An interim analysis of the large Pediatric MATCH trial found that 24% of children and young adolescents with cancers refractory to current treatments had been assigned to treatment with investigational targeted study agents based on genetic alterations detected in their tumors,1 which is more than...
Before the introduction of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, the 5-year life expectancy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was 5.5%. This dismal outlook has changed. Treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab dramatically improved overall...
Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, FASCO, Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and 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, commented on what...
The first statistically significant overall survival benefit has been shown for a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor plus endocrine therapy as first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer. The results are from the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial, which evaluated ribociclib plus endocrine...
Results of the phase II Smart Start trial revealed that combination targeted therapy consisting of rituximab, lenalidomide, and ibrutinib had an 84.6% overall response rate (ORR) and 38.5% complete response rate (CRR) when given prior to any chemotherapy for newly diagnosed patients with a...
A questionnaire aimed at assessing how well community oncologists understand “molecular profiling” results from tumor specimens found that 69% of participants either said they didn't know the answers or they responded incorrectly. In six different clinical scenarios, the oncologists...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence announced a new pilot program to assist oncology health-care professionals in requesting access to unapproved therapies for patients with cancer. A new call center designated Project Facilitate will be a single point...
The single-arm, phase II EV-201 trial showed treatment with enfortumab vedotin—an agent targeting Nectin-4, a protein found in 97% of urothelial cancers—produced responses in 44% of patients with locally advanced or metastatic forms of urothelial cancer. Patients had previously been...
The randomized Norwegian OSLO-COMET trial found that laparoscopic surgery did not change chances of survival compared to open resection to remove metastases that had spread to the liver in patients with colorectal cancer. Overall, patients lived more than 6.5 years after surgery, regardless of...
An interim analysis of the international, randomized phase III ENZAMET trial found that 80% of men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer who received the nonsteroidal antiandrogen agent enzalutamide along with standard-of-care treatment were alive after 3 years, compared with 72% of men ...
Previous racial disparities in timely cancer treatment between African American and white patients were reduced in states where Medicaid access was expanded under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a new analysis of electronic health records from for 30,000 patients. The study, based on...
An analysis of data from the National Cancer Database found that after implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), ovarian cancer was diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage among women younger than age 65. More women also received treatment within 30 days of diagnosis, thereby...
In the European phase II VIT-091 trial, researchers examined the efficacy of the combination of vincristine and irinotecan with or without the addition of temozolomide in children and adults with relapsed or refractory rhabdomyosarcoma. Their results were presented by Defachelles et al at the 2019...
Head and neck cancer specialist Cristina P. Rodriguez, MD, was born and reared in Manila, the capital and largest city in the Philippines. “I grew up on the campus of the University of the Philippines, as both my parents were professors. I am one of three girls, and there was quite a bit of stress ...
The oncology community was deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Arti Hurria, MD, FASCO, a nationally regarded expert and advocate for elderly patients with cancer. Dr. Hurria died on November 7, 2018, in a traffic accident. At the time of her tragic death, Dr. Hurria was Director of the City...
Internationally renowned breast cancer expert, Larry Norton, MD, FASCO, spent his formative years in a Long Island town that rubbed shoulders with the border of New York City. Making music was Dr. Norton’s first passion and a cheap subway ride landed him in Greenwich Village, the Holy Grail of the ...
As this special edition of The ASCO Post goes to press, more than 32,000 cancer experts from around the world have convened in Chicago to share the latest clinical cancer research impacting patient care at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Advances in...
Raja M. Flores, MD, grew up in New York’s Meatpacking District, a rough West Side neighborhood, light years before its gentrification into a hip commercial area, home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, high-end designer clothing stores and chic bars, and a stretch of the High Line (an...
ASCO and ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation are proud to recognize the winners of ASCO’s Special Awards and Conquer Cancer’s Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards and Tribute Award. The recipients of these awards have worked to transform cancer care around the world. Don’t miss the opportunity...
Internationally recognized breast cancer expert Lisa A. Carey, MD, FASCO, was born in New Jersey and moved to Montreal, where she attended an all-girls school (Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School for Girls) until age 8. When she was 9 years old, her father’s business ventures took the family back ...
New research published by Bagley et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network used a large real-world data set to demonstrate a modest but consistent survival benefit associated with adding bevacizumab to carboplatin/pemetrexed in advanced nonsquamous non–small...
Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASCO, FASTRO, grew up in Washington, DC, and moved with her family to Philadelphia while in high school. She still considers the fast-paced DC–Philadelphia corridor her home, but her passion for a career in medicine, in part, took seed in a small town located in North...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) inaugurated Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, as President for 2019–2020 during the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting. Dr. Mardis holds the Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine and is Co–Executive Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at...
Nationally regarded cancer immunologist Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, was born and reared in Georgetown, Guyana, on South America’s North Atlantic coast, noted for being the only South American country in which English is the official language. Her parents were descendants of indentured immigrants...
