Two oncologists who are now heads of oncology development for pharmaceutical companies discussed the future of cancer drugs at the Community Oncology Alliance’s 2022 Community Oncology Conference. They were Johanna Bendell, MD, Global Head of Oncology, Pharma Research, and Early Development at...
Tumors send out signals that impair normal blood flow, which makes them hard to treat with multiple therapies, including radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy. Impaired blood supply creates an environment low in oxygen levels, which causes the tumors to take on aggressive...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types, subtypes, and topics. During the NCCN’s 27th Annual Conference, which was again...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Debu Tripathy, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ATTAIN trial has shown no difference in overall survival with etirinotecan pegol vs physician’s choice of chemotherapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer and brain metastases. As noted by the investigators,...
New findings from researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published by Shukla et al in Nature Communications reported the results of using a comprehensive sequencing approach on 114 pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients with solid tumors. The researchers found that their...
A large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society showed that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with an increase in 2-year overall survival rates among patients newly diagnosed with cancer, especially among non-Hispanic Black people and people...
Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings that suggest the variation in frequency of EGFR and KRAS mutations in lung cancer may be associated with genetic ancestry in patients from Latin America. The results indicate it may be possible to identify...
Although community oncology practice may have been changing before the COVID-19 pandemic, it amplified industry trends. At the 2022 Community Oncology Alliance’s Community Oncology Conference, a panel of experts discussed issues related to the future of community cancer care, including...
The risk of invasive breast cancer in men may be associated with self-reported infertility, according to a study published by Swerdlow et al in the journal Breast Cancer Research. The authors interviewed 1,998 males in England and Wales diagnosed with breast cancer, with 112 (5.6%) also...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Singleton et al found that electronic health interventions were associated with improved quality of life, distress, self-efficacy, and fatigue vs usual care during or after treatment in patients with breast...
The first bladder cancer drug targeting a cancer-driving gene mutation has been used relatively little despite its clear efficacy in a clinical trial, suggests a report published as a research letter by Nimgaonkar et al in JAMA Oncology. Researchers analyzed a large, nationwide database of cancer...
The first-in-human, first-in-class trial of the next-generation PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) 1–selective inhibitor AZD5305 suggests this drug may be a welcome advance over its U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved predecessors in the treatment of solid tumors with alterations in...
Delays in surgery for esophageal cancer did not appear to have much impact on patients’ relative survival for early-stage cancer compared with patients who had surgery early, but they did reduce the relative survival rate by almost half for patients with more advanced disease, according to an...
A study published by Jackson et al in Cancer Discovery investigated the reasons for decreased remission rates for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. "CAR T-cell therapy is a promising treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, especially for...
Although considered a rare occurrence in adolescents and young adults (AYAs), aged 15 to 39 years, the incidence of cancer in this age group has been increasing by approximately 30% since the 1970s. This year, it is estimated that nearly 90,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in this...
The use of a polygenic score incorporating variations in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values that are not due to cancer may allow for more precise PSA screening, according to findings of a large genome-wide association study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Timmerman et al found that chromosome 3p25.3 gain was present in all cisplatin-resistant germ cell tumor (GCT) lines in vitro; was more common in patients with relapsed or cisplatin-resistant male type II GCTs; and was associated with poorer...
In women aged 70 and older with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, low-risk breast cancers, sentinel lymph node biopsy may not be a reliable indicator of the need for adjuvant chemotherapy, researchers reported at the 2022 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting.1 “We found that...
New research published by Ramsey et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has found that the inclusion of the smoking cessation tool Electronic Health Record–Enabled Evidence-Based Smoking Cessation Treatment (ELEVATE) into electronic health records may increase...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a novel strategy to reduce immune-related adverse events caused by immunotherapy by targeting the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). The study, published by Hailemichael et al in Cancer Cell, establishes a proof of concept ...
The advent of PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors has changed the treatment landscape of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but only approximately 20% of patients treated with immunotherapy will be alive at 5 years. According to Melissa L. Johnson, MD, Director, Lung Cancer Research,...
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance on the use of radiation therapy to treat patients with brain metastases. Evidence-based recommendations guide the multidisciplinary planning and delivery of advanced radiation therapy techniques to...
What is so dismaying to me is that the statistic on survival for Black women with breast cancer has not changed since I was diagnosed with breast cancer 17 years ago. In 2005, Black women were 41% more likely to die of the disease than White women, even though Black women are less likely to be...
