Researchers have developed a novel combination therapy approach to help patients with KMT2A-mutated acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) overcome resistance to bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) inhibitors without adding toxicity, according to a novel study...
Pancreatic cancer is a rare disease, accounting for about 3% of all cancers in the United States. It is the deadliest of all solid malignancies, accounting for about 7% of all cancer deaths each year, and carries a 5-year survival rate of just 11.5%. According to the American Cancer Society, in...
Researchers have found that the hypomethylating agent azacitidine plus the MEK inhibitor trametinib may be a promising new combination to treat patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), according to a preclinical study published by Pasupuleti et al in Molecular Therapy. Background JMML ...
Researchers have provided strong evidence that a healthy lifestyle may significantly reduce mortality in adults who have survived pediatric cancer, according to a new study published by Dixon et al in The Lancet. The findings are among the first to reveal that the specific primary causes of...
Researchers have revealed that the number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, the state of necrosis, and mutations to the tumor-suppressor gene PBRM1 form a biomarker signature that may predict how patients with renal cell carcinoma will respond to immunotherapy, according to a novel study published ...
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently announced the appointments of Michael J. Barry, MD, as Chair, and Michael Silverstein, MD, MPH, as Vice Chair. Wanda K. Nicholson, MD, MPH, MBA, will remain in her role as Vice Chair. Dr. Barry will assume the role of Chair from Carol M....
City of Hope in Duarte, California, recently announced that its subsidiary, Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), will fully transition its clinical locations to City of Hope’s brand. CTCA locations in different cities will now be called City of Hope Atlanta, City of Hope Chicago, and City of ...
In this installment of our Global Oncology series, Guest Editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Kelly M. McMasters, MD, PhD, who, for the past 27 years, has directed a basic and translational science lab studying adenovirus-mediated cancer gene therapy and melanoma biomarkers....
The questions I am challenged to answer are twofold: (1) Should you attend the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting? (2) If you attend, how is your time best spent? Most people agree scientific conferences are important venues for cancer researchers and clinicians to share and discuss research findings,...
When I was diagnosed with lung cancer, in 2007, I asked the physician not to tell me the type, stage, or prognosis. I was about to start nursing school and was aware enough about the disease to know that not many people survived. I’ve since discovered that I had stage 3B small cell lung cancer,...
The approval process health insurers impose on medical services or drugs is generating a toll that exceeds the purported benefits, according to a physician survey recently released by the American Medical Association (AMA) and shared in a letter to federal health officials.1 Although health...
On March 9, 2023, President Joseph Biden released his proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 federal budget, with an emphasis on increased funding for medical research and expanded access to health insurance. The proposal allocates $48.3 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an $811 million ...
Penile cancer is a rare disease with an incidence that is rising globally. Driven by a goal to offer clinicians and patients guidance on the management of this rare condition, ASCO collaborated with the European Association of Urology (EAU) to develop new guidelines on its diagnosis and treatment....
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...
Moderator of the press conference at the 2023 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care, Callisia N. Clarke, MD, MS, FACS, FSSO, Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, highlighted the significance of the 80% response rates to neoadjuvant immunotherapy in primary...
Here are some brief reports from the 2023 ASCO Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Symposium that we hope are of interest. They include real-world evidence about the use of avelumab maintenance in metastatic urothelial carcinoma, data on the feasibility of sequencing radium-223 and Lu-177–PSMA-617 in...
A new study suggests that the answers generated by the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT may provide correct breast cancer screening advice the vast majority of the time; however, the information is sometimes inaccurate or even fictitious, according to the report published by Haver et al ...
Researchers have demonstrated that patients with low-grade lymphomatoid granulomatosis who were treated with the immunotherapy interferon alfa-2b may survive for a median of 20 years after diagnosis, according to a novel study published by Melani et al in The Lancet Haematology. The findings...
Specially trained oncology infusion room nurses may be capable of improving advance care planning for patients with advanced cancer at the end of life, according to a new study published by Cohen et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Background “Advance care planning...
A health disparity is typically defined as involving a differential in health outcomes between some groups of patients and other groups, for example, between White and Black patients, in which some groups fare better than others. Health inequities are commonly defined as health differences that...
The results of recent trials of PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor plus second-generation androgen receptor inhibitor combinations have had varying results in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Some trials suggest the benefit is confined to those with BRCA mutations and/or...
The addition of the PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor olaparib to standard-of-care abiraterone in the first-line setting of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer achieved longer progression-free survival vs abiraterone alone, as demonstrated in the final results of the phase...
Ella A. Kazerooni, MD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, discusses reducing cancer deaths in the United States by identifying patients at risk for lung cancer. Engaging with primary care physicians and facilitating referrals are keys to a successful lung cancer screening program,...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announced that the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) has been named its newest member institution. With the addition, there are now 33 academic centers across the United States that have multidisciplinary subject...
