Functional status impairment, limited mobility, comorbidities, polypharmacy, and other aging-related manifestations are common in older individuals. These conditions complicate the oncologic management of older adults, who are underrepresented in clinical trials, even though they form the majority ...
A comprehensive molecular study of endometrial cancer published by Dou et al in Cell has further defined the contributions of key genes and proteins to the disease. The overview suggests new treatment approaches that could be tailored for each patient, as well as potential biologic targets for...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to agents in lymphoma, lung cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and breast cancer, and granted Fast Track designation to a first-in-class radioenhancer hafnium oxide nanoparticle in head and neck cancer. Priority...
A personalized approach to selecting antibody therapy for patients with newly diagnosed stage IV gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma resulted in a 1-year overall survival rate of 66% and a median overall survival of 16.4 months in the PANGEA study (see Table 1).1 The study used a novel clinical...
Unlike ASCO’s Annual Meeting, symposia, and conferences, which highlight the current scientific advances in specific cancers and how they are improving cancer outcomes for the more than 18.1 million people worldwide diagnosed with cancer each year,1 ASCO Breakthrough: A Global Summit for Oncology...
Joshua Brody, MD, Director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on where zanubrutinib might fit in once the drug is approved. “The two abstracts presented at ASH 2019 …demonstrated remarkably high response rates, durations of...
Michael Jain, MD, PhD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, commented on both studies with the combination of brentuximab vedotin/nivolumab. “For older patients, ABVD [doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine] is not easy to tolerate, and it would be good to find an easier...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic regimens including the monoclonal antibody daratumumab in combination ...
Amid the epidemic levels of youth use of e-cigarettes and the popularity of certain products among children, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a policy prioritizing enforcement against certain unauthorized flavored e-cigarette products that appeal to children, including fruit...
Following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, cyclophosphamide significantly reduced grades II to IV acute and chronic extensive graft-vs-host disease compared with conventional immunosuppression, investigators reported during the Plenary Session at the 2019 American Society of...
Although gene mutations are the primary drivers of carcinogenesis, an array of complex and tumor-specific molecular interaction networks determine cancer cell behavior. To learn more about this line of inquiry, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Andrea Califano, Dr., Professor of Chemical Biology...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Nathwani et al found that the use of a tablet-based modified geriatric assessment during physician visits by older patients with multiple myeloma was feasible and provided physicians with information that influenced treatment decisions. Study ...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
Formal discussant Silke Gillessen, MD, of the Division of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, agreed that this study is practice-changing. “The study was well designed and addressed an unmet clinical need that is commonly seen in the clinic. Until now we had no randomized...
In the German phase II VOLFI trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Modest et al found that panitumumab plus modified FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan) used as first-line therapy improved the objective response rate in patients with RAS wild-type...
A diagnosis of cancer always comes as a surprise. Life does not prepare any of us for telling our friends and family that we have cancer, and this can be especially difficult for young adults and teenagers. Cancer interrupts their lives at a time when it is least expected. Life goals,...
A study published by Williams et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that direct costs for patients with metastatic breast cancer increased when their treatment differed from recommendations found in the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® (NCCN...
Let’s face it, men don’t go to the doctor as often as we should. At least that has been my experience. I felt compelled to finally make an appointment with my primary care physician after I began working as a research assistant at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in 2014, as it felt...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Shanafelt and colleagues recently published the interim analysis of E1912, a U.S. Intergroup–led randomized phase III trial comparing ibrutinib/rituximab, followed by ibrutinib to disease progression vs 6 months of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and...
I gave my first national presentation of my original clinical research on a topic that was to become a professional obsession: finding a cure for esophageal cancer. (Spoiler, I failed.) It was late May 1982. Writing about this now is undoubtedly predicated on my recent retirement, my desire to...
Fit elderly patients aged 70 years and older with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma were able to undergo rigorous treatment that provided benefit similar to that observed in younger patients. However, elderly patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma classified by geriatric assessment ...
In a report published by Garlipp et al in the British Journal of Surgery, the addition of selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) to modified FOLFOX6-based chemotherapy (mFOLFOX6; oxaliplatin/leucovorin/fluorouracil) improved the resectability of initially unresectable colorectal cancer liver...
