First-line treatment with osimertinib plus platinum-based chemotherapy achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival improvement compared with osimertinib alone in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non–small cell lung...
Gerard A. Silvestri, MD, MS, the Hillenbrand Professor of Thoracic Oncology at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, praised the investigators of the Taiwan National Lung Cancer Screening Program for their accomplishment. “It’s incredible that they screened almost 50,000...
Findings from the Taiwan National Lung Cancer Early Detection Program have shown that lung cancer screening by low-dose computed tomography (CT) can detect tumors at an early-enough phase to allow for effective intervention. In a recent analysis, 85% of tumors detected by screening were stage 0 or...
Discussant of the abstract on the MARS-2 trial, Paula Antonia Ugalde, MD, Associate Surgeon, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, underscored the significance of this “outstanding trial,” which she called a “landmark study for the field.” Despite the ban on asbestos, ...
The management of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies has evolved significantly over the past decade. Thanks to many scientific advancements in the field, new therapeutic options, and improvements in screening and early detection, more patients are being cured, and many others are living...
On September 26, 2023, bosutinib (Bosulif) was approved for pediatric patients aged 1 year and older with chronic-phase Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) that is newly diagnosed or resistant or intolerant to prior therapy.1 New capsule dosage form strengths of 50 mg...
A lot of my experience with cancer is hazy to me. I was taking narcotics for pain around the clock when I was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in 2013, so there are some missing memories during those early days. I was 19 and a freshman in college when my symptoms started. I have always been active in ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD, one of the principals in the discovery and development of trastuzumab—the first monoclonal antibody used against an oncogene that altered our entire approach...
For many years, researchers around the world have been exploring the connections between cancer treatments and the heart—better known as cardio-oncology. However, many oncologists may be less familiar with this emerging field and what they might need to know in terms of heart health to keep their...
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders that are characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, resulting in cytopenias, and they carry a risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In 2022, the fifth edition of the World Health ...
Greater understanding of biological disease factors in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has led to more effective and personalized treatment options. At the 2023 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies,1 Rebecca Olin, MD, MSCE, of UCSF Helen Diller Family...
Low-dose radiotherapy in combination with the monoclonal antibody durvalumab and chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy was well tolerated in patients with potentially resectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a small study conducted in China and presented at the...
Discussant of the abstract on the ASTRUM-004 trial, Justin F. Gainor, MD, emphasized the significant, positive improvements in survival among patients randomly assigned to receive the PD-1 inhibitor serplulimab vs placebo. Dr. Gainor is Director of the Center for Thoracic Cancers Program, Director ...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Eric Bouffet, MD, of the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and colleagues, a phase II trial has shown a significant improvement in objective response rate and other efficacy outcomes with first-line dabrafenib plus trametinib vs standard...
ASCO and the National Cancer Policy Forum cohosted a workshop on October 5–6, 2023, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) consensus report, Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis.1 The National Cancer Policy Forum is a...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Fred Saad, MD, of the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, and colleagues, the final prespecified overall survival analysis of the phase III PROpel trial has shown no significant benefit with the addition of first-line olaparib to abiraterone in...
Since all myelomas are not the same, treatment should be personalized and targeted to the different biological subgroups, said the CANOVA trial’s invited discussant Faith E. Davies, MD, Professor of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York. For this approach, she said, three things are...
In the global randomized phase III CANOVA study, venetoclax plus dexamethasone (VenDex) demonstrated numerically longer progression-free survival compared with pomalidomide and dexamethasone (PomDex) in patients with t(11;14)-positive relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, though the difference...
Research on the advances in radiation modeling presented by Rebecca M. Howell, PhD, at the 2023 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting may provide insights into the late cardiac effects of survivors of childhood cancer in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS).1 Dr....
Resource-sparing hypofractionated radiation therapy could offer an invaluable alternative for treating head and neck cancer, especially for patients in low- and middle-income countries, according to data presented during the Plenary Session at the 2023 American Society for Radiation Oncology...
Commenting on the AEGEAN study at the 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer were the abstract’s invited discussant Solange Peters, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair of Medical Oncology and the Thoracic Malignancies Program at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, and Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH,...
The addition of durvalumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy led to higher rates of R0 resections and posed no apparent impediments to successful surgery for resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings from the randomized phase III AEGEAN trial presented at the International...
A retrospective cohort study by Liu et al published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention investigated the prevalence and reasons for an unsatisfactory fecal immunochemical test (FIT). Researchers found that over 10% of the tests used for routine colorectal cancer screening contained...
The invited discussant Krishnansu Tewari, MD, Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of California, Irvine, called innovaTV 301 a “practice-changing study” that should result in full approval of tisotumab vedotin-tftv in the United States “and, importantly, will...
