Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer and node-positive disease.1 The data showed that many postmenopausal women can skip adjuvant chemotherapy, based on ...
Over the past year (January to December 2020), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in oncology and hematology. A brief review of new approvals appears here. For complete prescribing information for ...
Multiple myeloma is the second most common blood cancer, after non-Hodgkin lymphoma, diagnosed in the United States. In 2020, it is estimated that about 32,270 people will be diagnosed with the cancer, and despite advances in more effective treatments, nearly 13,000 will die of the disease.1...
Stem cell transplants are not frequently offered to older patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to a study from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMTCTN 1102), these patients may indeed achieve a survival benefit from stem cell transplant. As...
Electra D. Paskett, PhD, was born in New York City, the daughter of a Greek immigrant who led a notable dance band. As a young child, Dr. Paskett frequented her parents’ rehearsal and dance studio, which was situated above a bustling Woolworth’s Five-and-Dime store. One of the studio’s famous...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved relugolix (Orgovyx) for the treatment of adult patients with advanced prostate cancer. “Today’s approval marks the first oral drug in this class and it may eliminate some patients’ need to visit the clinic for treatments that require...
In 2017, a workgroup task force, made up of medical students and faculty at George Washington University, Texas Christian University, and the University of North Texas Health Science Center, conducted a literature review to identify best practices for teaching and learning about race and culture in ...
A new study published by Codipilly et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention investigated the trends in incidence, stage at presentation, and survival outcomes of young-onset esophageal adenocarcinoma—defined as patients aged 50 and younger at diagnosis—over the past 4 decades....
A prospective cohort study found sentinel lymph node biopsy had a 96% sensitivity rate and a 99% negative predictive value for detecting nodal metastasis among patients with clinical stage I low-grade and high-grade endometrial cancer.1 “Our study suggests that [sentinel lymph node biopsy] has...
Sentinel lymph node biopsy “had similar diagnostic accuracy and prognostic ability as lymphadenectomy in patients with high-grade endometrial cancer at greatest risk for nodal metastases,” according to the SENTOR trial, a prospective cohort study of 156 patients with clinical stage I disease. Using ...
It has been well documented that, collectively, Black individuals have the highest death rates and shortest survival of any racial/ethnic group in the United States for most cancers. Black men also have the highest cancer incidence.1 Although the causes of these inequities are complex and include...
Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, of the West Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the CONTESSA study, which showed that an all-oral regimen of tesetaxel plus a reduced dose of capecitabine significantly improved progression-free survival compared with capecitabine alone in patients with...
Although the exact incidence of treatment-related lymphedema among cancer survivors is unknown—most likely due to its prolonged latency period—it can be a lifelong chronic side effect that negatively impacts survivors’ quality of life. Although the condition is often linked to treatment for breast...
In a National Cancer Database analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Crozier et al found that receipt of neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved overall survival among women aged 70 or older undergoing surgery for stage I to III triple-negative breast cancer. Study...
In a study reported in Nature Communications, Vosoughi et al identified common germline-somatic variant interactions in advanced urothelial cancer, with these interactions appearing to play a central role in disease progression. As stated by the investigators, “The prevalence and the biologic...
ASCO has elected Eric P. Winer, MD, FASCO, a longtime member and volunteer, to serve as its President for the term beginning in June 2022. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in June 2021. Five new members were also elected to the ASCO Board of Directors and the...
On December 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first over-the-counter, fully at-home diagnostic test for COVID-19. The Ellume COVID-19 Home Test is a rapid, lateral-flow antigen test, a type of test that runs a liquid sample along a...
Cancer cases in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) have risen by 30% during the past 4 decades, with rates of kidney cancer increasing at the greatest rate, according to findings published by Scott et al in JAMA Network Open. The team said further research into screening, diagnosis, and treatment...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have pleural effusion, especially those requiring pleural evacuation, experienced poorer survival when treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to findings presented by Epaillard et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Kunst et al compared five neoadjuvant-adjuvant treatment strategies for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer and identified one that was associated with both improved outcomes and cost savings. The researchers found that a strategy of neoadjuvant...
The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to findings from a large retrospective pooled analysis reported by Wolfgang Janni, MD, PhD,...
On December 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals aged 16 and older. The EUA allows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed in the United...
Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, node-positive breast cancer. Based on the findings, many postmenopausal women may be able to safely skip adjuvant chemotherapy. However,...
The phase II ZUMA-12 trial found that axicabtagene ciloleucel, an autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, is a safe and effective therapy for patients with high-risk large B-cell lymphoma. These results were presented by Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 ...
