As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Al-Sawaf et al, 3-year follow-up of the phase III CLL14 trial showed maintained significant improvement in progression-free survival with the fixed-duration regimen of venetoclax/obinutuzumab vs chlorambucil/obinutuzumab in previously untreated patients with...
The standard of care since 2003, sentinel lymph node biopsy has dramatically reduced the risk of lymphedema in early breast cancer, but more than 6% of patients still develop the condition. At the ASCO20 Virtual Education Program, Nicole L. Stout, DPT, CLT-LANA, FAPTA, Research Assistant Professor...
In a UK study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lee et al in the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP) found an increased prevalence of COVID-19 infection among patients with hematologic malignancies and increased risk of death from COVID-19 in patients with leukemia and those with...
Updated results of the phase III ALTERNATIVE trial of dual HER2 inhibition with lapatinib/trastuzumab plus aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy in HER2-positive, hormone receptor (HR)-positive metastatic breast cancer were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Johnston et al. The previously...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Michael Frumovitz, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues, there were no significant differences in quality of life, a secondary endpoint, for women undergoing open vs minimally invasive radical hysterectomy for...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alicia Léon-Castillo, MD, of Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands, and colleagues identified outcomes associated with molecular subgroups of patients with high-risk endometrial cancer enrolled in the PORTEC-3 trial of adjuvant...
the final results of the phase II KEYNOTE-100 study of pembrolizumab in women with advanced and recurrent ovarian cancer showed that pembrolizumab monotherapy produced modest clinical activity. Ursula Matulonis, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, reported the data at the...
Two phase III trials provided support for secondary cytoreductive surgery in women with recurrent ovarian cancer, with the caveats that patient selection is key and the surgery should be performed at sites of excellence. The results of the DESKTOP III and SOC1 trials, both presented during the...
In women with advanced ovarian cancer responding to first-line chemotherapy, maintenance therapy with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor niraparib significantly reduced the risk of disease progression by 38% overall and by 60% in women with BRCA mutations. Even patients without a...
Making sense of maintenance therapy in advanced ovarian cancer has been a tall order since the publication of impressive data for not one but three poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress.1 The picture became a little clearer...
In a National Cancer Database cohort study reported in a research letter in JAMA Network Open, Ma et al found that receipt vs no receipt of adjuvant endocrine therapy was associated with improved overall survival in women with small hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancers. As...
Doxorubicin is a standard of care in patients with advanced inoperable soft-tissue sarcoma. In the EPAZ study, German researchers tested whether pazopanib showed comparable efficacy to doxorubicin in the first-line treatment of elderly patients with soft-tissue sarcoma. Grünwald et al reported in...
In a meta-analysis reported in JAMA Surgery, Marinovich et al found that reoperation rates after breast-conserving surgery in women with breast cancer declined after the publication of the Society of Surgical Oncology/American Society for Radiation Oncology (SSO/ASTRO) Consensus Guideline on...
In a single-institution study reported in JAMA Network Open, Shahrokni et al found that postoperative care comanaged by the geriatrics service and surgical service was associated with reduced 90-day postoperative mortality vs care managed by the surgical service alone among patients aged 75 and...
The message still needs to get out that metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer should be treated with both androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and either docetaxel or an androgen receptor pathway inhibitor. In spite of “overwhelming” support for ADT plus abiraterone/prednisone,...
In a patient-level meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chiara Cremolini, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan (FOLFOXIRI) plus bevacizumab was associated with significantly greater overall survival vs...
The first-line setting for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) now has become more complicated, according to data presented during the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer Virtual...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Bitterman et al found that Black pediatric patients enrolled in Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trials were significantly less likely to receive proton radiotherapy than non-Hispanic White pediatric patients. As stated by the investigators, “Proton radiotherapy ...
Given the rising costs of cancer care, many patients with cancer and cancer survivors are challenged by financial toxicity, the burden of care costs. Many struggle to choose a health insurance plan that best meets their needs. Moreover, these challenges are often exacerbated by limited health...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Esbenshade et al prospectively evaluated the Esbenshade Vanderbilt (EsVan) model for risk prediction of bloodstream infections in febrile pediatric patients with cancer without severe neutropenia, showing that the model accurately predicted...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Dee et al found that radiotherapy (RT) initiated at up to 6 months after the start of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) was not associated with poorer overall survival vs initiation before ADT in men with prostate cancer. The investigators observed that these...
In a study published by Gao et al in The American Journal of Pathology, scientists reported the discovery of an increased level of the neuroprotein sortilin in pancreatic cancer cells. The investigators speculated that this finding may lead to the development of more effective treatment for...
Although extensive research has suggested ways to ensure that patients receive evidence-based cancer care, putting these solutions into widespread practice can be a complex, challenging, and inefficient process. Now, a new grant awarded to the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of...
Cancer does not affect all people equally. The phrase “cancer disparities” refers to the differences in the number of new cancer cases as well as differences in cancer outcomes that exist among different populations. Disparities more often negatively affect racial and ethnic minorities, poor...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Xiao et al found that low skeletal muscle index and low skeletal muscle radiodensity were associated with an increased risk of complications and poor outcomes following surgery for colon cancer. Study Details The study involved data on...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Yang et al found overall survival benefits with immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment vs non–immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment of advanced cancers irrespective of sex, age < 65 years vs ≥ 65 years, or Eastern Cooperative ...
