Romain Cohen, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic and Sorbonne University, discusses a post-hoc analysis of phase III results from the CALGB/SWOG 80702 study, which showed that adding the number of tumor deposits, a negative prognostic factor, to the count of lymph node metastases may improve the accuracy...
Rutika Mehta, MD, MPH, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, discusses the 3-year regression-free and overall survival results from the JACCRO study, which compared the efficacy of S-1, an oral prodrug of fluorouracil, vs S-1 plus docetaxel after curative resection of stage...
Afsaneh Barzi, MD, PhD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Southern California, discusses reasons for the incomplete understanding of the molecular landscape of minority patients with cancer, lack of screening chief among them. This underrepresentation, Dr. Barzi...
Wasat Mansoor, MBChB, PhD, of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, discusses phase III results from the KEYNOTE-590 trial, which showed no deterioration in health-related quality of life when pembrolizumab was added to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic and unresectable esophageal cancers...
A new study has found that patients with recurrent glioblastoma and a very low tumor mutation burden are more responsive to immunotherapies than similar tumors with an abundance of mutations. These findings, published by Gromeier et al in Nature Communications, could serve as a predictive biomarker ...
On January 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to daratumumab plus hyaluronidase-fihj (Darzalex Faspro) in combination with bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone for newly diagnosed light chain amyloidosis. ANDROMEDA Trial Efficacy was evaluated in ...
On January 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen....
Zev A. Wainberg, MD, of UCLA Medical Center, discusses phase II results from the FIGHT study, which combined bemarituzumab with modified FOLFOX6 in first-line treatment of advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. This is reportedly the first randomized trial of any FGFR inhibitor, ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted two Fast Track designations to cavrotolimod (AST-008). The designations include cavrotolimod in combination with anti–PD-1 therapy for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma refractory to prior...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved crizotinib (Xalkori) for pediatric patients aged 1 year and older and young adults with relapsed or refractory systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) that is ALK-positive. The safety and efficacy of crizotinib have not been ...
Today, leadership from the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) sent a letter urging the nation's governors and public health officials to prioritize supplying cancer treatment practices with COVID-19 vaccines and allowing the practices to administer the vaccines. The letter, signed by Kashyap Patel,...
Although patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, aromatase inhibitor–resistant metastatic breast cancer maintained quality of life for a longer time following treatment with palbociclib plus either exemestane or fulvestrant than capecitabine, those receiving chemotherapy...
New research published by Abdel-Rahman in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found more than one-third of eligible people miss timely screening tests for colorectal cancer, and at least one-quarter appear to miss timely screening tests for breast and cervical cancers....
Some patients with metastatic breast cancer are taking smaller doses of opioid prescriptions over decreased amounts of time, according to results published by Shen et al in Scientific Reports. Researchers said that the results indicate that clinicians may be more aware of the negative impacts of...
Overall cancer death rates in the United States dropped continuously from 1991 through 2018, for a total decrease of 31%, including a 2.4% decline from 2017 to 2018. These findings were reported in the American Cancer Society’s “Cancer Statistics, 2021” article, published by Rebecca L. Siegel, MPH, ...
Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, has been named Chief Executive Officer of CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO. A board-certified oncologist, physician-scientist, and data science expert, Dr. Khozin is a proven leader and visionary in deploying cutting-edge data science and technology...
Sagar Lonial, MD, the Anne and Bernard Gray Family Chair in Cancer, Chair and Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, commented on the APOLLO trial for The ASCO Post. “APOLLO is a highly awaited study, as the use of daratumumab plus...
Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses results from the ALTERNATE trial on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in postmenopausal women with clinical stage II or III estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-negative breast cancer that is resistant to endocrine therapy. The ...
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation may contribute to the development of a rare type of eye cancer, conjunctival melanoma, according to research published by Mundra et al in Nature Communications. The new study has revealed similar genetic changes in patients with conjunctival melanoma to those with...
A new study published by Hodge et al in the International Journal of Cancer suggests a link between Toxoplasma gondii infection and the risk of glioma in adults. The report found that people who have glioma are more likely to have antibodies to T gondii than a similar group that was cancer-free....
Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, summarizes her plenary talk, which featured the uncertainties in treatment knowledge: excision of postchemotherapy calcifications; the best sentinel lymph node biopsy technique for patients with node-positive disease who convert to...
Researchers have found evidence that opioid use may be an unidentified risk factor contributing to the increasing incidence of pancreatic cancer in the United States. These findings were published by Barlass et al in PLOS One. The use of prescription opioids for the management of chronic pain has...
In a comprehensive molecular characterization of the most common type of head and neck cancer, researchers from the United States and Poland have clarified the contribution of key cancer-associated genes, proteins, and signaling pathways in these cancers, while proposing possible new treatment...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting clinical laboratory staff and health-care providers that it is monitoring the potential impact of viral mutations, including an emerging variant from the United Kingdom known as the B.1.1.7 variant, on authorized SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests....
