Invited discussant of the DETERMINATION trial, Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, Professor of Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, City of Hope Cancer Center, described the many implications of the important findings for DETERMINATION and offered some ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Saro H. Armenian, DO, MPH, and colleagues, findings from the BMT Survivor Study (BMTSS) indicated that survivors of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treated with blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) are at a markedly increased risk of...
On June 27, the Biden Administration, through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced a new model aimed at improving cancer care for Medicare patients and lowering health-care costs. CMS’ Center for Medicare and...
Women who are longer-term survivors of metastatic breast cancer may have a worse survival rate if they have diabetes and poorly controlled blood sugar levels, according to a new study presented at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting. This is the first study to specifically examine the ...
On June 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi) for adult patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who have disease refractory to first-line chemoimmunotherapy or relapse within 12 months of...
Artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to identify thyroid nodules seen on thyroid ultrasound that are very unlikely to be cancerous, reducing a large number of unnecessary biopsies, according to a study presented at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting. Thyroid nodules are very...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Garcés et al found that increasing levels of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at diagnosis were associated with poorer outcomes in newly diagnosed patients with transplant-eligible multiple myeloma, and that inclusion of CTCs in a risk model...
Hearing the words “You have cancer” is a devastating blow, especially when the biggest health issues you’ve had to contend with over more than 6 decades are common colds and knee and hip replacements. But in 2017, the symptoms I thought were from a lingering summer cold drove me to seek medical...
Radiation therapy has long been one of the three pillars of cancer therapy—surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy—only recently joined by what is widely considered a fourth pillar, immunotherapy. In part 1 of this two-part report, we trace the beginnings of radiation oncology in the United...
In March 2022, Kristeleit et al reported the results of the ARIEL4 trial1 of rucaparib in relapsed BRCA-mutant ovarian cancer in The Lancet Oncology (summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post) and are to be congratulated on this accomplishment. This report, along with the almost simultaneous...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Rebecca Kristeleit, MD, of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and colleagues, the phase III ARIEL4 trial has shown a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival with rucaparib vs chemotherapy in relapsed ovarian cancer with...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Ariela L. Marshall, MD, Director, Women’s Hemostasis and Thrombosis Program at Penn Medicine. Along with her clinical and research activities, Dr. Marshall is also an advocate for women’s health and equity in ...
On June 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval for dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 6 years and older with unresectable or metastatic solid tumors with a BRAF V600E mutation whose disease...
In Ukraine, with a population of about 44 million, there are more than 1.3 million patients with cancer. Approximately 160,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year.1 In almost every region, there are local cancer centers; specialized oncologic centers are located in large cities. In Kyiv,...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Robert J. Motzer, MD, and colleagues, the protocol-defined final overall survival analysis of the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial showed a significant benefit with nivolumab/cabozantinib vs sunitinib in previously untreated patients with advanced renal cell...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) now stands as the largest single public funder of biomedical research in the world.1 The FY2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2471), signed into law in March, increases biomedical research funding by nearly 5%, and it provides a total of $45 billion...
Recently, a new ASCO study,1 published in JCO Oncology Practice, found that among respondents participating in the survey, most oncology practices do not systematically collect data related to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). The study points to the need to increase understanding...
ASCO has made new resources available through its refreshed Survivorship Compendium—an online library of practice tools designed and curated to help oncologists develop high-quality, equitable cancer survivorship care programs and improve existing programs for patients who have completed their...
ASCO’s CancerLinQ® and Count Me In recently announced a new collaboration that aims to allow cancer researchers to learn from every patient with cancer, by actively engaging patients as part of the clinical research enterprise. CancerLinQ—a real-world oncology data technology platform developed by...
From 1999 to 2019, rates of cancer deaths declined steadily among Black people in the United States. Nevertheless, in 2019, Black people still had considerably higher rates of cancer death than people in other racial and ethnic groups, a large epidemiologic study has found. The study was led by...
Investigators at the American Cancer Society presented results of several studies during poster sessions at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting. Summaries of a few of these studies are provided here. COVID-19 and Cancer Mortality According to a new study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society,...
Thomas Seufferlein, MD, Professor of Medicine at Ulm University Hospital in Germany, found the data from the NOTABLE trial1 encouraging and “clinically interesting.” However, he suggested the study’s design did not allow the EGFR inhibitor to be optimally tested. The NOTABLE trial is based on a...
In patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer and KRAS wild-type tumors, novel treatment with the monoclonal antibody nimotuzumab, which targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), plus gemcitabine significantly improved overall survival and other outcomes over...
For advanced breast cancer that is hormone receptor–positive and HER2-negative, sacituzumab govitecan-hziy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression by 34% over physician’s choice of treatment, based on the results of the phase III TROPiCS-02 trial.1 The heavily pretreated patients in...
