The medical career of Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, spans more than 4 decades and includes a roster of nearly unprecedented accomplishments in patient care, research, and mentoring. He has held leadership positions in academia, first at the University of Chicago, where he spent the...
The Lustgarten Foundation and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have announced two new career development awards for early-career female and underrepresented pancreatic cancer researchers, representing a commitment of the Lustgarten Foundation of up to $1.8 million. The awards...
In the prospective LAST study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ehab Atallah, MD, and Kathryn Flynn, PhD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and colleagues, found that stopping tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) was associated with the...
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Yale University, discusses two key abstracts from the ADAURA trial: the use of osimertinib as adjuvant therapy for resected EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer; and patient-reported outcomes, which showed a benefit in disease-free survival and maintenance of...
Justin F. Gainor, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses two key phase II studies on non–small cell lung cancer: nivolumab vs nivolumab plus ipilimumab in EGFR-mutant disease and the oral selective AXL inhibitor bemcentinib with pembrolizumab in advanced disease (Abstracts OA01.06 and...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Alice T. Shaw, MD, PhD, Global Head of Translational Clinical Oncology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research,* and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CROWN trial has shown that first-line lorlatinib significantly improved...
In the phase II NRG Oncology HN002 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that a reduced-dose intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) regimen for human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma satisfied...
Patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated with the combination of fixed-duration venetoclax/rituximab had a longer overall survival and progression-free survival at 5 years compared with those treated with bendamustine/rituximab, according to a 5-year analysis...
In the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium phase II NF106 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Weiss et al found evidence of activity of the oral MAPK/ERK kinase inhibitor mirdametinib in adolescents and adult patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-related plexiform...
In an analysis of the phase III CheckMate 017 and 057 trials in previously treated patients with advanced squamous (017) and nonsquamous (057) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hossein Borghaei, DO, MS, and colleagues found pooled 5-year overall...
On February 5, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not...
On February 5, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to umbralisib (Ukoniq), a kinase inhibitor including PI3K-delta and CK1-epsilon, for the following indications: Adult patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma who have received at least one prior...
This week, we’re hearing from two thoracic oncologists on research presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer Singapore, which was moved to a virtual format and held January 28 to 31, 2021, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, discusses Lung-MAP studies in which a higher tumor mutation burden determined by next-generation sequencing was linked to overall and progression-free survival across two immunotherapy trials, and was independent of PD-L1 status (Abstract...
B-cell–depleting immunotherapy may cause B-cell aplasia and impair the body’s immune response. A retrospective, multicentric French study of patients with lymphoma and persistent COVID-19 infection has found that those treated with B-cell–depleting therapies within the previous 12 months had nearly ...
A recent study has found that more than half (56.4%) of cancer survivors in the United States reported having additional underlying medical conditions associated with severe COVID-19 illness. The report, published by Jiang et al in JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggested that...
Patient-reported outcomes from the phase III CROWN study showed that time to treatment deterioration in chest pain, dyspnea, and cough was comparable between those who received lorlatinib and patients who took crizotinib. The research was presented at the International Association for the Study of...
Two presentations based on data from the ADAURA clinical trial advanced previous research that demonstrated improved disease-fee survival outcomes for patients with surgically resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving osimertinib, while also maintaining quality of life. The data were...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Hope S. Rugo, MD, and colleagues, the phase III SOPHIA trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with margetuximab-cmkb plus chemotherapy vs trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who experienced disease...
On February 27, 2020, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology published a case study that described two patients from Wuhan, China, who had recently underwent lung lobectomies for adenocarcinoma and were retrospectively found to have had COVID-19 at the time of surgery. Eleven months later, the lung...
Neoadjuvant treatment with single-agent atezolizumab for patients with stage IB to IIIB lung cancer resulted in a major pathologic response rate of 21% and pathologic complete response rate of 7% in the primary analysis of the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium 3 (LCMC3) study. The findings were...
Emil J Freireich, MD, an oncologist who developed groundbreaking therapies for childhood leukemia and came to be recognized as a founding father of modern clinical cancer research, passed away on February 1. He was 93. Dr. Freireich was a faculty member at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet, Lheureux et al found that the addition of the oral Wee1 inhibitor adavosertib to gemcitabine significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with platinum-resistant/refractory recurrent ovarian cancer. As related by the investigators, the...
At a press briefing held by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), researchers presented new data that revealed factors relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, and income continue to be significant barriers to those living with lung cancer. The press briefing is...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-598 study, the addition of ipilimumab to pembrolizumab increased toxicity without boosting efficacy as first-line therapy for metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with high expression of PD-L1, according to research presented at International...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kumar et al identified outcomes and patterns of relapse in pediatric patients with medulloblastoma. The investigators found that time to relapse and postrelapse survival was associated with subgroup and that the majority of relapses involve...
Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tobacco use remains a serious public health threat. In addition to tobacco-related death and disease, smoking also increases the risk of the most severe impacts of COVID-19. The American Lung Association has released its 19th annual “State of Tobacco Control”...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Quénet et al, the French phase III PRODIGE 7 trial has shown that the addition of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to cytoreductive surgery did not improve overall survival—and was associated with an increase in postoperative late...
In a phase II trial (ABA2) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Watkins et al found that the addition of T-cell costimulation blockade with abatacept to calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)/methotrexate (MTX)–based graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis resulted in reduced rates of acute graft-vs-host...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Luis Paz-Ares, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 9LA trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line nivolumab/ipilimumab plus two cycles of chemotherapy vs four cycles of chemotherapy alone in patients with stage IV or recurrent non–small...
In an analysis of data from the IDEA collaboration reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Timothy J. Iveson, MD, FRCP, and colleagues found that 3 months (vs 6 months) of adjuvant CAPOX (capecitabine and oxaliplatin) may be a potential treatment option for patients with high-risk colorectal...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted Priority Review to nivolumab as either adjuvant or first-line therapy in several types of gastric cancers, as well as to a novel PD-1 inhibitor for locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal. The FDA also...
Four years after patients with melanoma were treated with a personalized cancer vaccine, the immune response caused by the vaccine remained robust and effective in keeping cancer cells under control, according to a new study published by Hu et al in Nature Medicine. The findings demonstrate the...
BOOKMARK Title: Milkshakes and Morphine: A Memoir of Love and LifeAuthor: Genevieve FoxPublisher: VintagePublication date: January 2019Price: $15.95, paperback, 384 pages “It doesn’t hurt, but I know it is there and I know it shouldn’t be. Interloper. I have touched it a couple of times already,...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has announced the publication of new, free informational resources on health and wellness for cancer survivors. These two new NCCN Guidelines for Patients® are focused on healthy living and managing late and long-term side effects, and they include...
Two recent studies found significant survival benefits for patients older than 70 years with surgically treated nonmetastatic triple-negative breast cancer who also received chemotherapy.1,2 The authors of both studies concluded that the findings support the consideration of chemotherapy for older...
Women older than age 70 diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer had significantly improved overall survival if they received adjuvant and/or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to an analysis of data from more than 16,000 women enrolled in the National Cancer Database. The estimated 5-year...
Commentary for monarchE and PENELOPE-B was provided by C. Kent Osborne, MD, and Ruth M. O’Regan, MD, respectively. Dr. Osborne is Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology and the Dudley and Tina Sharp Chair for Cancer Research at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as Founding Director of...
The primary outcome analysis of the phase III monarchE trial, an update of previous data, continued to show significant benefit for abemaciclib in the adjuvant setting, reducing the risk for invasive disease recurrence by 28.7%. Meanwhile, the first results of the phase III PENELOPE-B trial of...
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce this department on Global Health-Care Equity. On an occasional basis, we will publish interviews between Guest Editor, Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, and another oncologist or cancer care specialist spanning regions around the world. Our goal is to...
On December 18, 2020, osimertinib was approved for adjuvant therapy after tumor resection in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with tumors with EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test.1,2 Supporting...
The studies of ALLO-715 “off-the-shelf” CAR T-cell therapy and bb21217 impressed two experts in the field. Sagar Lonial, MD, the Anne and Bernard Gray Family Chair in Cancer, Chair and Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and Adam D. Cohen, MD, ...
In the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies with unique characteristics, still targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), are looking promising. At the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition,...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Shaji K. Kumar, MD, of the Division of Hematology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, and colleagues, the phase III BELLINI trial has shown that the addition of venetoclax to bortezomib/dexamethasone significantly prolonged progression-free survival in patients with...
Health-related quality of life was sustained in patients taking oral azacitidine (also known as CC-486) compared with placebo in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to results of the phase III QUAZAR AML-001 trial reported at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual...
IFM 2009 showed that autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) combined with lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (RVd) results in a significantly better progression-free survival than RVd alone in newly diagnosed patients with myeloma.1 “The data favor immediate ASCT, as transplant resulted in ...
The benefit of autologous transplantation in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma has been confirmed by follow-up of the IFM 2009 trial, reported at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition by Aurore Perrot, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Hematology at the Cancer...
The combination of ipatasertib plus paclitaxel failed to improve progression-free survival in PIK3CA/AKT1/PTEN-altered locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to results from cohort A of the phase III IPATunity130 trial, presented at the 2020 San...
The histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDAC) entinostat, added to exemestane, failed to overcome endocrine therapy resistance in advanced breast cancer, according to the E2112 phase III trial conducted by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group. Results showed that overall survival was not improved by the ...
Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improved progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to the results of KEYNOTE-355.1 Progression-free survival was significantly improved with pembrolizumab plus...