The results from the CARTITUDE-1 study showed the remarkable efficacy of ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, when used in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after four or more prior lines of...
The results of the CARTITUDE-1 clinical trial demonstrate outstanding and unprecedented long-term efficacy with ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a B-cell maturation antigen–directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.1 (See the July 2025 issue of The ...
After decades of incremental progress in the treatment of multiple myeloma, survival has increased from 3 years in the late 1990s to between 8 and 10 years today.1 Could cure for a disease that kills more than 12,000 individuals each year in the United States2 finally be within reach? The long-term ...
Constipation, a frequent and distressing side effect of cancer treatment, remains underdiagnosed and undertreated—particularly when driven by opioids. Opioid-induced constipation is distinct from functional constipation and requires tailored approaches to assessment and management. During a...
The outlook for adequate funding for federal health agencies has become more dire. In July, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced it is reducing the number of grant applications it will award for the remaining 2 months of fiscal year 2025 (FY2025), from 9% down to 4%.1 The result is that...
Use of the PARP inhibitor niraparib in combination with the androgen biosynthesis inhibitor abiraterone acetate and the corticosteroid prednisone reduced the risk of disease progression, both radiographic and symptomatic, in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer harboring...
The novel antibody-drug conjugate izalontamab brengitecan (also referred to as iza-bren, BL-B01D1) in combination with osimertinib induced a response in all patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and EGFR-sensitizing mutations treated with the combination in ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) invites academic and patient advocate researchers to propose research questions for Project Collaborate, a unique crowdsourcing initiative running through September 26. This represents a rare opportunity to leverage...
In a retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, Dai et al found that use of GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) for weight loss in adults with overweight/obesity was associated with an overall reduction in risk of cancer. As stated by the investigators, “…GLP-1 RAs… are widely prescribed for...
Despite data from the latest edition of The Cancer Atlas showing that nearly half of cancer mortality worldwide is attributed to modifiable risk factors, cancer incidence and mortality rates continue to soar.1 Globally, approximately 19 million new cases of cancer, excluding nonmelanoma skin...
Individuals carrying a rare pathogenic variant in one of 16 cancer-associated genes were 1.9 times more likely to develop a single cancer and 2.6 times more likely to develop multiple primary cancers, according to the results of a genetic association study published in JAMA Oncology. These...
Taking low-dose colchicine daily may slow the progression of a common acquired gene mutation found in the blood of older adults that can lead to certain blood cancers and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a subanalysis of the LoDoCo2 trial published by Mohammadnia et al in JACC ...
For African American patients undergoing mastectomy, the risk of complications and the postoperative appearance of the breast are among the important drivers of preferences about breast reconstruction, according to a new report published by Shammas et al in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery....
A single administration of autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte cell therapy with lifileucel led to disease stability in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, even among patients whose disease had progressed or did not respond to multiple prior...
This past May, ASCO announced its collaboration with Google Cloud to launch the ASCO® Guidelines Assistant, a new interactive tool that allows clinicians to quickly access ASCO’s evidence-based clinical guidelines to facilitate critical clinical decision-making. Developed with Google Cloud’s Vertex ...
For individuals diagnosed with early breast cancer, the long-term risk of developing a second primary cancer is low—around 2% to 3% greater than the general population)—according to findings published by McGale et al in The BMJ. The researchers say this information can help reassure many breast...
In a U.S. state-level study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Garg et al found that awareness of human papillomavirus (HPV), HPV vaccination, and the association between HPV infection and development of cancers was “overwhelmingly low.” As stated by the investigators, “Each year, an...
Patients with cancer who have a diet high in tryptophan, or protein-rich foods, have an increased risk for developing cancer-associated venous thromboembolism, according to preclinical findings published in Blood Advances. This increased risk could potentially be mitigated by treatment with an...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved rilzabrutinib (Wayrilz), a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, for adults with persistent or chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. The approval was based on the pivotal LUNA ...
Each year in the United States, nearly 16,000 children and adolescents between the ages of birth and 19 are diagnosed with cancer.1 And although survival rates have greatly improved for many types of childhood cancers, with more than 8 in 10 children and adolescents surviving at least 5 years after ...
Microbes inside cancerous tumors can influence the spread of disease and the effectiveness of treatment, and those roles make them appealing targets for new therapies. Tumor microbiota–based tools could also help identify high-risk patients and those most susceptible to metastases, and possibly be...
Cancer survivors receiving government-subsidized rent were found to have a lower risk of experiencing financial hardships around medical expenses compared with those not receiving housing assistance, according to the results of a cross-sectional study published as a research letter in JAMA Network...
In a retrospective analysis published in JCO Oncology Practice, Smolders et al investigated the incidence and clinical course of infusion-related reactions among patients treated with at least one monoclonal antibody in routine practice. The study evaluated real-world data to compare observed...
After 2 decades of practicing medicine across multiple disciplines and health systems, I’ve witnessed the dramatic transformation of patient-physician interactions, and none more dramatic than what I’m seeing in this era of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on cancer care. Early in my...
Patients with intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma who received a vaccine of dendritic cells in addition to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and preconditioning cyclophosphamide experienced longer progression-free survival than those who received cyclophosphamide and TACE alone. The...
