I’ve learned a lot about medicine over the years, but one thing I wasn’t taught was how to guide someone through the existential weight of dying. My education centered on diagnosing, curing, or at least managing disease—not on the delicate art of helping people and their loved ones cope with what...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bhatia et al, nivolumab/ipilimumab did not produce better outcomes vs nivolumab alone in a cohort of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-naive patients with recurrent or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) enrolled in the phase I/II CheckMate 358...
Several cardiovascular risk factors such as advanced age and smoking history may be prevalent among patients with lung cancer at the time of diagnosis and may increase their risk of future cardiovascular disease, according to findings presented by Malozzi et al at the American College of...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors may be ineffective among patients hospitalized with cancer, according to a recent study published by Riaz et al in JCO Oncology Practice. Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed treatment for many cancer types but are often restricted for inpatient use...
The interference of gut bacteria could explain the ineffectiveness of immune checkpoint therapy in some patients with ovarian cancer, according to a recent study published by McGinty et al in Cancer Immunology Research. Background There are over 10,000 ovarian cancer–related deaths in the United...
Long-term yogurt intake may protect against the development of colorectal cancer through changes in the gut microbiome, according to a recent study published by Ugai et al in Gut Microbes. Background Yogurt—which contains live strains of bacteria—is thought to protect against many types of...
A novel blood test may aid physicians in the earlier detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and potentially improve survival rates for the disease, according to a recent study published by Montoya et al in Science Translational Medicine. Background Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is the...
Treatment with the HER2 × HER3 bispecific antibody zenocutuzumab-zbco appeared to be safe and active in patients with advanced NRG1 gene fusion–positive solid tumors, according to results from the registrational phase II eNRGy study published by Schram et al in The New England Journal of Medicine....
The findings in the American Cancer Society (ACS) annual report, Cancer Statistics, 2025,1 showed a mixed trend in cancer incidence and mortality rates. Although cancer mortality declined by 34% from 1991 to 2022 in the United States—largely because of smoking reductions, earlier detection, and...
Although there’s no history of breast cancer in my family, when I was 10, my pediatrician introduced me to breast self-exams, so I would become familiar with my breasts and learn to spot any unusual changes as I got older. I remember her telling me this was an especially important exercise to do...
NRG Oncology, the RTOG Foundation, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), announced the death of Felix Feng, MD, from cancer at age 48 on December 10, 2024. Dr. Feng was a George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Professor; Professor of Radiation Oncology, Urology and Medicine; Vice...
Although national guidelines, including ASCO’s palliative care guideline,1 call for the early integration of palliative and oncology care for patients with advanced cancer, only 36% of those with a very poor prognosis and 18% of those with a poor prognosis receive palliative care services.2 The...
ZUMA-2 is a single-arm, multicenter, open-label phase II study that investigated leukapheresed adults with mantle cell lymphoma whose disease was refractory to or had relapsed after up to five prior lines of therapy, including anthracycline or bendamustine-containing chemotherapy; anti-CD20...
ASCO has updated its guidelines on the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients newly diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, underscoring key considerations in selecting patients for treatment and where to go from there.1 Since ASCO’s previous guidelines were published in 2016, there has been ...
The Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP) is an innovative clinical trial designed to efficiently address the unmet needs of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following front-line therapy. This pioneering effort was the first biomarker-driven umbrella master protocol...
Kidney transplantation using donor organs carrying the Epstein-Barr virus may increase the risk of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder among recipients who have never been exposed to the virus, according to a recent study published by Potluri et al in the Annals of Internal Medicine....
Short-course, higher-dose vaginal brachytherapy for endometrial cancer may demonstrate comparable efficacy to more frequent, lower-dose sessions, according to a recent study published by Suneja et al in JCO Oncology Advances. Background Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer type of the...
Each year in the United States, approximately 90,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs), defined as those between the ages of 15 and 39, are diagnosed with cancer, and about 9,300 die of the disease.1 Worldwide, the number of new cases of cancer in this age population tops 1,300,200—an increase of ...
In JCO Oncology Advances, Schenkel et al published the results of an ASCO survey measuring professional well-being, satisfaction, and the effect of both on career plans among oncologists in the United States. The analysis revealed a higher rate of burnout compared with that observed a decade ago....
Investigators may have uncovered notable pharmacokinetic differences between male and female patients in at least 14 anticancer drugs, according to a recent study published by Delahousse et al in ESMO Open. Background Many cancer drugs have a narrow therapeutic window. As a result, slight...
A record-breaking number of abstracts were submitted for the 2024 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, and nearly 8,000 were accepted. The ASCO Post strives to provide in-depth coverage of those with the greatest impact. Here, we offer snapshots of others of...
The recently approved menin inhibitor revumenib is poised to improve the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), specifically for disease with a KMT2A rearrangement. Promising results for other novel menin inhibitors now in development—with their unique safety and activity profiles—suggest the...
Investigators have found that although fewer patients may be diagnosed with and dying from cancer in Appalachia, cancer incidence and mortality rates remain substantially higher compared with elsewhere in the United States, according to a recent study published by Burus et al in the Journal of the...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI) tool uncovered an effective treatment for a patient with idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s disease, according to a recent study published by Mumau et al in The New England Journal of Medicine. Background Idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s disease is a rare...
