Results of a multi-institutional study published by St-Laurent et al in Science Direct revealed that testing urine-based tumor DNA (utDNA) may help to predict which patients with bladder cancer are at higher risk for recurrence after not responding to first-line treatment. The study analyzed utDNA...
Only about 13% of U.S. adults correctly reported that testicular cancer is most common among men younger than 40, according to the results of a survey. The survey, commissioned by The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research...
The 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting has officially concluded. Our sincere thanks to the global oncology community and ASCO for creating such a remarkable forum advancing cancer care. Here we highlight the most impactful updates in genitourinary tumors from this year’s meeting. Kidney Cancer: Long-Term...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, DiNardo et al investigated whether frontline triplet regimens consisting of a hypomethylating agent, venetoclax, and an isocitrate dehydrogenase inhibitor were active in intensive chemotherapy-ineligible patients with IDH-mutant ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Kirby et al, 10-year follow-up of the phase III UK IMPORT LOW trial has shown that partial-breast and reduced-dose radiotherapy continue to be associated with similar ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) outcomes compared with whole-breast radiotherapy...
About one in six tested chemotherapies in sub-Saharan Africa were found to have serious quality defects, according to the results of a study published in The Lancet Global Health. Researchers assessed the appearance, packaging, and labeling of each cancer medication and measured the quantity of...
Researchers have uncovered a biomarker that may determine response to cytokine-induced killer-cell therapy and survival in patients with colorectal cancer, according to a recent study published by Li et al in The Journal of Immunology. Background Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of...
The Association for Molecular Pathology has introduced best practice recommendations for clinical laboratories developing and performing homologous recombination deficiency testing, according to new guidelines published by Hsiao et al in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. Background Homologous...
Breast cancer survivors may have a slightly lower risk of developing Alzheimer dementia compared with cancer-free individuals, according to the results of a study published by Jeong et al in JAMA Network Open. “The risk of Alzheimer dementia is a crucial aspect of overall well-being among breast...
A combination of menin inhibition and KAT6A/7 inhibition significantly improved survival for NUP98-rearranged pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in AML model systems, even in menin inhibitor–resistant cells, according to findings published in Cancer Discovery. The MYST gene family histone...
In patients with polycythemia vera requiring frequent phlebotomies, the investigational hepcidin mimetic rusfertide, given as a weekly subcutaneous injection, more than doubled the clinical response rate and significantly improved quality of life in the global phase III VERIFY study.1 These...
Mail-in self-collection tests for human papillomavirus (HPV) more than doubled cervical cancer screening participation among never- and under-screened U.S. women, according to a first-of-its-kind study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In the real-world,...
In 2022, I had a computed tomography (CT) coronary calcium scan to see whether there were any signs of narrowing or blockage in my heart arteries. Heart disease runs in my family. My father died of a heart attack the year before, and I worried that I was at risk for the same fate. It was a complete ...
W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, FASCO, has been selected for the prestigious 2025 Hologic, Inc Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. Launched in 2016, the Women Who Conquer Cancer award program honors extraordinary women leaders in oncology and role models who have excelled as mentors...
The number of people living with a history of cancer in the United States is estimated at 18.6 million as of January 1, 2025, and projected to exceed 22 million by 2035, according to a new report, Cancer Treatment and Survivorship Statistics, 2025, led by the American Cancer Society (ACS). The...
Guest Editor’s Note: Although guidelines recommend adjuvant combination chemotherapy for patients with stage II and III colon cancer who are at high risk of disease recurrence, fewer than 50% complete treatment because of fear of adverse effects or symptom burden. The herbal formula Jianpi Bushen ...
Providing a brief, 90-day course of preoperative endocrine therapy to older women with early-stage, estrogen receptor–positive, invasive breast cancer may significantly alter both patient preferences and physician recommendations regarding adjuvant radiation therapy, according to data presented...
Besides relapse of the malignant disease, graft-vs-host disease is still one of the greatest concerns, in terms of adverse effects, following a hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in a patient with a hematologic malignancy. To mitigate these concerns, investigators are continually analyzing ...
Based on the findings of the VERITAC-2 trial, treatment with the selective PROTAC (proteolysis targeting chimera) estrogen receptor degrader vepdegestrant yielded statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival in patients with ESR1-mutant, estrogen...
The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is actively engaged in advocacy to protect Medicaid access for millions of Americans. Members can support ASCO’s Medicaid advocacy efforts through the ACT Network. In 2025, ASCO has partnered with other health-care organizations and engaged with...
ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline update on the role of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in early-stage breast cancer.1 The update includes recommendations based on findings from trials released after the published guideline in 2017, including data from nine randomized trials...
In the phase III DESTINY-Gastric04 trial, use of the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) was compared head to head with the monoclonal antibody ramucirumab and paclitaxel in patients with previously treated, HER2-positive metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction...
Patients with previously untreated BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer who receive the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib and the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab plus mFOLFOX6 (modified leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin) vs the current standard of care (chemotherapy ± bevacizumab) may live...
On January 20, 2025, newly sworn-in President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,”1 effectively eliminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, preferences, and activities across the federal...
