Laurence Albiges, MD, PhD, of Gustave Roussy, discusses findings on the safety and efficacy of nivolumab used in a “real world” prospective study on metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). This research was conducted after nivolumab was approved for the treatment of mRCC following failure of one or ...
The TIVO-3 trial was conducted to confirm progression-free survival results from the TIVO-1 trial, which found an improvement in median progression-free survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tivozanib vs sorafenib. Findings from TIVO-3 were presented by...
A phase III Egyptian trial presented by Zaghloul et al (Abstract 351) at the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium focused on the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced bladder cancer treated with postoperative radiotherapy. Researchers compared postoperative radiotherapy ...
Some patients with metastatic prostate cancer respond to a combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors after treatment with hormonal therapy and chemotherapy has not been successful in treating their disease, according to early results from the phase II CheckMate 650...
A combination of two drugs could become a new standard first-line treatment for patients with metastatic kidney cancer, according to results from the JAVELIN Renal 101 trial presented at the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (Abstract 544) and simultaneously published in The New England...
Results from a study published by Cykert et al in Cancer Medicine showed that a pragmatic system-based intervention within cancer treatment centers may eliminate existing disparities in treatment and outcomes for black patients with early-stage lung cancer. “These results show ...
In the phase III Lumiere trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Connor et al found that the Aurora A kinase inhibitor alisertib did not improve outcomes vs investigator’s choice of single-agent treatment in relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). Study...
In an interim analysis of a prospective cohort study (IOTA5) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Froyman et al found that the risk of malignancy and acute complications is low when adnexal masses with benign ultrasound findings are managed conservatively. In the study, patients with at least 1...
A single-arm, phase II trial in men with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive, metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer that progressed despite standard therapies found that a majority of men treated with a novel, targeted radiation therapy called lutetium-177 PSMA-617...
THE PRINCIPALS and staff of Harborside, publisher of The ASCO Post, congratulate Harborside Medical Education (HSME) for staff recognition by the Alliance for Continuing Education (CE) in the Health Professions (the Alliance). Two senior staff were honored during the awards ceremony preceding the...
Neoadjuvant combination checkpoint blockade showed activity among patients with high-risk stage III melanoma in a small study. However, a high incidence of side effects caused the trial to be closed early. These results were published by Rodabe N. Amaria, MD, Assistant Professor of Melanoma...
IN A GLOBAL phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Benjamin J. Solomon, MBBS, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, and colleagues found that lorlatinib showed high overall and intracranial activity in patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were...
ON JANUARY 22, 2019, 23andMe received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for a genetic health risk report on the hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome MUTYH-associated polyposis. The clearance follows the FDA’s authorization for 23andMe’s BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants) Genetic...
Discussions of benefits and harms from screening of high-risk populations for lung cancer have missed the point. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) showed an early and statistically significant major benefit in all-cause mortality from computed tomography (CT) screening.1 Those referred for...
The proliferation of immunotherapeutics in the treatment of cancer over the past decade has revolutionized the way many cancers are treated, especially lung cancer and melanoma, as well as some blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, drastically improving outcomes for many patients with...
AS PART of The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here is an update on seven different studies on new therapeutics in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Among the treatments highlighted here are the erythroid maturation...
THE FIRST full year of educational training in the practice of complementary therapies is now underway at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor through its Integrative Oncology Scholars Program, which launched in 2017. The program, which is supported through a 5-year grant from the National...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted the following designations and applications and also issued a statement: Priority Review for Pexidartinib in Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor The FDA has accepted a new drug application (NDA) and granted Priority Review for pexidartinib...
Although colorectal cancer rates in older adults have been decreasing in the United States since the mid-1980s, incidence rates for the cancer have been increasing among young and middle-aged adults, according to a study by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Based on the new data, in 2018, the ACS...
For patients at the end of life, palliative care can prolong survival and improve the quality of life for patients with a life-threatening illness and for their families—but studies have found that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive end-of-life palliative care than...
A new study has found rates are increasing for 6 of 12 cancers related to obesity in younger adults in the United States, with steeper increases in progressively younger ages and successively younger generations. The study, published by Sung et al in The Lancet Public Health, also looked at rates...
The burgeoning pipeline of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) in multiple myeloma was on full display at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. A bispecific antibody also made its debut in this busy...
In the randomized, double-blind, phase III MEDALIST trial, the experimental drug luspatercept significantly reduced the need for frequent red blood cell transfusions in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and ring sideroblasts. With luspatercept, 37.9% remained transfusion-free ...
Partial-breast irradiation delivered over 5 to 10 days did not meet noninferiority criteria compared with whole-breast irradiation given over 5 to 7 weeks, according to 10-year results of the large NRG (NSABP B-39/RTOG 0413) trial presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 However, ...
Each year, The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, to offer his picks for the most important research presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer ...
World Cancer Day 2019—February 4—highlights the need for urgent action to increase early-stage cancer detection, screening, and diagnosis to significantly improve patients’ chances of survival. Taking place with the theme of “I Am and I Will,” World Cancer...