As reported in The Lancet by the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG), an individual patient meta-analysis has shown that more recent—but not older—trials of regional lymph node radiotherapy vs no radiotherapy in patients with early breast cancer showed benefits of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by François-Clément Bidard, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the French phase III STIC CTC trial showed a nonsignificant overall survival benefit with a circulating tumor cell (CTC) count–driven approach to therapy vs physician’s choice in the first-line...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Zwanenburg et al, 5-year findings from the Dutch COLOPEC trial indicated that the addition of adjuvant hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to systemic chemotherapy did not improve overall survival vs chemotherapy alone in patients...
On November 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) for patients with nonmetastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer with biochemical recurrence at high risk for metastasis. EMBARK Trial Efficacy was evaluated in EMBARK...
Invited discussant of the DUO-E trial, Domenica Lorusso, MD, PhD, commented: “Looking at the data, it’s clear to me that we are entering a new era of clinical research” in endometrial cancer. Patient populations are becoming molecularly refined, which will pave the way for more highly personalized ...
In the phase III DUO-E trial, a first-line treatment regimen that includes chemotherapy plus the checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab followed by maintenance durvalumab, with or without the PARP inhibitor olaparib, significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with advanced or recurrent...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued recommendations for patient-centered strategies for performing partial-breast irradiation in patients with early-stage invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The new clinical guidelines were published by Shaitelman et al ...
Researchers have uncovered an increased incidence of certain types of cancer in Sweden following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, according to a novel study published by Tondel et al in Environmental Epidemiology. Study Methods and Results The Chernobyl accident in 1986 led to the spread ...
On November 16, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved capivasertib (Truqap) with fulvestrant for adult patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer with one or more PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN alterations, as detected by an...
On November 15, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor repotrectinib (Augtyro) for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). According to the American Lung Association, the ROS1 ...
In a UK phase II trial (PRISM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vasudev and colleagues found that ipilimumab given every 12 weeks vs every 3 weeks in combination with nivolumab resulted in a significantly reduced rate of treatment-related grade ≥ 3 adverse events in treatment-naive...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Niemann et al, the 4-year follow-up of the phase III GLOW trial has shown a continued progression-free survival benefit with fixed-duration ibrutinib/venetoclax vs chlorambucil/obinutuzumab in the first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in patients ...
Two phase III trials presented at a Presidential Symposium during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 showed an overall survival benefit for patients with advanced urothelial cancer. The results from both studies were hailed as practice-changing. The EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nogueira et al found that among U.S. Black and White patients with early-onset colorectal cancer, Black patients were more likely to receive poorer and less timely care. As stated by the investigators: “Young individuals racialized as Black...
In a phase III trial (OVAL Study/GOG 3018) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Arend et al found that the addition of ofranergene obadenovec to paclitaxel did not improve survival outcomes in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Ofranergene obadenovec is a gene-based targeted...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zeng et al developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based pathology method that distinguished between better and poorer response to treatment with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). As stated by the investigators:...
The TROP-2–directed antibody-drug conjugate datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) significantly improved progression-free survival over standard chemotherapy in the TROPION-Breast01 trial involving patients with previously treated, hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, unresectable and/or...
A novel assay may be effective at detecting a unique molecular marker in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a recent study published by Young et al in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. The new findings may revolutionize the way AML is detected and treated. Background AML...
Researchers have compiled a comprehensive list of genetic variants that may be associated with the risk of developing prostate cancer, according to a recent study published by Wang et al in Nature Genetics. The new findings included major increases in representation among patients from racial and...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Planchard et al, the phase III FLAURA2 trial has shown superior progression-free survival with osimertinib plus platinum-based chemotherapy vs osimertinib alone in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutant advanced non–small cell lung cancer...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Iacoboni et al found that preapheresis bendamustine exposure was associated with poorer outcomes among patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma receiving CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell...
Early findings from the phase II EDGE-Gastric trial indicate the potential for two novel agents to make a difference in advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, according to findings reported at the ASCO Plenary Series: November 2023 Session by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, Chief of the...
The risk of developing skin cancer may be twofold for patients with lymphedema, according to a recent study published by Anand et al in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The new findings may contribute to growing information linking lymphedema to localized changes in immunity and a predisposition for...
Investigators have found that patients with breast cancer who have insufficient levels of vitamin D prior to initiating treatment with paclitaxel may be more likely to experience peripheral neuropathy, according to a recent study published by Chen et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National...
The management of ovarian cancer remains challenging within health-care systems worldwide. Recently, clinical and translational research on ovarian cancer has led to promising advances that have improved the survival outcomes of women diagnosed with this aggressive gynecologic cancer. These...
On November 7, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised the existing indication of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with trastuzumab, fluoropyrimidine, and platinum-containing chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic...