Individuals and organizations looking to contribute to advancements in metastatic breast cancer research can now do so by participating in Susan G. Komen’s inaugural crowdfunding initiative. Through this initiative, donors have the opportunity to contribute directly to the pioneering work of four...
A deeper understanding of biology has allowed significant advances in the treatment of breast cancer. In the early-stage setting, standard pathology measures can help identify which subset of patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancers are more likely to experience benefit from...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Losk and colleagues from Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center report their institution’s implementation of a protocol of surgeon-initiated genomic profiling of estrogen receptor–positive tumors in women with early breast cancer that resulted in ...
AT THE 2017 ASCO ANNUAL MEETING, the leaders of the newly formed Value in Cancer Care Consortium (vi3c; vi3c.org) met to discuss the group’s plan to study how to improve the affordability of cancer drugs and make them more accessible to patients. The goal of the Value in Cancer Care Consortium is...
A new study has shed light on how palliative care interventions may improve patient outcomes. According to data presented at the 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium,1 patients with incurable cancer who received early integrated palliative care had an increased use of active...
Nicaragua, situated between Costa Rica and Honduras, is the poorest country in Central America. Following the U.S. occupation in 1912, the Somoza family began a brutal political dynasty that would end in 1979 during the bloody Nicaraguan Revolution. Marcela G. del Carmen, MD, MPH, Chief Medical...
Addressing the need to integrate palliative and supportive care practices into medical specialties to ensure optimal patient-centered care across the cancer continuum and the evidence-based remedies to accomplish that goal were the focus of the nearly 300 study abstracts presented at the 2017...
On September 22, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of recurrent locally advanced or metastatic, gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma with tumors expressing programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), as determined by a U.S. Food and Drug...
Seattle Children’s has opened the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy trial in the U.S. for children and young adults with relapsed or refractory CD19- and CD22-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that will simultaneously attack two targets on cancer cells. With ...
A RECENTLY PUBLISHED STUDY in JAMA Oncology, led by Mohamed Sorror, MD, MSc, and Elihu Estey, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch), involving five collaborating institutions, provides a novel model to predict 1-year survival rates of patients after beginning treatment...
CHILDREN WITH relapsed or refractory malignant rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcomas, or poorly differentiated chordomas with a particular genetic defect were treated with the investigational drug tazemetostat and appeared to tolerate treatment well. Some patients had objective and durable...
Invited discussant Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, of the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, put the JACOB trial findings in context of what is known for HER2-positive metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer, where two targeted agents are approved: trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the first...
Bloodless stem cell transplantation, performed without the transfusion of allogeneic blood or blood products, has numerous clinical advantages, especially among populations of patients who prefer, for religious or other reasons, no blood methods of medical and surgical treatment. Patricia A. Ford, ...
Dual HER2 targeting in metastatic gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers did not significantly improve outcomes over trastuzumab (Herceptin) alone—both in combination with chemotherapy—according to the results of the phase III JACOB study reported at the 2017 European Society for Medical...
THE INFORMATION contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on geriatric oncology. These studies highlight psychological interventions, managing cancer symptoms, the surgical process, fall prevention, and making treatment decisions; as well ...
ON OCTOBER 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), a cell-based gene therapy, to treat adult patients with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma who have not responded to or who have relapsed after at least two other kinds of treatment....
According to Alberto Sobrero, MD, Head of Medical Oncology at Ospedale San Martino in Genova, Italy, the results of the pivotal IDEA trial, which evaluated the optimal duration of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer, were not clear to clinicians.1 The combined analysis of six...
EARLIER THIS FALL, Congress voted to pass a 3-month Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government, while the House of Representatives and the Senate work to finalize a Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 funding bill. The CR, viewed as a temporary measure to keep the federal government operating, keeps...
A large subset analysis of the MINDACT trial suggests that oncologists may be undertreating women with small (< 1 cm) node-negative breast tumors, which are clinically considered to be low risk but can be genomically high risk. About one in four women with small node-negative breast tumors <...
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, of Sarah Cannon and Tennessee Oncology, and Therese Marie Mulvey, MD, FASCO, of Massachusetts General Hospital North Shore Cancer Center, were selected by the ASCO Nominating Committee as candidates for ASCO President-Elect. Below, the candidates share...
The phase III SWOG S1202 trial has shown benefit of the antidepressant agent duloxetine in reducing aromatase inhibitor–associated joint pain in women with early-stage breast cancer. These results were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Henry et al. Study Details In the...
On April 28, 2017, brigatinib (Alunbrig) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with metastatic anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have had disease progression on or are intolerant to crizotinib (Xalkori).1,2 Supporting Efficacy...
