Following a healthy diet may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in female breast cancer survivors, according to a recent study published by Ergas et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum. Background Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of non–breast cancer–related mortality among...
On April 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor alectinib (Alecensa) for adjuvant treatment after tumor resection in patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by an FDA-approved test. Alectinib is an orally...
The College of American Pathologists in collaboration with the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the Pulmonary Pathology Society, the Association for Molecular Pathology, and the LUNGevity Foundation have developed evidence-based recommendations on the use of certain...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Yi-Long Wu, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ALINA trial has shown significantly improved disease-free survival with adjuvant alectinib vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with resected ALK-positive NSCLC. Study Details In the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Joel Neal, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase III CONTACT-01 trial has shown no significant improvement in overall survival with atezolizumab plus cabozantinib vs docetaxel after checkpoint inhibitor treatment and chemotherapy in patients with...
The combination of immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and chemotherapy could be the new standard first-line treatment of patients with high-grade, advanced ovarian cancer with BRCA wild-type, homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive tumors, according to data presented during the Society of...
Researchers may have uncovered the mechanisms behind the development of targeted therapy resistance in melanoma, according to a recent study published by Aya Moreno et al in Cell Reports. Background The global incidence of melanoma—the deadliest type of skin cancer—is rising, making novel...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by L. Elizabeth Budde, MD, PhD, and colleagues, extended follow-up of the dose-escalation phase of a phase I/II trial showed that the CD20 x CD3 T-cell–engaging bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab-axgb—given as an off-the-shelf fixed-duration outpatient ...
Researchers have found that a novel urine biomarker test may effectively halve the number of cystoscopies necessary in high-risk patients with bladder cancer, according to recent findings presented by Dreyer et al at the European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress 2024. The research also...
Investigators have projected impending increases in the incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer—especially among individuals in low- and middle-income countries—and proposed new strategies to improve screening, awareness, research diversification, and treatment in a recent The Lancet...
The combination of the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib and the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab showed clinical activity and promising survival outcomes in a cohort of patients with metastatic, heavily pretreated, KRAS G12C–mutated colorectal cancer, according to results from the phase I/II KRYSTAL-1...
Akhil G. Pachimatla, MD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses study findings showing that, in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), image-based adiposity measures show stronger correlations with gene-expression changes in these tumors than body mass index measures. Dr. ...
Artificial intelligence (AI)—computational analytics with routine imaging via radiology or pathology—can advance precision medicine in breast cancer, specifically by predicting response to therapy and calculating prognosis, according to a pioneer in the field, Anant Madabhushi, PhD, of Emory...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Egbert F. Smit, MD, and colleagues, primary analysis in the HER2-overexpressing unresectable or metastatic non–small cell cancer (NSCLC) cohorts of the phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial show activity of fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) in this setting. Prior ...
There is much debate about the necessity of treating women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) with surgery or radiotherapy.1,2 It is disconcerting to many that patients with DCIS are treated in the same way as are women with early-stage invasive breast cancer. Many patients with DCIS have...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Sorin et al found that neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy was associated with better outcomes than neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details A search of published studies reported...
On March 1, 2024, amivantamab-vmjw (Rybrevant) was approved for use with carboplatin and pemetrexed for first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved...
A genetic variant located on the IKZF1 gene may be responsible for disparities in the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) among Hispanic and Latino children, according to a recent study published by de Smith et al in Cell Genomics. The findings offer insights into the causes of the disease...
About 8 years ago, I was just a few years into menopause when I noticed blood in my urine. It wasn’t accompanied by pain, frequent urination, or any other troubling symptoms, so initially I wasn’t too concerned. But when I started passing pieces of tissue, I became alarmed and made an appointment...
Although more than 85% of childhood cancer survivors will achieve a 5-year survival,1 that does not tell the whole tale for these individuals who move into adulthood. They are at excess risk of late mortality, even 40 years out from a cancer diagnosis, from non–cancer-related causes,1 and related...
The findings from RATIONALE-315 were discussed at the ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Virtual Plenary by Luis Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, Head of the Medical Oncology Service at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid. He noted that inhibitors of PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1, as...
In patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), perioperative treatment involving the checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab led to a statistically significant benefit in event-free survival and a favorable trend for overall survival, investigators for the phase III RATIONALE-315 trial...
Investigators have found that second primary malignancies following chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy were reported in 4.3% of CAR T-cell therapy adverse event reports submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System, with T-cell malignancies...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rodriguez et al identified racial/ethnic differences in intensity of end-of-life care among patients in California who died from lung cancer between 2005 and 2018. Study Details The study used data from the California Cancer Registry linked...
