The 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Award for Leadership in Promoting Diversity was awarded to Edward J. Benz, Jr, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Richard and Susan Smith Distinguished Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr....
The American Cancer Society and Pfizer have approved grants totaling more than $3.7 million focused on reducing racial disparities in care and helping to optimize cancer outcomes for Black men and women in 10 communities. The goal is to address systemic race-related barriers and disparities in the...
Enrichment of the lungs with oral commensal microbes was associated with advanced-stage disease, worse prognosis, and tumor progression in patients with lung cancer, according to results from a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.1 “The...
Stamford Health and Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) formally announced an exclusive, expanded collaboration to increase access to DF/BWCC experts and resources for patients at Stamford Health’s Carl & Dorothy Bennett Cancer Center. Stamford Health first joined the...
Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine are participating in a $10 million project to better understand why men and women with a common and deadly type of brain cancer have different survival rates. The investigators hope the study results can be used to develop new therapeutic approaches...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) honored Admiral Brett Giroir, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for his outstanding support of hematology research and patient care. At the all-virtual annual meeting, Admiral Giroir received the...
Hannah Hazard-Jenkins, MD, Associate Chair of Surgery for Cancer Services, has been named permanent Director of the West Virginia University (WVU) Cancer Institute after having served in the position on an interim basis since January. “As a native West Virginian, it is my honor to serve in this...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recently announced that Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAACR, will receive the inaugural AACR Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research. Dr. Von Hoff is being recognized for his...
Formal discussant of this trial, Ramesh Rengan, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington, and Professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, commented: “My interpretation in the follow-up period is that low-dose radiation therapy is...
Whole-lung low-dose radiation therapy led to quicker recovery from COVID-19–related pneumonia in hospitalized and oxygen-dependent patients compared with matched controls treated with best supportive care and physician’s choice of anti–COVID-19 therapy, according to the results of a small trial.1...
Caring for older adults with cancer is the purview of every oncologist. Over the next 30 years, the older adult population (65 years and older) will represent the fastest-growing segment of the world population. Globally, the number of persons 80 years and older is expected to triple from 143...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will collaborate on Project Livin’ Label, a new educational initiative that aims to foster broad understanding of specific oncology product labels and increase awareness of recent oncology drug FDA...
In the November 10, 2020, issue of The ASCO Post, the article “Cancer on the Global Stage: Incidence and Cancer-Related Mortality in Chile” contained errors with regard to the head shots of the coauthors. A photo of Augusto León G-H, MD (the son of another coauthor with a similar name), was...
Among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, symptoms were commonly underrecognized in reports of pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue, with younger patients and Black patients having significantly increased odds of symptom underrecognition. These findings were reported by Reshma...
Craig Jordan, PhD, University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center member and Chief of the Hematology Division in the CU School of Medicine, was awarded a 2020 National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award. This 7-year grant supports investigators with outstanding records of...
Women who undergo mastectomy with reconstructive surgery as part of breast cancer treatment may face the risk of persistent use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs, according to data presented by Jacob Cogan, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS3-08)....
A large meta-analysis of breast cancer survivors of childbearing age indicated that they are less likely than the general public to become pregnant and may face a higher risk of certain complications, such as preterm labor. However, most survivors who do become pregnant deliver healthy babies and...
Patients aged 65 or older with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer who did not receive radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery had higher rates of local recurrence but similar 10-year survival rates when compared to patients who received postoperative radiation therapy, according ...
On December 8, ASCO issued comprehensive recommendations to guide the cancer community’s eventual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying lessons learned during the pandemic, ASCO’s Road to Recovery Report: Learning From the COVID-19 Experience to Improve Clinical Research and Cancer Care...
Caron A. Jacobson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from the ZUMA-9 C2 study, an ongoing trial that is exploring axicabtagene ciloleucel in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 2100).
Matthew S. Davids, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, summarizes three key studies from a session he co-moderated on ibrutinib plus venetoclax for first-line treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), long-term responses to these agents for ...
David T. Teachey, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses data showing that cranial radiation might be eliminated in most children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and that bortezomib may improve survival in children with T-cell lymphoblastic ...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Siegel et al found that never-smokers accounted for 12.5% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer in seven U.S. states during a recent 6-year period, with women accounting for a higher proportion than men. Study Details The study included...
Results from a phase II study presented by Nicholas J. Short, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 464) showed that first-line treatment with a regimen of chemotherapy combined with the monoclonal antibody blinatumomab...
Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir, of Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge, discusses how her team used large-scale whole-genome sequencing to precisely time the origins of a blood cancer and measure how it grew. The information could provide opportunities for early diagnosis and...
