Two different trials presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition found that fixed-duration treatment with ibrutinib and venetoclax achieved deep and sustained undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) status when used as first-line therapy for...
Zanubrutinib, a second-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, significantly improved response rates and delayed disease progression as compared with the standard of care, ibrutinib, in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma...
Invited study discussant Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, MS, of Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York, commented: “The BTK [Bruton’s tyrosine kinase] inhibitors ibrutinib and acalabrutinib, along with the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax, are ...
Acalabrutinib was equally efficacious with less toxicity when compared directly with ibrutinib in patients with previously treated relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to the results of an open-label, randomized, noninferiority phase III trial presented at the 2021...
When compared with intravenous (IV) chemotherapy, the use of intraperitoneal (IP) carboplatin with dose-dense weekly paclitaxel improved progression-free survival in patients with ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal carcinoma, according to data presented at the 2022 Society of...
In an interim analysis of the phase II COAST trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, FACP, FASCO, and colleagues found that consolidation durvalumab in combination with the anti-CD73 antibody oleclumab or anti-NKG2A antibody monalizumab both improved objective...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Robert Motzer, MD, and colleagues found that patients with previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma receiving lenvatinib/pembrolizumab had similar or favorable health-related quality of life scores and prolonged time to definitive deterioration...
In a Japanese phase III trial (JCOG0802/WJOG4607L) reported in The Lancet, Saji et al found that segmentectomy was both noninferior and superior to lobectomy as measured by overall survival in patients with small-sized peripheral non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details In the open-label...
On May 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) for pretreated adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. According to the approval, patients had to have received a prior anti-HER2–based regimen either in the...
Computed tomography (CT)-detected emphysema may be linked to a higher risk of lung cancer, a risk that increases with emphysema severity, according to a new study published by Yang et al in the journal Radiology. Lung cancer is the primary cause of cancer-related death worldwide. However, lung...
In an Austrian phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Trutnovsky et al found that topical imiquimod was noninferior to surgery as measured by complete clinical response in patients with vulvar high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. Study Details In the multicenter trial, 107 evaluable...
In the Danish single-institution phase II CheckPAC study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chen et al found that the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab plus stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) improved the clinical benefit rate vs nivolumab plus SBRT in patients with refractory...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Neeraj Agarwal, MD, and colleagues, the phase III SWOG-1216 trial showed no significant improvement in overall survival—the study’s primary endpoint—with orteronel plus androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) vs bicalutamide plus ADT in patients with...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has made an impact on the treatment of certain blood cancers, but in clinical study, the cellular therapy has not been as successful for patients with solid tumors, due in part to the lack of tumor targets not expressed in vital tissues. In a new study ...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Krishnansu S. Tewari, MD, of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of California, Irvine, and colleagues, the phase III EMPOWER-Cervical1/GOG-3016/ENGOT-cx9 trial has shown improved overall survival with cemiplimab-rwlc vs...
Immunotherapy has become a potential strategy in treating triple-negative breast cancer, though many questions remain to be answered before long-term survival is achieved by all patients. This exciting field of breast cancer research was explored at the 2022 Miami Breast Cancer Conference by...
According to the results of a new study published by Drysdale et al in the Journal of Medical Screening, 51.4% of women preferred self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV)-based cervical cancer screening, compared to 36.5% who preferred being tested by a clinician. The findings came from a...
In an analysis from the ASCO Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Chen et al found that a high proportion of patients with rectal cancer do not receive guideline-recommended pretreatment staging transrectal ultrasound or pelvic magnetic resonance imaging...
Men who had a high body mass index (BMI) as children are at an elevated risk of obesity-related cancer later in life, even if their weight was normal in young adulthood, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Célind et al published their findings in the...
In the Canadian phase I/II SPARTACUS study reported in JAMA Oncology, Leung et al found very low rates of severe genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicity and worsening in only one patient-reported outcome domain among women receiving adjuvant stereotactic hypofractionated pelvic radiation...
In the phase III AGILE trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Montesinos et al found that the addition of ivosidenib to azacitidine in induction therapy significantly prolonged event-free survival in patients with newly diagnosed IDH1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia. An overall...
Elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in patients with a cancer diagnosis is associated with several poor postoperative outcomes, according to a newly published study from researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Roush et al reported their findings in the Journal of...
Using whole-genome sequencing to contrast genomic alterations in patients with stable Barrett’s esophagus compared to patients whose Barrett’s progressed to esophageal adenocarcinoma, Paulson et al reported that DNA changes presaging esophageal cancer can be spotted years before cancer develops....
In the largest and most detailed population-based cohort study to date, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that individuals with autism spectrum disorders, when present with comorbid intellectual disability and/or birth defects, were at a higher risk of cancer in early...
Recent findings with the use of sequencing technology have suggested that the gut microbiome may play a role in the treatment of cancer. A review paper published in JAMA Oncology by Liu and Shah captured the current understanding of the connection between the gut microbiome and therapeutic response ...