Combination immunotherapy with the anti–PD-L1 monoclonal antibody durvalumab and other novel agents seemed to outperform durvalumab alone in the neoadjuvant setting for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,...
“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade….” —Sir William Osler Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) accounts for approximately 5% to 7% of all lymphomas; the median age of patients with MCL is between 60 and 70 years. This lymphoma is generally considered incurable. Median survival in retrospective...
On November 15, 2023, repotrectinib (Augtyro) was approved for locally advanced or metastatic ROS1 fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1 This is the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval that includes patients with ROS1-positive NSCLC who have previously received a ROS1...
On February 16, 2024, osimertinib (Tagrisso) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administraton (FDA) with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with tumors having EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R...
Managing patients with lung cancer in the current era of an increasing array of systemic treatments has become a complex balancing act of trying to improve outcomes and survival from a cancer perspective while taking the necessary treatment and monitoring steps for cardioprotection. With few...
In a study among U.S. veterans reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shah et al found that Helicobacter pylori infection was associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer and cancer-related death; additionally, treated H pylori infection was associated with reduced cancer incidence ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, David A. Palma, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) met criteria for efficacy and toxicity in patients with early non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). As stated by the investigators,...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and Flatiron Health announced the recipients of the 2023 Real-World Data Impact Awards, which will support clinically relevant research regarding the treatment of and outcomes for patients with cancer. 2023 marks the fourth year of the joint grant-making program,...
This is Part 2 of Optimizing Outcomes for Patients With Locally Advanced and Metastatic NSCLC, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Melissa Johnson, Vamsidhar Velcheti, and Helena Yu discuss the management of stage...
This is Part 1 of Optimizing Outcomes for Patients With Locally Advanced and Metastatic NSCLC, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Melissa Johnson, Vamsidhar Velcheti, and Helena Yu discuss the management of locally ...
In a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pooled analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bernardo Haddock Lobo Goulart, MD, and colleagues found that response rate and progression-free survival were only moderately correlated with overall survival in first-line immunotherapy trials for...
he latest findings for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in colorectal cancer were discussed at the 2024 ASCO Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium by Aparna R. Parikh, MD, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard...
Investigators may have uncovered differential associations between smoking and DNA methylation across various racial and ethnic groups, according to a recent study published by Huang et al in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The findings could lead to the development of new strategies to...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is announcing several new updates to the cancer treatment practices listed in the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®). The evidence-based expert consensus recommendations are the most frequently updated guidelines for...
Adding the multikinase inhibitor lenvatinib to the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab as initial therapy for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma improved response rates and progression-free survival but did not lead to an overall survival advantage over pembrolizumab...
Non-Hispanic Black patients with locally advanced rectal cancer may experience poorer treatment outcomes independent of the sociodemographic, clinical, and pathologic factors that often influence racial and ethnic disparities in this patient population, according to a recent study published by...
Pooja Karukonda, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, discusses findings from the PaRTNer study, which addressed the large financial burden faced by patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiotherapy, particularly older, non-White, female, and low-income patients. Dr. Karukonda discusses...
Researchers have identified a set of 140 genes that may help predict disease-free survival in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with a combination of immunotherapy and low-dose radiation, according to a recent study published by Altorki et al in Cell Reports Medicine. The...
Studies presented at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) significantly moved the needle forward in our treatment of breast cancer. We are increasingly learning how to stratify risk, so we can optimize therapy and minimize our patients’ exposure to treatments that will not be...
Updates of two key phase III trials presented at the 2024 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium showed the benefit of adding a checkpoint inhibitor to standard perioperative chemotherapy with FLOT (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, docetaxel) in locally advanced, resectable gastric and...
About 4 years ago, I [Jo Cavallo] wrote about the death of my brother Dom from multiple myeloma in 2011 and my subsequent enrollment in the PROMISE trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03689595). My goal for enrolling in the study was twofold: to honor Dom and others with the cancer and to make ...
Adding the radioligand lutetium-177 dotatate (Lu-177 dotatate) to standard therapy almost tripled the median progression-free survival in patients with untreated, high-grade, gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in the randomized phase III NETTER-2 study, researchers reported at the 2024...
As reported by Katims et al in JAMA Oncology, long-term follow-up of a single-center phase II study showed benefit with two induction courses of bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) without maintenance in patients with high-risk non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The strategy markedly reduced the number ...
In patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), perioperative treatment with the checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy led to a statistically significant benefit in event-free survival and a favorable trend for overall survival, investigators for the...
On February 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved osimertinib (Tagrisso) with platinum-based chemotherapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations, as detected by an...
On February 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted traditional approval to the kinase inhibitor tepotinib (Tepmetko) for adult patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) exon 14–skipping alterations. The agent is...