Over the past year (May 2018–May 2019), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval and accelerated approval to a number of new oncology drugs and biosimilars. Here we list the new FDA-approved labels and indications. AVELUMAB (BAVENCIO) and AXITINIB (INLYTA) has been approved as a ...
Among the success stories in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children and young adults is the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. The field of cellular immunotherapy was still in its infancy in 2012 when Emily Whitehead, then 7, became the first...
When strangers ask me how many children I have, I’m not quite sure how to respond. Do I still have four children even though one has died? A year and a half after my son Brent’s death, at the age of 18, from complications of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), I’m still struggling with knowing the...
The story of immunotherapy is one of the most interesting and provocative in medical history. William B. Coley, MD, first harnessed the immune system against cancer in the late 19th century by injecting mixtures of live and inactivated bacteria into patients’ tumors. For various reasons,...
After disclosing that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, Alex Trebek, longtime host of the popular television game show Jeopardy!, vowed that he would beat the disease despite the low associated survival rate. His statement has brought pancreatic cancer back into the public...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) inaugurated Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, as President for 2019–2020 during the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting. Dr. Mardis holds the Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine and is Co–Executive Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at...
His steps generated a low rumble that propagated through the floor like a tsunami, flowed up through my desk, and ended as tiny waves visible through the clear plastic of my water bottle. His custom Lucchese ostrich boots made a distinctive clicking sound as they rhythmically struck the tile floor, ...
Despite the increasing public awareness of the danger of the overuse of prescription opioids, drug overdose deaths continue to rise in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1999 to 2017, nearly 400,000 people died of an overdose involving...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Shelly Latte-Naor, MD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, explore the use of...
It has been well documented that noncommunicable diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, now pose the greatest health threat to people living in low- and middle-income countries, surpassing infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS as the leading cause of death and disability.1...
Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed to improve the reimbursement currently given to hospitals that provide chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to patients with blood cancer as part of the Fiscal Year 2020 Inpatient Prospective Payment System...
A report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) based on data from more than 100 cancer registries in 68 countries shows that from 2001 to 2010, the occurrence of childhood cancer worldwide was 13% more common than in the 1980s.1 In addition, the report’s findings showcase stark...
The statistics are alarming: according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about 70,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) are diagnosed with cancer each year1—a recent report by the University of California put that figure at 87,000.2 Although overall cancer survival rates continue to improve ...
External-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is a standard treatment option for men with localized prostate cancer and confers long-term prostate cancer control outcomes equal to radical prostatectomy. Technologic advances in imaging and computing during the past 20 years have led to a number of...
Immunotherapies are radically changing outcomes, but while helping patients, they are creating complexities surrounding their cost. At the 2019 Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), a roundtable of experts, including clinicians and payers, discussed how chimeric...
With increasing knowledge on the key role of the tumor microenvironment in lymphomagenesis, treatments for indolent B-cell lymphoma, especially follicular lymphoma, are mechanistically moving toward a more immunomodulatory approach. Chemotherapy-free regimens are an attractive alternative to...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has shown remarkable efficacy in the treatment of certain hematologic malignancies, including several types of large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved...
In just 5 years since its launch in 2014, CancerLinQ®, ASCO’s big-data, rapid-learning, health information technology platform, has grown from 37 vanguard oncology practices to 58 participating practices in 2016 to 100 diverse oncology practices nationwide this year. CancerLinQ...
Colorectal cancer survivors’ risk for heart attack—five times that of the average person—may be linked to the amount of fat stored within the abdomen and abdominal muscles, not to body mass index (BMI), according to a new study of 2,800 colon cancer survivor health outcomes...
An “off-the-shelf” allogeneic T-cell product, tabelecleucel, may effectively treat patients who develop Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder with central nervous system (CNS) involvement, researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center reported at...
In a clinical practice guideline released April 15, an ASCO Expert Panel outlined the latest recommendations for the duration of adjuvant chemotherapy with a fluoropyrimidine and oxaliplatin for patients with completely resected stage III colon cancer.1 New recommendations were based on the results ...
ASCO and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) have released an update to existing guidelines for use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents to manage anemia in patients with cancer.1 “The current update aims to increase awareness of recent developments regarding the use of...
The sequencing of trastuzumab administration with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting seems to have no effect on outcomes for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to data presented at the 2019 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer Symposium.1 The results of a phase III...
Young age appears to be a risk factor for locoregional recurrence after mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with or without microinvasion, according to data presented at the 2019 Society of Surgical Oncology Annual Cancer Symposium.1 The retrospective analysis of more than 3,000 cases...
The discovery of trastuzumab has been revolutionary in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, both in the metastatic and early-stage settings.1-6 This cannot be disputed. In the early-stage setting, the addition of trastuzumab to standard chemotherapy has led to a 50% gain in...
Results from a study published by Cykert et al in The Journal of the National Medical Association show that a pragmatic system-based intervention within cancer treatment centers can nearly eliminate existing disparities in treatment and outcomes for black patients with early-stage...