The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded over $107 million to support new, nontraditional approaches and reimagined uses of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and surveillance. The program will also develop platforms that can be deployed in future outbreaks of COVID-19...
Reporting on how deferred care worsened outcomes for patients with lung cancer when the COVID-19 pandemic first surged in the spring of 2020, Robert M. Van Haren, MD, MSPH, FACS, and colleagues explained that they have identified a framework that could help people with serious health conditions...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its Home Health Prospective Payment System final rule for 2021. The final rule reflects comments ASCO submitted on the proposed rule in support of increased access to telemedicine in home health care and concerns over home...
“Equity: Every Patient. Every Day. Everywhere” was selected by 2020–2021 ASCO President Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, as the theme for her presidential term. As oncology care providers work to put this theme into practice, they can find support in ASCO eLearning’s new Cultural Literacy course...
On November 13, 2020, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in combination with chemotherapy for patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer with tumors expressing PD-L1 (Combined ...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, sat down with Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical advisor to President-Elect Joseph Biden, for a virtual fireside chat about COVID-19 and cancer at...
Northwell Health recently announced that it will open a $6.2 million, 11,300-square-foot comprehensive cancer center in Riverhead, New York, by the end of this year. The new facility will provide residents of the East End of Long Island access to integrated cancer services in a conveniently located ...
Cathy Eng, MD, the David H. Johnson Chair in Surgical and Medical Oncology, Co-Leader of the Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Research Program, and Co-Director of GI Oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, as well as Vice Chair of the SWOG GI Committee, said she found the study’s...
To improve long-term survival odds, individuals with early-stage colon cancer should have their surgery performed by highly skilled surgeons. In a study that used video assessment, surgeons with highly ranked skills gave their patients a 69% lower risk of dying at 5 years as compared with their...
The prevention of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), and its related cancers, has become a focus of the European Cancer Organisation. At the group’s 2020 European Cancer Summit, held virtually, members of the organization’s HPV Action Network convened with other experts to share...
Are we winning the war on cancer? It’s not so clear, especially with COVID-19 poised to erase recent gains, panelists said at a session on global cancer control at the 2020 European Cancer Summit, which was sponsored by the European Cancer Organisation. “We know what we have to do. My question is...
It has become a familiar theme of late: Inequities exist in all aspects of cancer care. Although study after study documents problems with access to care and poorer cancer outcomes among underrepresented groups, less is heard about organized efforts to address these issues. This critical topic was...
Harikrishna Nakshatri, PhD, who is identifying the unique biology that may make Black women more susceptible to aggressive breast cancer, received a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Defense–Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program’s breast cancer research program. Dr. -Nakshatri...
Moderator of the session, Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, a radiation oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Executive Director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance in Nashville, underscored the importance of approaching patient survivorship holistically. “As radiation oncologists,...
Sexual dysfunction is prevalent among cancer survivors—and rarely addressed—according to data presented during the 2020 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 A survey of cancer survivors has found that nearly 9 out of 10 respondents reported some change after cancer...
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 ASH Research Collaborative COVID-19 Registry for Hematology provides up-to-date information on outcomes and the course of illness for a group of patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19.1 In general, registry data showed that hematologic malignancies increase the risk of severity of...
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...
“CAPTIVATE is a very important study,” stated Jacob Soumerai, MD, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. “The take-home point is that this [ibrutinib plus venetoclax] is highly effective therapy and achieves a high rate of undetectable...
The randomized phase II CAPTIVATE trial showed that a fixed-duration treatment approach with 12 cycles of ibrutinib and venetoclax as first-line therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) achieved a 30-month progression-free survival of more than 95% in patients with undetectable minimal...
Robert A. Brodsky, MD, Professor of Medicine and Oncology and Director of the Division of Hematology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, included this late-breaking abstract among his picks of noteworthy abstracts at the meeting, in a press briefing with journalists. “The researchers...
Genetic mutations linked to myeloproliferative neoplasms emerge in childhood or even in utero, decades before they cause cancer, according to a late-breaking abstract presented at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 “Our preliminary findings show these...
Six months before my diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer, in 2016, at age 38, I told my mom, “I feel like I’m dying.” Even though more than 10 specialists I had seen over the previous 8 years for unexplained bouts of abdominal pain and bloating, fatigue, and constipation kept assuring me that ...
Blowing air from a fan into the face of patients with advanced cancer experiencing breathlessness—and other nonpharmacologic interventions—may offer symptomatic relief, according to new research directed by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators and published in JAMA Oncology.1 In...
Here we discuss a complex and often emotionally wrenching challenge related to informed consent in the provision of pediatric cancer care. For example, what legal and ethical claims do young patients have to information about their cancer diagnosis and treatment recommendations? What are the...
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...
Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer and node-positive disease.1 The data showed that many postmenopausal women can skip adjuvant chemotherapy, based on ...
Stem cell transplants are not frequently offered to older patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to a study from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMTCTN 1102), these patients may indeed achieve a survival benefit from stem cell transplant. As...
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 ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Bahadoer et al, the phase III RAPIDO trial has shown improved 3-year disease-related treatment failure with preoperative short-course radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy and total mesorectal excision (TME) vs preoperative chemoradiotherapy, TME, and optional...
A prospective cohort study found sentinel lymph node biopsy had a 96% sensitivity rate and a 99% negative predictive value for detecting nodal metastasis among patients with clinical stage I low-grade and high-grade endometrial cancer.1 “Our study suggests that [sentinel lymph node biopsy] has...
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 ...
Although the exact incidence of treatment-related lymphedema among cancer survivors is unknown—most likely due to its prolonged latency period—it can be a lifelong chronic side effect that negatively impacts survivors’ quality of life. Although the condition is often linked to treatment for breast...
Tebentafusp is a novel bispecific molecule consisting of an affinity-enhanced T-cell receptor fused to an anti-CD3 effector that can redirect T cells to target gp100-positive cells. The agent showed clinical benefit, including target lesion reduction, in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma,...
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...
Cancer cases in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) have risen by 30% during the past 4 decades, with rates of kidney cancer increasing at the greatest rate, according to findings published by Scott et al in JAMA Network Open. The team said further research into screening, diagnosis, and treatment...
Many patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may be cured by autologous stem cell transplant, but as many as half eventually relapse. New research presented by Reid Merryman, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition suggests...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have pleural effusion, especially those requiring pleural evacuation, experienced poorer survival when treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to findings presented by Epaillard et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Lehrer et al found that stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) for oligometastatic cancer was associated with “clinically acceptable” rates of severe acute and late toxicities as well as 1-year disease outcomes. As stated by the ...
The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to findings from a large retrospective pooled analysis reported by Wolfgang Janni, MD, PhD,...
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...
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...
Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, node-positive breast cancer. Based on the findings, many postmenopausal women may be able to safely skip adjuvant chemotherapy. However,...
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 ...
Ari M. Melnick, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses the BCL10 mutation in patients with activated B-cell–like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and his study results which showed that the mutation should be considered as a biomarker for ibrutinib resistance so that alternative targeted treatments ...
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...
Atlantic Health System Cancer Care recently announced that fellowship-trained medical oncologist Shilpi Gupta, MD, has joined Morristown Medical Center’s comprehensive breast health program, where her focus is breast oncology and research. Dr. Gupta is on staff at Atlantic Hematology Oncology at...