Landmark changes in the treatment of genitourinary cancers have occurred over the past year, as summarized in this year’s Genitourinary Oncology Almanac from The ASCO Post. Starting with our area of focus, metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the saga continues with two more positive phase III trials...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Robert J. Motzer, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), and colleagues, the phase III CLEAR trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival with lenvatinib/pembrolizumab and with lenvatinib/everolimus vs sunitinib and...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Orecchia et al, preplanned long-term follow-up in the Italian single-center phase III ELIOT trial continued to show a higher rate of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence with electron intraoperative radiotherapy vs postoperative whole-breast irradiation, with no ...
In an individual participant data meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Emma Copland, MSc, and colleagues found “no consistent evidence” of an association between antihypertensive treatment and risk for cancer. A potential increase in risk was observed for...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued regulatory decisions related to treatments for urothelial cancer, cervical cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, solid tumors, and colorectal cancer. Acceptance of Two Supplemental Biologics License Applications for Enfortumab Vedotin-ejfv in...
In the 5-year follow-up of the pivotal SOLO-1 trial in women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer and a BRCA1/2 mutation, maintenance treatment with olaparib led to a more than doubling in progression-free survival, according to a presentation at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO)...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sibylle Loibl, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III PENELOPE-B trial has shown that palbociclib plus endocrine therapy did not improve invasive disease–free survival vs placebo plus endocrine therapy in patients with residual invasive hormone...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD, and colleagues, the Children’s Oncology Group ARAR0332 Protocol has identified outcomes associated with different treatment strategies according to disease stage in patients with pediatric adrenocortical carcinoma....
Breast cancer survivors who are overweight have a statistically significant increased risk of developing second primary cancers, according to results from a study conducted by Feigelson et al and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “These findings have important public health ...
Two new studies published in the journal Blood suggest that the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may have reduced efficacy in individuals with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and multiple myeloma. According to researchers, these studies could help inform the ideal time for vaccination of these...
Death from infection—the leading cause of death for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)—may be linked to specific gene mutations, according to results from a study published by Else et al in the journal Leukemia. Testing for these mutations could be used to identify patients at a...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Metzger et al found that the integration of brentuximab vedotin into front-line treatment of pediatric patients with high-risk classical Hodgkin lymphoma resulted in avoidance of radiotherapy in many patients, as well as high rates of...
In an Israeli case-control study reported in a commentary in The Lancet Oncology, Waissengrin et al found that the short-term safety of the Pfizer BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was similar in patients with cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors compared with healthy controls. Study Details...
In the Chinese phase III RATIONALE 307 trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Wang et al found that tislelizumab plus chemotherapy significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As...
In the German AMBORA trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dürr et al found that an intensified clinical pharmacologic/pharmaceutical care initiative reduced medication errors and severe side effects, as well as improved treatment satisfaction, among patients receiving newer oral...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ronan J. Kelly, MBBCh, MBA, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CheckMate 577 trial has shown a significant improvement in disease-free survival with adjuvant nivolumab vs placebo in patients with resected esophageal or...
Tumor mutational burden (TMB) was an accurate predictor of response to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors for female patients with melanoma, but not for male patients, according to results of a study presented by Sinha et al during the virtual American Association for Cancer Research...
In a phase I trial reported at the virtual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021 (Abstract CT018) and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Friedman et al found that oncolytic virotherapy with genetically engineered herpes simplex virus-1...
Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response (pCR) rates compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with resectable stage IB to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results of the randomized, phase III, open-label...
Treatment with tebentafusp, a novel bispecific fusion protein, reduced the risk of death from metastatic uveal melanoma at 14 months by half, compared with available treatments, in a phase III study presented by Piperno-Neumann et al at the virtual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
Separate studies presented at the 2021 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium provide supportive evidence for belzutifan (formerly MK-6482) as an active treatment for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). One study showed single-agent activity for this novel approach in an early-phase trial,...
Bispecific anti-CD19/CD20 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy was well tolerated and showed signs of clinical efficacy in patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma, according to phase I clinical trial data presented by Ghafouri et al during week 1 of the virtual American...
We who live and work in Seattle recently took note of two milestones: the first death of a patient from COVID-19 reported in the United States in Seattle on February 28, 2020, and recognition of 5,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the state of Washington on March 2, 2021. The juxtaposition of these two...
The swastikas on his knuckles kept stealing my attention. I tried not to stare but every time he gestured to emphasize his words my gaze snapped back there. That awful symbol, multiplied across all 10 digits, refused to be ignored. The blue lines were blurred and misshapen, probably jail tats. I...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel clinical trial findings in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). For full details of...
According to a retrospective study, the combined clinical and cell-cycle risk (CCR) score may be able to accurately predict which patients with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer will have little additional benefit from androgen-deprivation therapy added to dose-escalated radiotherapy and...