In her recent study, Debra A. Pratt, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, showed that when breast cancer treatment using any of three modalities takes longer than 38 weeks, it is associated with a decrease in survival, regardless of the receptor status. Patients with breast cancer who received neoadjuvant...
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) has announced the creation of the Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, Endowed Scholars Fund. Established in honor of Dr. Rosenberg, this fund recognizes his many contributions to the field by supporting investigators who are emerging leaders in...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) presented the 2020 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize to Toshio Suda, MD, PhD, of the National University of Singapore and Japan’s International Research Center for Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, for his outstanding contributions to the field of...
Atlantic Health System Cancer Care recently announced that fellowship-trained medical oncologist Shilpi Gupta, MD, has joined Morristown Medical Center’s comprehensive breast health program, where her focus is breast oncology and research. Dr. Gupta is on staff at Atlantic Hematology Oncology at...
The more senior of this duo grew up with prognostication by disease stage and was taught that all stage IV cancers behaved the same. In the past 3 decades, we have become much more cognizant of the heterogeneity in outcome within stage. Individual Kaplan-Meier plots by stage separate well but hide...
As part of its ongoing commitment to addressing inequities in cancer care and research, ASCO has launched a new educational series focused on the role of social determinants of health in cancer care and cancer outcomes. The free series, which began October 21, is aimed at educating oncology...
Systematic liquid biopsies are transforming treatment approaches for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Many GI tumors are detected late, which ultimately reduces 5-year overall survival rates. Liquid biopsies may become increasingly important both in the early detection and treatment...
Julie R. Gralow, MD, FACP, FASCO, Professor of Medical Oncology and Director of Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, has been named the next Chief Medical Officer of ASCO. Dr. Gralow will succeed...
When I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2018, my first thought was, I hope my three young children do not lose two parents to cancer. My husband, Ricky, had survived two bouts of cancer, early-stage colorectal cancer and, most recently, stage I kidney cancer. Like Ricky’s two...
OCE Insights is an occasional department developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Preeti Narayan, MD, a medical oncologist and clinical reviewer on the Breast and Gynecologic Disease Team,...
In a 7-year follow-up of the phase III CALGB 40601/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, of Lineberger Comprehensive Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues found that neoadjuvant paclitaxel combined with a dual...
ASCO has released a new evidence-based clinical practice guideline to assist in clinical decision-making for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.1 “Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma has transitioned from a disease where we had a single approved therapy for patients to one where we now...
The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and National Medical Fellowships recently announced their new partnership, which is aimed at improving diversity in clinical trials. Leveraging $100 million of the previously announced commitment to diversity and inclusion from Bristol Myers Squibb and the...
Relapse is the primary obstacle to cure in leukemia. The term minimal residual disease (MRD) was coined in the early 1990s to describe finding a disease-specific marker in the context of a morphologic-appearing remission. The technique first used for MRD detection was the Southern blot (!), but the ...
The text and photograph here are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, The Antiseptic Era 1876–1900 by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photograph appears courtesy of Stanley B. Burns, MD, and The Burns...
“A bald eagle skims along the bluff where windblown Douglas firs, their exposed roots like talons, grip the eroding cliffs. Gulls circle and warn the bird of prey not to get too close. One hundred fifty feet below, the Salish Sea crashes and stretches west to the Pacific.” So begins Wild Ride Home: ...
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...
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, established as a treatment of many solid tumors, may be finding a role in the treatment of breast cancer. The current state of the art regarding immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer was the focus of a talk by Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Medical ...
Prostate cancer has lagged behind other solid tumors with regard to molecularly targeted therapy and precision medicine, with no targeted therapies approved specifically in prostate cancer, but that has changed with the recent approval in 2020 of a PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor for...
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...
An assortment of agents has been approved in the United States for the first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and all of them are effective, explained Richard Furman, MD, of Weill-Cornell Medical College, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York. In the modern era, most patients ...
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...
Invited discussant of the abstract, Joel W. Neal, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, called this real-world analysis novel,1 given the decreasing number of patients treated with single-agent immunotherapy. “I think we’re unlikely to have a larger prospective study [in...
A real-world study of single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitors in driver-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has demonstrated significant variation in progression-free survival between mutation subtypes, according to data presented during the International Association for the Study of Lung...
Although early-stage, resectable disease represents the best chance for meaningful long-term survival and cure for patients with lung cancer, there are still high rates of recurrence. According to Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD, MSCR, neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatments are needed to improve surgical...