For newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma participating in the international phase III ATLAS trial, use of carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd) as maintenance therapy after induction and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) significantly reduced the risk of disease...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, Guest Editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Kevin Billingsley, MD, MBA, FACS, Chief Medical Officer of the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. Although interracial marriage is common in the United States...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Houillier et al, 8-year follow-up in the French phase II PRECIS trial has shown a maintained event-free survival benefit with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) vs whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) as consolidation in patients aged ≤ 60...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Moncrieff et al found that patients with stage IIIA melanoma (per American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC], 8th edition) with sentinel node metastatic tumor deposits ≥ 0.3 mm are at higher risk of disease progression vs those with smaller...
Frequent aspirin use may be linked with lower ovarian cancer risk in individuals with multiple risk factors, according to a new study published by Hurwitz et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “Ovarian cancer is the most fatal gynecologic cancer. Most known risk factors of ovarian cancer—such...
Researchers studying the molecular landscape of over 500 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma discovered a prevalence of activated key oncogenic pathways in these patients—much more than previously thought. Upward of 45% to 65% of NF-κB and RAS/MAPK pathways each had alterations....
In an Italian/French trial (TOTEM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zola et al found no difference in 5-year overall survival with intensive vs minimalist follow-up regimens in patients in complete clinical remission after surgery for endometrial cancer. Study Details In the...
The invited discussant of the CAIRO5 presentation at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting was Cathy Eng, MD, FACP, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville. Dr. Eng explained the key questions being asked by the investigators. “If you have a...
Daily exposure to a class of chemicals used in the production of many household items may lead to cancer, thyroid disease, and childhood obesity, a new study published by Obsekov et al in the journal Exposure and Health showed. The resulting economic burden is estimated to cost Americans a minimum...
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) who previously developed a blood test for mutations in a gene linked to gliomas have now applied their technology to detect additional mutations—in this case, in the gene that codes for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The advance,...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Matthew H.G. Katz, MD, and colleagues, the National Clinical Trials Network phase II A021501 trial has shown better survival outcomes with neoadjuvant modified FOLFIRINOX (mFOLFIRINOX; oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin, fluorouracil) vs mFOLFIRINOX plus...
In a Dutch trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Adan et al found that optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided diagnosis and treatment of basal cell carcinoma was noninferior to that with punch biopsy, currently the guideline-recommended standard for diagnosis and treatment. Study Details In the ...
The invited discussant of the ECHELON-1 trial, Alison Moskowitz, MD, Associate Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented: “In the past decade, three effective drugs for Hodgkin lymphoma have emerged—brentuximab vedotin, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab—and they...
In some patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, downstaging of disease to within criteria that qualify the patient for a liver transplant leads to excellent 10-year posttransplant outcomes, according to new research published by Tabrizian et al in JAMA Surgery. The results validate current national ...
In a phase Ib study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Naval Daver, MD, and colleagues found that the doublet of venetoclax plus gilteritinib produced a high modified composite complete response rate in patients with FLT3-mutated relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Dose...
ASCO submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to the fiscal year (FY) 2023 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule. ASCO’s comments address...
For some patients aged 55 or older with early-stage, low-risk breast cancer, endocrine therapy following breast-conserving surgery may be sufficient without the need for postoperative radiation therapy, according to the results of the prospective LUMINA trial, reported at the 2022 ASCO Annual...
Even as soaring medical costs strain public and private budgets around the world, patients yearn for therapeutic breakthroughs. Game-changing cancer treatments, emerging antiviral agents, and mRNA vaccines are powerful reminders of medical technology’s potential. But insurance premiums and...
It has been 14 years since a collaboration between the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Pfizer identified a unique role for cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive human cell line models and demonstrated that these agents act...
A multitude of presentations were available to attendees at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting, including hundreds in the hematologic malignancies tracks. In addition to coverage in The ASCO Post of the major news stories at the meeting, here we offer summaries of additional studies of special interest...
Time-limited venetoclax-based regimens provide deeper and more durable remissions than chemoimmunotherapy combinations in patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), regardless of patients’ fitness, according to late-breaking data presented during the European Hematology...
In a U.S. retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Perry et al found that a very small percentage of patients filled prescriptions for guideline-recommended venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis after undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer. As stated by the investigators, “VTE is...
A new Survivor Views survey from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) showed that a majority of respondents (83%) who had applied to a copay assistance program and were accepted said the assistance enables them to get the medication they otherwise couldn’t afford. However,...
In the phase III EVEREST trial, adjuvant everolimus improved median recurrence-free survival in patients with resected renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but this finding failed to be statistically significant in the total study population of 1,499 patients, according to a prespecified boundary. However,...
