In the French phase III STIC CTC trial reported in JAMA Oncology, François-Clément Bidard, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that choice of first-line chemotherapy vs endocrine therapy in hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer based on circulating tumor cell count...
In a Japanese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kenmotsu et al found that adjuvant irinotecan/cisplatin did not improve relapse-free survival vs etoposide/cisplatin in patients with completely resected, pathologic stage I–IIIA, high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of the...
Fatigue could be an important baseline stratification factor for cancer treatment, according to data presented during the 2020 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1 An analysis of four SWOG treatment trials has found an association between patient fatigue and outcomes in advanced cancer. Data from the...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Philip M. Poortmans, PhD, and colleagues, 15-year outcomes of the phase III EORTC 22922/10925 trial show continued reductions in both breast cancer mortality and recurrence with postsurgery internal mammary and medial supraclavicular (IM-MS) lymph node chain...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced the 2020–2021 class of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-AACR Oncology Educational Fellows. This is the first year of the fellowship, a joint initiative of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the FDA and the AACR. The...
On October 2, 2020, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) was approved for first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.1-3 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the open-label phase III CheckMate 743 trial...
As recently reported in The Lancet Oncology and reviewed in the October 10, 2020, issue of The ASCO Post, the phase III BROCADE3 trial has shown that the addition of veliparib to carboplatin and paclitaxel improved progression-free survival in previously treated BRCA-mutated advanced breast...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, the phase III DANUBE trial showed that durvalumab monotherapy did not prolong overall survival vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with...
A strategy of front-line maintenance treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor avelumab combined with best supportive care improved both progression-free and overall survival vs best supportive care alone across prespecified subgroups of patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that had...
The phase III PALOMA-3 trial significantly reduced the risk of disease progression by 50% in patients with hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, but the improvement in overall survival did not reach statistical significance.1 An exploratory subgroup analysis has now shown...
Randall A. Oyer, MD, President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), released a statement regarding the rise in mortality rates of specific cancers and the rise in the occurrence of advanced metastatic cancers in 2020. New research presented at the United European Gastroenterology ...
A “blood-first” approach could soon shift the diagnostic paradigm in advanced lung cancer, replacing tissue biopsy with minimally invasive assays. According to Natasha B. Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO, there is rapidly mounting evidence that liquid biopsy serves a prognostic function in advanced...
At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 2020 Virtual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies, William Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, reviewed current data on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including promising new combinations of modern...
As reported in The Lancet by Christopher C. Parker, MD, of Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, United Kingdom, and colleagues, initial findings in the phase III RADICALS-RT trial have shown no biochemical progression-free survival benefit with adjuvant radiotherapy vs a policy of salvage...
What a difference 20 years have made! In the year 2000, the results of the ECOG 1594 trial were reported at the plenary session of the ASCO Annual Meeting. The study demonstrated comparable outcomes between four different platinum-based chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of metastatic...
Is intensive monitoring of patients after curative colorectal cancer resection warranted? Not necessarily, according to the findings of PRODIGE 13, reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020.1 “After curative surgery, the addition of CEA [carcinoembryonic...
For more than 4 decades, the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation’s Simon M. Shubitz Cancer Prize and Lectureship has honored an internationally renowned individual for his or her exceptional contributions to cancer research and clinical care. The recipient of this year’s award is...
Sharing their thoughts on KEYNOTE-355 were Amy Tiersten, MD, Professor of Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and Erika Hamilton, MD, Director of the Breast and Gynecologic Research Program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute/Tennessee Oncology, Nashville, who presented...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-355 trial, pembrolizumab combined with several chemotherapy partners yielded a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival vs chemotherapy alone in patients with previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic...
“Triple-negative breast cancer has multiple different subtypes, and there are targeted therapies that can be used based on the biomarkers that we identify for each patient,” Kari B. Wisinski, MD, noted in a review of recently approved and emerging therapies at the 2020 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer...
The National Academy of Medicine recently announced the election of 90 regular members and 10 international members during its annual meeting. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Takashi Kojima, MD, of the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan, and colleagues, the phase III KEYNOTE-181 trial has shown that second-line pembrolizumab improved overall survival vs the investigator choice of chemotherapy in...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Thomas Powles, MD, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, the phase III JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial found that maintenance treatment with avelumab plus best supportive care significantly improved overall survival...
The invited discussant of the phase III INOVATYON trial was Andreas du Bois, MD, PhD, Chairman of the Department of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology at Kliniken Essen Mitte, Germany, and Chairman of the AGO Study Group. As Dr. du Bois explained, the study “dealt with an old question: Does...
Yet another blow has been dealt for the alkylating agent trabectedin in advanced ovarian cancer. The international phase III INOVATYON study found no improvement in overall or progression-free survival for trabectedin plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PEG-LD) vs carboplatin/PEG-LD in patients...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to a PD-1 inhibitor for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and also granted Priority Review to a HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate for patients with...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, and colleagues, extended follow-up of the phase III KEYNOTE-426 trial shows continued progression-free and overall survival superiority with pembrolizumab/axitinib vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell...
