In a small phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yamazaki et al found that the TGF-β type I receptor kinase inhibitor galunisertib appeared to show activity when added to neoadjuvant chemoradiation in previously untreated patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. As stated by the...
Positron-emission tomography (PET) scans obtained before and midway through treatment may be used to de-escalate therapy for patients with oropharyngeal cancer, leading to fewer side effects, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 An interim...
A blood-basedliquid biopsy may accurately predict recurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma following treatment, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Results of the large, multi-institutional study...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Li et al found that induction chemotherapy with paclitaxel, cisplatin, and capecitabine (TPC) prior to concurrent chemoradiation was associated with improved failure-free survival vs induction therapy with cisplatin and fluorouracil (PF) in...
Advanced radiotherapy techniques may reduce the risk of severe and debilitating toxicity associated with radiation, but not all patients have equal access to these modalities, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Retrospective analysis of the...
Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the world, with 1.1 million new diagnoses reported annually.1 In the United States, the incidence of oral and pharyngeal cancers is over 54,000 cases per year, resulting in over 11,000 yearly deaths.2 Although smoking and alcohol consumption ...
On August 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pemigatinib (Pemazyre), a selective fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor, for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with FGFR1 rearrangement. Myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with...
In this episode, we’re featuring two speakers presenting data from the European Hematology Association 2022 Congress, focusing on findings in acute myeloid leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Pilar Garrido, MD, PhD, is Head of the Medical Oncology Department, University Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid. She is also Co-Director of the Cancer Research Group at Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria (IRYCIS). Her main areas of research and clinical interest are thoracic tumors,...
My diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer 3 years ago was filled with irony. As an interventional radiologist, I have treated hundreds of patients with advanced prostate cancer, and I knew my prognosis wasn’t good. After experiencing some of the common symptoms of the cancer, including voiding...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on the herb dong...
On May 27, 2022, tisagenlecleucel, a CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, was granted accelerated approval for adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on the multicenter ELARA...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Thierry André, MD, and colleagues, the French (GERCOR) phase II NEONIPIGA trial has shown a high pathologic complete response rate with nivolumab/ipilimumab neoadjuvant therapy in patients with localized deficient mismatch repair...
Children in Pennsylvania living near unconventional oil and gas developments at birth were two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with leukemia between the ages of 2 and 7 years than children who did not live near this oil and gas activity, after accounting for other factors that could...
In a single-institution phase II trial (Smart Start) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jason Westin, MD, MS, and colleagues found that initiating treatment with rituximab, lenalidomide, and ibrutinib (RLI) followed by the sequential addition of chemotherapy resulted in high response...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Somaiah et al found that the combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab showed activity in a group of previously treated patients with advanced or metastatic soft-tissue and bone sarcomas of various subtypes. Study Details In the...
Two ASCO guideline updates provide new evidence-based recommendations for the systemic treatment of stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with and without driver alterations.1,2 Among several other updates, these new guidelines add the ALK and ROS1 inhibitor lorlatinib and the PD-L1 immune...
In an English retrospective cohort study reported in JACC: Cardio-Oncology, Helen Strongman, PhD, of the Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues found that cardiovascular mortality ultimately exceeded mortality from common...
On June 24, 2022, lisocabtagene maraleucel was approved for adults with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who have (1) refractory disease to first-line chemoimmunotherapy or relapse within 12 months of first-line chemoimmunotherapy; or (2) refractory disease to first-line chemoimmunotherapy or relapse...
The invited discussant of the updated APHINITY data was Javier Cortés, MD, PhD, Head of the International Breast Cancer Center in Barcelona. “I think we clearly learned two things from the data. One is that estrogen receptor positivity does not matter in terms of benefit from the addition of...
Updated results from the adjuvant APHINITY trial in HER2-positive early breast cancer, now with a median follow-up of 8.4 years, confirmed the benefit of adding pertuzumab to trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in preventing invasive disease recurrences, but as yet no statistically significant overall...
On July 14, 2022, crizotinib was approved for adult and pediatric patients aged ≥ 1 year with unresectable, recurrent, or refractory ALK-positive inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the multicenter studies ADVL0912 (ClinicalTrials.gov...
In a retrospective study reported in a research letter in Blood Advances, Rejeski et al found that a stem cell boost was successful in treating severe hematologic toxicity in patients who had received CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for refractory B-cell malignancies. Study...
In the first-line treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer, the sequencing of nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin) resulted in a significant improvement in overall survival at 12 months and in all other efficacy endpoints as compared with the standard ...
The 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting was filled with important science, engaging data, and several practice-changing abstracts, many of which have been covered in detail on other pages or in earlier issues of The ASCO Post. There were numerous high-impact studies and attendees, whether present at the...
As a nonpartisan organization, the American Cancer Society has an overarching goal to improve the lives of patients with cancer and their families. We believe all individuals should have an equitable opportunity to prevent, find, detect, and survive cancer, irrespective of geography. The June 24...
