The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce this department on Global Health-Care Equity. On an occasional basis, we will publish interviews between Guest Editor, Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, and another oncologist or cancer care specialist spanning regions around the world. Our goal is to...
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) recently appointed Kristin Ferguson, DNP, RN, OCN, as Senior Director, Cancer Care Delivery and Health Policy. Dr. Ferguson will lead the organization’s initiatives to improve cancer care delivery across rural, urban, and underresourced settings,...
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and partners in the United States and India are applying the investigative and predictive capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to help physicians customize treatments for patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas. Research shows that oral...
Five Innovation Discovery Grants (IDG) have been awarded to faculty from Mass General Brigham for scientific advancements, as the highly competitive IDG program exceeds $3.5 million in grants since inception. Each of the five potential patient health and health-care delivery breakthroughs for 2020...
Russ Kridel, MD, Chair of the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees, recently released the following statement on December 17, 2020: The American Medical Association strongly supports the nominations of Xavier Becerra, JD, to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS)...
In a national address delivered on January 12, 2021, American Medical Association (AMA) President Susan R. Bailey, MD, outlined immediate action necessary for a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The address, titled “COVID-19: The Long Road to Recovery,” focused...
City of Hope, an independent cancer and diabetes research and treatment center, has welcomed Angela L. Talton, MBA, to its executive leadership team as Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. Ms. Talton will provide leadership for City of Hope’s efforts to build a...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this occasional special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Burkina Faso. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of...
GenesisCare has appointed its first Global Chief Medical Officer, Walter J. (Wally) Curran, Jr, MD, FACR, FASCO. This appointment follows the recent acquisition of integrated cancer care provider 21st Century Oncology, increasing access to advanced cancer care for patients in more than 290...
On January 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and cabozantinib (Cabometyx) as first-line treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. CheckMate 9ER Efficacy was evaluated in CheckMate 9ER, a randomized, open-label trial in...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) has released new guidance on vaccinating people with cancer against COVID-19. The nonprofit alliance of leading cancer centers created an NCCN COVID-19 Vaccine Committee that includes hematology and oncology experts with particular expertise in...
According a new study published by Eckstein et al in the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), new suspicious findings occurred in 5.5% of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations performed to monitor patients’ response to neoadjuvant therapy; none of these newly detected lesions...
ASCO’s Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, issued the following statement on “Cancer Statistics, 2021,” a report published annually by the American Cancer Society. “Fifty years after President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act to make...
Rocio Garcia-Carbonero, MD, of Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses results of the phase II/III AXINET trial, which showed that axitinib plus long-acting release octreotide improved overall response compared with placebo and octreotide in patients with advanced grade 1 or 2...
The Community Oncology Alliance (COA), a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated solely to independent oncology practices and the patients they serve, recently announced the election of Kashyap Patel, MD, as President. A longtime COA Board of Directors member and community oncology champion, Dr. Patel...
Thierry André, MD, of Hôpital Saint-Antoine, discusses results from the GARNET study, which showed that dostarlimab, an anti–PD-1 antibody, demonstrated durable antitumor activity in patients with mismatch repair–deficient colorectal and noncolorectal solid tumors. No new safety signals were...
Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses final results from the phase III ClarIDHy study, which showed that ivosidenib may improve overall and progression-free survival compared with placebo in patients with previously treated cholangiocarcinoma and an isocitrate...
Matthew H.G. Katz, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings from the Alliance A021501 study, which showed that administering mFOLFIRINOX before surgery was associated with a favorable overall survival rate relative to historical data in patients with borderline...
Talia Golan, MD, of the Oncology Institute, Sheba Medical Center, discusses phase III results from the POLO trial, which explored the question of whether maintenance olaparib could improve overall and progression-free survival for patients with germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer...
Richard S. Finn, MD, of the UCLA Medical Center, discusses updated results from the IMbrave 150 study, which showed atezolizumab plus bevacizumab provides the longest overall survival seen in a front-line phase III study in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, confirming this combination as the...
Tenna V. Henriksen, PhD Candidate, of Aarhus University, discusses her findings on how circulating tumor DNA may help assess recurrence risk and the benefit of adjuvant therapy, and more quickly detect early relapse after treatment in patients with colorectal cancer (Abstract 11).
Janet Woodcock, MD, current Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has been named acting FDA Commissioner, according to a report published in The New York Times. Stephen M. Hahn, MD, who had been FDA Commissioner since December 17,...
In a new study published by Kawasaki et al in the journal Cancer, researchers reported that certain oral pathogens are more prevalent in patients with esophageal cancer, and pointed out this information may be used as a novel diagnostic tool. The oral cavity is a rich source of microbial diversity, ...
According to findings published by Kressin et al in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, women living in states where dense breast notifications are legislatively mandated had higher rates of being informed about personal breast density and of having had breast density discussions with ...
A new study has found that alcohol consumption accounts for a considerable portion of cancer incidence and mortality in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The article, published by Sauer et al in Cancer Epidemiology, stated that the proportion of cancer cases attributable to alcohol...
