) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Geller et al found that three patient- and patient/physician-based interventions to improve skin cancer surveillance among childhood cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy resulted in increased rates...
In a retrospective, observational case series study reported in JAMA Oncology, Emile et al identified changes in the stage at diagnosis, treatments, and outcomes in U.S. patients with rectal adenocarcinoma diagnosed between 2004 and 2019. Study Details The study used National Cancer Database data...
In the DBTUST study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Berg et al found that the addition of screening ultrasound to digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) improved detection of cancer in patients with dense breasts—but also increased the rate of false-positive findings. Study Details In the ...
A combination of the next-generation immunotherapies botensilimab and balstilimab showed clinical activity in treating patients with refractory metastatic microsatellite-stable (MSS) colorectal cancer, according to new findings presented by El-Khoueiry et al at the 2023 ASCO Gastrointestinal...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Miklos et al, the phase III iNTEGRATE trial showed no benefit of the addition of ibrutinib to prednisone in the first-line treatment of moderate or severe chronic graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Meduri et al, a 5-year analysis from the phase III IRMA trial has shown higher rates of adverse cosmesis and some late toxicities with external-beam accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) vs whole-breast irradiation (WBI) in women with stage ...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vicky Makker, MD, and colleagues provided updated findings from the phase Ib/II Study 111/KEYNOTE-146 trial of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab in previously treated patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma. The study supported the...
Northwell Health recently appointed Douglas Gladstone, MD, a leader in hematology and medical oncology, as Chief of Hematologic Malignancies at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute. Prior to joining Northwell, Dr. Gladstone served for 14 years as Clinical Director of the outpatient bone marrow...
In a phase II study of stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), domvanalimab, a novel antibody that blocks T-cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT), when added to anti–PD-1 zimberelimab immunotherapy resulted in improved response rates and progression-free survival compared with...
Zanubrutinib—a next-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor—achieved high response rates and durable disease control with a low incidence of cardiac effects in patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma, according to updated findings from the final analysis of the phase ...
The next-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor zanubrutinib demonstrated superior progression-free survival compared with ibrutinib, with an improved cardiac safety profile, in the first head-to-head comparison between these two BTK inhibitors in relapsed or refractory chronic...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are safe and effective for people living with HIV who have metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented at the 2022 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting.1 Findings from the first matched cohort to compare clinical...
The 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition was full of interesting abstracts in multiple myeloma. In addition to full coverage of several important presentations, The ASCO Post offers readers quick takes on some studies that could be practice-changing and others...
The combination of palbociclib and fulvestrant did not prolong progression-free survival compared to fulvestrant alone in patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who had disease progression on prior treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor and endocrine therapy,...
A pilot study provides a signal that the novel HER2 antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd), is active in the neoadjuvant setting in patients with HER2-low breast cancer. Overall response rates were 75% with T-DXd alone and 63% when T-DXd was combined with endocrine therapy...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yadav et al estimated the risk of contralateral breast cancer among patients with invasive breast cancer and germline pathogenic variants in ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, and PALB2. Study Details The study population consisted of 15,104...
In a European retrospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nesti et al found evidence that right-sided hemicolectomy is not indicated in patients who had complete resection, via appendectomy, of appendiceal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) measuring 1 to 2 cm. As stated by the...
Although longer follow-up is needed, the results of the three-arm randomized TRIANGLE study suggest that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib may replace autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) after chemoimmunotherapy in younger patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). ...
Although longer follow-up is needed, the results of the three-arm randomized TRIANGLE study suggest that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib may replace autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) after chemoimmunotherapy in younger patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). ...
In the single-center phase III MIRAGE trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Amar U. Kishan, MD, and colleagues found that use of margin reduction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) resulted in significantly reduced acute genitourinary (GU) and...
Electronic nudges delivered to health-care clinicians based on a machine-learning algorithm capable of predicting mortality risk quadrupled rates of conversations with patients about their end-of-life care preferences, according to a new study published by Manz et al in JAMA Oncology. The study...
The field of precision oncology has become so complex that even experienced oncologists can find it challenging to decipher the molecular test results of tumor tissue and navigate treatment options for patients. Investigators revealed that a new program may aid gastrointestinal cancer physicians in ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al found that a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in ROBO2 was associated with an increased risk of cardiomyopathy among childhood cancer survivors receiving higher cumulative anthracycline doses. As stated by the investigators,...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Olivia Pagani, MD, and colleagues, 13-year follow-up in a combined analysis of the phase III TEXT and SOFT trials has shown continued disease-free survival and distant recurrence–free interval benefit—but no overall survival benefit—with exemestane ...