For the treatment of advanced melanoma that is refractory to anti–PD-1 antibodies, there is no standard approach. The various options, with a look to the future, were discussed by Melinda L. Yushak, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Hematology and Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine, at...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 held in Madrid reported out several eagerly awaited and potentially practice-changing trials, bringing forward promising new combination strategies in the targeted and immunotherapy space, and put to the test selective agents against...
Invited discussant, Elizabeth Smyth, MD, a consultant in gastrointestinal oncology at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom, commented on the notable impact in pathologic complete response rates with the addition of checkpoint inhibitors in MATTERHORN and...
Abstract discussant Miriam Koopman, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University Medical Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and Vice Chair of the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group, commented that CodeBreaK 300 showed a high degree of tumor shrinkage and a significant progression-free...
The combination of sotorasib and panitumumab significantly improved progression-free survival compared with standard treatment in patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer with KRAS G12C mutations, the phase III CodeBreaK 300 trial has shown. The KRAS G12C inhibitor...
Two phase III trials presented at a Presidential Symposium during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 showed an overall survival benefit for patients with advanced urothelial cancer. The results from both studies were hailed as practice-changing. The EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39...
The invited discussant of TROPION-Breast01, Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD, Member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said the results suggest datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) may be a good treatment option for a subset of patients,...
First-line treatment with selpercatinib achieved a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival and overall response rate vs treatment with cabozantinib or vandetanib in patients with multikinase inhibitor–naive, RET-mutant advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.1 At...
Invited discussant of TROPION-Lung01, Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, was cautiously optimistic about this new treatment option. “Dato-DXd [datopotamab deruxtecan] has a benefit over standard-of-care docetaxel in the second-line setting. There...
Zofia Piotrowska, MD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, noted that MARIPOSA and MARIPOSA-2 are “two well-designed, randomized phase III trials, each meeting its primary endpoints and representing important advances for patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancer.”...
In the phase III PAPILLON trial, the addition of the bispecific antibody amivantamab-vmjw to chemotherapy resulted in a near doubling in median progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone in patients with untreated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)...
The novel ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor iruplinalkib has demonstrated potential for a difficult-to-treat subset of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer.1 A...
First-line treatment with osimertinib plus platinum-based chemotherapy achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival improvement compared with osimertinib alone in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non–small cell lung...
Gerard A. Silvestri, MD, MS, the Hillenbrand Professor of Thoracic Oncology at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, praised the investigators of the Taiwan National Lung Cancer Screening Program for their accomplishment. “It’s incredible that they screened almost 50,000...
Guest Editor’s Note: The Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) held its 20th international conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The conference focused on the theme “Integrative Oncology as Standard of Care: The Time Is Now.” The mood was festive, and the weather cooperated with warm temperatures, ...
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders that are characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, resulting in cytopenias, and they carry a risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In 2022, the fifth edition of the World Health ...
Greater understanding of biological disease factors in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has led to more effective and personalized treatment options. At the 2023 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies,1 Rebecca Olin, MD, MSCE, of UCSF Helen Diller Family...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Eric Bouffet, MD, of the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and colleagues, a phase II trial has shown a significant improvement in objective response rate and other efficacy outcomes with first-line dabrafenib plus trametinib vs standard...
An ASCO Rapid Recommendation Update advises oncologists to avoid the use of triple combination therapy for the management of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC).1 The new guidance, which updates recommendations from the original 2022 guideline, reflects findings from a phase III,...
Commenting on the AEGEAN study at the 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer were the abstract’s invited discussant Solange Peters, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair of Medical Oncology and the Thoracic Malignancies Program at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, and Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH,...
The addition of durvalumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy led to higher rates of R0 resections and posed no apparent impediments to successful surgery for resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings from the randomized phase III AEGEAN trial presented at the International...
The invited discussant Krishnansu Tewari, MD, Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of California, Irvine, called innovaTV 301 a “practice-changing study” that should result in full approval of tisotumab vedotin-tftv in the United States “and, importantly, will...
Two phase III trials presented at a Presidential Symposium during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 showed an overall survival benefit for patients with advanced urothelial cancer. The results from both studies were hailed as practice-changing. The EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39...
The invited discussant of TROPION-Breast01, Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD, Member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said the results suggest datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) may be a good treatment option for a subset of patients,...
The management of ovarian cancer remains challenging within health-care systems worldwide. Recently, clinical and translational research on ovarian cancer has led to promising advances that have improved the survival outcomes of women diagnosed with this aggressive gynecologic cancer. These...
Remarkable progress has been made in the treatment of lung cancer in the past 10 to 15 years; it is therefore not surprising that lung cancer mortality in the United States is declining consistently, at the rate of 2% to 4% annually in recent years. Long-term survival is possible even for patients...