In a Korean study reported in the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Lee et al identified clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical characteristics of neuroendocrine carcinomas of the gallbladder. Study Details The study involved data from 34 patients with gallbladder neuroendocrine carcinomas ...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al found that hypofractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) and conventionally fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT) following breast-conserving surgery were associated with similar low 5-year local recurrence rates in women with...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Farjah et al found that patients who underwent resection for lung cancer at hospitals and with surgeons meeting Volume Pledge criteria did not have better short-term outcomes compared with patients who received care from...
“In line with the emergence of targeted therapies, molecular biomarker testing in metastatic colorectal cancer has evolved over the past decade,” noted Jeanne Tie, MD, MBChB, FRACP, who acknowledged there is confusion about the best ways to use molecular testing in the clinic. Dr. Tie, who is...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, and colleagues, a second prespecified interim analysis of the pivotal phase III ALTA-1L trial has shown maintained progression-free survival benefit with brigatinib vs crizotinib in ALK inhibitor–naive patients with...
In a prospective lymphedema screening trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Naoum et al found that although regional lymph node radiation increased the incidence of breast cancer–related lymphedema, the primary driver of risk was the type of axillary surgery used. Study Details The...
A study by Wilson et al investigating the impact of radiation therapy on adult survivors of pediatric abdominal and pelvic tumors has found that these survivors were significantly more likely to have insulin resistance, high levels of triglycerides, and low levels of high-density lipoproteins...
Amit Mahipal, MBBS, MPH, Consultant, Associate Professor of Oncology, Mayo College of Medicine, Rochester, put the findings for tremelimumab/durvalumab into context regarding other studies evaluating checkpoint inhibitors in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. In the current study by Kelly et al, he ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Urology, Wang et al found that tests for small noncoding RNAs isolated from urinary exosomes accurately distinguished patients with vs without prostate cancer and patients with low- vs intermediate- or high-risk disease. Study Details The investigators...
In a single-institution Korean study reported in the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Kim et al found that chromogranin A expression in rectal neuroendocrine tumors is associated with more aggressive clinical characteristics and poorer prognosis. As stated by the investigators, “Although...
Taimur Sher, MBBS, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology Consultant, and Director of the Multi-Specialty Amyloidosis Group at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, told The ASCO Post that shutting down the source of amyloidogenic light-chain production—the...
In a single-institution retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Maniakas et al found that overall survival in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma has improved in recent years and identified treatment factors associated with this improvement. As stated by the investigators, “Anaplastic...
In an analysis from the SOLO-1 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, DiSilvestro et al found that olaparib vs placebo maintenance therapy after first-line platinum-based therapy in patients with advanced BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer significantly improved progression-free survival in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jacqueline Vuky, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, and colleagues, long-term follow-up in the phase II KEYNOTE-052 study has shown durable responses with first-line pembrolizumab in cisplatin-ineligible locally advanced or...
It may be possible to use a platinum-free combination as first-line treatment for advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma in cisplatin-ineligible patients, if the results of the phase Ib/II EV-103 trial hold up. The combination of the newly approved antibody-drug conjugate (enfortumab vedotin)...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 Anita Gul, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues found that salvage therapy with nivolumab/ipilimumab was capable of producing a response after prior PD-1 pathway inhibitor therapy in some patients with...
Two recently reported phase III trials have shown the benefits of combination therapy vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Brian I. Rini, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues, the ...
As reported inThe New England Journal of Medicine by Ian D. Davis, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FAChPM, of Monash University and Eastern Health in Melbourne, and colleagues, the phase III ENZAMET trial has shown that the androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide improved progression-free and overall survival...
Nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer arises in the subset of men with biochemically recurrent disease (ie, rising prostate-specific antigen [PSA] level after definitive therapy in the absence of metastases) who develop PSA progression after chronic exposure to androgen-deprivation...
As reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program1 and in The New England Journal of Medicine2 by Neal D. Shore, MD, FACS, of Carolina Urologic Research Center, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and colleagues, the phase III HERO trial showed sustained castrate testosterone levels and lower risk of...
Initial results of the randomized phase II TheraP trial showed that therapy directed to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) with lutetium-177–labeled PSMA-617 (LuPSMA) significantly improved prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response compared with cabazitaxel in men with metastatic...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Léon-Castillo et al identified outcomes associated with molecular subgroups of patients with high-risk endometrial cancer enrolled in the PORTEC-3 trial of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs radiotherapy alone. Study Details The study involved...
ASCO is conducting an open search for the position of Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, as current Chief Medical Officer Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, prepares to retire in February 2021. ASCO’s Chief Medical Officer applies medical and scientific knowledge and...
Before there was funding, there was a need. “Patients with cancer needed to understand immediately what COVID-19 meant [for] their health. Providers and practices needed guidance on how to offer safe care,” recalled Howard A. Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, Chair of the ASCO Board of Directors, of...