New approaches are offering hope for better outcomes in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to Suchita Pakkala, MD, of Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta. She shared her thoughts on using PARP inhibitors and antibody-drug conjugates at the 2023 Debates and...
Researchers have discovered that ipilimumab in combination with nivolumab may be an effective second-line therapy in patients with PD-1 blockade–refractory metastatic melanoma, according to a recent study published by VanderWalde et al in Nature Medicine. These findings demonstrated the combination ...
Long-molecule scars may help identify patients with BRCA1- and BRCA2-deficient cancer types, according to a recent study published by Setton et al in Nature. Background Once DNA is damaged by toxins, radiation, or normal cell division, human cells must continually fix DNA breaks to survive. When...
Investigators may have uncovered the impact of the 2014 and 2015 Medicaid expansion on cancer clinical trial participation, according to a recent study published by Unger et al in JAMA Oncology. The new findings suggested that Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act...
In a U.S. retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Sebastian et al found that treatment at a high-volume radiation facility was associated with improved overall survival among men with very high–risk prostate cancer receiving curative-intent radiotherapy with androgen-deprivation...
In a South Korean single-center retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Cheun et al identified locoregional recurrence patterns according to molecular subtypes of breast cancer among women undergoing surgery for the disease. The study involved data from 16,462 women who underwent...
Pancreatic cancer has the poorest 5-year survival rate (12.5%) relative to all other cancers. In 2023, about 64,050 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and approximately 50,550 will die of the disease. A retrospective study investigating the impact of palliative care medicine on the...
Continued breast cancer screening after age 70 may be associated with a greater incidence of asymptomatic cancer, according to a recent study published by Richman et al in the Annals of Internal Medicine. These new findings suggested that overdiagnosis may be prevalent among older female patients....
Investigators have identified a need for strong coordination between clinicians and skilled pathologists to ensure accurate, timely diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The study findings were recently published by Gorak et al in Blood Advances. Background MDS—a collection of chronic...
Researchers have identified a cell metabolism process found in male patients with West African ancestry who have diabetes and metastatic prostate cancer that could potentially lead to improved testing and treatments for Black patients with both diseases. The findings by Shuck et al were presented...
In a study (STOP-CA) reported in JAMA, Neilan et al found that atorvastatin reduced the risk of decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy for the treatment of lymphoma. Study Details In the U.S.-Canadian double-blind trial, 300...
In a Canadian retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Castelo et al found that a greater interval between date of presentation and treatment initiation was not associated with an increased risk of poorer survival among patients with colorectal cancer diagnosed before age 50. The...
In a preplanned analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pfeiler et al found that higher body mass index (BMI) reduced the risk of neutropenia and treatment discontinuation in patients with early hormone receptor–positive breast cancer receiving adjuvant...
Researchers have found that the new PENK methylation (mePENK) test could potentially pave the way for a breakthrough in early bladder cancer detection in patients with hematuria, according to a novel study published by Oh et al in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. The findings could reduce the...
Prostate-specific membrane antigen positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PSMA PET/CT) imaging may help physicians diagnose advanced disease and select the appropriate therapeutic interventions in patients aged 80 years or older with suspected prostate cancer, according to a recent study ...
Xin Gao, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Genitourinary Cancers Program, Mass General Cancer Center, commented on the results from TROPHY-U-01 cohort 2. “These data add to the overall data on the efficacy of sacituzumab govitecan in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer. This...
Treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy achieved an objective response rate of 32% in platinum-ineligible patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who experienced disease progression on an immune checkpoint inhibitor, according to the primary analysis of the...
Formal discussant of the CheckMate 274 trial, Michiel S. Van der Heijden, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, said it is an “important” study. “In looking at these results, one should consider the goal of adjuvant therapy in this setting. Is overtreatment of patients cured by surgery...
With longer-term follow-up, adjuvant nivolumab continued to demonstrate improved disease-free survival, non–urothelial tract recurrence–free survival, and distant metastasis–free survival vs placebo in patients with muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma at high risk of recurrence after surgery,...
“Clinically, the implications [of the THOR trial] are clear in that all metastatic urothelial cancers should be tested for FGFR mutations,” stated invited discussant Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, of Yale School of Medicine. “This should be done at the beginning of treatment for metastatic disease, as it...
Targeted treatment with the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor erdafitinib significantly improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rates compared with investigator’s choice of chemotherapy in patients with advanced urothelial cancers and FGFR2/3...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy Institute, Paris-Saclay University, and colleagues, the phase III TRITON3 trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with rucaparib vs physician-selected single-agent therapy in the...
Medical oncologist Monica Chatwal, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, commented on the take-home points from the ARASENS trial. “The ARASENS trial continues to show a survival benefit for a triplet therapy approach in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer with androgen-deprivation ...
The addition of the androgen receptor inhibitor darolutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy and docetaxel reduced the risk of death by 30% compared with androgen-deprivation therapy plus docetaxel in patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, according to a post hoc analysis of...
