An interim analysis of the TRANSFORM trial comparing the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy lisocabtagene maraleucel to standard of care found that the CAR T-cell therapy significantly improved event-free survival for patients with large B-cell lymphoma that persisted or returned...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who had received two or more prior lines of therapy, according to pivotal results of a phase I/II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of...
A study of U.S. adolescent and young adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) found that Hispanic patients were significantly underrepresented in a large clinical trial compared with the general patient population. The study, presented by Muffly et al at the 2021 American Society of...
A study of nearly 25,000 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) aged up to 30 years old revealed significant gaps in survival rates between White, Hispanic, and Black patients, as well as worse outcomes among those of lower socioeconomic status. Biologic or genetic factors accounted for...
A diagnosis, in 2020, of stage IV adenocarcinoma non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was found accidentally. I was 55 at the time and in the best physical shape of my life. I had spent the previous year and a half on a diet and exercise regimen that had rendered me 35 pounds lighter and feeling...
Updating its 2016 recommendation on the use of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation statement. It noted the potential harms of daily aspirin, with the most serious being bleeding in the...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1999 to 2019, nearly 247,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids in the United States. According to the CDC, the problem can be broken into three waves. The first began with an increase in prescribing...
The Nobel Laureate Otto Warburg was regarded as one of the most significant biochemists of the 20th century, whose exhaustive research led to an understanding of cancer that remains significant to this day. Warburg was also one of the most despised figures in his homeland of Nazi Germany. As a...
A little after noon on December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon entered the White House state dining room. Before 137 esteemed guests from government, science, and industry, he signed the landmark National Cancer Act. It was, in short, a national commitment to conquer cancer. President Nixon...
The text and photograph here are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, The Anesthesia Era 1845–1875 by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photograph appears courtesy of Stanley B. Burns, MD, and The Burns...
“Good evening, doc; I wanted to check on you and update you on my mom” read the text message on a late Thursday afternoon. I recognized the sender; it was not uncommon for me to share my cell phone number with patients and their families. Having been a caretaker of my own parents’ medical needs, I...
In part 1 of this two-part review, we looked at early pioneers in the field of medical oncology in Europe, as well as the development of international cooperative trials and the formation of European oncology societies (see related articles below). In part 2, we explore how the field of medical...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recently congratulated its Chief Executive Officer, Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), on her recognition by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) with its 2021 Tara Withington Public Service Award. According to the SITC, this award “honors an ...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with bone marrow transplant expert Mammen Chandy, MD, FRACP, FRACPA, Director of Tata Medical Center, in Kolkata, India. Dr. Chandy was instrumental in establishing the first sustained bone marrow...
In a single-institution study reported in the journal Cancer, and reviewed in the September 10, 2021, issue of The ASCO Post, Bei Hu, MD, and colleagues from Levine Cancer Institute/Atrium Health found that the use of a dedicated nurse navigation program aided in producing similar patterns of...
Our goal with this review of the pivotal years of oncology in Europe is to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of the early leaders in the field and to help young investigators learn from the past to better cope with the inevitable challenges of today and tomorrow. “On ne connaît pas...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, He et al found that individuals with immune-mediated diseases were at an increased risk of developing cancer, with organ-specific immune-mediated diseases being more strongly associated with local vs extralocal cancers. Study Details The prospective cohort...
Among patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer treated with an aromatase inhibitor plus palbociclib, those who displayed a rising ESR1 mutation detected in their blood before disease progression doubled their median progression-free survival following a switch to fulvestrant plus...
In a French single-center retrospective cohort study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Rémy Duléry, MD, of Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, and colleagues found that posttransplantation cyclophosphamide was associated with a significantly increased risk of early cardiac toxicity among patients...
Among previously treated patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, those who received pyrotinib plus capecitabine had longer overall survival than those who received lapatinib plus capecitabine, according to updated results from the phase III PHOEBE trial presented by Binghe Xu, MD,...
Recent articles in JAMA Oncology focused on lung cancer and screening strategies. Apar Kishor Ganti, MD, MS, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, and colleagues provided updated data on non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) incidence, prevalence, and stage through 2017.1 Sylvia K....
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pan et al found that overall survival was poorer among patients with metastatic right-sided vs left-sided colorectal cancer with TP53 mutations, driven by poorer outcomes in those with non–gain-of-function mutations, and that gain-of-function ...
On November 17, 2021, the immunotherapeutic agent pembrolizumab was granted approval for adjuvant treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma at intermediate-high or high risk of recurrence following nephrectomy or nephrectomy and resection of metastatic lesions.1 Supporting Efficacy Data...
As reported in The Lancet by Jong-Mu Sun, MD, of Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, and colleagues, an interim analysis in the phase III KEYNOTE-590 trial has shown that the addition of first-line pembrolizumab to chemotherapy resulted in improved overall and progression-free...
