An international team of clinicians and researchers have described the pathology of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, for the first time. Their findings were published by Tian et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. The article’s senior author, Shu-Yuan Xiao, MD, from the University of Chicago ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Delaloge et al, a second randomized component of the phase III EORTC 10041/BIG 3-04 MINDACT trial, though underpowered, suggested no benefit of docetaxel/capecitabine vs standard anthracycline-based adjuvant therapy for patients with early breast...
In patients with metastatic seminoma, the early use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)–positron-emission tomography (PET) to risk-stratify patients enabled the de-escalation of chemotherapy, avoiding treatment with bleomycin—one of the most toxic drugs used to treat this cancer—and excessive doses of...
Richard E. Champlin, MD, Chairman of the nation’s largest Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was born in Milwaukee and spent his formative years in Chicago. After high school, Dr. Champlin followed an early ambition in...
Individuals who experience the loss of a partner are less likely to be diagnosed with melanoma—but face an increased risk of dying from the disease, according to research published by Wong et al in the British Journal of Dermatology. While previous studies have suggested a link between various...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Talia Golan, MD, and colleagues identified geographic and ethnic heterogeneity of germline BRCA1/2 mutation prevalence among patients screened for entry into the phase III POLO trial, which examined the efficacy of olaparib maintenance...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, and colleagues, interim analyses of the phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial have shown that the addition of pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and use of adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo resulted in improvements in...
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, Gary Deng, MD, PhD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on active hexose...
Advances in radiology and molecular imaging have the potential to significantly change how clinicians diagnose, stage, and monitor response to therapy in patients with prostate cancer. However, there are limited data comparing these next-generation imaging modalities to each other and to...
New study findings suggest that weight gain after breast cancer is a greater problem than previously thought. The first national survey on weight after breast cancer in Australia, published by Ee et al in BMC Cancer, found close to two-thirds (63.7%) of women reported weight gain at an average of...
In the French phase II CABONE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Italiano et al found that the MET and VEGFR2 inhibitor cabozantinib was active in patients with advanced Ewing sarcoma or osteosarcoma. Study Details In the multicenter trial, 81 evaluable patients aged ≥ 12 years with progressive ...
In posters presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, POLO investigators reported that health-related quality of life was preserved during maintenance olaparib in patients with BRCA 1/2-positive pancreatic cancer, as evidenced by a low symptom burden over time.1 Other studies...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to brigatinib for the treatment of ALK-positive lung cancer and Breakthrough Therapy designation to a potential first-in-class oral antagonist of inhibitors of apoptosis proteins for the treatment of head and neck...
Immune modulation with checkpoint inhibitors has shown benefit in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, but responses have been limited to a small number of patients. According to data presented by Gregory T. Wolf, MD, FACS, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and...
Results from a new clinical trial suggest that neoadjuvant immunotherapy for oral cavity cancers may elicit tumor regression, which could provide long-term benefit for patients. Findings were presented by Jonathan D. Schoenfeld, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, and...
In a systematic analysis of data from 40 countries reported in the International Journal of Cancer, Fidler-Benaoudia et al identified a widespread emergence of higher lung cancer incidence rates in young women vs young men. The trend does not appear to be explained by differences in smoking...
In a study using Henry Ford Health System data reported in a research letter in JAMA Surgery, Chen et al found little difference in treatment and outcomes between African American and white women with nonmetastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Screen detection of disease was associated with...
As the number of solid organ transplants in the United States rises, cancer in this patient population is a growing concern. In fact, solid organ transplant recipients have an up to 50 times greater risk than the general population of developing skin cancers, and for kidney transplant recipients,...
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on allogeneic and autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation. For full...
The Prevent Cancer Foundation® has announced the funding of eight new United States–based researchers and four new cancer prevention and early detection projects in low- or middle-income countries. Research grants and fellowships awarded this year will increase cancer prevention and early detection ...
George A. Fisher, Jr, MD, PhD, the Colleen Haas Chair in Medicine-Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, commented on the cell-free DNA methylation blood-based test from the Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study. The findings presented by Dr. Wolpin, he said, “lead us to the ...
A noninvasive, blood-based, cell-free DNA test focused on the presence of DNA methylation appears to be highly sensitive in detecting gastrointestinal cancers and may pinpoint the tissue of origin in the vast majority of these cancers.1 The assay was developed based on findings from the...
AS A YOUNG CLINICIAN, I was interested in making a difference; it did not matter how much of a difference, as long as I could claim some patient benefit. And I really didn’t care what benefit: better survival, less local recurrence, shorter hospital stays, fewer narcotics—the specifics did not...
Studies have shown that all patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma had a preceding asymptomatic expansion of clonal plasma cells, clinically recognized as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smoldering multiple myeloma. According to C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, Professor of...
ASCO recently endorsed the Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline “Bone Health and Bone-Targeted Therapies for Prostate Cancer,” which was originally approved by CCO in 2017.1 The recommendations were based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant research and clinical trial reports...