About 3 years ago, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute launched PROMISE (Predicting Progression of Developing Myeloma in a High-Risk Screen Population; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03689595), a large, ambitious screening study to identify individuals at high risk of developing...
On this episode, we’re featuring discussions about data in colorectal cancer that were presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting. Dr. Michael Overman, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, speaks with two presenters about guiding therapy with circulating tumor DNA and refining...
Subcutaneous epcoritamab, a bispecific antibody, has demonstrated deep and durable responses in a large expansion cohort of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL), according to late-breaking data presented during the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2022 Congress in...
In the investigator-initiated, prospective, open-label, single-arm phase II TUXEDO-1 study conducted among patients with newly diagnosed or progressive brain metastases from HER2-positive breast cancer, the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) yielded responses according...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Franck Morschhauser, MD, PhD, and colleagues, 6-year results from the second interim analysis of the phase III RELEVANCE trial show similar progression-free and overall survival with lenalidomide/rituximab (R2) vs rituximab/chemotherapy (R-chemo)...
On August 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved betibeglogene autotemcel (Zynteglo), the first cell-based gene therapy for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with beta-thalassemia who require regular red blood cell transfusions. “[This] approval is an important...
By searching previously ignored regions of the genome, researchers have found a multitude of new genetic mutations that may contribute to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). These findings were published by Bal et al in Nature. “Our findings not only show that these mutations can contribute to...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, Guest Editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Ahmad Bashir Barekzai, MD, FACS, Consultant Surgical Oncologist at Ali Abad Teaching Hospital, an affiliated hospital to Kabul University of Medical Science, Kabul,...
In a Swedish population-based cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Lin et al found that men with type 2 diabetes receiving gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists for prostate cancer were more likely to have an increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease compared with those...
A new study published by Hshieh et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network suggests a new way for hematologic oncologists to protect older patients from the risks of medication interactions. As part of the Older Adult Hematologic Malignancies Program, gerontology...
Sexual dysfunction is highly prevalent in women with lung cancer, with most participants in a survey reporting little to no interest in sexual activity, according to research led by Narjust Florez (Duma), MD, presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) World...
Dr. Courtney DiNardo, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, sat down with two colleagues at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting to discuss data presented in leukemia. On this episode of the podcast, we’re featuring Dr. DiNardo’s conversations.
Researchers from Japan recently reported that the first phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of durvalumab and concurrent curative radiation therapy for PD-L1–positive unresectable locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without chemotherapy met its primary endpoint with...
On August 10, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to capmatinib (Tabrecta) for adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have a mutation leading to mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) exon 14 skipping, as detected by an ...
In a report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schoot et al provided findings from the European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group MTS 2008 and pooled findings of MTS 2008 with those of the concurrent BERNIE study, both of which evaluated strategies for the treatment of pediatric...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Manmeet S. Ahluwalia, MD, MBA, Deputy Director, Chief Scientific Officer, and Chief of Solid Tumor Medical Oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, where his research focuses on the development of new therapies for...
Research shows that although 15% of Black individuals and 13% of Hispanic individuals have cancer in the United States, only between 4% and 6% of clinical trial participants are Black and between 3% and 6% are Hispanic.1-3 To improve these statistics, in 2020, ASCO and the Association of Community...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) recently announced that Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, FACS, a pancreatic cancer surgeon and researcher, a pioneer in cancer health disparities research, and an academic medical leader, has been selected to serve as its next President and Chief Executive...
At the 2022 Summit on Cancer Health Disparities in Seattle, leaders from five of the leading professional societies in cancer discussed their respective organizations’ current initiatives toward improving cancer health disparities.1 Representatives from ASCO, the American Society for Clinical...
In an analysis of the Multicenter Selective Lymphadenectomy Trial II reported in JAMA Surgery, Crystal et al found that patients with melanoma with sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis who were randomly assigned to observation vs completion lymph node dissection (CLND) following SLN biopsy...
In a collaboration announced on June 4, ASCO will work with the World Health Organization (WHO) to measure and improve the quality of cancer care internationally. The goal is to achieve health-related targets of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and WHO Global Action Plan on Non-Communicable...
ASCO has released the first comprehensive set of guidelines for the management of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC).1 The guidelines are subdivided into six main sections: diagnosis, the role of cytoreductive nephrectomy, first-line systemic treatment, second- or later-line systemic...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Marks et al found that only two-thirds of a sample of U.S. Commission on Cancer–accredited cancer care facilities accepted Medicaid insurance for the treatment of four common cancers in a simulated cohort of adult patients with newly diagnosed disease....
ASCO has endorsed the recommendations put forth in a new guideline, developed by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), on the use of radiation therapy for the management of brain metastases.1,2 Although ASTRO—in conjunction with ASCO and the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO)—recently...