Studies reported at the 2020 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting, which was held virtually, showed promise for the use of intratumoral injections of novel immunotherapies in treating advanced, resectable melanoma. In the 3-year interim analysis of a global phase II randomized...
Omid Hamid, MD, Chief of Research/Immuno-Oncology at The Angeles Clinic & Research Institute and Co-Director of the Cutaneous Malignancy Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center, Los Angeles, commented on the investigational use of bempegaldesleukin in melanoma. “The role of interleukin-2 [Il-2]...
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive, lethal malignancies, and life-extending treatments represent a critical unmet need. A pilot study suggests a potential way forward for patients with nonmetastatic unresectable or borderline resectable pancreatic cancer may be a combination of...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On December 1, 2020, pralsetinib (Gavreto) was granted...
The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and at about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was strongly associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to a large retrospective pooled analysis reported at the 2020 San Antonio Breast...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recently announced the donation of next-generation sequencing equipment to six reference laboratories in five countries in Latin America. These countries constitute the International Consortium on Acute Leukemia (ICAL), a clinical network supported by the...
Ruxolitinib was superior to best available therapy in achieving efficacy as determined by best overall response and duration of response, with acceptable safety in adolescents and adults with steroid-dependent or steroid-refractory chronic graft-vs-host disease effects. These findings were shown in ...
In 2006, President of Uruguay Dr. Tabaré Vázquez, a radiation oncologist by profession, enacted comprehensive antismoking legislation, eventually leading Uruguay to become the first country in Latin America to prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces. His bold action drew the ire of international ...
On November 25, 2020, naxitamab-gqgk (Danyelza) was granted accelerated approval for use in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) for pediatric patients 1 year of age and older and adult patients with relapsed or refractory high-risk neuroblastoma in the bone...
For patients with indolent follicular lymphoma, generally take a conservative approach to treatment unless the patient is symptomatic, advised John P. Leonard, MD, Executive Vice-Chair of Weill Department of Medicine at Weill-Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian, New York.1 “Prognostic scores are...
Over the past year (January to December 2020), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in oncology and hematology. A brief review of new approvals appears here. For complete prescribing information for ...
Electra D. Paskett, PhD, was born in New York City, the daughter of a Greek immigrant who led a notable dance band. As a young child, Dr. Paskett frequented her parents’ rehearsal and dance studio, which was situated above a bustling Woolworth’s Five-and-Dime store. One of the studio’s famous...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved relugolix (Orgovyx) for the treatment of adult patients with advanced prostate cancer. “Today’s approval marks the first oral drug in this class and it may eliminate some patients’ need to visit the clinic for treatments that require...
In 2017, a workgroup task force, made up of medical students and faculty at George Washington University, Texas Christian University, and the University of North Texas Health Science Center, conducted a literature review to identify best practices for teaching and learning about race and culture in ...
Findings from a propensity-matched survival analysis presented by van Breeschoten et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Immuno-Oncology Virtual Congress 2020 (Abstract 37P) suggest that patients with advanced melanoma and a BRAF V600 mutation derive an enhanced survival benefit...
Sentinel lymph node biopsy “had similar diagnostic accuracy and prognostic ability as lymphadenectomy in patients with high-grade endometrial cancer at greatest risk for nodal metastases,” according to the SENTOR trial, a prospective cohort study of 156 patients with clinical stage I disease. Using ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Goldman et al, updated results from the phase III CASPIAN trial showed maintained improvement in overall survival with first-line durvalumab plus platinum/etoposide vs platinum/etoposide in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). However,...
Farhad Ravandi, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, offers his expert perspective on key treatment studies in acute myeloid leukemia on the use of gilteritinib, consolidation chemotherapy, venetoclax, cladribine, azacitidine, quizartinib, decitabine, and CPX-351 (Session 616...
Hassan Awada, MD, of the Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, discusses the use of newer machine-learning techniques to help decipher a set of prognostic subgroups that could predict survival, thus potentially improving on traditional methods and moving acute myeloid leukemia into ...
On December 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first over-the-counter, fully at-home diagnostic test for COVID-19. The Ellume COVID-19 Home Test is a rapid, lateral-flow antigen test, a type of test that runs a liquid sample along a...
In an individual patient meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Daniel E. Spratt, MD, and colleagues found that adjuvant androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) was associated with improved progression free-survival vs neoadjuvant ADT in patients receiving radiotherapy for localized ...
Adding an immune checkpoint inhibitor to a standard chemotherapy regimen for patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer did not affect patients’ ability to perform day-to-day activities more than treatment with chemotherapy alone, according to research presented by Elizabeth...
In a study presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS4-10) and concurrently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Joseph A. Sparano, MD, and colleagues described the development and validation of a new prognostic tool. RSClin integrates the 21-gene recurrence...
On December 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals aged 16 and older. The EUA allows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed in the United...
