Risk-reducing medications for breast cancer may be effective for many women, and recently reported and ongoing trials have led to improvements in their tolerability and safety, Seema A. Khan, MD, reported at the 2021 Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium (virtual).1 Dr. Khan is Professor of...
“Nodal status remains the single most important prognostic marker in outcomes for women with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. For that reason, it makes sense to think about optimizing adjuvant therapy, including endocrine treatments, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy,”...
In a study published by Abashidze et al in JAMA Network Open, the investigators found that Black men were at least 23.6% less likely than White men to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) following an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test result. They also found that Hispanic and Asian...
In the Japanese phase III IMPACT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tada et al found that adjuvant gefitinib did not improve disease-free survival vs cisplatin/vinorelbine in patients with completely resected stage II to IIIA EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the...
About 9% of patients with cancer experience complications while hospitalized that lead to a deterioration in their condition, a transfer to the intensive care unit, or death. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a machine learning–based early...
New evidence suggests that adding the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib to a standard chemotherapy regimen may improve survival among younger people with a specific form of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The findings, published by Wyndham Wilson, MD, PhD, in Cancer Cell,...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Gidwani et al found that among U.S. patients treated for early-stage breast cancer, those who were considered to be unrepresented in clinical trials have significantly poorer survival than those categorized as well represented....
In a study published by Magenau et al in the journal Blood Advances, researchers found that patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who received a form of type I interferon after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant experienced reduced rates of disease relapse. Additionally,...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to agents for several kinds of lymphoma, as well as nasopharyngeal cancer; a Breakthrough Therapy designation for a treatment for patients with NTRK-positive advanced solid tumors; and Fast Track designation for...
Matthew Manning, MD, of Cone Health Cancer Center, discusses findings that showed changes to the way cancer care is delivered may help eliminate racial disparities in survival among patients with early-stage lung and breast cancers. Identifying and addressing obstacles that kept patients from...
The invited discussant of this study on patient-reported outcomes, Areej El-Jawahri, MD, Associate Director of Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Program and Director of Bone Marrow Transplant Survivorship Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said these findings underscore the importance...
According to data presented during the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium,1 1-month changes in patient-reported outcomes may predict treatment response and survival outcomes in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers. The results of a prospective study of 159 patients with metastatic...
Cleveland Clinic researchers have shown that diet-associated molecules in the gut may be associated with aggressive prostate cancer, suggesting dietary interventions may help reduce risk. These findings were published by Reichard et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. While...
The incidence of pancreatic cancer—which historically has been higher in men than in women—has increased among both men and women during the past decade, with a significantly greater relative increase observed in women younger than age 55 years, and especially among those aged 15 to 34 years. These ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Bancroft et al, the first round of prostate cancer screening in the IMPACT study of men with pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes showed an increased risk of prostate cancer in carriers of MSH2 and MSH6 variants compared with noncarrier controls. As...
Even though patients with metastatic colorectal cancer younger than age 50 tend to be more fit and receive more intensive treatment than older patients, survival for both groups is roughly the same, according to a study published by Lipsyc-Sharf et al in the Journal of the National Cancer...
The novel WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib, given after induction chemotherapy, yielded a 65% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death compared with active monitoring in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and TP53/RAS mutations, according to the randomized phase II FOCUS4-C trial....
Adagrasib, a covalent inhibitor of KRAS G12C, combined with cetuximab, showed activity in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in the phase I/II KRYSTAL-1 trial, as presented during a Presidential Symposium at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 by Jared Weiss, MD,...
A study presented by Manning et al at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 53) showed that interventions to help Black patients overcome obstacles to completion of treatment can impact disparities in survival outcomes between Black and White patients...
The delivery of high-quality cancer care relies on a vast network of dedicated experts, some of whom work assiduously behind the scenes, building and modernizing the very architecture on which the cancer community operates. One such person was Clayton Dunklin Pruett, an engineer by training, who...
The number of deaths related to breast cancer are increasing at an alarming pace worldwide. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) 2020 report, approximately 2,088,849 new cases and 627,000 deaths related to breast cancer occurred in 2018.1 More than 55% of these deaths occurred in low- to ...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) recently announced a $25 million gift from Louis V. Gerstner, Jr, to create the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr Physician Scholars Program. Designed to support the innovative research of physician-scientists who are early in their career at MSK, the program will...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Robert A. Winn, MD, Director of VCU Massey Cancer Center, Richmond, Virginia. In 2020, he became the first Black physician to lead a National Cancer Institute–designated cancer center. Among other...
According to the National Cancer Institute, cases of colorectal cancer in patients younger than age 50 have grown by more than 50% since the 1990s. Cleveland Clinic has addressed this trend with the establishment of a center focused on the diagnosis, care, and research of young-onset colorectal...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by John C. Byrd, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III ELEVATE-RR trial has shown noninferior progression-free survival with the more-selective Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor...
