Understanding what consciousness is, and why and how it evolved, is perhaps the greatest mystery known to science. With its 100 billion or so neurons and a processing rate of about 4 billion bits per second, the human brain is a miraculously complicated entity, much of which is still under...
Nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) led to a 1-year overall survival rate of 85% in previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer patients with DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) tumors. These data were presented in the first report ...
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 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...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have had a dramatic impact on survival for patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with whispers that a cure might be achieved in a subset of patients. In typical fashion, active new agents are evaluated in earlier stages of disease. Stage III NSCLC...
Primary endpoint findings and updated results of secondary endpoints from the phase II LAPACT trial of nanoparticle albumin–bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) plus gemcitabine in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer were presented by Hammel et al at the 2018 Gastrointestinal (GI)...
Updated results were recently reported from the 30 patient safety lead-in of the phase III BEACON CRC trial evaluating the triplet combination of encorafenib (a BRAF inhibitor), binimetinib (an MEK inhibitor), and cetuximab (Erbitux, an anti–EGFR antibody) in patients with BRAF-mutant...
Mary Beckerle, PhD, Chief Executive -Officer and Director of Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, is this year’s recipient of the Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The prestigious award is named after Alfred G. Knudson, MD, PhD, a...
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...
AT THE START OF 2018, seven senior employees assumed new roles at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Five of these program leaders were promoted or reappointed, and two have newly joined the Institute from other centers around the United States. Meet the Appointees Charles...
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as the President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2019. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2018. Additionally, five members were...
Thierry André, MD, of Hôpital Saint-Antoine, and Michael J. Overman, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discuss findings from their respective CheckMate-142 studies on nivolumab and ipilimumab in patients with DNA mismatch repair–deficient/microsatellite instability–high...
“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...
Venetoclax (Venclexta) plus rituximab (Rituxan)—a non–chemotherapy-containing regimen—was superior to standard-of-care bendamustine plus rituximab for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to a final analysis of the phase III MURANO study reported at...
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...
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have provided the first description of the structure of the herpes virus associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma. The findings, published by Dai et al in Nature, answer important questions about how the virus spreads and provide a...
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...
Can aggressive treatment of high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma patients prevent disease worsening? A carfilzomib (Kyprolis)-based regimen and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) plus maintenance produced encouraging outcomes in the phase II GEM-CESAR study by the Spanish Myeloma Group. The...
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 patients with early breast cancer, the presence in the blood of circulating tumor cells 5 years after diagnosis increases the risk for recurrence nearly 20-fold, researchers reported at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “We found that a single positive circulating tumor cell assay...
The combination of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus trastuzumab (Herceptin) may turn out to be a good treatment option for patients with trastuzumab-resistant advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, according to the results of an early study presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium...
The oncology community mourns the sudden passing of Jimmie C. Holland, MD, who died on December 24, 2017, at the age of 89. Dr. Holland’s achievements over her 40-year career are legend. They include the founding of the subspecialty of psycho-oncology, the establishment of a full-time Psychiatry...
A pair of targeted therapies given before and after surgery for melanoma produced at least a sixfold increase in time to progression compared to standard-of-care surgery for patients with stage III disease, Amaria et al reported in The Lancet Oncology. Patients who had no sign of disease at surgery ...
“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...
In relapsed or refractory triple-negative breast cancer, the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) demonstrated significant clinical activity in an open-label study presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer is an...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bollard et al found that T cells with forced expression of dominant-negative transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) receptor type 2 (DNRII) that targeted the Epstein Barr virus (EBV)-derived tumor antigens latent membrane proteins...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for Priority Review a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) suspension for intravenous infusion (formerly CTL019) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Heller et al identified two circulating tumor cell (CTC) markers that had high discriminatory ability for improved survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Study Details The study used individual patient data from 5...
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that two estrogen-mimicking compounds found in many foods appear to potently reverse the effects of palbociclib/letrozole, a popular drug combination for treating breast cancer. The study, published by Warth et al in Cell Chemical...
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...
A phase I/II trial has shown that the addition of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) to bendamustine is active in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. Study findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by O’Connor et al. Study Details In the study, 64 patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and 1...
Desmoplastic melanoma is a rare subtype of melanoma that is commonly found on sun-exposed areas, such as the head and neck, and usually seen in older patients. Treatment is difficult, as these tumors are often resistant to chemotherapy and lack actionable mutations commonly found in other types of...
Elderly patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed improved overall survival when treated with chemoradiation compared to definitive radiation alone, according to findings published by Miller et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. NSCLC constitutes between...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Robert and colleagues, a high proportion of patients with metastatic melanoma achieving complete response on pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the phase Ib KEYNOTE-001 trial maintained complete response for prolonged durations after treatment...
On January 9, Eisai and Merck announced that they received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Eisai's multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib (Lenvima) in combination with Merck's anti–programmed cell death protein 1...
In a single-center phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Teply et al found that bipolar androgen therapy can induce prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and resensitization to enzalutamide (Xtandi) in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who progressed on...
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...
Final results of a phase III trial reported by Stupp and colleagues in JAMA indicate that adding antimitotic treatment with tumor-treating fields to maintenance temozolomide is associated with improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with previously treated glioblastoma. The...
The proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib (Kyprolis) has taken on an increasing role in the treatment of multiple myeloma, but new research from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania shows the therapy may come with the risk of cardiovascular problems in a higher than expected...
In a Belgian phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ost et al found that androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)-free survival was prolonged with metastasis-directed therapy vs surveillance in recurrent oligometastatic prostate cancer. Study Details Sixty-two patients with...
In a study of National Cancer Database data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Francis et al found that receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy before vs concurrently with radiotherapy was associated with improved survival in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) found to have...
On December 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the product label for nilotinib (Tasigna) to include information for providers about how to discontinue the drug in certain patients. Nilotinib, first approved by the FDA in 2007, is indicated for the treatment of patients with...
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...
As reported by Scott J. Antonia, MD, PhD, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine, an interim analysis of the phase III -PACIFIC trial showed improved progression-free survival with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) ...
As reported by Scott J. Antonia, MD, PhD, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine, an interim analysis of the phase III -PACIFIC trial showed improved progression-free survival with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)...
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, has been elected to serve as the President of ASCO for the term beginning in June 2019. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2018. Additionally, five members were...
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...
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...
On November 6, 2017, alectinib (Alecensa) received regular approval for treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved test.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was...