In the phase II MOUNTAINEER trial, tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab produced durable responses in patients with previously treated HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer. The late-breaking data were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) World Congress on...
Rates of most types of cancer are higher in men than in women for reasons that are unclear. Results from a recent study published online by Jackson et al in the journal Cancer suggest that the cause may be underlying biological sex differences rather than behavioral differences related to smoking,...
On August 5, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved darolutamide (Nubeqa) tablets in combination with docetaxel for adult patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. The evaluation of efficacy was based on ARASENS (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02799602), a...
In the 5-year follow-up of the Korean KLASS-02 trial reported in JAMA Surgery, Son et al found similar 5-year overall survival and relapse-free survival among patients with R0 resection using laparoscopic vs open distal gastrectomy in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer. Late...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Bagshaw et al found that the risk of a second primary cancer at more than 1 year from diagnosis was significantly greater among U.S. veterans with localized prostate cancer who received primary radiotherapy vs those who received surgery ...
The pivotal global phase III FRESCO-2 trial evaluating the investigational use of fruquintinib met its primary endpoint of overall survival in patients with advanced, refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation for the...
On August 5, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd, Enhertu), an intravenous infusion for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-low breast cancer. This is the first approved therapy targeted to patients with the...
Investigators have identified genetic signatures that could predict whether tumors in patients with bladder and other cancers will respond to immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Their findings, published by You et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, implicate DDR1- and...
On this episode, we’re featuring discussions on lung cancer that took place at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting. They were led by Dr. Gilberto de Lima Lopes, Jr, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. The first focuses on data from a study of a novel bispecific...
When the 21st Century Cures Act went into effect in April 2021, health-care organizations began releasing electronic health information to patients immediately. An aim of the act is to reduce barriers to patients’ timely access to electronic health information, and previous research has shown that...
In a 5-year update of part 1 of the phase III COLUMBUS trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dummer et al found a continued benefit of encorafenib plus binimetinib vs vemurafenib in patients with advanced BRAF V600–mutant melanoma. The trial supported the June 2018 approval of...
Despite data showing that cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for the development of lung cancer,1 and a leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States, an estimated 30.8 million American adults continue to smoke cigarettes.2 Globally, the number of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Johansson et al, 20-year follow-up of the Stockholm trial (STO-5) has shown long-term reduction in the risk of distant recurrence with 2 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy with goserelin and tamoxifen vs no endocrine therapy in premenopausal women ...
In less than a decade, immunotherapy has reshaped the treatment landscape of cancer, but some histologies tend to be more responsive to this modality than others. During the Society of Surgical Oncology 2022 International Conference on Surgical Care, Yuman Fong, MD, of the City of Hope Medical...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Derman et al found that a measurable residual disease (MRD)-adapted strategy with elotuzumab (Elo) plus carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd) was associated with high rates of stringent complete response and MRD-negative status in patients ...
According to Cancer Research UK, over 52,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in the UK, and there are more than 12,000 deaths. Over three-quarters (78%) of men diagnosed with the disease survive for over 10 years, but this proportion has barely changed over the past decade in the...
A new large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) shows older age and smoking are the two most important risk factors associated with a relative and absolute 5-year risk of developing any cancer. The findings also demonstrate that in addition to age and smoking history,...
Giving women the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine around the time they have surgery for precancerous cervical lesions might lead to a reduction in the risk of lesions returning as well as other HPV-related diseases, suggests a study published by Kechagias et al in The BMJ. The researchers...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Konstantinopoulos et al found that the combination of talazoparib and avelumab was active in patients with recurrent mismatch repair–proficient endometrial cancer. Study Details In the U.S. multicenter study, 35 evaluable women with measurable disease, ...
In a phase II trial (Alliance A091404) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ho et al found that enzalutamide showed some activity in advanced androgen receptor–positive salivary gland cancer but failed to meet the predefined criterion for a successful strategy. Study Details In the...
A study released by the University of Colorado Cancer Center showed that more than 70% of patients with breast cancer have reported changes that affect their sexual health during and beyond treatment. The study was published by Huynh et al in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. Study Background “More...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Desai et al described outcomes with postconsolidation dinutuximab-based immunotherapy for high-risk neuroblastoma in a cohort of patients from the Children’s Oncology Group ANBL0032 trial following cessation of randomized treatment. Study ...
A new study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS), shows serious smoking cessation activity declined among adults in the United States immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and persisted for more than a year. Declines in attempts to quit smoking were largest among...
A study looking at the correlation between daily insulin dose and cancer incidence among patients with type 1 diabetes found that higher insulin dose is positively associated with cancer incidence and that the association is stronger among those with insulin resistance. The results were published...
In the phase II LEAP-004 trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Arance et al found that the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab was active in patients with advanced melanoma with confirmed progression on PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors as monotherapy or in combination with other agents. As...
Black women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer compared with White women, 28% more likely to die from the disease than White women, and are less likely to be treated with surgery and chemotherapy, according to a study published in 2021. Despite these statistics,...