In the Japanese phase II BOOSTER trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Saji et al found that compared with continuing paclitaxel/bevacizumab, a maintenance strategy of switching to endocrine therapy plus bevacizumab (with the option of reinitiating paclitaxel/bevacizumab) was associated with a...
OCE Insights is an occasional column developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Mirat Shah, MD, of the Office of Oncologic Diseases, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA; Atiqur...
Discussant of the SORAYA trial, Deborah K. Armstrong, MD, of Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center Baltimore, underscored the strong rationale for targeting folate receptor alpha in ovarian cancer. “There is limited expression [of folate receptor alpha] in normal tissues, limited to the choroid...
The novel antibody-drug conjugate mirvetuximab soravtansine could become the new standard of care for patients with folate receptor alpha–positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, according to data presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer.1...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Andrew J. Armstrong, MD, ScM, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III ARCHES trial showed a significant benefit with the addition of enzalutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) in patients with metastatic...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has released the latest recommendations from the NCCN Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination and Pre-exposure Prophylaxis. The updated recommendations point to two booster vaccine doses for people who are immunocompromised (meaning three...
Contrary to what has been assumed, all recurrences of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are not genetically the same, according to a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022.1 Almost 20% of ipsilateral recurrences found in the study were genetically...
Two new, large studies led by researchers at the American Cancer Society showed an increase in the use of proton-beam therapy for patients with cancer in the United States during the past decade. However, Black patients were less likely to receive proton-beam therapy than White patients, and the...
Breast density is one factor in assessing a person’s risk of developing breast cancer. Existing breast density notification laws have increased awareness among patients and providers, but clinical records had not been incorporated in studies to confirm the accuracy of personal breast density...
In a phase Ib study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fu et al found that the combination of navicixizumab (a bispecific antiangiogenic antibody to VEGF and delta-like ligand 4) and paclitaxel showed activity in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Delta-like ligand 4 is a...
In a pivotal phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Samer K. Khaled, MD, and colleagues found that narsoplimab, an inhibitor of mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2, showed efficacy in the treatment of adult patients with hematopoietic stem cell...
In this video, Drs. Celestia (Tia) Higano, Julie Graff, and Neal Shore discuss the role of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted radioligand therapy in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The patient is an 81-year-old man with 13-year history of prostate...
The risk of self-harm after incident psychiatric disorder diagnosis in patients with 26 cancer types and the risk of unnatural deaths after self-harm were examined in 459,542 individuals in a study published by Chang et al in Nature Medicine. Patients with cancer may experience substantial...
In a phase III trial (Ewing 2008R3) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Koch et al found that the addition of treosulfan and melphalan high-dose chemotherapy (TreoMel-HDT) followed by reinfusion of autologous hematopoietic stem cells to consolidation did not improve event-free survival vs ...
In a small multi-institutional study, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system improved providers’ assessments of whether patients with bladder cancer had complete response to chemotherapy before a radical cystectomy. These findings were published by Sun et al in Tomography. Yet the researchers ...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Zapatero et al, 10-year results of the Spanish phase III DART 01/05 trial did not support the 5-year findings of significantly improved biochemical disease–free, metastasis-free, and overall survival with long-term vs short-term androgen deprivation plus...
In an interim analysis of a Chinese phase III trial (FZOCUS-2) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that maintenance treatment with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor fuzuloparib significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with...
The Iranian revolution of 1979 transformed Iran from an absolute monarchy under Shah Mohammad Pahlavi to an Islamist republic under Ayatollah Khomeini. The author of a new book called The Magic of Normal, Maky Zanganeh, PhD, was born in Iran in 1970. As a young woman, she experienced the war in her ...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies are a significant advance, but they require careful patient selection, dependency on patients’ own T cells, lymphodepleting chemotherapy, possible bridging therapy, manufacturing timelines with extensive health-care coordination and cost, in...
In an analysis of data from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) reported in Chest, Paul F. Pinsky, PhD, of the Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, and colleagues found that incidental respiratory disease–related findings on low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening...
Mikkael Sekeres, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology at the University of Miami Health System and a hematologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, applauded the IDIOME1 and IDEAL2 investigators for conducting studies. These studies, he noted, were “very difficult because of the rarity...
The oral targeted small-molecule inhibitors of mutant IDH1 and IDH2 appear to be active in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) harboring these mutations, according to two phase II trials by the Groupe Francophone des Myélodysplasies (GFM) and its German colleagues in the European MDS...
In an analysis from the Women’s Health Initiative reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Kerryn W. Reding, PhD, MPH, RN, of the University of Washington at Seattle, and colleagues, identified the incidence of hospitalization for heart failure among postmenopausal breast cancer survivors. They reported...
The “holy grail” of triple-negative breast cancer therapy has been effective incorporation of drugs to improve outcomes in the early nonmetastatic setting. Although outcomes have improved with better chemotherapy drugs and schedules, triple-negative breast cancer still carries the worst prognosis...
As summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, the highly anticipated results of the GOG 281/LOGS study, which randomly assigned patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer to the MEK inhibitor trametinib vs standard-of-care chemotherapy or endocrine therapy, have now been reported by...