The ASCO Research Community Forum (RCF) 2018 Annual Meeting brought together 165 physician investigators and research staff from 34 states across the country—its largest meeting to date—to discuss contemporary challenges and develop creative solutions in conducting and managing clinical trials. The ...
When Frederick B. Sontag’s wife, Susan, was diagnosed in 1994 with grade III astrocytoma, the couple was understandably overwhelmed to hear that her expected survival was 3 years. At that time, there were few organizations providing resources to patients with brain tumors and their families. While...
On October 16, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved talazoparib (Talzenna), a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, for patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Patients must be...
Françoise Mornex, MD, PhD, was recognized by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) with a Distinguished Award at the IASLC 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Mornex is Professor of Oncology at the University Claude Bernard in Lyon,...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, and colleagues, and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, the phase III CELESTIAL trial has demonstrated that cabozantinib (Cabometyx) improved the median overall survival to 10.2 months in comparison to 8 months...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ghassan K. Abou‑Alfa, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, the second interim analysis of the phase III CELESTIAL trial has shown a significant improvement in overall and progression-free survival with cabozantinib...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On April 16, 2018, nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab...
Lisa A. Carey, MD, of the University of North Carolina, and Sherene Loi, MD, PhD, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discuss the phase III IMpassion 130 trial testing the first-line combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer...
Treatment with the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib (Ibrance) achieved a clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival in patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer that has relapsed or ...
A combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy improves survival in some patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, according to late-breaking results from the IMpassion130 trial reported by Schmid et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress (Abstract...
A phase III trial presented by Jiang et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress showed activity of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor therapy in advanced hormone receptor–positive breast cancer (Abstract 283O_PR). Endocrine therapies are the foundation of...
Cora N. Sternberg, MD, of San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital and the Israel Englander Institute of Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell, discusses results from the phase III CheckMate-025 study on nivolumab vs everolimus for mRCC; the CheckMate-214 study on nivolumab, ipilimumab, and sunitinib for...
Johan F. Vansteenkiste, MD, PhD, of Catholic University Leuven, summarizes a session he co-chaired that included discussion of translating advances in stage IV disease to nonmetastatic lung cancer, TKI approaches in early-stage disease, and integrating immunotherapy and TKIs in stage III disease...
Novel agents such as ibrutinib (Imbruvica), idelalisib (Zydelig), and venetoclax (Venclexta) have transformed the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and are increasingly used to treat the disease. The optimal sequencing of these agents is not clear in relapsed or refractory disease,...
The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to a standard platinum doublet as first-line therapy improved overall and progression-free survival in patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in the primary analysis of KEYNOTE-407.1,2 Furthermore, it did not seem to matter...
Results of the very large, randomized, population-based NELSON trial confirm the value of low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening in people at high risk for developing lung cancer. The protective value of screening was more pronounced in women than in men. These study findings were presented at ...
Several lung cancer trials have shown prolonged progression-free survival with checkpoint inhibitor therapy. For the first time, the phase III PACIFIC trial has found an overall survival benefit for the selective programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) vs...
Even before James P. Allison, PhD, made an appearance at the Fourth International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science Into Survival in New York City, the excitement among attendees was palpable. Earlier that day, October 1, 2018, Dr. Allison and Tasuku Honjo, MD, PhD, of Kyoto...
The combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq), a programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor, plus carboplatin or cisplatin and pemetrexed (Alimta) as first-line therapy followed by pemetrexed plus atezolizumab maintenance therapy improved progression-free survival in patients with stage IV...
Nearly 1 in 6 premenopausal women being treated for early-stage breast cancer do not adhere adequately to tamoxifen therapy after 1 year of treatment, potentially putting themselves at increased risk of recurrence and reduced survival, reported a French prospective study at the European Society for ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hensley et al, a phase III NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group study assessing adjuvant chemotherapy vs observation in disease-free patients with uterus-confined high-grade leiomyosarcoma was stopped due to accrual futility; available data...
Neoadjuvant combination checkpoint blockade showed activity among patients with high-risk stage III melanoma in a small study. However, a high incidence of side effects caused the trial to be closed early. These results were published by Amaria et al in Nature Medicine. The phase II...
As reported in the journal Blood by Flinn et al, the phase III DUO trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-δ,-γ inhibitor duvelisib (Copiktra) vs ofatumumab (Arzerra) in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic...
As reported at the recent International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Paz-Ares et al, the phase III KEYNOTE-407 trial has shown that the addition of pembrolizumab to platinum-based chemotherapy...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Wheeler et al found that black women reported nonadherence to endocrine therapy for breast cancer more often than white women, although no significant difference in discontinuation of treatment was observed. The study...
