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 study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Neupane et al explored the question of whether cancer treatment and genetic predisposition are primary contributors to the risk of subsequent neoplasms (SNs) in long-term survivors of childhood cancers. Study Details The study involved data from the St....
On June 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved tafasitamab-cxix (Monjuvi), a CD19-directed cytolytic antibody, with lenalidomide and rituximab for adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma. inMIND Trial Efficacy was evaluated in inMIND (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier...
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...
In a phase II trial (EBIN) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Robert et al investigated the survival benefit of adding induction encorafenib/binimetinib to nivolumab/ipilimumab in patients with advanced melanoma with BRAF V600E or BRAF V600K mutation. Study Details In the open-label trial, 271...
A new combination of azacitidine, venetoclax, and revumenib demonstrated high rates of complete response and clinical activity in older adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and an NPM1 mutation or KMT2A rearrangement. The regimen was also shown to be safe in updated results from ...
Initial early results were seen for the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis in the NEXICART-2 trial. This was the first U.S. trial of CAR T-cell therapy for patients with AL amyloidosis, demonstrating...
Patients with gastrointestinal cancer treated with fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy benefit from an almost eightfold reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality, despite a slight increase in the risk for cardiovascular toxicity, according to recent findings published by Abiodun et al in JACC:...
On June 12, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mitomycin intravesical solution (Zusduri) for adult patients with recurrent low-grade intermediate-risk non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Mitomycin intravesical solution is a reverse thermal hydrogel formulation of mitomycin...
In a Chinese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yin et al attempted to develop a cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentomics–based model for early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Study Details The study consisted of training and validation cohorts from several Chinese...
In a French-Belgian phase III trial (MIDAS) reported at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting and in The New England Journal of Medicine, Perrot et al examined the outcomes of treatments guided by measurable residual disease (MRD) status in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Study Details In...
“The [National Cancer Institute (NCI)] is a national treasure. If funding is diminished, it will be catastrophic to millions of patients and families who will experience the devastation of cancer in the coming years,” Richard J. Boxer, MD, wrote in an editorial Viewpoint published in JAMA Oncology ...
Recent national survey data from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) have shown that further cuts to Medicare reimbursement for radiation therapy would increase patient wait times for cancer treatment and force clinic downsizing. Nearly all (96%) of the 675 physicians responding to...
The management of metastatic (CRPC) has rapidly accelerated in the past decade, giving oncologists a wider range of tools to work with and patients new opportunities for improving survival and maintaining quality of life. These significant advancements have prompted ASCO to release a guideline...
Within hours of the start of his second administration, on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order proclaiming that the country would now recognize only two sexes, male and female, essentially rejecting transgender identity, and directing all federal agencies to use the...
Experts and patients alike would agree that navigating the current fragmented U.S. health-care system is not an easy task. One component of that disconnection may center on the relationship between oncology and primary care. The benefits of collaboration between oncologists and primary care...
With the approval of HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate options for treating patients with breast cancer across different HER2 expression levels, accurate assessment of HER2 expression has become more important than ever. And a recent study may provide a solution to the challenge of accurate...
Studies have shown that being overweight or having obesity increases the risk of developing more than a dozen cancers, including meningioma, multiple myeloma, esophageal, thyroid, breast, gallbladder, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, ovarian, uterus, and colorectal.1 The presence of excess body...
Maintenance treatment with the alkylating agent lurbinectedin plus the monoclonal antibody atezolizumab significantly improved both progression-free survival and overall survival compared with atezolizumab alone in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to data...
“Inavolisib plus palbociclib and fulvestrant significantly improved overall survival compared with placebo plus palbociclib/fulvestrant…. This is the first time overall survival has been significantly improved by a PI3K pathway–targeted drug,” said Nicholas Turner, MD, PhD, FRCP,FMedSci, who...
In a long-term follow-up of the phase III MD Anderson dose-escalated, hypofractionated prostate radiation study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hassanzadeh et al compared hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (HIMRT) vs conventionally fractionated intensity-modulated...
Neil M. Iyengar, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, reviews several studies that aimed to answer two questions: does menopausal hormone therapy (HRT) impact overall survival and breast cancer–specific mortality in younger women diagnosed with high-risk disease (Abstract 10506); and do...
The first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate pivekimab sunirine was found to be safe and effective, with high response rates, in patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendric cell neoplasm (BPDCN), according to data from a phase I/II study presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 6502). These ...
On June 3, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved darolutamide (Nubeqa) for the treatment of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC). The oral androgen receptor inhibitor had previously been approved by the FDA in combination with docetaxel for mCSPC. Efficacy...
Although the SWOG S2302 Pragmatica-Lung trial did not achieve its primary endpoint of improved overall survival with the combination of ramucirumab and pembrolizumab compared with standard-of-care treatments for patients with stage IV or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who previously...