On June 22, 2017, regular approvals were granted to dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist) given in combination for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with BRAF V600E mutation as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved...
Stand Up To Cancer, joined by the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, LUNGevity, and the American Lung Association, announced that four teams of top researchers will study lung and pancreatic cancers using a new approach of “cancer interception” at their earliest stages. “The...
With the availability of at least five checkpoint inhibitors to treat non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other solid tumors, appropriate patient selection for these expensive treatments remains key. The hope is that testing the level of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in tumor ...
On July 17, 2017, neratinib (Nerlynx) a dual inhibitor of HER2 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), was approved for extended adjuvant treatment of adults with early-stage HER2-overexpressed/amplified breast cancer following adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based therapy.1,2 Supporting...
On September 28, 2017, the cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor abemaciclib (Verzenio) was approved for use in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) for women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following...
As computer-based physician support systems for decision-making in cancer management continue to evolve, “we will come to embrace this as something that liberates us to spend more time on the human aspects of cancer care,” Andrew D. Seidman, MD, told participants at the 2017 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer ...
The treatment of triple-negative breast cancer is rapidly evolving, as clinical trials continue to test chemotherapy agents and combinations and immunotherapy studies promise potentially “game-changing” interventions early in the course of disease, Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, reported at the 19th...
On September 14, 2017, copanlisib (Aliqopa) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adult patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma who have received at least two prior systemic therapies.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on durable responses observed in a multicenter phase ...
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 October 18, 2017, the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)...
Although a majority of major cancer centers may test for minimal residual disease (MRD), a recent survey conducted by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, suggests most oncologists remain uncertain about what to do with the results. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network®...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has announced that its registration count has grown to more than 1 million users. By registering on the NCCN website, users are able to view and download all of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) free of charge...
Although the indications to initiate treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have not changed, determining the optimal first-line treatment and sequence of therapies once treatment has begun remain challenges for providers. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 12th Annual...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Shaikh et al found that despite existing recommendations, mismatch repair (MMR)-deficiency testing is underused in patients with colorectal cancer, including younger patients. As noted by the authors, MMR deficiency is observed in up to 15% of sporadic...
Poly (ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are among the most exciting new classes of oncology drugs, and their development has coincided with the increasing recognition of the therapeutic vulnerability in targeting DNA damage response and DNA repair. The initial clinical testing of PARP...
Although most Americans, 78%, recognize that smoking is a major risk factor for cancer, just 31% say obesity—the second-leading preventable cause of cancer after smoking—is a risk factor for the disease, according to the results of ASCO’s National Cancer Opinion Survey, which polled over 4,000...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Noelle K. LoConte, MD, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a statement on the association of alcohol consumption with cancer risk that outlines proposals for promoting awareness of the association, supporting...
On November 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a comprehensive policy framework for the development and oversight of regenerative medicine products, including novel cellular therapies. The framework—outlined in a suite of four guidance documents—builds upon the...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has published its ESMO Precision Medicine Glossary in Annals of Oncology. The glossary’s 43 definitions are set to pave the way for consistent communication on precision medicine between oncologists, researchers, and patients by standardizing...
The American Hospital Association (AHA), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and America’s Essential Hospitals have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to prevent significant...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncologyby 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 in early-stage...
A prospective study by Palmer et al assessing the relationship of type 2 diabetes and the incidence of estrogen receptor–negative and estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer among African American women has found statistically significant evidence of an increased risk of estrogen...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new indication for fulvestrant (Faslodex), expanding the drug's approved use to include combined therapy with abemaciclib (Verzenio), a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor, for the treatment of hormone receptor–positive,...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s MSK-IMPACT tumor profiling assay, an in vitro diagnostic test that can identify more biomarkers that may be found in various cancers than any test previously reviewed by the...
On November 14, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted clearance to the Ventana MMR IHC Panel, which provides clinicians with a comprehensive group of immunohistochemistry (IHC) tests for patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The tests detect proteins associated with the DNA...
In the Asian phase III GOLD trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bang et al found that the addition of olaparib (Lynparza) to paclitaxel did not significantly improve overall survival among patients with previously treated advanced gastric cancer, including those with...
Elevated levels of chronic stress hormones, such as those produced by psychological distress, may promote resistance to drugs commonly used to treat lung cancer patients with EGFR mutations, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Retrospective analysis of...
The main goal of cervical screening programs is to detect and treat precancer before the cancer develops. Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is more sensitive than cytology for detecting precancer. However, reports of rare HPV-negative, cytology-positive cancers are motivating the continued use of...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved letermovir (Prevymis) once-daily tablets for oral use and injection for intravenous infusion. Letermovir is indicated for prophylaxis of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease in adult CMV-seropositive recipients of an allogeneic...