For the adjuvant treatment of stage III colon cancer with DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) tumors, the addition of the checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to standard chemotherapy significantly improved disease-free survival in the phase III ATOMIC trial. The results position this approach as a...
In the phase III DESTINY-Breast09 trial, first-line treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) plus the monoclonal antibody pertuzumab significantly delayed disease progression by more than 1 year—nearly doubling the time of disease control—over standard...
The most aggressive melanomas may hyperactivate two key processes in mitochondria, according to a novel study, and blocking these pathways with currently available drugs may eliminate melanoma cells, explained investigators. These findings were published by Kim et al in the journal Cancer....
In an interim analysis of the phase III LEAP-015 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shitara et al examined the survival benefit of adding lenvatinib-pembrolizumab to chemotherapy in patients with advanced/metastatic gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. Study Details In the open-label...
The relationship between genetic variants and the risk of late-onset cardiomyopathy remains poorly understood in survivors of childhood cancer despite being otherwise well established. Scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have helped address this gap, assessing whether variant...
A healthy gut microbiome prior to chemotherapy could help protect against cardiotoxicity as a result of breast cancer therapy, according to new findings presented by Antoniades et al at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Cardio-Oncology 2025 annual conference. Background Cardiotoxicity is a...
Whether a patient’s breast cancer was detected through symptoms or routine screening mammography significantly affected their risk for advanced disease or death, according to a study published recently in Radiology: Imaging Cancer. Patients with symptom-detected breast cancer had higher odds of...
A common germline variant in the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) (rs562556, V474I) gene rather than a mutation in a breast cancer tumor may be the driving force in significantly increasing the risk of breast cancer metastasis and reducing survival in women with the disease....
I’ve been a physician for several decades, seeing patients and functioning as a medical teacher; clinical, translational, and bench researcher; and administrator. Adapting to medical practice in three nations and several U.S. states has been quite challenging at different times, but I really think...
In the United States, approximately 55% of patients with resected gallbladder cancer undergo oncologic surgery without additional systemic treatment. However, as gallbladder cancer progresses to T3 (locally or regionally advanced) or T4 (distant metastasis) disease, the tumor frequently infiltrates ...
Prevention of graft-vs-host disease was far superior with a cyclophosphamide/cyclosporin-based regimen than with standard prophylaxis in patients receiving a matched-sibling donor stem cell transplant in a large Australian randomized trial, investigators reported at the European Hematology...
Combining the CD79b-directed antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin-piiq with rituximab, gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin (R-GemOx) significantly improved survival outcomes in patients with transplant-ineligible, relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), over standard rituximab ...
In a phase III trial (PANOVA-3) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Babiker et al examined the survival benefit of using tumor treating fields (TTFields) with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel in patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Study Details In the global...
In the largest study of its kind, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified three subgroups of patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who have different levels of benefit from CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. In the study,...
Higher baseline levels of certain cardiac biomarkers were associated with an increased risk of future incidence of cancer, according to findings from a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances. Higher incidence rates for all cancers were associated with higher ...
A single dose of psilocybin may provide sustained reductions in depression and anxiety among patients with cancer and major depressive disorder, according to a recent study published by Agrawal et al in Cancer. Patients with cancer often experience depression. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring...
The order of colorectal cancer diagnosis seems to have a significant impact on outcomes in patients with multiple primary malignancies, according to the results of a study of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program data. Findings from the study were published in the Journal of...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Stephen R. Grobmyer, MD, FACS, about his clinical and research career in oncology, the challenges and rewards of moving to Abu Dhabi and building a state-of-the-art cancer center, and...
The “One, Big, Beautiful” reconciliation bill making its way through Congress, which would make permanent provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set to expire this year, includes massive cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage. An analysis of six potential Medicaid cuts...
In a phase II trial (Alliance A091802) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zandberg et al investigated the survival benefit of adding cetuximab to avelumab in patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Study Details In the U.S. multicenter trial, 57 evaluable patients were...
The risk of developing breast implant–associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) could be higher among women with breast cancer and BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations who received textured breast implants as part of their postmastectomy reconstructive surgery compared with patients lacking the genetic...
A telehealth-based care program may improve daily functioning, mood, disease understanding, and quality of life among older adults with cancer, according to a recent study published by Bergerot et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Study Methods and Results...
Researchers have developed a nomogram prediction model for the development of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, according to study results published in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. A number of significant independent risk factors for DVT...
Mail-in self-collection kits for human papillomavirus (HPV) were found to be effective at increasing cervical cancer screening rates compared with standard telephone reminders alone in a safety-net health-care setting, according to results from the PRESTIS trial published in JAMA Internal Medicine. ...
Stopping the widespread use of unnecessary, potentially harmful cancer screenings may take up to 13 years and potentially longer following the implementation of new guidelines, according to a recent study published by LeLaurin et al in BMJ Quality & Safety. Background The U.S. Preventive...
A study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigating cancer incidence in the United States between 2010 and 2019 has found that breast, colorectal, endometrial, pancreatic, and kidney cancers are becoming more common among individuals younger than age 50. Although the study...