Sagar Lonial, MD, of the Emory University School of Medicine, summarizes key papers presented in a session he co-moderated on how second-generation CAR T cells can be used to treat patients with multiple myeloma (Session 653).
The BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax can be safely added to standard therapies for some high-risk myeloid blood cancers, and in early studies, the combination showed improved outcomes, according to two reports presented by Jacqueline S. Garcia, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology ...
A subcutaneous injection of the BCMAxCD3 bispecific antibody teclistamab was found to be safe and elicited responses in a majority of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to findings from a multi-institutional phase I study presented by Alfred L. Garfall, MD, and...
A research team from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on various environmental surfaces in outpatient and inpatient hematology/oncology settings. The study revealed extremely low detection of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental surfaces across multiple outpatient...
Curtis Lachowiez, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses an interim analysis of a phase Ib/II study showing that venetoclax plus chemotherapy represents an effective regimen, particularly in patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed or refractory acute myeloid...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) presented Mohandas Narla, DSc, of the New York Blood Center, with the 2020 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology. Dr. Narla is being recognized for his significant contributions to hematology through his groundbreaking research, his ...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor Ari Melnick, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, and Courtney DiNardo, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, with the 2020 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for their significant research contributions to the treatment...
A phase I/II study found that IMGN632, a novel CD123-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, was tolerable and resulted in a 29% overall response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare but aggressive form of leukemia. Treatment with the...
A study presented by Christopher Gibson, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 80) has revealed for the first time that clonal hematopoiesis may confer a health benefit in allogeneic stem cell or bone marrow transplants....
Although the immunotherapy axicabtagene ciloleucel has significantly improved treatment outcomes for some patients with large B-cell lymphoma, not all patients benefit. In a new study presented by Robbie G. Majzner, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting ...
Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, and Radhika Gangaraju, MD, both of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, University of Alabama at Birmingham, discuss findings that showed survivors of bone marrow transplants are at a 7- to 12-fold higher risk of coronary heart disease than a sibling comparison ...
Emmanuel Bachy, MD, PhD, of the Hospices Civils de Lyon, discusses the final analysis of a phase III study of adding romidepsin to chemotherapy in patients with previously untreated peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Adding romidepsin did not improve progression-free survival and was associated with high...
Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from a multicenter trial that compared reduced-intensity allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation to hypomethylating therapy or best supportive care in patients aged 50 to 75 with advanced myelodysplastic syndromes...
Researchers have successfully built banks of SARS-CoV-2–specific T cells obtained from people who recovered from the virus that are now poised to be used as an experimental treatment in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. This T cell–based therapy may represent a step forward in the search for...
Ann-Kathrin Eisfeld, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses SEER data showing that patients with acute myeloid leukemia who are Black and younger than age 60 may have poor survival outcomes, a disparity that should be addressed and further studied to establish...
The clot stabilizer tranexamic acid performed no better than placebo when administered prophylactically to prevent bleeding in patients with hematologic malignancies who also received routine prophylactic platelet transfusions, according to findings presented by Terry B. Gernsheimer, MD, and...
A study published by Michael S. Leapman, MD, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology found substantial regional variation in the use of genomic testing for prostate cancer, raising questions about access and other factors that might promote rapid adoption of new cancer technologies. “Little was known...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions for agents to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), biliary tract cancer, and graft-vs-host disease. Priority Review for Loncastuximab Tesirine...
Findings from a subgroup analysis of the phase III PAOLA-1/ENGOT-ov25 study presented by Fujiwara et al at the ESMO Asia Virtual Congress 2020 showed that the addition of olaparib to bevacizumab maintenance following standard platinum-based therapy plus bevacizumab provided a progression-free...
Social needs—such as food and economic insecurity, poor housing and neighborhood conditions, and lack of access to transportation—were common in a group of Black cancer survivors in Detroit. These factors were associated with lower health-related quality of life, according to findings published by...
On December 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pralsetinib (Gavreto) for adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer who require systemic therapy, or for patients with RET fusion–positive thyroid cancer...
On December 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved gallium-68 PSMA-11—the first drug for positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive lesions in men with prostate cancer. Gallium-68 PSMA-11 is indicated for patients with suspected ...
Dual CTLA-4/PD-1 blockade with ipilimumab plus nivolumab provided durable responses in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, according to updated efficacy and safety findings from a phase II study presented by Kao et al at ESMO Asia Virtual Congress 2020 (Abstract 266O)....
Among patients with glioblastoma receiving an immune checkpoint inhibitor, those who received the corticosteroid dexamethasone at baseline for cerebral edema had significantly worse overall survival, according to results of a study published by Iorgulescu et al in Clinical Cancer Research....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has scheduled a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) for December 17 to discuss the request for emergency use authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc. “In keeping with the FDA’s commitment ...