The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)—in light of World Cancer Day, taking place on February 4—has called on governments around the world to prioritize policy actions to reduce preventable cancers caused by tobacco use and the consumption of alcohol and ultraprocessed foods, including...
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, known as SPHINKS, capable of performing advanced computational analyses to identify potential therapeutic targets for patients with glioblastoma multiforme. The platform may also have applicability in other cancers, according to...
The UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) has shown that general population screening did not significantly reduce ovarian and tubal cancer deaths, and the researchers concluded that such screening cannot be recommended. The findings from the study prompted the Ovarian Cancer ...
The combination of ponatinib and blinatumomab has led to rapid and durable remissions in patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to data presented at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Morton et al, the European phase III FOxTROT trial has shown that neoadjuvant plus adjuvant oxaliplatin/fluoropyrimidine resulted in a reduced risk of residual disease or disease recurrence vs adjuvant oxaliplatin/fluoropyrimidine in patients with...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, Heiden et al developed a surgical quality metric scoring system—the Veterans Affairs Lung Cancer Operative quality (VALCAN-O) score—that was associated with overall survival in U.S. veterans undergoing curative-intent surgery for early-stage non–small cell lung...
Higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods may be linked to increased cancer burden and mortality, according to a new, UK-based study published by Chang et al in eClinicalMedicine. Ultraprocessed foods are food items which have been heavily processed during their production—such as fizzy drinks,...
The EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib may improve rates of disease-free survival and reduce the risk of recurrence in patients with resected, EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a new exploratory analysis of the ADAURA trial published by Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD,...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by DuBois et al, the Children’s Oncology Group phase III AEWS1221 trial showed no event-free survival benefit with the addition of the anti–insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) monoclonal antibody ganitumab to interval-compressed...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eric J. Chow, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the use of dexrazoxane was associated with long-term protection of heart function in childhood cancer survivors who received doxorubicin for their cancer. According to the study investigators,...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Coltin et al found that survivors of childhood medulloblastoma in Ontario were at an increased risk of numerous adverse health outcomes compared with matched noncancer controls. Study Details In the study, all 5-year...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Cheng et al found that higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers measured after surgery—but before receipt of chemotherapy—were associated with poorer outcomes in patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in the CALGB/SWOG 80702 trial of adjuvant...
Compared to other common supplemental screening methods, breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was superior at detecting breast cancer in patients with dense breasts, according to a new study published by Hussein et al in Radiology. Background Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer...
In a first-in-human, phase I, dose-escalation and dose-expansion study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mrinal M. Gounder, MD, and colleagues identified the dose and schedule for further evaluation of the oral MDM2 inhibitor milademetan in a population of patients with advanced...
Zev A. Wainberg, MD, of the UCLA School of Medicine, discusses phase III findings from the NAPOLI-3 trial, which showed that first-line NALIRIFOX (liposomal irinotecan plus fluorouracil/leucovorin plus oxaliplatin) improved overall and progression-free survival compared with nab-paclitaxel plus...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Josephine M.N. Lopes Cardozo, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that a higher score on a polygenic risk score consisting of 313 common genetic variants (the PRS313) was generally associated with more favorable tumor characteristics in patients...
In a U.S. cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Voruganti et al found that the uptake of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been associated with “modest” improvements in overall survival, particularly among older patients. As...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bhatia et al found that boys were significantly more likely than girls to be diagnosed with childhood cancers in India. Study Details The retrospective multicohort study involved individual data from patients aged 0 to 19 years from hospital-based records ...
Population-based genomic screening may facilitate early detection of medullary thyroid cancer in patients with variants in the RET gene, according to a new study published by Pichardo et al in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. Background Medullary thyroid cancer accounts for 2% to 5% of...
The targeted therapy momelotinib may offer clinically significant improvement in disease-related symptoms, including anemia and spleen enlargement, for patients with myelofibrosis, according to a novel study published by Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, and colleagues in The Lancet. The findings support...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that several B-cell–related gene signatures provided better prediction of pathologic complete response and event-free survival than tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) levels among patients with...
In one of the first clinical trials combining immunotherapy and targeted therapy for patients with BRAF V600E–mutated colorectal cancer, researchers discovered that a combination regimen of dabrafenib, trametinib, and spartalizumab resulted in long-lasting responses. The study findings published by ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Corey W. Speers, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the sensitivity to endocrine therapy (SET2,3) index and the 21-gene breast recurrence score (RS) were not correlated in defining prognosis among postmenopausal patients with estrogen...
In a Japanese phase III trial (JCOG1202, ASCOT) reported in The Lancet, Nakachi et al found that adjuvant S-1 was associated with significantly improved overall survival vs observation in patients with resected biliary tract cancer. Study Details The multicenter, open-label trial included 440...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) significantly improved disease-free survival vs routine follow-up in patients with hepatocellular...