The results of recent trials of PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor plus second-generation androgen receptor inhibitor combinations have had varying results in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Some trials suggest the benefit is confined to those with BRCA mutations and/or...
The addition of the PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor olaparib to standard-of-care abiraterone in the first-line setting of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer achieved longer progression-free survival vs abiraterone alone, as demonstrated in the final results of the phase...
Presented here are summaries of three abstracts from the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting that are pertinent for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The first two focus on men with homologous recombinant repair (HRR) gene alterations, including BRCA1/2. In the first study,...
In a UK study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Moore et al found that increased pathologic lymph node regression after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with better outcomes in esophageal adenocarcinoma. Study Details The study involved patients treated with neoadjuvant...
“Hats off to the investigators for the first comparison of triplet to doublet in advanced renal cell carcinoma. This is also the first results using a contemporary control group. The study met its primary endpoint,” said Sumanta K. Pal, MD, FASCO, Co-Director of the Kidney Cancer Program, City of...
The addition of cabozantinib to nivolumab plus ipilimumab prolonged progression-free survival in untreated intermediate-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to the first results of the phase III COSMIC-313 trial. These findings were presented as a Presidential Symposium ...
The 3-year follow-up of the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial demonstrates superior outcomes with the combination of nivolumab plus cabozantinib vs the former standard-of-care sunitinib as first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma.1 These benefits were achieved with the...
David A. Braun, MD, PhD, of Yale Cancer Center, was the formal discussant of the abstract on the 4-year follow-up of the CLEAR trial. “We have made remarkable progress [in advanced renal cell carcinoma] and are now in the combination era of immunotherapy-based therapy and immunotherapy-based...
At extended follow-up, lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab showed sustained superiority over sunitinib for overall and progression-free survival as first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma.1 The majority of the benefit was observed in intermediate- and poor-risk subgroups, according to the...
It is an exciting time in the development of new treatments for urologic cancers. There have been a number of major changes both in advanced disease and in the perioperative setting over the past year. Urothelial and Bladder Cancers In urothelial cancer, at last, we have randomized data supporting...
On August 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the HEPZATO KIT, a melphalan hepatic delivery system, as a liver-directed treatment for adult patients with metastatic uveal melanoma and unresectable hepatic metastases affecting less than 50% of the liver and no extrahepatic...
On August 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to elranatamab-bcmm (Elrexfio), a bispecific B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed CD3 T-cell engager, for adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least four prior...
Over the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in hematologic oncology. Glofitamab for DLBCL On June 15, 2023, the FDA granted accelerated approval to glofitamab-gxbm (Columvi) for...
Insights on findings from the phase II MonumenTAL-1 trial1 were offered by Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Medical Director of the Winship Data and Technology Applications Shared Resource, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School ...
In the phase I/II MonumenTAL-1 trial, the novel bispecific antibody talquetamab produced responses in more than 70% of heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma.1 Of note, the safety profile confirmed results of the phase I portion of the study (recently published in TheNew England Journal...
Urvi A. Shah, MD, Assistant Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, moderated the session where the MagnetisMM trial updates1,2 were reported and was interviewed by The ASCO Post. Elranatamab vs Teclistamab Dr. Shah noted...
The promise of bispecific monoclonal antibodies in multiple myeloma continues to heighten as yet another one appears to be active. In a study reported at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition,1 almost two-thirds of patients with triple-refractory disease who...
Ciara L. Freeman, MD, PhD, Assistant Member, Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, was impressed with the CARTITUDE-4 findings. She said “treaters and patients” will be “watching this space” to see how the results change the...
Compared with the standard of care for relapsed multiple myeloma, a single infusion of ciltacabtagene autoleucel was associated with a significant 74% reduction in the risk of disease progression in patients with lenalidomide-refractory multiple myeloma after one to three relapses, the phase III...
Mrinal S. Patnaik, MBBS, Chair of the Acute Leukemia and Myeloid Neoplasms Group and Scientific Director of the Epigenetics Developmental Laboratory and the Epigenomics Program at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, offered his thoughts on the phase II study findings of ruxolitinib’s efficacy...
In a phase II trial, treatment with the JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib resulted in clinical activity in two-thirds of patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) with splenomegaly or an otherwise high disease symptom burden. The magnitude of symptomatic benefit was similar to that observed in...
Alexey Danilov, MD, PhD, Co-Director, Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center and Professor, Division of Lymphoma, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope, Duarte, California, commented on the phase III ALPINE trial comparing ibrutinib and zanubrutinib in patients...
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...
“Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the paradigmatic success story in hematology,” said Joseph C. Alvarnas, MD, Professor in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplant, Vice President of Government Affairs, and Chief Clinical Advisor for AccessHope at City of Hope...
The standard of care could be changing for adults with newly diagnosed BCR-ABL–negative B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who achieve measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity after induction chemotherapy. In the phase III E1910 trial by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, an...
Catherine S. Diefenbach, MD, Associate Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Director of the Clinical Lymphoma Program, and Director of Hematology Translational Research at Perlmutter Cancer Center, in New York, called the findings from the TRANSFORM trial “very striking.” “This study...