Early salvage radiotherapy appears to be a better choice after radical prostatectomy for men with prostate cancer than adjuvant radiotherapy, according to late-breaking results from the RADICALS-RT trial and the ARTISTIC meta-analysis of three trials that included RADICALS-RT. Observation after...
The results of simple interventions involving community health workers suggest that improvements in value-based cancer care need not come from health-care professionals. According to data presented at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium,1 reliance upon community health workers trained to assess...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nappi et al showed that plasma microRNA miR371 expression was associated with high specificity and positive predictive values in predicting active germ cell malignancy. Study Details The study included 111 patients with a history of or newly ...
In an analysis from the phase III PACE-B trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Brand et al found that shortened treatment courses with stereotactic body radiotherapy did not increase gastrointestinal or genitourinary acute toxicity vs intensity-modulated fractionated radiotherapy in low-risk to...
GUEST EDITOR Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief of Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Morano et al assessed prognostic/predictive role of tumor sidedness and presence of uncommon molecular alterations in anti-EGFR treatment primary resistance in patients with RAS/BRAF wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer. Study Details The...
A study by Oxnard et al using bisulfite sequencing of plasma cell-free DNA to identify methylomic signatures for multicancer detection and tissue of origin found the assay achieved accurate detection of multiple cancers across stages and tissue of origin localization. The targeted methylation assay ...
The Prevent Cancer Foundation recently honored Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, with the James L. Mulshine, MD, Leadership Award for his work leading the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), the first large-scale clinical trial for low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening. The award...
Inspiration comes in many forms. For cancer researcher Ariel Hollinshead Hyun, PhD, known professionally as Dr. Hollinshead, it came at the age of 15, when she was captivated by Paul de Kruif’s book Microbe Hunters. She was fascinated by the lives of early bacteriologists detailed in the book and...
Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes nearly all cervical cancers and is attributed to some cancers of the vagina, vulva, penis, anus, and oropharynx. Although most HPV infections are asymptomatic and usually resolve within 1 to 2 years, persistent infections can lead to precancer and cancer. According ...
The management of rectal cancer has evolved over the past decades, yielding several major practice changes that have substantially improved outcomes. However, rectal cancer treatment remains challenging and even with improved outcomes can result in life-altering morbidity. To shed light on the...
By simply reaching out to new colleagues, Verna Vanderpuye, MBChB, improved the way oncology is practiced across Africa. “It is difficult to find yourself in the [predicament] of low government support, lack of research culture, and inadequate infrastructure,” explained Dr. Vanderpuye, a senior...
GUEST EDITORS Dr. Abutalib is Associate Director, Hematology and Cellular Therapy Program and Director, Clinical Apheresis Program Cancer Treatment at Centers of America, Zion, Illinois; Associate Professor, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science; and Founder and Co-Editor of...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Shanafelt and colleagues recently published the interim analysis of E1912, a U.S. Intergroup–led randomized phase III trial comparing ibrutinib/rituximab, followed by ibrutinib to disease progression vs 6 months of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and...
In an interim analysis of a U.S. phase III trial (E1912) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues found that ibrutinib/rituximab improved progression-free and overall survival vs standard chemoimmunotherapy in ...
A study published by Freeman et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that generally, providers with more experience treating multiple myeloma have better outcomes than those with more limited experience. Providers who saw the most cases were more likely to be...
Nicholas D. James, PhD, MBBS, of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, discusses results from a long-term follow-up of a cohort treated with docetaxel in the STAMPEDE randomized trial, confirming that the treatment showed benefit in patients with both high- and low-volume disease (Abstract...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, and colleagues, the phase III Alliance/CALGB 80802 trial has shown no progression-free or overall survival benefit with the addition of doxorubicin to sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. The study was stopped early...
In an individual patient data meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pietrantonio et al found that microsatellite instability (MSI) status was a strong prognostic marker in patients with resectable gastric cancer. The study involved data from 1,556 patients with resectable...
In the past few weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions in prostate cancer, urothelial cancer, myelofibrosis, breast cancer, pediatric brain cancer, leukemia, and skin cancer. Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Niraparib in Metastatic...
A study by Creutzberg et al investigated the survival outcome of combined adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy vs radiotherapy alone in women with endometrial cancer with high-risk features. The researchers found that 5-year recurrence-free survival varied according to a patient’s specific...
The term “sexual and gender minorities” encompasses people whose sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or reproductive development varies from traditional, societal, cultural, or physiologic norms1 and includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. More than 3 ...
Superior recurrence-free survival benefit was observed with nivolumab vs ipilimumab—and was consistent across disease stage, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression levels, and BRAF mutation status—in patients with resected stage III/IV melanoma and a high risk of recurrence, according to ...
In late August, experts from around the globe convened in Basel, Switzerland, at the 2019 Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC) to discuss controversial areas related to the management of advanced prostate cancer. Although the full proceedings of the conference will be published in...