Patients with stage II and III (early-stage) HER2-positive breast cancer usually undergo preoperative therapy with multiagent chemotherapy in combination with anti-HER2 antibodies, followed by surgery. A less intensive, reduced-chemotherapy treatment approach is currently being evaluated in the...
New long-term follow-up data from the phase Ib/II CARTITUDE-1 study demonstrated that one-third of patients in the study with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma treated with the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy ciltacabtagene autoleucel achieved progression-free survival of 5 years or...
An investigational dual-target chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy approach could slow tumor growth in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, according to new findings presented by Bagley et al at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 102) and simultaneously published in Nature ...
Marital status significantly impacts survival rates for patients with colorectal cancer, according to a new Fox Chase Cancer Center study that was presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 3628). Married individuals were found to have better survival rates than single or separated and...
The investigational agent ziftomenib, a menin-MLL inhibitor, demonstrated activity in patients with relapsed or refractory NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML), regardless of prior venetoclax treatment, according to findings from the phase II KOMET-001 trial. Findings from the study were...
Results from the phase III DESTINY-Breast09 clinical trial found that the combination of fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) with pertuzumab may delay cancer growth for longer than the current standard of care in people with HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. The...
Results from an international phase III clinical trial found that treating patients with stage II, III, and IVA resectable gastric cancer and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer with perioperative durvalumab and FLOT chemotherapy (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel) helped...
Adding the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab to standard chemoradiotherapy after surgery significantly reduced recurrence rates for patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who are at high risk for recurrence, according to data presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 At a...
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses two abstracts on lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) in relapsed/refractory (R/R) chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL). In Abstract 7037, liso-cel with ibrutinib demonstrated...
Results from an international phase III clinical trial show that treatment with sacituzumab govitecan-hziy and pembrolizumab helps patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic PD-L1–positive triple-negative breast cancer live longer without disease progression compared with...
Results from an international clinical trial show that a 14-gene molecular assay can help identify patients with early-stage nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery. The research will be presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting...
Patients with leiomyosarcoma experience a high risk of recurrence and have limited treatment options. No biomarkers or targetable mutations currently improve diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment. Spatial transcriptomics, which are rarely used in sarcomas, may provide insights into leiomyosarcoma...
In a phase II trial (RAVENS) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al attempted to determine whether the addition of the bone metastasis–targeting agent radium-223 to stereotactic ablative radiotherapy improved progression-free survival as metastasis-directed therapy in patients...
At just 5 years old, Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, FASCO, already knew that she wanted to be a physician when she grew up, although she can’t explain where the idea came from. She just knows the desire to help others was ingrained in her from a very early age. Growing up in New Delhi, India, where...
Investigators may have uncovered a modest but potentially significant association between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a recent study published by Naudin et al in PLOS Medicine. Background Pancreatic cancer is the twelfth most common cancer type...
In a single-center phase I trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Svoboda et al assessed the safety, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of an enhanced chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy (huCART19-IL18) in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma after previous...
With the currently available BCR::ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has transformed from an invariably fatal disorder (10-year overall survival < 10%) to an indolent one, associated with a near-normal life expectancy on optimal tyrosine kinase inhibitor...
An evaluation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ OIG) of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) colorectal cancer screening practices for inmates and their clinical follow-up for positive screenings found several serious operational and managerial deficiencies...
Researchers may have uncovered early indications of the clinical benefit of niraparib in patients with advanced melanoma whose tumors have specific genetic changes impacting DNA repair, according to a recent study published by Kim et al in JCO Precision Oncology. Background The U.S. Food and Drug...
Although I have spent the past 2 decades of my medical career as a primary care physician, educator, and researcher in conditions that disproportionately affect people of Asian descent, including lung cancer, I was still unprepared to hear the words “You have stage IV non–small cell lung...
The JAK (Janus kinase) inhibitor ruxolitinib may prove to be an effective treatment of parkinsonism arising from immunotherapy for patients with multiple myeloma, according to the results of two case reports by Baldeep Wirk, MD, and Jin Lim, MD, PhD, both of Virginia Commonwealth University,...
Thousands of forward-looking research studies defined the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. Here, aside from our fuller coverage of key presentations in The ASCO Post, we offer a snapshot of a few additional abstracts that may be of interest to cancer researchers...
Mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) tumors beyond those in the rectum may respond to PD-1 blockade in the neoadjuvant setting, offering the option of organ preservation in early-stage cancer regardless of the tumor type, researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center reported at the...
For more than 25 years, my goal as a community oncologist has been to ensure that all patients have access to the highest-quality cancer care. This is the future I stood for when I became ASCO’s 61st President and what I know our more than 50,000 members stand for. And I believe we will get there...