As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Grob et al, the first interim analysis of the phase II KEYNOTE-629 trial has shown that treatment with pembrolizumab resulted in durable responses in patients with recurrent or metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. The study supported the...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer took place from July 20 to 22, 2020, attracting top scientific minds from around the world to present preliminary research on the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic and its intersection with cancer care. In an...
Lipophilic statin use was associated with a reduced risk of dying of epithelial ovarian cancer in a large observational study. Compared with never users, women with epithelial ovarian cancer who were taking any type of statins had a reduced mortality of 40%, and those taking lipophilic statins had...
The study’s invited discussant, Philip A. Philip, MD, PhD, FRCP, Professor of Oncology, Pharmacology, and Medicine and the Kathryn Cramer Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, asked whether another triplet regimen was...
On July 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus), a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T-cell immunotherapy, for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. “Tremendous...
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane because it often results in physical death. I see no alternative to direct action and creative nonviolence to raise the conscience of the nation.” —Martin Luther King, Jr, speaking before the Medical...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology,” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
As medical professionals increasingly turn to online learning opportunities in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions on travel and gatherings, ASCO eLearning delivers valuable, up-to-date clinical care courses for physicians, nurses, and advanced practitioners on a robust platform that can be easily...
The American Urological Association (AUA), American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) recently announced a new clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed...
When taking care of a loved one with cancer, it’s natural to feel flooded with emotions—grief, guilt, and just plain old exhaustion. Feelings of inadequacy, doubt, or fear can sometimes pop up, too. Maybe you feel like you do not have the necessary skills to be a caregiver; maybe you feel like you...
Two studies recently reported in The Lancet have identified risk factors for mortality among patients with cancer and COVID-19.1,2 As reported by Lennard Y.W. Lee, DPhil, of the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham, and colleagues,1 a UK prospective cohort study...
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 June 16, 2020, pembrolizumab was granted accelerated...
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, oncology providers from around the world had to forgo their annual trip to McCormick Place—but the show did go on. We all realized important research can still be presented, clinicians and fellow researchers will still listen, and ASCO presentations will still...
Patients who have breast cancers with double PIK3CA mutations seem to have a more robust response to PI3Kα inhibitors than those with a single PIK3CA mutation, based on an analysis of the phase III SANDPIPER trial, which tested taselisib plus fulvestrant, according to a presentation during the 2020 ...
Ahmad Tarhini, MD, PhD, Director of Cutaneous and Translational Research at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, was optimistic about neoadjuvant use of nivolumab/ipilimumab and looks forward to further randomized studies. “Taken together, the results of the OpACIN and OpACIN-neo trials support the value ...
The neoadjuvant combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab yielded a continued benefit in relapse-free survival vs adjuvant use of the same combination therapy in 20 patients with stage III macroscopic melanoma. This finding is based on 3-year follow-up results of the phase Ib OpACIN trial, presented...
John D. Minna, MD, Max L. Thomas Distinguished Chair in Molecular Pulmonary Oncology and Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, was enthusiastic about this approach. “When I first heard about it, I was so...
Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors has made great strides in the treatment of many cancers, but only between 25% and 50% of patients respond with clinical benefit, and these agents come with adverse events and high price tags. Thus, preselection of patients who are likely to respond to ...
Some monuments are difficult to topple. At least that was the case dating back to 1976, when investigators from the Southwest Oncology Group demonstrated the importance of doxorubicin in the treatment of patients with a group of lymphoid malignancies then referred to as diffuse aggressive...
The combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab was at least as effective as chemotherapy in front-line therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and brain metastases at baseline, according to the results of a post hoc analysis from part 1 of the phase III CheckMate 227...
Newly released data on treatment outcomes of patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 revealed a racial disparity in access to remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has been shown to shorten hospital stays, and increased mortality associated with dexamethasone, a steroid that has had the opposite...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Caron A. Jacobson, MD, and colleagues found that commercial use of the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma was associated with an overall...
As reported in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology by Simron Singh, MD, MPH, and colleagues, the Commonwealth Neuroendocrine Tumour Research Collaboration (CommNETs) and North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS) have collaborated to produce a best practice guideline for the diagnosis and...
Kicking off the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer earlier this week, Anthony Fauci, MD, gave the keynote lecture, “Coronavirus Infections: More Than Just the Common Cold.” As Dr. Fauci told listeners, “[COVID-19]—and other infectious...
Andrew H. Wei, MBBS, PhD, of The Alfred Hospital, Monash University, discusses phase III data from the VIALE-C trial, which appear to support the use of venetoclax plus low-dose cytarabine as a front-line treatment for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia, as well as for those who cannot...
