The Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) has announced its collaboration with ASCO in the development of a series of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for integrative therapies in oncology care. The guidelines, planned for publication in 2021 and 2022, will provide clinicians and...
Mount Sinai has received a $4 million donation from Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch to support prostate health and the Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at Mount Sinai. The prostate program—founded by Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, Kyung Hyun Kim, MD Professor and Chair of Urology—will be named the ...
In a phase III trial (SORCE) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tim Eisen, FMedSci, FRCP, PhD, of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and colleagues found no disease-free survival benefit with 3 years of sorafenib vs placebo as adjuvant therapy in patients with renal...
Four experienced oncologists who have been treating patients with cancer in South Florida for many years are joining Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System and the region’s only cancer center to achieve a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation....
Stephen M. Hahn, MD, Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), recently issued a statement regarding an important step that researchers and medical product sponsors can take to make sure clinical trials for medical products are more inclusive of multiple populations. “We have...
In states that have expanded Medicaid availability as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mortality rates for three major types of cancer are significantly lower than in states that have not expanded Medicaid availability, according to a recent study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer...
Nationally recognized oncologic surgeon Sandra L. Wong, MD, MS, FASCO, FACS, was born and raised in Stockton, California, a city on the San Joaquin River, in California’s Central Valley. “My parents were both immigrants, but unlike the stereotypical picture of hard-driving immigrant parents who...
My patient with metastatic colon cancer was sitting across from me after being absent for several months. His cancer had been under excellent control on chemotherapy, but now he was having worse pain and shortness of breath. Despite our calls, he had not kept his appointments. We were 6 feet apart, ...
Although William Dameshek, MD, is renowned for his work in hematology, especially in advancing the understanding of myeloproliferative disorders and their interrelatedness, his early interest in medicine was instead focused on such diverse diseases as hyperthyroidism and typhus fever. Born on May...
Hematologic oncologist Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, was recently appointed the inaugural leader of a new research program, Experimental Therapeutics, at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Health System and the Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Landgren, who was Chief of...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Action Network has released new policy recommendations to increase the uptake of biomarker testing and to advance the use of precision medicine in cancer care. A recent report by the ACS Cancer Action Network and the LUNGevity Foundation found that although...
Numerous studies over the past 4 decades have chronicled the lack of progress in improved outcomes for adolescents and young adults (AYAs)—defined by the National Cancer Institute as those ranging in age from 15 to 39—diagnosed with cancer compared with children and older adults diagnosed with the...
On October 16, 2020, venetoclax was granted regular approval for use in combination with azacitidine, decitabine, or low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults aged 75 years or older or those with comorbidities precluding intensive induction...
The Colorectal Cancer Alliance, a national nonprofit committed to ending colorectal cancer, has launched a comprehensive marketing campaign. The effort will alert the public to the continued risk of colorectal cancer and the necessity of life-saving screening, which can be conducted safely during...
New diagnostic criteria and modern imaging techniques, a wealth of new therapeutics, and an update on current thinking as to when to treat patients with smoldering myeloma were highlighted during the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 2020 Virtual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies™....
Despite decades of research, multinational clinical trials, regular guideline updates by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and coordinated efforts by ASCO and other major oncology organizations, the management strategy for prostate cancer remains controversial. To keep the oncology community ...
OCE Insights is an occasional column 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, Vishal Bhatnagar, MD, Associate Director for Patient Outcomes, Bellinda King-Kallimanis, PhD, Senior Staff...
“Both KarMMa and CARTITUDE-1 trials presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program showed exceptional results, not only in obtaining higher responses in the majority of patients but also in attaining high-quality responses,” said Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of...
Based on early results in clinical trials, interest in the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma has been high, especially for products targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). During the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, further support for CAR T-cell...
New Jersey Brain and Spine has announced that Timothy Vogel, MD, PhD, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, has cofounded a new laboratory for pediatric neuro-oncology with Derek Hanson, MD, at the Center for Discovery and Innovation at Hackensack University Medical Center. Dr. Vogel also serves as ...
The SOLAR-1 invited discussant, Fatima Cardoso, MD, Director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud Clinical Center in Lisbon and Chair of the ABC Global Alliance, commented: “The overall survival results, though numerically different by almost 8 months, unfortunately do not reach statistical...
“There has been a lot of interest in the development of new antiandrogens” for clinical use in patients with breast cancer,” Anthony D. Elias, MD, reported in an update on male breast cancer at the 2020 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, sponsored by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On October 14, 2020, the approval of pembrolizumab was...
“This study highlights an interesting difference between breast cancers that are detected at the time a woman attends a scheduled appointment as part of a national screening program and those that are diagnosed in the interval between screenings,” commented European Breast Cancer Conference...
