On February 5, 2021, lisocabtagene maraleucel was approved for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified (including DLBCL arising from...
Guest Editor’s Note: Healthful nutrition plays an important role throughout the cancer continuum. Given the proliferation of online dietary resources, there is a clear need for reliable information. In this article, Dr. Heather Greenlee describes the website Cook for Your Life, launched in...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Khaki et al found that although the use of anticancer systemic therapy during the last 30 days of life in patients with cancer has decreased overall since the first approval of a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, the use of PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors...
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a global health issue, putting unprecedented stress on health-care systems, with important implications for cancer care. Although at this stage the data are fairly limited, we know that patients with cancer are far more vulnerable to worse outcomes, including a greater ...
“Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.” —Hippocrates To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the...
The U.S. right-to-die movement took root in the mid-1970s, when Derek Humphry helped his wife, who was dying of breast cancer, take her own life. Five years later, Mr. Humphry founded the Hemlock Society, the first right-to-die organization in the United States,1 and set off a firestorm of...
On March 26, 2021, idecabtagene vicleucel was approved for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after four or more prior lines of therapy, including an immunomodulatory agent, a proteasome inhibitor, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.1,2 Idecabtagene vicleucel is...
Although the National Cancer Act of 1971 has resulted in tremendous advances in cancer research, which have led to sharp declines in cancer mortality in the United States—from 1991 to 2018, there has been a 31% decrease in overall cancer death rates—and more than 17 million cancer survivors,1 much...
On January 15, 2021, the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki was approved for treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data...
The EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial, recently reported in The Lancet and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, showed an improvement in progression-free and overall survival with cemiplimab-rwlc in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high PD-L1 expression (tumor proportion score...
ASCO has issued a new guideline on the clinical management of dyspnea in adult patients with advanced cancer.1 Dyspnea—or breathlessness—is a common and distressing symptom affecting upward of 70% of patients with advanced cancer.2 “Dyspnea is a highly prevalent symptom, particularly when people...
Researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology leaders who have worked to reshape cancer care around the world are among the recipients of ASCO’s Special Awards—the Society’s highest honors—and the Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards from Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation. “The...
In a single-institution phase II/III trial (EMPIRE-1) reported in The Lancet, Ashesh B. Jani, MD, and colleagues found that use of fluciclovine F-18 positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in addition to conventional imaging to guide postprostatectomy salvage radiotherapy was...
While the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is higher among patients who have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it’s even higher among patients who have HIV and detectable hepatitis B, according to research published by Kim et al in Hepatology. Among patients with HIV and hepatitis B,...
The 2021 Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Symposium was held in a virtual format on February 11–13 and featured the latest developments in the understanding and treatment of genitourinary cancers. The impact of prostate cancer therapies on outcomes in older adults continues to be a growing area of...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On February 26, 2021, the peptide-conjugated alkylating...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology®, covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. During the NCCN’s 26th Annual Conference, which was held virtually...
“This study is interesting, and the results were a little surprising,” said Patrick Y. Wen, MD, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Neuro-Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “The prognosis of these tumors in children and adolescents is so terrible...
The invited discussant of the studies, Jamie N. Bakkum-Gamez, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Co-Lead of the Women’s Cancer Program at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, Minnesota, first reminded attendees of the scope of the problem: an estimated 40% or so of women slated for...
Internationally renowned for his pioneering research in combining high-dose radiation therapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer to improve patient survival, ASCO’s President-Elect Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, is dedicating his tenure as President to...
Early-onset colorectal cancer incidence rates in the United States have nearly doubled between 1992 and 2013—up from 8.6 to 13.1 per 100,000 individuals—with most of that increase due to early-onset cancers of the rectum. A new study published by Archambault et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum focused on ...
An American Cancer Society (ACS) review of cancer prevention and early detection measures for 2018 and 2019 in the United States shows mixed progress. Smoking prevalence during this time was at an historic low, partly because most people who ever smoked have quit. However, obesity rates remained...
Formal discussant Stefania Scala, MD, of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione Pascale, Naples, was impressed by the findings of KEYNOTE-629. “The second interim analysis for the locally advanced disease cohort and updated data for the recurrent/metastatic disease cohort of KEYNOTE-629 had ...
Treatment with abemaciclib, an orally available inhibitor of CDK4/6, has been associated with venous thromboembolic events (VTE), elevated aminotransferases (EAT), and interstitial lung disease (ILD). Although more episodes of VTE, EAT, and ILD were reported in patients receiving abemaciclib plus...
