Commercially available noninvasive screening tests for colorectal cancer—the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) and the Cologuard multitarget stool DNA test—are equally effective for screening patients with early-stage colorectal cancer. However, FIT costs about one-fifth of the multitarget stool DNA...
Researchers at the Barts Cancer Institute at the Queen Mary University of London, the Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine, and the University of Milan may have identified a novel role for a cancer-causing gene in controlling an important genetic process that underpins genetic variation in...
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 ...
Amy Tiersten, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, Director of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,...
Switching from an aromatase inhibitor to fulvestrant upon early identification of the ESR1 mutation in plasma—before disease progression—doubled progression-free survival in the phase III PADA-1 trial, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “PADA-1 is the first trial to...
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...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by François-Clément Bidard, MD, and colleagues, the French phase III PADA-1 trial has shown that switching to fulvestrant/palbociclib vs continuing first-line aromatase inhibitor (AI)/palbociclib therapy was associated with improved progression-free survival among ...
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 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...
On this episode, we’re highlighting speakers who presented data in skin cancer during the ESMO Congress 2022, including findings on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy in advanced melanoma, cemiplimab in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, and the association of circulating tumor DNA and disease...
An advanced software tool for analyzing DNA sequences from tumor samples has uncovered new, likely cancer-driving genes. In a study, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers designed the software, known as CSVDriver, to map and analyze the locations of large mutations, known as structural variants, in...
Discussant of the IMpower010 abstract, Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, Professor and Head of Clinical Research at Institute Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, said there is enough evidence to use adjuvant immunotherapy in stage II–IIIA resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), calling the increased...
The first discussant of the NADIM II study, Corinne Faivre-Finn, MD, PhD, Professor of Thoracic Radiation Oncology, University of Manchester, and Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, England, called the results “very impressive” but noted that...
A common, spontaneous mutation in blood stem cells, which has been linked to a higher risk of blood cancer and cardiovascular disease, may promote these diseases by altering the stem cells’ programming of gene activity and the mix of blood cells they produce, according to a study co-led by...
A large prospective analysis, published by Bayle et al in Annals of Oncology, evaluated differences between tissue and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) next-generation sequencing (NGS) with a large cancer gene panel. The investigators compared the impacts of both methods in terms of molecular tumor...
Esophageal adenocarcinoma is a type of cancer affecting the mucus-secreting glands of the lower esophagus and is the most common form of esophageal cancer. It is often preceded by Barrett’s metaplasia, a deleterious change in cells lining the esophagus. Though the cause of esophageal adenocarcinoma ...
On September 28, the Lasker Foundation announced the winners of the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 2022 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the 2022 Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award. Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award Richard O. Hynes, PhD, of the...
Black patients of African descent tend to be diagnosed more frequently with prostate cancer and have higher mortality rates than patients of other races and ethnicities. Despite this substantial disparity, few prospective studies focused on maximizing the recruitment of African American patients...
The incorporation of blood-based measurements—ie, “liquid biopsies”—into imaging assessment may refine the accuracy of prognosis in aggressive lymphomas, as described by David Kurtz, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, in a talk at the 2022...
Discussant of the IMpower010 abstract, Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, Professor and Head of Clinical Research at Institute Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, said there is enough evidence to use adjuvant immunotherapy in stage II–IIIA resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), calling the increased...
Abstract discussant Kara N. Maxwell, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, highlighted evidence showing that some lung cancer is inherited. The Nordic Twin Study identified an 18% heritability of lung cancer, she said,...
Germline testing may be warranted for all patients with lung cancer, according to research presented during the August 2022 ASCO Plenary Series by Renato G. Martins, MD, MPH, Chair of Hematology Oncology and Palliative Care at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, Richmond.1 The...
The first discussant of the NADIM II study, Corinne Faivre-Finn, MD, PhD, Professor of Thoracic Radiation Oncology, University of Manchester, and Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, England, called the results “very impressive” but noted that...
Julien Taïeb, MD, PhD, of Paris Descartes University, discusses phase II results from the SAMCO-PRODIGE 54 trial, which shows the efficacy and safety of avelumab in the second-line treatment of patients with deficient DNA mismatch–repair microsatellite-instability metastatic colorectal cancer....
This is Part 1 of Updates in Colorectal Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Cathy Eng, Arvind Dasari, and Smitha Krishnamurthi discuss the role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in early-stage colon cancer....
In a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) substudy from the CALGB/SWOG-80405/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kanwal Raghav, MD, MBBS, and colleagues found that first-line use of the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab combined with chemotherapy was associated with only a small number ...
Researchers at The Marvin and Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center have found that a new synthetic lethal agent could be an effective treatment for pancreatic cancers with DNA damage repair (DDR) defects. Igor Astsaturov, MD, PhD, a co-director of the Institute...