Milind M. Javle, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II study results showing that the novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor infigratinib may prove to be effective in treating patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma harboring an FGFR2 gene fusion or rearrangement...
Researchers have documented a substantial decline in cancer and precancer diagnoses at the Northeast's largest health-care system (Massachusetts General Brigham) during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a drop in the number of cancer screening tests performed. These findings were...
Despite increases in overall suicide rates in the United States during the past 2 decades, cancer-related suicides declined by 2.8% per year in the same time period, according to a new study published by Han et al in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study found that the largest...
Completing cancer screening tests such as mammograms can be challenging for low-income patients who may face such issues as lack of transportation or inability to take time off work. A team at Massachusetts General Hospital explored the possibility of addressing preventive care needs when patients...
Results of a phase II trial showed that cabozantinib, a multiple tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor, reduces tumor volume and pain in patients with the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). These findings were published by Fisher et al in Nature Medicine. “This is the second class of...
Kai-Keen Shiu, MD, PhD, of the University College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - London, discusses an interim analysis of PFS 2 results (defined as time from random assignment to progression on the next line of therapy or death) from the phase III KEYNOTE-177 trial. This study has already shown...
Romain Cohen, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic and Sorbonne University, discusses a post-hoc analysis of phase III results from the CALGB/SWOG 80702 study, which showed that adding the number of tumor deposits, a negative prognostic factor, to the count of lymph node metastases may improve the accuracy...
Rutika Mehta, MD, MPH, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, discusses the 3-year regression-free and overall survival results from the JACCRO study, which compared the efficacy of S-1, an oral prodrug of fluorouracil, vs S-1 plus docetaxel after curative resection of stage...
Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Southern California, discusses reasons for the incomplete understanding of the molecular landscape of minority patients with cancer, lack of screening chief among them. This underrepresentation, Dr. Barzi...
Wasat Mansoor, MBChB, PhD, of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, discusses phase III results from the KEYNOTE-590 trial, which showed no deterioration in health-related quality of life when pembrolizumab was added to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic and unresectable esophageal cancers...
A new study has found that patients with recurrent glioblastoma and a very low tumor mutation burden are more responsive to immunotherapies than similar tumors with an abundance of mutations. These findings, published by Gromeier et al in Nature Communications, could serve as a predictive biomarker ...
On January 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to daratumumab plus hyaluronidase-fihj (Darzalex Faspro) in combination with bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone for newly diagnosed light chain amyloidosis. ANDROMEDA Trial Efficacy was evaluated in ...
On January 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen....
Zev A. Wainberg, MD, of UCLA Medical Center, discusses phase II results from the FIGHT study, which combined bemarituzumab with modified FOLFOX6 in first-line treatment of advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. This is reportedly the first randomized trial of any FGFR inhibitor, ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted two Fast Track designations to cavrotolimod (AST-008). The designations include cavrotolimod in combination with anti–PD-1 therapy for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma refractory to prior...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved crizotinib (Xalkori) for pediatric patients aged 1 year and older and young adults with relapsed or refractory systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) that is ALK-positive. The safety and efficacy of crizotinib have not been ...
Today, leadership from the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) sent a letter urging the nation's governors and public health officials to prioritize supplying cancer treatment practices with COVID-19 vaccines and allowing the practices to administer the vaccines. The letter, signed by Kashyap Patel,...
Although patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, aromatase inhibitor–resistant metastatic breast cancer maintained quality of life for a longer time following treatment with palbociclib plus either exemestane or fulvestrant than capecitabine, those receiving chemotherapy...
New research published by Abdel-Rahman in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found more than one-third of eligible people miss timely screening tests for colorectal cancer, and at least one-quarter appear to miss timely screening tests for breast and cervical cancers....
Some patients with metastatic breast cancer are taking smaller doses of opioid prescriptions over decreased amounts of time, according to results published by Shen et al in Scientific Reports. Researchers said that the results indicate that clinicians may be more aware of the negative impacts of...
Overall cancer death rates in the United States dropped continuously from 1991 through 2018, for a total decrease of 31%, including a 2.4% decline from 2017 to 2018. These findings were reported in the American Cancer Society’s “Cancer Statistics, 2021” article, published by Rebecca L. Siegel, MPH, ...
Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, has been named Chief Executive Officer of CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO. A board-certified oncologist, physician-scientist, and data science expert, Dr. Khozin is a proven leader and visionary in deploying cutting-edge data science and technology...
Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from the ALTERNATE trial on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in postmenopausal women with clinical stage II or III estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-negative breast cancer that is resistant to endocrine therapy. The ...
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation may contribute to the development of a rare type of eye cancer, conjunctival melanoma, according to research published by Mundra et al in Nature Communications. The new study has revealed similar genetic changes in patients with conjunctival melanoma to those with...
A new study published by Hodge et al in the International Journal of Cancer suggests a link between Toxoplasma gondii infection and the risk of glioma in adults. The report found that people who have glioma are more likely to have antibodies to T gondii than a similar group that was cancer-free....