Patients with advanced colon cancer and plasma samples containing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were less likely to achieve 2-year disease-free survival with oxaliplatin-based adjuvant treatment than patients with ctDNA-negative samples, according to findings presented at the European Society for...
The novel FLT3 inhibitor gilteritinib prolonged survival in patients with FLT3-mutated relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) across all mutation cohorts, including NPM1, DNMT3A, DNMT3A/NPM1, and WT1, with the greatest benefit seen in patients with NPM1 and DNMT3A co-mutations,...
After 6 years of follow-up, extended treatment with ibrutinib showed sustained progression-free survival benefit and depth of response in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), including those with high-risk genomic features,...
In analyses reported at the 2019 Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) Annual Meeting and published in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia, Harrison et al identified response rates to the JAK2 inhibitor fedratinib among patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm–associated intermediate- or...
Hyperglycemia may induce DNA damage and inhibit DNA repair, which may explain why individuals with diabetes may have an increased risk for developing cancer, according to a researcher from City of Hope, Duarte, California, who presented these findings at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall...
Physicians and nurses in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have fewer training opportunities, limited medical and educational resources, and insufficient palliative care options for their patients,1 all while these regions are leading the world in new cases of cancer diagnosis.2 An emerging...
The ASCO Post has offered comprehensive coverage of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. To complement this news coverage, here are featured clinical trials of several treatments in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). They focus on the monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab in combination therapy in the CLL14...
The finding that women have a higher incidence of lung cancer than men of the same age and with the same smoking history was unexpected when it first emerged from studies in the 1990s. Just as unexpected was a subsequent finding. Even with their higher risk, women have a lower mortality and higher...
To improve cancer outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa, a collaborative project from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), the African Cancer Coalition (ACC), the American Cancer Society, and others recently entered a new phase in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Oncologists from 11 African...
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane….” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Progress has been made in expanding access to health care for low-income populations, but the quality of care still lags behind and can result in less successful outcomes...
In the early fall of 2015, my daughter and I were on our way to our favorite nail salon to get picture-perfect ready for a gala later that evening at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, when I got a call from my gynecologist saying I had “flunked my Pap test.” The Pap smear showed...
Through its community grants program, the Prevent Cancer Foundation is supporting 10 projects that are focused on increasing cancer prevention and early detection in communities across the United States, from Honolulu to Baltimore. The projects were selected through a competitive grants process,...
According to the American Cancer Society, excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women in the United States and the second most common cause of cancer deaths. This year, it is expected that more than 51,000 people will die of the malignancy....
Erica H. Bell, PhD, of The Ohio State University, discusses phase III findings from a prognostic and predictive molecular subgroup analysis of radiotherapy vs radiotherapy plus procarbazine/lomustine/vincristine in high-risk low-grade gliomas (Abstract 161).
This week, we’ll be going over news from the 2019 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting, including an analysis of the effect of long-term hormonal therapy on men with low prostate-specific antigen levels treated with early salvage radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy...
The monoclonal antibody daratumumab has been widely embraced for the treatment of multiple myeloma, but for newly diagnosed patients, its benefit has been proved only in some patients, according to Craig Hofmeister, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jawhar et al have developed a risk model for advanced systemic mastocytosis that differentiates low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease. Study Details The study included 383 patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis from the German Registry on ...
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 installment, Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on flaxseed because...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected 26 members to receive the ASTRO Fellow (FASTRO) designation. The 2019 class of Fellows were recognized during ASTRO’s 61st Annual Meeting in Chicago. The ASTRO Fellows program recognizes individuals who have made significant...
Daniel E. Spratt, MD, of the University of Michigan, discusses phase III study findings showing that 2 years of antiandrogen therapy increased cardiac and neurologic toxicities, as well as mortality from causes other than prostate cancer, in men with low levels of prostate-specific antigen after...
Two topics that hematologists are currently grappling with were addressed at the 2019 Debates and Didactics Conference in Sea Island, Georgia, sponsored by Emory University Winship Cancer Institute, by Editor-in-Chief of The ASCO Post, James O. Armitage, MD, FASCO.1 They focus on the emerging role ...
Findings from a recent SWOG study could cast doubt on the generalizability of treatment effects observed in positive clinical trials, especially among underinsured patients. According to data presented at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium,1 patients with Medicaid or no insurance had no observed...
Tumor mutational burden failed to prove effective as a biomarker for response to chemotherapy plus checkpoint inhibitor or chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment for nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in two different exploratory analyses of KEYNOTE trials.1,2 In both analyses,...
In patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, isatuximab in combination with pomalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone nearly doubled progression-free survival when compared with pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone, with a manageable safety profile, according to data from a phase III...
On September 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved apalutamide (Erleada) for patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. Apalutamide was initially approved by the FDA in 2018 for patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. TITAN Trial...
The 2019 International Initiative on Thrombosis and Cancer (ITAC) has issued updated clinical practice guidelines for the treatment and prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer. They were published by Farge et al in The Lancet Oncology. The guidelines consist of...