The addition of nivolumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, to chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival in adults and children with advanced classical Hodgkin lymphoma with reduced toxicity compared with standard-of-care brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy, according to the...
In an analysis from the UK Biobank Accelerometry Study reported in JAMA Oncology, Stamatakis et al found that bouts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity were associated with reduced risk of cancer among nonexercising adults. Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity refers...
In a Chinese study (CCLG-AML 2015) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that homoharringtonine (HHT)-based induction therapy was associated with promising outcomes in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). As stated by the investigators, “HHT is commonly used for the...
In a Swedish study (Mammography Screening with Artificial Intelligence [MASAI]) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lång et al found that artificial intelligence (AI)-supported screen reading was associated with a similar cancer detection rate and a lower screen-reading workload vs standard double...
On August 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the fixed-dose combination of niraparib and abiraterone acetate (Akeega), with prednisone, for adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, as determined by...
A report published by Kwan et al in the journal Cancer provides new information that may help oncologists answer one of the most common questions they hear from breast cancer survivors: Is it safe to drink alcohol? The findings suggest drinking alcohol is not associated with an increased risk of...
Approximately 65% of adults in the United States consume sugar-sweetened beverages daily. Researchers led a study examining the associations among intake of sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages and the incidence of liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality in a large cohort of ...
Two studies presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting challenge the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors as part of upfront treatment of advanced hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. The first, the SONIA trial, found that first-line treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors led to greater toxicity...
Cancer research centers conducting clinical trials could potentially enroll more patients from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups by placing a greater emphasis on relieving investigators of the costs of translating consent documents into languages other than English, according to a study...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Deb Schrag, MD, MPH, FASCO, and colleagues, the phase III PROSPECT trial has shown neoadjuvant FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) was noninferior in disease-free survival vs chemoradiotherapy among patients with locally advanced...
Human papillomavirus (HPV)–positive head and neck squamous cell carcinomas can be divided into two distinct subtypes that may help determine how well patients will respond to therapy, according to a novel study published by Schrank et al in PNAS. The findings also identified a new mechanism of HPV...
A combination of resistance and aerobic exercise may improve sexual function in patients with prostate cancer, according to a new study conducted in Australia. The research was presented by Galvao et al at the 2023 ASCO Breakthrough meeting (Abstract 71) in Yokohama, Japan. “Sexual dysfunction is a ...
In the primary analysis of the phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled IMerge trial, in those achieving the primary endpoint of 8-week transfusion independence, treatment with imetelstat significantly reduced transfusion dependence—for a median duration of 1 year—and improved a...
Investigators have found that just 4.5 minutes of vigorous activity per day could reduce the risk of some cancer types by up to 32%. The results of the recent study were published by Stamatakis et al in JAMA Oncology. Background Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity describes very...
Patients who reside in lower-income communities may be less likely to undergo colorectal cancer screenings with computed tomography (CT) colonography than those who reside in higher-income communities, according to a new study published by Christensen et al in the American Journal of ...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Robertson et al found U.S. veterans most frequently cited a preference for stool testing as a reason for declining participation in the CONFIRM trial, which compared the effect on colorectal cancer mortality with annual colonoscopy vs annual fecal...
In a modeling study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kalyta et al found that reducing the starting age for colorectal cancer screening with the biennial fecal immunochemical test (FIT) in Canada would result in reduction in colorectal cancer burden at a “modest cost.” As stated by the investigators:...
In the phase II I-SABR trial reported in The Lancet, Chang et al found that the addition of nivolumab to stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) improved event-free survival in patients with previously untreated stage I or II or isolated parenchymal recurrent node-negative non–small cell lung...
The 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting featured thousands of abstracts. In addition to our in-depth coverage of pivotal research from the meeting, The ASCO Post highlights the following studies of novel therapies for gastrointestinal cancers. Addition of Anti-TIGIT Agent in Unresectable Liver Cancer In the...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Agulnik et al found that implementation of pediatric early warning systems resulted in reduced clinical deterioration event mortality among children with cancer in resource-limited hospitals in Latin America. Study Details The Proyecto Escala de...
Investigators have addressed the need to improve access to oncology drugs designed to increase the survival and quality of life of patients in sub-Saharan Africa and combat the significant health-care disparities many of these patients continue to face, according to a new study published by Sharma...
Black patients may be 1.6 times more likely to believe medical information presented by a Black speaker than information presented by a White speaker, according to a new study published by Loeb et al in JAMA Network Open. The findings highlight the importance of increasing racial diversity among...
Three scientists who are researching novel approaches to the treatment of cancer have been named the 2023 recipients of the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award: Nicole M. Cruz, MD; Mounica Vallurupalli, MD; and Nina Weichert-Leahey, MD. The awardees were selected through a highly...
Encouraging outcomes were achieved in patients with BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer who received neoadjuvant treatment with olaparib in a feasibility study led by Shannon N. Westin, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD...
The 5-year survival rate of pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has continued to increase to 94%, according to a new study published by Pieters et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Background ALL is the most common form of pediatric cancer in the Netherlands—with about...
