The evidence is in: the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has enabled improved access to earlier diagnosis, earlier care, and reduced racial disparities in access to care for patients with cancer, according to two studies presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. In states that adopted Medicaid...
The randomized phase III POLO trial found that maintenance therapy with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor olaparib significantly delayed the progression of metastatic pancreatic cancer in patients with germline BRCA gene mutations compared with placebo (median...
Results from the phase III TITAN trial, presented by Chi et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 5006), showed that the addition of apalutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) improved radiographic progression-free and overall survival in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive...
As this special edition of The ASCO Post goes to press, more than 32,000 cancer experts from around the world have convened in Chicago to share the latest clinical cancer research impacting patient care at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Advances in...
Raja M. Flores, MD, grew up in New York’s Meatpacking District, a rough West Side neighborhood, light years before its gentrification into a hip commercial area, home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, high-end designer clothing stores and chic bars, and a stretch of the High Line (an...
Rajendra Achyut Badwe, MBBS, MS, was born and reared in the sprawling city of Mumbai, the most populous city in India. “My grandmother was a matron in an infectious disease hospital. At that time, smallpox was a serious issue, and the patient care challenges were momentous. She taught me the value...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tilly et al found that the combination of polatuzumab vedotin, an antibody-drug conjugate targeting the CD79b component of the B-cell receptor, with immunochemotherapy showed high response rates in the phase II portion of a phase I/II study in previously...
Results from a study published early by Boehmer et al in Cancer point to the need for improved access to medical care for sexual minority cancer survivors—in particular, sexual minority women. In women who are sexual minority cancer survivors, poor access to care is more strongly related to...
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved alpelisib (Piqray) tablets to be used in combination with the FDA-approved endocrine therapy fulvestrant to treat postmenopausal women, and men, with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2...
Population screening programs and the advent of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination have made cervical cancer largely a preventable disease. Despite these advances, cervical cancer remains a leading cause of cancer death for women in low- and middle-income countries. A recent study identified...
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, Shelly Latte-Naor, MD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, explore the use of...
Breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women globally. Due to a lack of early interventions, most women in low- and middle-income countries have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis, conferring a grim prognosis. Yehoda M. Martei, MD, of the Department of Medicine,...
The Global Burden of Disease Study was initiated in 1990, commissioned by the World Bank. At that time, the study was conducted mainly by researchers at Harvard and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then the study has gone through many iterations to its present structure, which is a...
A report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) based on data from more than 100 cancer registries in 68 countries shows that from 2001 to 2010, the occurrence of childhood cancer worldwide was 13% more common than in the 1980s.1 In addition, the report’s findings showcase stark...
In the phase III OPTIMISMM trial, reported by Richardson et al in The Lancet Oncology, researchers found that the addition of pomalidomide to bortezomib/dexamethasone improved progression-free survival in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma previously treated with lenalidomide. Study Details...
ASCO and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) have released an update to existing guidelines for use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents to manage anemia in patients with cancer.1 “The current update aims to increase awareness of recent developments regarding the use of...
The sequencing of trastuzumab administration with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting seems to have no effect on outcomes for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to data presented at the 2019 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer Symposium.1 The results of a phase III...
In the phase III KATHERINE trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine,1Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, of the German Breast Group, Neu-Isenburg, and colleagues found that adjuvant treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) improved invasive disease–free survival...
THE COMBINATION of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab has demonstrated antitumor activity in patients with advanced urothelial cancer, including patients receiving later-line treatment. Results of a phase Ib/II trial showed an objective response rate of 25% and a median progression-free survival of 5.4...
PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE suggests that the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan is active in patients previously treated with chemotherapy or checkpoint inhibitor therapy for metastatic urothelial cancer. These results from a phase I/II basket study of this agent were presented at the 2019...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis in the phase III LATITUDE trial has shown a significant benefit with the addition of abiraterone acetate plus prednisone to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in newly diagnosed,...
In a trial with a modified primary endpoint due to slow accrual reported in JAMA Oncology,1 Axel Bex, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that deferred cytoreductive nephrectomy after sunitinib did not improve the 28-week progression-free rate vs immediate nephrectomy followed by sunitinib in patients...
The poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib holds promise as maintenance therapy for advanced, platinum-sensitive, BRCA- or PALB2-mutated pancreatic cancer, according to an interim analysis of an ongoing phase II clinical trial presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American...
The TIVO-3 trial was conducted to confirm progression-free survival results from the TIVO-1 trial, which found an improvement in median progression-free survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tivozanib vs sorafenib. Findings from TIVO-3 were presented by Rini et al...
TWO RECENTLY reported phase III trials have shown the benefits of combination therapy vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Brian I. Rini, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues,...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), covering eight tumor types. NCCN Guidelines are now published for more than 70 tumor types and topics. Some of the key updates for 2019 were presented...