Real-world outcomes often fall short of those achieved in clinical trials, but this is apparently not so for patients receiving chemoradiotherapy plus consolidation with durvalumab in unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The robust results achieved in the phase III PACIFIC...
More attention is being paid to the topic of cardio-oncology, where the focus is on patients with cancer who may be at risk for developing cardiovascular diseases as a result of anticancer treatments. However, a less well-known but related clinical area is now garnering some interest. Referred to...
Gender diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in medicine has long been acknowledged as more than “the right thing to do,” with clear evidence of benefits in innovation, collaboration, and workplace culture.1 Yet the data continue to showcase challenges in achieving these goals despite women...
The past year has been an exciting time for breast oncologists and patients with all stages of breast cancer, with new agents approved and long-term results from pivotal trials showing improved survival for patients with metastatic disease. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights in early-stage ...
The MONARCH 3 study’s invited discussant, Meritxell Bellet Ezquerra, MD, PhD, a senior researcher at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, commented: “The second interim analysis for overall survival in MONARCH 31 indicates a positive trend, which was also observed for the subgroup...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) proved to be superior to the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), significantly improving progression-free survival and overall survival, in women with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer as ...
The invited discussant of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) meta-analysis, Ines Vaz-Luis, MD, PhD, of the Breast Cancer Survivorship Group, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, pointed out that the benefit of ovarian suppression or ablation in reducing breast cancer...
A guideline update on systemic treatment for melanoma offers new guidance in several areas, including the selection of front-line therapy for patients with metastatic disease with and without BRAF mutations, treatment of patients with earlier-stage disease in the adjuvant setting, and emerging...
Justin F. Gainor, MD, Director of the Center for Thoracic Cancers Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, was invited to discuss IMpower151 and ILLUMINATE at the 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer. IMpower151 vs IMpower150 Dr. Gainor examined why IMpower151 was negative for both...
In advanced non–small cell lung cancer harboring mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors following disease progression with tyrosine kinase inhibitors has been unclear. Several studies reported at the International Association for the Study ...
First-line treatment with osimertinib plus platinum-based chemotherapy achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival improvement compared with osimertinib alone in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non–small cell lung...
At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer, the benefit of two KRAS G12C inhibitors in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was upheld by the 2-year follow-up analysis of adagrasib in the KRYSTAL-11 and the early-phase CodeBreaK 101...
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, Yen Nien (Jason) Hou, PharmD, DiplOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on ...
Recent developments in surgery and therapeutics are changing the perioperative approach to non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These advances were discussed at the 2023 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology conference, sponsored by Emory University, by Jennifer W. Carlisle, MD, Assistant ...
Researchers have discovered that the combination of the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab and the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab may be an effective second-line therapy in patients with PD-1 blockade–refractory metastatic melanoma, according to a recent study conducted by the SWOG Cancer Research Network and...
Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia is a rare and incurable low-grade B-cell lymphoproliferative disease defined by specific genotypic subtypes that have implications for treatment response and long-term outcomes. Treatment—and there is no established standard—is mainly focused on controlling symptoms...
De-escalation of chemoradiotherapy after induction chemotherapy yields excellent oncologic outcomes in patients with high-risk oropharyngeal cancer associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Results of the nonrandomized phase II Quarterback trial suggest that this subset of patients may be...
Barbara Burtness, MD, the Anthony N. Brady Professor of Medicine and Chief Translational Research Officer at Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, featured the CONTINUUM study at the head and neck cancer session on Highlights of the Day during the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting. She noted the study’s premise...
The addition of the PD-1 inhibitor sintilimab to standard induction chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy resulted in a significant improvement in 3-year event-free survival, a manageable safety profile, and comparable quality of life in high-risk, locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma vs standard ...
Head and neck cancers comprise approximately 4% of all new cancer diagnoses globally and represent approximately 110,000 new cancer diagnoses and 17,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States. Head and neck cancers are a heterogenous group of malignancies where prognosis and treatment varies...
Novel treatments beyond the current chemoimmunotherapies are offering more treatment options in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), though real breakthroughs remain elusive, according to Ticiana Leal, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School...
In patients with melanoma who are undergoing neoadjuvant therapy with immune checkpoint blockade, response to treatment may guide the intensity of additional treatment, according to a retrospective analysis of two major trials presented by Irene L.M. Reijers, an MD/PhD candidate in the Christian...
ASCO EXPERT Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, commented on these GALAXY trial findings. He noted the results of this current study and others planned will establish the role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) monitoring for risk of recurrence and guidance for adjuvant therapy. Dr. Yu is...
Postoperative molecular residual disease detected by circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) at 4 weeks after resection has emerged as the strongest prognostic risk factor for disease-free survival in patients with resected colorectal cancer. This finding was observed regardless of BRAF V600E status and...