A phase I clinical trial showed encouraging results with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeted to the mesothelin protein in patients with mesothelin-associated malignant pleural solid tumors—primarily, malignant mesothelioma—that had progressed following standard platinum-based...
Frailty and sarcopenia are common conditions among patients with lung cancer and are linked with decreased survival as well as increased surgical complications, chemotherapy toxicity, and cost of care. If a survey of oncologists at the 2019 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium is any...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
In the past, the role of the pathologist was primarily to present anatomic pathology findings on various specimens, particularly at tumor boards. However, in the emerging age of personalized medicine and molecular diagnostics, the responsibilities of pathologist have greatly expanded into...
A PERSONALIZED risk-prediction model for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) has been developed through the use of a machine-learning approach that analyzes genomic and clinical data for an individual patient. According to lead investigator Aziz Nazha, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, the model provides...
CANCER RESEARCH UK announced recently that it is funding three new international oncology research initiatives. Collectively, the teams have been awarded almost £60 million. These 5-year research programs will investigate how the microbiome can be manipulated to treat bowel cancer, find new ways to ...
Nationally regarded palliative care expert Janet L. Abrahm, MD, was born and reared in San Francisco. Her father was a solo practitioner who saw medicine as a great profession. “My father would come home from his office for dinner and when he finished, he’d do house calls, often bringing us with...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, interviewed multiple myeloma pioneer Robert A. Kyle, MD, whose groundbreaking work has changed the practice of hematology. Among his many honors are the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from ASCO and the Wallace H....
We read with interest a recent article published on ASCOPost.com, which summarized a paper on the role of shared decision-making in lung cancer screening.1,2 The summary and original report highlight a mandate by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that bears careful...
Results of a small clinical trial suggest that supplementing chemotherapy with high doses of vitamin D may benefit patients with metastatic colorectal cancer by delaying progression of the disease. These findings were published by Ng et al in JAMA. Initial trial findings were reported at the 2017...
With the recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy, treatments that modulate the immune system are now being used across numerous cancer types and across the spectrum of disease with significant success, but not all patients achieve objective responses. There is still a critical need to better...
Commenting on the ADMIRAL trial, Tapan Kadia, MD, Associate Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, reminded the audience that the most important discovery with genetic sequencing is that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a group of heterogeneous diseases. “The FLT3-ITD mutation is one...
Treatment with gilteritinib, an oral type 1, FLT inhibitor, significantly improved overall survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with FLT3-positive relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to the final results of the phase III ADMIRAL trial.1 The longest survival for ...
Results of a study published by Stearns et al in JAMA Network Open demonstrated a reduction in health-care utilization and cost for patients cancer-related pain using targeted drug delivery and conventional medical management vs conventional medical management alone. The study found...
A newly published Mayo Clinic study has found that a presurgery treatment plan for patients with borderline/locally advanced pancreatic cancer undergoing total neoadjuvant therapy may improve outcomes. The findings were published by Truty et al in Annals of Surgery. The study followed 194...
ASCO recently announced that it is seeking applications for research grants for projects that use data from CancerLinQ Discovery®—an offering of ASCO’s CancerLinQ® initiative—as a source. CancerLinQ Discovery provides curated sets of deidentified data from patients with cancer to academic...
Carson Leslie was a kind, popular, lively teen who loved sports and spending time with his family and friends. He was a devoted student at The Covenant School of Dallas, where he was quarterback on the school’s football team, and he was an active member of Grace Bible Church. He shared a special...
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION for Cancer Research (AACR) recently honored Charles L. Sawyers, MD, FAACR, with the AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship at the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship, now in its 13th year, is awarded to a scientist...
WARNER K. HUH, MD, began his 1-year term as the 51st President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) at the conclusion of the Society’s 50th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer. Dr. Huh will preside over the 2020 SGO Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer scheduled for March 28–31, 2020, in Toronto. ...
THE PEZCOLLER FOUNDATION–AMERICAN ASSOCIATION for Cancer Research (AACR) International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research was recently presented to Alberto Mantovani, MD, Professor of Experimental Medicine and Pathophysiology at Humanitas University in Milan, Italy, at the 2019...
In 1996, an excruciating sore throat sent me first to my primary care physician and then to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, after a suspicious mass was found on the right side of my throat. A biopsy determined that the tumor was squamous cell neck cancer, and additional tests of my neck,...
IN HIGH-RISK patients with breast cancer and low expression of HER2 (HER2 low), a peptide vaccine targeting HER2, combined with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and given concurrently with trastuzumab, may help to prevent recurrence. Final analysis of a randomized phase...
The early debate over the social and ethical implications of gene therapy led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee in 1974. However, the risks of human gene therapies were largely unknown until 1999, when a patient died of a massive immune...
THE EMERGENCE of anticancer agents that block immune checkpoints has transformed the field of oncology, leading to durable responses and improvements in overall survival in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, head/neck squamous cell carcinoma, urothelial bladder cancer, and non–small cell lung cancer....
INITIAL DATA from the ongoing, multicenter, first-in-human, phase Ia/Ib dose-escalation and -expansion study suggest that an anti–T-cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain–containing molecule 3 (anti–TIM-3) antibody alone or in combination with immune checkpoint blockade could counter intrinsic ...
NEW AGENTS for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer should be coming soon to your clinic, according to Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program and Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of...
HIS HEAD WAS DIFFERENT from those of the other people in line. He bore a matrix of white rows of circular patches on his shaved scalp like a wig. The patches were electrodes, connected by cords to a power supply in a satchel around his shoulder. I was able to make an instant and unfortunate...
THE FORMAL DISCUSSANT of the KEYNOTE-427 trial, Tracy Rose, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told listeners: “I think pembrolizumab should now be considered an option for non–clear cell kidney cancer. Response rates, however, remain inferior to those seen in clear cell...
Although ARCHES was a positive trial, the results may not signal a practice change at this time, according to formal discussant Ian Davis, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FAChPM, of Monash University Eastern Health Clinical School, Melbourne. “We should probably not change practice yet on the basis of these...
SEVERAL STUDIES at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium evaluated the benefits of neoadjuvant treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer—and in patients deemed fully resectable, not just “borderline” resectable.1-3 Although the standard of care for resectable pancreatic ductal...
Although the pool of registered bone marrow donors has increased in recent years, a new study suggests that most patients of southern European and non-European descent are unlikely to have a suitable match if they need a bone marrow transplant. If an immediate registry search does not identify a...
Treatment with the FLT3-targeted therapeutic gilteritinib improved survival for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) harboring an FLT3 mutation compared with standard chemotherapy regimens, according to results from the phase III ADMIRAL trial presented by Perl et al at ...
ASCO ENDORSES and reinforces the evidence-based American Urological Association (AUA), American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) Guideline published in 2018 in the Journal of Urology. ASCO’s endorsement of a guideline on clinically localized...
THE MANAGEMENT of localized prostate cancer remains controversial. Although the widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing has resulted in a dramatic increase in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, many men do not benefit from intervention because the disease is either...
NYU LANGONE Health’s Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center has been designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Perlmutter Cancer Center is now among 50 cancer centers across the country to earn this distinction. Perlmutter Cancer Center received an overall...
WHEN BRANDON CANYON’S mother Leone was diagnosed with uterine cancer, he drove her to treatment sessions at the nearest cancer center—a 200-mile round trip on rough roads. Gas was a significant expense, but their only other option was to forgo treatment. The Canyons are members of the Navajo...
IN A MOVE that is a significant departure from current testing recommendations, the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) recommends that genetic testing be available to all individuals newly diagnosed with breast cancer.1 The new recommendations expand on common restrictions by the National...
YOU CANNOT write about caring; you must practice it. None of us went to medical school thinking we would be an oncologist or a neurosurgeon or a stem cell biologist. But we did have vague aspirations of wanting to help others: to be involved in other lives. It was an altruistic avocation; how...
PATIENTS WITH advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may no longer have to come to the clinic every 2 weeks for treatment. According to a descriptive analysis of the phase IIIb/IV CheckMate 384 study, a more convenient dosing option of nivolumab has demonstrated convincing short-term safety...
A treatment previously shown to treat the precancerous skin lesions called actinic keratosis now appears to also reduce the chance that these pretreated lesions will develop into squamous cell carcinoma. In a report published by Rosenberg et al in JCI Insight, researchers found that treatment with...
Watch upcoming issues of The ASCO Post for news reports from the 2019 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium, taking place March 14-16, 2019, in San Diego. Watch for reports on these presentations, plus much more. “Improved Overall Survival with Local Consolidative Therapy in...
Findings from a recent clinical trial presented in a Scientific Plenary session at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SGO) 50th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer revealed that women with recurrent ovarian cancer who received niraparib as maintenance therapy experienced more time...
Most oncologists are comfortable treating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) patients with cancer, according to a survey of 149 oncologists from 45 National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, but not as confident in their knowledge of the...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
On January 15, 2019, WebMD, an online and print health-care resource for consumers, presented its 2018 Health Heroes Award in New York City to 7 people who are making a difference in oncology care. The honorees include Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Wake...
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,...
Stephen J. Forman, MD, Leader of City of Hope’s Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute and the Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, recently received the 2019 DKMS Mechtild Harf Science Award in...
In 2015, ASCO and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) introduced value frameworks that utilize algorithmic scales to evaluate the clinical benefit of cancer therapies and provide an objective assessment of outcomes and treatment toxicities experienced by patients.1,2 Although the two...
A new approach to cancer follow-up care is required to meet the needs of the growing population of cancer survivors in the United States, while also addressing provider shortages and rising costs, according to a new multiagency report. The report—published by Alfano et al in CA: A Cancer ...
Treatment with conformal radiation therapy immediately following surgery in children with ependymoma may greatly improve survival. The findings were published by Merchant et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “Historically, children under the age of 3 with ependymoma have a worse...