Treatment with oxybutynin helped reduce the frequency and intensity of hot flashes for women who could not take hormone replacement therapy, including breast cancer survivors, according to the results of a trial presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Leon-Ferre et al (Abstract ...
A study by Dominici et al investigated the long-term quality of life outcomes in young breast cancer survivors across three surgical strategies: breast-conserving surgery, unilateral mastectomy, and bilateral mastectomy. The researchers found that patients who underwent mastectomy had lower breast...
Treatment with a low dose of tamoxifen (5 mg/d), compared with placebo, decreased the risk of disease recurrence and new disease for women who had been treated with surgery following a diagnosis of breast intraepithelial neoplasia. Moreover, it did not cause more serious adverse events, according...
The Skin Cancer Foundation recently held its 22nd annual Gala at The Plaza Hotel in New York. The Champions for Change Gala is the Foundation’s signature fundraising event, and $600,000 was raised to support the organization’s educational campaigns, community programs, and research initiatives....
On August 20, 2018, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with pemetrexed (Alimta) and platinum was granted regular approval as first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or anaplastic lymphoma...
Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief, Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. GUEST EDITOR The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the...
Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related childhood death. To better serve the special needs of this highly vulnerable patient population, pediatric palliative care teams use a personalized, holistic, and interdisciplinary approach tailored to relieve the physical, psychosocial, and spiritual ...
“We are on the cusp of a new way to treat breast cancer,” Mary L. (Nora) Disis, MD, said in summarizing advances using immunology to treat breast cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitors, adaptive T-cell therapies, and vaccines can enlist and rev up the immune system and be combined with chemotherapy...
Investigators from Australia have identified a genetic mutation that causes resistance to the targeted drug venetoclax (Venclexta) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to research presented by Blombery et al at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting...
On August 16, 2018, lenvatinib (Lenvima) was approved for the first-line treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on the findings of a phase III open-label noninferiority trial (REFLECT), in which 954 patients with previously...
Researchers, patients with cancer, and philanthropists have come together to launch Count Me In, a nonprofit organization aimed at patient-partnered research. Count Me In allows patients with cancer anywhere in the United States or Canada to easily share their medical information, personal...
A 6-month course of chemotherapy-based treatment with FCR (intravenous fludarabine and cyclophosphamide plus rituximab [Rituxan]) has historically been the most effective treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), especially in patients 70 years of age and younger. However, results from a...
Interim results from a large international phase III clinical trial show that adding the immunotherapy daratumumab (Darzalex) to standard therapy significantly extended progression-free survival (PFS) in newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma who were ineligible for a stem cell transplant....
At the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Grover et al presented preliminary results from a clinical study of an investigational cellular immunotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma expressing the CD30 protein marker (Abstract 681). Data...
According to findings from the ADAM VTE trial, an oral drug, apixaban (Eliquis), is safe and effective in treating blood clots in patients undergoing cancer therapy. The drug was associated with fewer major bleeding events and fewer recurrent blood clots compared to low–molecular-weight. ...
A follow-up analysis of patients enrolled in the multicenter ZUMA-1 trial for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) showed axicabtagene ciloleucel can induce durable responses, yield a median overall survival of more than 2 years, and has a manageable long-term safety profile. Axicabtagene...
Researchers used machine learning to develop a new system to analyze genomic and clinical data to provide a personalized overall outcome that is patient-specific in myelodysplastic syndromes. In tests, the system outperformed the current standard prognostic tool, suggesting the new model may offer...
A new study demonstrated it is feasible for health-care providers to determine which molecular subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) a patient has before beginning treatment and to use this information to pick an approach that best matches the individual. The results, presented by Burd et al at...
In a new study presented by Summers et al at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 967), patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who received a first stem cell transplant after CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy were less...
CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been shown to be effective in patients with relapsed B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL). However, in some patients, the antitumor effects of CAR T-cell treatment are short-lived, which may, in part, be caused by a reaction of...
For patients with difficult-to-treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), continuing to take ibrutinib (Imbruvica) before, during, and after receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy may be associated with less severe adverse effects and better responses compared with outcomes for a...
A single infusion of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) continues to be highly effective in most patients, without the need for additional therapies. This latest analysis of the ELIANA trial results...
A new study presented by Woyach et al at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 6) showed that older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have a significantly lower rate of disease progression if treated with ibrutinib rather than...
The largest prospective trial of hydroxyurea for sickle cell anemia (SCA) has shown that this treatment—long the standard of care for treating SCA in developed countries—is feasible, accepted, well tolerated, and safe for children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Tshilolo et al reported...