The phase II ZUMA-12 trial found that axicabtagene ciloleucel, an autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, is a safe and effective therapy for patients with high-risk large B-cell lymphoma. These results were presented by Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 ...
New research showed that behavioral interventions—mindfulness meditation and survivorship education classes—may be effective in reducing depressive symptoms in younger breast cancer survivors. This patient population often experiences the highest levels of depression, stress, and fatigue, which may ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Hantel et al found that among U.S. states with crisis standards-of-care guidelines, 55% deprioritized some patients with cancer in resource allocation and 26% included cancer-related categorical exclusions. As stated by the investigators, “State crisis...
This week, we’ll focus further on studies presented at the 2020 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition, including findings on the use of whole-genome sequencing to trace the origins of a blood cancer; stem cell transplant for older patients with myelodysplastic syndromes; and a triplet therapy for...
Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, of the University of Athens, discusses data from the phase III APOLLO study, which evaluated the use of subcutaneous daratumumab plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone, vs pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone, in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma...
ON OCTOBER 28, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the coverage transparency final rule. Building on earlier administration actions requiring hospitals to disclose standard charges and negotiated...
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) has launched the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, outlining three key steps: vaccination, screening, and treatment. Successful implementation of all three could reduce more than 40% of new cases of the disease and 5 million...
ASCO has helpful, trusted resources to support your patients and their caregivers. Available in three convenient formats, you can choose from fact sheets; topic-specific booklets; and comprehensive, patient-friendly guides. ASCO Answers materials provide trusted, easy-to-understand information...
Systematic liquid biopsies are transforming treatment approaches for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Many GI tumors are detected late, which ultimately reduces 5-year overall survival rates. Liquid biopsies may become increasingly important both in the early detection and treatment...
In the UK phase III POETIC trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ian Smith, MD, of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, and colleagues, found that perioperative aromatase inhibitor therapy did not reduce the risk of recurrence in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive...
Relapse is the primary obstacle to cure in leukemia. The term minimal residual disease (MRD) was coined in the early 1990s to describe finding a disease-specific marker in the context of a morphologic-appearing remission. The technique first used for MRD detection was the Southern blot (!), but the ...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Nicholas J. Short, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues, found that measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity is associated with superior disease-free and overall survival in patients with...
The 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Award for Leadership in Promoting Diversity was awarded to Edward J. Benz, Jr, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Richard and Susan Smith Distinguished Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr....
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, established as a treatment of many solid tumors, may be finding a role in the treatment of breast cancer. The current state of the art regarding immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer was the focus of a talk by Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Medical ...
Prostate cancer has lagged behind other solid tumors with regard to molecularly targeted therapy and precision medicine, with no targeted therapies approved specifically in prostate cancer, but that has changed with the recent approval in 2020 of a PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor for...
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the Caribbean. Adding to this growing burden, many of the nations in this geographically spread region have under-resourced health-care systems and a lack of cohesive approaches to the delivery of cancer care. To shed light on the public health...
That Moses Judah Folkman would buck tradition, breaking his family’s long line of rabbinical succession and pursuing a career in science and medicine instead, was evident from the time he was a young child. Born in Cleveland on February 24, 1933, the first child of Rabbi Jerome and Bessie Folkman, ...
Invited discussant of the abstract, Joel W. Neal, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, called this real-world analysis novel,1 given the decreasing number of patients treated with single-agent immunotherapy. “I think we’re unlikely to have a larger prospective study [in...
Although early-stage, resectable disease represents the best chance for meaningful long-term survival and cure for patients with lung cancer, there are still high rates of recurrence. According to Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD, MSCR, neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatments are needed to improve surgical...
Whole-lung low-dose radiation therapy led to quicker recovery from COVID-19–related pneumonia in hospitalized and oxygen-dependent patients compared with matched controls treated with best supportive care and physician’s choice of anti–COVID-19 therapy, according to the results of a small trial.1...
Caring for older adults with cancer is the purview of every oncologist. Over the next 30 years, the older adult population (65 years and older) will represent the fastest-growing segment of the world population. Globally, the number of persons 80 years and older is expected to triple from 143...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will collaborate on Project Livin’ Label, a new educational initiative that aims to foster broad understanding of specific oncology product labels and increase awareness of recent oncology drug FDA...
Colombia is located in the northwestern corner of South America, geographically privileged with coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Andean region, and the Amazon rainforest. Based on its population of nearly 50 million (see Table 1), Colombia is the second largest country in South...
Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, Co-Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was born and reared in North Platte, a small city located in the west-central part of Nebraska. “My love of science was sparked and nurtured by my father, who was a chemistry professor for...
Craig Jordan, PhD, University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center member and Chief of the Hematology Division in the CU School of Medicine, was awarded a 2020 National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award. This 7-year grant supports investigators with outstanding records of...
Women who undergo mastectomy with reconstructive surgery as part of breast cancer treatment may face the risk of persistent use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs, according to data presented by Jacob Cogan, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS3-08)....