In a Chinese phase II trial (ZSAB-TransGOLP) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Shi et al found promising results with tislelizumab plus lenvatinib and GEMOX (gemcitabine plus oxaliplatin) chemotherapy (GOLP) in converting unresectable locally advanced biliary tract cancer to resectable disease....
In an interim analysis of a phase II trial (SunRISe-4) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Necchi et al found that the addition of neoadjuvant TAR-200—a targeted releasing system that provides sustained delivery of gemcitabine within the bladder—to the PD-1 inhibitor cetrelimab resulted in a higher...
Each year, nearly 90,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs; aged 15–39) are diagnosed with cancer, and approximately 9,300 die of the disease.1 And although the 5-year survival rate among these young patients is approaching 80%, it lags behind that of the pediatric population, whose 5-year...
Many patients from Europe and the United States have experienced the benefits of anthracyclines in the treatment of an array of cancers, including solid tumors such as breast and ovarian cancers as well as lymphoma. However, a number of these cancer survivors will experience severe chronic cardiac...
Treatment with the viral immunotherapy CAN-2409 helped patients with unresectable, stage III/IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continue on immune checkpoint inhibition longer and experience extended survival, despite initial inadequate responses to anti–PD-(L)1 therapy, according to extended...
Resection of the primary thoracic tumor after EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibition demonstrated the ability to prolong disease control in patients with EGFR-mutant metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings from a randomized phase II trial presented at the International...
Alexander Drilon, MD, presents findings from the phase I/II ARROS-1 trial, which investigated the safety and efficacy of zidesamtinib—an investigational next-generation ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) designed to be highly selective, brain-penetrant, and TRK-sparing—in patients with ROS1...
A new study presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (Abstract MA11.09) demonstrated that monitoring circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) may aid in refining and personalizing the use of consolidation immunotherapy in patients with...
The DLL3-targeted bispecific T-cell engager agent tarlatamab demonstrated significant overall survival in combination with anti‒PD-L1 therapy of either atezolizumab or durvalumab as first-line maintenance therapy for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), according to...
BMS-986504, a first-in-class agent targeting MTAP, demonstrated antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with MTAP-deleted non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings from the phase I/II CA240-0007 trial presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer...
Older individuals up to the age of 80 who are eligible for lung surgery may achieve a survival benefit from lung cancer screening comparable to that for younger patients, according to the results of a multicenter cohort study from the United Kingdom presented at the International Association for...
Treating patients who have stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with durvalumab concurrently with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and continuing as consolidation therapy did not improve overall survival (OS) compared with consolidation therapy with durvalumab alone, according to research presented...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved selumetinib (Koselugo) granules and capsules for pediatric patients aged 1 year and older with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) who have symptomatic, inoperable plexiform neurofibromas (PN). The FDA previously approved selumetinib capsules for...
Research has shown that pain is among the most commonly experienced and feared aspects of a cancer diagnosis.1 It’s easy to understand why. In fact, cancer-related pain is so ubiquitous, between 20% and 50% of patients with early-stage cancer will experience pain,2 and up to 90% of patients with...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) recently announced that Jeffrey A. Drebin, MD, PhD, has been named Chief Physician Executive. A renowned surgeon-scientist, Dr. Drebin previously served as Chair of the Department of Surgery and brings decades of leadership and clinical experience...
A first-in-human phase I study of SHR-4849 (IDE849), a Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3)-directed antibody-drug conjugate, demonstrated manageable safety and early signs of antitumor activity in patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The results were presented at the International...
Patients diagnosed with recurrent or progressive extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) may benefit from treatment with ifinatamab deruxtecan (I-DXd), a B7-H3–directed antibody-drug conjugate, according to data presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer...
ASCO has issued a new update to its living guideline regarding therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without driver alterations, based on results of three studies published recently.1 The update (the first since a previous version in February 2025) includes discussion of...
The results from the CARTITUDE-1 study showed the remarkable efficacy of ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, when used in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after four or more prior lines of...
The results of the CARTITUDE-1 clinical trial demonstrate outstanding and unprecedented long-term efficacy with ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen–directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.1 (See the July 2025 issue of The ...
After decades of incremental progress in the treatment of multiple myeloma, survival has increased from 3 years in the late 1990s to between 8 and 10 years today.1 Could cure for a disease that kills more than 12,000 individuals each year in the United States2 finally be within reach? The long-term ...
Constipation, a frequent and distressing side effect of cancer treatment, remains underdiagnosed and undertreated—particularly when driven by opioids. Opioid-induced constipation is distinct from functional constipation and requires tailored approaches to assessment and management. During a...
The outlook for adequate funding for federal health agencies has become more dire. In July, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced it is reducing the number of grant applications it will award for the remaining 2 months of fiscal year 2025 (FY2025), from 9% down to 4%.1 The result is that...
Use of the PARP inhibitor niraparib in combination with the androgen biosynthesis inhibitor abiraterone acetate and the corticosteroid prednisone reduced the risk of disease progression, both radiographic and symptomatic, in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer harboring...
Treatment with the next-generation ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) zidesamtinib led to antitumor activity in patients with ROS1-positive non‒small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had experienced disease progression on prior TKI treatments. These findings from the phase I/II ARROS-1 trial were...
