From microchips to automobiles, people in the United States are experiencing shortages of all kinds of products, and oncology treatments are no exception. In particular, shortages related to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy have been reported, most acutely, for B-cell maturation...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced Loïc Le Marchand, MD, PhD, MPH, as the recipient of the 2022 AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities. Dr. Le Marchand presented his award lecture, “Translating Multiethnic Epidemiological Research...
The European Society For Medical Oncology (ESMO) launched its annual congress, held September 9–13, 2022, just as this issue of The ASCO Post was going to press. Watch upcoming issues for comprehensive coverage of the live congress, following 2 years of virtual meetings and remote presentations due ...
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs)1 and overturned Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, which recognized a federal constitutional right to end a pregnancy up to the point of viability. This decision opened the door for states to...
Julien Taïeb, MD, PhD, of Paris Descartes University, discusses phase II results from the SAMCO-PRODIGE 54 trial, which shows the efficacy and safety of avelumab in the second-line treatment of patients with deficient DNA mismatch–repair microsatellite-instability metastatic colorectal cancer....
September 24 is World Cancer Research Day, an initiative organized by a collaboration of professional societies, research organizations, and other institutions. In advance of the event, the following declaration was published in order to outline the goals of the initiative: Cancer is projected to...
Three-quarters of surveyed people preferred to do a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) rather than undergo a colonoscopy for their regular colorectal cancer screening, according to a new Cedars-Sinai study published by Makaroff et al in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “One of the big issues...
Physical activity may be associated with improved outcomes for patients undergoing postoperative treatment for stage III colon cancer, according to findings from a new study out of Pennington Biomedical Research Center published by Brown et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study assessed ...
New, long-term use of opioids after lung cancer surgery was linked to a 40% increased risk of death from any cause within the following 2 years, according to findings published by Oh et al in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. Persistent postoperative pain has been reported in up...
Nizar M. Tannir, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III findings from the PIVOT-09 study, which compared bempegaldesleukin plus nivolumab with the investigator’s choice of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (either sunitinib or cabozantinib) in patients with...
On September 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to selpercatinib (Retevmo) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors with a rearranged during transfection (RET) gene fusion and disease progression on or following prior systemic...
On September 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to selpercatinib (Retevmo) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a RET gene fusion (as detected by an FDA-approved test). The FDA also approved the Oncomine ...
A novel imaging technique may significantly improve the accuracy of the diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) compared to clinical and dermoscopic examinations alone, according to new research presented at the 31st European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress. The study found...
Little is known about patients with cancer’s social welfare and how it affects their health outcomes. To address this, researchers at University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine and partnering institutions assessed the prevalence and impact of various social risk factors in patients...
New data show that the immuno-oncology drug atezolizumab may be a safe and effective treatment for patients with stage IB to IIIB non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prior to surgery, according to a study led by researchers with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James...
Researchers at The Marvin and Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center have found that a new synthetic lethal agent could be an effective treatment for pancreatic cancers with DNA damage repair (DDR) defects. Igor Astsaturov, MD, PhD, a co-director of the Institute...
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found that risk factors historically linked to cancer mortality vary regionally across the lower 48 United States—such that they believe those differences should be considered in developing tailored public-health interventions. Dong et al...
On September 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sodium thiosulfate (Pedmark) to reduce the risk of ototoxicity associated with cisplatin in pediatric patients aged 1 month and older with localized (nonmetastatic) solid tumors. Efficacy was evaluated in two multicenter,...
Certain genetic variants found in prostate tumors of men of African descent were associated with African ancestry, according to two studies presented at the 15th American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial and Ethnic Minorities...
Black women treated with neoadjuvant endocrine therapy for breast cancer were more likely to benefit than White women if treated at an earlier disease stage, but less likely to benefit than White women if treated at a later disease stage, according to results presented at the 15th American...
Nearly one in four families of pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) enrolled in a clinical trial experienced food insecurity, and almost half of the families eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) did not receive benefits. In addition, receiving SNAP ...
In a large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS), men and women who drank two or more servings of sugar-sweetened beverages per day had a 5% increased risk of death from an obesity-related cancer, including gastrointestinal, postmenopausal breast, endometrial, and kidney...
New computed tomography (CT) technology paired with artificial intelligence (AI)-based noise reduction may offer superior detection of bone disease associated with multiple myeloma at lower radiation doses than conventional CT, according to a recent study published by Baffour et al in Radiology....
Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center shared data on a treatment option for patients with bladder cancer at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022 (Abstract LBA73). Jonathan E. Rosenberg, MD, medical oncologist and Chief of the Genitourinary Oncology...
A new, large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed the rising costs of cancer treatment led to increases in total costs of care, and when compounded with greater cost-sharing, increased out-of-pocket costs for...
Tony S.K. Mok, MD, of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, discusses two late-breaking abstracts presented at ESMO 2022: the phase II SUNRISE study, which compared sintilimab plus anlotinib vs platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line therapy in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer...
Matteo Lambertini, MD, PhD, of the University of Genova and Policlinico San Martino Hospital, talks about why oncofertility counseling should now be considered mandatory in the care of young women with breast cancer. Among the treatments he recommends offering are oocyte/embryo cryopreservation (or ...