In a study reported in JAMA Surgery, van Roessel et al found that the recently released 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system for pancreatic cancer provided better distribution among cases and some increase in prognostic...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Pigneux et al, a French phase III trial (LAM-SA 2007 FILO) has shown an overall survival benefit with the addition of lomustine to conventional chemotherapy in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) without unfavorable cytogenetics....
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Amit M. Oza, MD, of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, and colleagues found that quality of life based on patient-reported outcomes was not worsened with niraparib (Zejula) maintenance vs placebo in the phase III...
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Melissa A. Merritt, PhD, of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center’s Epidemiology Program, and colleagues found evidence that recent use of aspirin or nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) after diagnosis appears to...
IN APRIL 2018, the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca) was granted approval for maintenance treatment of patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy.1,2...
Breast cancer specialist Jennifer K. Litton, MD, was born and reared in Leominster, Massachusetts, a small city in the north central part of the state. “I went to parochial schools until seventh grade and then went on to high school in Worcester. Although I enjoyed science early on, I was...
Eight years ago, a survey of the preferences of Dutch patients with cancer for health care found that while gender was one aspect influencing how men and women approach cancer care, it was the most important, with men, generally, regarding most care aspects as less important than women. The study...
THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has recognized Tony S. Mok, MD, FRCPC, FASCO, with the ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions in lung cancer. Dr. Mok, who is a Li Shu Fan Medical Foundation Endowed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Oncology at the ...
The phase III ECHELON-2 clinical trial has met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) with brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in combination with CHP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, prednisone) vs CHOP (cyclophosphamide,...
As reported at the recent International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Horn et al, the phase III IMpower133 study has shown significant improvement in overall and progression-free survival with...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Barlesi et al, the phase III JAVELIN Lung 200 trial has shown no overall survival benefit with avelumab (Bavencio) vs docetaxel in patients with platinum pretreated programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer...
Advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma have led to longer progression-free survival, but the majority of patients will still relapse despite newer treatments. A number of new drugs and combinations are under study in the hope of improving outcomes. “Multiple myeloma is a complex disease...
Germline mutations in the breast cancer–susceptibility genes 1 and 2 (BRCA1/2) increase the risk for cancer due to an inability to repair DNA double-strand breaks, and about 5% of patients with unselected breast cancer carry a germline BRCA mutation.1 These DNA repair–deficient tumors are...
In an analysis of Veterans Affairs data reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Bauml et al found that weekly lower-dose cisplatin vs higher-dose cisplatin given every 3 weeks as part of concurrent definitive chemoradiotherapy may not adversely affect survival, while reducing...
In a secondary analysis of the UK phase III RATHL trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Anderson et al found that ovarian function recovery was affected by age and type of response-adapted therapy in women receiving treatment for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma. The analysis included 67 eligible...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Jennifer K. Litton, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues, the phase III EMBRACA trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor...
On August 8, 2018, the CC chemokine receptor type 4 (CCR4)-directed monoclonal antibody mogamulizumab-kpkc (Poteligeo) was approved for adult patients with relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome after at least one prior systemic therapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data The current...
The C-C chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) is predominantly expressed in type 2 helper T (Th2) cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells.1 Under physiologic conditions and in response to its ligands, CCL17 (TARC) and CCL22 (MDC), CCR4 promotes T-cell migration to the skin.2 Of note, CCR4 is highly expressed in...
As reported by Youn H. Kim, MD, of Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, the phase III MAVORIC trial showed that the anti-C-C chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) monoclonal antibody mogamulizumab (Poteligeo) significantly improved...
In the phase III RELEVANCE trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Franck Morschhauser, MD, PhD, of The University of Lille, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Lille, France, and colleagues, no difference in the complete response rate or interim progression-free survival was found...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. In April 2018, osimertinib (Tagrisso) was approved for...
Because neuroendocrine tumors are not one disease but a continuum of diseases, ranging from well-differentiated tumors to poorly differentiated and small cell tumors, treatment approaches can vary greatly. At the 2018 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology conference, held on Sea Island,...
The phase III PACIFIC trial showed significantly improved overall survival with durvalumab (Imfinzi) vs placebo after chemoradiotherapy in patients with unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Scott J. Antonia, MD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, reported these...
The Beat AML Master Clinical Trial seeks to change the treatment paradigm and outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by personalizing therapy and ultimately facilitating the approval of novel targeted agents. Co-investigator William Blum, MD, of the Winship Cancer Institute at the Emory...
We have seen remarkable progress in the outcomes of patients with advanced-stage follicular lymphoma over the past 2 decades.1 Recent manuscripts and presentations describing long-term follow-up of randomized trials comparing various chemotherapy platforms (all combined with anti-CD20 antibodies)...