Switching from an aromatase inhibitor to fulvestrant upon early identification of the ESR1 mutation in plasma—before disease progression—doubled progression-free survival in the phase III PADA-1 trial, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “PADA-1 is the first trial to...
Use of the first investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression and lengthened progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy with fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor in...
Charles Shapiro, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on the study findings. “MA.32 is a large, randomized placebo-controlled trial of metformin in over 3,600 women with invasive breast cancer. The rationale for...
The addition of metformin, a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, to standard adjuvant treatment failed to improve invasive disease–free survival or overall survival for hormone receptor–positive or –negative breast cancer, according to the results of a large landmark trial led by the...
The final results of the phase III PALLAS trial1 are “deeply disappointing,” said session moderator Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, FACP, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine. The results of the final primary analysis of...
David Cescon, MD, PhD, Clinician Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, was the invited discussant of the two MONALEESA analyses.1,2 He noted that the most recent overall survival analysis, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021,...
Further analyses of the MONALEESA metastatic breast cancer trials have shown that the benefit of ribociclib plus endocrine therapy in the first-line setting extends to most intrinsic molecular subtypes and is consistent across multiple subgroups. The studies were presented at the 2021 San Antonio...
Commenting on the update of RxPONDER presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium were Anne Blaes, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Minnesota and Co-Director of the Screening, Prevention, Etiology and Cancer Survivorship Program at the Masonic...
Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, the Alan and Jill Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, commented on NIMBUS1 for The ASCO Post. She said obtaining information on tumor mutational burden is simple, as it is...
Results of the phase III randomized KEYNOTE-355 trial showed that the addition of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab to investigator’s choice of first-line chemotherapy improved progression-free and overall survival in women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer compared with placebo and...
The discussant of KEYNOTE-522 at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented: “We are clearly making...
The ASCO Post asked Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of Medical Breast Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San...
The current standard of care for the neoadjuvant treatment of HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer consists of trastuzumab plus pertuzumab and polychemotherapy. But some patients, particularly those with locally advanced or inflammatory disease, still relapse and die. Furthermore, multiagent...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) has led to practice changes in previously treated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Most notably, in the DESTINY-Breast03 trial, treatment with T-DXd produced a doubling in 12-month progression-free survival vs...
In its first return to a hybrid model since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) brought together researchers, clinicians, industry experts, patients, and advocates from across the globe to present and grapple with new data and important topics in breast ...
A new mutation was identified in 9% of relapsed cases of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that may define a new subtype of the disease, according to a study published by Umeda et al in Blood Cancer Discovery. The mutation is a tandem duplication (a series of adjacent repeats of a DNA...
In a large study of 5,671 older adults with COVID-19 and cancer, performed by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19), the CCC19 geriatric risk index was associated with poorer outcomes, including clinical complications, hospitalization, and mortality. A higher CCC19 geriatric risk index was...
As reported in Nature by Yelena Y. Janjigian, MD, and colleagues, the first interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-811 trial has shown a significantly higher objective response rate with the addition of pembrolizumab to trastuzumab and chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated advanced ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pires da Silva et al developed predictive models for objective response and progression-free and overall survival among patients receiving anti–PD-1 antibodies with or without ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma. The analyses involved data...
T-cell responses directed against the receptor-binding domain of the SARS–CoV-2 spike protein were associated with protection from SARS–CoV-2 infection in vaccinated individuals with or without cancer, with lower T-cell responses observed in patients with blood cancers, according to results from a...
Alfredo Berruti, MD, of Italy’s University of Brescia, discusses the first study to give adjuvant mitotane to patients with adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare disease with a high risk of relapse after radical surgery. Although theoretically this treatment may be clinically worthwhile, the findings...
On February 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved FoundationOne CDx to be used as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) status solid tumors who may be appropriate candidates for treatment with pembrolizumab. FoundationOne CDx is...
The ASCO Post invited myeloma expert Philip L. McCarthy, MD, Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, to comment on the trials evaluating early detection of myeloma at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual ...
Precursors to multiple myeloma were identified by population screening in two studies reported at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. The prevalence of monoclonal gammopathies was determined in the PROMISE trial using cutting-edge technology in a high-risk ...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In ...
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor with the BC Cancer Centre for Lymphoid Cancer and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Alex Herrera, MD, Associate Professor in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte,...
In the primary analysis of the phase III ZUMA-7 trial, examining second-line therapy for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel led to a fourfold increase in event-free survival over the standard of care. These findings were presented at the...