Georgina V. Long, MD, PhD, of the Melanoma Institute Australia, discusses results from the CheckMate 915 trial, an analysis of the pretreatment circulating tumor DNA, along with other clinical and translational baseline factors, and their association with disease recurrence in patients with stage...
Implementing lung cancer screening at four diverse health-care systems resulted in an 8.4% increase in the number of stage I lung cancers detected and a 6.6% decrease in the detection of stage IV disease, according to research published by Vachani et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. The...
A research team from the Centre for Safe Medication Practice and Research (CSMPR) in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies with over 2 million individuals and estimated a moderate...
Neil D. Gross, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses data from a phase II study, which showed that neoadjuvant cemiplimab-rwlc in patients with stage II–IV (M0) resectable cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is active and may enable function-preserving surgery in some...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Yue et al, an updated analysis of the Chinese phase II EVAN study indicated a sizable overall survival advantage with adjuvant erlotinib vs vinorelbine/cisplatin in patients with R0 resected stage IIIA EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer...
Gérard Zalcman, MD, PhD, of France’s Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, discusses phase III results from the IFCT-1701 trial, which explored the questions of whether to administer nivolumab plus ipilimumab for 6 months or whether to prolong the treatment in...
Jean-Pascal Machiels, MD, PhD, of Belgium’s Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc (UCLouvain), discusses the primary results of the phase III KEYNOTE-412 study of pembrolizumab plus chemoradiation therapy (CRT) vs placebo plus CRT for patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell...
Neal D. Shore, MD, of Carolina Urologic Research Center/Genesis Care, discusses new data from the ENACT trial, which showed that patients with prostate cancer and the RNA biomarkers PAM50 and AR-A were likely to have better outcomes with enzalutamide treatment. The results suggest that such RNA...
Newly released results from the phase III ADAURA trial revealed that osimertinib yielded a 5.5-year median disease-free survival in the postsurgical treatment of patients with EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and nearly three in four patients treated with adjuvant osimertinib were...
Merkel cell carcinoma has a high rate of metastasis and poor patient outcomes. The current standard of care for patients with recurrent, unresectable, or metastatic disease is immune checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy targeting PD-1 and PD-L1, but only about half of patients respond to this therapy....
A physician-scientist at City of Hope has identified a novel combination immunotherapy regimen—a triplet therapy consisting of regorafenib, ipilimumab, and nivolumab—that demonstrated significant response in patients with chemotherapy-resistant, microsatellite-stable metastatic colorectal cancer....
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Laurence Albiges, MD, PhD, of France’s Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre, discuss phase III findings showing that cabozantinib in combination with nivolumab and ipilimumab reduced the risk of disease progression or death compared with the...
Axel Bex, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses phase III findings from the IMmotion010 study, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of atezolizumab vs placebo in patients with renal cell cancer who are at high risk of disease recurrence following nephrectomy (Abstract LBA66).
Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of Germany’s Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf, details two trials that included patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer: 3-year survival outcomes in the EMPOWER-Lung 1 study of continued cemiplimab-rwlc beyond disease progression with the addition of chemotherapy, and phase ...
Richard S. Finn, MD, of the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses primary phase III results from the LEAP-002 study of pembrolizumab, an anti–PD-1 therapy, plus lenvatinib, the orally available multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, vs lenvatinib...
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Laurence Albiges, MD, PhD, of France’s Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre, discuss results from two important trials presented at ESMO 2022: Cohort 1 of the LITESPARK-003 study of belzutifan plus cabozantinib as first-line treatment of...
Charles Swanton, PhD, of The Francis Crick Institute, discusses a newly discovered mechanism of action for air pollution–induced non–small cell lung cancer in which particles linked to climate change appear to promote cancerous changes. The finding might pave the way for new potential approaches to ...
Researchers reported study results showing that fruquintinib, a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR), significantly improved overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. Findings...
In an international, multicenter phase II clinical trial, 63.3% of patients with stage II to IV cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma saw their tumors nearly or completely eradicated when treated with the anti–PD-1 agent cemiplimab-rwlc before surgery. The results were presented by Gross et al at the...
Updated results from KRYSTAL-1, a multicohort phase I/II study, evaluating adagrasib—an investigational, highly selective, and potent oral small-molecule inhibitor of KRAS G12C—with or without cetuximab in patients with advanced colorectal cancer harboring a KRAS G12C mutation were presented by...
Physicians, care providers, and payers may be preparing for a major shift in early cancer detection that will affect almost every stage of cancer diagnosis and treatment. New data supporting the accuracy of multicancer early detection blood testing, presented by Deb Schrag, MD, FASCO, MPH, at the...
Patients with high-risk melanoma who received the anti–PD-1 therapy pembrolizumab both before and after surgery to remove cancerous tissue had a significantly lower risk of their cancer recurring than similar patients who received the drug only after surgery. These results from a study by the SWOG...
Marinde J.G. Bond, PhD Candidate, of the University Medical Center, Utrecht, discusses phase III findings from the CAIRO5 study of the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group, the first such trial in defined subgroups of patients with initially unresectable colorectal cancer liver metastases and left-sided...