Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, the Alan and Jill Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, commented on NIMBUS1 for The ASCO Post. She said obtaining information on tumor mutational burden is simple, as it is part ...
Patients with advanced HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and high tumor mutational burden achieved responses—often durable—from treatment with the immunotherapy doublet of nivolumab and ipilimumab, according to results of the phase II NIMBUS trial reported at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer ...
“OlympiA is clearly a practice-changing trial, and olaparib should be offered to patients meeting the entry criteria for the study,” said Mark E. Robson, MD, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr. Robson was invited to discuss the findings of...
New drugs for HER2-positive breast cancer are able to overcome some of the obstacles that have made brain metastases challenging to treat, according to Mark Pegram, MD, the Susy Yuan-Huey Hung Professor of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who described the promising ...
Use of the first investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression and lengthened progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy with fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor in...
The invited discussant of monarchE,1 Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, Director, Breast Cancer Research, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, commented: “Based on a hazard ratio of 0.69 for invasive disease–free survival, the results are statistically significant and clinically...
Longer-term follow-up of the global phase III monarchE trial showed an increasing benefit for adding abemaciclib to endocrine therapy in the adjuvant treatment of early high-risk hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, regardless of Ki67 index. The latest findings were reported at a ...
Researchers have unmasked mutations in the RNF43 gene as predictive biomarkers of a response to treatment with anti-BRAF/EGFR combination therapy in patients with microsatellite-stable BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer. Data showed that patients with tumors harboring loss-of-function...
In a Chinese single-center, retrospective cohort, propensity score–matched analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Wan et al found no difference in long-term outcomes, including distant metastasis–free and overall survival, with minimal-access breast surgery vs conventional breast surgery in women with...
As more patients with cancer have their tumors genomically profiled and more therapies targeting genomic alterations enter clinical trials, the task of connecting patients with trials for which they are eligible can be especially challenging. The novel computer platform MatchMiner, developed by the ...
In the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved four treatment options for patients with breast cancer, which are summarized herein. T-DXd for HER2-Low Breast Cancer On August 5, 2022, the FDA approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu; T-DXd) for adult patients with...
In a Chinese single-center phase II trial reported in JAMA Surgery, Wu et al found neoadjuvant intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) followed by hepatectomy could be an effective treatment option in patients with centrally located hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In the study, 38 patients...
In a pooled analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Withrow et al found that increased exposure of the meninges to radiation therapy was associated with an increased risk of developing meningioma in survivors of childhood cancer. Receipt of methotrexate was also associated with increased risk. Study...
Populations in U.S. counties defined as more vulnerable based on social factors—including socioeconomic status and racial and ethnic minority status—may be significantly less likely to receive timely breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screenings, according to a recent study published by Bauer...
Following a Mediterranean diet rich in fiber, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyphenols may be associated with improved immunotherapy response rates and progression-free survival in patients with advanced melanoma, according to a recent study presented at the United European Gastroenterology...
Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans may miss the detection of some pancreatic cancer tumors, narrowing the window for life-saving curative surgery, according to new research presented at the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week 2022 (Abstract OP192). The...
In a phase Ib/II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Christopher J. Hoimes, MD, and colleagues found that first-line enfortumab vedotin-ejfv plus pembrolizumab produced a high response rate and prolonged response durations in cisplatin-ineligible, previously untreated patients with...
Invited discussant James Larkin, PhD, a clinical researcher at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, commented on the findings from NICHE-2.1 “These striking data are consistent with the recent report in locally advanced mismatch repair–deficient [dMMR] rectal cancer from Memorial Sloan Kettering.2...
Treatment with neoadjuvant immunotherapy in colon cancer resulted in major pathologic responses in 95% of patients, NICHE-2 investigators reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022.1 Additionally, after 4 weeks of nivolumab plus ipilimumab, 67% of patients with...
The addition of 24 months of androgen-deprivation therapy to postoperative radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy provided a metastasis-free survival benefit and improved the time to salvage therapy in patients with prostate cancer, according to the preliminary results from the RADICALS-HD trial...
The cost of cancer treatment may negatively impact the physical and mental health of survivors who are living in poverty, according to a recent study published by Coughlin et al in the Journal of Oncology Practice. The findings provide important information about the impact social determinants may...
Although breast cancer death rates dropped by 43% from 1989 to 2020, Black women continue to be 40% more likely to die of the disease, despite a lower incidence, according to findings outlined in the American Cancer Society’s report Breast Cancer Statistics, 2022, and a companion study published by ...
Just 1 month after the DESTINY-Breast04 data were presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting Plenary Session,1 an ASCO expert panel released updated guidance that endorses the adoption of the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) into clinical practice for patients with...
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, effectively eliminating the constitutional right to abortion and returning the power to regulate reproductive health to individual states. Some states have already taken action to...
ASCO and the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) committing the two organizations to collaborate to advance cancer research in Africa. Harnessing the respective programs, leaders, and member networks of both...
Although standard therapies may provide long-lasting remissions for many patients with various subtypes of lymphoma, there is a critical need for new strategies for the sizable high-risk subset. At the 2022 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference, four experts in the field described future therapies for...
