Tycel J. Phillips, MD, of the University of Michigan Medical School, discusses the findings of the largest retrospective study to date of patients with intravascular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a disease with a poor outcome, partly due to the difficulty in diagnosing it early (Abstract 377).
A one-time infusion of an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy that targets a protein found on most multiple myeloma cells elicited an 86% overall response rate in 21 patients whose disease had come back or had not responded after a median of seven prior treatments,...
Among 108 patients with fast-growing and refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), more than half were still alive at least a year after receiving a single infusion of a CAR T-cell therapy called axicabtagene ciloleucel that targets the CD-19 protein frequently found on cancerous lymphoma...
Carla Casulo, MD, of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, discusses findings on POD24 as a robust early clinical endpoint of poor survival in follicular lymphoma, using data from more than 5,000 patients in 13 clinical trials (Abstract 412).
The results of a pooled analysis of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) treated with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) were presented at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 151). The extended follow-up data demonstrated that...
On November 8, 2017, the Chemotherapy Foundation held a benefit in New York City to raise funding to support an investigator in ovarian cancer research selected for the 2018 Research Grant Program. The event coincided with the 35th Annual Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium and honored oncology...
The UK IMPORT LOW phase III trial has shown noninferiority in local relapse for partial-breast and reduced-dose vs standard whole-breast radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in early breast cancer. These study results were reported by Charlotte E. Coles, PhD, of the University of...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Thomas Karn, PhD, of Goethe-University Frankfurt, and colleagues found that triple-negative breast cancers with high immune gene expression levels were characterized by lower clonal heterogeneity, reduced copy number alterations, and lower somatic mutation,...
The first consensus recommendations on the recognition and clinical management of immune-related side effects from cancer immunotherapy were recently published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC).1 The article, “Managing Toxicities Associated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors:...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy burst upon the scene as an innovative approach to the treatment of hematologic malignancies, mainly for patients who have exhausted all other treatment options. Recently two CAR T-cell products were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
Nationally recognized lymphoma expert Sonali M. Smith, MD, was born and reared in Chicago to a mother who was a pediatrician and allergist, and a father who was an engineer. Her parents were first-generation immigrants from India who placed the value of education second to none. “I became used to...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Oncology Research Program in collaboration with Pfizer Global Medical Grants announced they have awarded funding to nine projects that use clinical care pathways to implement quality-improvement initiatives along the continuum of care for...
Postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer who took the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole for 2 years after an initial 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy received an equal benefit to those who took the drug for 5 additional years. The trial results suggest that a...
Disease-free survival after 9 weeks of adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) and standard chemotherapy was not comparable to disease-free survival after 12 months of adjuvant trastuzumab and standard chemotherapy for women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, supporting the current...
Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings on a comparison of adjuvant tamoxifen plus ovarian function suppression vs tamoxifen in premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer (Abstract GS4-03).
Cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy is the preferred first-line therapy for metastatic urothelial cancer and the only treatment shown to improve survival in patients with previously untreated disease for many years. This chemotherapy also has proven to be beneficial in the neoadjuvant and...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Arjun V. Balar, MD, of Perlmutter Cancer Center of New York York Langone Medical Center, and colleagues, first-line pembrolizumab (Keytruda) produced durable responses in cisplatin-ineligible patients with locally advanced and unresectable or metastatic...
Ipilimumab (Yervoy) is a fully human monoclonal antibody that inhibits cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and was the first checkpoint inhibitor approved after showing survival benefit in metastatic melanoma.1 Indeed, in the first-line setting for metastatic melanoma, ipilimumab ...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has created a new resource for patients living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related Kaposi sarcoma. This newly released NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN...
While hope for a cure after a cancer diagnosis is a feeling both patients and oncologists rightly cling to during treatment, when too much emphasis is placed on this type of “focused” hope, it can make it more difficult for patients to face their mortality. Moreover, such a focus can deny patients ...
The Walther Cancer Foundation, Inc., a private foundation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, has endowed a new ASCO award and lecture bearing its name to be presented annually at the Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium. This grant represents a new foray for the foundation as it...
Here is an update on two recent clinical trials focusing on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for neoplastic malignancies. Highlighted are the findings from an early-phase study in refractory aggressive lymphoma and a study in chronic lymphocytic leukemia after failure of ibrutinib...
The roadside along the path to curing follicular lymphoma is riddled with the debris of failed cytotoxic regimens. For decades, clinical trials unsuccessfully pitted various chemotherapy combinations against each other. It took but a single, noncytotoxic molecule, rituximab (Rituxan), to forever...
Future oncology drug development and approvals will be faster and more efficient as well as take the patient experience more into account, said Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Center was established as part of...
Dyspnea, delirium, and poor performance—so-called “triple threat” conditions—are known to predict short survival in palliative care. According to data presented at the 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium,1 however, the presence of at least two of these symptoms in patients...
Updated in 2016, the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care provides evidence-based recommendations to oncology clinicians, patients, family and friend caregivers, and palliative care specialists about providing high-quality care for...
