The phase III SWOG S1202 trial has shown benefit of the antidepressant agent duloxetine in reducing aromatase inhibitor–associated joint pain in women with early-stage breast cancer. These results were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Henry et al. Study Details In the...
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) treatment was associated with improved or maintained health-related quality of life vs platinum-based chemotherapy in the phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial in advanced programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These findings...
A randomized trial in 650 patients has confirmed the safety and efficacy of a new second-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer, researchers reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Asia 2017 Congress (Abstract LBA3_PR). Oral fluorinated pyrimidines have been...
As neoadjuvant treatment of women with high-risk luminal breast cancer, the combination of letrozole and palbociclib (Ibrance) did not reduce the residual cancer burden or improve the rates of breast-conserving surgery, in the phase II UNICANCER- NeoPAL study presented at the 2017 European Society ...
Stand Up To Cancer, joined by the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, LUNGevity, and the American Lung Association, announced that four teams of top researchers will study lung and pancreatic cancers using a new approach of “cancer interception” at their earliest stages. “The...
With the availability of at least five checkpoint inhibitors to treat non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other solid tumors, appropriate patient selection for these expensive treatments remains key. The hope is that testing the level of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in tumor ...
While age remains a major risk factor for breast cancer, with nearly 80% of new cases occurring in women aged 50 years and older, women diagnosed at a younger age generally have poorer outcomes. This is partly because premenopausal women are more likely to have triple-negative breast cancer, which ...
“Growing research suggests that body weight is not only related to the risk of developing malignancy, but also prognosis after diagnosis, especially in breast cancer,” said Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, at the 19th Annual Lynn Sage Breast...
Although a majority of major cancer centers may test for minimal residual disease (MRD), a recent survey conducted by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, suggests most oncologists remain uncertain about what to do with the results. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network®...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has announced that its registration count has grown to more than 1 million users. By registering on the NCCN website, users are able to view and download all of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) free of charge...
On November 16, Genentech announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved obinutuzumab (Gazyva) in combination with chemotherapy, followed by obinutuzumab alone in those who responded, for people with previously untreated advanced follicular lymphoma (stage II bulky, III, or...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow et al have developed a model that distinguishes risk groups for ischemic heart disease and stroke in 5-year survivors of childhood cancer. Study Details The study included data from 13,060 participants in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sunitinib malate (Sutent) for the adjuvant treatment of adult patients who are at a high risk of recurrent renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy. “This is the first adjuvant treatment approved for patients with renal cell...
The American Hospital Association (AHA), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and America’s Essential Hospitals have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to prevent significant...
In the phase III BFORE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Cortes et al, the SRC/ABL kinase inhibitor bosutinib (Bosulif) improved response rates vs imatinib in first-line treatment of patients with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-positive chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) ...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s MSK-IMPACT tumor profiling assay, an in vitro diagnostic test that can identify more biomarkers that may be found in various cancers than any test previously reviewed by the...
Establishing the way in which a genetic alteration called a TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion forms in a prostate cancer, rather than the presence of the gene fusion itself, could help identify patients with prostate cancer with a low risk of spreading, which might determine the best course of treatment for...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Seligmann et al found that higher tumor HER3 messenger RNA expression among patients with RAS wild-type tumors was associated with a better outcome with panitumumab (Vectibix) plus irinotecan vs irinotecan alone among patients with advanced colorectal cancer in ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lage and colleagues found that among patients with advanced cancer who had an unplanned hospital admission, those discharged to hospice or post–acute care facilities had a worse symptom burden and physical function and worse survival...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fidler et al found that cancer burden was higher worldwide among women vs men aged 20 to 39 in 2012 and that the incidence was higher but mortality lower in very high vs low Human Development Index regions. Study Details The study involved data from the ...
As reported by Hillman et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a novel genomic rearrangement signature associated with poorer overall survival has been identified in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Study Details In the study, clinical data and whole-genome sequencing results were ...
According to Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) have 5-year survival rates of 86% and 71%, respectively.1 Although the increased number of survivors is welcome proof of the success of new treatment regimens, it also ...
New therapeutic agents for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) have led to dramatic improvement in remission rates, but questions concerning the proper sequencing and combination of these agents remain. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 13th Annual Congress: Hematologic...
For potentially curable treatment of resectable pancreatic cancer, adjuvant therapy remains the standard “for now,” but evidence is growing that neoadjuvant therapy may be more beneficial, at least in certain patient subsets, according to Thomas Seufferlein, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at the...
In GEICAM 2006-10, the addition of fulvestrant at 250 mg/d to anastrozole did not improve 5-year disease-free survival over anastrozole alone (91.0% vs 90.8%). “Immune induction” with chemotherapy or radiotherapy appeared to enhance response to nivolumab in women with metastatic triple-negative...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, held in Madrid, featured important news including at least seven practice-changing or potentially practice-changing trials, which are covered in recent issues of The ASCO Post. Here we present additional highlights of studies in breast ...
