Tiragolumab, an anti-TIGIT antibody, plus the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab exhibited early clinical activity and was tolerated in patients with advanced solid tumors, including those with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was PD-L1–positive and untreated with prior checkpoint...
The study’s invited discussant, Philip A. Philip, MD, PhD, FRCP, Professor of Oncology, Pharmacology, and Medicine and the Kathryn Cramer Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, asked whether another triplet regimen was...
In patients with newly diagnosed locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, treatment with liposomal irinotecan plus fluorouracil (5-FU), leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (NALIRIFOX) resulted in a median progression-free survival of 9.2 months and a median overall survival of 12.6 months, ...
Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, MMSc, has been appointed as the next Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), the flagship journal of ASCO. JCO publishes cutting-edge research on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancer and is one of the most highly cited oncology journals...
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane because it often results in physical death. I see no alternative to direct action and creative nonviolence to raise the conscience of the nation.” —Martin Luther King, Jr, speaking before the Medical...
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,...
In hindsight, the symptoms I began experiencing in the winter of 2013, including pains in my chest and shoulders and a persistent cough, should have rung loud alarm bells. However, having undergone a pancreatectomy and splenectomy to cure a history of mucinous cystic neoplasms of the pancreas 5...
LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr, MD, the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC, died on May 25, 2019, at the age of 89. The ASCO Post paid tribute to Dr. Leffall in its July 10, 2019, issue. Here, as part of our 10-Year Anniversary Series, we...
ASCO’s CancerLinQ® has launched the SmartLinQ™ QOPI® Certification Pathway, an application that empowers oncology practices to automate quality measure tracking and reporting for participation in ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) Certification Program, a 3-year certification...
For many cultures that are addicted to the relentless quest to feel happy, perhaps as an unconscious attempt to bypass disavowed misery, grief is sort of a taboo, often pathologized and avoided by multiple means of denial. When we grieve, we’re told by well-meaning friends and relatives to “think...
On June 3, 2020, ASCO President Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, issued a statement on racism and health inequality. An excerpt from the statement follows: Months ago, when I defined a theme for my year as ASCO President, “Equity:Every Patient. Every Day. Everywhere,” I never imagined we would...
On June 15, 2020, the alkylating drug lurbinectedin was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adult patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with disease progression during or after platinum-based chemotherapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Accelerated approval was based on...
The American Urological Association (AUA), American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) recently announced a new clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed...
Minard-Colin et al recently reported for the European Intergroup for Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma/Children’s Oncology Group (EICNHL/COG) a significant improvement in event-free survival among children and adolescents (aged 6 months to 18 years) with high-risk mature B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma...
When taking care of a loved one with cancer, it’s natural to feel flooded with emotions—grief, guilt, and just plain old exhaustion. Feelings of inadequacy, doubt, or fear can sometimes pop up, too. Maybe you feel like you do not have the necessary skills to be a caregiver; maybe you feel like you...
During its June meeting, the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Legislation chose Marilyn J. Heine, MD, FACEP, FACP, FCPP, as its new Chair. The Council reviews proposed federal legislation and recommends appropriate action in accordance with AMA policy. It also develops model state...
Erika Hamilton, MD, Director of the Breast Cancer and Gynecologic Cancer Research Program, Sarah Cannon Research Institute at Tennessee Oncology, Nashville, who gave the Metastatic Breast Cancer Highlights presentation, and Nikhil Wagle, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical...
On June 10, 2020, nivolumab was approved for treatment of patients with unresectable, advanced, recurrent, or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after prior fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings from the open-label,...
ESR1 mutations are known to confer resistance to endocrine therapy in the metastatic breast cancer setting. These mutations herald a poor prognosis, so their clearance early in the treatment course may greatly reduce the risk of recurrence, according to the early results of the prospective phase...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) announced agreements with the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Novartis, and Mylan to expand access to 20 cancer drugs in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Purchasers are expected to save an average of 59%...
“Surprisingly, the phase II PARSIFAL trial did not show a statistical superiority in progression-free survival for fulvestrant plus palbociclib over letrozole plus palbociclib in the first-line treatment of patients with endocrine-sensitive, metastatic breast cancer. The noninferiority hypothesis...
When paired with palbociclib in the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer, fulvestrant and letrozole performed comparably, with no statistical superiority in progression-free or overall survival shown for either endocrine agent, in the phase II PARSIFAL study presented during the ASCO20...
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 June 16, 2020, pembrolizumab was granted accelerated...
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, oncology providers from around the world had to forgo their annual trip to McCormick Place—but the show did go on. We all realized important research can still be presented, clinicians and fellow researchers will still listen, and ASCO presentations will still...
Ahmad Tarhini, MD, PhD, Director of Cutaneous and Translational Research at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, was optimistic about neoadjuvant use of nivolumab/ipilimumab and looks forward to further randomized studies. “Taken together, the results of the OpACIN and OpACIN-neo trials support the value ...
