The fight against cancer has made remarkable progress worldwide over the past decade. Through corporate investment in research and technology, the incidence of cancer and death rates in developed nations have steadily declined. The number of people living longer and fuller lives after a cancer...
In a single-institution study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Stephanie Feldman, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues found that somatic KRAS and STK11 alterations were associated with increased risk of arterial thromboembolism in patients with solid tumors,...
The Mount Sinai Health System’s esophagectomy program has received a three-star (excellent performance) overall composite score from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). According to STS, 13 institutions in the United States and Canada hold the three-star rating, which denotes the highest...
Knowing the health-care system is complex and often creates anxiety for patients newly diagnosed with cancer, the Northwell Health Cancer Institute has launched Cancer Care Direct, a comprehensive program to connect patients with clinical registered nurse navigators who can provide expert guidance...
As discussed in Part I of this special feature on cancer survivorship, there are now more than 18 million cancer survivors in the United States, and that number is expected to grow to 26 million by 2040.1 However, most of those survivors—at least two-thirds—either cured or in remission or living...
With this issue of The ASCO Post, we introduce a new feature, View From the Top: The Future of Cancer Care Delivery, which will explore how leaders in oncology are developing strategies to ensure continued innovative oncology care in an ever-changing health-care environment. In this inaugural...
Research!America, a nonprofit alliance that advocates for science, discovery, and innovation to achieve better health for all, has elected four new members to its board of directors. Each of these individuals has made significant contributions to advancing medical and health research through...
In an analysis recently reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 Bender et al found that “excellent” survival outcomes were achieved in patients receiving reduced treatment for neuroblastoma as a result of reassignment to intermediate risk from high risk based on a change in the minimum age...
The improvement in cancer survival rates since President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 into law is staggering. The legislation further committed the United States to greater investments in cancer-focused research to drive down the rates of cancer diagnoses, boost patient...
New research from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) outlines significant ways that the COVID-19 pandemic destabilized usual patterns of cancer care, as reported in the National Cancer Database (NCDB). The NCDB is one of the largest cancer registries in the world and is used by thousands of...
The updated results of the POLLUX trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Dimopoulos and colleagues and in this issue of The ASCO Post, showed significantly improved overall survival with daratumumab plus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (DRd) vs Rd in patients with previously treated...
Daniel C. Link, MD, has been named Deputy Director of Siteman Cancer Center (SCC), based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis. In addition, Dr. Link, who also is the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine, is Chief of the...
A new analysis of the U.S. radiation oncology workforce projects a relative balance between the supply of radiation oncologists and the demand for radiation therapy services through 2030.1 The report was produced by Health Management Associates (HMA), a consulting firm commissioned by the American...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and L. Jeffrey Medeiros explore the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
In a collaborative study from the University of Freiburg and Stanford University reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jurik A. Mutter, BSc, of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, and colleagues found that circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) identified prior to and during treatment...
For this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Sibylle Loibl, MD, PhD, Chair of the German Breast Group (GBG) and Chief Executive Officer of the GBG Forschungs GmbH. Professor Loibl, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology ...
In a single-institution cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Jason A. Mouabbi, MD, and colleagues found no difference in survival outcomes between patients with hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer with low vs no HER2 expression who received targeted therapy and endocrine...
In a meta-analysis reported in a research letter in JAMA Network Open, Maiorano et al found that first-line anti–PD-L1 treatment combinations did not significantly improve overall survival vs sunitinib in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. A progression-free survival benefit was...
Deep learning–based computer-aided diagnosis on breast ultrasound may significantly improve radiologists’ diagnostic performance and reduce the frequency of benign breast biopsies, according to a new study published by He et al in the American Journal of Roentgenology. Compared with previous...
Researchers have discovered that interleukin-21 may be a potential therapeutic target to help reduce the endocrine autoimmune adverse effects and prevent the thyroid autoimmunity experienced by patients with cancer undergoing treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to a novel study...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Patel et al found that the prevalence of self-reported functional limitations in U.S. cancer survivors increased between 1999 and 2018. Study Details The analysis included adults in the 1999 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)...
Elizabeth A. Morris, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of California Davis, Sacramento, told The ASCO Post that the study by Berger et al addresses an important question. “This is a topic I am kind of passionate about—it addresses the ordering of mammograms...
Is regular surveillance with mammography important in older patients with breast cancer and a shortened life expectancy? A study of 44,475 patients with breast cancer found the practice—which may yield more harms than benefits—to be common. This study is unique in that it examined surveillance...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) awarded E. John Wherry, PhD, with the 2023 AACR–Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology during the AACR Annual Meeting in April in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Wherry is Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and...
On March 22, 2023, the anti–PD-1 antibody retifanlimab-dlwr was granted accelerated approval for adults with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced Merkel cell carcinoma.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in POD1UM-201 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03599713), a...
On April 17, 2023, omidubicel-onlv was approved for use in adult and pediatric patients (≥ 12 years) with hematologic malignancies who are planned for umbilical cord blood transplantation following myeloablative conditioning to reduce the time to neutrophil recovery and the incidence of infection.1 ...