Telling children about their mother’s risk of hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer does not adversely influence the offspring’s lifestyle or quality of life in the long term, according to a new study published by McDonnell et al in the journal Pediatrics. The study looked at the mutation status...
In a single-institution phase Ib/II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kim A. Reiss, MD, and colleagues found that maintenance treatment with niraparib/ipilimumab produced better 6-month progression-free survival rates than niraparib/nivolumab in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer without ...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and L. Jeffrey Medeiros explore the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
In countries with a high income, research in oncology is sponsored by funding agencies and industry, which has meaningfully improved survival outcomes of patients with cancer. In contrast, the African continent is disadvantaged in all aspects of human development, particularly in the fields of...
In a Canadian single-institution feasibility study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Amy A. Kirkham, PhD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues found that a time-restricted eating intervention reduced cardiovascular risk among older breast cancer survivors with risk factors for...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues, the protocol-specified final overall survival analysis of the phase III MONALEESA-2 trial has shown a significant...
Although aromatase inhibitors are effective in reducing estrogen levels and the risk of cancer recurrence in women diagnosed with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, they can also cause myriad side effects, including genitourinary problems associated with menopause such as vaginal dryness,...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Mark A. Lewis, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Intermountain Healthcare, Murray, Utah, and Vice President of American Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Support. Dr. Lewis is also a social media...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mishra et al found that maintenance treatment with the first-in-class small-molecule p53 reactivator eprenetapopt plus azacitidine following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) was associated with “encouraging”...
CancerCare has released a report entitled “Cancer Caregivers: National Research Report on Shared Treatment Decision-Making.” It details the findings of its caregiver decision-making survey, which polled a nationally representative sample of 2,703 cancer caregivers between February and July 2021....
Caregivers for patients with multiple myeloma may suffer from higher rates of anxiety and depression than patients themselves, according to a new study published by O’Donnell in Blood Advances. Although medical professionals have long acknowledged the toll a serious or terminal diagnosis can have...
This is Part 4 of Updates in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Carey K. Anders, Erika Hamilton, and Sara A. Hurvitz discuss the management of HER2-positive residual disease. The patient ...
Guest Editor’s Note: Despite the increasing use of complementary modalities that include mind-body therapies and natural products, significant disparities exist in integrative health care. Contributing factors include access to care and affordability. In this installment of The ASCO Post’s...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, and colleagues, findings in a phase II cohort of the multicohort KRYSTAL-1 phase I/II study indicate that the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib showed activity in previously treated patients with unresectable or metastatic...
In an analysis that evaluated the outcomes of anticancer drug studies in the advanced disease setting with regard to patient quality of life (QOL), improved QOL outcomes were associated with improved overall survival but not with improved progression-free survival. Almost half of the studies that...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Sehgal et al, the phase II PILOT trial showed that the autologous, CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product lisocabtagene maraleucel produced a high response rate in the second-line treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large...
Researchers analyzed data from each of the 5,329 patients across the United States who used medical aid in dying in the 23 years after Oregon became the first state to legalize the practice (in 1997) and found one demographic dominates the group: well-educated, White patients with cancer. These...
The effective treatment of patients with brain metastases is an unmet need because, until fairly recently, patients with brain metastases were excluded from clinical trials of systemic therapies. However, the emergence of molecular targeted therapies has allowed a new treatment approach in patients ...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, and colleagues, an analysis at 6 years of follow-up in the phase III ECHELON-1 trial has shown significantly improved overall survival with brentuximab vedotin plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (A+AVD) vs ...
In an article published in The Lancet Oncology, Farge et al outlined the International Initiative on Thrombosis and Cancer (ITAC) 2022 clinical practice guidelines for the treatment and prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer, including those infected with COVID-19. The...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Oncology, Manali I. Patel, MD, MPH, MS, and colleagues found that the addition of a community health worker–led intervention to usual care resulted in reduced use of acute care, increased advance care planning documentation, increased use of palliative ...
A new report published by Jingxuan Zhao, MPH, and colleagues in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians showed that individuals without health insurance coverage were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer and have worse survival rates after cancer diagnosis compared to...
In a single-institution retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Han et al found that patients with autoimmune diseases had similar outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy for solid tumors as those without autoimmune diseases, with occurrence vs no occurrence of...
Lutetium-177–labeled PSMA-617 (LuPSMA; lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan) achieved longer progression-free survival with fewer toxicities compared with cabazitaxel in patients with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer whose disease...
On July 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, adjuvanted, for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS–CoV-2 in individuals aged 18 years and older. “Authorizing an additional COVID-19 vaccine expands the...
On July 13, President Joe Biden announced his intent to appoint Mitchel Berger, MD; Carol Brown, MD; and Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, to the President’s Cancer Panel. The three are distinguished members of the scientific, research, and public health communities appointed by the President to advise him...