For patients with fully resectable pancreatic cancer, a minimally invasive surgical approach—laparoscopic or robotic—was shown to be comparable to open distal pancreatectomy in the multicenter randomized phase III DIPLOMA trial. These results were presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting and at a...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology, Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami, said the COMMANDS trial delivered promising results for the treatment of lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). “Without question, the COMMANDS study met its...
In the global phase III COMMANDS trial of patients with low-risk transfusion-dependent myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), with or without ring sideroblasts, treatment with luspatercept essentially doubled the likelihood of achieving transfusion independence and an increase in hemoglobin level,...
Elizabeth A. Morris, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of California Davis, Sacramento, told The ASCO Post that the study by Berger et al addresses an important question. “This is a topic I am kind of passionate about—it addresses the ordering of mammograms...
Is regular surveillance with mammography important in older patients with breast cancer and a shortened life expectancy? A study of 44,475 patients with breast cancer found the practice—which may yield more harms than benefits—to be common. This study is unique in that it examined surveillance...
Kathleen Moore, MD, MS, the Virginia Kerley Cade Endowed Chair in Cancer Developmental Therapeutics and Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, spoke with The ASCO Post about GOG-258. According to Dr. Moore, the final results of this long-running...
The long-running randomized NRG Oncology GOG-258 clinical trial failed to identify an overall survival benefit with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in any subgroup of patients with locally advanced endometrial cancer. After a median follow-up of 112 months, the hazard ratio for...
Sarah Blair, MD, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego Health in California, offered her thoughts on the findings from these two studies. She first pointed to the growing body of data showing how nutrition and exercise programs can improve aerobic fitness, quality of ...
Specialized exercise and wellness programs significantly elevated physical well-being and quality of life among patients with breast cancer while reducing the use of health-care resources in new research presented at the 2023 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting. In one multicenter...
Debra L. Richardson, MD, Associate Professor and Chief of the Section of Gynecologic Oncology, Oklahoma TSET Phase I Program, at the Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, discussed the emerging field of antibody-drug conjugates at a session on platinum-resistant ovarian...
Treatment with the folate receptor alpha (FRα)-targeted antibody-drug conjugate mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx benefited patients with FRα-high, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, even after multiple lines of prior therapy, according to an updated analysis of the SORAYA trial presented at the...
“Endometrial cancer is the most frequently diagnosed gynecologic malignancy in the United States, and it is the only one where the mortality has actually risen over the past 40 years,” noted Rebecca Arend, MD, MSH, Associate Professor at the University of Alabama and Associate Scientist in the...
The addition of a checkpoint inhibitor to standard chemotherapy as first-line treatment of advanced endometrial cancer reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 70% in patients with mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) tumors in two recent phase III studies. The results of the two...
In hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer, tumors eventually become resistant not only to endocrine blockade but to inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6). This obstacle to successful treatment is being tackled with novel hormone receptor–directed therapies, with the...
Debra L. Richardson, MD, Associate Professor and Chief of the Section of Gynecologic Oncology, Oklahoma TSET Phase I Program, at the Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, discussed the emerging field of antibody-drug conjugates at a session on platinum-resistant ovarian...
Treatment with the folate receptor alpha (FRα)-targeted antibody-drug conjugate mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx benefited patients with FRα-high, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, even after multiple lines of prior therapy, according to an updated analysis of the SORAYA trial presented at the...
Elena Garralda, MD, MSc, Director of Early Drug Development at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Director of the Phase I Unit at NEXT Oncology, Barcelona, was invited to discuss the KRYSTAL-1 findings. “In KRYSTAL-1, adagrasib monotherapy has demonstrated clinically meaningful activity in a...
In the phase I/II KRYSTAL-1 trial, the KRAS inhibitor adagrasib demonstrated clinical activity in previously treated patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, biliary tract cancer, and other solid tumors harboring KRAS G12C mutations, according to research presented at the ASCO Plenary Series ...
“I think the NOW trial is a great study,” said Kathleen Moore, MD, MS, the Virginia Kerley Cade Endowed Chair in Cancer Developmental Therapeutics and Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, who shared her thoughts on the trial with...
Encouraging outcomes were achieved in patients with BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer who received neoadjuvant treatment with olaparib in a feasibility study led by Shannon N. Westin, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD...
Kathleen Moore, MD, MS, the Virginia Kerley Cade Endowed Chair in Cancer Developmental Therapeutics and Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, spoke with The ASCO Post about GOG-258. According to Dr. Moore, the final results of this long-running...
The long-running randomized NRG Oncology GOG-258 clinical trial failed to identify an overall survival benefit with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in any subgroup of patients with locally advanced endometrial cancer. After a median follow-up of 112 months, the hazard ratio for...
In the phase I/II KRYSTAL-1 trial, the KRAS inhibitor adagrasib demonstrated promising clinical activity in previously treated patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, biliary tract cancer, and other solid tumors harboring KRAS G12C mutations, according to research presented at the April...
In hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, the ability to successfully target key mediators of endocrine resistance is changing the outlook of metastatic disease in this subtype, according to Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, FASCO, Director of Breast Cancer Research and Associate Professor at Harvard...
The GLOW study’s invited discussant, Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, Chief of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said the GLOW findings are “practice-changing,” validating that high claudin-18.2 (CLDN18.2) expression as an important biomarker in...