Harry H. Yoon, MD, Associate Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, the invited discussant of the study presented by Janjigan et al, commented on the strong rationale for combining an anti-HER2 agent, anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) agent, and chemotherapy....
When added to first-line chemotherapy in patients with untreated metastatic HER2-positive esophageal, gastroesophageal junction, and gastric adenocarcinoma, the combination of pembrolizumab and trastuzumab produced responses in 87% of patients, with 100% of patients experiencing disease control and ...
Clinical trials aimed to improve health and quality of life are the cornerstone of progress in medicine. Support comes from academic medical centers, philanthropy, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), industry, or combinations thereof. Clinical trials need to be hypothesis-driven and address...
KEYNOTE-181’s invited discussant, Harry H. Yoon, MD, Associate Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said the findings have a “potentially immediate clinical impact” for second-line treatment of esophageal cancer, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and Siewert...
In the global phase III KEYNOTE-181 trial, pembrolizumab as second-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer did not improve overall survival in the whole population, vs chemotherapy, but did improve survival for patients with strong expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1),...
The Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP), the first precision medicine trial in lung cancer supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is undergoing a major expansion to include patients with all non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). The trial previously tested treatments for people ...
Over the past year, major research advances provided new treatment options for patients with rare, difficult-to-treat cancers. In recognition of these achievements, ASCO named “Progress in Treating Rare Cancers” as the Advance of the Year. To continue the forward momentum, ASCO also...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted the following application, designations, and clearance: sBLA for Atezolizumab Plus Chemotherapy for First-Line Treatment of Metastatic, Nonsquamous NSCLC On January 17, the FDA accepted a supplemental biologics license application...
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Goodman et al reported a long-term follow-up of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial indicating that finasteride treatment was not associated with an increased risk of death from prostate cancer. Study Details As previously...
As reported by Willemze and colleagues in Blood, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) have released a 2018 update of their classification of primary cutaneous lymphomas. As noted by the authors, “Primary cutaneous...
The recently reported results of ANNOUNCE, the phase III study of olaratumab in combination with doxorubicin in patients with advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma, did not confirm the clinical benefit of olaratumab in combination with doxorubicin as compared to doxorubicin, a...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Gray et al found that constitutional loss of function single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the pattern recognition receptors FPR1, TLR3, and TLR4 were not associated with preferential benefit of oxaliplatin in colorectal cancer. As...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed V. Shanta, MD, an internationally renowned oncologist and Chairperson of the Cancer Institute in Adyar, Chennai, India. Dr. Shanta has been with the Institute since 1955, holding several positions...
Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) make up a small fraction of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas—just 15%—in the United States.1 Although rare in the United States, the incidence of PTCL is common across Asia, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. Although the reason for such global variation in PTCL is...
TRIPLE-NEGATIVE breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease that comprises several subtypes, which may respond differently to therapy. Breast cancer researchers at the Mayo Clinic are developing a novel genomic signature that may improve the identification of the luminal androgen receptor vs basal...
THE IMPASSION130 trial—reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Schmid et al1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—was an eagerly awaited study in newly diagnosed metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. To briefly review, 902 patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to...
AS REPORTED in The New England Journal of Medicine by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, the phase III IMpassion130 trial has shown that the addition of atezolizumab to nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel significantly...
“SURGEONS AND radiation oncologists are obsessed with locoregional recurrence of breast cancer,” Monica Morrow, MD, FASCO, remarked at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Chicago. Working to prevent locoregional recurrence, “even if it may not be the major threat to mortality, is...
THE RISK of local recurrence in breast cancer “does not differ substantially based on the operation we perform, but it does differ substantially by subtype,” Tari A. King MD, FACS, stated at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago.1 At 10-year follow-up, Dr. King reported, local...
THE UNIVERSITY of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was awarded $30 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to support research, core facilities, recruitment, and prevention efforts. An additional $19.9 million was awarded to a company co-founded by MD Anderson to support...
IN AN OPEN-LABEL phase I study of 153 patients newly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) or IDH2, treatment with standard chemotherapy plus the oral IDH inhibitors ivosidenib and enasidenib led to high response rates and possibly impressive ...
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY of Hematology (ASH) has established the ASH Research Collaborative, a mission-focused nonprofit organization that will foster collaborative partnerships to accelerate progress in hematology with the goal of improving the lives of people affected by blood diseases. “The launch...
LATE-BREAKING results from the large, randomized, placebo-controlled CASSINI trial showed that primary prophylaxis with the direct oral anticoagulation agent rivaroxaban reduced the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) as well as VTE-related deaths in high-risk patients with cancer who were...
OXYBUTYNIN, AN ANTICHOLINERGIC drug approved for the treatment of overactive bladder, reduced the frequency and intensity of hot flashes in women who were suffering frequent hot flashes, including breast cancer survivors who were receiving tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors. These results of the...