Monica Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, was recently elected to the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s Board of Directors.Dr. Bertagnolli is the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in the Field of Surgical Oncology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer and Sarcoma Disease...
OneOncology, the national platform for independent community oncology practices, announced that Davey Daniel, MD, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer succeeding Lee Schwartzberg, MD. Dr. Schwartzberg served as the founding member of the platform’s clinical office and will remain a senior...
On December 17, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nomination of Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, as Assistant Administrator of Global Health Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Dr. Gawande assumed the new role in January 2022. Dr. Gawande’s role at USAID ...
Massimo Di Maio, MD, of the University of Turin, discusses the Meet-URO12 study, which showed that maintenance niraparib plus best supportive care (BSC) did not prolong progression-free survival, compared with BSC alone, among patients with urothelial cancer that did not progress after first-line...
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses a 30-month follow-up of results from the KEYNOTE-564 trial, which further support the use of adjuvant pembrolizumab when treating patients with renal cell carcinoma at intermediate-high or high risk of recurrence, or with an M1 NED...
Researchers at City of Hope published data pointing to the limitations of a popular liquid biopsy that is used to detect the recurrence of colorectal cancer in patients who who have undergone surgical resection. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open by Marwan Fakih, MD, and colleagues....
Jonathan E. Rosenberg, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II findings from the BAYOU trial, which studied durvalumab in combination with olaparib for first-line treatment of platinum-ineligible patients with unresectable, stage IV urothelial carcinoma. Because secondary...
Kim Nguyen Chi, MD, of the University of British Columbia, BC Cancer-Vancouver Center, discusses first phase III results from the MAGNITUDE study, which explored the use of the PARP inhibitor niraparib with abiraterone acetate and prednisone as first-line therapy in patients with metastatic...
Researchers have discovered that treatment resistance in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) may be caused by two distinct classes of stem cells and identified possible therapeutic approaches that target these cells. Their findings, which could have significant benefits for patients with...
On March 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nivolumab (Opdivo) in combination with platinum-doublet chemotherapy for adult patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the neoadjuvant setting. This represents the first FDA approval for neoadjuvant therapy for...
Karim Fizazi, PhD, MD, of Gustave Roussy and University of Paris-Saclay, discusses results from a first-in-human phase I/II trial, which showed that administering ODM-208—an oral, nonsteroidal inhibitor of the enzyme CYP11A1—to men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who were...
Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society, discusses ways to address the inequities in genitourinary screening, treatment, and outcomes. Her suggestions focus on increasing awareness of screening, identifying risk factors, the dramatic rise in incidence...
A new meta-analysis adds to evidence that taller adults may be more likely than shorter ones to develop colorectal cancer or colon polyps that can later become malignant. While the association between taller height and colorectal cancer has been previously investigated, researchers from Johns...
Patients treated for Merkel cell carcinoma face a 5-year recurrence rate of 40%—markedly higher than the recurrence rates for melanoma and other skin cancers, according to research published by McEvoy et al in JAMA Dermatology. Additionally, in the study cohort of more than 600 patients, 95% of...
Wesley Yip, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II results on neoadjuvant gemcitabine and cisplatin for high-grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma, which was well tolerated and demonstrated a favorable pathologic response rate. Dr. Yip notes that this treatment, given...
Simon J. Crabb, PhD, MBBS, of the Southampton Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, discusses data from the ATLANTIS trial, in which the authors hypothesized that switch maintenance therapy with the PARP inhibitor rucaparib, in patients who have derived clinical benefit from first-line chemotherapy, ...
Axel S. Merseburger, MD, of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, discusses results from a phase IIIb study of chemotherapy-naive patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have been treated with docetaxel plus prednisolone and experienced disease progression on...
Fred Saad, MD, of the University of Montreal Health Centre, discusses phase III findings demonstrating for the first time the clinical benefits of olaparib plus abiraterone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, irrespective of their homologous recombination repair...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued three final guidances to industry regarding cancer clinical trials that parallel the goals of President Biden’s recently announced effort to renew and build upon his 2016 Cancer Moonshot initiative. Both endeavors aim to facilitate continued...
On February 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pacritinib (Vonjo) for the treatment of adults with intermediate- or high-risk primary or secondary (post–polycythemia vera or post–essential thrombocythemia) myelofibrosis with a platelet count below 50 × 109/L. Pacritinib is a...
On February 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti) for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after four or more prior lines of therapy, including a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent, and an anti-CD38 ...
Phillip Pifer, MD, PhD, of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, discusses findings that suggest focal adhesion kinase is a potentially important target for therapeutic sensitization in patients with mutant TP53 HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
A large, multi-institutional study demonstrated that a blood test to detect circulating tumor DNA may accurately predict recurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal cancer following treatment. Results also indicated that the biomarker test may detect recurrent disease earlier than ...
