Norman E. Sharpless, MD, has announced that he has decided to step down from his position as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, a position he has held since 2017. Dr. Sharpless will continue as NCI Director through April 29, 2022, to allow...
On April 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) for adult patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who are refractory to first-line chemoimmunotherapy or who experienced relapse within 12 months of first-line chemoimmunotherapy. It is not...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Riner et al found that traditional eligibility criteria for clinical trials in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma excluded a higher proportion of Black vs White patients and identified factors that commonly led to exclusion. As...
A consensus reached by a lung cancer clinical community within the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) presented by Lynch et al at the European Lung Cancer Congress (Abstract 196P) has highlighted international disparities in the management and outcomes of patients with lung cancer ...
Findings from a meta-analysis of individual patient data were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Steenbeek et al found that among women with BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants who underwent risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy for prevention of epithelial ovarian cancer, those with serous tubal...
More than half of patients diagnosed with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergo biomarker testing, and this figure has increased over the past 5 years, according to real-world data from a Spanish national registry study reported by Calvo de Juan et al at the European Lung Cancer...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Changchuan Jiang, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that U.S. cancer survivors were more likely to report delays in health care due to transportation barriers than persons without a history of cancer, with the difference driven by barriers...
Novel hormonal therapies for breast cancer could provide additional therapeutic options for patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The emerging landscape for these new agents was described at the 2022 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, sponsored by PER, by Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH,...
Black patients with cancer experienced significantly worse outcomes after a COVID-19 diagnosis than non-Hispanic White patients, according to findings published by Fu et al in JAMA Network Open. Investigators from the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) studied the electronic health records of...
New research has found that the weakened immune systems of patients with lymphoma may improve after they receive a third COVID-19 vaccination. Patients with lymphoma have defects in their immune system that restrict its response to vaccination; despite this, a study published by Lim et al in Nature ...
In this week’s episode, we are discussing two recent FDA approvals—one for prostate cancer, and the other for endometrial cancer. The radioconjugate lutetium Lu-177 vipivotide tetraxetan was approved for the treatment of adult patients with prostate-specific membrane antigen–positive metastatic...
In a study of a population of predominantly community-based oncologists reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Ajeet Gajra, MD, and colleagues found that a majority of oncologists surveyed did not use a formal geriatric assessment instrument to assist in treatment decisions for older patients with...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kenneth L. Kehl, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that only a slight majority of patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were enrolled in a U.S. screening study (ALCHEMIST) received guideline-recommended adequate lymph ...
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the number of attacks on health-care facilities continues to mount. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of March 16, there have been 43 attacks on health facilities, including 34 attacks that have directly impacted health facilities and...
The invited discussant of the CodeBreaK 100 data, E. Gabriela Chiorean, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Clinical Director of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, found the efficacy of ...
Promising activity in metastatic pancreatic cancer was shown by sotorasib, an inhibitor of the KRAS G12C mutation, in the phase I/II CodeBreaK 100 study presented by John H. Strickler, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, during the February ...
A disease control rate of 100% was achieved in gastrointestinal cancers treated with the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib in the phase II KRYSTAL-1 trial, presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 The population included primarily those with pancreatic cancer; other noncolorectal ...
Anthony El-Khoueiry, MD, Member of the Section of Gastrointestinal Cancers, Director of the phase I program, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the findings of the...
Patients with advanced, unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma may be gaining another first-line treatment option. In the global phase III HIMALAYA trial, a single priming dose of tremelimumab plus regular-interval durvalumab significantly improved overall survival, according to Ghassan K....
Invited discussant Ian Chau, MD, Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London and Surrey in the United Kingdom, said the findings from COSMIC-312 are not mature enough to establish cabozantinib/atezolizumab as a new front-line option for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma...
The invited discussant of the RATIONALE 208 trial, Chris Verslype, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, said tislelizumab is an “active and safe” investigational PD-1 antibody, “comparable to other PD-1 agents.” In particular, he noted, the results of RATIONALE...
Nilofer Azad, MD, Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Co-Director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, was invited to discuss the results of the phase III TOPAZ-1 study, which found an overall survival...
For the first time, a phase III study has shown an overall survival benefit for upfront treatment using immunotherapy plus chemotherapy in advanced biliary tract cancer. In the TOPAZ-1 trial, the addition of the anti–PD-L1 agent durvalumab to gemcitabine plus cisplatin significantly improved...
Gabriel A. Brooks, MPH, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, was invited to discuss the results of the ACCENT/IDEA database analysis of early treatment discontinuation in stage III colon cancer. Although the results confirm the...
For patients with stage III colon cancer, early discontinuation of adjuvant chemotherapy leads to worse outcomes—but early discontinuation of oxaliplatin did not. These findings, which came from an analysis of the large ACCENT and IDEA clinical trials databases, were presented at the 2022 ASCO...