Food insecurity, particularly as it affects cancer survivors, is a serious problem, according to a survey of oncology registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.1 “Despite these concerns, most oncology RDNs interviewed are not using...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and L. Jeffrey Medeiros explore the updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD, was born in a small village in Hebei, a province in the Central China region. “I grew up in a poor village with less than 1,000 people. We had no medical services in our village, so we had to travel to the city to see a doctor, which was quite some distance away. In the...
The human epidermal growth factor (HER) family of receptors are a well-established therapeutic target. Indeed, seminal studies conducted nearly 2 decades ago identified a key association between activating mutations in the kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, also known as...
ASCO and Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, will recognize researchers, patient advocates, philanthropists, teachers, and global oncology leaders who have reshaped cancer care around the world with the Society’s highest honors at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Hear from select award...
On March 4, 2022, nivolumab was approved for use with platinum-doublet chemotherapy for resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the neoadjuvant setting.1 The approval is the first for neoadjuvant therapy for early-stage NSCLC. Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings from...
Julio Chavez, MD, of the Department of Malignant Hematology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, was cautiously enthusiastic about these findings in CD30-positive lymphoma. “This clinical trial is novel, as it engages cord blood derived-NK cells to attack CD30-positive tumor cells using a...
Natural killer (NK) cells derived from donated umbilical cord blood, activated with a novel bispecific antibody targeting CD16A and CD30 known as AFM13, have yielded responses in patients with pretreated and refractory CD30-positive lymphoma. The overall response rate was 89%, with 53% complete...
When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1996, I was given 3 years to live. At the time, there was little understanding of this disease, which was termed incurable. There were no new treatments, few drugs in the pipeline, hardly any clinical trials, and no multiple myeloma community or...
“In the past decade, major improvements in treating lung cancer have come from identification of mutations and development of drugs to target those mutations: EGFR, ALK, RET, HER2, and others. Finally, we can add KRAS as a druggable target,” stated invited discussant Mark Awad, MD, PhD, Clinical...
Ongoing evaluation of novel, targeted, and immunotherapies has led to exciting advances across the array of hematologic malignancies over the past year. The availability of new treatment options, along with emerging data on novel combinations and sequencing approaches, is rapidly changing...
Poor outcomes are observed in patients with myeloma who are refractory to multiple classes of therapies, with the average patient experiencing disease progression in up to 6 months and living no longer than 6 to 15 months. Patients often rapidly cycle through regimens that use less effective or...
The ASCO Post asked Joseph Mikhael, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation and Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center), to comment on the GMMG-HD7...
Jane N. Winter, MD, moderator of the press conference on late-breaking abstracts at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exhibition, commented on the BELINDA study in the context of two investigations that had been previously reported at the same meeting, showing...
The autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel failed to improve event-free survival vs standard-of-care treatment strategies in patients with aggressive, relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), according to results of the phase III BELINDA trial,...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with lisocabtagene maraleucel could prove to be the new standard-of-care treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma in the second-line setting, according to data presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH)...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In ...
Jane N. Winter, MD, Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the 2022 President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS, Chair of the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer...
As a first-line treatment of inter-mediate- or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the addition of the antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin-piiq to standard-of-care therapy resulted in a 27% reduction in the relative risk of disease progression, relapse, or death, with a similar safety...
In the primary analysis of the phase III ZUMA-7 trial, examining second-line therapy for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel led to a fourfold increase in event-free survival over the standard of care. These findings were presented at the...
The GAIA trial raises some important points, according to Susan M. O’Brien, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Irvine, California. Dr. O’Brien co-moderated the session where Dr. Eichhorst presented study results. “The CLL14 trial...
Joshua Brody, MD, Director of the CLL/Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, who was not involved in these trials, commented: “CLL is an extremely prevalent disease affecting nearly 200,000 patients in the United States. Most patient do not require...
Two different trials presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition found that fixed-duration treatment with ibrutinib and venetoclax achieved deep and sustained undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) status when used as first-line therapy for...
Invited study discussant Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, MS, of Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York, commented: “The BTK [Bruton’s tyrosine kinase] inhibitors ibrutinib and acalabrutinib, along with the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax, are ...
A new study published by Ahmadian et al in the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering suggests how scientists may use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict how cancer may affect the probability of fractures along the spinal column. The report described how the...
Charles L. Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the battle against treatment resistance and how to overcome it, as well as the power of observational clinical data in precision oncology, derived largely from his experience with Project GENIE, and the role of genetic...
Computed tomography (CT)-detected emphysema may be linked to a higher risk of lung cancer, a risk that increases with emphysema severity, according to a new study published by Yang et al in the journal Radiology. Lung cancer is the primary cause of cancer-related death worldwide. However, lung...