In this roundup, The ASCO Post offers a glance at key findings from studies in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress from investigators around the world. Docetaxel-Based Triplet in Gastric Cancer The superiority of...
Tumor mutation burden is emerging as a biomarker for selecting non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients for immunotherapy, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, the Price Family Chair of Clinical Translational Medicine, Professor of Medicine, and Director of Thoracic Oncology at Columbia University,...
The study’s invited discussant, Balazs Halmos, MD, Director of Thoracic Oncology and Clinical Cancer Genomics at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, called tumor mutation burden a “highly promising” biomarker of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors....
Patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and a high tumor mutation burden had a near doubling in response rate and 1-year overall survival when ipilimumab (Yervoy) was combined with nivolumab (Opdivo), vs nivolumab alone, new findings from CheckMate 032 have shown. Regardless of the treatment...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lim et al have identified a microRNA expression–based risk model associated with event-free survival in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The study involved comprehensive miRNA sequencing of 1,362 pediatric AML samples, consisting of...
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has become standard practice, mostly due to the results of the National Lung Screening Trial. Related evidence continues to evolve, informing the benefits and risks of low-dose CT in clinical practice. Mazzone et al presented new ...
Two new studies from CHEST 2017, held recently in Toronto, reveal disparities in lung cancer screening and care that may impact detection as well as mortality and survival rates in the disease. Risk Status and Screening The first study from Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington,...
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! That’s what home buyers are frequently cautioned about before purchasing a property. For trialists, and more importantly, practicing oncologists, a study’s design, akin to a property’s location, must be taken into account prior to buying into the results and changing ...
JOAN H. SCHILLER, MD, Deputy Director of Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, pointed out that no one particular chemotherapy regimen has been shown to improve overall survival vs other standard regimens. “So if we can’t identify one best chemotherapy, what else can we do to make...
IN PATIENTS with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the use of expression of BRCA1 failed as an approach to customize chemotherapy, investigators from the Spanish Lung Cancer Cooperative Group reported at the 2017 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) World...
Results of the Pan-Canadian Early Detection of Lung Cancer (PanCan) study, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Tammemagi et al, indicate that the PanCan risk model is effective in identifying persons found to have early-stage lung cancer on low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening. Study Details ...
As reported by Catherine Van Poznak, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have collaborated in providing a focused update for the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the role of bone-modifying agents in...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Goode et al in the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis Consortium, higher levels of cytotoxic CD8-positive tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were associated with significantly improved overall survival among women with high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas. Study Details The ...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) clinical trial has achieved the goal of screening nearly 6,000 patients in just under 2 years, according to data presented by Chen et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer...
A computational imaging-based signature of immune-cell infiltration in and around a tumor could predict patients’ responses to treatment with anti–programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immunotherapies, according to data from a study presented by Sun et...
Whole-exome sequencing revealed that colorectal cancers with high mutational load (microsatellite instability–high, or MSI-H) predominantly use “immunoediting” to escape immune surveillance, while colorectal cancers with low mutational load (microsatellite stable, or MSS) use...
In a feasibility trial of people with advanced lung cancer receiving radiation therapy and their caregivers, yoga was beneficial to both parties. These findings will be presented by Milbury et al at the upcoming 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium in San Diego (Abstract 125). ...
In 1988, 38-year-old Rita Lawrence found herself in a desperate situation. The lymphoma she’d been battling had recurred after 2 years of remission. She’d endured multiple rounds of tough chemotherapy, but it couldn’t stave off the swiftly growing tumors. When she learned of a radioimmunotherapy...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ho et al found that tumor-based enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) gene or protein expression was independently predictive of prognosis in localized clear cell renal cell carcinoma. EZH2 is a chromatin remodeler implicated in the pathogenesis of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al have developed a model for predicting risk of subsequent central nervous system (CNS) tumors in survivors of childhood cancer. Study Details In the study, matched childhood cancer survivors with (n = 82) and without (n = 228) subsequent...
IN A LARGE single-institution study reported in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Tobin Strom, MD, and colleagues found that regional radiotherapy was associated with a reduced risk of regional recurrence in patients with node-positive cutaneous melanoma, including those...
Honoring National Cancer Institute researchers Douglas R. Lowy, MD, and John T. Schiller, PhD, with the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for advances in technology that enabled the development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines to prevent cervical cancer and other tumors caused by ...
AS REPORTED BY Paul J. Hesketh, MD, of Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, Massachusetts, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has updated its clinical practice guideline on the use of antiemetics in patients with cancer.1 The update was based on an expert panel...
BASED ON THE RESULTS of COMBI-AD1 and CheckMate 238,2 invited discussant Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology at Gustave Roussy in Paris, commented: “It’s a good day for melanoma!” In COMBI-AD, treatment with the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist)...