The first-in-class EGFR × HER3 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate izalontamab brengitecan (also referred to as iza-bren; BL-B01D1) demonstrated promising efficacy results plus a manageable safety profile in the treatment of patients with previously treated EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer...
A novel, urine-based, three-biomarker panel demonstrated significant accuracy and promising sensitivity and specificity for the detection of prostate cancers during development and validation testing, according to findings published in eBioMedicine. “This new biomarker panel offers a promising,...
A new analysis from the COMPEL trial showed that patients with EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who experienced non–central nervous system (CNS) disease progression on first-line osimertinib benefit from continuing osimertinib treatment in combination with platinum-based...
In a retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, Dai et al found that use of GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) for weight loss in adults with overweight/obesity was associated with an overall reduction in risk of cancer. As stated by the investigators, “…GLP-1 RAs… are widely prescribed for...
Despite data from the latest edition of The Cancer Atlas showing that nearly half of cancer mortality worldwide is attributed to modifiable risk factors, cancer incidence and mortality rates continue to soar.1 Globally, approximately 19 million new cases of cancer, excluding nonmelanoma skin...
Individuals carrying a rare pathogenic variant in one of 16 cancer-associated genes were 1.9 times more likely to develop a single cancer and 2.6 times more likely to develop multiple primary cancers, according to the results of a genetic association study published in JAMA Oncology. These...
Taking low-dose colchicine daily may slow the progression of a common acquired gene mutation found in the blood of older adults that can lead to certain blood cancers and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a subanalysis of the LoDoCo2 trial published by Mohammadnia et al in JACC ...
Elias Jabbour, MD, discusses long-term findings and predictors of sustained remission among adult patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who did not undergo a stem cell transplant, but received the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy obecabtagene...
A randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of providing personalized risk information to patients and their providers about the patient’s risk for advanced colorectal neoplasia has found no difference in screening uptake with either the personalized risk messages or provider...
Use of a daily interferon-α nasal spray could significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection among adult patients with cancer, according to the results of a multicenter, randomized trial published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The results suggest that the nasal spray could be a potential...
For African American patients undergoing mastectomy, the risk of complications and the postoperative appearance of the breast are among the important drivers of preferences about breast reconstruction, according to a new report published by Shammas et al in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bidard et al developed a model that may identify a subgroup of patients with clinical high-risk estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/HER2-negative early breast cancer who might derive no additional distant recurrence benefit from escalation of adjuvant...
This past May, ASCO announced its collaboration with Google Cloud to launch the ASCO® Guidelines Assistant, a new interactive tool that allows clinicians to quickly access ASCO’s evidence-based clinical guidelines to facilitate critical clinical decision-making. Developed with Google Cloud’s Vertex ...
For individuals diagnosed with early breast cancer, the long-term risk of developing a second primary cancer is low—around 2% to 3% greater than the general population)—according to findings published by McGale et al in The BMJ. The researchers say this information can help reassure many breast...
In a U.S. state-level study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Garg et al found that awareness of human papillomavirus (HPV), HPV vaccination, and the association between HPV infection and development of cancers was “overwhelmingly low.” As stated by the investigators, “Each year, an...
Patients with cancer who have a diet high in tryptophan, or protein-rich foods, have an increased risk for developing cancer-associated venous thromboembolism, according to preclinical findings published in Blood Advances. This increased risk could potentially be mitigated by treatment with an...
In a Chinese single-center phase II trial (SPRING-01) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tian et al found that the addition of the PD-1 inhibitor sintilimab to chemotherapy following short-course radiotherapy as part of total neoadjuvant treatment significantly improved the pathologic complete...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved rilzabrutinib (Wayrilz), a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, for adults with persistent or chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. The approval was based on the pivotal LUNA ...
In a matched-cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Iwakura et al found that women with breast or gynecologic cancer had a higher risk of job resignation compared with their unaffected counterparts, especially among those who were older, had lower income, or had a history of depression. “These ...
Based on the results of a single-center phase II trial published by Bhatt et al in the American Journal of Hematology, pretreatment geriatric assessment in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appeared to be feasible, to identify several functional impairments, to help guide the selection ...
Each year in the United States, nearly 16,000 children and adolescents between the ages of birth and 19 are diagnosed with cancer.1 And although survival rates have greatly improved for many types of childhood cancers, with more than 8 in 10 children and adolescents surviving at least 5 years after ...
Microbes inside cancerous tumors can influence the spread of disease and the effectiveness of treatment, and those roles make them appealing targets for new therapies. Tumor microbiota–based tools could also help identify high-risk patients and those most susceptible to metastases, and possibly be...
In a German phase III trial (CONKO-007) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1Rainer Fietkau, MD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany, and colleagues found that adding chemoradiotherapy to chemotherapy vs...
In a pooled analysis of the Italian Sarcoma Group (ISG/OS-2) and Spanish Sarcoma Group (GEIS-33) trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Palmerini et al found evidence of activity with the addition of mifamurtide to chemotherapy in patients with nonmetastatic high-grade osteosarcoma...
After 2 decades of practicing medicine across multiple disciplines and health systems, I’ve witnessed the dramatic transformation of patient-physician interactions, and none more dramatic than what I’m seeing in this era of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on cancer care. Early in my...