Early in 2019, trifluridine/tipiracil tablets were approved for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma previously treated with at least two prior lines of chemotherapy that included a fluoropyrimidine; a platinum; either a taxane or...
Charles L. Loprinzi, MD, Regis Professor of Breast Cancer Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, discussed the abstract on oncology massage to treat chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. He said that although massage therapy shows promise for this patient population, its...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has selected Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, to receive the 2019 ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology. The award is given in recognition of his groundbreaking work elucidating why some patients are resistant to immunotherapy and how to restore the anticancer...
Older adults are the fastest-growing segment of our population, and more than 65% of patients with newly diagnosed cancer are 65 years of age or older. Although we now recognize the special needs of older patients with cancer, the field of geriatric oncology emerged quietly, with early growing...
In late 2018, elotuzumab was approved for use in combination with pomalidomide and dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies, including lenalidomide and a proteasome inhibitor.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based ...
“This is currently the largest data set with information on retreatment,” said formal study discussant Marleen Kok, MD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She noted there was a partial response in 11% and stable disease in 60%. “Upon initial treatment, partial...
“I could not have written this book when I was 30 years old. It is not because of any great discoveries I have made or research papers I have published since. It is because of the experience the intervening decades have given me as I cared for thousands of cancer patients and accompanied many to...
American patients are suffering from an obesity crisis, where it is estimated that 300,000 deaths per year are due to obesity.1 The obesity trend is predicted to worsen, where it is projected that 85% of U.S. adults will be overweight or obese by 2030.2 Consequently, obesity-related illnesses are...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Navneet S. Majhail, MD, MS, about his journey from India to the Cleveland Clinic, where he is Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. He is also President of the American Society for...
Earlier this year, ASCO published the results of its new study on oncologists’ perceptions and practice behaviors regarding obesity, weight management, and related lifestyle factors in their patients both during and after cancer treatment.1 The findings from the online survey of 971 oncology...
The invited discussant for the ATTRACTION-3 study was Ian Chau, MD, Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital, London and Surrey, United Kingdom. Dr. Chau first congratulated the investigators for successfully conducting a randomized phase III trial in metastatic esophageal...
Pain may be one of the most common symptoms experienced by patients with cancer, but researchers are still unpacking its mysteries, with some surprising results. According to data presented at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium,1 greater social support may help mitigate pain in patients ...
Nivolumab improved overall survival compared with chemotherapy in previously treated patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the final analysis of the phase III ATTRACTION-3 study. The data were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 Presidential...
Cancer survivors are at an increased risk of osteoporotic fractures due to the accelerated loss of bone mineral density as a result of their treatment. Bone loss from cancer therapy is faster and more severe than bone less from aging; rates of bone loss are up to sevenfold higher when they occur...
This year’s meeting of the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit: Cancer and Universal Health Coverage, held on October 15–17 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, brought together more than 350 global health leaders, including ministers of health, first ladies, and industry leaders, from 82 countries to discuss how...
Arndt Vogel, MD, of Hannover Medical School in Germany, who served as discussant of the two studies of immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma, said the findings point to a promising future in the treatment of this malignancy. He commented that the responses observed with nivolumab in CheckMate...
Question 1 Which of the following statements about nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL is correct? Correct answer: A. Nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL can transform into large B-cell lymphoma. Expert Perspective Nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL is a B-cell neoplasm characterized by a nodular or...
On September 17, 2019, apalutamide was approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data The approval is based on overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival findings in the phase III double-blind TITAN trial.2,3 ...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) 2019 Clinical Research Award was presented to Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, during the ACCC 36th National Oncology Conference held recently in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Basch is the Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program and Professor of Hematology...
Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, President of City of Hope National Medical Center, in Duarte, California, has been appointed the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief Distinguished Chair in Honor of Alexandra Levine, MD. The position was created in honor of Dr. Levine, a City of Hope Professor of...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN®) Oncology Research Program (ORP) has announced plans to support a phase II randomized trial for lung cancer patients. The study is titled, “TH-138: Phase II randomized trial of carboplatin + pemetrexed + bevacizumab, with or without atezolizumab in...
Circulating tumor DNA in the blood could serve as a marker of prognosis in patients with colon cancer receiving adjuvant oxaliplatin, according to a subanalysis of the IDEA trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019.1 After 2 years of adjuvant...
“The majority of breast cancers are hormone receptor–positive, and treatments that target the estrogen receptors are very effective, but they also cause havoc in many tissues that are dependent on estrogen for normal functioning. As a result, breast cancer survivors suffer from ongoing symptoms and ...
The term “relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma” is often used to describe advanced myeloma that has progressed through primary or salvage therapy. The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) defined the term in 2011 as disease that is “nonresponsive while on salvage therapy or progresses...