Long-term analysis of the phase III MINDACT trial, with a median follow-up of 8.7 years, confirmed that the 70-gene signature MammaPrint assay can identify which patients with breast cancer can safely forgo adjuvant chemotherapy, reported Emiel Rutgers, MD, PhD, FRCS, a surgical oncologist at the...
The Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation (HCLF) and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently announced they are teaming up to support a research grants program of up to $10 million over 5 years. Their goal is to build a more comprehensive understanding of hairy cell leukemia, develop better...
Angiotensin receptor blockers, commonly used to treat hypertension, may improve outcomes in patients treated with anti–PD-1/L1 agents, according to an observational study of almost 600 patients reported at the virtual 32nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.1 The...
Howard (Jack) West, MD, Associate Clinical Professor in Medical Oncology at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, California, was impressed with the data from the KRYSTAL-1 trial. “It’s great to see new data on another entrant into the space for patients with KRAS G12C...
Another novel oral KRAS inhibitor—adagrasib (MRTX849)—has shown promise in early clinical trials, according to investigators of the KRYSTAL-1 study who reported findings at the virtual 32nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.1,2 The conference is jointly provided...
Invited study discussant, Melina E. Marmarelis, MD, MSCE, of Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, noted that pembrolizumab has been evaluated in advanced mesothelioma in several clinical trials, with varying results. According to Dr. Marmarelis, this high...
One of Lebanon’s highest national awards, the National Cedar Medal (Commander Rank), was recently bestowed upon Nagi S. El Saghir, MD, FACP, FASCO, in recognition of his extensive contributions to the fields of medicine, education, and science—and most particularly, for his efforts in the fight...
Stereotactic radiosurgery appears to be a new standard of care for patients with four or more nonmelanoma brain metastases, perhaps replacing whole-brain radiotherapy in this setting, according to a potentially practice-changing phase III study presented at the 2020 American Society for Radiation...
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) was superior to conventional radiation therapy in reducing pain from spinal metastases in a phase II/III study reported at the virtual edition of the 2020 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 More than twice as many patients...
The addition of CS1001, an anti–PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, to platinum-based chemotherapy significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs chemotherapy in treatment-naive patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to phase III findings presented by Zhou et al at the...
Post-hysterectomy image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) was superior to three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) in reducing the side effects of pelvic radiation while achieving similar tumor control in women with high-risk cervical cancer, according to the final...
With the announcement of a complete nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a lot of unprecedented events came into being in India. The National Health Mission reported a 69% reduction in measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination in children; a 21% reduction in...
Invited study discussant, Deborah B. Doroshow, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, noted that the current first-line treatment paradigm for patients with advanced NSCLC and no driver mutation is based on...
The addition of the radiotracer fluciclovine to positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging for radiotherapy treatment planning led to superior failure-free survival compared with conventional imaging in men with prostate cancer who had undergone radical prostatectomy and were experiencing biologic ...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Schad et al found that modifying the prostate cancer clinical pathway in an integrated oncology network to designate moderately hypofractionated external-beam radiotherapy (mHF-EBRT) as the recommended curative EBRT monotherapy in low- and...
Discussant of the abstract, Alejandro Berlin, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, called the study “thought-provoking” and applauded the data-sharing approach to answer a clinically relevant question. According to Dr. Berlin, this work resurfaces the...
Sequencing of androgen-deprivation therapy with radiotherapy has a significant impact on long-term outcomes in localized prostate cancer, according to data presented during the virtual edition of the 2020 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.1 Pooled individual patient...
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...
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE announced they will submit a request today to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization of their mRNA vaccine candidate, BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2, which will potentially enable use of the vaccine in high-risk populations in the United...
The Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors have been one of the most exciting advances in the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and have led to the development of chemotherapy-free treatments for both treatment-naive as well as relapsed or refractory CLL based on...
“Both KarMMa and CARTITUDE-1 trials presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program showed exceptional results, not only in obtaining higher responses in the majority of patients but also in attaining high-quality responses,” said Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of...
Based on early results in clinical trials, interest in the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma has been high, especially for products targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). During the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, further support for CAR T-cell...
The antibody-drug conjugate belantamab mafodotin yielded responses as a single agent and in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone in the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to two reports from the DREAMM team at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program.1,2 In the...
Clinicians who treat multiple myeloma can anticipate a host of new treatments: melflufen, cereblon E3 ligase modulators (CELMoDs), antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, FASCO, Director of the Jerome Lipper...
The past year has seen remarkable advances in the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, which combined account for 9.9% of the estimated 1,806,590 new cases of cancer diagnosed in the United States and an estimated 56,840 cancer-related deaths.1 Novel therapies are providing...
The Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL), which was completed in 2018, found that vitamin D did not reduce overall incidence of cancer, but it hinted at a decreased risk of cancer deaths. Now, in a secondary analysis of VITAL, a research team focused on the connection between taking vitamin D...