The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has issued the following statement regarding former President Joseph R. Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis: “The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) offers heartfelt support and well wishes to former President Biden and his family as...
More than a decade after I was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer, a phase I clinical trial at Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, investigating a dose of a novel follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR)-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy...
The management of metastatic (CRPC) has rapidly accelerated in the past decade, giving oncologists a wider range of tools to work with and patients new opportunities for improving survival and maintaining quality of life. These significant advancements have prompted ASCO to release a guideline...
Researchers may have uncovered genetic differences that may help predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitors among patients with metastatic melanoma, according to a recent study published by Monson et al in Nature Medicine. Background The investigation revolved around mitochondrial haplogroups ...
Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, of City of Hope, and Rebecca Alexandra Dent, MD, FASCO, of National Cancer Centre Singapore, review the results of a biomarker analysis of the DESTINY-Breast06 trial, which evaluated trastuzumab deruxtecan after endocrine therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer...
Although alcohol consumption is a known leading preventable cause of cancer, public awareness of the connection may remain concerningly low in the United States, according to a recent study published by Domgue et al in JAMA Oncology. Background Consuming alcohol has been linked to at least seven...
Although the SWOG S2302 Pragmatica-Lung trial did not achieve its primary endpoint of improved overall survival with the combination of ramucirumab and pembrolizumab compared with standard-of-care treatments for patients with stage IV or recurrent non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who previously...
A new study led by experts at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is the first to look at trends over time in alcohol-linked cancer mortality across the United States. The findings were presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract ...
With the currently available BCR::ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has transformed from an invariably fatal disorder (10-year overall survival < 10%) to an indolent one, associated with a near-normal life expectancy on optimal tyrosine kinase inhibitor...
Researchers may have uncovered early indications of the clinical benefit of niraparib in patients with advanced melanoma whose tumors have specific genetic changes impacting DNA repair, according to a recent study published by Kim et al in JCO Precision Oncology. Background The U.S. Food and Drug...
Although I have spent the past 2 decades of my medical career as a primary care physician, educator, and researcher in conditions that disproportionately affect people of Asian descent, including lung cancer, I was still unprepared to hear the words “You have stage IV non–small cell lung...
Despite the significant rise over the past 50 years in the use of evidence-based integrative medicine in conjunction with conventional cancer treatments—up from just 20% in the 1970s to about 80% in 20171—training opportunities in the fundamentals of this emerging field within the specialty of...
Following a comprehensive national search, W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, FASCO, former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has accepted the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J....
Despite a 30-year history as an ASCO volunteer, for Eric J. Small, MD, FASCO, this past year as President-Elect has opened new perspectives on the organization he will soon lead as ASCO’s 62nd President, effective during the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, May 30–June 3, 2025, in Chicago. After serving...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a promising biomarker in colorectal cancer, offering dynamic insight into disease burden and recurrence risk. However, questions remain about its clinical utility and optimal application, as well as its equitable access across practice settings. At the...
FaceAge, a deep learning system, was developed and validated to estimate biological age from photographs of faces. In a study published in The Lancet Digital Health, FaceAge showed the ability to predict short-term outcomes in patients with cancer. The study demonstrated that FaceAge could...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Pietrantonio et al, overall survival analysis in the phase III CodeBreaK 300 trial showed numeric improvement with sotorasib/panitumumab vs investigator's choice of treatment in patients with chemorefractory KRAS G12C-mutant metastatic colorectal...
The first sign that something was terribly wrong was in 2015, when I began to feel so fatigued that it was difficult to get out of bed even after 8 to 10 hours of sleep. I’ve been full of energy my whole life and couldn’t understand why I was so tired all the time. Then I began to experience...
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR, as the AACR President-Elect for 2025–2026. He will assume the Presidency in April 2026 at the AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego. Dr. Flaherty is Director of Clinical Cancer Research and the ...
The recent approval of the oral menin inhibitor revumenib brought much-needed treatment to patients with a challenging subset of disease: adults and children with relapsed or refractory acute leukemia harboring a lysine methyltransferase 2A gene (KMT2A) translocation or rearrangement. Approval was...
Sequential molecular measurable residual disease (MRD) testing and monitoring led to a survival benefit among younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and NPM1 and FLT3-ITD mutations, according to the results of a study published in The Lancet Haematology. Patients with both mutations...
Patients with colorectal cancer and a history of cannabis use disorder had a more than 20 times higher risk of mortality within 5 years than those without cannabis use order, according to the results of a study published in Annals of Epidemiology. The 5-year mortality rate in patients with a...
A novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy called AIC100, which targets the ICAM-1 protein, demonstrated encouraging responses and an acceptable safety profile in patients with two types of advanced thyroid cancer. Results from a small, first-in-human phase I trial were presented at the ...
Using next-generation DNA sequencing, researchers have identified four specific genes whose mutations are linked to the development and progression of lethal stomach cancers. This could potentially enable practitioners to offer targeted treatments that would spare many patients from unnecessarily...
A new gene-expression atlas developed using single-cell RNA sequencing data sheds light on how normal hematopoietic cells differentiate and was used to catalog the multiple ways aberrant differentiation can lead to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Andy G.X. Zeng, PhD, an MD/PhD candidate at the...