Rona Yaeger, MD, Assistant Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, offered her thoughts on the findings of Morris et al for the combination regimen of encorafenib, cetuximab, and nivolumab in microsatellite-stable BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer...
The combination of encorafenib, cetuximab, and nivolumab produced responses in 50% of patients and disease control in 96% of patients with microsatellite-stable BRAF V600E–mutated metastatic colorectal cancer in a phase I/II trial reported at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The...
Over the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in gastrointestinal oncology. Cetuximab Plus Encorafenib On September 28, 2021, cetuximab (Erbitux) was approved in combination with encorafenib...
Benoit Rousseau, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, called the findings of the phase II GERCOR NIPICOL trial “interesting and convincing.” Long-term follow-up showed the 3-year progression-free survival rate to be 70% after 1 total year of treatment with nivolumab plus...
Samuel J. Klempner, MD, Associate Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, commented on the NEONIPIGA study for The ASCO Post. “This study was the first prospective data set to show what many have suspected—that neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade would lead to a...
In patients with resectable microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H)/mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, dual checkpoint inhibition with ipilimumab and nivolumab given as neoadjuvant therapy led to a pathologic complete response rate of 58.6%,...
As reported in The Lancet by Jong-Mu Sun, MD, of Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, and colleagues, an interim analysis in the phase III KEYNOTE-590 trial has shown that the addition of first-line pembrolizumab to chemotherapy resulted in improved overall and progression-free...
The phase II ANCHOR CRC study, the largest prospective study of BRAF inhibitor–based therapy as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, has met its primary endpoint, with 47.8% of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer responding to first-line treatment with encorafenib,...
The past year has seen unprecedented progress across the spectrum of gastrointestinal malignances, including the advancement of immunotherapy and targeted molecular agents and the refinement of adjuvant therapy using novel as well as existing therapies. Three themes emerging from these reports are: ...
Reflecting recent significant classification changes and new data on the use of biomarkers to inform treatment for central nervous system tumors, a new guideline offers oncologists up-to-date recommendations for managing gliomas in adults with neurologic cancer.1 “Over the past decade, there have...
Somatic genomic testing should be a routine part of clinical care for many patients with metastatic or advanced solid tumors, according to a new ASCO provisional clinical opinion.1 As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the expert panel found that genomic testing in oncology practice has...
The checkpoint inhibitors are among the most important advances in oncology in recent times. They have changed the natural history of many tumors, particularly melanoma. They have a favorable toxicity profile, which for most patients is manageable and tolerable. However, there are several...
In a multicenter international retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Caroline A. Nebhan, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and colleagues found that single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with cancer aged 80 and older appeared to be effective...
A blood-basedliquid biopsy may accurately predict recurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma following treatment, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Results of the large, multi-institutional study...
I have always been interested in volunteering my services and helping others, so when I got an e-mail asking if I’d like to participate in the WISDOM (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk) study (www.thewisdomstudy.org) I signed on. The study plans to enroll 100,000 diverse women...
David R. Penberthy, MD, MBA, was recently named President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) at the organization’s 48th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit. Oncology professionals from around the nation gathered at the conference to discuss the convergence of...
Janice Mehnert, MD, was recently named Co-Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Melanoma Committee, replacing Craig L. Slingluff, MD. Dr. Mehnert is Associate Director for Clinical Research and Director, Melanoma and Cutaneous Medical Oncology at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. She specializes in both...
“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.” —Sir William Osler To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting...
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which also awards Nobel Prizes, has announced the winner of the 2022 Sjöberg Prize. Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, S.P. Hicks Professor of Pathology and Urology at Michigan Medicine, is being honored for the discovery of recurrent gene fusions in prostate cancer....
The invited discussant of the CodeBreaK 100 data, E. Gabriela Chiorean, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Clinical Director of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, found the efficacy...
The rising incidence and prevalence of gastroenteropancreatic endocrine tumors make them the second-most prevalent gastrointestinal cancer.1 Although most of these tumors are relatively slow growing, their histologic grade and differentiation are closely correlated with their clinical behavior.2,3...
Promising activity in metastatic pancreatic cancer was shown by sotorasib, an inhibitor of the KRAS G12C mutation, in the phase I/II CodeBreaK 100 study presented by John H. Strickler, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, during the...
Invited discussant Hao G. Nguyen, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, said: “New treatments are needed for advanced penile cancer. PERICLES is the first randomized trial for patients with stage IV penile cancer treated without chemotherapy. Although this prospective trial...
Use of the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab with or without radiotherapy showed antitumor activity in stage IV penile cancer in the phase II PERICLES trial, although the study failed to meet the primary endpoint of 1-year progression-free survival of at least 35%. The hints of activity were ...
Xin Gao, MD, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, commented on this study: “ARIES is a phase II study evaluating the anti–PD-L1 therapy avelumab in cisplatin-ineligible advanced urothelial cancer patients with a PD-L1 expression of at least 5% on tumor cells...