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 updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue...
The human epidermal growth factor (HER) family of receptors are a well-established therapeutic target. Indeed, seminal studies conducted nearly 2 decades ago identified a key association between activating mutations in the kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, also known as...
ASCO and Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, will recognize researchers, patient advocates, philanthropists, teachers, and global oncology leaders who have reshaped cancer care around the world with the Society’s highest honors at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Hear from select award...
Natural killer (NK) cells derived from donated umbilical cord blood, activated with a novel bispecific antibody targeting CD16A and CD30 known as AFM13, have yielded responses in patients with pretreated and refractory CD30-positive lymphoma. The overall response rate was 89%, with 53% complete...
Ongoing evaluation of novel, targeted, and immunotherapies has led to exciting advances across the array of hematologic malignancies over the past year. The availability of new treatment options, along with emerging data on novel combinations and sequencing approaches, is rapidly changing...
Over the past year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to several novel drugs and new indications for older therapeutic agents used in hematologic oncology. Axicabtagene Ciloleucel: On April 1, 2022, axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) was approved for adult patients with...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In ...
Jane N. Winter, MD, Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the 2022 President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS, Chair of the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer...
As a first-line treatment of inter-mediate- or high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the addition of the antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin-piiq to standard-of-care therapy resulted in a 27% reduction in the relative risk of disease progression, relapse, or death, with a similar safety...
In the primary analysis of the phase III ZUMA-7 trial, examining second-line therapy for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel led to a fourfold increase in event-free survival over the standard of care. These findings were presented at the...
Abstract discussant Deborah K. Armstrong, MD, of Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center Baltimore, elucidated the rationale for intraperitoneal (IP) treatment, which is the peritoneal pharmacokinetic advantage for many drugs used in ovarian cancer, including carboplatin, as used in the iPocc trial.1 In ...
When compared with intravenous (IV) chemotherapy, the use of intraperitoneal (IP) carboplatin with dose-dense weekly paclitaxel improved progression-free survival in patients with ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal carcinoma, according to data presented at the 2022 Society of...
Charles L. Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the battle against treatment resistance and how to overcome it, as well as the power of observational clinical data in precision oncology, derived largely from his experience with Project GENIE, and the role of genetic...
Immunotherapy has become a potential strategy in treating triple-negative breast cancer, though many questions remain to be answered before long-term survival is achieved by all patients. This exciting field of breast cancer research was explored at the 2022 Miami Breast Cancer Conference by...
Lillian L. Siu, MD, of Canada’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses biomarker-driven precision cancer medicine, the optimal sequencing of immunotherapy (IO) with standard treatments in curative settings, IO targets beyond PD-1/PD-L1 and combinatorial strategies, and next-generation adoptive...
Mikkael Sekeres, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology at the University of Miami Health System and a hematologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, applauded the IDIOME1 and IDEAL2 investigators for conducting studies. These studies, he noted, were “very difficult because of the rarity...
The oral targeted small-molecule inhibitors of mutant IDH1 and IDH2 appear to be active in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) harboring these mutations, according to two phase II trials by the Groupe Francophone des Myélodysplasies (GFM) and its German colleagues in the European MDS...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, a preplanned interim analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial has shown improved event-free survival with the addition of pembrolizumab to...
The theme of the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was “Accelerating Access to Precision Care Through Innovation.” Several studies presented at this meeting focused on older patients, who represent the majority of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. Data reviewed at the meeting...
Taking aspirin daily does not prevent breast cancer recurrence, according to research presented during the February ASCO Plenary Series Program.1 Results of the double-blind phase III study of more than 3,000 patients with high-risk, HER2-negative breast cancer showed no improvement in invasive...
Adjuvant pembrolizumab improves disease-free survival compared with placebo in patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following complete resection and adjuvant chemotherapy when indicated. These findings from the PEARLS/KEYNOTE-091 trial were reported in a European Society for ...
Adding the PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab to chemotherapy significantly improved survival compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without EGFR/ALK mutations, according to research presented during the 2022 ASCO Monthly Plenary Series.1 At the...
Imagine this. You are a large pharmaceutical company that launches an international randomized phase III trial to assess whether one of your drugs improves the outcome of patients with a common type of cancer. The trial was solidly backed by preclinical evidence that the drug target was essential ...
Cheryl L. Willman, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the profound cancer health disparities among Native Americans, exacerbated by low rates of screening and limited access to care. Dr. Willman is heading an effort to promote community engagement in comprehensive genomic ...
Alana L. Welm, PhD, of the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute, discusses her findings of a new pathway that regulates the antitumor immune response during metastatic outgrowth. Interfering with a particular isoform of RON kinase may cause metastatic tumors to be swarmed by T cells and...
Over the past decade, an improved understanding of kidney cancer biology together with the development of novel systemic therapies have substantially improved the outcomes of patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC).1 Following extensive clinical investigations, combinations...
