In a single-center case-control study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Peeri et al found that women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) may be at an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Study Details The study involved data from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center ...
In a pooled analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Withrow et al found that increased exposure of the meninges to radiation therapy was associated with an increased risk of developing meningioma in survivors of childhood cancer. Receipt of methotrexate was also associated with increased risk. Study...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Ferrario et al found that while use of palliative care among commercially insured patients aged 25 to 64 years in the United States with metastatic cancer has increased since 2001, use remained at 40% among patients with very poor–prognosis cancers in...
In a case-control study reported in JAMA Oncology, Minkyo Song, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that seropositivity for gastric antiparietal cell antibodies (APCAs) was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer among younger Finnish women who were seronegative for antibodies to Helicobacter ...
Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans may miss the detection of some pancreatic cancer tumors, narrowing the window for life-saving curative surgery, according to new research presented at the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week 2022 (Abstract OP192). The...
In a single-center retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Titan et al identified the proportion of women with a history of smoking undergoing breast cancer screening with mammography who were eligible for low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening, as well as the...
Sandra L. Wong, MD, of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, discusses her study findings showing that when patients with cancer who have had surgery reported severe symptoms via an electronic patient-reported outcomes questionnaire at six cancer centers, it appeared to be beneficial without...
Invited discussant James Larkin, PhD, a clinical researcher at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, commented on the findings from NICHE-2.1 “These striking data are consistent with the recent report in locally advanced mismatch repair–deficient [dMMR] rectal cancer from Memorial Sloan Kettering.2...
Treatment with neoadjuvant immunotherapy in colon cancer resulted in major pathologic responses in 95% of patients, NICHE-2 investigators reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022.1 Additionally, after 4 weeks of nivolumab plus ipilimumab, 67% of patients with...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Voleti et al identified the proportion of patients with cancer receiving routine clinical care who reported financial hardship and analyzed risk factors for financial hardship. The researchers found that patients who reported experiencing financial...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Michael B. Atkins, MD, and colleagues, the phase III DREAMseq trial (ECOG-ACRIN EA6134) showed that first-line treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab followed at disease progression with dabrafenib and trametinib improved 2-year overall survival...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Hu et al found decreases in the rates of opiate prescription and potential misuse/substance use disorders among survivors of childhood cancer following the March 2016 release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opioid-prescribing guideline....
In an analysis of National Cancer Database data reported in JAMA Surgery, Nassoiy et al found that neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy followed by surgery was associated with higher rates of R0 resection and improved survival vs other treatments in patients aged 80 and older undergoing surgery for...
The cost of cancer treatment may negatively impact the physical and mental health of survivors who are living in poverty, according to a recent study published by Coughlin et al in the Journal of Oncology Practice. The findings provide important information about the impact social determinants may...
Just 1 month after the DESTINY-Breast04 data were presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting Plenary Session,1 an ASCO expert panel released updated guidance that endorses the adoption of the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) into clinical practice for patients with...
ASCO and the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) committing the two organizations to collaborate to advance cancer research in Africa. Harnessing the respective programs, leaders, and member networks of both...
On August 24, 2022, ibrutinib was approved for pediatric patients 1 year of age or older with chronic graft-vs-host disease after failure of one or more lines of systemic therapy.1 A new oral suspension formulation is available. Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings from the...
Although standard therapies may provide long-lasting remissions for many patients with various subtypes of lymphoma, there is a critical need for new strategies for the sizable high-risk subset. At the 2022 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference, four experts in the field described future therapies for...
Jonathan Ledermann, MD, of UCL Cancer Institute University College London, was the formal discussant of both the phase III SOLO1 and PAOLA-1 trials. He was quite enthusiastic about SOLO1: “Perhaps, this is really cure we are seeing.” He also noted that overall survival is still immature and is...
First-line maintenance therapy with olaparib extended survival beyond historical expectations in some women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer, according to two phase III studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2022 Congress.1,2 In the SOLO1 trial,1 more...
An overall survival benefit has now emerged for sacituzumab govitecan-hziy in women with previously treated, hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative, locally recurrent, inoperable or metastatic breast cancer, according to a planned second interim analysis of the phase III TROPiCS-02 trial.1 The...
Formal discussant of the KEYNOTE-189 and KEYNOTE-407 trials, Mary O’Brien, MD, Head of the Lung Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, London, found that both studies showed consistent gains in overall and progression-free survival with pembrolizumab/chemotherapy, but she expressed...
Pembrolizumab (anti–PD-1 therapy) plus chemotherapy continued to demonstrate a survival benefit and durable responses as first-line treatment of metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the results of two phase III trials.1,2 Five-year overall survival was improved in both...
Although air pollution is associated with lung cancer, not much has been known about how one leads to the other. For the first time, researchers have identified a mechanism by which particulate matter in the air triggers non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in people who have never smoked. Moreover,...
Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) accounts for less than 1% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas and between 3% and 4% of all brain tumors, with an age-adjusted incidence rate of four cases per million persons per year. Approximately 1,500 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United...
The legal climate surrounding reproductive health care and fertility preservation has changed drastically since the June 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which revoked the constitutional right to abortion. With this ruling, individual state legislatures are now able to pass laws...
The results of SWOG S18011 were met with enthusiasm by attendees at the Presidential Symposium of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022. The ASCO Post captured the thoughts of several melanoma experts, who had somewhat different ideas about the immediate clinical...
In resectable stage III to IV melanoma, three cycles of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab was significantly more beneficial than adjuvant pembrolizumab alone, based on the results of the phase II SWOG S1801 trial presented in a Presidential Symposium at the European...
For anacademic oncologist, there is no greater reward than to be part of the clinical research that turns a fatal cancer into a highly treatable disease. Saul A. Rosenberg, MD, FASCO, was one such researcher who pioneered advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of lymphoma,...
After my first breast cancer diagnosis, in 2010, the odds for a cure were seemingly all weighted in my favor. A routine mammogram screening had picked up a small—less than 1 cm—mass in my right breast, and a tissue biopsy confirmed it was stage I estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. I had no...
With the aging of the world population, geriatric oncology is becoming a mainstay. Over the past year in The ASCO Post, we published a couple of articles on the history of oncology, including one on the history of geriatric oncology in the United States and Europe. Our goal was to promote a...
On August 5, 2022, darolutamide was approved for use in combination with docetaxel for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.1 Approval was based on the double-blind ARASENS trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02799602), in which 1,305 patients were randomly assigned to...
In the more than 7 months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, cancer care for Ukrainian citizens has changed dramatically. Ukraine was once a country able to provide its approximately 160,000 newly diagnosed patients with cancer each year with modern diagnostic methods, including...
Shaji K. Kumar, MD, an expert in multiple myeloma and monoclonal gammopathies, has been appointed to the position of Editor-in-Chief of The Hematologist: ASH News and Reports, the official member news magazine of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). As the seventh Editor-in-Chief of the...
Following an extensive national search, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, has appointed Cristina R. Ferrone, MD, as Chair of the Department of Surgery. Currently Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Office of Clinical Careers for Massachusetts General...
After a nearly 20-year wait, the results are finally in: sublobar surgery has been found to be noninferior to lobectomy and may be the new standard of care of patients with small, early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results of the phase III Alliance trial, presented at the International ...
On this episode, we’re highlighting speakers who presented data in skin cancer during the ESMO Congress 2022, including findings on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy in advanced melanoma, cemiplimab in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, and the association of circulating tumor DNA and disease...
The addition of cabozantinib to nivolumab plus ipilimumab prolonged progression-free survival in untreated intermediate-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to the first results of the phase III COSMIC-313 trial. These findings were presented as a Presidential Symposium ...
Survivors of prostate cancer originally diagnosed with metastatic disease may experience significantly worse health-related quality of life than those diagnosed with early-stage disease and individuals without a cancer history across all domains, according to a new study by Zheng et al published in ...
Recent data showed that Medicaid expansion may be associated with increased use of palliative care among newly diagnosed individuals with stage IV cancer, although overall usage of palliative care was low. In addition, the increase after Medicaid expansion varied by cancer type, according to a...
Joannie M. Ivory, MD, MSPH, of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discusses ways to raise the number of Black patients with cancer who take part in clinical trials. More successful accrual may be linked to conducting trials where Black patients live and designing studies to recruit a...
In an analysis from the International PPB/DICER1 Registry reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schultz et al found that chemotherapy with IVADo (ifosfamide, vincristine, actinomycin-D, and doxorubicin) appeared to be associated with similar or improved outcomes vs historical controls among ...
Young women who are cancer survivors may be at a much higher risk of sexual problems, including loss of libido and discomfort, according to research published by Wettergren et al in the journal Acta Oncologica. The study also suggests that cancer type and intensity of treatment may influence the...
New research showed that cancer survivors who delayed care due to a lack of transportation were more likely to use the emergency room (ER), according to the study published by Jiang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. They also had the highest risks of all-cause and cancer-specific...
Christopher E. Jensen, MD, of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, talks about older adults with acute myeloid leukemia who receive high-intensity chemotherapy. Although they may live longer, much of their survival gains may be spent engaged in oncology care (Abstract 376).
In a single-institution phase I study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Sham Mailankody, MBBS, and colleagues found that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting G protein–coupled receptor, class C, group 5, member D (GPRC5D) were active in heavily pretreated patients with...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Okhawere et al found that minimally invasive surgery was associated with similar or reduced total expenditures vs open surgery during the first year after partial or radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer. Study Details The study...
In a survey study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Jimenez et al found that half of surveyed oncologists reported sometimes or usually using reduced doses at initiation of a new systemic treatment in patients with metastatic cancer in order to potentially reduce toxicity. Study Details The study...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Oncology, Allen S. Ho, MD, and colleagues found evidence that active surveillance may be a suitable treatment for most patients with low-risk papillary thyroid carcinoma. Study Details The prospective study included 222 patients enrolled at...
Three thoracic oncologists were named co-chairs of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), which will take place September 9–12 in Singapore. Co-chairs work with IASLC to plan the annual research meeting, select program track...