When The ASCO Post asked physician-scientist Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, where she was from, she answered, “North America.” Actually, she was born in Canada, but her father worked for a large international company, so the family moved regularly through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. “I...
Black men suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer, both in terms of incidence and mortality, compared with their white counterparts. However, a newer study conducted by investigators at the University of California, San Francisco, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, found that black...
A new report published by DeSantis et al in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians examined cancer statistics in adults 85 and older and found incidence and mortality trends are generally similar to those in people aged 65 to 84 years, but disease screening rates are unexpectedly high and survival is...
GUEST EDITOR Geriatrics for the Oncologist is guest edited by Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO, and developed in collaboration with the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Dr. Lichtman is an Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Commack, New York, and...
Intimacy changes after a cancer diagnosis. Both male and female survivors can experience significant sexual dysfunction, pain with sex, loss of desire, and a slew of other clinical and psychological sequelae. To make matter worse, sexual function is often not discussed by patients and their...
GUEST EDITOR Jame Abraham, MD, FACP Dr. Abraham is the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic. For this installment of the Living a Full Life series of articles, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD,...
Formal discussant of the studies on TAK-788 and BLU-667, Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, in Nashville, called both studies “very exciting.” “In 2019, we have a plethora of information on genomic drivers in lung cancer. There are a lot of great initiatives to drive ...
WHEN ASKED which treatment to start with—docetaxel or enzalutamide, Dr. Sweeney said, “Patients fit for chemotherapy with high-volume disease can receive chemotherapy [docetaxel] and come back to these newer hormonal treatments or start with anyone of the hormonal options. Choosing among the newer...
Agents that improve survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer when added to background androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) are showing success in treating metastatic prostate cancer earlier while it is still hormone-sensitive. These agents include docetaxel (chemotherapy) and...
The Oncology Center of Excellence of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently 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...
The speed at which older individuals with blood cancers are able to walk 4 meters (about 13 feet) holds information about their overall health and may help to predict survival and unplanned hospital visits, according to study published by Liu et al in Blood. The association was...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
Internationally renowned breast cancer specialist Daniel A. Vorobiof, MD, was born in Santa Fe, Argentina, a province in the northeastern region of the country that is prone to catastrophic flooding. Asked about any early influences in his desire to pursue a career in medicine, Dr. Vorobiof...
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,...
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...
Breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women globally. Due to a lack of early interventions, most women in low- and middle-income countries have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis, conferring a grim prognosis. Yehoda M. Martei, MD, of the Department of Medicine,...
“Older and frail adults with cancer are the types of patients we deal with every day,” said Armin Shahrokni, MD, a geriatric oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “The GO2 study is important, and I suspect it will be practice-changing,” he predicted. Older and frail...
A phase III randomized clinical study evaluating the optimum dose of a combination chemotherapy regimen of oxaliplatin and capecitabine in the treatment of advanced gastroesophageal cancer in frail and elderly patients has found that the patients prescribed the lowest dose tested experienced less...
Two studies reported at the European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) 2019 provided new insights on the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy in elderly patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although around half of all people newly diagnosed with NSCLC are elderly (Pallis ...
THE ASCO POST asked Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Division of Bone Marrow Transplant at Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, to comment on studies involving daratumumab. “After the phase III SWOG S0777 trial demonstrated a survival benefit with a 3-drug induction regimen...
Heather A. Wakelee, MD, of Stanford University, discusses the most recent FDA-approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors that target EGFR and ALK mutations, how these agents fit into the treatment landscape, and the rapidly evolving field of TKI resistance.
GUEST EDITOR Dr. Abraham is the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic. In this installment of Living a Full Life, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP,...
In patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are not eligible for stem cell transplantation, the addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide and dexamethasone significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression by 44%, according to a late-breaking abstract presentation by Thierry...
Physician wellness is emblazoned upfront in the news with attention-seeking headlines on a daily basis. The fact that one or two physicians commit suicide every day in this country sometimes elicits more of a sympathetic acknowledgment than a committed call to address it. Moreover, these sobering...