In a Canadian population-based cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Chesney et al found that the 5-year rate of cancer-related deaths exceeded that of non–cancer-related deaths among patients aged 70 or older undergoing surgery for cancer. Study Details The study used data from ICES (formerly...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Bernstein et al found that prostatectomy rates during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were dramatically lower among Black men vs White men with previously untreated nonmetastatic prostate cancer. Study Details The study involved...
In a population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rumgay et al provided estimates of the global incidence of new cancers attributable to alcohol consumption, including the estimate that 4.1% of all new cases in 2020 were related to alcohol use. Study Details In the study, population...
Created more than a decade ago, the Office of Minority Health (OMH) and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities have a mission to advance the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through policies, programs, and partnerships at the Centers for Medicare and...
The following letter is adapted from comments made to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by the American College of Radiology, the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. “The American College of Radiology, the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, and the...
Targeting mutations appears to be bearing fruit in the treatment of some difficult-to-treat tumors. For instance, in one study of adult-onset neuroblastoma, targeting ALK mutations in ALK-positive tumors demonstrated activity, even in patients who had not responded to their first ALK inhibitor. Of...
Native Americans are among the most underserved minority populations in the United States and are disproportionately affected by cancer. They have the lowest survival rates for nearly all types of cancer of any minority population and much higher rates of certain types of cancer, including lung,...
Fixed-duration ibrutinib and venetoclax as a first-line treatment yielded superior outcomes compared with chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), based on the primary analysis of the phase III GLOW trial presented during the European Hematology...
Oncologist Angelo Di Leo, MD, PhD, recently died after a long struggle with neurodegenerative disease. He was 58 years old. Dr. Di Leo was devoted to breast cancer research for more than 25 years. He first trained with Gianni Bonadonna, MD, in Milan, followed by postdoctoral research at Jules...
Women account for a growing proportion of the oncology workforce. Multiple studies, however, show that women oncologists are underrepresented in leadership positions, may have significantly lower salaries than men, and may be subjected to discriminatory practices stimulated by a medical culture...
In a retrospective study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gafita et al developed nomograms for predicting overall survival and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression-free survival outcomes in men receiving lutetium-177–PSMA (LuPSMA) treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate...
In a pooled analysis of individual patient data from breast cancer neoadjuvant clinical trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Carsten Denkert, MD, and colleagues found that pathologic complete response and survival rates for patients with HER2-low–positive vs HER2-zero tumors differed according...
In advanced ovarian cancer, the duration of maintenance bevacizumab should remain 15 months, according to the European multicenter phase III ENGOT/GCIG trial. These results were presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Jacobus Pfisterer, MD, PhD, of the AGO Study Group and Gynecologic...
In the phase III REACT trial reported in JAMA Oncology, R. Charles Coombes, MD, PhD, and colleagues found no disease-free survival benefit with the addition of 2 years of adjuvant celecoxib vs placebo to conventional adjuvant treatment in patients with HER2-negative breast cancer. Study Details...
In a Swedish cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, de Boniface et al found that breast-conserving surgery plus radiation therapy for women with breast cancer was associated with better survival vs mastectomy with or without radiotherapy in analysis adjusting for comorbidities and socioeconomic...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sant P. Chawla, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of the heterologous prime-boost vaccination regimen CMB305 to atezolizumab did not improve survival outcomes in patients with soft-tissue sarcomas expressing the...
In a Swedish population-based noninferiority trial (STHLM3-MRI) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eklund et al found magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted biopsy was noninferior to standard biopsy in detecting clinically significant cancers in men with elevated prostate-specific...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Matteo Lambertini, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that breast cancer survivors were less likely to have subsequent pregnancy vs the general population and more likely to have preterm birth. However, no reduction...
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, elective medical procedures, including screenings for breast cancer, were curtailed to prioritize urgent medical needs and reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus in health-care settings. A study showed that, as of May 2020, preventive...
In a Canadian population-based retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ethier et al identified real-world survival outcomes among women receiving pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) for stage IV HER2-positive breast cancer, observing that outcomes appeared to be poorer than...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in a research letter in JAMA Surgery, Stokes et al found that risk of minor bleeding events during central venous catheter placement in pediatric patients with cancer was significantly increased among those with platelet counts < 50 × 103/μL at the time...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Anthony V. D’Amico, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of docetaxel to radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) did not improve overall survival in nonmetastatic, unfavorable-risk prostate cancer. However,...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Casolino et al identified the prevalence of homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) genes in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and found that the reported prevalence of HRD was higher with...
In a German prospective cross-sectional study reported in JAMA Oncology, Bartels et al found that a high proportion of patients with lung cancer had neuronal antibodies that may be associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment. As stated by the investigators, “Paraneoplastic neurological...