According to the results of a molecularly matched, tumor-agnostic phase II trial, the combination of the PARP inhibitor olaparib and the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab demonstrated antitumor activity with no new safety signals, particularly in patients with BRCA1/2 mutations. Data from this...
A novel artificial intelligence (AI)-based model could accurately classify sarcomas among pediatric patients using digital pathology images alone, according to new findings presented by Thiesen et al at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting (Abstract 2423/8)....
Artificial intelligence (AI) models pretrained on vast data sets may outperform standard baseline models in identifying nonmelanoma skin cancers from digital images of tissue samples, according to new findings presented by Song et al at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
During the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), accepted the 2025 AACR Enduring Impact Award for Transformative Service to Cancer Science and Medicine...
PD-1 blockade with the PD-1 inhibitor dostarlimab-gxly induced complete tumor clearance and resolved the need for surgery in patients with locally advanced, mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) cancers, according to preliminary results from a phase II trial presented at the 2025 American Association...
Researchers may have identified the bacterial toxin colibactin as a potential factor contributing to the concerning rise in early-onset colorectal cancer, according to a novel study published by Díaz-Gay et al in Nature. The findings demonstrated a substantial enrichment of colibactin-related...
Following a comprehensive national search, W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, FASCO, former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has accepted the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J....
ASCO has released an update to the guideline for fertility preservation in people with cancer. The update, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 provides recommendations regarding evaluation and counseling for fertility preservation; methods and timing of fertility preservation;...
Older patients with a solid tumor responded with similar clinical outcomes to younger patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, the results of a study published in Nature Communications showed. However, older patients did have divergent immune phenotypes compared with younger patients,...
Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, recently joined the staff of City of Hope as the new Director of the Women’s Cancers Program, Division Chief of Breast Medical Oncology, and Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research. In her role, she will lead and enhance City of Hope’s...
Percutaneous hepatic perfusion using a melphalan hepatic delivery system (melphalan/HDS) may be an effective treatment option in patients with unresectable uveal melanoma that has metastasized to the liver, according to a recent study published by Zager et al in the Annals of Surgical Oncology....
At current use and radiation dose levels, computed tomography (CT) scans may eventually account for 5% of all cancers annually, according to a recent modeling study published by Smith-Bindman et al in JAMA Internal Medicine. The danger is greatest for infants, followed by children and...
Patients with melanoma and lung cancer who have brain metastases may experience severe inflammatory reactions after receipt of immunotherapy drugs combined with radiation therapy, according to a recent study published by Vaios et al in JAMA Network Open. Study Methods and Results In this study,...
A high proportion of Medicare beneficiaries cross state borders to access cancer care, particularly patients residing in rural areas, according to a recent study published by Moen et al in JAMA Network Open. The findings have significant implications for telehealth policies and physician licensure, ...
A novel cell therapy approach using cord blood–derived natural killer (NK) cells precomplexed with the CD30/CD16A bispecific antibody AFM13 may be safe and generate responses in patients with refractory CD30-positive lymphomas, according to a recent study published by Nieto et al in Nature...
A novel machine learning model may outperform standard statistical models in identifying and stratifying transplantation risk among patients with myelofibrosis, according to a recent study published by Hernández-Boluda et al in Blood. Background Although there are several therapies available to...
Breast-conserving therapy, including radiation therapy, could lead to a progressive reduction in breast size over time among women with early-stage breast cancer, according to a recent study published by Becker et al in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Background Breast-conserving...
Janet L. Abrahm, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, FASCO, has spent more than half of her oncology career as a palliative care physician. After receiving her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in 1973, Dr. Abrahm completed her internship and residency at Massachusetts General...
Investigators studied race-associated molecular differences in the pancreatic tumors of Black and White patients to determine whether such differences were associated with response to immunotherapy. The findings were published recently by Mandal et al in Cancer Research Communications and reinforce ...
A combination of two immunotherapies may improve treatment response among patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinomas compared with just one immunotherapy drug, according to a recent study published by Li et al in Cancer Cell. Background Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas occur in the...
Researchers have uncovered a novel combination therapy leveraging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved KRAS inhibitor sotorasib and an experimental drug called FGTI-2734, which could improve the efficacy of precision medicine in patients with KRAS-mutated non–small cell lung cancer...
Over the past 20 years, the investment in research and development of cancer therapies has been unprecedented, and the pace of new drug development has been accelerating. To illustrate this trajectory, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 71 treatments for solid cancers in adults...
The investigational drug formulation rhenium (Re)-186 obisbemeda (RNL-186) may extend survival in patients with glioblastoma, according to a recent study published by Brenner et al in Nature Communications. Background Glioblastoma is the most common primary brain tumor in adult patients. The median ...
In recognition of her commitment to tackling the complexities and challenges of cancer, the American Cancer Society (ACS) awarded the 2025 Medal of Honor to W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC. The Medal of Honor is the American Cancer Society’s most prestigious award given to distinguished...
Investigators have found that the consumption of plant-based oils instead of butter may provide beneficial health effects and potentially reduce the risk of premature mortality, according to recent findings presented at the American Heart Association Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle &...