In a large patient-level meta-analysis of 16 trials, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS),1 the combination of an anthracycline plus a taxane achieved a substantial 15% reduction in breast cancer recurrence at 10 years vs taxane chemotherapy alone, representing an...
Steven J. Isakoff, MD, PhD, Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, found the TAMARISK study “interesting.” “Looking at genomic profiles of uterine cancer in both tamoxifen-associated uterine cancer, the researchers found a lower frequency of PIK3...
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...
Invited discussant Ciara O’Sullivan, MB, BCh, BAO, of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, commented on the DESTINY-Breast03 trial at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. “The treatment of HER2-positive disease is an evolving landscape, with eight approved agents. Despite this rapid...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) lengthened progression-free survival and improved objective response rate compared to the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) after trastuzumab and taxane therapy in women with HER2-positive metastatic breast...
Use of the first investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression and lengthened progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy with fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor in...
Krish Patel, MD, Director of the Lymphoma Program at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle and Interim Director of the Hematological Malignancies and Cellular Therapy Program, commented on the implications of Dr. Soumerai’s presentation. “We know that, in general, reaching [undetectable...
Achieving undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) is an important milestone in the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as well as those with other hematologic malignancies undergoing treatment. Now a small phase II study, presented at the 2021 American Society of...
Invited discussant of the KEYNOTE-355 trial, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, one of the coauthors of the study, had presented the survival data at the 2021 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Congress.1 The San Antonio presentation was a more in-depth evaluation of survival by different...
Results of the phase III randomized KEYNOTE-355 trial showed that the addition of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab to investigator’s choice of first-line chemotherapy improved progression-free and overall survival in women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer compared with placebo and...
In October 2021, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) prostate caycer panel modified its guidelines (NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology [NCCN Guidelines®]) for low-risk prostate cancer to remove the word “preferred option” for active surveillance, giving equal weight to...
Oncologists and health-care professionals who treat patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are missing important opportunities to have end-of-life discussions at earlier stages in the disease course, when patients are best able to discuss their options and preferences. These findings...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who had received two or more prior lines of therapy, according to pivotal results of a phase I/II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of...
Invited discussant of CheckMate 743, Pilar Garrido, MD, PhD, pointed out there has been little progress in treating patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma over the past 15 years, and there are limited therapeutic options. Dr. Garrido is Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at Universidad...
Updated results from the phase III CheckMate 743 trial support the durable and superior benefits of immunotherapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab over chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.1 In the most recent updated analysis of the...
Invited study discussant of the DESTINY-Lung01 trial, Daniel Shao Weng Tan, BSc, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Center, Singapore, commented: “The trial clearly showed that T-DXd [fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan--nxki] is active in HER2-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The median...
Previously treated patients with HER2-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) achieved encouraging response rates and duration of response to the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) in the phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial. These results were reported at the European...
The ASCO Post has published a wealth of practice-changing studies and news about other advances presented during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021. In addition to the biggest news from this international meeting, here are several summaries of interesting study findings...
Newly identified genetic abnormalities in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as well as therapies that can target some of those abnormalities, are now available as the landscape for treatment continues to evolve. During the 2021 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Congress: Hematologic...
At a press conference at the 2021 ASTRO Annual Meeting, Steven J. Chmura, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiation Oncology and Scientific Director of the Cancer Clinical Trials Office, University of Chicago, commented on the CURB study results. “Most trials of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT)...
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) lengthens progression-free survival for patients with advanced lung cancer who have oligoprogression (ie, tumors that have not been fully responsive to systemic chemotherapy or immunotherapy), according to an interim analysis of the CURB oligoprogression...
Invited discussant Elizabeth Nichols, MD, of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, commented on both the phase II TRIUMPH-T and the phase III MC1635 trials. “There are multiple techniques in use for accelerated partial breast irradiation. Optimal dose and fractionation are...
Two studies reported at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting provide evidence in support of the use of accelerated radiation therapies as safe alternatives to standard radiotherapy options following breast-conserving surgery. The phase III MC1635 trial showed...
Sophia C. Kamran, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, commented on the NRG Oncology GU003 study at a press conference where this abstract was discussed. Dr. Kamran was not involved in this trial. “This is a potentially practice-changing study in an area ...
Hypofractionated radiotherapy to the prostate bed proved to be noninferior to conventionally fractionated radiotherapy after prostatectomy regarding gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects, according to the results of the phase III NRG Oncology GU003 trial, presented at the 2021 American...
Newly identified genetic abnormalities in AML have led to novel therapies that can target some of them, as the landscape for treatment continues to evolve. During the 2021 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies, Alice S. Mims MD, presented updates in...
Although treating patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remains challenging, some newer therapies on the horizon offer promise, including bispecific antibodies, anti-CD47 antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy,...
Although patients with multiple myeloma can respond to initial treatment, once a patient has had three or four different types of therapy, and the disease is deemed relapsed or refractory, treatment becomes more complicated. This is related to both clinical characteristics, as patients may develop...
“Regarding Dr. Nguyen’s study, genomic classifiers are here. They are the future of our field for personalized prostate cancer therapy,” stated Sophia C. Kamran, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, speaking at a press conference where this abstract was...
A 22-genomic classifier (the Decipher score) was able to predict the course of disease in men with high-risk prostate cancer, according to a patient-level meta-analysis of three randomized clinical trials presented at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 Use of...
“MC1675 is an important and exciting trial,” stated invited discussant Farzan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, of the Henry Ford Cancer Institute, Detroit. “Congratulations to the authors and to Dr. Ma for his award.” “There is strong evidence to suggest that patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers...
De-escalated adjuvant radiotherapy appears to be safe in patients with surgically resectable, human papillomavirus (HPV)--positive oropharyngeal cancers, particularly in patients without extranodal extension or pN2 disease by American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th edition. These findings...
Sophia C. Kamran, MD, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the RTOG 0815 study, commented: “The results of RTOG 0815 demonstrate that in the setting of contemporary dose-escalated...
Both dose-escalated radiation therapy and short-course androgen-deprivation therapy have been shown to improve outcomes in intermediate-risk prostate cancer, but it is not clear whether giving both modalities upfront to newly diagnosed patients is of benefit. The phase III RTOG 0815 study presented ...
Invited discussant Benjamin Besse, MD, of Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, Villejuif, France, was generally positive about the findings of Impower010 but said that longer-term follow-up of overall survival will be very important. “IMpower010 is the first adjuvant study establishing an immune...
Adjuvant immunotherapy with atezolizumab after standard chemotherapy improved disease-free survival and time to locoregional and distant relapse compared with best supportive care in prespecified subgroups of patients with stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to an...
The invited discussant of the FIRSTMAPP study, Rocio Garcia-Carbonero, MD, of Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, emphasized that pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma are rare tumors, and once they become metastatic, which is even more rare, there are few treatment options. “This is very...
Results from the phase II FIRSTMAPPP study support the potential use of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib in two rare neuroendocrine malignancies—pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma. Sunitinib significantly improved the primary endpoint of progression-free survival vs placebo, according to...
Both dose-escalated radiation therapy and short-course androgen-deprivation therapy (SADT) have been shown to improve outcomes in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Researchers then posed a new question—is giving both modalities upfront to newly diagnosed patients of benefit? Findings ...
A study presented by Manning et al at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 53) showed that interventions to help Black patients overcome obstacles to completion of treatment can impact disparities in survival outcomes between Black and White patients...
A 22-gene genomic classifier (the Decipher score) may be able to predict the course of disease in men with high-risk prostate cancer, according to a patient-level meta-analysis of three randomized clinical trials presented by Paul L. Nguyen, MD, at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology...
Invited discussant Eleni Efstathiou, MD, of Houston Methodist Cancer Center and Athens Medical Center, Greece, said that both the STAMPEDE meta-analysis1 and the PEACE-1 trial2 firmly establish the importance of introducing abiraterone acetate earlier in the course of treatment. “The STAMPEDE...
The addition of 2 years of abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone (AAP) to androgen-deprivation therapy improves metastasis-free survival and overall survival compared with androgen-deprivation therapy alone in men with nonmetastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, according to a primary...
Invited discussant Enrique Grande, MD, of the Medical Oncology Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center Madrid, said that the VESPER trial should really be regarded as a neoadjuvant trial, since 88% of the patients enrolled were treated in the neoadjuvant setting. He focused the rest of his remarks ...
The VESPER phase III trial answers some key questions regarding the optimal management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The study found that the neoadjuvant regimen of dose-dense methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (dd-MVAC) was superior to standard gemcitabine/cisplatin in...
Invited discussant Clare L. Scott, MBBS, PhD, Chair of Gynaecological Cancer at the University of Melbourne and medical oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, said: “We now know that PARP [poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitors are active post PARP therapy. We also...
Rechallenge with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib in patients with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer led to significant improvement in progression-free survival, in patients with either BRCA1/2-mutated or nonmutated (ie, wild-type) disease compared with placebo, according ...
Invited discussant of the PEACE-1 trial, Eleni Efstathiou, MD, of the Houston Methodist Cancer Center and Athens Medical Center, Greece, reminded listeners: “Androgen signaling inhibition is the prevailing therapeutic strategy in advanced prostate cancer, with reproducible outcomes. Many studies...
The addition of abiraterone acetate plus prednisone on top of androgen-deprivation therapy plus docetaxel improved survival in patients with de novo metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer vs androgen-deprivation therapy plus docetaxel alone. These results were from the phase III PEACE-1...
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently examining pembrolizumab for the adjuvant treatment of stage IIB and IIC melanoma; if approved, we would be introducing immunotherapy earlier in the patient journey,” commented invited discussant Omid Hamid, MD (@OmidHamidMD), who was an...