Researchers found that 20% of patients attending breast cancer screening appointments were likely to skip additional testing after abnormal findings on their mammograms if there was a deductible or copayment involved, according to a new study published by Ngo et al in Radiology. Background...
On April 3, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a National Cancer Plan, which calls for collaboration to realize the objectives laid out in the Cancer Moonshot to reduce cancer mortality by at least 50% over the next 25 years and “end cancer as we know it.” Developed by...
On April 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who are...
Since 2010, investigators have discovered that the number of patients with prostate cancer in the United States who are choosing active surveillance over surgery or radiation therapy may be rapidly increasing, according to a new study published by Al Awamlh et al in JAMA Internal Medicine....
Investigators revealed that the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT may help improve health outcomes for patients with cirrhosis and hepatic cancer by providing easy-to-understand information about basic knowledge, lifestyle modifications, and treatment options for these conditions,...
Commenting on these studies of menin inhibitors, Mikkael Sekeres, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology at the Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was enthusiastic about the promise of these agents because they are targeted to...
Menin inhibitors are making inroads in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These drugs selectively target KMT2A-rearranged or NPM1-mutant AML, and early studies suggest they will be a welcome addition for patients with these aberrations. KMT2A rearrangements occur in about 5% of patients ...
The inaugural MD Anderson Clinical Education Symposium on Immunotherapy Toxicity Management (IOTOX) welcomed more than 250 international attendees, both virtually and in person at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on December 3, 2022. The symposium focused on bringing the ...
“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...
New long-term data from the CHRYSALIS study evaluating amivantamab-vmjw in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations whose disease progressed on prior platinum-based chemotherapy were presented by Lopez et al at the 2023 European Lung Cancer...
Patients with hematologic malignancies may experience a significant improvement in their reported quality of life 6 months after receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, according to a new study published by Johnson et al in Blood Advances. Background Although CAR T-cell therapy...
Investigators have revealed the findings from an examination of the prevalence, severity, and co-occurrence of sleep disturbance, pain, physical function impairment, anxiety, depression, and low energy/fatigue (SPPADE) symptoms, as well as their association with different cancer types and patient...
Researchers have found that a novel approach to administer intrathecal and intravenous nivolumab has proven safe and improved survival in a subset of patients who developed leptomeningeal disease from metastatic melanoma, according to a new study published by Glitza Olivia et al in Nature ...
Researchers have revealed the potential mechanisms contributing to treatment resistance in patients with melanoma at the end of life, according to a new study published by Spain et al in Cancer Discovery. “These results present the most detailed picture yet of what melanoma looks like at the final...
Investigators have found that patients with platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer who participate in clinical trials may have higher rates of overall survival compared with those who don’t participate in clinical trials, according to findings presented by Morton et al at the Society of...
Time-related and financial burdens may be detrimental to the quality of life of patients with gynecologic cancer as well as cancer survivors, according to the findings from two new studies presented by Ackroyd et al and Adjei et al at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2023 Annual Meeting on ...
Researchers have found that concurrent treatment with gemcitabine as well as cisplatin and intensity-modulated radiation therapy may effectively increase the pathologic complete response rates in patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva, according to findings presented by ...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Tang et al found that the use of the subcutaneous route for administering medications and fluids in patients with cancer was highly predominant in a Canadian center, whereas use of the intravenous (IV) route was nearly universal in a U.S....
Researchers have found no significant differences in overall survival between patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer who received maintenance therapy with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor niraparib or placebo, according to new findings presented by Matulonis et...
Treatment with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib prior to surgical intervention and chemotherapy has demonstrated the potential for favorable surgical options, manageable adverse events, and positive health outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer who have a germline...
Brown adipose tissue may not be associated with cachexia, according to an article published by Eljalby et al in the American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism. The findings also suggested that brown adipose tissue does not increase cancer mortality. Background Brown adipose tissue...
Patients who have a mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability, or substance use disorder may be less likely to undergo gynecological smear tests and may have over twice the risk of developing cervical cancer, according to a new study published by Hu et al in The Lancet Public Health. The findings ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by de Braud et al, findings in the expansion cohort of a phase Ib trial indicate activity with the combination of the BRAF/CRAF kinase inhibitor naporafenib and trametinib in patients with advanced or metastatic NRAS-mutant melanoma. Study Details In ...
Obesity may spur DNA damage in the breast tissue of patients who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, possibly contributing to breast cancer development in patients who are already at a higher risk of the disease, according to a new study published by Bhardwaj et al in Science Translational Medicine....