Cancer care in Sub-Saharan Africa, as in other low-resource settings, can be a challenge: The right medications and equipment may be in short supply, maintaining equipment can be a problem, basic chemotherapy drugs may be unaffordable, and patients may not see doctors until the cancer is advanced....
“We are in the midst of a steep increase” in the incidence of breast cancer among women aged 65 years and older, Arti Hurria, MD, reported at the 19th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Chicago.1 “Are we prepared as a health-care system and as providers to address this burgeoning need?” she...
In patients with hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer, the combination of targeted agents and hormone therapy is associated with a significantly increased risk of severe adverse events, according to research presented by Matteo Lambertini, MD, European Society for Medical Oncology...
As low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has moved from clinical trials to clinical practice, management issues are growing more urgent for screening centers around the country: for instance, how to support referrals from and to other providers; how to ensure the quality of...
The PACIFIC study showed that the addition of the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) following chemoradiotherapy for patients with unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) dramatically improved progression-free survival compared with placebo....
Matteo Lambertini, MD, of the Institut Jules Bordet, discusses the results of five clinical trials investigating temporary ovarian suppression with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs during chemotherapy as a strategy to preserve ovarian function and fertility in premenopausal early breast...
Meta-analysis of individual patient data from five randomized clinical trials provided a high level of evidence that treatment with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog (GnRHa) could safely and effectively protect ovarian function and potentially preserve fertility in premenopausal women...
Acupuncture significantly reduced joint pain for postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer receiving treatment with an aromatase inhibitor compared with both sham acupuncture and no treatment, according to data from the randomized, phase III SWOG S1200 trial presented by Hershman et al at ...
Over the past 15 years, multiple myeloma has garnered among the highest number of regulatory approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the management of all phases of the disease. This fast-expanding repertoire of treatment options has pushed the median survival of multiple...
A combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) tested in patients with trastuzumab-resistant advanced HER2-positive breast cancer was well tolerated and had clinical benefit in patients whose tumors were positive for a biomarker for pembrolizumab, according to data presented...
Richard G. Gray, MSc, of the University of Oxford, discusses an Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group meta-analysis of 21,000 women in 16 randomized trials, which showed that increasing the dose density of adjuvant chemotherapy by shortening intervals between courses or sequentially...
Wolfgang Janni, MD, PhD, of Ulm University, discusses study findings that showed extended adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment over 5 years in early breast cancer does not improve disease-free and overall survival when compared with 2 years of treatment (Abstract GS1-06).
Increasing the dose intensity of chemotherapy—by either shortening the intervals between the cycles or by sequential administration instead of concurrent administration of the drugs—reduced the risk of early-stage breast cancer recurrence and death compared with standard chemotherapy...
Adding trastuzumab (Herceptin) to standard adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve invasive disease–free survival for patients with early-stage breast cancer found to have low levels of HER2, defined as immunohistochemistry (IHC) 1–positive or IHC 2-positive and/or in situ hybridization...
An analysis of bacteria present in the mouth showed that some types of bacteria that lead to periodontal disease were associated with higher risk of esophageal cancer, according to a study published by Peters et al in Cancer Research. Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has created a new resource for patients living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related Kaposi sarcoma. This newly released NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Oudkerk et al, a European Union (EU) expert group has issued a position statement on low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer, proposing a near-term phased implementation of screening in high-risk regions within 18 months and extension to all ...
A recent study showed approximately one-fifth of patients with cancer experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) several months after diagnosis, and many of these patients continued to live with PTSD years later. Published by Chan et al in Cancer, the findings highlight the need for early...
The Lung Cancer Awareness Month Coalition (LCAMC), a group of more than 20 research and advocacy organizations from around the world focused on thoracic cancers, announced the launch of the 2017 Lung Cancer Awareness Month in early November with a panel event at the National Press Club in...
The phase III E1505 trial has shown no benefit of adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to adjuvant therapy in early-stage resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These results were reported by Wakelee et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study Details In the open-label trial, 1,501 patients from...
This image of fluoroscopy documents modern cancer diagnostic possibilities. It is in startling contrast to the photograph of fluoroscopy taken a decade earlier. Published by James T. Case, MD, in 1914 to illustrate his book Stereoroentgenography of the Alimentary Tract, it presents the advances in ...
In a health-related quality-of-life study among patients in the phase III TOAD trial, immediate vs delayed androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) was associated with early worsening of androgen-deprivation therapy–related symptoms but few other comparative adverse effects on functioning or quality of...
Donald Coffey, PhD, a distinguished Johns Hopkins Professor and prostate cancer expert, who was the former Director of the Brady Urological Research Laboratory and Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, died on November 9, 2017, at the age of 85. In his more than 50 years at...
In a single-center analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Hiten D. Patel, MD, MPH, of The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues found that among men undergoing elective radical prostatectomy, those with low-volume intermediate-risk...