A large randomized trial has found that frail and elderly patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer may be safely and successfully treated with dose-reduced chemotherapy. In the GO2 phase III trial, low doses of oxaliplatin/capecitabine performed similarly to intermediate and high doses of the ...
IMMUNOTHERAPY WITH the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab may prove to be an effective option for patients with advanced non–clear cell renal cell carcinoma, according to results in cohort B of the KEYNOTE-427 trial, presented at the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.1 Kidney cancers with a...
The past year has seen groundbreaking advances in the treatment of genitourinary (GU) cancers, which in some cases are resulting in altering the standard of care for patients with renal cell carcinoma, prostate cancer, and urothelial carcinoma. Some of the biggest changes that have occurred are for ...
Two phase I studies reported in The Lancet Oncology indicate activity of the antibody-drug conjugate trastuzumab deruxtecan in advanced HER2-positive gastric cancer and advanced HER2-positive breast cancer previously treated with trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). Trastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201a) is a ...
In long-term follow-up of a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gomez et al confirmed superior outcomes with local consolidative therapy vs maintenance therapy or observation in patients with oligometastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the open-label,...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted designations in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, and Kaposi sarcoma; and the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) held votes on treatments for tenosynovial giant cell tumor and acute...
A phase III randomized clinical study evaluating the optimum dose of a combination chemotherapy regimen of oxaliplatin and capecitabine in the treatment of advanced gastroesophageal cancer in frail and elderly patients has found that the patients prescribed the lowest dose tested experienced less...
A phase III randomized trial (E3A06) by Lonial et al testing the effect of single-agent lenalidomide vs observation in patients with intermediate- or high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma has found that lenalidomide significantly reduces the risk of smoldering multiple myeloma progressing to active ...
ALTHOUGH IMMUNOTHERAPIES have had limited success in pancreatic cancer to date, findings from a molecular analysis of the tumor microenvironment suggest that certain subtypes may be more responsive to treatment. According to data presented at the 2019 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer...
USE OF the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab after two or more prior lines of therapy led to responses in patients with advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in a pooled analysis of two clinical trials: phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 and phase II...
THE 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting was held March 29 to April 3 in Atlanta. In addition to our regular coverage of news stories from the meeting, here are some brief highlights of additional noteworthy studies. Stage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Surgery or No ...
UMBRALISIB—an investigational PI3K-delta inhibitor—produced impressive results as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma, according to an interim analysis of the phase II UNITY-NHL trial presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
FORMAL STUDY discussant, Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Chief of Medical Oncology at the Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, stated that the findings of the TATTON analyses are “compelling,” and the combination of osimertinib plus savolitinib can be considered a “win,” although randomized trials...
THE ADDITION of the MET inhibitor savolitinib to the EGFR inhibitor osimertinib led to activity in patients with MET-amplified, EGFR-mutated non–small lung cancer (NSCLC) with acquired resistance to previous therapies, according to interim results from two expansion cohorts of a phase Ib clinical...
Published by Rodon et al in Nature Medicine, results of the WINTHER study showed that RNA profiling together with DNA testing matches more patients with advanced cancer to personalized therapies than DNA profiling for tumor mutations alone. The WINTHER trial aimed to...
The latest results from the REQUITE project, which aimed to discover what makes patients more likely to experience adverse effects after radiotherapy, have shown that a combination of biologic markers and certain genetic changes can predict radiation sensitivity. In addition, the international team ...
A comparison of three types of radiotherapy for pediatric brain tumors suggests that a type of proton therapy called pencil-beam scanning (PBS) offers the best hope of preserving cognitive functions. The study, presented by Toussaint et al at ESTRO 38, the annual congress of the European Society...
In the past 2 weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a new drug application and granted Priority Review for a prostate cancer treatment, granted Orphan Drug designation to a treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, accepted an investigational new drug application for a...
Patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma with bulky lesions at the time of diagnosis may benefit from radiotherapy after chemotherapy, according to late-breaking results presented by Ricardi et al at ESTRO 38, the annual congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology...
Women with early-stage, low-risk, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer may be less likely to experience disease recurrence if they have radiotherapy after surgery as well as antihormonal treatment, according to results from a trial that has followed 869 women for 10 years. These findings...
In the phase III IMblaze370 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Eng et al found no survival benefit with third-line atezolizumab with or without cobimetinib vs regorafenib in patients with locally advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer. Study Details The open-label trial included 363...
Imagine a 70-year-old patient who is scheduled for a pancreaticoduodenectomy. On the morning of surgery, the patient is checked in at the front desk by the “data-entry provider.” The patient is taken to the preoperative area, where the appropriate formalities are completed by multiple “bedside-care ...
In an article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sharman et al provided long-term findings of a phase III trial that examined the addition of idelalisib to rituximab in relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including findings from an extension phase of idelalisib monotherapy. The ...
Two recently reported phase III trials have shown the benefits of combination therapy vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment in advanced renal cell carcinoma. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Brian I. Rini, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues, the ...