On January 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pirtobrutinib (Jaypirca) for patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma after at least two lines of systemic therapy, including a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor. BRUIN Efficacy was...
On January 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved elacestrant (Orserdu) for postmenopausal women or adult men with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following at least one line of endocrine...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, McDonald et al found that receipt of blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) was associated with an increased risk of subsequent malignant neoplasms of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. As stated by the investigators, “Survivors of BMT are at increased risk of...
In a phase II trial (NRG/RTOG 0912) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sherman et al found that the addition of pazopanib to concurrent radiotherapy and paclitaxel did not improve overall survival in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer. Study Details In the U.S. multicenter, double-blind trial,...
New research shows that patients with type 2 diabetes may experience a substantially higher rate of cancer mortality than the general population—by 18% for all cancers combined, 9% for breast cancer, and as much as 2.4-fold for colorectal cancer—according to a new study published by Ling et al in...
In a study reported in a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, Mata et al found that U.S. individuals of African ancestry and Hispanic patients made up an increasing proportion of patients undergoing next-generation sequencing of tumor samples over a 9-year period ending in...
On January 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for adjuvant treatment following resection and platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with stage IB (T2a, ≥ 4 cm), II, or IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). KEYNOTE-091 Efficacy was evaluated in...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis of KIT exon mutations may help predict which second-line therapy is best for patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), according to data presented by Bauer et al during the January ASCO Plenary Series session (Abstract 397784). An...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wang et al identified mutations linked to high tumor mutation burden in microsatellite-stable (MSS) gastrointestinal cancers that may be associated with efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Study Details Molecular alterations in 48,606...
As reported in The Lancet by Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, and colleagues, updated results of the phase III DESTINY-Breast03 trial showed significantly improved overall survival with fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive unresectable or...
In a Taiwanese study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hsu et al found that survivors of childhood and adolescent cancers were at a significantly increased risk of multiple major psychiatric disorders compared to those without cancer. Study Details The study used data from a...
Utilizing chronochemotherapy—a method aimed at delivering chemotherapy at a time when the body is least vulnerable to its harmful effects and when the cancer cells are at their most vulnerable—may improve the outcomes of some patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to a novel ...
Soon after my marriage, in 2003, I noticed swelling in the glands around my throat. Although I otherwise felt fine, I went to see my primary care physician for a checkup and a blood test. The results of the test showed that I had an abnormally high number of lymphocytes circulating in my...
Isaac Craig Henderson, MD, passed away at the age of 81 at his home in San Francisco on December 26, 2022, after a brief illness. Dr. Henderson was an internationally known medical oncologist who specialized in breast cancer, beginning his career at Harvard’s then-designated Sidney Farber Cancer...
Nancy Chan, MD, Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York, commented on the monarchE analysis for The ASCO Post. She noted that the study investigated the addition of adjuvant abemaciclib (an oral CDK4/6 inhibitor) to endocrine therapy in a...
Results of a planned interim overall survival analysis of the phase III monarchE trial offered further support for the addition of abemaciclib to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, node-positive, high-risk disease, according to Stephen R.D....
Jaime A. Suarez-Londono, MD, a medical oncologist at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said the results of the ASAP study provide a basis for discussion with the transplant team. “The landscape of treatment of acute...
Intensive salvage therapy with the goal of achieving complete remission prior to allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) may not be necessary in some patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to the results of the phase III ASAP trial presented at...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will award the 19th AACR–Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lectureship to Andrea Schietinger, PhD, during the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting, held April 14–19, in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Schietinger, an associate member of the Immunology Program...
Precision medicine has revolutionized cancer treatment—but only for patients who have access to treatments. Nearly 2 million people in the United States are diagnosed each year with cancer, but access to targeted treatments varies widely, and only about half of the eligible people receive them,...
In the United States, Black American patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have notably worse survival outcomes compared to White patients. In addition, Black patients are less likely to receive intensive chemotherapy and undergo allogeneic stem cell transplants. Many researchers have reported ...
Northwell Health recently announced a gift from longtime trustee Roy J. Zuckerberg to create the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Hospital at Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center—Long Island’s first cancer hospital—and to establish the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center, Northwell’s largest ambulatory cancer...
Options are growing in the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma after complete response. At the 2022 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference,1 the use of these newer strategies in older patients was discussed by Brad S. Kahl, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Lymphoma Service at Washington...
Oxidative stress is a key factor in the development of many diseases including cancer. Antioxidants prevent cellular damage by neutralizing free radicals and are being investigated as potential therapeutic strategies against cancer. In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology...
NRG Oncology, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NTCN) group focused on improving outcomes for adults with cancer through international clinical research, recently announced the appointed leadership of the organization’s new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)...