After comparing the efficacy of the anti–PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab prior to and concurrently with chemoradiation, researchers have indicated favorable outcomes for 2-year disease-free survival and demonstrated evidence of improved immunogenicity with neoadjuvant atezolizumab in patients with...
Adding immunotherapy to standard chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of advanced or the first recurrence of endometrial cancer significantly improved progression-free survival compared to chemotherapy alone, according to data presented by Mansoor Raza Mirza, MD, and colleagues at the March...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Fulop et al found that perichemotherapy use of antibiotics was associated with improved survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma receiving first-line gemcitabine-based chemotherapy, but not in those...
In a phase IIb trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Serrano et al found that exemestane at 25 mg three times weekly was noninferior to the standard dosing of 25 mg once daily in terms of serum estradiol reduction among postmenopausal patients with stage 0 to II estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast...
Brown adipose tissue may not be associated with cachexia, according to an article published by Eljalby et al in the American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism. The findings also suggested that brown adipose tissue does not increase cancer mortality. Background Brown adipose tissue...
Patients who have a mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability, or substance use disorder may be less likely to undergo gynecological smear tests and may have over twice the risk of developing cervical cancer, according to a new study published by Hu et al in The Lancet Public Health. The findings ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jennifer K. Plichta, MD, MS, and colleagues formulated a novel prognostic staging system for de novo metastatic breast cancer. Study Details The staging system was developed using data from 42,467 patients from the National Cancer Database...
In a cohort study reported in a research letter in JAMA Surgery, Minami et al found that frailty status worsened in a sizable proportion of older patients receiving locoregional therapy—including lumpectomy or mastectomy—for early-stage breast cancer. Baseline robust status and mastectomy were...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by de Braud et al, findings in the expansion cohort of a phase Ib trial indicate activity with the combination of the BRAF/CRAF kinase inhibitor naporafenib and trametinib in patients with advanced or metastatic NRAS-mutant melanoma. Study Details In ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Burgos et al developed an algorithm to identify patients with multiple myeloma and light-chain amyloidosis who have the monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)-like phenotype, as well as identified the association of the...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, En Cheng, MD, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Jeffrey Meyerhardt, MD, MPH, FASCO, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues found that higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers measured after surgery but before starting chemotherapy were ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vidrine et al found that a smoking cessation intervention was not effective among patients with a history of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or cervical cancer. Study Details In the trial, 194 evaluable patients who reported current...
Obesity may spur DNA damage in the breast tissue of patients who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, possibly contributing to breast cancer development in patients who are already at a higher risk of the disease, according to a new study published by Bhardwaj et al in Science Translational Medicine....
Patients with early-stage esophageal adenocarcinoma from lower-income households may be significantly less likely to receive a potentially life-saving treatment and may be more likely to die from the disease, according to a new study published by Geng et al in Clinical Gastroenterology and...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Riaz et al found that first-line triplet therapy in metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer did not appear to offer an overall survival advantage vs androgen pathway inhibitor doublet therapy. As stated by the...
On March 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued draft guidance, Clinical Trial Considerations to Support Accelerated Approval of Oncology Therapeutics, regarding clinical trial design considerations to support accelerated approval applications. The accelerated approval pathway is...
Cancer is a leading cause of death in every country worldwide.1 In 2020, almost 10 million people died of cancer, a number that is expected to rise to 16.3 million by 2040.2 In addition, cancer incidence continues to grow, driven by an aging and growing population and changes in the prevalence and...
“Dedicated to making a world of difference in cancer care, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and its affiliated organization, the American Association of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), laud the goals, progress, and continued potential of the Cancer Moonshot initiative. Having the full support of ...
ASCO is working with eight oncology health systems to develop, test, and measure strategies to improve immunization rates as part of an initiative with the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) to improve vaccination rates among high-risk adults. Through this project, known as Specialty...
ASCO submitted comments in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2024 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters proposed rule. ASCO’s comments support proposals aimed at reducing or eliminating gaps in health-care coverage, and ...
On February 14, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) selected three models aiming to address high prescription drug costs for testing by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)....
ASCO has released a rapid recommendation update to the guideline on chemotherapy and targeted therapy for endocrine-pretreated or hormone receptor–negative metastatic breast cancer, addressing the use of sacituzumab govitecan-hziy in patients with endocrine-resistant, hormone receptor–positive,...
As reported in The Lancet by Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, updated results of the phase III DESTINY-Breast03 trial showed significantly improved overall survival with...
As reported in The Lancet by Adrianus Johannes de Langen, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, and colleagues, the phase III CodeBreaK200 trial has shown a small but significant improvement in progression-free survival with sotorasib vs docetaxel in previously treated advanced...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Paula Rodriguez-Otero, MD, PhD, of Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III KarMMa-3 trial has shown superior progression-free survival with the B-cell maturation antigen–directed...
