A new and unique new way to treat cancer—chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy—is poised to transform the outlook for children and adults with certain otherwise incurable cancers. ASCO named this type of adoptive-cell immunotherapy the Advance of the Year in its annual...
On January 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lutetium Lu-177 dotatate (Lutathera) for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). This is the first time a radiopharmaceutical has been approved for the treatment of GEP-NETs. Lu-177 dotatate is...
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers developed a single blood test that screens for eight common cancer types and also helps identify the location of the cancer. The test, called CancerSEEK, is a unique noninvasive, multianalyte test that simultaneously evaluates levels of eight cancer...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kenneth Anderson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on the role of bone-modifying agents in multiple myeloma. The update was informed by an expert panel systematic literature...
On January 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for the use of daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with bortezomib (Velcade), melphalan, and prednisone for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed...
FROM WILHELM RÖNTGEN’S groundbreaking discovery of x-rays in 1895, the history of radiotherapy has been rich with colorful paradigm-changing researchers and physicians who over the past century have transformed the field into one of the pillars of cancer treatment. One such trailblazer who...
While many patients with cancer can benefit from palliative care to ease symptoms from the disease or its treatment, for children with cancer, especially critically ill children, palliative care can provide an additional layer of medical and emotional support for both young patients and their...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Channing Paller, MD, explores the role of pomegranate- and grape-based...
ON JANUARY 15, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of arsenic trioxide (Trisenox) injection in combination with tretinoin for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed low-risk acute promyelocytic leukemia whose disease is characterized by the presence of the...
On January 12, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to olaparib (Lynparza), a poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, a recent ASCO panel, chaired by Bryan Schneider, MD, and Brendon Stiles, MD, has provided an endorsement of a recently published guideline on the use of stereotactic body radiotherapy for non–small cell lung cancer.1 The original guideline,2 developed and ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bryan J. Schneider, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed the recently released American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based guideline on stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in early...
FOR DAYS BEFORE HURRICANE HARVEY was expected to move toward Houston, Texas, on Sunday, August 27, 2017, after pummeling other cities in Texas and Louisiana, the leadership team at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) in Houston strategized on how to ensure the...
On May 18, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted regular approval for treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant...
On May 26, 2017, ceritinib (Zykadia) was granted regular approval for treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved test.1,2 In 2014, the drug received ...
Oncology occupational therapist Mackenzi Pergolotti, PhD, OTR/L, was born in Buffalo, New York. “I lived there until I was 6,” she shared. “Then my family moved around the state a bit, finally settling in the small town of Bath, situated near the Finger Lakes—a beautiful area in central New ...
ASCO HAS released recommendations to streamline serious adverse events reporting for cancer clinical trials. The ASCO research statement, published last month in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), discusses strategies to address the high volume of uninformative adverse events reports submitted ...
Steven D. Leach, MD, of Dartmouth University’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center, discusses the personalized approach that GI cancers will require to make rational use of immunotherapy—including a subset of pancreatic cancers, which appear to be highly immunogenic and are associated with long-term...
The monoclonal antibody ramucirumab (Cyramza) was evaluated as first-line therapy for the treatment of metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in the international phase III RAINFALL trial. Charles Fuchs, MD, of Yale New Haven Health in Connecticut, presented findings...
Findings from the phase II KEYNOTE-224 trial investigating the use of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar) were presented by Zhu et al at the 2018 Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancers Symposium in San Francisco...
“There is huge potential to positively influence a patient’s experience and outcomes” by addressing concerns about sexual function after cancer treatment early in the course of treatment planning, Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MA, stated in her keynote address at the 11th Annual Oncofertility...
“Several new drugs that have been approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are changing the landscape of this disease. CLL is associated with a long survival, so we will need longer follow-up to see how deep the responses are,” said Robert Brodsky, MD, Director of...
Primary analysis of the JULIET trial adds to mounting evidence that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is effective for the treatment of lymphoma in patients with no other good treatment options. A single infusion of CAR T cells (CTL019) achieved durable remissions in almost 40% of...
Older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma typically do not fare as well as younger patients on standard regimens. A phase II study reported the best outcomes to date in older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who were treated with sequential brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) before and after a regimen of...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Pezzi et al found that lack of health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, was associated with not receiving combined-modality therapy in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). They also found that lack of insurance was associated with poorer...