Invited discussant Patricia LoRusso, DO, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine, said to the assembled audience at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting: “I see you are as excited about these data as I am,” after the applause ended following Dr. Modi’s presentation. “I want to thank our colleagues for helping to...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) doubled progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with “HER2-low” metastatic breast cancer—ie, patients with low levels of HER2 expression. The agent also extended overall survival for patients with low ...
Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, Director of the Bladder Cancer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, Boston, said these follow-up data from CheckMate 274 provide reassurance that the disease-free survival benefit is maintained with adjuvant nivolumab. “We...
Adjuvant nivolumab could become the standard of care for patients with metastatic bladder cancer, according to data presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) 2022 Annual Meeting.1 With longer follow-up, the results of the phase III CheckMate 274 trial showed that treatment with the...
New research published by Zeng et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network raises issues with clinical trial findings that show adjuvant hormone therapy–related hot flashes predict better treatment outcomes among patients with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. The...
A study of more than 90,000 postmenopausal women found that those who consumed at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily faced a 78% higher risk of developing liver cancer compared with people who consumed less than three servings per month of such beverages. These findings were presented by Zhao ...
Research shows that what we eat may influence our cancer risk, but it’s not always clear which foods or dietary patterns are best for cancer prevention. Results from a new study presented by Shah et al during Nutrition 2022 Live Online, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition,...
Gilberto de Lima Lopes, Jr, MD, MBA, of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, and Oladimeji Akinboro, MD, MPH, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), discuss a data analysis, which suggests that most subgroups of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer ...
Researchers have, for the first time, identified genes that may predict response to a therapy for a blood cancer that can have serious side effects for some patients. The therapy, selinexor, is part of the treatment armamentarium for multiple myeloma, but the ability to target its use to patients...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tachibana et al found high recurrence-free survival rates among patients with pathologic stage II nonseminomatous germ cell tumors who underwent primary retroperitoneal lymph node dissection and who did not receive adjuvant ...
In the phase III ANCHOR study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Palefsky et al found that treatment of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions was successful in preventing anal cancer vs active monitoring in persons infected with HIV. Study Details In the multicenter trial, 4,446 ...
Representing a total investment of $100 million, the following teams are the first to be funded through the partnership between Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the United States. These teams join the Cancer Grand Challenges community, which now unites more than 700...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, Guest Editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with surgical oncologist Héctor Martínez-Said, MD, of the Melanoma Clinic at NCI Mexico. Dr. Martínez-Said’s maternal grandfather was part of a Lebanese immigration movement...
According to a study published by DuMontier et al in the journal Blood Advances, frailty assessments—geriatric exams considered essential to predicting health outcomes in older adults with cancer—are both safe and feasible when conducted virtually for patients with blood cancers. While providers...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Surgery, Shoucair et al found that matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7) expression in fine-needle aspiration biopsy specimens was associated with pathologic response to neoadjuvant therapy in patients undergoing resection for pancreatic ductal...
William Catalona, MD, Professor of Urology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and past Principal Investigator on the Northwestern-based prostate SPORE, explained the evolution of his views regarding active surveillance in men with low-risk prostate cancer. Although...
Most men with low-risk prostate tumors now opt for active surveillance, but overtreatment remains a problem, according to data presented during the 2022 American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting.1 A retrospective analysis of more than 20,000 patients with low-risk prostate cancer showed...
Telemedicine stepped up to the plate when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. Oncology providers—and practitioners in all specialties—had to rapidly adapt to a telemedicine format when face-to-face visits were severely limited. This scenario had its benefits for both patients and providers (and...
On June 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 to include use in children as young as 6 months of age. For the Moderna vaccine, the FDA amended the emergency...
In a phase II trial (HOVON141/VISION) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Arnon P. Kater, MD, PhD, and colleagues found a high rate of 12-month progression-free survival among patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who stopped venetoclax/ibrutinib after achieving...
This is Part 4 of Updates in Lymphoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Alison J. Moskowitz, Andrew M. Evens, and Ann S. LaCasce discuss the management of relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. The patient is a...
This is Part 3 of Updates in Lymphoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Alison J. Moskowitz, Andrew M. Evens, and Ann S. LaCasce discuss Hodgkin lymphoma in patients age ≥ 60 years. The patient is a 65-year-old man...
This is Part 2 of Updates in Lymphoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Alison J. Moskowitz, Andrew M. Evens, and Ann S. LaCasce discuss the management of bulky early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma. The patient is a...
This is Part 1 of Updates in Lymphoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Alison J. Moskowitz, Andrew M. Evens, and Ann S. LaCasce discuss the management of advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma. The patient is a...
Apar Kishor Ganti, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discusses results from the CALGB 30610 study, which showed a similar clinical benefit for once- and twice-daily radiotherapy administered to patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer. While both regimens were well...
Optimizing oncology care in the United States will require making state-of-the-art care more accessible to all. Delivering quality, equitable cancer care is undoubtedly a challenge in a country as large, diverse, and disparate as the United States, but if it is to be achieved, it will entail the...