Located in the Eastern Himalayas, Bhutan is a landlocked, lower–middle-income country bordered by China and India. With a population of more than 850,000 people, Bhutan is predominately made up of three ethnic groups—the largest group is the Bhutia (also called Ngalop), followed by the Nepalese...
The leading causes of mortality in the United States are cardiovascular disease (23%) and cancer (21%), accounting for more than 40% of total deaths reported.1,2 The increasing rise in health-care expenditures over the past several decades has driven the need for metrics to further evaluate the...
Heather A. Wakelee, MD, FASCO, President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), who moderated a press briefing where the results of the Atezo-Brain trial were presented, called the study “beautiful work designed specifically” for patients with non–small cell lung...
“Population-based screening for prostate cancer reduces prostate cancer mortality,” noted J. Kellogg Parsons, MD, MHS, FACS, Professor of Urology, UC San Diego Health, who commented on the study. “Effective screening programs focus on the early detection of aggressive but curable tumors, minimize...
Invited discussant Eleni Efstathiou, MD, of Houston Methodist Cancer Center and Athens Medical Center, Greece, said that both the STAMPEDE meta-analysis1 and the PEACE-1 trial2 firmly establish the importance of introducing abiraterone acetate earlier in the course of treatment. “The STAMPEDE...
Florian Lordick, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology and Director of the University Cancer Center Leipzig, Germany, applauded the positive finding for nivolumab plus chemotherapy in CheckMate 6491 and questioned why nivolumab plus ipilimumab did not meet its endpoint. “I’m calling this a big step...
Longer follow-up data from the phase III CheckMate 649 trial support the use of nivolumab plus chemotherapy as a new standard first-line regimen in patients with advanced gastric cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and esophageal adenocarcinoma. The findings were reported by Yelena Janjigian, ...
Patients with untreated, metastatic BRAF-mutated melanoma may benefit from receiving immunotherapy first, moving to targeted therapy in the second line, data from the updated overall survival analysis of the randomized, phase II SECOMBIT trial suggest.1 The study aimed to define the optimal...
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening recommendations made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in 2012 may have led to worse outcomes for insured patients with prostate cancer, according to data presented at the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1 Findings from the retrospective...
The National Cancer Act of 1971 established a national priority to address the widely shared dread of a cancer diagnosis. The goal of the National Cancer Act was to strengthen the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to more effectively carry out the national effort against cancer. After the Act was...
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder defined by a specific phenotype and the presence of more than 5,000 clonal B cells in the peripheral blood.1 In the absence of this number of circulating cells, its soft-tissue/bone-marrow counterpart is semantically...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Morice et al found that pancytopenia was associated with use of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors for cancer treatment, according to drug adverse event reports in the World Health Organization global pharmacovigilance database...
A large study from the United Kingdom has taken a deep dive into SARS–CoV-2 in the setting of cancer, yielding both concerning and encouraging findings about natural and vaccine-induced immunity. The study was presented at the Presidential Symposium during the European Society for Medical Oncology...
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Partha Basu, MD, and colleagues found that a single dose of quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine given to girls in India provided 10-year protection equal to two or three doses against persistent infection with HPV types 16...
Invited discussant Clare L. Scott, MBBS, PhD, Chair of Gynaecological Cancer at the University of Melbourne and medical oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, said: “We now know that PARP [poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitors are active post PARP therapy. We also...
In a global population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Duggan et al identified national health system characteristics associated with reduced breast cancer mortality, including higher Universal Health Coverage Service Coverage Index (UHC Index) rating and increased number of public...
In a perspective article published in The New England Journal of Medicine entitled “The Drug-Dosing Conundrum in Oncology—When Less Is More,” four authors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) argue for the need to jettison the “more is better” paradigm in dose selection for oncology...
This week, the FDA approved new indications for two drugs. The first approval was for abemaciclib in combination with endocrine therapy (tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor) for the adjuvant treatment of adult patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, early breast...
The AACR Cancer Progress Report 2021 celebrates the gains made in cancer research since the National Cancer Act was signed into law on December 23, 1971. The report also recognizes the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on cancer research and patient care, the disproportionate toll both...
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, de Ruiter et al found that white matter microstructure at baseline was associated with cognitive decline after chemotherapy for breast cancer. Study Details The study included 49 patients with breast cancer who received...
On October 12, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) in combination with endocrine therapy (tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor) for the adjuvant treatment of adult patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, node-positive early breast cancer...
In the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved five treatment options for patients with breast cancer, which are summarized herein. Abemaciclib Combination On October 12, 2021, the FDA approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) with endocrine therapy (tamoxifen or an aromatase...
Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improved progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to the results of KEYNOTE-355.1 Progression-free survival was significantly improved with pembrolizumab plus...
EA1131 study discussant, Melinda L. Telli, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Stanford Cancer Institute, and Associate Director of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, commented: “At this point, capecitabine remains preferred as...
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer who have residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant capecitabine remains the standard of care. In the multicenter randomized noninferiority EA1131 trial, which included primarily basal tumors, noninferiority of adjuvant platinum over...