YouTube videos on prostate cancer often offer misleading or biased medical information that poses potential health risks to patients, an analysis of the social media platform published by Loeb et al in European Urology showed. For the latest analysis, researchers, which included social...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rituximab-abbs (Truxima) as the first biosimilar to rituximab (Rituxan) for the treatment of adult patients with CD20-positive, B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma to be used as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy. Rituximab-abbs is ...
In a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort published in The Lancet Oncology, Gibson et al found that more recently treated survivors of childhood cancer had reduced risk of chronic health conditions compared to those diagnosed early in the study period. The study involved data...
In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Smith-Bindman et al found that the appearance of ovarian masses on ultrasonography was highly associated with risk of ovarian cancer in a large unselected population of women undergoing pelvic ultrasonography. Study Details The study was a nested...
In an international phase III trial (HR-NBL1/SIOPEN) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ladenstein et al found that the addition of interleukin (IL)-2 to dinutuximab beta did not improve event-free survival in children and young people with high-risk neuroblastoma. Study Details The current report...
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. Shelly Latte-Naor, MD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, explore some of the beneficial effects attributed ...
DURING THE 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego this December, ASH will honor Cage S. Johnson, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Physiology, and Biophysics at the University of Southern California, and José A. López, MD, Professor of Medicine...
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY (ASH) announced the election of four new members to its Executive Committee for terms beginning after the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition in December. Martin S. Tallman, MD, will serve a 1-year term as Vice President, followed by successive terms as...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved glasdegib (Daurismo) tablets to be used in combination with low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults who are 75 years of age or older or with comorbidities that may preclude the use of ...
This past month, President Trump signed a pair of bills into law aimed at increasing transparency with regard to drug prices in the United States. The Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act (S.2554) and the Know the Lowest Price Act (S.2553) prohibit so-called “gag clauses,” which prevent...
The ASCO Nominating Committee has selected 15 distinguished ASCO members as candidates for open leadership positions within the Society, including: The office of President-Elect Three seats on the Society’s Board of Directors Three seats on the Nominating Committee Biographical information and...
The phase III DUO trial, reported by Flinn et al and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, has led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a novel B-cell receptor (BCR) kinase inhibitor, duvelisib (Copiktra), which targets phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-δ/γ in patients...
In response to the opioid-overdose epidemic, several measures have been put in place, such as the reclassification of hydrocodone as a Schedule II opioid and new requirements for physician review of prescription drug–monitoring program databases in most states. Moreover, the Surgeon General and...
When detected early, liver cancer is highly treatable and, in many cases, curable, yet the number of new cases of liver cancer in the United States has increased by 43% in the past 16 years, whereas the incidence of other cancers is on the decline. This past October, during Liver Cancer Awareness...
A combination of the chemotherapy drug azacitidine with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated an encouraging response rate and overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to findings from a phase II study published...
Telemedicine—the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients via telecommunications technology—has changed the way oncology care is delivered in rural parts of the world. Patients in rural areas are now able to connect remotely with their physicians without having to deal with the time, expense, and ...
Allison S. Betof Warner, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for immunotherapy and combination treatments, identifying the agents that lead to toxicities, and ways to manage them.
Growing numbers of cancer survivors, provider shortages, rising health-care costs, and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes have created an urgent need to provide coordinated, comprehensive, personalized care for cancer survivors. A new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) creates...
In 2010, the long-awaited findings from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) revealed that participants who received low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) scans had a 15% to 20% lower risk of dying of lung cancer than participants who received standard chest x-rays. In response, the U.S....
Men who have been newly diagnosed with prostate cancer say they would trade some improvement in their odds of survival for improvements in side effects and quality of life, according to research presented by Ahmed et al at the 2018 National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference...
The rate of men dying from malignant melanoma has risen in populations around the world, whereas in some countries, mortality rates for the disease are steady or falling for women, according to research presented by Yang et al at the 2018 National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Knight et al found that 26% of patients with cancer acknowledged ‘financial toxicity’—treatment-related financial harm—with respect to cancer care, and that this toxicity was associated with consequences such as...
In the Dutch Breast Cancer Research Group’s phase III TRAIN-2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Ramshorst et al found no difference in pathologic complete response rate with neoadjuvant chemotherapy with vs without an anthracycline plus dual HER2 blockade in women with HER2-positive...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the approved use of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) injection in combination with chemotherapy for adult patients with certain types of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL)—adults with previously untreated systemic anaplastic large cell...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued the following new approvals and designations: Approval for Pegfilgrastim Biosimilar The FDA recently approved a pegfilgrastim biosimilar, pegfilgrastim-cbqv (Udenyca). The biosimilar has been approved to decrease the incidence...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Shaitelman et al, 3-year outcomes of a phase III noninferiority trial indicate that hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation (HF-WBI) followed by a tumor bed boost is not inferior to conventionally fractionated whole-breast irradiation (CF-WBI)...