Acute cystitis signaled the presence of urogenital cancers in middle-aged men and women, according to the results of a Swedish cohort study published in BMJ Public Health. Based on these findings, the researchers suggested that acute cystitis could be used as a clinical marker for urogenital...
City of Hope® has been awarded an up to $23.7 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant will help City of Hope to create a biomap of tumor changes that cause immunotherapy resistance in advanced ...
Investigators have found several oral bacteria and fungi associated with an increased risk for pancreatic cancer, according to findings published in JAMA Oncology. This cohort study seems to confirm a long-standing suspicion of the relationship between poor oral health and pancreatic cancer and...
In a phase I, first-in-human trial of nearly 50 patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies, the orally administered, small molecule degrader bexobrutideg (NX-5948) was reported to be well tolerated, including in those with a longer duration of treatment and higher doses. Clinical...
Three leading national cancer organizations have issued an updated guideline on postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) for physicians treating patients with breast cancer. The recommendations outline when PMRT is appropriate based on new evidence and evolving clinical practice, and they highlight...
A new policy review published by Tannock et al in The Lancet Oncology emphasizes the critical role of health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) data in the evaluation of treatments for people with advanced cancer. The publication highlights the importance of having standardized responder criteria when ...
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is one of the success stories among the hematologic malignancies. Now, with decades of data informing its management, it is time to change some of the practices to which clinicians have become accustomed, said leukemia expert Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, FASCO, Professor...
In a recent study published in JCO Oncology Practice, Steffensen et al examined the process of shared decision-making (SDM) in which clinicians and patients collaborate to make health-care decisions according to the patients’ values, preferences, and medical needs. Although many seriously ill...
On April 22, 2025, an ASCO Expert Panel voted to approve ASCO’s global guideline on geriatric assessment of patients with cancer older than age 65 who are being treated in resource-limited settings or countries.1 Guideline recommendations were informed by the ADAPTE methodology and formal consensus ...
The aging population, now the largest group of patients with cancer and cancer survivors, requires a rigorous and focused approach to clinical trial reporting, a need highlighted by the recent author guidelines from the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO; Table 1).1 The guidelines are an important...
In a meta-analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Lei et al found a small nonsignificant increase in off-target mortality from noncancer causes or cancers that were not the target of screening in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with screened and unscreened populations. As stated by the...
Each year, nearly 90,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs; aged 15–39) are diagnosed with cancer, and approximately 9,300 die of the disease.1 And although the 5-year survival rate among these young patients is approaching 80%, it lags behind that of the pediatric population, whose 5-year...
Many patients from Europe and the United States have experienced the benefits of anthracyclines in the treatment of an array of cancers, including solid tumors such as breast and ovarian cancers as well as lymphoma. However, a number of these cancer survivors will experience severe chronic cardiac...
New research has identified interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) as a critical regulator of immunotherapy sensitivity in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), offering a promising new avenue for overcoming resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade. These findings were presented at the...
As the global population ages, oncology faces an urgent challenge: ensuring that health-care professionals are adequately trained to address the unique complexities of cancer care for older adults. Despite the increasing prevalence of cancer in this demographic, geriatric oncology education remains ...
Research has shown that pain is among the most commonly experienced and feared aspects of a cancer diagnosis.1 It’s easy to understand why. In fact, cancer-related pain is so ubiquitous, between 20% and 50% of patients with early-stage cancer will experience pain,2 and up to 90% of patients with...
A first-in-human phase I study of SHR-4849 (IDE849), a Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3)-directed antibody-drug conjugate, demonstrated manageable safety and early signs of antitumor activity in patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The results were presented at the International...
ASCO and the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) have released updated standards for its Oncology Medical Home (OMH) certification program, which were initially codified and published in 2021.1 The 2021 systematic literature review focused on the topics of OMH model of care, clinical pathways, and...
Patients diagnosed with recurrent or progressive extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) may benefit from treatment with ifinatamab deruxtecan (I-DXd), a B7-H3–directed antibody-drug conjugate, according to data presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer...
ASCO has issued a new update to its living guideline regarding therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without driver alterations, based on results of three studies published recently.1 The update (the first since a previous version in February 2025) includes discussion of...
The results of the CARTITUDE-1 clinical trial demonstrate outstanding and unprecedented long-term efficacy with ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen–directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.1 (See the July 2025 issue of The ...
After decades of incremental progress in the treatment of multiple myeloma, survival has increased from 3 years in the late 1990s to between 8 and 10 years today.1 Could cure for a disease that kills more than 12,000 individuals each year in the United States2 finally be within reach? The long-term ...
The outlook for adequate funding for federal health agencies has become more dire. In July, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced it is reducing the number of grant applications it will award for the remaining 2 months of fiscal year 2025 (FY2025), from 9% down to 4%.1 The result is that...
Use of the PARP inhibitor niraparib in combination with the androgen biosynthesis inhibitor abiraterone acetate and the corticosteroid prednisone reduced the risk of disease progression, both radiographic and symptomatic, in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer harboring...
A novel, urine-based, three-biomarker panel demonstrated significant accuracy and promising sensitivity and specificity for the detection of prostate cancers during development and validation testing, according to findings published in eBioMedicine. “This new biomarker panel offers a promising,...
