The immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab plus chemotherapy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression and disease-related death compared with standard treatment with the CD30-targeted drug brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy in pediatric and adult patients with previously untreated...
In a phase II clinical trial, investigators found that 42% of patients with brain metastases benefited from treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, with 7 of the 57 patients in the trial surviving for longer than 2 years. The study authors cautioned that these benefits must be ...
A population-based study using information from a database of veterans found that those who had been exposed to Agent Orange may be at an increased risk of developing myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). Agent Orange is a herbicide that was used by the U.S. military in Korea and Vietnam to clear...
Researchers have found that the bacteria, fungi, and viruses within the tumors of patients with colorectal cancer varied significantly depending on whether they were diagnosed with early-onset or late-onset disease, according to new findings presented by Weinberg et al at the 2023 ASCO Annual...
On May 31, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved olaparib (Lynparza) in combination with abiraterone and prednisone (or prednisolone) for adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, as determined by an...
Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, Deputy Director of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in a place and time she found exhilarating during her early years. “We didn’t have a lot of money—actually, we were poor. But I had a lot of freedom walking around...
In the era of genomics and precision medicine, the role of pathology in diagnosis and cancer management is rapidly evolving. For the past 50 years, from her office at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute (NCI), pathologist Elaine S. Jaffe, MD, has been at the forefront of that...
George D. Demetri, MD, FASCO, Director of the Sarcoma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard, was born in Hyde Park, a town along the Hudson River in New York. When Dr. Demetri was growing up there, it was known for three...
Today is the era of the multidisciplinary oncology care approach, cancer staging facilitates precision in documenting disease extent, all of which improved the quality of patient care. However, in the United States, the Rai staging system is still the most commonly used clinical staging system for...
Susan K. Parsons, MD, MRP, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and Founding Director of the Reid R. Sacco Adolescent and Young Adult Program for Cancer and Hereditary Blood Disorders at Tufts Medical Center, grew up on a working dairy farm in Sharon Springs,...
On May 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the optimized, high-affinity radiohybrid prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging agent flotufolastat fluorine-18 (Posluma). Flotufolastat F-18 is indicated for PET imaging of...
Patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who received luspatercept to treat anemia instead of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs)—the current standard of care—needed fewer blood transfusions and clinic visits. These findings from the phase III COMMANDS trial were presented by...
In a single-institution study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Stephanie Feldman, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues found that somatic KRAS and STK11 alterations were associated with increased risk of arterial thromboembolism in patients with solid tumors,...
The Mount Sinai Health System’s esophagectomy program has received a three-star (excellent performance) overall composite score from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). According to STS, 13 institutions in the United States and Canada hold the three-star rating, which denotes the highest...
In an analysis recently reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 Bender et al found that “excellent” survival outcomes were achieved in patients receiving reduced treatment for neuroblastoma as a result of reassignment to intermediate risk from high risk based on a change in the minimum age...
The updated results of the POLLUX trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Dimopoulos and colleagues and in this issue of The ASCO Post, showed significantly improved overall survival with daratumumab plus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (DRd) vs Rd in patients with previously treated...
Daniel C. Link, MD, has been named Deputy Director of Siteman Cancer Center (SCC), based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis. In addition, Dr. Link, who also is the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine, is Chief of the...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Syed Ali Abutalib and L. Jeffrey Medeiros explore the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
In a collaborative study from the University of Freiburg and Stanford University reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jurik A. Mutter, BSc, of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, and colleagues found that circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) identified prior to and during treatment...
On April 17, 2023, omidubicel-onlv was approved for use in adult and pediatric patients (≥ 12 years) with hematologic malignancies who are planned for umbilical cord blood transplantation following myeloablative conditioning to reduce the time to neutrophil recovery and the incidence of infection.1 ...
In patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer, treatment with ribociclib plus letrozole was not only active, but led to outcomes that are comparable to those achieved with current agents—with a particularly striking 19-month duration of response—according to Brian M. Slomovitz, MD,...
Whole-exome sequencing of a large database identified carriers of mutations associated with hereditary cancer syndromes (ie, hereditary breast and ovarian cancers and Lynch syndrome). What was surprising was that among those carriers, about 40% did not satisfy the existing National Comprehensive...
On May 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the bispecific CD20-directed CD3 T-cell engager epcoritamab-bysp (Epkinly) for patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)–not otherwise specified, including DLBCL arising from...
Results of the Intercontinental-Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster 2009 trial in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Campbell et al. Findings included no benefit of augmented early intensification in intermediate-risk or high-risk patients and no...
In the phase III GAIA–CLL13 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Barbara Eichhorst, MD, and colleagues found better outcomes with venetoclax plus obinutuzumab and venetoclax, obinutuzumab, and ibrutinib compared with chemoimmunotherapy as first-line treatment in fit patients with ...
In a small single-institution phase I trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sonabend et al found that an implantable device for low-intensity pulsed ultrasound with concomitant administration of intravenous microbubbles (LIPU-MB) may be safely used to open the blood-brain barrier to permit...
