Higher viral loads may be associated with a greater risk of death among patients with cancer—and individuals without cancer—hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a report by Westblade et al in Cancer Cell. Among hospitalized patients infected with COVID-19, those with hematologic malignancies...
Recent evidence indicates that proton pump inhibitors may cause significant changes in the gut microbiota; gut microbiota dysbiosis has been linked to reduced immune checkpoint inhibitor effectiveness. In a retrospective analysis of clinical trials investigating the immune checkpoint inhibitor...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, van Roessel et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy after pancreatic cancer resection and neoadjuvant FOLFIRINOX (leucovorin, fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin) was associated with an improvement in overall survival. The benefit was...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Karim Fizazi, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ARAMIS trial has shown significantly prolonged overall survival with darolutamide vs placebo in men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The previously reported primary analysis ...
Clinicians who treat multiple myeloma can anticipate a host of new treatments: melflufen, cereblon E3 ligase (CEL) modulators, antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Burke et al found that the combination of eflornithine and sulindac did not reduce the risk of disease progression vs either agent alone in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis. Study Details In the international trial,...
In the treatment of adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), use of newer antibodies and de-intensification of chemotherapy have greatly improved outcomes, according to Hagop Kantarjian, MD, who has been very involved in much of the research in ALL treatment. Dr. Kantarjian, Professor and...
Results from a phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center suggest that a combination of ipilimumab (anti–CTLA-4) plus nivolumab (anti–PD-1) can generate durable responses in a subset of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, an...
In a letter to the editor published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Brandon A. Mahal, MD, and colleagues described genomic differences in prostate cancer in Black, White, and Asian men. Study Details The study involved next-generation sequencing data from patients who had been treated for...
In a French Head and Neck Radiotherapy Oncology Group phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sun et al found that the addition of Debio 1143 (a small-molecule antagonist of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins) to high-dose cisplatin chemoradiation improved locoregional disease control in...
In a German Intergroup phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Grünwald et al found that progression-free survival with first-line pazopanib was noninferior to doxorubicin in patients aged 60 years or older with inoperable metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. Pazopanib was also...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Wolf et al, the phase II GEOMETRY mono-1 trial has shown durable responses with the selective MET inhibitor capmatinib in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and MET exon 14–skipping mutations. The trial supported the May...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Reinhard Dummer, MD, and colleagues, 5-year follow-up of the phase III COMBI-AD trial has shown continued relapse-free survival benefit with adjuvant dabrafenib/trametinib vs placebo in patients with stage III melanoma and BRAF V600E or V600K...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released new data from the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). The results, published by Wang et al in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), show 1.8 million...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Nowak et al, the Australian phase II DREAM trial showed activity with the triplet of durvalumab plus cisplatin/pemetrexed in previously untreated patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma. Study Details In the multicenter trial, 54 evaluable patients with...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Baize et al, a French phase III trial has shown significant improvement in progression-free survival with second-line carboplatin plus etoposide vs topotecan in patients with chemotherapy-sensitive relapsed small cell lung cancer. As noted by the investigators, ...
In the TRANSCEND NHL 001 study reported in The Lancet, Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, and colleagues found that the autologous CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell agent lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) produced a high response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Panagiotis A. Konstantinopoulos, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, a U.S. Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network phase II trial has shown significantly prolonged progression-free survival with the addition of the ATR (ataxia...
On August 5, 2020, the antibody-drug conjugate belantamab mafodotin-blmf was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least four prior therapies, including an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, a proteasome inhibitor, ...
On July 7, 2020, an oral combination of the nucleoside metabolic inhibitor decitabine and the cytidine deaminase inhibitor cedazuridine was approved for treatment of adult patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), including: Previously treated and untreated, de novo, and secondary MDS with the ...
“Ask any doctor why he or she enters medicine and the answer will likely be the same,” said Marc L. Citron, MD. “People become doctors to help patients...but to deliver the moments that matter to patients—to extend their lives and give quality to their days—doctors rely on new research.” In 2003,...
Global oncology refers to the application of the concepts of global health to cancer and implies an approach to the practice of oncology that acknowledges the reality of limited resources in parts of the world. The Global Oncology Young Investigator Award (YIA) from ASCO and Conquer Cancer, the...
Multiple myeloma is a malignant clonal plasma cell malignancy that primarily affects older adults. Although therapeutic advances have led to improvements in disease-specific and overall survival over the past decade, age-related survival disparities continue to exist. The higher prevalence of...
On July 30, 2020, atezolizumab was granted approval for use in combination with cobimetinib and vemurafenib for patients with BRAF V600 mutation–positive unresectable or metastatic melanoma.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings from the phase III, double-blind IMspire150 trial ...
Among the first 45 members selected to join the 10x Genomics Visium Clinical Translational Research Network are 3 scientists from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The organization is aimed at advancing translational research in some of the world’s leading health problems, including oncology,...