Despite data from the latest edition of The Cancer Atlas showing that nearly half of cancer mortality worldwide is attributed to modifiable risk factors, cancer incidence and mortality rates continue to soar.1 Globally, approximately 19 million new cases of cancer, excluding nonmelanoma skin...
Individuals carrying a rare pathogenic variant in one of 16 cancer-associated genes were 1.9 times more likely to develop a single cancer and 2.6 times more likely to develop multiple primary cancers, according to the results of a genetic association study published in JAMA Oncology. These...
Taking low-dose colchicine daily may slow the progression of a common acquired gene mutation found in the blood of older adults that can lead to certain blood cancers and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a subanalysis of the LoDoCo2 trial published by Mohammadnia et al in JACC ...
A randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of providing personalized risk information to patients and their providers about the patient’s risk for advanced colorectal neoplasia has found no difference in screening uptake with either the personalized risk messages or provider...
Use of a daily interferon-α nasal spray could significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection among adult patients with cancer, according to the results of a multicenter, randomized trial published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The results suggest that the nasal spray could be a potential...
This past May, ASCO announced its collaboration with Google Cloud to launch the ASCO® Guidelines Assistant, a new interactive tool that allows clinicians to quickly access ASCO’s evidence-based clinical guidelines to facilitate critical clinical decision-making. Developed with Google Cloud’s Vertex ...
For individuals diagnosed with early breast cancer, the long-term risk of developing a second primary cancer is low—around 2% to 3% greater than the general population)—according to findings published by McGale et al in The BMJ. The researchers say this information can help reassure many breast...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved rilzabrutinib (Wayrilz), a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, for adults with persistent or chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. The approval was based on the pivotal LUNA ...
Based on the results of a single-center phase II trial published by Bhatt et al in the American Journal of Hematology, pretreatment geriatric assessment in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appeared to be feasible, to identify several functional impairments, to help guide the selection ...
Each year in the United States, nearly 16,000 children and adolescents between the ages of birth and 19 are diagnosed with cancer.1 And although survival rates have greatly improved for many types of childhood cancers, with more than 8 in 10 children and adolescents surviving at least 5 years after ...
Cancer survivors receiving government-subsidized rent were found to have a lower risk of experiencing financial hardships around medical expenses compared with those not receiving housing assistance, according to the results of a cross-sectional study published as a research letter in JAMA Network...
After 2 decades of practicing medicine across multiple disciplines and health systems, I’ve witnessed the dramatic transformation of patient-physician interactions, and none more dramatic than what I’m seeing in this era of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on cancer care. Early in my...
July marks a significant transition for many professionals, particularly those beginning structured training programs on July 1. This article is designed to support new and current hematology-oncology fellows and trainees in making the most of their training experience. Although not all suggestions ...
ASCO extends its thanks and appreciation to Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, for his decade of leadership and dedication as the inaugural Principal Investigator of the groundbreaking Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study. The ASCO-sponsored TAPUR study is a...
Patients with stage II or III breast cancer who participated in a remote weight-loss intervention program lost an average of 4.7% of their baseline body weight after 1 year, whereas those in the education-only control group gained an average 1% of their baseline weight, according to a recent report ...
Researchers have found that unmet social needs was associated with less trust in cancer information received from doctors and the health-care system, according to study findings led by the American Cancer Society and published in Psycho-Oncology. “Public trust in health authorities is so essential ...
A topical fluorescent molecular contrast agent, PARPi-FL (a poly[adenosine diphosphate ribose] polymerase 1 [PARP1] inhibitor–targeted fluorescent contrast agent) detected basal cell carcinoma through intact skin in as little as 5 minutes in ex vivo human tissues, according to new preclinical...
In a case presentation published in The New England Journal of Medicine, targeted treatment was successful for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-positive peripheral T-cell lymphoma developed after CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma. Using advanced genomic, phenotypic, and functional profiling...
Based on the results of a single-center phase III Chinese trial, which were published by Liao et al in JAMA Oncology, bacterial decolonization therapy with the antibiotic mupirocin may be an effective and cost-efficient strategy for alleviating severe acute radiation-induced oral mucositis in...
Clinical trials have sought to determine the benefit of treating the precursors of multiple myeloma, but as the phenotypes and genomics of this entity are becoming better delineated, the wisdom of early intervention has remained confusing for clinicians. At the 2025 Debates and Didactics in...
I would like to begin by sharing a bit of my journey in geriatric oncology. Often, we do not hear the origin stories behind our professional paths, and I believe it is important to reflect on them. I have spent my entire academic career at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where I arrived...
Nivolumab in combination with RP1 (vusolimogene oderparepvec), a herpes simplex virus type 1–based oncolytic immunotherapy, showed activity in patients with advanced melanoma who experienced disease progression on standard anti‒PD-1‒based immunotherapy, according to findings from the phase I/II...
Rechallenge with the HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) after grade 1 interstitial lung disease (ILD) appeared to be safe in a diverse real-world population, including many patients with breast cancer, as presented during the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 The ...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) launched the next phase of an initiative to improve how to interpret interim overall survival (OS) data in oncology clinical trials. Building on discussions during the Friends 2024 Annual Meeting, this new effort focuses on developing practical frameworks and...
More than 100 organizations representing millions of patients with serious health conditions and health-care professionals sent a letter to Congress expressing their strong support for the Clinical Trial Modernization Act. Introduced in the House of Representatives in May 2025 by Reps. Raul Ruiz...