Patients with ultra-low–risk breast cancer, as classified by the MammaPrint 70-gene assay, had “excellent” long-term outcomes regardless of clinical risk or receipt of adjuvant therapy, a new analysis of the MINDACT trial has shown.1 In a separate study, a retrospective analysis of the National...
Woe to the child who tastes salty from a kiss on the brow” was a forbidding prophecy from Medieval Europe, presaging unknown disease. Today, we know that salty skin is a telltale sign of cystic fibrosis in children, a disease that eluded medical identification until 1938, when an American...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) recently announced a $20 million gift from the Ge Li & Ning Zhao Family Foundation to support lung cancer research and the development of new therapies to treat this disease. Lung cancer is responsible for 25% of all cancer deaths and is the leading...
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, Eugenie Spiguel, MSN, ANP-BC, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on American...
Canada’s publicly funded health-care system has a complex drug approval and funding process. Due to multiple assessment steps and bureaucratic processes, newly developed cancer drugs can often experience long delays before oncologists may use them to treat their patients with cancer. Several...
Ajay Maker, MD, FACS, has been appointed Chief of the new Division of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery and the Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor in Surgical Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He will lead surgical oncology services—including breast,...
Fixed-duration ibrutinib and venetoclax as a first-line treatment yielded superior outcomes compared with chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), based on the primary analysis of the phase III GLOW trial presented during the European Hematology...
Oncologist Angelo Di Leo, MD, PhD, recently died after a long struggle with neurodegenerative disease. He was 58 years old. Dr. Di Leo was devoted to breast cancer research for more than 25 years. He first trained with Gianni Bonadonna, MD, in Milan, followed by postdoctoral research at Jules...
Women account for a growing proportion of the oncology workforce. Multiple studies, however, show that women oncologists are underrepresented in leadership positions, may have significantly lower salaries than men, and may be subjected to discriminatory practices stimulated by a medical culture...
Commenting on the updated results of the MAIA trial1 for The ASCO Post was Philip McCarthy, MD, Professor of Oncology and Internal Medicine and Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Center at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York. Dr. McCarthy described how the...
As reported by Fowler et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology1—and summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post—the international phase IIb UNITY-NHL trial of 208 patients with marginal zone lymphoma (MZL; n = 69), follicular lymphoma (FL; n = 117), and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL; n = 22)...
In an updated analysis of the phase III MAIA trial, the addition of the monoclonal antibody daratumumab to the immunomodulatory agent lenalidomide and the corticosteroid dexamethasone (D-Rd) significantly improved overall survival over lenalidomide/dexamethasone alone in patients newly diagnosed...
Moderator of the session at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Virtual Oncology Policy Summit, Clifford Goodman, PhD, Senior Vice President at The Lewin Group, said he was struck by the diverse impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic had on cancer care. One area that remained relatively...
From a dramatic drop in caseloads to missed screenings and diagnoses as well as the emergence of telemedicine, COVID-19 turned the world of oncology upside down. During the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Virtual Oncology Policy Summit, “Defining the ‘New Normal’ 2021 and the State of...
In a pooled analysis of individual patient data from breast cancer neoadjuvant clinical trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Carsten Denkert, MD, and colleagues found that pathologic complete response and survival rates for patients with HER2-low–positive vs HER2-zero tumors differed according...
“The phase III ENGOT/GCIG study1 proved to be negative, with no advantage seen with the extension of bevacizumab treatment,” said the abstract’s invited discussant, Carol Aghajanian, MD, Chief of the Medical Gynecologic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr....
In advanced ovarian cancer, the duration of maintenance bevacizumab should remain 15 months, according to the European multicenter phase III ENGOT/GCIG trial. These results were presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Jacobus Pfisterer, MD, PhD, of the AGO Study Group and Gynecologic...
A new study has found that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to significant disruptions in breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screenings at federally qualified health systems spanning 15 states across the United States. The postponed screenings have created backlogs that systems will need to...
In the phase III REACH3 trial, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert Zeiser, MD, and colleagues found that ruxolitinib produced a significantly higher overall response rate vs investigator-selected control treatments in patients with glucocorticoid-refractory or -dependent chronic ...
A screening tool used to evaluate the need for endometrial cancer biopsies in women frequently misses the signs of this cancer in Black women, according to a new study published by Kemi M. Doll, MD, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology. Dr. Doll, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington...
A report published by Oba et al in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer shares new data on combining standard treatment for breast cancer with a particular form of cancer immunotherapy—dendritic cell vaccines. The study is reportedly the first to demonstrate that in situ dendritic cell vaccines...
A study published by D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, and colleagues in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology has helped to define MET amplification as a rare but potentially actionable driver for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Camidge said many of the major developments in the treatment of NSCLC have ...
A study from the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) estimates that annual costs associated with metastatic breast cancer treatment among women in the United States will total $152.4 billion in 2030—nearly two and a half times the estimate for 2015 costs—due to an increase ...
In a Swedish population-based noninferiority trial (STHLM3-MRI) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eklund et al found magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted biopsy was noninferior to standard biopsy in detecting clinically significant cancers in men with elevated prostate-specific...