In the first-line setting, the monoclonal antibody zolbetuximab in combination with chemotherapy extended overall survival in patients with claudin-18.2 (CLDN18.2)-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma. This regimen is now positioned as a new standard of...
“Endometrial cancer is the most frequently diagnosed gynecologic malignancy in the United States, and it is the only one where the mortality has actually risen over the past 40 years,” noted Rebecca Arend, MD, MSH, Associate Professor at the University of Alabama and Associate Scientist in the...
The addition of a checkpoint inhibitor to standard chemotherapy as first-line treatment of advanced endometrial cancer reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 70% in patients with mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) tumors in two recent phase III studies. The results of the two...
Here is how Dr. Sharma summed up the current state of neoadjuvant therapy in triple-negative breast cancer: The addition of an immune checkpoint inhibitor to neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves long-term outcomes. This strategy can produce a modest improvement in pathologic complete response and a...
Although advances in radiation therapy have rendered this treatment modality more tolerable, they have not completely eliminated the burden of radiation-related toxicity. In an ideal setting, clinicians would be able to identify patients whose risk of recurrence is sufficiently low that they can...
The management of early-stage triple-negative breast cancer has been evolving at a fast pace, thanks largely to the discovery that immune checkpoint blockade can be effective in this subtype. At the 2023 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Priyanka Sharma, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of...
“Providing hope when there is little to hope for is hard,” noted Hyman B. Muss, MD, Professor of Medicine and the Mary Jones Hudson Distinguished Professor of Geriatric Oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. At the 2023 Miami...
First-line treatment with zolbetuximab in combination with capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) extended overall survival in patients with claudin-18.2 (CLDN18.2)-positive/HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma, according to results of the GLOW trial reported by Xu et...
Breast cancer screening and imaging-based surveillance after treatment remain suboptimal, largely because of confusion in the guidelines and the fact that dense breasts are too often ignored, according to Elizabeth Morris, MD, FACR, FSBI, FISMRM, Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiology...
Young women with breast cancer have many concerns about their future fertility. How confident are you in discussing their chances of a future pregnancy, the effect of breast cancer treatment and fertility interventions on these offspring, and their risk of a compromised oncologic outcome after...
The invited discussant of KEYNOTE-859,1 Elizabeth Smyth, MD, consultant in gastrointestinal oncology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom, called the findings “practice-changing” but cautioned that better patient selection is needed to optimally apply them....
Results of the interim analysis of KEYNOTE-859 are in, and they confirm the overall survival benefit of first-line immunotherapy plus chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer.1 Pembrolizumab plus a fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing doublet provided a statistically significant improvement in...
Dan T. Vogl, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, told The ASCO Post that the follow-up of the UK NCRI Myeloma XI trial confirms the importance of...
A study aimed at determining the optimal duration of lenalidomide maintenance after autologous stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma has not answered that question, per se, but has yielded some hints that may inform future clinical trials. The follow-up analysis of the UK NCRI Myeloma XI...
Among the high-quality abstract presentations at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), a few always stand out as particularly meritorious. Each year, The ASCOPost asks our Associate Editor, breast cancer specialist Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, to give us his picks. Dr. Abraham is Chairman of ...
Aparna R. Parikh, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center’s Global Cancer Care Program, Boston, shared her thoughts on the C-800 study of balstilimab plus botensilimab with The ASCO Post. Noting that the...
In heavily pretreated patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have microsatellite-stable tumors, the novel combination of the monoclonal antibodies botensilimab and balstilimab showed clinical activity, producing durable responses and an estimated 63% overall survival rate at 12 months,...
David Wang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and VA North Texas Health Care System, was invited to discuss the CheckMate 649 and RATIONALE 305 studies. “CheckMate 649 was the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate a significant survival...
Two phase III trials evaluating the addition of drugs targeting PD-1 to chemotherapy—RATIONALE 305 and CheckMate 649—confirmed the benefit of this approach as first-line therapy for advanced gastric, gastroesophageal junction, or esophageal adenocarcinoma, in findings presented at the 2023 ASCO GI...
Commenting on the study from Tata Memorial Centre for The ASCO Post, Adam M. Brufsky, MD, Professor of Medicine, Associate Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Co-Director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, noted that the...
In a phase III randomized trial conducted in India, the addition of weekly carboplatin to standard taxane/anthracycline–based neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved pathologic complete response rates, event-free survival, and overall survival in patients with triple-negative breast cancer patients aged...
Session co-moderator, Pretesh R. Patel, MD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, shared his thoughts on the Neo-AEGIS1 findings with The ASCO Post. “I think we continue to have equipoise about chemoradiation and perioperative chemotherapy in...
A randomized trial that sought to determine the optimal approach to treating locally advanced esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer has ended in “equipoise,” according to the investigators of the Neo-AEGIS trial. In a study reported at the 2023 ASCO GI Cancers Symposium, perioperative...
Invited discussant Laura Goff, MD, MSCI, Associate Professor of Medicine and Executive Medical Director for the Cancer Patient Care Center at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, said that with the results of NAPOLI-3, clinicians have a third effective first-line regimen for metastatic...
In the phase III NAPOLI-3 trial in previously untreated patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, the NALIRIFOX regimen significantly improved overall survival and progression-free survival over nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine.1 NALIRIFOX, which contains liposomal irinotecan, fluorouracil,...