The moderator of the session, Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor at the BC Cancer Centre for Lymphoid Cancer and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, called the results of the TRANSFORM trial “quite remarkable” and said chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has the...
Jane N. Winter, MD, Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and 2022 President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS, Chair of the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,...
As a first-line treatment of intermediate- or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the addition of the antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin-piiq to standard-of-care therapy resulted in a 27% reduction in the relative risk of disease progression, relapse, or death, with a similar safety...
The three most common reasons patients with cancer surveyed at an outpatient infusion therapy clinic gave for not having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine were: My doctor has not told me to get the vaccine. I do not think it is safe for me because I have cancer. I’m afraid of the side ...
“My doctor has not told me to get the vaccine.” That was the number one reason patients with cancer gave in a survey at an outpatient infusion therapy clinic for not having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Rivalling that reason were concerns about safety and fear of vaccine side...
When I got the call from the radiology department telling me I had to come back for a follow-up mammogram right before Christmas of 2020, I wasn’t surprised or initially concerned. I have dense breasts, and my first mammogram 2 years earlier had also detected suspicious areas in one of my breasts...
Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, FACP, Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, commented on the promising emergence of bispecific T-cell engaging (bispecific) antibodies, as represented by studies presented at the 2021...
Poor outcomes are observed in patients with myeloma who are refractory to multiple classes of therapies, with the average patient experiencing disease progression in up to 6 months and living no longer than 6 to 15 months. Patients often rapidly cycle through regimens that use less effective or...
In December 2021, Nobel laureates, cancer center directors, physicians, scientists, politicians, public health officials, and patient advocates gathered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National...
In an effort to synthesize findings from multiple guidelines on various management approaches for brain metastases, ASCO, the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO), and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) spearheaded the development of a novel publication to inform and update physician...
A rapid update to the ASCO guideline on optimal adjuvant chemotherapy and targeted therapy for early breast cancer provides guidance on the use of the oral cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor abemaciclib with endocrine therapy in patients with high-risk early breast cancer.1 The...
The 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium kicked off this week. On this episode, we’ll hear about two studies presented at the meeting: one, focused on a genetic risk score that may aid in identifying men with high vs low lifetime risks of developing metastatic prostate cancer or dying from...
A next-generation technology that focuses on protein expression at the single-cell level has yielded a wealth of information about “spatial connectivity” between cancer cells and their microenvironment. It also provided information on the benefit of adding the immune checkpoint inhibitor...
The GAIA trial raises some important points, according to Susan M. O’Brien, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Irvine, California. Dr. O’Brien co-moderated the session where Dr. Eichhorst presented study results. “The CLL14 trial...
New research published by Keith et al in BMC Cancer showed that angiotensin blockers—commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure—may also impact survival in patients with pancreatic cancer. The results are from the largest population-based study of this question and suggest that a broader,...
Rona Yaeger, MD, Associate Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, discussed the results of the GALAXY trial,1 first putting them into context with previous studies. As she pointed out, the finding of an 11-fold increase in risk of recurrence in patients who...
The use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assays in early-stage colorectal cancer is highly prognostic for recurrence and may help identify patients who could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, according to findings from the GALAXY trial, presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers...
New data validating the clinical utility of the Decipher prostate genomic classifier for guiding treatment selection in men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer was presented at the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (Abstract 269). Data from the randomized phase III NRG/RTOG 0126 study,...
Nearly 200 years ago, Thomas Hodgkin for the first time described a peculiar disease with undulating fever, enlarged lymph nodes, and a big spleen. Its nature was obscure. It was a fatal illness, affecting mainly young adults and children. In 1865, Samuel Wilks named this illness Hodgkin’s...
The combination of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor niraparib plus abiraterone acetate and prednisone as first-line therapy significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival vs abiraterone and placebo alone in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
Melanoma is often curable when detected and treated in its early stages. However, the disease can rapidly spread to other organs in the body and become deadly. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed the treatment of certain cancers, including melanoma, and improved patient care. But despite...
Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning, intersexed (LGBTQI+) community face numerous challenges and barriers when accessing the health-care system in the United States, including cancer care; as a result, they may be at greater risk for developing cancer and...
In the INTRIGUE trial, reported during the January 2022 session of the virtual ASCO Plenary Series, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ripretinib was not superior to sunitinib in the second-line treatment of patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) but was better tolerated.1...