Patients with stage III or IV clear cell renal cell carcinoma may have achieved a successful anticancer immune response following initiation of a novel personalized cancer vaccine, according to a recent study published by Braun et al in Nature. Background The standard treatment for stage III or IV...
High-risk patients with clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance have very similar characteristics and outcomes as patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which can be informative with regard to prognosis, management, and clinical trial eligibility, said Zhuoer (Zoey) Xie, MD, ...
Researchers have found no evidence that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy caused secondary cancers in the modified T cells, according to a recent study published by Jadlowsky et al in Nature Medicine. Background CAR T-cell therapy is a personalized type of immunotherapy that employs...
The risk of developing more serious long-term urinary and bowel health issues may be higher in men undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer who experience side effects early in treatment, according to a recent study published by Nikitas et al in The Lancet Oncology. The findings highlighted ...
Although artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted radiotherapy may help physicians make more informed decisions when treating patients with cancer, there may be challenges in how physicians work with the technology, according to a recent study published by Niraula et al in Nature Communications. Study ...
Researchers have provided novel insights into the effects of radiation on the immune cells surrounding breast cancer tumors, according to a recent study published by Yoneyama et al in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. The findings revealed that the relationship...
A novel bicistronic CD19/CD22-directed CAR T-cell therapy (B019) has demonstrated high remission rates, durable responses, and a favorable safety profile among children with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), including those with isolated or combined extramedullary...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a label expansion for the PATHWAY anti-HER2/neu (4B5) Rabbit Monoclonal Primary Antibody to identify patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-ultralow metastatic breast cancer who may be eligible for treatment with fam-trastuzumab...
Late relapse of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may represent a new lymphoma arising from a common precursor cell that is essentially chemotherapy-naive. Treatment with curative intent using a second-line regimen like R-CHOP (rituximab cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, prednisone, and...
The incidence of advanced prostate cancer rose and the mortality rate plateaued in most regions across the state of California following the decision to cease routinely screening all men for the disease, according to a recent study published by Van Blarigan et al in JAMA Network Open. The findings...
Two pivotal phase III trials presented at the 2024 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition mark a significant shift toward chemotherapy-free approaches in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), offering potentially more effective and tolerable treatment options for both...
Worldwide, cancer chemotherapy is linked to chronic painful neuropathy for around 4 in every 10 patients treated with these drugs, suggests a pooled data analysis of the available evidence published by D’Souza et al in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. Notwithstanding wide regional...
Researchers have uncovered new heredity genes that may contribute to an increased risk of developing high-grade serous ovarian cancer, according to a recent study published by Subramanian et al in npj Genomic Medicine. Background High-grade serous ovarian cancer is one of the most prevalent and...
A phase III trial has shown adding the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab to anthracycline- and taxane-based chemotherapy that patients receive ahead of surgery may improve breast cancer cure rates. CheckMate-7FL involved 510 patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer,...
A novel system using standing surface acoustic waves may effectively and precisely separate circulating tumor cells from red blood cells, according to a novel study published by Kouhkord and Naserifar in the Physics of Fluids. Background Cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020—nearly...
Oral fecal microbiota transplantation may be a feasible and safe option to prevent graft-vs-host disease in patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplant (ASCT), according to a recent report published by Reddi et al in Nature Communications. The findings built on ...
The oral MDM2 inhibitor navtemadlin is the first single agent to demonstrate significant efficacy in JAK (Janus kinase) inhibitor–refractory myelofibrosis, achieving improvements in spleen volume, symptoms, and biomarkers, according to data presented at the 2024 American Society of Hematology (ASH) ...
The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) has introduced the new 2025 to 2027 United by Unique campaign, calling for a fundamental shift in cancer care and health systems across the world toward a people-centered approach in light of World Cancer Day. World Cancer Day takes place on...
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” —Muhammad Ali Long-term survival in early-stage classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) was first made possible by the introduction of the mantle and inverted Y fields of radiotherapy in the 1960s. The addition of...
Researchers have identified factors that could determine whether donor lymphocyte infusion—a type of adoptive cell therapy—will result in remission among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who have relapsed following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), according to a...
First-line treatment with the targeted therapies encorafenib and cetuximab plus a modified leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX6) chemotherapy regimen may be effective in patients with BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer, according to recent findings presented by Kopetz et ...
Investigators may have uncovered the financial burden of different medical services on cancer survivors, according to a recent study published by Jafri et al in JAMA Network Open. Background Although the economic challenges faced by patients with cancer as a result of health-care costs are well...
Active monitoring appears to be a safe strategy for the management of some patients with low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), proving noninferior to guideline-concordant management of this patient population (ie, surgery with or without radiation therapy). After 2 years, the rate of invasive...
For more than a year before my diagnosis of stage IA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in 2020, I had been self-treating a relentless chronic cough and a slight feeling of tightness in my chest. The symptoms were similar to asthma, so I began using albuterol inhalers. When they stopped working, I ...
Late in 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the 2025 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule adopting changes for Medicare payments under the PFS. CMS also released the 2025 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System final rule, which sets hospital outpatient...
Patients with smoldering multiple myeloma derived a significant progression-free survival benefit, along with other positive outcomes, from 3 years of subcutaneous use of the monoclonal antibody daratumumab as compared with active monitoring in the phase III AQUILA study.1 These findings were...