In an early-phase trial, nearly three-quarters of patients who received talquetamab—a first-in-class, off-the-shelf, T-cell–redirecting bispecific antibody targeting both the GPRC5D and CD3 receptors—for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma saw a significant reduction in cancer burden within a...
Marleen Kok, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses the most important advances in early breast cancer treatment during the past year for patients with triple-negative, HER2-positive, and estrogen receptor–positive disease. Dr. Kok also addresses long-term treatment toxicities and...
François-Clément Bidard, MD, PhD, of the Institut Curie, discusses overall survival results from the STIC CTC trial. To guide the choice between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy for patients with metastatic, estrogen receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, researchers compared circulating...
Erica L. Mayer, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses findings from the PACE study of patients with endocrine- and CDK4/6 inhibitor–pretreated estrogen receptor–positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who were randomly assigned to fulvestrant alone; fulvestrant and...
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, of the City of Hope National Medical Center, discusses data that showed fixed-duration glofitamab monotherapy induced high and durable complete response rates in patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) who received obinutuzumab pretreatment. This is one of the largest data...
Paolo F. Caimi, MD, of the Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, discusses new findings showing that patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who achieve a complete response after salvage therapy with rituximab, ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide (R-ICE) can achieve long-term...
Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses results from the phase III EMERALD trial, the first study to demonstrate improved progression-free survival vs standard of care in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer with one to two prior lines ...
Judy C. Boughey, MD, of Mayo Clinic, talks about why breast-conserving therapy may be a treatment option for some patients with multiple breast lesions. For most patients who present with two or three sites of cancer in one breast, mastectomy is recommended. But results from the ACOSOG Z11102...
Per Karlsson, MD, PhD, of Sweden’s University of Gothenburg and the Sahlgrenska Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses results from the POLAR study, which was a meta-analysis of three clinical trials of breast-conserving surgery with or without radiotherapy. POLAR is the first genomic classifier...
Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) whose disease relapsed or did not respond to initial chemotherapy had similar outcomes when they proceeded directly to allogeneic stem cell transplantation compared with those who underwent intensive salvage chemotherapy to achieve complete remission...
In a recent trial of the European MCL Network, people with mantle cell lymphoma who received the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib had rates of progression-free survival and overall survival that were on par with the current standard of care (high-dose immunochemotherapy followed by...
Patients with invasive breast cancer who had low scores on an investigational gene molecular signature had similar rates of local recurrence independent of whether they received adjuvant radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery, according to findings presented by Karlsson et al at the 2022 ...
Patients with multiple tumors in a single breast who underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy had local recurrence rates comparable to those historically observed in patients with a single tumor, according to new findings presented by Judy C. Boughey, MD, and colleagues at the 2022 San...
On December 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 2 years and older with unresectable or metastatic alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS). Study ML39345 Efficacy was evaluated in Study ML39345...
Editor’s Note: ASCO was deeply saddened by the news that Dr. Jeff Ward passed away on November 3, 2022. In an interview with Dr. Ward this past summer, published in ASCO Connection (August 30, 2022), ASCO recognized Dr. Ward’s commitment to exceptional patient care and public advocacy. An...
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, when he was just 55 years old. He died 6 years later. The cancer was so aggressive, it took only a few weeks from the time he was diagnosed for the cancer to grow to the size of a softball, and even a radical prostatectomy couldn’t save his...
A new drug that inhibits an enzyme playing a crucial role in cell division and growth has shown signs of anticancer activity with manageable side effects in patients with liver cancer who have been treated unsuccessfully previously with up to three lines of treatment. These findings were presented...
In a trial matching the genetic makeup of tumors with new treatments, tumors shrank in 22% of patients with cancer who received the AKT inhibitor ipatasertib. Participants included those with breast cancer and endometrial cancer as well as those with two rarer types of cancer, anal and salivary...
Researchers have found that liquid biopsies may be able to detect the blood disorder clonal hematopoiesis, which places patients at higher risk of developing blood cancers. The findings were presented at the 2022 European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)–National Cancer...
Physiologic changes of pregnancy, such as increased breast volume and firmness, present challenges to detecting breast cancer. Meeting those challenges requires “education and continued diligence, both on the patient side as well as on the physician side,” Luis Zabala Blanco, Jr, MD, said in an...
“Pregnancy confers a dual effect” on breast cancer risk, “with an initial transient increased risk for breast cancer that is followed by long-term protection over time,” Luis Zabala Blanco, Jr, MD, noted in an update on the pathology of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, which was presented at the ...
“I knew my husband was dying in June. He’d been living with a terminal diagnosis for 6 years, but suddenly his cancer turned aggressive…. The last time we saw the oncologist, he sent us home with a DNR order and told me to put it on the refrigerator, because that’s where the EMTs look,” writes...
Guest Editor’s Note: In October, the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) held its 2022 Annual International Conference in a hybrid format (virtual and in Scottsdale, Arizona). It was centered on the basic science, education and training, and implementation of integrative oncology in diverse...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this occasional special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Bolivia. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
Lisa A. Carey, MD, and Joannie M. Ivory, MD, MSPH, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discuss the higher frequency and treatment implications of nonluminal A or high-risk tumors in Black and younger women. In this study, PAM50 and 21-gene assays revealed different demographic...
Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, MSc, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the SWOG S1207 trial which was designed to evaluate the role of adjuvant everolimus in combination with adjuvant endocrine therapy among patients with high-risk, hormone...
The National Academy of Medicine recently announced the election of 90 regular members and 10 international members during its annual meeting. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated...
The repercussions from the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, to overturn Roe v Wade, effectively ending a nearly 50-year federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing instead states to determine abortion access, are starting to be felt in the cancer care community. The ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, a physician-scientist who currently serves as President of the City of Hope National Medical Center and the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief...
In addition to, or instead of, receiving therapies that are the standard of care, patients with cancer sometimes request to receive complementary (therapies used in conjunction with standard cancer treatment) and alternative (nonstandard treatments used in place of standard cancer treatment)...
From November 11 to 15, delegates from ASCO participated in the 2022 Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates (HOD). The AMA HOD is the principal policy-making body of AMA and meets twice a year to discuss pressing issues and establish policies the AMA uses...
A new ASCO guideline on the management of advanced colorectal cancer summarizes the latest treatments supported by quality data that could expand oncologists’ armamentarium and potentially improve survival outcomes.1 “[Colorectal cancer] remains the second-leading class of cancer deaths among men ...
Nicholas C. Turner, MD, PhD, of London’s Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden, discusses phase III results from the CAPItello-291 clinical trial, which showed that in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative tumors resistant to aromatase inhibitors, adding the...
Joseph A. Sparano, MD, of the Tisch Cancer Center at Mount Sinai Health System, discusses long-term clinical outcomes data that continue to show many women with early breast cancer can safely forgo chemotherapy, when guided by the 21-gene recurrence score result. The longer follow-up also showed...
The use of circulating tumor cell counts to guide the choice between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic, estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer provided overall survival benefits compared with physician’s choice of treatment,...
The next-generation selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) camizestrant improved progression-free survival compared to fulvestrant in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, according to results from the phase II SERENA-2 trial presented by Mafalda Oliveira, MD,...
Patients with breast cancer who paused their endocrine therapy while attempting to conceive experienced short-term rates of breast cancer recurrence similar to patients with breast cancer who did not pause their therapy for pregnancy—and many of them went on to conceive and deliver healthy babies,...
In patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who are resistant to aromatase inhibitors, the addition of the investigational AKT inhibitor capivasertib to fulvestrant doubled the median progression-free survival compared with placebo plus fulvestrant, according to results...
Chemotherapy-induced hair loss affects 65% of patients with cancer,1 and the psychosocial impact on these patients can be profound; it may include anxiety, depression, a negative body image, lowered self-esteem, and a reduced sense of well-being.2 In some instances, the fear of hair loss from...
An exploratory analysis of KEYNOTE-522, which established the benefit of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer, has now provided data to further describe prognosis and possibly guide treatment.1 In the study, presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting,...
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase II results from the TRIO-US B-12 TALENT study, which showed that patients with localized, hormone receptor–positive, HER2-low breast cancer who are treated with fam-trastuzumab...
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase III findings from the DESTINY-Breast03 study, which showed that second-line treatment with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) led to longer overall survival compared with...
The invited discussant of the phase I/II study of patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd) was Véronique Diéras, MD, of the Eugène Marquis Centre, Rennes, France. She commented that HER3-DXd showed promising activity across breast cancer subtypes with heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer. She...
The HER3-directed antibody-drug conjugate patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd) showed activity in patients with heavily pretreated HER3-expressing metastatic breast cancer in a phase I/II study. Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, Associate Director, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, presented these...
Molecular testing and genomic testing are now considered standard of care in breast cancer, guiding treatment decisions in early breast cancer and targeted therapies in the metastatic setting. “But tumors evolve,” Virginia Kaklamani, MD, DSc, reminded participants at the 2022 Lynn Sage Breast...
Routine monitoring in the real world may help to identify patients with cancer who are experiencing challenging symptoms, without significantly disrupting clinical workload, according to data presented during the 2022 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1,2 The analysis of nearly 40,000 patient-reported...
Ruth O’Regan, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, discusses the Breast Cancer Index (BCI), a genomic assay that can assess the risk of late distant recurrence (5–10 years after diagnosis) of hormone receptor–positive, early-stage breast cancer. Among premenopausal women with this...
Yara Abdou, MD, of the University of North Carolina, discusses results from the RxPONDER SWOG S1007 study, which showed that non-Hispanic Black women with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer with one to three involved lymph nodes and a recurrence score of ≤ 25 have worse outcomes...
Remote interventions, particularly a mailed tailored DVD plus telephonic patient navigation, improved adherence to breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screenings among women living in rural counties in the United States, according to the results of a randomized controlled clinical trial...
Invited discussant of the October 2022 ASCO Plenary session, Jean Lundberg Wright, MD, commended the authors on an “extremely well-done study, with findings applicable to patients today in clinics where barriers are not prohibitive.” She also noted several limitations to the currently available...