Invited discussant of the KEYNOTE-355 trial, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, one of the coauthors of the study, had presented the survival data at the 2021 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Congress.1 The San Antonio presentation was a more in-depth evaluation of survival by different...
ASCO has elected Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, to serve as its President beginning in June 2023. Dr. Schuchter will take office as President-Elect immediately after the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2022. Seven new members were also elected to the ASCO...
Several of the researchersand scientists at the 42nd annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held December 10–14, attended the event on the basis of scholarships awarded through SABCS and its cosponsor, the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). The goal of the scholarships is...
In October 2021, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) prostate caycer panel modified its guidelines (NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology [NCCN Guidelines®]) for low-risk prostate cancer to remove the word “preferred option” for active surveillance, giving equal weight to...
Throughout my adolescence and early adulthood, I had been plagued with digestive issues, including bouts of gastritis and constipation, which seemed normal for me and wasn’t too concerning. But by the time I turned 30, in 2015, the acid reflux I had been experiencing became so frequent and...
Over the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to many novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in oncology and hematology. NOVEMBER Pafolacianine for Ovarian Cancer Lesions: On November 29, pafolacianine (Cytalux), an imaging drug,...
Women who live in urban areas and those residing in rural areas are screened for breast cancer at similar rates, but rural women are screened for colorectal cancer at significantly lower rates than their urban counterparts, research published by Shete et al in JAMA Network Open showed. The...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recognized three Choosing Wisely Champions—individuals working to tackle the overuse of hematology tests and treatments—at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition, held December 11–14 in Atlanta. Choosing Wisely is an initiative that seeks to advance a...
The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, the National Medical Fellowships, and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recently announced the first group of 52 physicians selected for its Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Program. The 52 physicians selected by an independent...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thomas Yau, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 459 trial has shown no improvement in overall survival with first-line nivolumab vs sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In the open-label trial, 743 patients not...
Although research so far has failed to uncover the root causes of the development of young-onset colorectal cancer, what is certain is that although colorectal cancer rates are declining in older adults, they are on a steady rise in people younger than age 50, especially those between the ages of...
Eunice S. Wang, MD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase III results showing that gilteritinib and azacitidine led to significantly higher composite complete response rates in patients with newly diagnosed FLT3-mutant acute myeloid leukemia who are ineligible for intensive...
The COVID-19 pandemic may have changed some aspects of health care forever. At the 2021 JADPRO Live Virtual event, a panel discussion focused on how several cancer centers faced challenges, and what changes the participants view as positive.1 JADPRO Live is an annual educational conference for...
A review article by Pfister et al published in Cancer Discovery summarizes the inaugural classification of pediatric tumors soon to be published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as part of the new World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Tumors series, including an online ...
In a single-center retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shouval et al found that the presence of TP53 alterations was associated with poorer outcomes in patients treated with CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy (CD19–CAR-T) for relapsed or...
Roni Shouval, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses his findings, which show, for the first time, that TP53 alterations are a valuable prognostic and potentially predictive marker in patients with large B-cell lymphoma who receive CD19–CAR T-cell therapy. Gene-expression...
Despite the availability of several effective screening tests, colorectal cancer screening rates remain below national goals. Although colonoscopy is the most often recommended screening method, a new study has found that the preferences of primary care clinicians have shifted toward noninvasive...
New research published by Wilson et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that only 59% of oncology clinical trials studied provided adequately defined rules for censoring. The researchers examined published randomized control trials supporting U.S. Food and Drug...
On December 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abatacept (Orencia) for the prophylaxis of acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD), in combination with a calcineurin inhibitor and methotrexate, in adults and pediatric patients aged 2 years and older undergoing hematopoietic stem...
Masayuki Umeda, MD, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, discusses his research which showed that UBTF-TD (upstream binding transcription factor-tandem duplications) define a unique subtype of acute myeloid leukemia that previously lacked a clear oncogenic driver. UBTF-TD is associated with...
A study presented by Matthew S. Davids, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 640) suggests that a 2.5-year regimen involving ibrutinib and chemoimmunotherapy may provide deep and lasting...
Although there is a biomarker that predicts response to the one approved immunotherapy agent for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, “it is important to note there are no biomarkers of response to neoadjuvant immunotherapy in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer,” Elizabeth A....
Talha Badar, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses the near-universal poor outcomes for patients with TP53-mutated acute myeloid leukemia and the findings that show allogeneic stem cell transplantation appears to improve the long-term survival in a subset of these patients. Effective therapies may...
The American Cancer Society recently released its report on the status of cancer disparities in the United States for 2021. Researchers analyzed comprehensive and up-to-date data on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in cancer occurrence; this includes incidence, stage at diagnosis,...
The POLARIX study found patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) had a significantly higher likelihood of survival without disease progression 2 years after receiving a new drug combination known as pola-R-CHP (polatuzumab vedotin-piiq with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and...