In a population-based cohort study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Stephanie B. Wheeler, PhD, and colleagues found a low rate of oral anticancer agent use within 12 months after detection of metastatic disease in patients with renal cell carcinoma. Study Details The study used a novel, North...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sperger et al found that use of a novel liquid biopsy technology resulted in identification of a prognostic transcriptional profile in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The profile was prognostic...
In a phase III trial (DFCI 11-001) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vrooman et al found that the novel pegylated asparaginase formulation calaspargase pegol (calaspargase) given every 3 weeks was associated with similar serum asparaginase activity nadir values, survival outcomes, and...
In a 1-year interim analysis of a Dutch study (I CARE) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Vos et al found no clinically meaningful difference in changes in quality of life from baseline among patients with colon cancer with general practitioner– vs surgeon-led survivorship care. In addition,...
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA)—an investigational radiolabeled small molecule—significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival when added to the standard of care compared with the standard of care alone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
In an analysis from an international consortium reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shern et al identified genomic characteristics and associated outcomes in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma. Among the findings were that MYOD1 and TP53 mutations were associated with poorer outcomes. As stated...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, Board Chair of the Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), issued the following statement. “The Association for Clinical Oncology congratulates Chiquita Brooks-LaSure on her confirmation as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ...
ASCO has approved new recommendations for the appropriate dosing of systemic anticancer agents in adults with obesity and cancer.1 The guideline update was based on evidence collected from a systematic review of the literature published between November 1, 2010, and March 27, 2020, regarding dosing ...
India has witnessed a major paradigm shift in the field of breast cancer and its management over the past 4 decades. The discipline of medical oncology has evolved exponentially over this period—a growth that few other scientific disciplines have experienced. Interventions at the individual,...
For the second-line treatment of advanced EGFR T790M–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the performance of osimertinib alone was not found to be different from that of osimertinib plus bevacizumab in the phase II ETOP 10-16 BOOSTER trial, reported at a European Society for Medical...
Invited discussant Nicolas Girard, MD, PhD, of the Curie Institute, Paris, said, “A major challenge in NSCLC is what happens when osimertinib resistance develops.” “A key takeaway point from this study is that the efficacy is driven by resistance mechanism. The overall response rate was 47% in the ...
“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” –Kahlil Gibran To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...
Invited discussant of the C-144-01 study,1 Jason J. Luke, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center, University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, noted that lifileucel is “clearly an active regimen in the post–PD-1/CTLA-4 setting and one ...
Despite the fact that we have made significant progress in metastatic melanoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors—now the standard of care—most patients experience disease progression and are left without approved treatments. There is a need for newer treatments with clinical benefit. Lifileucel, an ...
The results of Cohort 1 of the phase II trial TROPHY-U-01 (IMMU-132-06; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03547973), published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Tagawa et al and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, led to the recent accelerated U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...
On July 9, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev), a Nectin-4–directed antibody and microtubule inhibitor conjugate, for adults with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor and...
Overall cancer death rates continue to decline in men and women for all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. During 2001 to 2018, declines in lung cancer death rates accelerated, and death rates for melanoma...
In a cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Hart et al found that treatment with either neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with an increased risk of complications or poorer patient-reported outcomes in women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer with immediate breast...
In a Danish population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Øvlisen et al found that parenthood rates in younger Hodgkin lymphoma survivors who did not experience early relapse were similar to those in the general population, but that use of assisted reproductive techniques...
New research published in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network assessed the quality of cancer care delivered through extended sites coordinated by some of the country’s largest cancer centers. The study was developed to implement strategies for disseminating discoveries and...
In a Chinese study (CCLG-APL2016) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zheng et al found that the combination of arsenic with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) was associated with good survival outcomes in pediatric patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. Study Details The multicenter...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Awad et al identified potential mechanisms of acquired resistance to the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib in patients receiving the agent for treatment of KRAS G12C–mutant cancers. As noted by the investigators, clinical trials of the KRAS...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Osama E. Rahma, MD, and colleagues, initial results of the phase II NRG-GI002 trial showed no improvement in mean neoadjuvant rectal score with the addition of pembrolizumab to chemoradiotherapy in total neoadjuvant therapy for patients with locally advanced rectal...
In a first-in-human phase I trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fares et al found that neural stem cell delivery of an oncolytic adenovirus (NSC-CRAd-S-pk7) was safe and feasible in patients with newly diagnosed malignant glioma, with immunologic and histopathologic findings supporting continued ...
In a retrospective analysis reported by researchers from the International Esodata Study Group (IESG) in JAMA Surgery, D’Journo et al developed a model for predicting risk of 90-day mortality following esophagectomy for patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. As stated by the...
Mutations in a gene related to HER2, a gene frequently implicated in breast cancers and a variety of other malignancies, can amplify activity that spurs tumor growth, according to a new study. The findings, published by Hanker et al in Cancer Cell, could explain why many patients with HER2...