Assessments of the health impacts of the nonsugar sweetener aspartame were released today by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO)/Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Citing “limited...
In a single-institution, phase I, first-in-human trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cowan et al found that the combination of the γ-secretase inhibitor (GSI) crenigacestat and B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy was tolerable and produced a high...
In a study of real-world prospective data—GOSAFE—reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Montroni et al found that the majority of patients aged ≥ 70 years undergoing colorectal cancer surgery showed maintained or improved quality of life and achieved functional recovery during follow-up....
Investigators have found that millions of dollars could be saved annually across the Veterans Health Administration by reconsidering how immune checkpoint inhibitors are delivered, according to a new study published by Bryant et al in Health Affairs. The findings suggested that if vials of immune...
The global population is aging rapidly. Currently, there are more than 703 million people worldwide aged 65 and older, representing 9.1% of the global population. It is estimated that this percentage will grow to 15.9%—1.5 billion people—by 2050.1 And with that growing aging population will come...
As a relatively rare subtype, lobular breast cancer is not well understood by many oncologists. At the 2023 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, Tari A. King, MD, FASCO, described how it differs from its more common counterpart, ductal breast cancer, in terms of characteristics, prognosis, and optimal...
At extended follow-up, lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab showed sustained superiority over sunitinib for overall and progression-free survival as first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma.1 The majority of the benefit was observed in intermediate- and poor-risk subgroups, according to the...
The addition of nivolumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, to chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival in adults and children with advanced classical Hodgkin lymphoma with reduced toxicity compared with standard-of-care brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy, according to the...
In a Korean study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jin et al found that increased alcohol intake may be associated with an increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancer. Study Details The study involved data from 5,666,576 individuals aged 20 to 49 years from the Korean National...
In the German phase II FIRE-4.5 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stintzing et al found that the addition of cetuximab vs bevacizumab to FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan) did not improve objective response rate in the first-line treatment of...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ling et al found that conditioning with busulfan/fludarabine resulted in reduced transplantation-related mortality vs busulfan/cyclophosphamide in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) undergoing human leukocyte antigen ...
Researchers have identified a new potential therapeutic target—the cell-surface tumor antigen CUB domain–containing protein 1 (CDCP1)—for patients with all subtypes of metastatic bladder cancer, according to findings presented by Chopra et al at the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular...
Patients with polycystic ovary syndrome may not have a higher risk of ovarian cancer than those without the condition; however, postmenopausal patients with polycystic ovary syndrome may have twofold the risk of developing ovarian cancer, according to recent findings presented by Frandsen et al at...
A report from the German OCUM study published by Ruppert et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology details long-term locoregional recurrence outcomes with risk-adapted neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy plus total mesorectal excision and total mesorectal excision alone in patients with rectal cancer....
Interim results of a phase II study (EQOL-MDS) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Oliva et al showed that eltrombopag, an orally bioavailable small molecule acting as a thrombopoietin receptor agonist, significantly increased the rate of platelet response vs placebo in patients with...
Women of African descent may have an elevated risk of being diagnosed with advanced endometrial cancer and developing aggressive tumors compared with White women, according to a recent study published by Medina et al in Cancer. Background Endometrial cancer is classified as endometrioid or the more ...
A genetic marker involving the EGFR and ERBB2 genes may be predictive of which patients with hepatocellular carcinoma are most likely to develop resistance to lenvatinib, according to a study published by Lim et al in Gastroenterology. The new findings could help researchers develop alternative...
Cervical cancer is a serious problem in many low- and middle-income countries such as the African country of Rwanda. Although the cervical cancer rate in Rwanda remains more than twice the U.S. rate, there has been improvement in recent years that cancer research organizations can learn from to...
Many patients with early-stage, low-risk cervical cancer may be spared the side effects associated with radical hysterectomy and undergo simple hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection instead, according to results of the international phase III SHAPE study presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual...
Formal discussant of this late-breaking presentation, Roisin E. O’Cearbhaill, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented: “MIRASOL is confirmatory of SORAYA, the trial that led to FDA accelerated approval. The impressive data of MIRASOL show an overall survival advantage in ...
Mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx, a novel antibody-drug conjugate, significantly improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with platinum-resistant, recurrent ovarian cancers that express high levels of folate receptor–alpha (FR-alpha), according to the results of the phase III...
The addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib to endocrine therapy significantly improved invasive disease–free survival in women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, early-stage breast cancer. These results of the phase III NATALEE trial were reported by lead author Dennis J. Slamon,...
The oral IDH1/2 inhibitor vorasidenib significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with grade 2 gliomas expressing IDH1/2 mutations in the phase III INDIGO trial. These results, which were reported by lead author Ingo K. Mellinghoff, MD, FACP, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer...
On June 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved talazoparib (Talzenna) with enzalutamide for homologous recombination repair (HRR) gene–mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. TALAPRO-2 Efficacy was evaluated in TALAPRO-2 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Liu et al found that adjuvant cisplatin/gemcitabine improved progression-free survival vs cisplatin/fluorouracil following chemoradiotherapy in previously untreated patients with N2 or N3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Study Details In the...