Certain genetic variants found in prostate tumors of men of African descent were associated with African ancestry, according to two studies presented at the 15th American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial and Ethnic Minorities...
Georgina V. Long, MD, PhD, of the Melanoma Institute Australia, discusses results from the CheckMate 915 trial, an analysis of the pretreatment circulating tumor DNA, along with other clinical and translational baseline factors, and their association with disease recurrence in patients with stage...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Topham et al, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis indicated significantly increased frequencies of multiple potential EGFR inhibitor resistance alterations among patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer with vs without prior ...
Physicians, care providers, and payers may be preparing for a major shift in early cancer detection that will affect almost every stage of cancer diagnosis and treatment. New data supporting the accuracy of multicancer early detection blood testing, presented by Deb Schrag, MD, FASCO, MPH, at the...
ASCO has issued a new practice guideline update on the use of biomarkers in the management of metastatic breast cancer.1 The updated guideline revisits recommendations from the 2015 guideline and addresses topics that have emerged since then in the move toward personalized medicine in metastatic...
On August 11, 2022, Roche announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a label expansion for the Ventana MMR RxDx Panel. The Ventana MMR RxDx Panel is the first immunohistochemistry companion diagnostic test to aid in identifying patients whose solid tumors are deficient in DNA ...
A team of researchers from the University of Rochester discovered how certain genetic mutations fuel the growth of cholangiocarcinoma, a rare but aggressive type of malignancy that has been on the rise in the United States. Their work, published by Guo et al in Cell Reports this week, details the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Herzog et al have developed a simple noninvasive test for screening for suspected endometrial cancer—the Women’s Cancer Risk Identification-Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Test for Endometrial Cancer (WID-qEC)—that has shown accuracy in...
Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) alone may be considered an effective treatment option for “low-risk” T1–2N1 and T3N0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma, according to trial data presented by Jun Ma, MD, MS, Professor of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China,...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in JAMA, Tang et al found that radiotherapy alone was noninferior to concurrent chemoradiotherapy in failure-free survival in patients with low-risk nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Study Details In the open-label multicenter trial, 341 patients were randomly assigned ...
According to Quynh-Thu Le, MD, FACR, FASTRO, Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology at Stanford, these results suggest that monitoring circulating human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA may lead to the detection of relapse prior to imaging. In an interview with The ASCO Post, Dr. Le also noted that...
A blood-basedliquid biopsy may accurately predict recurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma following treatment, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Results of the large, multi-institutional study...
Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the world, with 1.1 million new diagnoses reported annually.1 In the United States, the incidence of oral and pharyngeal cancers is over 54,000 cases per year, resulting in over 11,000 yearly deaths.2 Although smoking and alcohol consumption ...
As reported in The Lancet by Chihara et al, analysis of outcomes in National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored, investigator-initiated phase I trials in solid tumors over a 20-year period has shown a near doubling of objective response rate, with no increase in treatment-related mortality. Study...
Researchers have identified biological markers in patients with triple-negative breast cancer that are associated with resistance to chemotherapy. The study was published by Anurag et al in the journal Cancer Discovery and was funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Proteomics Tumor...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Simon J. Crabb, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, PhD, and colleagues found that maintenance therapy with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib vs placebo was associated with prolonged progression-free survival in patients with...
The 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting was filled with important science, engaging data, and several practice-changing abstracts, many of which have been covered in detail on other pages or in earlier issues of The ASCO Post. There were numerous high-impact studies and attendees, whether present at the...
On this episode, we’re featuring discussions about data in colorectal cancer that were presented at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting. Dr. Michael Overman, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, speaks with two presenters about guiding therapy with circulating tumor DNA and refining...
Germline testing may be warranted for all patients with lung cancer, according to research presented by Sorscher et al during the August ASCO Plenary Series Program (Abstract 388570). The retrospective review of nearly 8,000 patients with lung cancer undergoing germline testing found that 14.9% had ...
By searching previously ignored regions of the genome, researchers have found a multitude of new genetic mutations that may contribute to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). These findings were published by Bal et al in Nature. “Our findings not only show that these mutations can contribute to...
A newly constructed map of the landscape of genetic changes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may provide a better understanding of this complex malignancy, which could lead to more accurate prognoses for patients, improved diagnostics, and novel treatments. These research findings were...
On August 11, Roche announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a label expansion for the Ventana MMR RxDx Panel. The Ventana MMR RxDx Panel is the first immunohistochemistry (IHC) companion diagnostic test to aid in identifying patients whose solid tumors are deficient in DNA ...
Patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received a combined therapy of tremelimumab, durvalumab, and chemotherapy experienced longer overall survival compared with those who received chemotherapy alone, regardless of STK11, KEAP1, or KRAS mutational status. These findings...