Discussant of the TATTON study presentation, Alexander Drilon, MD, Chief of Early Drug Development at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, finds the idea of combination therapy with a MET inhibitor and an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor attractive for the treatment of EGFR...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has announced it will hold its 62nd Annual Meeting October 25–28, 2020, via an interactive virtual platform. The meeting, “Global Oncology: Radiation Therapy in a Changing World,” will feature reports from the latest clinical trials; panels on...
John D. Minna, MD, Max L. Thomas Distinguished Chair in Molecular Pulmonary Oncology and Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, was enthusiastic about this approach. “When I first heard about it, I was so...
Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors has made great strides in the treatment of many cancers, but only between 25% and 50% of patients respond with clinical benefit, and these agents come with adverse events and high price tags. Thus, preselection of patients who are likely to respond to ...
Some monuments are difficult to topple. At least that was the case dating back to 1976, when investigators from the Southwest Oncology Group demonstrated the importance of doxorubicin in the treatment of patients with a group of lymphoid malignancies then referred to as diffuse aggressive...
The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 disease on a global scale found the community of clinicians and scientists largely unprepared to face the devastating effects of the pandemic. The stress on health-care systems revealed their weaknesses and brought about associated financial crises. Defining the...
The combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab was at least as effective as chemotherapy in front-line therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and brain metastases at baseline, according to the results of a post hoc analysis from part 1 of the phase III CheckMate 227...
Newly released data on treatment outcomes of patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 revealed a racial disparity in access to remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has been shown to shorten hospital stays, and increased mortality associated with dexamethasone, a steroid that has had the opposite...
Findings from the first international prostate cancer quality-of-life study showed that significant numbers of men treated for the disease are struggling with continence and sexual problems after treatment. Results suggest that any treatment apart from active surveillance may negatively affect...
Kicking off the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer earlier this week, Anthony Fauci, MD, gave the keynote lecture, “Coronavirus Infections: More Than Just the Common Cold.” As Dr. Fauci told listeners, “[COVID-19]—and other infectious...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Brunt et al, 10-year follow-up in the FAST trial of women with early breast cancer showed greater risk for photographic- and physician-assessed normal tissue effects with an adjuvant radiotherapy regimen of 30 Gy in 5 once-weekly fractions—but not...
Results from the first study using uEXPLORER to conduct total-body dynamic positron-emission tomography (PET) scans in patients with cancer suggested that it can be used to generate high-quality images of metastatic cancer. The research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular ...
Mark J. Ratain, MD, of the University of Chicago, and Daniel Goldstein, MD, of the Rabin Medical Center, discuss the challenges of achieving cancer care value, evolution of the “more-is-better” philosophy when it comes to oncology drugs, and highlights of the First International Summit on...
Alice Mims, MD, Associate Professor of Hematology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–The James, shared her insights on the VIALE-A study. “The results of the VIALE-A study have been highly anticipated and are exciting, given the improvement seen in both overall survival and...
In the phase III VIALE-A trial, venetoclax added to azacitidine led to a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in response rates and overall survival, as compared with azacitidine alone, in treatment-naive predominantly elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) ineligible for...
For people with cancer who have a mental health disorder, getting mental health treatment may help them live longer, a new study published by Berchuck et al in JAMA Oncology suggests. In the retrospective study, of more than 50,000 veterans treated for lung cancer within the Veterans Affairs (VA)...
Two new studies led by Renuka Iyer, MD, Section Chief for Gastrointestinal Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and published in Oncotarget and Cancer, respectively, highlight possible new treatment options for patients with neuroendocrine tumors. SurVaxM The first report,...
According to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, an investigational vaccine designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—mRNA-1273—was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults. These interim results were...
In an Australian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sim et al found that the osteoanabolic agent teriparatide improved the rate of resolution of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw lesions vs placebo in a population of patients who had previous exposure to either...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Hayek et al found that exercise intolerance was more common among adult survivors of childhood cancer than among matched controls and that it was associated with a greater likelihood of emotional distress, poorer attainment of social roles, and poorer...
The addition of the CD38 antibody isatuximab-irfc to carfilzomib and dexamethasone nearly halved the risk of disease progression or death in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, the interim analysis of the phase III IKEMA trial has shown.1 “Isatuximab plus carfilzomib and...
Compared with younger patients, older patients with cancer face unique challenges because many of them have age-related decreases in health-related quality of life. This can be a result of many factors, such as comorbidities, mental health, physical impairment, and financial stressors. A diagnosis...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Watson et al found that screening for and treating detected dental infections prior to initiation of induction chemotherapy for patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were associated with a significant reduction in ...
New research published by Douglas et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network examined coverage trends for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing, also known as liquid biopsy. In the first-ever study to analyze insurance coverage for ctDNA-based panel tests, researchers found ...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has updated its guideline for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, adapting a 2019 update from the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACS first issued a guideline for routine use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, with an update issued in...