In keeping with her Presidential theme of “Equity: Every Patient, Every Day, Everywhere,” in July, ASCO President Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, announced the Society was joining forces with the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) to increase racial and ethnic minority participation...
On June 30, 2020, avelumab was approved for maintenance treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that has not progressed with first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the randomized, multicenter, ...
In a phase III trial (PROfound) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Johann de Bono, MB, ChB, PhD, of the Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, London, and colleagues found that olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival vs hormonal therapy in patients...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer. They include narratives, topical essays, historical...
Although most patients with breast cancer are considered to have an overall excellent prognosis, 600,000 people still die annually of the disease around the world. Even in HER2-positive breast cancer, a subtype that has seen a transformation of outcomes in the past 2 decades, there’s still room for ...
Cancer is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes neither is the treatment, according to information presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Education Program.1 Approximately 30% of patients who receive cancer therapy will have cardiovascular complications.2 What’s more, in anthracycline-treated...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Hematology Expert Review, we take a closer look at the monoclonal antibody targeting CD38, daratumumab, in the treatment of amyloid light chain (AL) amyloidosis and resistant multiple myeloma as well as the antibody-drug conjugate belantamab mafodotin-blmf,...
The ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program was a landmark year for the field of geriatric oncology, featuring more than 300 research abstracts that presented data on older adults with cancer. Here, we discuss several high-impact studies investigating interventions that modify outcomes for this patient...
Recognizing the COVID-19 crisis “as an opportunity to mobilize the organization to rise in the most difficult challenges” allowed The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, to keep mortality rates low for COVID-19–positive patients with cancer and its employees. So said Peter WT...
With incredibly paced approvals and clinical advancements in the systemic therapy of cutaneous melanoma, the efficacy of immunotherapy in this disease is clear. However, many important questions remain regarding timing and dosing—in other words, which drug (or drugs) makes the most sense and in...
A potent, a next-generation ALK inhibitor has demonstrated promising efficacy in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented during the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference...
KRAS G12C inhibitors—which at this point include AMG 510 (now labeled sotorasib) and MRTX849—are proving to be active in KRAS G12C–mutated tumors, especially non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). KRAS G12C is a newly “druggable” target, joining what is still a limited list of some 3,000 potential...
Invited discussant of the CheckMate 743 trial, Dean A. Fennell, FRCP, PhD, Director of the Mesothelioma Research Program and Chair of Thoracic Oncology at The University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester, United Kingdom, noted the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab has been...
Immunotherapy is taking on yet another highly aggressive cancer and yielding strong results, according to data presented during the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer Virtual Presidential Symposium.1 A prespecified interim analysis of the...
Earlier this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading across the United States, federal health officials and cancer societies urged Americans to delay routine cancer screenings and other elective procedures to keep them out of clinics to avoid potential exposure to the coronavirus and to...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Shaji K. Kumar, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ENDURANCE trial has shown no improvement in progression-free survival with carfilzomib plus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (KRd) vs bortezomib plus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (VRd) in patients with newly diagnosed...
The American College of Surgeons Cancer Programs recently launched the Cancer Surgery Standards Program (CSSP), a new initiative that aims to improve the quality of surgical care provided to patients with cancer by implementing standards for cancer surgery and standardizing the way operative data...
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with lymphoma are a unique population, with distinct biology, disparities in outcome, poorer survival compared with children and adults, and variable impacts of treatments. Ongoing research on this patient population with lymphoma will hopefully lead to improved...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies are a major advance in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and are making inroads in solid tumors, but there is room for improvement in their design, since not all patients respond, and those who do may relapse. Researchers are studying...
In an exploratory post hoc analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Amit M. Oza, MD, and colleagues found superior quality-adjusted progression-free survival (QA-PFS) and quality-adjusted time without symptoms or toxicity (Q-TWiST) in patients with platinum-sensitive, recurrent...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Al-Sawaf et al, 3-year follow-up of the phase III CLL14 trial showed maintained significant improvement in progression-free survival with the fixed-duration regimen of venetoclax/obinutuzumab vs chlorambucil/obinutuzumab in previously untreated patients with...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Paul K. Paik, MD, and colleagues, the phase II VISION trial has shown durable responses with the highly selective MET inhibitor tepotinib in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and MET exon 14–skipping mutation. As noted by the...
In patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), no statistically significant benefit in overall survival was observed with osimertinib vs pemetrexed plus carboplatin/cisplatin (platinum/pemetrexed) treatment, which possibly reflects the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Icro Meattini, MD, and colleagues, 10-year follow-up of the Italian single-center APBI-IMRT-Florence trial showed no differences in ipsilateral recurrence or survival with accelerated partial-breast irradiation vs whole-breast irradiation after...
Updated results of the phase III ALTERNATIVE trial of dual HER2 inhibition with lapatinib/trastuzumab plus aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy in HER2-positive, hormone receptor (HR)-positive metastatic breast cancer were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Johnston et al. The previously...