On July 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved belumosudil (Rezurock), a kinase inhibitor, for adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with chronic graft-vs-host disease after failure of at least two prior lines of systemic therapy. KD025-213 Efficacy was evaluated in ...
Researchers have found that specific intestinal microbiota signatures may correlate with high-grade adverse events and response to combined CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade treatment. The study, published by Andrews et al in Nature Medicine, also identified a potential new strategy to treat toxicity—while...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Anthony V. D’Amico, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of docetaxel to radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) did not improve overall survival in nonmetastatic, unfavorable-risk prostate cancer. However,...
More research into the efficacy of a modified ketogenic diet may be beneficial for people with brain tumors, according to a new study published by Schreck et al in the journal Neurology. The diet, which is high in fat and low in carbohydrates, led to changes in the metabolism in the body and the...
Today, ASCO and the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) jointly released new Oncology Medical Home (OMH) standards, which provide a comprehensive roadmap for oncology practices to deliver high-quality, evidence-based cancer care. These standards, which were published by Woofter et al in JCO Oncology...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Marcia S. Brose, MD, and colleagues, the phase III COSMIC-311 trial has shown that cabozantinib produced a numerically higher objective response rate and significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with previously treated,...
Mount Sinai Health System has recruited an internationally recognized expert in the management of breast cancer and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated malignancies, Joseph A. Sparano, MD, FACP, as Chief of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute...
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, has been named Executive Director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. An internationally renowned thoracic oncologist and physician-scientist, Dr. Ramalingam has served as Winship’s Deputy Director since 2016. He began his new post on July 1. Dr. Ramalingam...
Invited discussant of the VISION trial, Mary-Ellen Taplin, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, commented on the study, noting that she was a co-investigator of the trial. “Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer have a number of treatment options. There are 10...
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA)—an investigational radiolabeled small molecule—significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival when added to the standard of care compared with the standard of care alone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
Black men most likely to benefit from advanced prostate cancer therapies are 11% less likely to receive them than non-Black men. This happens despite apparent equal opportunities in obtaining health-care services, a new study focused on American veterans has shown. Disparities Exposed Published by...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, Board Chair of the Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), issued the following statement. “The Association for Clinical Oncology congratulates Chiquita Brooks-LaSure on her confirmation as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ...
ASCO has approved new recommendations for the appropriate dosing of systemic anticancer agents in adults with obesity and cancer.1 The guideline update was based on evidence collected from a systematic review of the literature published between November 1, 2010, and March 27, 2020, regarding dosing ...
The past 2 decades have seen so many advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma; in addition, median patient survival has grown from just 3 years in the late 1990s to between 8 and 10 years today,1 with some patients exceeding that prognosis by many years. Although still considered a stubbornly...
India has witnessed a major paradigm shift in the field of breast cancer and its management over the past 4 decades. The discipline of medical oncology has evolved exponentially over this period—a growth that few other scientific disciplines have experienced. Interventions at the individual,...
Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, is pleased to announce the recipients of its awards supporting researchers with projects spanning across many areas in cancer care, including immunotherapy, precision medicine, breast cancer, and palliative care. This year, Conquer Cancer is funding the largest...
Perhaps my 35-year career as a surgical oncologist and researcher specializing in soft-tissue sarcomas should have prepared me to recognize the signs of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) when they first appeared a few days before Christmas in 2016, but it did not. In fact, my symptoms were so...
Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, announced that Navneet Majhail, MD, MS, FASTCT, has been named Deputy Physician-in-Chief of Blood Cancers for the Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Network (formerly the Sarah Cannon Blood Cancer Network). In his role, Dr. Majhail...
Heather Wakelee, MD, will assume the role of President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) at the upcoming IASLC 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer Denver, Worldwide Virtual Event (WCLC 2021) on September 8 to 14, 2021. Dr. Wakelee has been President-Elect of...
Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Montefiore Health System have announced that cancer biologist Julio Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, has been named founding Director of the Cancer Dormancy and Tumor Microenvironment Institute (CDTMI), Director of the Gruss-Lipper...
Combination targeting of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with amivantamab/lazertinib achieved durable responses in more than one-third of chemotherapy-naive patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that had progressed on osimertinib, according to a cohort analysis of the ...
The invited discussant of the phase I trial of lisaftoclax (APG-2575), Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, of Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York, commented on the positive findings: “The 15 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL] had an objective response rate of 80% and a median time to...
The novel, selective BCL2 inhibitor lisaftoclax (APG-2575) has shown activity in the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in a phase I study reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Preliminary data suggest that lisaftoclax stands out for its favorable safety...
Invited discussant Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, MS, of Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Great Neck, New York, noted that, although both ibrutinib and venetoclax have shown superior results to chemotherapy, each drug is associated with toxicity....
In this installment of the occasional department on Global Health-Care Equity, Guest Editor, Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Augusto Leon, MD, a surgical oncologist and Head of the Program of Cancer at Pontifical University of Chile, Santiago. Dr. Are is JL & CJ Varner...
Although we are just halfway through 2021, the outlook for improvements in global cancer trends looks grim. According to new estimates by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Global Cancer Observatory, the global cancer burden rose to 19.3 million cases and 10 million deaths in 2020...