Here is an update on five different studies featured at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Topics center on possible newer treatment regimens in both Hodgkin and Burkitt lymphomas, relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and newly...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On December 1, 2017, trastuzumab-dkst (Ogivri) was...
C. Kent Osborne, MD, FASCO, Director of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, who moderated a press briefing where the results were presented, called the findings “intriguing” but too premature for the clinic. “We don’t know what to do with the data ...
Press briefing moderator Virginia Kaklamani, MD, Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, along with Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, FASCO, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, commented on the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel ...
The anti-CCR4 monoclonal antibody mogamulizumab may answer an unmet need in providing an effective treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. In the phase III MAVORIC trial reported at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, treatment with mogamulizumab was...
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” —Albert Einstein The phase III international ECHELON-1 study, designed to evaluate brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) as part of a front-line chemotherapy regimen for previously untreated advanced classic...
The Oncology Center of Excellence of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is informing health-care providers about new safety information for rolapitant (Varubi) injectable emulsion, a substance P/neurokinin (NK-1) receptor antagonist indicated for the prevention of delayed nausea and...
On January 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of arsenic trioxide (Trisenox) injection in combination with tretinoin for the treatment of adults with newly-diagnosed low-risk acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) whose APL is characterized by the presence of the t(15;17)...
A new study has found that a test that identifies circulating tumor cells (CTCs) present in the bloodstream can detect colorectal cancer at an early stage, with accuracy ranging from 84% to 88%. Most prior studies using CTCs have been able to detect late-stage colorectal cancer, and this study is...
Nonsmoking adolescents who use e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or tobacco water pipes are more likely to start smoking conventional cigarettes within a year, according to new research by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Findings were published by Watkins et al in JAMA...
Patients with certain head and neck cancers who test positive for high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) have a better prognosis and may need less aggressive treatment. To help ensure that patients with these cancers are accurately diagnosed and effectively treated, the College of...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to olaparib (Lynparza), a poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who have been...
In a retrospective claims-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Doshi et al found that higher out-of-pocket costs were associated with increased rates of prescription abandonment for novel oral anticancer agents. Study Details The study involved data on 38,111 patients from...
The most commonly used gene expression profile test used to help predict breast cancer recurrence may not be as cost-effective as once thought, say a team of researchers led by scientists from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Their study, published by Chandler et al in the Journal...
In an Indian phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Noronha and colleagues found that curative-intent adjuvant chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin at 100 mg/m2 every 3 weeks produced better locoregional control than cisplatin at 30 mg/m2 every week in patients with locally...
Increasing use of a potentially life-saving treatment for metastatic cancer is leaving too many vulnerable patients behind, according to a new study from Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital published by Kann et al in JNCCN – Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shen et al found evidence that BRAF V600E mutation status explains the long-recognized increased mortality risk associated with age at diagnosis in patients with papillary thyroid cancer. Study Details The study involved data from 2,638...
A new genetic-based model may explain how ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) progresses to a more invasive form of cancer, say researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study provides new insight into how DCIS leads to invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and provides a clearer...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Molenaar et al found that radioiodine treatment for well-differentiated thyroid cancer was associated with an increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) compared with thyroidectomy alone. Study Details ...
The phase III ALTERNATIVE trial has shown progression-free survival benefit with the addition of lapatinib (Tykerb) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and an aromatase inhibitor among postmenopausal women with HER2-positive, hormone receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer. These findings were...
On December 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared a new noninvasive stereotactic radiotherapy system intended for use in treating cancer in breast tissue. “With [this] clearance, patients will have access to a treatment option that provides greater accuracy in delivering...
A meta-analysis of three randomized trials (FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global) indicates no overall survival benefit of adding first-line selective internal radiotherapy to chemotherapy in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer. The findings were reported by Wasan and colleagues...
Maximiliano D’Angelo, PhD, Assistant Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, has received a 4-year, $792,000 Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS). The ACS awards Research Scholar Grants for promising research projects that may lead to the...
With headlines such as “Cutting back on alcohol can prevent cancers”1 and “Even light drinking may raise your cancer risk,”2 media reports may be generating questions from patients about the ASCO statement summarizing evidence linking alcohol to an increased risk of cancer.3 “What I personally...
A recently released ASCO statement summarizing extensive evidence linking alcohol use to an increased risk of several leading cancers, including breast, colon, and head and neck, called on oncologists “as front-line providers for cancer patients” to help patients reduce excessive alcohol use.1...