On January 27, 2023, pirtobrutinib was granted accelerated approval for treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma after at least two lines of systemic therapy, including a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor.1 Pirtobrutinib is a noncovalent inhibitor of BTK. Supporting Efficacy...
March is widely recognized worldwide as Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. Several advocacy groups and professional organizations recognize Colorectal Cancer Awareness month by promoting screening for eligible individuals and working to increase awareness. Here, the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, an...
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among men and women of all ages in the United States and is on track to be the leading cause of cancer death in adults younger than 50 by 2030. The alarming rise of colorectal cancer in people younger than age 50 prompted the U.S. Preventive...
On February 9, 2023, dostarlimab-gxly was granted regular approval for adults with mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer, as determined by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved test, whose disease has progressed on or following a prior platinum-containing...
In an analysis from the French GAZEL study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Thomas Van Sloten, MD, PhD, of the Université Paris Cité, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, and colleagues found that better cardiovascular health (CVH) scores at baseline and improvement in ...
In an analysis reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Cenjing Zhu, MPhil, of the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale University, and colleagues found that Black patients with cancer in the United States were at increased risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular (CVD) mortality...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy Institute, Paris-Saclay University, and colleagues, the phase III TRITON3 trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with rucaparib vs physician-selected single-agent therapy in the...
Xin Gao, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Genitourinary Cancers Program, Mass General Cancer Center, commented on the results from TROPHY-U-01 cohort 2. “These data add to the overall data on the efficacy of sacituzumab govitecan in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer. This...
Treatment with the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy achieved an objective response rate of 32% in platinum-ineligible patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who experienced disease progression on an immune checkpoint inhibitor, according to the primary analysis of the...
Formal discussant of the FORMULA-509 trial, Tyler Seibert, MD, PhD, of the University of California San Diego, commented: “The important take-away of these results is who benefited from the intensification arm. The overall cohort with a PSA [prostate-specific antigen] level up to 0.5 ng/mL did not, ...
The addition of abiraterone acetate and apalutamide to standard of care gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist for 6 months and radiation therapy failed to improve progression-free survival and metastasis-free survival after prostatectomy compared to bicalutamide plus a GnRH agonist and...
According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third most common cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the United States. However, it ranks second in cancer-related deaths overall and is the leading cause of cancer...
The formal discussant of the TALAPRO-2 trial, Elena Castro, MD, PhD, took issue with the conclusion of Dr. Neeraj Agarwal and colleagues that these results support the use of talazoparib plus enzalutamide as a first-line treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer,...
The addition of the poly (ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor talazoparib to the androgen receptor signaling inhibitor enzalutamide achieved a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in radiographic progression–free survival compared with placebo plus enzalutamide as...
Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine recently named Michael Taylor, MD, PhD, molecular biologist and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar, as Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Research Program at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of...
Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease has been with me since I was 5 years old, when a benign tumor was found on the optic nerve of my left eye, leaving me blind in that eye. But I didn’t get an official diagnosis of the disease until 2011, when I was 20. By then, it was like a light switch had turned...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Yen Nien (Jason) Hou, PharmD, DiplOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus...
The American Associationfor Cancer Research (AACR) will award Carl H. June, MD, FAACR, Fellow of the AACR Academy, with the 2023 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research during the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting, April 14–19 in Orlando, Florida. Dr. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in ...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Alex F. Herrera, MD, of the City of Hope National Medical Center, discusses results from the POLARIX study, which showed that circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis has prognostic value for patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Patients who did not achieve 2.5 or...
Jamie Takayesu, MD, of the University of Michigan, discusses her findings on how frequently physicians are asking their female and male patients with genitourinary cancers about sexual dysfunction. Although 62.79% of women with genitourinary cancer who received brachytherapy thought they should be ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Vratislav Strnad, MD, PhD, of University Hospital Erlangen and Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen, Germany, and colleagues, 10-year outcomes in a phase III GEC-ESTRO (Groupe Européen de Curiethérapie and European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology) trial...
Alex K. Bryant, MD, of the University of Michigan, examined Veterans Administration (VA) facilities in which lower prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening rates were associated with a subsequent increased incidence of metastatic prostate cancer, particularly among men aged 70 and older. From...
Rahul Aggarwal, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discusses recent data from the PRESTO study, which showed that apalutamide plus androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) for 12 months significantly prolonged PSA progression-free survival compared with ADT alone in patients with...
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) represents members nationwide from all care delivery settings. ACCC’s 49th Annual Meeting & Cancer Business Summit was held March 8–10, 2023, in Washington, DC, where the society released its advocacy agenda for 2023. Areas of Focus ACCC...