The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) recently announced that Susan Band Horwitz, PhD, has been selected to receive the 2020 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research. Dr. Horwitz is being recognized for pioneering the understanding, at the molecular level, of the mechanisms...
I am a retired 82-year-old Hematologist/Oncologist who reads The ASCO Post regularly. I am writing to share some brief thoughts with the authors of two articles in the February 10, 2020 issue. First, I would address the article, A Hopeful Look Ahead in Oncology, written by Dan L. Longo, MD, MACP....
When the landmark report from the Institute of Medicine, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, was published in 2006, there were 10 million cancer survivors in the United States.1 Meant to raise awareness of the medical, functional, and psychosocial consequences of a cancer...
On January 23, 2020, tazemetostat was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients aged 16 and older with metastatic or locally advanced epithelioid sarcoma not eligible for complete resection.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on the finding of...
A scientific team has been awarded a $9.1 million grant by the National Cancer Institute to study liver metastasis. The co-lead investigators, Neil Bhowmick, PhD, Director of the Cancer Biology Program, and Shelly Lu, MD, Women’s Guild Chair in Gastroenterology and Director of the Division of...
A retrospective analysis from the Southwest Oncology Group S8814 trial, reported by Wendy A. Woodward, MD, PhD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology,1 showed that a low 21-gene assay recurrence score was...
In addition to our regular coverage of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the following reports from the meeting include studies you may have missed. We hope you find them of interest. Ribociclib/Letrozole as Neoadjuvant Therapy As neoadjuvant therapy in women with high-risk hormone...
With the availability of a number of effective targeted agents for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the question arises whether chemotherapy still has a role in treating this malignancy. At the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, CLL...
Javier Pinilla-Ibarz, MD, PhD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, commented on this study: “ELEVATE TN compared front-line treatment with acalabrutinib alone or in combination with obinutuzumab vs obinutuzumab/chlorambucil and showed that a second-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK)...
The combination of the small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib (inhibits VEGF, AXL, MET, and others), plus the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab achieved encouraging activity in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to the results of...
New data presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium are validating the purpose of ASCO’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study, a multibasket trial that matches patients’ genomic alterations to commercially available targeted therapies. The aim is to learn...
ASCO and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) have jointly published an update to a clinical practice guideline on estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor testing in breast cancer.1 The guideline for immunohistochemistry testing of estrogen receptor and progesterone receptors in patients...
By way of tradition, our current system of oncology training exposes fellows to vast amounts of suffering in their first year. As fellows, we see dying patients with cancer in the hospital; we see the third-opinion, last-ditch referrals; we see most newly presenting patients; and we spend the hours ...
A novel approach using a drug called MK-6482 showed activity in a phase I/II study in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma, according to a presentation at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.1 MK-6482 is an oral, first-in-class selective small-molecule inhibitor that...
“The investigators of the current study tested the hypothesis that vitamin D supplementation is associated with a reduced risk of checkpoint-induced colitis by rigorously assessing 37 variables in both discovery and validation cohorts,” said invited discussant Jarushka Naidoo, MBBCh, Assistant...
Vitamin D supplementation prior to starting immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy may significantly reduce the odds of developing colitis, according to a study conducted at Harvard Medical School. Although this was a retrospective chart review, the association was relatively strong in the...
A study published in JAMA Oncology found that 31 genome-targeted anticancer agents were in use as of January 2018.1 To shed light on the current state of precision oncology, The ASCO Post recently spoke with David M. Cutler, PhD, the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics in the Department of ...
Over the past week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to a combination therapy in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL); gave Fast Track designations for treatments in T-cell lymphoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma; granted Orphan Drug designation to an agent for the ...
Scott Gottlieb, MD, former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), had some advice for attendees of the 37th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference in his keynote address at the meeting. While his formal presentation pertained to innovations in oncology drug development and...
A study evaluating the economic impact of the cancer in young women has found that the diagnosis can result in employment disruption and financial decline. The findings—published by Tangka et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention—indicate the need for obtaining and maintaining...
“In the 10-year analysis of the NSABP B-42 trial, the effect of extended treatment with 5 years of letrozole on disease-free survival persisted and reached statistical significance. There was no significant improvement in overall survival with letrozole, but letrozole continued to provide a...
Investigators in Brazil are seeking to explore the efficacy and safety of adjuvant biosimilar trastuzumab in a real-world study of patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer. In 2019, biosimilar trastuzumab became the first biosimilar approved in Brazil for the treatment of patients with...
Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Boston, commented on KEYNOTE-890. “Previous work has suggested minimal activity of...
In the phase II KEYNOTE-890 trial, patients with inoperable advanced triple-negative breast cancer who received one intratumoral tavokinogene telseplasmid injection followed by electroporation and pembrolizumab, several patients with skin or subcutaneous tumors saw metastatic lesions disappear,...
The second interim analysis of the phase III SOPHIA trial demonstrated a significant though modest improvement in progression-free survival, response rate, and clinical benefit with the addition of margetuximab to chemotherapy vs trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive...
