In patients with BRCA-positive advanced breast cancer, talazoparib reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 46% vs chemotherapy, according to the phase III EMBRACA trial presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “We are very pleased that the EMBRACA trial—the largest...
“Knowing that exercise after surgery can help women with breast cancer quickly restore their full range of arm motion is an important step forward in their care,” said Timothy Gilligan, MD, MSc, Vice Chair for Education and Associate Professor of Medicine, Case Comprehensive Cancer...
In breast cancer survivors after lymph node dissection, a combined education and exercise intervention resulted in patients regaining full range of motion in both arms sooner than those who received education alone, according to follow-up from a phase III clinical trial reported by Electra D....
The results of a phase II clinical trial suggest that patients with head and neck cancers associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV) may receive significantly lower doses of radiation safely and effectively after response to induction chemotherapy.1 These findings from the OPTIMA study,...
How should clinicians position anti-HER2 agents and also incorporate endocrine therapies in the treatment of metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer? At the 2018 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, this question was explored by Sunil Verma, MD, Medical Director of the Tom Baker Cancer Center and...
On April 16, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approvals to nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in combination for the treatment of intermediate- or poor-risk previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). CheckMate 214 The approvals were based on...
In the phase III METIV-HCC trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rimassa et al found no improvement in overall survival with the investigational MET inhibitor tivantinib vs placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with high MET expression previously treated with sorafenib...
Among patients with inoperable, advanced, or metastatic ALK-positive inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, 50% were confirmed to have partial or complete tumor shrinkage after treatment with the ALK-targeted anticancer therapeutic agent crizotinib (Xalkori), according to data from the phase II EORTC...
On April 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for filing with Priority Review a new drug application (NDA) for the oral agent duvelisib, a first-in-class, dual inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-delta and PI3K-gamma. The NDA is seeking full approval for duvelisib in...
Investing in the continuity of care for lung cancer patients can bring tremendous benefits in terms of patient satisfaction and quality of life. In Quebec, this investment has taken the form of a dedicated role on the medical team: The Pivot Nurse in Oncology (PNO). A study presented by Kassouf et...
Alectinib provides longer symptom improvement than crizotinib in <em>ALK</em>-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results from the ALEX trial presented by Pérol et al at the European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) in Geneva, Switzerland (Abstract...
On April 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to the oral selective inhibitor of nuclear export (SINE) compound selinexor for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least three prior lines of therapy. The FDA’s...
Topline results from the phase III REACH-2 study of ramucirumab (Cyramza) as a single agent in the second-line treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were recently announced. The trial met its primary endpoint of overall survival as well as the secondary endpoint of...
THE INCIDENCE of cholangiocarcinoma is rising, and effective therapies are urgently needed. Several classes of experimental molecularly targeted agents might meet this challenge, according to Robin Kate Kelley, MD, Associate Professor of Medical Oncology and leader of the clinical trials program in ...
ON MARCH 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), an antibody-drug conjugate, to treat adult patients with previously untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma in combination with chemotherapy. Brentuximab vedotin combines an antibody and...
On April 3, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepted for review the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for cemiplimab for the treatment of patients with metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) or patients with locally advanced CSCC who are not candidates for surgery....
PENILE CANCER is rare, outcomes remain poor, and there are few data from randomized trials to guide treatment decisions. However, in the small phase II VinCaP study, presented at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, 45.5% of patients with advanced or metastatic penile cancer had a clinical...
THE 2018 GENITOURINARY Cancers Symposium hosted an international audience of oncologists and other stakeholders to hear about the latest advances in the field. We have included coverage of many of the top news stories from the meeting in previous issues of The ASCO Post. Here are summaries of a few ...
IN A POPULATION of heavily pretreated patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer and low or negative programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, durvalumab (Imfinzi) monotherapy demonstrated an overall response rate of 9.2%, consistent with that of single-agent programmed...
THANKS TO the efficacy of five approved anti-HER2 agents, patients with HER2-positive breast cancer have overall survival numbers that are as good as, or better than, their HER2-negative counterparts. With the next generation of anti-HER2 therapies in clinical trials, these outcomes may become even ...
At the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), Michael Gnant, MD, FACS, of the Medical University of Vienna presented the 9-year median follow-up of a trial looking at the length of extended aromatase inhibitor therapy. At least four other recently presented or published trials have...
Although aromatase inhibitors are highly effective as adjuvant therapy in metastatic breast cancer and for prevention of breast cancer, the side effects can be difficult to tolerate and often lead to discontinuation of therapy. A phase III randomized trial has found that acupuncture may relieve...
The phase III IMpower150 study met its coprimary endpoint of overall survival (OS) at interim analysis and showed that first-line treatment with the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) plus carboplatin and paclitaxel (chemotherapy) helped patients with advanced...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to blinatumomab (Blincyto) to treat adults and children with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who are in remission but still have minimal residual disease (MRD). In patients who have achieved remission after...