In an analysis of the phase III BELINDA trial presented by Bishop et al during the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract LBA-6), the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel was not found to improve event-free survival over the...
In the primary analysis of the phase III ZUMA-7 trial, the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel led to a fourfold increase in event-free survival over the standard of care in the second-line treatment of relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, according to...
In separate analyses of 257 patients with acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who developed COVID-19 and are part of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) RC COVID-19 Registry for Hematology, both neutropenia and having active MDS or leukemia (vs being in remission) were found to...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by researchers from the OnCovid Study Group, an updated analysis of the European OnCovid registry indicated that mortality due to COVID-19 infection has decreased over time for patients with cancer during the pandemic. Study Details The study included real-world data on ...
L. Elizabeth Budde, MD, PhD, of City of Hope, discusses phase I/II findings that showed mosunetuzumab monotherapy induces deep and durable remissions in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who have received two or more prior lines of treatment, including those with...
For the first-line treatment of newly diagnosed, transplant-eligible patients with multiple myeloma, the achievement of measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity was significantly greater when the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody isatuximab was added to the standard three-drug induction regimen of...
Oncologists and health-care professionals who treat patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are missing important opportunities to have end-of-life discussions at earlier stages in the disease course, when patients are best able to discuss their options and preferences. These findings...
According to a German study by Rotterdam et al presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 218), about 15% of people with blood cancers and other blood disorders had no vaccination-related antibodies after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine....
Patients with blood cancers, particularly those with more advanced disease, are at increased risk for serious COVID-19 outcomes, including an elevated chance of severe illness or death from infection, according to an analysis of more than 1,000 patients in the ASH Research Collaborative (RC)...
In the phase III AGILE trial, the combination of ivosidenib and azacitidine was found to be superior in treating newly diagnosed patients with IDH1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) compared to azacitidine alone in terms of event-free survival, the study’s primary endpoint. The combination also...
In one of the largest studies to date of the antibody response to vaccination against COVID-19 in people who had been treated for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), patients responded well to two doses of the Moderna mRNA vaccine and saw a pronounced increase in levels ...
An interim analysis of the TRANSFORM trial comparing the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy lisocabtagene maraleucel to standard of care found that the CAR T-cell therapy significantly improved event-free survival for patients with large B-cell lymphoma that persisted or returned...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who had received two or more prior lines of therapy, according to pivotal results of a phase I/II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of...
A study of U.S. adolescent and young adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) found that Hispanic patients were significantly underrepresented in a large clinical trial compared with the general patient population. The study, presented by Muffly et al at the 2021 American Society of...
A study of nearly 25,000 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) aged up to 30 years old revealed significant gaps in survival rates between White, Hispanic, and Black patients, as well as worse outcomes among those of lower socioeconomic status. Biologic or genetic factors accounted for...
On December 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Cancer Act into law. At that time, cancer was the nation’s second leading cause of death; only about one of two people diagnosed with cancer survived at least 5 years—compared with two of three people diagnosed with the disease...
A diagnosis, in 2020, of stage IV adenocarcinoma non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was found accidentally. I was 55 at the time and in the best physical shape of my life. I had spent the previous year and a half on a diet and exercise regimen that had rendered me 35 pounds lighter and feeling...
Following a review of new data and additional analyses of previous data concerning colorectal cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) “concluded the evidence is inadequate that low-dose aspirin use reduces colorectal cancer incidence or mortality.”1 Consequently, a draft...
Updating its 2016 recommendation on the use of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation statement. It noted the potential harms of daily aspirin, with the most serious being bleeding in the...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1999 to 2019, nearly 247,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids in the United States. According to the CDC, the problem can be broken into three waves. The first began with an increase in prescribing...
The Nobel Laureate Otto Warburg was regarded as one of the most significant biochemists of the 20th century, whose exhaustive research led to an understanding of cancer that remains significant to this day. Warburg was also one of the most despised figures in his homeland of Nazi Germany. As a...
A little after noon on December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon entered the White House state dining room. Before 137 esteemed guests from government, science, and industry, he signed the landmark National Cancer Act. It was, in short, a national commitment to conquer cancer. President Nixon...
The text and photograph here are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology: Tumors & Treatment, A Photographic History, The Anesthesia Era 1845–1875 by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photograph appears courtesy of Stanley B. Burns, MD, and The Burns...
“Good evening, doc; I wanted to check on you and update you on my mom” read the text message on a late Thursday afternoon. I recognized the sender; it was not uncommon for me to share my cell phone number with patients and their families. Having been a caretaker of my own parents’ medical needs, I...
In part 1 of this two-part review, we looked at early pioneers in the field of medical oncology in Europe, as well as the development of international cooperative trials and the formation of European oncology societies (see related articles below). In part 2, we explore how the field of medical...