In a pooled analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Igor Puzanov, MD, MSCI, and colleagues identified objective response rates and progression-free and overall survival rates with pembrolizumab treatment among patients with advanced melanoma according to BRAF V600E/K–mutation status and prior BRAF/MEK...
A first-in-human study presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) 2020 Annual Meeting and published by Zhang et al in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine has demonstrated the safety and favorable pharmacokinetic and dosimetry profile of Cu-64 EBRGD, a new, relatively...
For people with cancer who have a mental health disorder, getting mental health treatment may help them live longer, a new study published by Berchuck et al in JAMA Oncology suggests. In the retrospective study, of more than 50,000 veterans treated for lung cancer within the Veterans Affairs (VA)...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Blagden et al found lower mean global quality-of-life scores on longitudinal analysis among women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer who received weekly vs every-3-week paclitaxel in platinum-based regimens in the ICON8 trial. The ICON8 trial showed no...
In an Australian study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Piercey et al found that routine blood tests have little utility in detecting relapse or progression of disease during active surveillance of patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. As stated by the investigators, “Patients with...
A retrospective analysis from the BIG 2-98 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Desmedt et al showed poorer disease-free and overall survival with increasing baseline body mass index (BMI) in women receiving adjuvant docetaxel-based chemotherapy but not among those receiving...
According to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, an investigational vaccine designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—mRNA-1273—was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults. These interim results were...
Compared with younger patients, older patients with cancer face unique challenges because many of them have age-related decreases in health-related quality of life. This can be a result of many factors, such as comorbidities, mental health, physical impairment, and financial stressors. A diagnosis...
New research published by Douglas et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network examined coverage trends for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing, also known as liquid biopsy. In the first-ever study to analyze insurance coverage for ctDNA-based panel tests, researchers found ...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has updated its guideline for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, adapting a 2019 update from the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACS first issued a guideline for routine use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, with an update issued in...
In a study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Scovell et al identified a potential association between the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors and impaired spermatogenesis using autopsy tissue findings in men with a history of metastatic melanoma. Study Details The study involved...
Women with early-stage cervical cancer treated with minimally invasive radical hysterectomy had a 71% increased risk of recurrence and a 56% increased risk of death compared with those treated with open radical hysterectomy, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 studies involving ...
Bjørn Henning Gronberg, MD, PhD, presented a paper at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program reporting astounding positive results favoring higher-dose, twice-daily radiation therapy in limited-stage small cell lung cancer.1 This was a phase II study (large for phase II but small for phase III)...
In a pooled analysis reported in Bone Marrow Transplantation,1 Luciano J. Costa, MD, PhD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues found that autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation followed by reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic transplantation (auto-allo) was...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Yen Nien Hou, PharmD, DiplOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on...
As the 21st Century Cures Act approaches its 4th anniversary, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) convened a working group made up of multidisciplinary experts from across the country to analyze current issues related to the 21st Century Cures Act and to develop recommendations for ...
An international panel of experts led by researchers and thought leaders at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health (SKCC) and the Department of Urology at Jefferson have published the first multidisciplinary, consensus-driven, prostate cancer genetic implementation framework for the...
It was ambitious and it was controversial, but the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act (Cures) made it through both houses of Congress and was signed into law in December 2016. Sponsored by Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Fred Upton (R-MI), the landmark legislation funded new medical...
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took an additional step in harnessing real-world data to help inform the agency’s overall response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The FDA announced its participation in the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator, a...
On May 15, 2020, rucaparib was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with deleterious BRCA mutation–associated (germline or somatic) metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have been treated with androgen receptor–directed therapy and taxane-based chemotherapy.1,2...
In this edition of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, interviewed his colleague Brian J. Bolwell, MD, FACP, Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Among other things, Dr. Bolwell discussed his...
The invited discussant for the RAPIDO and PRODIGE 23 trials, Christopher Leigh Hallemeier, MD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, noted the standard approach to locally advanced rectal cancer has been, for the past 2 decades, a long course of chemoradiotherapy...
The ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program was the forum for an unusual but profoundly important event in oncology. Four studies that should be practice-changing were presented.1-4 These studies provided irrefutable evidence that we can improve the quality of life of older patients by reducing toxicity. ...
The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in two different regimens: On May 15, 2020, the two-drug combination was approved for first-line treatment in...
On May 1, 2020, the combination of daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj was approved for adult patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. This new product allows for subcutaneous (SC) dosing of daratumumab.1,2 Daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj is for SC use only. The...