Based on preclinical (in vitro and in vivo) data, there is a strong biologic rationale for the addition of an antiangiogenic drug strategy in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.1 Single-agent trials have confirmed both the biologic and clinical activity of bevacizumab (Avastin) in the...
Final overall survival results of the phase III ICON7 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Amit M. Oza, MD, and colleagues indicate no significant improvement with the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy in women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.1 However, an overall...
Lung cancer is the most common, lethal, and costly cancer worldwide, accounting for at least 1.8 million new cases per year (12.9% of the total).1 Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially in adenocarcinoma, accompanied by...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an expanded indication for the Optune tumor-treating fields device to treat patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. It is given along with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide following standard treatments that include surgery,...
In the phase III SQUIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nick Thatcher, PhD, FRCP, of The Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester, UK, and colleagues found that the addition of the second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody necitumumab to first-line...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On October 2, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed after other treatments and with tumors that express programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to MabVax Therapeutics’ vaccine for the treatment of relapsed or recurrent high-risk neuroblastoma in remission or with limited residual disease after best available treatment. The bivalent vaccine is intended to elicit ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved nivolumab (Opdivo) to treat patients with metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed during or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody that that blocks the PD-1/PD-L1...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) has named three investigators as recipients of this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award recognizes promising investigators aged 45 or younger for their efforts in advancing cancer research. The winners are Bradley E. Bernstein, MD,...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On September 30, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Frederic Amant, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues in the International Network on Cancer, Infertility, and Pregnancy found that cancer diagnosed during pregnancy did not appear to affect cognitive, cardiac,...
CancerCare®, a national nonprofit organization providing free, professional support services to anyone affected by cancer, is pleased to welcome Chief Business Development Officer Christine Verini, RPh. In her role, Ms. Verini will serve as a key member of CancerCare’s Executive Leadership Team,...
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University has announced that William G. Woods, MD, has stepped down as Director of the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Chief of Hematology/Oncology/BMT in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University....
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has received a National Cancer Institute grant of $5 million over the next 5 years to lead a massive effort to integrate the data from all experimental models across all types of cancer. The Web-based repository is an important step in moving the...
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers have received renewal of their head and neck cancer research through the National Cancer Institute’s competitive Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) program. The 5-year, $10.9 million grant includes a new project to study...
University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill researchers received an $11.3 million, 5-year grant to conduct multiple studies exploring the use of tiny nanoparticles to create cancer vaccines and improve cancer drug delivery and responses. The grant is the third in a series of awards that the...
The CheckMate 025 trial, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Robert J. Motzer, MD, and colleagues, showed that treatment with the programmed cell death protein (PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) increased overall survival vs the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) in...
A prospective validation study of a 21-gene expression assay showed that treatment with endocrine therapy alone in women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who had a low recurrence risk score resulted in low risk of recurrence. All patients included in the study were...
Ask any U.S. academic investigator whether research is hindered by duplicative or confusing federal regulations, and the answer is usually a resounding “Yes.” Now comes a report written by representatives of research administrators, former federal government officials, and principal...
As time lapses, many patients who have undergone a colonoscopy become less and less likely to recall when and where they last had the procedure performed, who the doctor was who performed it, whether polyps were found, and, if so, the number and size of those polyps, according to new study results...
The use of dietary supplements and other complementary and “alternative” therapies by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about complementary therapies can be...
We’ll provide the resources. You provide the voice. The Campaign to Conquer Cancer is raising $150 million to support a world free from the fear of cancer. Our potential to raise money increases with every new person who learns about our work. We need the most trusted leaders in the oncology...
Check out the latest ASCO Answers fact sheet on understanding blood test results. This one-page guide has information on complete blood count, white blood cell count, white blood cell differential, red blood cell count, platelet count, terms to know, and questions to ask the doctor. Download a...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (CCF) is fueling cancer research and pursuing dramatic advances in the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of all types of cancer. CCF’s Grants and Awards program supports clinical and translational cancer...
ASCO’s Community Research Forum (CRF) held its 2015 Annual Meeting September 20–21 at ASCO Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Over 75 physician investigators, program directors, and research staff attended the meeting, representing a wide range of community-based practices and research sites...
This fall, the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) presented two special series: “Pediatric Cancer—Progress Through Collaboration” and “Head and Neck Cancer: Recent Advances, Changing Epidemiology, and Future Directions.” The Pediatric Special Series highlighted collaborative efforts that have...
FOEDUS, the Italian Foundation of Culture and Science, awarded the Supreme Medal of Excellence to oncologist Philip A. Salem, MD, Director Emeritus of Cancer Research at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston and President of the Salem Oncology Center at the Texas Medical Center. The...
The emphasis at this year’s Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, held earlier this month in Boston, was on patient-centered care throughout the cancer continuum. The meeting attracted more than 650 attendees and included six general sessions featuring best practices in communication,...