Physicians and researchers from UK HealthCare's Transplant Center and the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center conducted a study of patients over age 70 with hepatocellular carcinoma to examine how the outcomes of ablative treatments compare to liver transplants. The findings were published...
In a Korean phase III noninferiority trial (KCSG CO09-07) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kim et al found noninferiority in disease-free survival and reduced risk of neuropathy for adjuvant therapy with 3 vs 6 months of oxaliplatin plus 6 months of fluoropyrimidine treatment in...
Women make up just 37.7% of all speakers at hematology and medical oncology board review lectures, according to a study published in Blood Advances. The findings call attention to the many barriers people underrepresented in medicine face in obtaining educational opportunities that can be vital to...
A recent survey shows that only 40% of Americans are concerned that they might get lung cancer, and only about one in five have talked to their doctor about their risk for the disease, despite lung cancer being the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The 2022 Lung Health Barometer, ...
In an individual-level meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hurwitz et al found that frequent aspirin use was associated with reduced risk of ovarian cancer, including high-grade serous ovarian cancer and among women with multiple risk factors. Study Details The analysis...
In a Latin American phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hope S. Rugo, MD, and colleagues found that oral paclitaxel with the P-glycoprotein pump inhibitor encequidar produced a higher response rate and trends toward better survival outcomes vs intravenous (IV) paclitaxel...
Patients seeking to purchase chemotherapy drugs online face a confusing array of websites, over half of which potentially operate unsafely or illegally, according to a study published by Sun et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. A survey of online pharmacies claiming...
Patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head or neck were 93% less likely to die of any cause during the first 3 years after diagnosis if they ate a healthy diet high in nutrients found to deter chronic disease, according to results published by Vieytes et al in Frontiers in Nutrition. The...
In a population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chehab et al found that survivors of childhood cancer were at significantly increased risk of infections resulting in hospitalization vs comparators without cancer. Study Details The study involved children and adolescents...
In a European phase II trial (BREACH) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fornecker et al found that brentuximab vedotin (BV) plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (BV-AVD) improved the rate of positron-emission tomography (PET)-negative status after two cycles of treatment vs...
The invited discussant of the ATLAS trial, Peter M. Voorhees, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Plasma Cell Disorders Division, at Levine Cancer Institute and Atrium Health/Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina, applauded the very good outcomes achieved in the study.1 However, he posed the...
For newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma participating in the international phase III ATLAS trial, use of carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd) as maintenance therapy after induction and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) significantly reduced the risk of disease...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Global Oncology series, Guest Editor Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Kevin Billingsley, MD, MBA, FACS, Chief Medical Officer of the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. Although interracial marriage is common in the United States...
A team of researchers believe they have identified a cell-signaling pathway responsible for the development of esophageal adenocarcinomas, an aggressive type of esophageal cancer that has gradually become more common, even in younger people. Research published by Venkitachalam et al in...
A diverse and well-prepared leadership workforce in the nation’s cancer centers is vital to tackle challenges in the delivery of equitable cancer care delivery. Recognizing this, the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) examined the diversity among cancer center leaders and found...
In an interim analysis of a single-institution phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yang et al found that proton craniospinal irradiation (pCSI) improved central nervous system (CNS) progression-free survival vs standard-of-care photon involved-field radiotherapy (IFRT) in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Houillier et al, 8-year follow-up in the French phase II PRECIS trial has shown a maintained event-free survival benefit with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) vs whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) as consolidation in patients aged ≤ 60...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Moncrieff et al found that patients with stage IIIA melanoma (per American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC], 8th edition) with sentinel node metastatic tumor deposits ≥ 0.3 mm are at higher risk of disease progression vs those with smaller...
Frequent aspirin use may be linked with lower ovarian cancer risk in individuals with multiple risk factors, according to a new study published by Hurwitz et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “Ovarian cancer is the most fatal gynecologic cancer. Most known risk factors of ovarian cancer—such...
Researchers studying the molecular landscape of over 500 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma discovered a prevalence of activated key oncogenic pathways in these patients—much more than previously thought. Upward of 45% to 65% of NF-κB and RAS/MAPK pathways each had alterations....
In a first-in-patients phase Ib study reported in The Lancet Oncology, John M. Pagel, MD, PhD, and colleagues identified the safety profiles of the PI3Kδ inhibitor zandelisib given in intermittent vs continuous dosing schedules with or without rituximab in patients with relapsed of refractory...
In an Italian/French trial (TOTEM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zola et al found no difference in 5-year overall survival with intensive vs minimalist follow-up regimens in patients in complete clinical remission after surgery for endometrial cancer. Study Details In the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hedy L. Kindler, MD, FASCO, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III POLO trial showed no significant difference between the maintenance olaparib group vs the placebo group in patients with germline BRCA-mutated...
The invited discussant of the CAIRO5 presentation at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting was Cathy Eng, MD, FACP, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville. Dr. Eng explained the key questions being asked by the investigators. “If you have a...