In his discussion of KEYNOTE-361 and the DANUBE trial, Richard Cathomas, MD, of Kantonsspital, Graubünden, Switzerland, said both studies yielded disappointing results. Overall, in these trials as well as current evidence from other trials, treatment of platinum-eligible (cisplatin or carboplatin)...
Two different phase III studies found that combining an anti–PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor (pembrolizumab in KEYNOTE-361) with platinum-based chemotherapy or with another checkpoint inhibitor (the anti–CTLA-4 antibody tremelimumab in DANUBE) failed to significantly improve overall or...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Shankar et al found improved progression-free and overall survival among patients who experienced multisystem immune-related adverse events after anti–PD-1 or anti–PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for stage III/IV non–small cell...
A strategy for giving intermittent, high doses of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib seemed to be well tolerated by patients with advanced cancer and increased drug concentrations in solid tumors, which was associated with improved survival. This research was presented by Gerritse et al at the ...
In a systematic review and network meta-analysis of 14 trials reported in JAMA Oncology, Sonbol et al found that atezolizumab plus bevacizumab outperformed other regimens in the first-line treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and identified preferred treatments in refractory disease. As...
The innovaTV 204 trial’s invited discussant, Ana Oaknin, MD, PhD, Head of the Gynecologic Cancer Program at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, was encouraged by the study’s findings. “Of note, the response rate was 24%, the time to response was short, and the median duration of...
A nonsurgical treatment option for rectal cancer that preserves quality of life may be safe for selected patients, according to a new study comparing it with standard surgical treatment. These findings were published by Beard et al in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and were...
In the phase II portion of the phase II/III MDS3001 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, David P. Steensma, MD, and colleagues found that imetelstat—a first-in-class competitive inhibitor of telomerase enzymatic activity—markedly reduced the need for red blood cell transfusion in...
Jing Li, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III results showing the use of stereotactic radiosurgery in patients with 4 to 15 brain metastases, compared with whole-brain radiotherapy, may better preserve cognitive function and minimize the interruption of ...
The long-term results of the pivotal SOLO-1 trial have shown that maintenance olaparib more than doubles the 5-year disease-free survival time for patients who have newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer with BRCA mutations, according to an update presented at the European Society for Medical...
Daniel E. Spratt, MD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, discusses phase III results of the HERO trial, which suggested benefits of the oral medication relugolix: a substantially faster time to castration with longer duration, fewer cardiac events, and a faster return to normal...
Daniel E. Spratt, MD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, discusses a pooled analysis of two phase III trials showing adjuvant androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) improves biochemical control and reduces distant metastasis when compared with a neoadjuvant approach, with no difference...
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) was superior to conventional radiation therapy in reducing pain from spinal metastases in a phase II/III study reported by Arjun Sahgal, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting (Abstract LBA 2). More...
In the Swedish ARTSCAN III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gebre-Medhin et al found that radiotherapy with concomitant cetuximab did not improve outcomes vs radiotherapy with cisplatin in patients with previously untreated, locoregionally advanced head and neck squamous cell...
Paul Sargos, MD, of the Institut Bergonié, discusses phase III findings from the GETUG-AFU 17 study, which compared adjuvant vs early salvage radiotherapy, both combined with short-term androgen-deprivation therapy after radical prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer. Although lacking...
Juliane Hörner-Rieber, MD, of Heidelberg University Hospital, discusses phase III results of the MINT trial, which showed that conventionally fractionated intensity-modulated radiotherapy with a simultaneous integrated boost was noninferior to three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy followed by a...
Arjun Sahgal, MD, of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, discusses results of the first phase III trial to suggest that dose escalation with stereotactic body radiotherapy may be superior to conventional palliative radiotherapy in improving pain outcomes for patients with spinal bone metastases...
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) may represent a new standard of care for patients with four or more brain metastases, replacing whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) in this setting, according to a phase III study presented at the virtual 2020 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual...
The addition of the radiotracer fluciclovine to positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging for treatment planning led to superior failure-free survival compared with conventional imaging in men with prostate cancer who had undergone radical prostatectomy and were experiencing biologic recurrence of ...
The 5-year outcomes of the CheckMate 066 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Caroline Robert, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France,and colleagues, show continued benefit of first-line nivolumab vs dacarbazine in advanced BRAF wild-type melanoma and support evidence that ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Paolo A. Ascierto, MD, of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione Pascale, Naples, and colleagues, 4-year results of the CheckMate 238 trial show continued benefit of adjuvant nivolumab vs ipilimumab in recurrence-free survival and metastasis-free...
Checkpoint inhibitors can be lifesaving for many patients with advanced melanoma, but those who experience disease progression currently have few treatment options. The combination of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor and an anti–PD-1 agent may offer some hope in this setting, according to a study of...
As first-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer, pembrolizumab added to chemotherapy improved overall survival in the KEYNOTE-590 population. Not only did patients with high PD-L1 expression benefit, the value of checkpoint inhibition was observed for the whole population, the trial’s...