A novel, multianalyte test has been developed to identify central nervous system cancers from small samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In findings published in Cancer Discovery, the study authors reported that the test, called CSF-BAM, achieved a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 100%....
Patients with advanced cancer reported in survey responses that their treatment often focused on optimizing longevity over maintaining comfort and quality of life, despite their goals that prioritized the opposite, according to study results published in Cancer. Additionally, the findings...
In a study reported as a research letter in JAMA Network Open, Amboree identified U.S. counties with low or high cervical cancer screening coverage and associated risks of cervical cancer incidence and mortality. As stated by the investigators, “Recent research shows that cervical cancer incidence...
A landmark study of the tumor mutational landscape of African American women with triple-negative breast cancer revealed that the mutational profile was largely similar with that of Asian and non-Hispanic White women, except for the presence of TP53 mutations in almost all African American...
July marks a significant transition for many professionals, particularly those beginning structured training programs on July 1. This article is designed to support new and current hematology-oncology fellows and trainees in making the most of their training experience. Although not all suggestions ...
ASCO extends its thanks and appreciation to Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, for his decade of leadership and dedication as the inaugural Principal Investigator of the groundbreaking Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study. The ASCO-sponsored TAPUR study is a...
A population-based prognostic study published in JAMA Oncology found cisplatin treatment to be associated with a predictable decrease in the estimated glomerular filtration rate. According to Grant et al, their findings place patients with lower baseline kidney function at the highest risk for...
Patients with stage II or III breast cancer who participated in a remote weight-loss intervention program lost an average of 4.7% of their baseline body weight after 1 year, whereas those in the education-only control group gained an average 1% of their baseline weight, according to a recent report ...
Researchers have found that unmet social needs was associated with less trust in cancer information received from doctors and the health-care system, according to study findings led by the American Cancer Society and published in Psycho-Oncology. “Public trust in health authorities is so essential ...
In a case presentation published in The New England Journal of Medicine, targeted treatment was successful for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-positive peripheral T-cell lymphoma developed after CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma. Using advanced genomic, phenotypic, and functional profiling...
Based on the results of a single-center phase III Chinese trial, which were published by Liao et al in JAMA Oncology, bacterial decolonization therapy with the antibiotic mupirocin may be an effective and cost-efficient strategy for alleviating severe acute radiation-induced oral mucositis in...
Clinical trials have sought to determine the benefit of treating the precursors of multiple myeloma, but as the phenotypes and genomics of this entity are becoming better delineated, the wisdom of early intervention has remained confusing for clinicians. At the 2025 Debates and Didactics in...
I would like to begin by sharing a bit of my journey in geriatric oncology. Often, we do not hear the origin stories behind our professional paths, and I believe it is important to reflect on them. I have spent my entire academic career at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where I arrived...
Researchers have identified a molecular biomarker in triple-negative breast cancers that may inform when beta blockers can play a role in “switching off” tumor progression. These findings were published by Lam et al in Science Signaling. When stress hormones are released by the body’s nervous...
In a German single-center phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Pabst et al found that use of the fibroblast activation protein α (FAP)–directed radiotracer Ga-68–FAPi-46 for positron-emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) has shown promising ability to identify FAP-expressing...
Rechallenge with the HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) after grade 1 interstitial lung disease (ILD) appeared to be safe in a diverse real-world population, including many patients with breast cancer, as presented during the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 The ...
Investigators have developed and tested a hybrid reading strategy for screening mammography images with artificial intelligence (AI) that includes reads from radiologists and a stand-alone AI interpretation of mammograms with an uncertainty quantification. According to study findings published in...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) launched the next phase of an initiative to improve how to interpret interim overall survival (OS) data in oncology clinical trials. Building on discussions during the Friends 2024 Annual Meeting, this new effort focuses on developing practical frameworks and...
More than 100 organizations representing millions of patients with serious health conditions and health-care professionals sent a letter to Congress expressing their strong support for the Clinical Trial Modernization Act. Introduced in the House of Representatives in May 2025 by Reps. Raul Ruiz...
A group of experts from seven professional societies have published a joint position statement in the Journal of Bone Oncology on the management of aromatase inhibitor–associated bone loss (AIBL) as a guide for osteoporosis specialists and oncologists. This position statement acts as an update on...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Xue et al found that sequential chemoradiotherapy (SCRT) was noninferior to induction chemotherapy (IC) plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in terms of failure-free survival in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, Reizner et al highlighted bias-minimized insights into the associations between autoimmune diseases, such as celiac disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes, and the risk of...
“Neoadjuvant treatment with osimertinib, with or without chemotherapy, should be considered when planning treatment for patients with resectable, EGFR-mutated, stage II to IIIB non–small cell lung cancer [NSCLC],” according to Jamie E. Chaft, MD, FASCO, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and ...
Researchers have discovered that an isoform of the transcription factor RUNX1 orchestrates chemoresistance in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to findings published in Blood Cancer Discovery. They identified that the long-isoform RUNX1C's connection to BTG2 may enable cellular...
New research published by Phadke et al in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer found that adding a third immune-targeting drug to existing therapies may help to shrink tumors in laboratory models of treatment-resistant melanoma. Although immunotherapeutics have improved survival for many...