The Board of Directors of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Karen L. Kelly, MD to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Spring 2022. Dr. Kelly, a renowned medical oncologist, is an active, long-standing...
Amy Tiersten, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, Director of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,...
Switching from an aromatase inhibitor to fulvestrant upon early identification of the ESR1 mutation in plasma—before disease progression—doubled progression-free survival in the phase III PADA-1 trial, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “PADA-1 is the first trial to...
President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Cancer Act into law on December 23, 1971. The unprecedented legislation granted sweeping authority to the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop a national cancer program that included the NCI, other research institutes, and federal ...
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor with the BC Cancer Centre for Lymphoid Cancer and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Alex Herrera, MD, Associate Professor in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope,...
In the primary analysis of the phase III ZUMA-7 trial, examining second-line therapy for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel led to a fourfold increase in event-free survival over the standard of care. These findings were presented at the...
The ASCO Post invited myeloma expert Philip L. McCarthy, MD, Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, to comment on the trials evaluating early detection of myeloma at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual ...
Precursors to multiple myeloma were identified by population screening in two studies reported at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. The prevalence of monoclonal gammopathies was determined in the PROMISE trial using cutting-edge technology in a high-risk ...
Thousands of schools transitioned to online learning in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which time many children with cancer faced significant challenges with their schooling. An opinion paper by Johns Hopkins experts, published by Thornton et al in JAMA Pediatrics, highlights some of the ...
Yu Sunakawa, MD, PhD, of Japan’s St. Marianna University School of Medicine, discusses his findings from the DELIVER trial, which suggest the gut microbiome may predict skin toxicities in patients with advanced gastric cancer who are treated with nivolumab. In addition, some single nucleotide...
The phase III PANTHER trial, which evaluated pevonedistat plus azacitidine vs azacitidine alone in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and low–blast count acute myeloid leukemia (AML), failed to meet its primary endpoint of event-free survival, though lessons...
In the phase III ECOG-ACRIN E2108 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Seema A. Khan, MD, MPH, and colleagues found no difference in overall survival with early locoregional therapy vs continued systemic therapy among women with newly diagnosed stage IV breast cancer and an intact...
Invited discussant Anne Blaes, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, commented on Dr. Braybrooke’s study. “In 18,000 patients in randomized trials initiated before 2012, there was a 15% improvement in recurrence with the use of anthracyclines plus taxanes...
In a large patient-level meta-analysis of 16 trials, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS),1 the combination of an anthracycline plus a taxane achieved a substantial 15% reduction in breast cancer recurrence at 10 years vs taxane chemotherapy alone, representing an...
Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with lutetium-177 (Lu-177) dotatate is a treatment for well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved in 2018, but clinicians have lacked a metric for predicting its benefit on an individual patient basis....
Independent drug action—not synergy nor additivity—accounted for the clinical efficacy of nearly all examined combination therapies involving immune checkpoint inhibitors in clinical trials, according to results from a retrospective analysis published by Palmer et al in Clinical Cancer Research....
Results from the randomized international phase III HIMALAYA trial showed that a combination of the anti–PD-L1 immunotherapy durvalumab plus the anti–CTLA-4 immunotherapy tremelimumab reduced the risk of death by 22% in patients with stage III or IV unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma compared to ...
Direct oral anticoagulants should be considered the standard of care to treat adult patients with cancer-associated thrombosis, according to a new, ongoing study by Mayo Clinic researchers published by Riaz et al in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The report examined the results of four randomized...
Despite growing national awareness of health-care inequities, cancer care for many rural Americans remains inadequate. To shed some light on the challenges faced by patients with cancer in rural areas, The ASCO Post spoke with Mary Charlton, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the...
Biliary tract cancer is a rare and often fatal disease comprised primarily of bile duct and gallbladder cancers; it is diagnosed in about 12,000 individuals each year in the United States. The cancer has a 5-year relative survival rate of 25% for localized intrahepatic bile duct cancers and just...
Even though it is infrequent, uterine cancer can develop in patients treated with tamoxifen. A study presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) suggests that the mechanism by which uterine cancers develop is tamoxifen-induced PI3K pathway activation.1 Patients treated with...
Rates of cervical cancer screening have dropped recently in the United States, with screening rates lowest among Asian and Hispanic women, as well as women who live in rural areas, are uninsured, or are sexual minorities, according to findings published by Ryan Suk, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA...
On February 4, 2022, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) will launch a new 3-year campaign for World Cancer Day that brings together individuals, organizations, and governments around the world in an effort to create awareness and help close the gap in cancer care. The campaign...
In a phase III trial (MPD-RC 112) reported in the journal Blood, John Mascarenhas, MD, and colleagues found no difference in 12-month complete response rates between treatment with pegylated interferon-alfa vs hydroxyurea in previously untreated patients with high-risk polycythemia vera or...
Although radiation can be an effective therapy for prostate cancer, about one in six men will experience more frequent or painful urination as a lingering side effect. These disruptive genitourinary toxicities can occur whether the patient receives conventionally fractionated radiotherapy or...
In a recent phase II clinical trial, the combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab and the CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab curtailed tumor growth in some patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was resistant to a single immunotherapy agent. The addition of radiation therapy to the...
A study published by Deng et al in JAMA Network Open showed that chemotherapy after surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma was significantly associated with longer survival in patients with chemosensitive disease, but not in those with very sensitive or refractory disease. These findings suggest that...
Updated results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial confirmed the key takeaway from the previous analysis: adjuvant chemotherapy benefits premenopausal women but not postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative disease, one to three positive lymph nodes, and a 21-gene Oncotype DX ...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami, called the results of the AGILE study “very promising.” He moderated a press briefing that featured the abstract at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. “Patients with the...
A retrospective, registry-based multicenter study by Bazarbachi et al published in Clinical Cancer Research evaluated clinical outcomes in patients with relapsed Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation over a...
In patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with an IDH1 mutation who were ineligible for intensive chemotherapy, the addition of the IDH1 inhibitor ivosidenib to azacitidine significantly improved survival vs azacitidine alone, according to data presented at the 2021 American...
In a study published by Charnita Zeigler-Johnson, PhD, MPH, and colleagues in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, gathering men at high risk for developing prostate cancer for discussion about prostate cancer or other health concerns increased their knowledge about prostate cancer...
Two recent studies correct a long-standing misconception about the origins of Barrett’s esophagus and, in doing so, may point to new avenues of treatment or prevention to lower the risk of esophageal cancer. The first study, published by Singh et al in the journal Gastroenterology, demonstrated...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, McClelland et al found that among academic radiation oncologists at National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCCs), less than 5% were from underrepresented minority groups, senior faculty included more men than women, and women ...
A molecular feature in prostate cancer called endogenous retroviral (ERV) RNA has been found to have prognostic value and also distinguish differences between prostate tumors in men of African and European or Middle Eastern ancestry, according to a study published by Kumar et al in the journal...
Proteasome inhibitors, the therapeutic backbone of current treatments for multiple myeloma, are effective in treating newly diagnosed disease, but resistance or intolerance to these molecules often develops, leading to relapse. While studying a neglected tropical disease, Buruli ulcer, researchers...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have become the standard of care for many patients with advanced cancers; however, these medications cause cutaneous adverse events in 20% to 40% of all patients who receive them. A study by Tang et al published in JAMA Dermatology indicated that these side effects may...
A clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance on the use of radiation therapy to treat adult patients with primary liver cancers using external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Evidence-based recommendations outline indications and optimal EBRT...
Invited discussant Ciara O’Sullivan, MB, BCh, BAO, of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, commented on the DESTINY-Breast03 trial at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. “The treatment of HER2-positive disease is an evolving landscape, with eight approved agents. Despite this rapid...
The antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) lengthened progression-free survival and improved objective response rate compared to the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) after trastuzumab and taxane therapy in women with HER2-positive metastatic breast...
In a Danish nationwide cohort study reported in JAMA, Hargreave et al found no association between maternal hormonal contraception use and risk of central nervous system (CNS) tumors in children. As stated by the investigators, “The incidence of CNS tumors in children appears to be increasing, yet...
Less experienced radiologists are more likely to recommend additional imaging for women undergoing breast cancer screening when they read digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) images later in the day, according to a new study published by Bernstein et al in the journal Radiology. The results highlight ...
In a study published in the journal Gastroenterology, Trivedi et al described an increase in early-onset colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps, based on a large, nationally representative study of patients younger than 50 who underwent colonoscopy. It was the first large-scale study to look at...
By 2040, the number of cancer survivors in the United States is expected to climb from 17 million today to 26.1 million, with most living 5 years or more after their diagnosis. However, many of these survivors will need ongoing monitoring for treatment-related side effects and cancer recurrence...
Use of the first investigational oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) elacestrant significantly reduced the risk of death or disease progression and lengthened progression-free survival compared with standard-of-care endocrine therapy with fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor in...
New research indicates that psychological distress from cancer and its treatment can cause many adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors to seek additional care and burden them with considerable medical expenses. The findings were published by Abdelhadi et al in the journal Cancer....
In a pooled analysis of individual patient data from trials in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration database reported in JAMA Oncology, Anscher et al found that patients with cancer receiving radiotherapy within 90 days prior to the start of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment were not at...
A team of researchers has revealed some of the mechanisms by which polyps develop into colorectal cancer, setting the framework for improved surveillance for the disease. Their study, published by Chen et al in the journal Cell, describes findings using a single-cell transcriptomic and imaging...
Although the incidence and mortality rates in colorectal cancer have dropped by 3.6% each year from 2007 to 2016 for people aged 55 and older—mainly because of increased colorectal cancer screening, advances in therapy, and reductions in smoking—these rates have increased by 2% each year during the ...
In the phase II/III RELATIVITY-047 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hussein A. Tawbi, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of relatlimab, a lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3)-blocking antibody, to nivolumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, significantly prolonged...