In a single-institution retrospective study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Sinha et al found disparities in electronic health record (EHR) patient portal enrollment according to age, sex, race/ethnicity, and primary language among oncology patients. Study Details The study involved ...
The Laparoscopic Approach to Cervical Cancer (LACC) trial, reported in November 2018, showed poorer disease-free and overall survival with minimally invasive vs open radical hysterectomy for early-stage cervical cancer. In a study recently reported in a letter in The New England Journal of...
Long-term cardiac safety and efficacy have been confirmed for the combination of pertuzumab plus trastuzumab in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, according to the final analysis of the phase II BERENICE trial reported by Chau T. Dang, MD, and colleagues at the ESMO Breast...
The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) has released a clinical practice resource from a global team of specialists in cancer genetics that will help inform the clinical management of patients who harbor a PALB2 variant and may be at increased risk of developing breast,...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kim N. Chi, MD, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III TITAN trial showed significant benefit with apalutamide plus androgen-deprivation therapy vs placebo plus androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with metastatic...
Except in patients with no smoking history, the addition of chemotherapy to immunotherapy does not add benefit as a first-line treatment in patients with stage IV nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and high expression of PD-L1, according to real-world experience. Outcomes from the U.S. ...
Drug-related interstitial lung disease occurred in less than 16% of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer following treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) at the approved dose of 5.4 mg/kg. In addition, the majority of these cases were classified as grade 1 or 2,...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Priority Review to the combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib for the treatment of both advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and endometrial carcinoma. The FDA also granted Priority Review to ivosidenib for the treatment of...
PRESERVE 4 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04863248)—a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study of trilaciclib administered prior to docetaxel in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the second- and third-line setting who have previously...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Durno et al in the International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium (IRRDC), use of an IRRDC surveillance protocol was associated with improved overall survival among patients with constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome (CMMRD)....
On May 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to include adolescents aged 12 through 15. The FDA...
Complete morphologic remission is considered the first requirement for achieving long-term, leukemia-free survival and a potential cure in patients with acute leukemia, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and is the goal of all therapeutic strategies to date. Recognizing that the majority of...
ASCO and Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) have jointly published an update1 to the 2017 ASCO guideline2 regarding systemic therapy recommendations for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with driver alterations. Guideline Co-Chair Nasser H. Hanna, MD, of the Indiana University Simon...
As of April 1, additional savings may be available for new and current consumers who purchase health insurance on HealthCare.gov following passage of the American Rescue Plan. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also extended access to the Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for the...
It is incredible to reflect upon the scientific advances in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer over the past 23 years. Once considered the worst subtype of breast cancer, HER2-positive disease is now associated with the best long-term outcomes in this age of targeted treatments. With a...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III SOPHIA trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with margetuximab-cmkb plus chemotherapy vs...
A significant survival advantage accrued to patients with stage IIB and IIC cutaneous melanoma who received adjuvant immunotherapy, a large retrospective cohort study reported at the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care.1 The 3-year overall...
The expected surge of patients, some with advanced cancers, wanting and needing oncology care as the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs, underscores the need for more oncologists, according to Barbara L. McAneny, MD, MACP, FASCO, cofounder and Chief Executive Officer, New Mexico Oncology Hematology...
On February 22, 2021, cemiplimab-rwlc was approved for first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; locally advanced who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation therapy or metastatic) whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression (tumor...
Pent up demand for cancer screenings, diagnostic workups, and treatments delayed or curtailed since the start of the pandemic is expected to result in a surge of patients—some with more advanced disease as a result of delays—seeking appointments with oncologists. “We are starting to see the...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this article, Nirupa Raghunathan, MD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on the increasing use...
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are using a type of machine learning to put a new twist on an established technique. The researchers created MethylationToActivity (M2A), a framework for using DNA methylation data to reveal promoter activity and gene expression. The results were...
“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” —Bernard Williams To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting...
Treatment with tebentafusp—a novel bispecific fusion protein—reduced the risk of death from metastatic uveal melanoma by half, compared with available treatments, in a phase III study presented at the virtual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021.1 This is the first...
Although head and neck cancers include multiple histologies and primary sites, squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) originating in the oropharynx, oral cavity, larynx, or hypopharynx are the most common. Today, we recognize several different types of head and neck diseases, primarily those that are human ...
Cardio-oncology represents the intersection of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Cancer therapies can result in cardiovascular complications, and some patients become less attentive to their chronic disease management after a diagnosis of cancer. As cancer patients are living longer, for some,...