Researchers have determined just how many lives are lost when effective investigational drugs are not approved in a timely manner. These delays in the process of anticancer drug approvals result in thousands of premature deaths each year, according to an analysis presented at the 16th World...
Data from an analysis of lung cancer screening programs in Italy add further evidence that smoking cessation reduces mortality. Heavy smokers screened by low-dose computed tomography (CT) who stopped smoking before or during the screening period had a three- to fivefold reduction in mortality...
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening of women at average risk for breast cancer achieved a mean additional cancer yield of 15.8 cases per 1,000 women, greatly surpassing yields for supplemental digital breast tomosynthesis (1.25 per 1,000) or supplemental ultrasound (4.1 per 1,000). The...
Given that BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers have an estimated 40% to 85% lifetime risk of breast cancer and an increased risk of developing contralateral breast cancer, risk reduction in this population remains essential. According to a study presented at the 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium, use of...
Clifford Hudis, MD, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said the findings suggest there is essentially no meaningful benefit from chemotherapy in the recurrence score low-risk subset. “It is clinically appropriate to offer endocrine therapy...
The long-awaited first results are in from the TAILORx study, showing that patients with early breast cancer considered at low risk for recurrence can forgo chemotherapy and be treated with endocrine therapy alone.1 “Women with axillary node-negative, estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative...
Enrique Grande, MD, Head of the Endocrine and Genitourinary Tumors Section of the Medical Oncology Service at Ramon y Cajal University Hospital, Madrid, discussed the NETTER-1 and RADIANT-4 studies at the Presidential Session of the 2015 European Cancer Congress. “There is now a stronger rationale...
Patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors have two promising new treatment options, according to studies that earned spots in the Presidential Session of the 2015 European Cancer Congress, held recently in Vienna, Austria. The phase III studies evaluated the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor)...
In an accompanying editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, Michael F. Greene, MD, Chief of Obstetrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dan L. Longo, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, mentioned the low odds for both oncologists and...
Children with in utero exposure to chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy during maternal treatment for cancer had no impairment in cognition, cardiac function, and general early childhood development, according to a study reported at the European Cancer Congress in Vienna, Austria, and published...
This is the first time we have seen data from the BIRCH trial in these three different cohorts using biomarker expression on tumor cells and immune cells,” said formal discussant Luis Paz-Ares, MD, Professor Medicine at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain. “BIRCH confirms the...
The anti–PD-L1 (programmed cell death-ligand 1) antibody atezolizumab (formerly known as MPDL3280A) achieved encouraging outcomes in patients with non–small lung cancer (NSCLC) in two different trials: POPLAR1 and BIRCH.2 PD-L1 has emerged as a predictive biomarker for atezolizumab response in both ...
Cora N. Sternberg, MD, FACP, Chief of Medical Oncology at San Camillo Forlanini Hospital, Rome, Italy, discussed the implications of the METEOR trial. Everolimus (Afinitor) is considered standard second-line therapy, with a benchmark progression-free survival of 4.9 months in the RECORD-1 trial,...
Cabozantinib (Cometriq) nearly doubled progression-free survival compared with standard everolimus (Afinitor) therapy in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, according to the phase III METEOR trial.1 Additionally, a preplanned interim analysis found an encouraging trend toward overall...
Frederic Amant, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Staff Gynecologic Oncologist, and Head of the Scientific Section of Gynecologic Oncology at University Hospitals Leuven in Leuven, Belgium, stressed that the study by Lambertini et al is a meta-analysis, not a randomized controlled trial. Nevertheless,...
Several studies have addressed the risks and benefits of ovarian suppression during chemotherapy for breast cancer in women of childbearing age. A new meta-analysis of randomized trials found that it prevented premature ovarian failure and was associated with a higher number of pregnancies post...
Patient: “Doc, how much are these drugs going to cost me?” Physician: “They are expensive, and you can see our financial counselor to help you understand the costs.” Cancer care is not a black-and-white endeavor, and costs are considered a distasteful subject to be passed over in tactful silence. ...
Cora N. Sternberg, MD, FACP, Chief of Medical Oncology at San Camillo Forlanini Hospital in Rome, Italy, formally discussed CheckMate 025 at the Presidential Session of the 2015 European Cancer Congress as well as findings from the METEOR trial of cabozantinib (Cometriq) in metastatic renal cell...
Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma treated with nivolumab (Opdivo) were 27% less likely to die than those receiving everolimus (Afinitor), in a planned interim analysis of the open-label phase III CheckMate 025 trial.1 These positive results prompted an early termination of the study by...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the biologics license application for talimogene laherparepvec (Imlygic), a genetically modified oncolytic viral therapy indicated for the local treatment of unresectable cutaneous, subcutaneous, and nodal lesions in patients with melanoma...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will recognize the late Aaron J. Marcus, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College and the Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System with the 2015 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology. Dr. Marcus, who passed away in May 2015,...