Kelly Dooley, MD, PhD, MPH, has been appointed Addison B. Scoville Jr. Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Dr. Dooley comes to Vanderbilt from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in...
Jonathan Ledermann, MD, of UCL Cancer Institute University College London, was the formal discussant of both the phase III SOLO1 and PAOLA-1 trials. He was quite enthusiastic about SOLO1: “Perhaps, this is really cure we are seeing.” He also noted that overall survival is still immature and is...
TROPiCS-02 is a statistically positive trial, with the primary endpoint met and also now with an overall survival gain of 3.2 months,” said the study’s invited discussant Meritxell Bellet Ezquerra, MD, PhD, a senior researcher at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona. “TROPiCS-02 is...
An overall survival benefit has now emerged for sacituzumab govitecan-hziy in women with previously treated, hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative, locally recurrent, inoperable or metastatic breast cancer, according to a planned second interim analysis of the phase III TROPiCS-02 trial.1 The...
Formal discussant of the KEYNOTE-189 and KEYNOTE-407 trials, Mary O’Brien, MD, Head of the Lung Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, London, found that both studies showed consistent gains in overall and progression-free survival with pembrolizumab/chemotherapy, but she expressed...
Formal discussant of this study, Suzette Delaloge, MD, MSc, of Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, stated: “This is a big step forward and an amazing set of new knowledge. This presentation is a meaningful demonstration of the role of PM2.5 [particulate matter 2.5 µm in diameter] air pollutants in...
Although air pollution is associated with lung cancer, not much has been known about how one leads to the other. For the first time, researchers have identified a mechanism by which particulate matter in the air triggers non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in people who have never smoked. Moreover,...
Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) accounts for less than 1% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas and between 3% and 4% of all brain tumors, with an age-adjusted incidence rate of four cases per million persons per year. Approximately 1,500 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United...
The legal climate surrounding reproductive health care and fertility preservation has changed drastically since the June 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which revoked the constitutional right to abortion. With this ruling, individual state legislatures are now able to pass laws...
The results of SWOG S18011 were met with enthusiasm by attendees at the Presidential Symposium of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022. The ASCO Post captured the thoughts of several melanoma experts, who had somewhat different ideas about the immediate clinical...
In resectable stage III to IV melanoma, three cycles of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab was significantly more beneficial than adjuvant pembrolizumab alone, based on the results of the phase II SWOG S1801 trial presented in a Presidential Symposium at the European...
For anacademic oncologist, there is no greater reward than to be part of the clinical research that turns a fatal cancer into a highly treatable disease. Saul A. Rosenberg, MD, FASCO, was one such researcher who pioneered advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of lymphoma,...
After my first breast cancer diagnosis, in 2010, the odds for a cure were seemingly all weighted in my favor. A routine mammogram screening had picked up a small—less than 1 cm—mass in my right breast, and a tissue biopsy confirmed it was stage I estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. I had no...
With the aging of the world population, geriatric oncology is becoming a mainstay. Over the past year in The ASCO Post, we published a couple of articles on the history of oncology, including one on the history of geriatric oncology in the United States and Europe. Our goal was to promote a...
On August 5, 2022, darolutamide was approved for use in combination with docetaxel for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.1 Approval was based on the double-blind ARASENS trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02799602), in which 1,305 patients were randomly assigned to...
In the more than 7 months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, cancer care for Ukrainian citizens has changed dramatically. Ukraine was once a country able to provide its approximately 160,000 newly diagnosed patients with cancer each year with modern diagnostic methods, including...
Abstract discussant Hisashi Saji, MD, Chair of Thoracic Surgery at St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan, said that, based on two recently reported phase III studies, sublobar resection, including wedge resection and segmentectomy, must be considered as a standard of care for...
After a nearly 20-year wait, the results are finally in: sublobar surgery has been found to be noninferior to lobectomy and may be the new standard of care of patients with small, early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results of the phase III Alliance trial, presented at the International ...
The addition of cabozantinib to nivolumab plus ipilimumab prolonged progression-free survival in untreated intermediate-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to the first results of the phase III COSMIC-313 trial. These findings were presented as a Presidential Symposium ...
In a U.S. cross-sectional study reported in JACC:CardioOncology, Ganatra et al found that mortality from comorbid cancer and cardiovascular disease was significantly higher in counties with higher vs lower social vulnerability (ie, age greater than vs less than 45, male vs female sex, Black vs...
Young women who are cancer survivors may be at a much higher risk of sexual problems, including loss of libido and discomfort, according to research published by Wettergren et al in the journal Acta Oncologica. The study also suggests that cancer type and intensity of treatment may influence the...
New research showed that cancer survivors who delayed care due to a lack of transportation were more likely to use the emergency room (ER), according to the study published by Jiang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. They also had the highest risks of all-cause and cancer-specific...
Findings reported by researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Johns Hopkins University showed that area-level mortgage discrimination may be adversely associated with receipt of guideline-concordant care among patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the United States,...
Medulloblastomas may exist in a premalignant form at birth after initially developing during the first or second trimester of pregnancy, according to a new international study published by Hendrikse et al in Nature. As medulloblastomas typically present around age 7, the team’s discovery is the...