A rapid recommendation update to an ASCO guideline offers revised parameters for adjuvant therapy in patients with resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have stage IB to IIIA disease.1,2 The new guidance reflects the findings from two randomized clinical trials that assessed the use of...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Yen Nien (Jason) Hou, PharmD, DiplOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on ...
In the phase III TAPPAS trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Jones et al found that the addition of carotuximab to pazopanib did not improve progression-free survival in patients with advanced angiosarcoma. Carotuximab is an IgG1 antibody that binds endoglin, which is highly expressed on proliferating...
COVID-19 may have caught the world off guard in 2020, but in the 2 years since the pandemic began, several effective monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs have emerged to protect the most vulnerable patients. The ASCO Post spoke with Gunjan L. Shah, MD, a hematologic oncologist at Memorial...
In the phase II ARCS-M trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hedy L. Kindler, MD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the antimesothelin antibody–tubulin inhibitor conjugate anetumab ravtansine did not improve progression-free survival vs vinorelbine as second-line treatment for patients with...
Guideline-directed medical therapy for the prevention and treatment of cardiotoxicity is improving quality of life and oncologic outcomes associated with breast cancer treatment, according to Jean-Bernard Durand, MD, FACP, FCCP, FACC, FHFSA, Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas MD...
Novel hormonal therapies for breast cancer could provide additional therapeutic options for patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The emerging landscape for these new agents was described at the 2022 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, sponsored by PER, by Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH,...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Kenneth L. Kehl, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that only a slight majority of patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were enrolled in a U.S. screening study (ALCHEMIST) received guideline-recommended adequate lymph ...
As reported in The Lancet by Jong-Mu Sun, MD, of Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, and colleagues, an interim analysis in the phase III KEYNOTE-590 trial has shown that the addition of first-line pembrolizumab to chemotherapy resulted in improved overall and progression-free...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Thierry Conroy, MD, and colleagues, the French phase III UNICANCER-PRODIGE 23 trial has shown that intensification of preoperative therapy with FOLFIRINOX (oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin, fluorouracil [5-FU]) prior to chemoradiotherapy resulted in...
The past year has seen unprecedented progress across the spectrum of gastrointestinal malignances, including the advancement of immunotherapy and targeted molecular agents and the refinement of adjuvant therapy using novel as well as existing therapies. Three themes emerging from these reports are: ...
Positron-emission tomography (PET) scans obtained before and midway through treatment may be used to de-escalate therapy for patients with oropharyngeal cancer, leading to fewer side effects, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 An interim...
Janice Mehnert, MD, was recently named Co-Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Melanoma Committee, replacing Craig L. Slingluff, MD. Dr. Mehnert is Associate Director for Clinical Research and Director, Melanoma and Cutaneous Medical Oncology at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. She specializes in both...
The rising incidence and prevalence of gastroenteropancreatic endocrine tumors make them the second-most prevalent gastrointestinal cancer.1 Although most of these tumors are relatively slow growing, their histologic grade and differentiation are closely correlated with their clinical behavior.2,3...
OCE Insights is an occasional column developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Gautam U. Mehta, MD, Neurosurgical Oncologist and Clinical Reviewer, Division of Oncology 2; Fatima Rizvi,...
I had the privilege of sitting in a meeting on the treatment of endometrial cancer as a junior investigator in January 2015 where a representative from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was present. The topic of the meeting was on how to design the next endometrial cancer trials. I remember...
Pembrolizumab monotherapy is an established treatment strategy for relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma. In combination with chemotherapy, the checkpoint inhibitor is also showing value in the front-line setting and further boosting outcomes in the relapsed setting, according to...
Updates of landmark trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line therapy for advanced HER2-negative esophagogastric cancers were presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The studies upheld previous findings of an overall survival benefit when these agents are paired...
Guest Editor’s Note: Pain is a debilitating symptom experienced by many patients with cancer that negatively impacts their quality of life. Massage therapy, historically used for relaxation and pain relief, plays an important supportive role in oncology settings. In this installment of The ASCO...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is readily detectable in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma and is a strong prognostic biomarker for outcomes, a team of researchers from Germany and Stanford University reported at the 2021 American Society of...
In a prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Erin L. Van Blarigan, ScD, and colleagues found that higher intake of unprocessed red meat or processed meat was not associated with poorer recurrence-free or overall survival in patients with stage III colon cancer. As stated by the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ho et al, the phase III ASTRA trial showed no improvement in complete remission rate with the addition of selumetinib to adjuvant radioactive iodine (RAI) in patients with high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer. As stated by the investigators,...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Harrison et al found that the BCL-XL/BCL-2 inhibitor navitoclax showed activity in patients with myelofibrosis with disease progression or suboptimal response during ongoing ruxolitinib treatment. As stated by the investigators,...
On February 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pacritinib (Vonjo) for the treatment of adults with intermediate- or high-risk primary or secondary (post–polycythemia vera or post–essential thrombocythemia) myelofibrosis with a platelet count below 50 × 109/L. Pacritinib is a...