Sara Zarnegar-Lumley, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses an analysis of a large cohort confirming the age-associated prevalence of IDH mutations in patients, across the age spectrum, with acute myeloid leukemia and therapeutic implications. IDH-mutated genes were found to...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to lorlatinib in ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and Breakthrough Therapy designation to the combination of tiragolumab plus atezolizumab in NSCLC with high PD-L1 expression. The FDA also updated the...
In a study examining the effect of a Mediterranean diet in relation to prostate cancer progression in men on active surveillance, researchers found that men with localized prostate cancer who reported a baseline dietary pattern that more closely follows the key principles of a Mediterranean-style...
Patients with hematologic malignancies varied in their immune response to COVID-19, and some struggled to clear the infection, according to new research published by Abdul-Jawad in Cancer Cell. In contrast, most patients with solid tumors—even those with advanced cancer—were shown to be able to...
Lena E. Winestone, MD, MSHP, of the University of California, San Francisco and Benioff Children’s Hospital, reviews different aspects of bias in treatment delivery, including patient selection for clinical trials; racial and ethnic disparities in survival for indolent non-Hodgkin diffuse large...
A research team has revealed a distinct molecular signature in the tumor tissues of Black patients with breast cancer. The new work, published by Yao et al in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, reported that an elevated number of “exhausted,” nonfunctional T cells appears to lead to...
The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HPV is associated with health problems—including cancers—but a vaccine for the virus has been available since 2006. The CDC...
Christian Marinaccio, PhD Candidate, of Northwestern University, describes research he is conducting in the laboratory of John D. Crispino, PhD, which shows the loss of the tumor suppressor gene LKB1/STK11 facilitates progression of myeloproliferative neoplasms to acute myeloid leukemia (Abstract...
Recent research has shed new light on the carcinogenic effect of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, laying the groundwork for improvements in skin cancer risk stratification and prevention. A study published by Lei Wei, PhD, and colleagues in Science Advances detailed a method to measure the...
Many patients with prostate cancer are treated with androgen-deprivation therapy. However, patients receiving androgen-deprivation therapy often experience higher levels of fatigue, depression, and cognitive impairment. In a new study published by Hoogland et al in the journal Cancer, researchers...
Steven M. Horwitz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II data from the Primo trial, which support continued evaluation of duvelisib as a treatment option for relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma due to consistent response rates (Abstract 44).
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, discusses phase II data from the CITADEL-204 study, showing that patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma who were not previously treated with a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor achieved rapid and durable ...
Researchers profiled more than 45,000 individual cells from patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis and defined the extensive cellular heterogeneity, as well as identified two distinct cell subtypes correlated with patient survival. The findings were published by Wang et al in Nature Medicine....
A research team has published findings from a study that brought together data from genomic prostate cancer studies. Including more than 200,000 men of European, African, Asian, and Hispanic ancestry from around the world, the study is reportedly the largest, most diverse genetic analysis ever...
On January 4, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, MD, and Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Peter Marks, MD, PhD, issued the following statement on FDA-authorized dosing schedules for each COVID-19 vaccine. Two different mRNA...
Steven M. Horwitz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses data from the largest multicenter retrospective analysis of allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation, which supports its curative potential in patients with mature T-cell lymphoma, a group marked by poor survival and...
A study published by Hyuna Sung, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA found that adult-onset cancer survivors may have a greater risk of developing and dying from subsequent primary cancers than the general population. Cancers associated with smoking or obesity accounted for a majority of subsequent primary ...
On December 29, Bristol Myers Squibb issued the following statement on nivolumab’s small cell lung cancer (SCLC) indication in the United States. In 2018, nivolumab was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with SCLC whose disease...
A research team has quantified the effects of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) on the development of cervical cancer. Their results show that the risk of developing cervical cancer is six times higher in women who are infected with HIV, and that women who live in Southern and...
A comprehensive study involving more than 250,000 women showed that oral contraceptive use may be protective against the development of ovarian and endometrial cancers, but the effect on lifetime risk of breast cancer is more limited. The protective effect on ovarian and endometrial cancers was...
On December 15, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the latest estimates on the global burden of cancer. The GLOBOCAN 2020 database, accessible online as part of the IARC Global Cancer Observatory, provides estimates of incidence and mortality in 185 countries for 36...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the second vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. The emergency use authorization allows the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the United States for use in...
A new report found that despite progress in the decline of cancer mortality, there are still critical gaps, including the need to develop better tools and explore research opportunities that would lead to limiting cancer as a major health concern. This blueprint article completes an eight-part...
Although efforts have been made by various medical societies, including ASCO, over the past decade to address the needs of sexual and gender minorities in the cancer care setting, research shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) patients continue to face...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded over $107 million to support new, nontraditional approaches and reimagined uses of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and surveillance. The program will also develop platforms that can be deployed in future outbreaks of COVID-19...
Reporting on how deferred care worsened outcomes for patients with lung cancer when the COVID-19 pandemic first surged in the spring of 2020, Robert M. Van Haren, MD, MSPH, FACS, and colleagues explained that they have identified a framework that could help people with serious health conditions...