Carol Aghajanian, MD, Chief of the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the final analysis of NOVA for The ASCO Post. She highlighted the difficulty in truly measuring overall survival in recurrent ovarian cancer. Dr. Aghajanian also ...
After resolving missing survival data in the phase III ENGOT-OV16/NOVA trial, no statistically significant difference in overall survival was found for patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer who received maintenance therapy with the PARP inhibitor niraparib, investigators...
Two studies presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2023 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer underscore the importance of enrolling patients with gynecologic cancer on clinical trials and of assuring trial access to racial minorities. One study found a statistically significant...
Joshua G. Cohen, MD, Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery and Medical Director of the Orange County Gynecologic Cancer Program at City of Hope, Orange County, California, shared his thoughts on the ADAGIO trial with The ASCO Post. He noted that uterine serous carcinoma—the...
The oral, small-molecule Wee1 kinase inhibitor adavosertib was clinically active but not well tolerated by more than half the patients with recurrent or persistent uterine serous carcinoma in the phase IIb ADAGIO trial. The findings were reported at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2023...
Amanda Nickles Fader, MD, Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Professor of Oncology, and Vice Chair of Gynecologic Surgical Operations at Johns Hopkins Health System, Baltimore, provided her thoughts on GOG 3026 for The ASCO Post. Dr. Fader applauded the investigators and the Gynecologic...
In patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer, treatment with ribociclib plus letrozole was not only active, but led to outcomes that are comparable to those achieved with current agents—with a particularly striking 19-month duration of response—according to Brian M. Slomovitz, MD,...
Kathleen Moore, MD, MS, the Virginia Kerley Cade Endowed Chair in Cancer Developmental Therapeutics and Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, spoke with The ASCO Post about GOG-258. According to Dr. Moore, the final results of this long-running...
The long-running randomized NRG Oncology GOG-258 clinical trial failed to identify an overall survival benefit with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in any subgroup of patients with locally advanced endometrial cancer. After a median follow-up of 112 months, the hazard ratio for...
Whole-exome sequencing of a large database identified carriers of mutations associated with hereditary cancer syndromes (ie, hereditary breast and ovarian cancers and Lynch syndrome). What was surprising was that among those carriers, about 40% did not satisfy the existing National Comprehensive...
On May 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor avapritinib (Ayvakit) for the treatment of adults with indolent systemic mastocytosis. Avapritinib is the first and only approved therapy for indolent systemic mastocytosis. Systemic mastocytosis is a rare ...
Invited discussant of the IMbrave050 trial, Stephen Lam Chan, MD, of Chinese University of Hong Kong, put the study into context. “After curative treatment, recurrence remains a big problem [in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma at high risk of disease recurrence following resection or...
Adjuvant treatment with the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in recurrence-free survival compared with active surveillance alone in patients with high-risk hepatocellular carcinoma following curative-intent...
Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Program Director, Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Kraft Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, was upbeat about the REGN5459 study and the field of melanoma studies in...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, Guest Editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Dov Zippel, MD, a surgical oncologist at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, where he is Head of the Meirav Breast Center. Dr. Zippel is the current President of ...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that patients with advanced solid cancers and a high tumor mutational burden (TMB-H) had improved overall survival with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy vs those with a low tumor mutational burden (TMB-L)....
The bispecific antibody REGN5459 achieved a 90.5% overall response rate when given at the two highest doses in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to the results of a phase I/II clinical trial.1 Although preliminary, the results of this first-in-human trial for the...
Researchers have found that patients treated with the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine may have a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, according to a novel study published by Weinberg et al in JAMA Network Open. Background The BCG vaccine has been known to offer multiple ...
In the Italian phase II VELO trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Napolitano et al found that anti-EGFR treatment rechallenge with the addition of panitumumab to trifluridine/tipiracil improved progression-free survival in the third-line setting for patients with RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal...
In a retrospective analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zlotta et al found that trimodality therapy was associated with similar outcomes compared to radical cystectomy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Study Details The study involved 722 patients with clinical stage T2–T4N0M0...
The health and well-being of our clinicians, our communities, and our care systems need vigilance now more than ever to ensure we keep pace with the effects of change that is also advancing our medicine. When clinicians or patients talk about health care, they might mention frustrations with forms ...
The Appalachian Community Cancer Alliance (ACCA) has launched a lung cancer screening initiative to improve cancer care in rural Appalachia. Home to nearly 26 million people, the Appalachian region includes all of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states, and it has a 10% higher cancer mortality...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Waks et al found that the HER2DX assay performed well in predicting the likelihood of pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer receiving de-escalated neoadjuvant treatment with paclitaxel, trastuzumab, and...
In a U.S. cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Martin et al described the clinical course and potential factors associated with post–COVID-19 multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children with cancer also infected with COVID-19. Post–COVID-19 multisystem inflammatory syndrome is a...