Amy Tiersten, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, Director of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,...
Switching from an aromatase inhibitor to fulvestrant upon early identification of the ESR1 mutation in plasma—before disease progression—doubled progression-free survival in the phase III PADA-1 trial, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “PADA-1 is the first trial to...
Use of the first investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression and lengthened progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy with fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor in...
Charles Shapiro, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on the study findings. “MA.32 is a large, randomized placebo-controlled trial of metformin in over 3,600 women with invasive breast cancer. The rationale for...
The addition of metformin, a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, to standard adjuvant treatment failed to improve invasive disease–free survival or overall survival for hormone receptor–positive or –negative breast cancer, according to the results of a large landmark trial led by the...
The final results of the phase III PALLAS trial1 are “deeply disappointing,” said session moderator Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, FACP, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine. The results of the final primary analysis of...
The final protocol-defined analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial confirmed the negative results of the second interim analysis, showing no benefit of palbociclib plus endocrine therapy in the adjuvant breast cancer setting. Michael Gnant, MD, of the Medical University of Vienna, reported these...
Invited discussant Anne Blaes, MD, of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, emphasized the main takeaway finding of the combined updated analysis of the SOFT and TEXT trials. “In early-stage estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, premenopausal women who don’t require chemotherapy do very...
The benefits of ovarian function suppression were sustained long term for premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, according to updates from SOFT and TEXT, two randomized, controlled trials, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 A separate large...
David Cescon, MD, PhD, Clinician Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, was the invited discussant of the two MONALEESA analyses.1,2 He noted that the most recent overall survival analysis, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021,...
Further analyses of the MONALEESA metastatic breast cancer trials have shown that the benefit of ribociclib plus endocrine therapy in the first-line setting extends to most intrinsic molecular subtypes and is consistent across multiple subgroups. The studies were presented at the 2021 San Antonio...
Commenting on the update of RxPONDER presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium were Anne Blaes, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Minnesota and Co-Director of the Screening, Prevention, Etiology and Cancer Survivorship Program at the Masonic...
Updated results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial confirmed the key takeaway from the previous analysis: adjuvant chemotherapy benefits premenopausal women but not postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative disease, one to three positive lymph nodes, and a 21-gene Oncotype DX ...
Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, the Alan and Jill Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, commented on NIMBUS1 for The ASCO Post. She said obtaining information on tumor mutational burden is simple, as it is...
Patients with advanced HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and high tumor mutational burden achieved responses—often durable—from treatment with the immunotherapy doublet of nivolumab and ipilimumab, according to the results of the phase II NIMBUS trial reported at the 2021 San Antonio Breast...
Invited discussant of the KEYNOTE-355 trial, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, one of the coauthors of the study, had presented the survival data at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021.1 The San Antonio presentation was a more in-depth evaluation of survival by different PD-L1...
Results of the phase III randomized KEYNOTE-355 trial showed that the addition of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab to investigator’s choice of first-line chemotherapy improved progression-free and overall survival in women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer compared with placebo and...
The discussant of KEYNOTE-522 at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented: “We are clearly making...
Updated results from the pivotal KEYNOTE-522 trial have confirmed the benefit of neoadjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer.1 The results were presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD,...
The ASCO Post asked Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of Medical Breast Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San...
Datopotamab deruxtecan, an antibody-drug conjugate directed against trophoblast cell surface antigen-2 (Trop-2), is showing activity as a treatment for relapsed or refractory advanced triple-negative breast cancer, according to early findings from the phase I TROPION-PanTumor01 trial presented...
The current standard of care for the neoadjuvant treatment of HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer consists of trastuzumab plus pertuzumab and polychemotherapy. But some patients, particularly those with locally advanced or inflammatory disease, still relapse and die. Furthermore, multiagent...
Priyanka Sharma, MD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center in Westwood, the invited discussant of the poster, noted that the DAISY study asked whether HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugates—in this case, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd)—have activity beyond the conventional...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) has led to practice changes in previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Most notably, in the DESTINY-Breast03 trial, treatment with T-DXd produced a doubling in 12-month progression-free survival vs...
Invited discussant Ciara O’Sullivan, MB, BCh, BAO, of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, commented on the DESTINY-Breast03 trial at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. “The treatment of HER2-positive disease is an evolving landscape, with eight approved agents. Despite this rapid...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) lengthened progression-free survival and improved the objective response rate compared with the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) after trastuzumab and taxane therapy in women with HER2-positive metastatic...
A new mutation was identified in 9% of relapsed cases of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that may define a new subtype of the disease, according to a study published by Umeda et al in Blood Cancer Discovery. The mutation is a tandem duplication (a series of adjacent repeats of a DNA...