Lung health in adults has traditionally been defined as the absence of disease, but it may be time to rethink this paradigm, according to Ravi Kalhan, MD, MS, Director of the Northwestern Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of...
Recent advances in medical imaging have led to more accurate detection and management of early thoracic diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cardiovascular disease—three of the top four leading causes of death in the United States. Unfortunately, if not...
In the treatment of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, neither cancer outcomes nor measurable quality of life have yet been shown to differ between surgery- and radiotherapy-based approaches, according to Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, FASTRO, Professor of ...
“Immunotherapy is now the standard of care in the recurrent metastatic setting,” said Nabil F. Saba, MD, FACP, Director of Head and Neck Oncology at Emory University and a specialist in immunotherapy for head and neck cancer. “However, we’re still struggling with the question of which immunotherapy ...
The management of recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer is complex. Historically, patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with local or regional recurrence were considered for salvage surgery or reirradiation (in high-volume centers or centers of expertise), with an...
Guest Editor’s Note: With the easing of some COVID-19 restrictions, the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) held its 2021 international conference in a hybrid format. It focused on the science of living well with cancer, challenges in designing integrative oncology research, and the role of...
Advances intreating breast cancer “increasingly create opportunities to consider where radiation therapy might safely be omitted,” Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, told participants at the 2021 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “But, I would encourage us,” she continued, “not to assume that women who...
For many, the way things are when you learn about them is assumed to be the way things have always been. For example, antibiotics are wonderful—but if you were practicing medicine when penicillin was discovered, it would have seemed like a miracle. For most of us, there have always been chemical...
Although enormous progress over the past 50 years in every aspect of cancer care, including prevention, screening, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, surgery, radiation therapy, and supportive care, has resulted in increases in lives saved—from 3 million in 1971 to 16.9 million in 2019—the burden of...
The investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly decreased the risk of death or disease progression and increased progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine monotherapy in the second- or third-line setting for postmenopausal...
The investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly decreased the risk of death or disease progression and increased progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy for postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Katz et al found that higher socioeconomic status was associated with greater use of telemedicine among patients with newly diagnosed cancers in the United States between January and August 2020. As stated by the investigators, “The...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Wu et al found that vaccination with SARS–CoV-2 messenger RNA vaccines reduced the incidence of COVID-19 infection vs no vaccination in Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with cancer. Vaccine effectiveness varied according to time between last systemic therapy and...
Investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine have identified significant differences in the molecular characteristics of tumors from younger and older patients with cancer across several cancer types. Their research, published by Shah et al in Cell Reports, suggests that cancer treatment could...
The use of multigene sequencing and SNP array as a therapeutic decision tool improved the outcomes of patients with metastatic breast cancer if the patients carried alterations classified in the I/II tiers of the ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets (ESCAT), according to...
Black women had a 3.85-fold increased risk of developing lymphedema following treatment for breast cancer compared to White women, according to the results from a study by Barrio et al being presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS4-01). In addition, the researchers...
In a cohort of the phase II ZENITH20-2 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Le et al found that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor poziotinib produced responses in previously treated patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations. Study Details In...
In a U.S. cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Wang et al found that fully vaccinated patients with multiple myeloma were at increased risk of breakthrough SARS–CoV-2 infection, and that those with breakthrough infection were more likely to be hospitalized vs fully vaccinated persons without ...
The final overall survival results from the KEYNOTE-355 study showed a statistically significant 27% reduction in the risk of death for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors were strongly positive for PD-L1, defined as a combined positive score (CPS) of at least 10 and ...
Patients with multiple myeloma lacking an antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination may also fail to mount a T-cell response, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have reported. This scenario seemed to be most common among patients actively treated with anti-CD38 and...
In a European Network of Gynecologic Oncology Trialists–Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup trial (DESKTOP III) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Philipp Harter, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of cytoreductive surgery to platinum-based chemotherapy improved overall...
In a single-institution Israeli study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Rottenberg et al found that a booster dose of the SARS–CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA resulted in increased spike protein antibody titers in patients with solid tumors undergoing active treatment. Study Details The study...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gibson et al identified significant associations of donor clonal hematopoiesis with outcomes in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). As stated by the investigators, “Clonal hematopoiesis can be...
The addition of vidutolimod to pembrolizumab could help overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition in patients with metastatic or unresectable cutaneous melanoma, according to data presented by John M. Kirkwood, MD, and colleagues at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of metastatic melanoma, but a significant number of patients still fail to respond to anti–PD-1 therapy. The novel combination of sotigalimab, an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody, and the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab could help address this...
The novel PD-1 inhibitor retifanlimab appears to be safe and effective in patients with pretreated, recurrent microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) endometrial cancer, according to according to data presented by Berton-Rigaud et al at the Society for...