“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.” –Orison Swett Marden I was informed that my patient, a 58-year-old man recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his wife were becoming impatient waiting for me in the exam...
For Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, ensuring that every patient with cancer receives high-quality care is not an abstract goal—it is personal. Princess Dina saw firsthand the life-and-death differences that access to state-of-the-art oncology care makes in a patient’s life when...
Question 1 Which of the following statements about cytokine-release syndrome and neurotoxicity after tisagenlecleucel infusion is correct? Correct answer: B. The median time to onset of cytokine-release syndrome is 3 days. Expert Perspective Following tisagenlecleucel infusion, cytokine-release...
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” —Marie Curie The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology ...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) recently announced the launch of its latest project, ctMoniTR. This pilot project will aim to harmonize the use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to monitor treatment response in patients with cancer and test the feasibility of data comparison from different...
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. Late in 2018, the Hedgehog pathway inhibitor glasdegib...
Formal discussant of the CheckMate 227 trial, Sanjay Popat, FRCP, PhD, of the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, had some reservations about endorsing nivolumab/ipilimumab as a new standard of care, mainly related to toxicity. “The landscape of treating advanced non–small cell lung cancer has changed ...
The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab improved overall survival compared with chemotherapy as first-line therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of at least 1%, according to the results of CheckMate 227....
More Americans than ever are surviving lung cancer. While the disease remains the leading cause of cancer deaths among both women and men, over the past decade, the survival rate has increased. A new report from the American Lung Association—the 2019 State of Lung Cancer—examines this promising...
A blood test could soon become a monitoring tool for the early detection of uveal melanoma. Stark et al discovered markers in the blood that can differentiate between a benign mole and a melanoma, while also determining whether the cancer has metastasized, according to findings they published in...
In a study in residents of rural southwest Virginia reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Virginia T. LeBaron, PhD, and colleagues found that most patients with cancer never received a prescription opioid medication, that few patients were admitted to hospital for opioid use disorders, and...
A phase Ib study evaluating the safety and long-term benefit of combination treatment with the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib plus the MEK1 inhibitor cobimetinib in patients with advanced BRAF V600E–mutated melanoma has found that nearly 40% of the patients experienced extended survival of 4 to 5 years ...
As reported in The Lancet by Barbara Burtness, MD, and colleagues, the phase III KEYNOTE-048 trial has shown improved overall survival with first-line pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy vs cetuximab plus chemotherapy among patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and...
Patients with advanced lung cancer can experience burdensome symptoms at the end of life. Pulmonologists can alleviate some of this suffering, but it’s a balancing act between doing too much and not enough, according to specialists who spoke at CHEST 2019, the annual meeting of the American College ...
Today, the American Cancer Society (ACS) announced an update to the organization’s position on e-cigarettes, and the American Medical Association (AMA) called for a total ban on all e-cigarette and vaping products that do not meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval as cessation ...
Young male cancer survivors may significantly benefit from testosterone replacement therapy—especially after testicular cancer. Research published by Walsh et al in PLOS Medicine looked at one of the most common late-onset side effects experienced by young male survivors—reduced levels of the male...
Charles L. Loprinzi, MD, Regis Professor of Breast Cancer Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, discussed this abstract on sexual health in women treated for breast cancer. Addressing patients’ questions, offering advice, and providing appropriate referrals should improve patient care, ...
Endocrine therapy has been a lifesaver for women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, but decreases in recurrence and cancer-related mortality have come with substantial side effects, according to data presented at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium.1 The results of a...
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, Gary Deng, MD, PhD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on the herbal extract...
For the last decade, medical experts have known that voriconazole—an antifungal medication used to prevent infections in patients with compromised immune systems—is linked to the development of particularly aggressive squamous cell carcinoma in skin exposed to ultraviolet (UV) rays. However, the...
Many nonwhite minority cancer survivors place importance on seeing doctors who share or understand their culture, but are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to be able to see such physicians, according to a new study. The study, which is one of the first nationally-representative studies to...
In a phase IIb study (STORM Part 2) reported in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, Ajai Chari, MD, of Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues found that oral selinexor and dexamethasone were active in some patients with multiple myeloma refractory to prior...
The invited discussant of BEACON CRC, Alfredo Falcone, MD, of the Department of Oncology and Translational Medicine at the University of Pisa, Italy, commented: “The ‘story’ of BEACON represents a good example of the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress theme: Translating Science Into...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
Eduardo Bruera, MD, FAAHPM, Chair of the Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, explained the rationale behind this treatment approach. “We know that the tumor mass and the tumor function talk to the brain...