Although hypomethylating agents previously appeared to be a promising treatment option for patients with bladder cancer refractory to immunotherapy, researchers were forced to halt a recent phase II clinical trial after patients experienced either no response to treatment or rapid tumor...
Researchers have found that azacitidine may be capable of increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy and aiding nearly 90% of patients who had peripheral T-cell lymphoma with the T follicular helper cell phenotype (PTCL-TFH) achieve remission, according to a novel study published by Ruan et al in ...
In a UK phase II trial (MAJIC-PV) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Harrison et al found that ruxolitinib produced a higher complete response rate vs best available therapy in patients with polycythemia vera intolerant of or resistant to hydroxycarbamide. Study Details In the...
Researchers have developed a calculator that may be capable of identifying patients who have multiple myeloma and light-chain amyloidosis with more benign profiles and, consequently, better prognoses, according to a novel study published by Burgos et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The...
In patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer, treatment with ribociclib plus letrozole was not only active, but led to outcomes that are comparable to those achieved with current agents—with a particularly striking 19-month duration of response—according to Brian M. Slomovitz, MD,...
Researchers have found that patients who are obese and undergo bariatric surgery may have a greater than 50% decreased incidence rate of obesity-related cancer compared with patients who did not have the weight-loss procedure, according to new findings presented by Chittajalu et al at Digestive...
The parameters set to determine which patients can enroll in clinical trials testing new multiple myeloma treatments may disproportionately exclude patients from racial and ethnic minority groups, according to a new study published by Kanapuru et al in the journal Blood. Background Multiple myeloma ...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Connor et al found that pediatric and young adult patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) who did not respond to induction therapy had poorer outcomes vs those with induction response. The investigators also attempted...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Xu et al, an interim analysis of the phase III RATIONALE-306 trial has shown improved overall survival with the addition of the anti–PD-1 antibody tislelizumab to chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bender et al found that “excellent” survival outcomes were achieved in patients receiving reduced treatment for neuroblastoma as a result of reassignment to intermediate risk from high risk based on a change in the minimum age for...
As reported in NEJM Evidence, Weeks et al identified a clonal hematopoiesis risk score for prediction of risk for myeloid neoplasms among individuals with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance (CCUS). As stated by the investigators, ...
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...
Almost 750,000 more adults in the United States, aged 18 to 29 years, may have used e-cigarettes during the period that spanned the e-cigarette or vaping-product use–associated lung injury outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 to 2021, according to a new study published by Bandi et al in the...
Bone marrow transplantation in leukemia is one of the great success stories in the history of oncology, as is that of the late Nobel Laureate E. Donnall Thomas, MD, the pioneering clinical researcher whose name is synonymous with life-saving marrow transplantation. Dr. Thomas, who was born in the...
Cancer has stalked my family for generations. My mother, brother, and maternal uncle were diagnosed with melanoma. Fortunately, all survived. When my sister was diagnosed with early-stage invasive ductal carcinoma in 2010, she underwent genetic testing, which showed she was positive for the BRCA2...
Study after study has demonstrated race-based differences in survival and other clinical outcomes for patients with cancer. But as health professionals, we are learning that these differences are less about a patient’s skin color and more about the legacy of racial inequality.1 This knowledge...
Investigators have found that vitamin D deficiencies may contribute to more aggressive prostate cancer in Black patients at a younger age compared with White patients, according to a new study published by Siddappa et al in Cancer Research Communications. The new findings could pave the way for...
Pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) living in extreme poverty and undergoing maintenance therapy may have almost a twofold greater risk of relapse compared with pediatric patients who weren’t living in extreme poverty, according to a new study published by Wadhwa et al in...
Researchers have created the largest single-cell atlas of renal cell carcinoma brain metastases, with matched primary and extracranial metastases, which has potentially enabled them to discover key biological mechanisms contributing to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in the brain...
In a single-institution study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Feldman et al found that somatic KRAS and STK11 alterations were associated with increased risk of arterial thromboembolism in patients with solid tumors, irrespective of tumor type. Study Details The retrospective cohort study used...
Researchers revealed that 39.2% of patients who consented to whole-exome sequencing and were identified as carriers of predisposition genes for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer or Lynch syndrome did not qualify for genetic screening under current guidelines, according to new findings presented...
Although plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) tests represent a promising approach for cancer screening, different methodologies vary in performance and many liquid biopsy tests show decreased performance in detecting early-stage or low-shedding DNA tumors. However, the results from a retrospective...
On April 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved omidubicel-onlv (Omisirge) for use in adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with hematologic malignancies who are planned for umbilical cord blood transplantation following myeloablative conditioning to reduce the time ...
Adjuvant therapy with atezolizumab and bevacizumab improved recurrence-free survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following surgical resection or ablation, according to results from the phase III IMbrave050 clinical trial, which were presented by Chow et al at the American...