Weight loss for adults, particularly those who are overweight or obese, may reduce their risk of developing a type of polyp that may lead to colorectal cancer, according to a new study published by He et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum. Losing weight from early to late adulthood (up to the mid-70s)—at...
Treating women diagnosed with a certain type of early-stage breast cancer with the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab after surgery may reduce the risk of the cancer returning, according to a report published by Ali et al in Scientific Reports. The research team from the University of Saskatchewan...
Romain Cohen, MD, PhD, of Sorbonne University and Saint-Antoine Hospital, discusses phase II results of the GERCOR NIPICOL study, which suggests nivolumab plus ipilimumab at a fixed duration of 1 year continued to show durable activity in patients with chemoresistant microsatellite...
As Vice President, in 2016, Joe Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot with the mission to accelerate the rate of progress against cancer. The cancer and patient community and medical researchers responded with energy and ingenuity. On February 2, President Biden announced the reigniting of the Cancer ...
The risk of death for patients with SARS–CoV-2 infection and thoracic cancer is based on seven major determinants, according to research published by Alessio Cortellini, MD, in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. TERAVOLT Data The researchers analyzed data from the Thoracic Cancers International...
Melissa Amy Lumish, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses new findings showing a 100% complete response rate to PD-1 blockade alone among the first 11 patients with locally advanced mismatch repair–deficient rectal cancer treated with this approach. None of the patients required...
Van K. Morris, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase I/II data suggesting that encorafenib plus cetuximab and nivolumab is safe and well tolerated for patients with microsatellite-stable BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer (Abstract 12).
ASCO and the American Cancer Society (ACS) today initiated a collaboration to ensure that people can easily find the trusted, expert-approved cancer content they need when turning to either organization for information. As an initial step, the organizations are cross-sharing select cancer...
On January 31, the FDA approved an update to the prescribing information for axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) to include use of prophylactic corticosteroids across all approved indications. Axicabtagene ciloleucel is now the first and only chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with...
Researchers have found that disparities in the incidence of head and neck cancer are driven by behavioral and environmental risk factors rather than race. They demonstrated this in the first-ever study to compare head and neck cancer incidence in Black patients in the United States, the Caribbean,...
On January 31, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a second COVID-19 vaccine, which has been known as the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals aged 18 years and older; the approved vaccine will be marketed as Spikevax. “The FDA’s approval of [the...
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are studying the impact of genetic ancestry on childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The scientists assembled an international cohort to determine how genetic ancestry affects leukemia biology and outcomes for modern therapy; they found...
A new risk score may aid in identifying men and women younger than 50 who are most likely to develop a cancer of the colon or rectum, an international study published by Archaumbault et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute showed. More About Scoring The score—a number between 0 and...
Gabriel A. Brooks, MPH, MD, of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, discusses key studies that, when synthesized, suggest the benefits of oxaliplatin may be less than often assumed. The toxicities are well described (especially neuropathy), and the agent should be used cautiously and sparingly beyond...
Anthony B. El-Khoueiry, MD, of the University of Southern California, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses two key phase III studies of first-line treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma: the LAUNCH trial, which explored lenvatinib combined with transarterial chemoembolization for advanced...
Light therapy may accelerate the healing of skin damage from radiation therapy by up to 50%, according to a recent study published by Mosca et al in Photonics. The preclinical research found that photobiomodulation—a form of low-dose light therapy—lowered the severity of skin damage from...
Francesca Battaglin, MD, of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine, discusses findings from one of the largest studies to investigate recurrent neoantigens in upper gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Battaglin and her team identified peptides with high human leukocyte...
Zev A. Wainberg, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses an update, of 25 additional months, on phase III safety and efficacy results from the KEYNOTE-062 trial. This study compared pembrolizumab with or without chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone for patients with PD-L1–positive ...
People who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation have an increased risk of pancreatic, stomach, and prostate cancers, as well as the previously well-known risk of breast and ovarian cancers, according to new research calling for increased testing in male carriers to detect the cancers early. The...
Carolyn Presley, MD, of The Ohio State University, discusses the differences between “chemo brain,” cognitive aging, and dementia in patients with thoracic cancer who are in treatment; how to test for impairment; and the interventions that can improve cognitive changes in survivors.
Julia Rotow, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses an education session she conducted on mutations and biomarkers in thoracic cancers, including PD-L1, a continuous variable, with the greatest benefit to treatment being associated with very high levels of PD-L1 tissue polypeptide-specific...
On January 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak) for the treatment of adult patients with HLA-A*02:01–positive, unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma. Tebentafusp’s approval establishes several firsts: as the first T-cell receptor...
Matthew S. Davids, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase II results from a multicenter study that showed the efficacy of ibrutinib plus fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab in younger, fit patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who desire the possibility of a functional...
Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, of City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and AccessHope, discusses results from a phase I/II study of regorafenib and pembrolizumab in refractory microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer. Although the trial did not meet its primary endpoint, the median overall survival is...
Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab, MD, of Mayo Clinic, discusses new findings from the KRYSTAL-1 study, which suggested adagrasib monotherapy is well tolerated and demonstrates clinical activity in pretreated patients with unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer or other gastrointestinal tumors harboring...
Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, MBA, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College at Cornell University, discusses phase III results of the HIMALAYA trial, which showed the combination of a single priming dose of tremelimumab added to durvalumab is superior to sorafenib for...
Nilofer Saba Azad, MD, of Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, assesses the findings from the phase III TOPAZ-1 trial, a study of durvalumab in combination with gemcitabine plus cisplatin in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer. Dr. Azad explains why the study sets a potential new...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) issued the following statement regarding the passing of Beatrice Mintz, PhD, FAACR, a trailblazing pioneer in multiple fields of cancer biology, who died January 3, 2022, at the age of 100. Born on January 24, 1921, in New York, New York, Dr....
Geraldine Jacobson, MD, MPH, MBA, FACR, FASTRO, founding Chair of the West Virginia University (WVU) Department of Radiation Oncology, was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Her father was a military officer, and his various duty posts offered an adventurous childhood for Dr. Jacobson. “One of my...
Tennessee Oncology, one of the largest providers of oncology care in the country, announced that Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) effective January 1, 2022. Natalie Dickson, MD, President and CMO, will remain in her role as President of the company while...
African American men currently have the highest rates of prostate cancer in the United States and the poorest outcomes. New grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and American Cancer Society will fund work by two Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center teams focused on understanding and...
Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, has been appointed Chief Clinical Research Officer, Associate Cancer Center Director for Clinical Research, and Director of the Yale Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office. Dr. Krop will assume his new position on March 2, 2022. “I’m pleased to announce Dr. Krop will work with ...
Jonathan Wesley Riess, MD, MS, has been appointed Medical Director to oversee UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Thoracic Oncology Program. Dr. Riess replaces David R. Gandara, MD, who will soon be co-directing a new center in experimental cancer therapeutics. Dr. Riess’ appointment is...
New Zealand plans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime in one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry. People aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the Pacific country of 5 million, part of proposals unveiled in...
The Board of Directors of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Karen L. Kelly, MD to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Spring 2022. Dr. Kelly, a renowned medical oncologist, is an active, long-standing...
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase II results from the CheckMate 9X8 study, which compared nivolumab plus fluorouracil/leucovorin/oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX6) and bevacizumab vs mFOLFOX6 and bevacizumab in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal...
Thousands of schools transitioned to online learning in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which time many children with cancer faced significant challenges with their schooling. An opinion paper by Johns Hopkins experts, published by Thornton et al in JAMA Pediatrics, highlights some of the ...
Yu Sunakawa, MD, PhD, of Japan’s St. Marianna University School of Medicine, discusses his findings from the DELIVER trial, which suggest the gut microbiome may predict skin toxicities in patients with advanced gastric cancer who are treated with nivolumab. In addition, some single nucleotide...
Kohei Shitara, MD, of Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital East, discusses a long-term data follow-up from CheckMate 649, which support the continued use of nivolumab plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment in patients with advanced gastric, gastroesophageal junction, and esophageal...
Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with lutetium-177 (Lu-177) dotatate is a treatment for well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved in 2018, but clinicians have lacked a metric for predicting its benefit on an individual patient basis....
Independent drug action—not synergy nor additivity—accounted for the clinical efficacy of nearly all examined combination therapies involving immune checkpoint inhibitors in clinical trials, according to results from a retrospective analysis published by Palmer et al in Clinical Cancer Research....
Direct oral anticoagulants should be considered the standard of care to treat adult patients with cancer-associated thrombosis, according to a new, ongoing study by Mayo Clinic researchers published by Riaz et al in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The report examined the results of four randomized...
Despite growing national awareness of health-care inequities, cancer care for many rural Americans remains inadequate. To shed some light on the challenges faced by patients with cancer in rural areas, The ASCO Post spoke with Mary Charlton, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the...
Yevgeniy R. Semenov, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, discusses new findings suggesting cutaneous adverse events such as vitiligo, lichenoid dermatitis, and psoriasis—which often occur in patients with cancer who receive immune checkpoint inhibitors—may be strongly...
Even though it is infrequent, uterine cancer can develop in patients treated with tamoxifen. A study presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) suggests that the mechanism by which uterine cancers develop is tamoxifen-induced PI3K pathway activation.1 Patients treated with...
Rates of cervical cancer screening have dropped recently in the United States, with screening rates lowest among Asian and Hispanic women, as well as women who live in rural areas, are uninsured, or are sexual minorities, according to findings published by Ryan Suk, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA...
On February 4, 2022, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) will launch a new 3-year campaign for World Cancer Day that brings together individuals, organizations, and governments around the world in an effort to create awareness and help close the gap in cancer care. The campaign...
Tycel Phillips, MD, of the Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, discusses phase II findings from the CITADEL-204 study of parsaclisib, a next-generation inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. The agent, used as a monotherapy, appeared to benefit patients with relapsed or refractory...
Although radiation can be an effective therapy for prostate cancer, about one in six men will experience more frequent or painful urination as a lingering side effect. These disruptive genitourinary toxicities can occur whether the patient receives conventionally fractionated radiotherapy or...
In a recent phase II clinical trial, the combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab and the CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab curtailed tumor growth in some patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was resistant to a single immunotherapy agent. The addition of radiation therapy to the...