Gastrointestinal oncologist John Marshall, MD, is well known for his candid observations about cancer treatment and research. In 2006, all the scientific intricacies and sociopolitical dramas of oncology coalesced in Dr. Marshall’s life when his 43-year-old wife, Liza, was diagnosed with breast...
The treatment paradigm for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma has undergone a dramatic shift over the past few years, improving outcomes for many patients but leaving many unanswered questions as to how to optimally choose the best treatment for an individual patient. The changes are...
As reported in two articles in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by David F. McDermott, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and colleagues, the phase II KEYNOTE-427 study showed that pembrolizumab monotherapy produced durable responses as first-line treatment in cohorts of patients with...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Menjak et al found that a nurse-led telephone surveillance program for toxicity associated with ipilimumab in patients with metastatic melanoma led to earlier identification of toxicities and earlier intervention, with an apparent...
For the treatment of breast cancer, antibody-drug conjugates are emerging as effective players that could impact all subtypes of this disease, according to Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS, Director of the Glenn Family Breast Cancer at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta. In the...
Research published by Orgel et al in the journal Blood Advances showed that restricting calories, reducing fat and sugar intake, and increasing physical activity may boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy for older children and adolescents with leukemia. This intervention, which improved...
In a letter to the editor published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Benoit Rousseau, MD, and colleagues presented evidence that high tumor mutational burden (TMB) alone is not sufficient to predict improved outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with solid tumors. As...
A study published by Yuan et al in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology found using percutaneous image-guided needle-based thermal ablation—the precise application of extreme heat or cold to a tumor using sophisticated imaging in a single outpatient session—is a safe and effective...
In a German prospective registry study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Peter A. Fasching, MD, and colleagues identified the prevalence of germline mutations in BRCA1/2 and other breast cancer risk genes in patients with metastatic disease and found similar prognosis with presence vs...
Radiation oncologists reported that new patients are arriving for treatment with more advanced-stage disease than before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey conducted by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) this winter. The national survey of radiation therapy practice...
In a single-institution retrospective study focused on a New York City location reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Satish et al found that more than 40% of patients with breast cancer not infected with COVID-19 had a delay or change in care delivery due to the pandemic. Study Details The study...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by John Kuruvilla, MD, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-204 trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with pembrolizumab vs brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma....
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib produced durable responses in women with recurrent uterine serous carcinoma. The investigators stated, “Uterine serous carcinoma is a...
Gastric cancer appears to have a new druggable target: fibroblast growth factor receptor 2b (FGFR2b). Targeting FGFR2b with bemarituzumab plus chemotherapy led to clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in progression-free survival, overall survival, and response rate in...
The overall survival benefit for PD-L1 CPS ≥ 5 tumors in CheckMate 649 is a game-changer. An oxaliplatin doublet plus chemotherapy should become a standard of care for these patients,” according to Elizabeth Smyth, MD, an oncology consultant at Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in...
Marcus Noel, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, included SWOG S1505 in the presentation of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Highlights during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program. Susan Tsai, MD, MHS, a ...
With inhibitors of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) fusion and other genetic alterations now in clinical trials for cholangiocarcinoma, there is interest in better understanding what FGFR2 genetic alterations mean for patients. In particular, little is known about the effects of FGFR2...
In 2007, sorafenib became the first approved systemic therapy for hepatocellular cancers and the first agent to improve overall survival in these patients.1 In a similar multikinase inhibitor strategy, lenvatinib was found to be noninferior to sorafenib in overall survival in the same patient...
Excluding skin cancer, colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent and lethal cancer among both men and women in the United States.1 Although the risk of developing colorectal cancer increases with age—more than 90% of cases occur in people aged 50 or older2—recent research shows that the...
“In line with the emergence of targeted therapies, molecular biomarker testing in metastatic colorectal cancer has evolved over the past decade,” noted Jeanne Tie, MD, MBChB, FRACP, who acknowledged there is confusion about the best ways to use molecular testing in the clinic. Dr. Tie, who is...
In an updated analysis of the pivotal phase III KEYNOTE-177 trial of pembrolizu-mab for microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer, the benefit of first-line pembrolizumab continued beyond disease progression on the subsequent line of treatment, despite a high crossover to ...
The treatment of colorectal cancer has always been something of an art—but never more so than during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2020, The ASCO Post asked three experts in this malignancy to share their concerns and their approaches to achieving good patient outcomes while minimizing...
Cancers of the digestive tract account for 338,090 new cases and 169,280 deaths annually in the United States. Although the overall mortality from these cancers is decreasing, this has been countered by an increase in the incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults. The rising incidence and poor ...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Oncology, Reyngold et al found that definitive hypofractionated ablative radiation therapy following induction chemotherapy was associated with prolonged locoregional control and favorable survival in patients with inoperable locally advanced...