Comprehensive profiling of tumor samples taken from patients with osteosarcoma showed that multiple factors contribute to the traditionally poor responses observed with immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment in patients with this malignancy, according to new research published by Wu et al in Nature...
A retrospective analysis from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Eugene Suh, MD, and colleagues, showed that as with survivors of childhood cancers, survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancers are at increased risk of earlier mortality and chronic...
A new ASCO clinical practice guideline provides clinicians and other health-care professionals with evidence-based recommendations on genetic and tumor testing for women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer.1 “We wanted to go over the evidence and make strong statements and recommendations...
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center immunologist Jason Luke, MD, FACP, has been presented with the Sy Holzer Endowed Immunotherapy Research Fund Award to advance innovative research in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Luke, a medical oncologist and clinical investigator,...
Using antioxidants and other dietary supplements before and during adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer may increase the risk of recurrence and “to a lesser extent, death,” according to an analysis of dietary and nutritional data from a phase III trial, published in the Journal of Clinical...
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,...
At the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Nadine Tung, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, presented a multisite study called INFORM, run by the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium.1 It compared single-agent cisplatin with a “classic” combination of doxorubicin and...
Hematologist/oncologist Rami K. Daya, MD, will lead a team of cancer experts at New York University (NYU)/Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center’s new multidisciplinary, ambulatory location in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. As Director of Medical Oncology at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn, he will oversee all...
Despite research showing that among patients with cancer, early advance care planning conversations lead to care that is in alliance with patients’ goals and wishes, especially at the end of life,1 most patients die without having discussions about their treatment goals and end-of-life preferences ...
Functional status impairment, limited mobility, comorbidities, polypharmacy, and other aging-related manifestations are common in older individuals. These conditions complicate the oncologic management of older adults, who are underrepresented in clinical trials, even though they form the majority ...
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) recently announced that an international team of experts will take a new approach to fighting gastric cancer. The SU2C Gastric Cancer Interception Research Team: Early Detection and Interception of Diffuse and Intestinal Gastric Cancer was introduced at the SU2C Scientific ...
The ASH 2019 Annual Meeting & Exposition featured countless important sessions and lectures. It would be impossible to attend all the symposia, oral presentations, poster presentations, and special events. Below, we have selected some presentation highlights to supplement our coverage of the...
Two novel dual-target chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell strategies are yielding early and durable responses for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, as well as potentially less cytokine-release syndrome and neurotoxicity compared with first-generation CAR T-cell products,...
FT596, a novel off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cell (CAR-NK) product, was as effective as existing CAR T-cell platforms in killing cancer cells in vivo, and the combination of FT596 plus rituximab killed lymphoma cancer cells that were no longer responding to CAR T-cell...
Mosunetuzumab, an investigational bispecific antibody, demonstrated activity in preliminary studies of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including those who are refractory to or relapsed after third-line chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. With further study, mosunetuzumab,...
Among children, adolescents, and young adults with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the bispecific T-cell engager blinatumomab improved event-free survival and overall survival, compared with standard chemotherapy, as post-reinduction consolidation therapy at first relapse prior to...
Are second-generation bispecific antibodies the next big thing in lymphoma? Studies of these drugs were among the highlights of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Years ago, the bispecific T-cell engager blinatumomab validated the concept of bispecific...
Ziad Bakouny, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses two types of renal cell cancer that are associated with poor prognosis. Because recent early data suggest these tumors respond well to immune checkpoint inhibitors, the authors characterized the tumors in an integrative molecular and...
The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to chemotherapy with carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel failed to significantly improve pathologic complete response rates compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with early high-risk, locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer. According...
A comprehensive molecular study of endometrial cancer published by Dou et al in Cell has further defined the contributions of key genes and proteins to the disease. The overview suggests new treatment approaches that could be tailored for each patient, as well as potential biologic targets for...
A new study found a wide state-by-state variation in rates of melanoma caused by ultraviolet (UV) exposure, with highest rates in several states on the east and west coasts (including Hawaii), but also a few landlocked states (including Utah, Vermont, and Minnesota). The report, published by Islami ...
ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have published an update to a joint guideline on systemic therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without driver mutations.1 “The treatment of stage IV NSCLC has become increasingly more complicated, and, with the advent of immunotherapy and the...
Andrea Wang-Gillam, MD, PhD, Clinical Director of the GI Oncology Program and Director of Developmental Therapeutics at Washington University in St. Louis, was the invited discussant of SEQUOIA and HALO 109-301. She tried to make sense of the two negative studies of pegylated agents in advanced...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Rita Nanda, MD, and colleagues, findings from the ongoing phase II I-SPY 2 trial indicated that the addition of pembrolizumab to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved pathologic complete response rates in patients with high-risk stage II/III HER2-negative breast ...
Hongchao Pan, PhD, of the University of Oxford, discusses an analysis of 86,000 women in the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group database, which showed that the risk of distant recurrence 20 years after a diagnosis of node-negative, estrogen receptor–negative early-stage breast...