On March 23, the multiple-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib mesylate (Lenvima) was approved in Japan for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This is the first approval worldwide of lenvatinib mesylate for the indication of unresectable HCC and the first new systemic therapy to...
On March 20, Genentech announced that the phase III IMpower131 study met its coprimary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) and demonstrated that the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus chemotherapy (carboplatin and nanopartical albumin-bound [nab]-paclitaxel [Abraxane])...
In 2017, more than 63,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with in situ breast cancer. The overwhelming majority of those women, about 83%, were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a condition characterized by the presence of abnormal cells confined to the breast milk ducts;...
A large international study has shown that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can reduce the number of invasive prostate biopsies by up to 28%. The PRECISION trial showed that using MRI to target prostate biopsies leads to more harmful and fewer harmless prostate cancers being diagnosed. The results...
On March 19, a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for enzalutamide (Xtandi) was accepted for filing and granted Priority Review designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If approved, the sNDA would expand the indication of enzalutamide to include men with nonmetastatic...
On March 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) to treat adult patients with previously untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma in combination with chemotherapy. “Today’s approval represents an improvement in the initial...
Triplet therapy that inhibits the BRAF, MEK, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways appears promising in BRAF-mutated colorectal cancer, a malignancy that typically does not respond to BRAF inhibition alone. Early results from the BEACON CRC study showed a 48% response rate and an...
Patients with recurrent urothelial cancer had sustained improvement in overall survival at 2 years after they received second-line treatment with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) vs chemotherapy, according to an updated survival analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-045 trial presented at the 2018...
Cabozantinib (Cometriq) has demonstrated significant activity in the first-line setting for radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma, according to data from a single-site phase II trial presented at the 2018 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Treatment with...
The text and photograph on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photo below is from the volume titled “The Anesthesia Era: 1845–1875.” The photograph...
On February 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) in combination with an aromatase inhibitor as initial endocrine-based therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer. MONARCH 3 Approval...
EACH YEAR, The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute and Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program, to give his picks for the most important research presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, reviews the current data on the use of acupuncture...
ADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY achieved robust improvements in disease-free survival and metastasis-free survival compared with surveillance in the phase III POUT study of patients with upper tract urothelial cancer.1 Further, there was an early trend toward improved overall survival with adjuvant...
SORAFENIB (Nexavar) added to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) doubled the median progression-free survival over TACE alone in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, Japanese investigators reported at the 2018 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 The results of the randomized,...
WAFIK S. EL-DEIRY, MD, PhD, FACP, Deputy Cancer Center Director for Translational Research, and Co-Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, shared his thoughts on these findings with The ASCO Post. In essence, Dr. El-Deiry suggested the comparison does ...
PHILIP KANTOFF, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, was the formal discussant of both trials. “At first glance, these are two positive trials,” Dr. Kantoff said. Although he praised the results, he said that overall survival is the best demonstration of clinical benefit, and ...
IN TWO SEPARATE TRIALS presented at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, apalutamide and enzalutamide (Xtandi), respectively, reduced the risk of metastasis and prolonged metastasis-free survival in men with high-risk nonmetastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. In the SPARTAN trial,1,2...
THE TYROSINE KINASE inhibitor sunitinib (Sutent) has been the mainstay of treatment for first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma for about a decade. The IMmotion151 study reported at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium found that the combination of the immune checkpoint inhibitor...
On February 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abemaciclib (Verzenio) in combination with an aromatase inhibitor as initial endocrine-based therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced...
The use of maintenance therapy in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is theoretically sensible, but its clinical value remains uncertain. The phase III HOVON97 randomized study demonstrated that maintenance therapy with the hypomethylating agent azacitidine may improve disease-free...
HERE IS AN UPDATE on four different studies featured at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Topics focus on advanced systemic mastocytosis, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), amyloidosis, and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Systemic Mastocytosis...
ON FEBRUARY 7, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) tablets in combination with prednisone for metastatic high-risk castration-sensitive prostate cancer. The FDA initially approved abiraterone acetate with prednisone in 2011 for patients with...
TOPLINE RESULTS of the phase III ARROW trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02412878) were recently announced by Amgen. The study showed carfilzomib (Kyprolis) administered once weekly at 70 mg/m2 with dexamethasone allowed patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma to live 3.6 months ...
THE FIRST TWO randomized trials to directly compare direct oral anticoagulants vs low–molecular-weight heparin for management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer suggest that direct oral anticoagulants may become the new standard of care.1,2 Direct oral anticoagulants appear to...
Electra D. Paskett, PhD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses study findings on whether exercise helps women with breast cancer regain arm mobility after lymph node surgery (Abstract 123).