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer, the addition of pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy achieves higher rates of pathologic complete response compared with placebo, according to results of the phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer ...
Capecitabine improves disease-free and overall survival for patients with triple-negative breast cancer, but only when it is added to other systemic therapies, not when it is used as a substitute, according to a large meta-analysis of the effects of capecitabine in early breast cancer, The results...
A. Jo Chien, MD, Associate Professor at UCSF’s Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, was the formal discussant of this abstract. Dr. Chien said that a median follow-up of 3-years is relatively short for this trial, considering about 75% of patients had hormone receptor–positive...
Results of the randomized, phase II ATEMPT trial showed that the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) failed to demonstrate improved safety when compared with paclitaxel plus trastuzumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with stage 1 HER2-positive breast cancer. These results of...
Steven J. Isakoff, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, commented on the results of the DESTINY-Breast01 trial. “These data are extraordinarily encouraging, suggesting we will have another new option for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. The...
Martine J. Piccart, MD, PhD, FASCO, reported that at 6-year follow-up of the APHINITY trial there was a modest, but not statistically significant, overall survival benefit for the addition of pertuzumab to chemotherapy plus trastuzumab vs chemotherapy/trastuzumab as adjuvant therapy in patients...
More than 7,500 specialists in breast oncology from over 90 countries attended the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) held last December. Researchers convened to present a wide-ranging array of abstracts and posters featuring important new data in the treatment of breast cancer....
A monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) inhibitor in use for decades as an antidepressant demonstrated activity in patients with recurrent prostate cancer, with most toxicities seen with the treatment being reported as mild. These findings were published by Gross et al in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic...
In patients with metastatic seminoma, the early use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)–positron-emission tomography (PET) to risk-stratify patients enabled the de-escalation of chemotherapy, avoiding treatment with bleomycin—one of the most toxic drugs used to treat this cancer—and excessive doses of...
Individuals who experience the loss of a partner are less likely to be diagnosed with melanoma—but face an increased risk of dying from the disease, according to research published by Wong et al in the British Journal of Dermatology. While previous studies have suggested a link between various...
An ensemble of machine-learning algorithms could help improve the accuracy of breast cancer screenings when used in combination with assessments from radiologists, according to a study published by Schaffter et al in JAMA Network Open. The study was based on results from the Digital Mammography...
Assuntina G. Sacco, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses the results of a small phase II study, which suggest that pembrolizumab plus cetuximab may show activity for platinum-refractory/-ineligible patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma...
Daniel V.T. Catenacci, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the University of Chicago, was the JAVELIN Gastric 100 study’s invited discussant. After offering an extensive background on the use of immunotherapy in gastric or gastroesophageal...
The best approach for surgeons to identify malnourished patients with cancer before they have major oncologic surgery may be specifically related to the type of cancer the patient has, according to researchers who found that common definitions of malnutrition do not apply equally to all cancers in...
Francis P. Worden, MD, of the University of Michigan Health System Comprehensive Cancer Center, explores the use of novel biomarkers that may help predict response to induction chemotherapy and survival in patients with locally advanced laryngeal cancer.
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 active hexose...
Advances in radiology and molecular imaging have the potential to significantly change how clinicians diagnose, stage, and monitor response to therapy in patients with prostate cancer. However, there are limited data comparing these next-generation imaging modalities to each other and to...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with higher measures of tumor mutations that show up in a blood test generally have a better clinical response to certain immunotherapy treatments than patients with a lower measure of mutations. A clinical trial showed that in cases where liquid...
New study findings suggest that weight gain after breast cancer is a greater problem than previously thought. The first national survey on weight after breast cancer in Australia, published by Ee et al in BMC Cancer, found close to two-thirds (63.7%) of women reported weight gain at an average of...
A pair of studies by Smith et al published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention evaluating whether a mandated reduction in the nicotine content of cigarettes may cause smokers to compensate by engaging in compensatory smoking to obtain more nicotine has found that a reduction in...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to brigatinib for the treatment of ALK-positive lung cancer and Breakthrough Therapy designation to a potential first-in-class oral antagonist of inhibitors of apoptosis proteins for the treatment of head and neck...
Immune modulation with checkpoint inhibitors has shown benefit in advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, but responses have been limited to a small number of patients. According to data presented by Gregory T. Wolf, MD, FACS, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and...
The mTOR inhibitor everolimus may extend progression-free survival for patients with advanced head and neck cancer who are at high risk for recurrence after standard treatment. Patients enrolled in a randomized phase II trial who received the agent were more likely to be cancer-free 1 year after...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Petrelli et al, noninferiority in relapse-free survival for 3 vs 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy was not established among patients with resected high-risk stage II colorectal cancer in the Italian phase III TOSCA trial. A potential regimen effect was observed,...
This week, we’ll be reviewing data from three influential abstracts presented at the recent 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco—one on a novel, first-in-class, small molecule, hypoxia-inducible factor 2 alpha inhibitor for heavily pretreated patients with metastatic clear cell...