The invited discussant of the RELATIVITY-047 trial, Adil Daud, MBBS, said the findings1 “mark a major advance for immunotherapy beyond CTLA-4 and PD-1” as upfront treatment for advanced melanoma. However, the findings trigger a host of questions for clinicians. Dr. Daud is Co-Director of the...
A novel immunotherapeutic combination that targets PD-1 and the LAG-3 pathway significantly delayed disease progression as a first-line treatment of advanced or unresectable melanoma. Updated results of the global phase III RELATIVITY-047 trial validated the study’s initial findings and were...
New findings from a large national study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) show cancer survivors in the United States who reported medical financial hardship had a higher mortality risk than cancer survivors without financial hardship. Medical financial hardship was measured...
On July 21, 2021, the Oncology Center of Excellence at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened a panel discussion entitled “Conversations on Cancer” to address the significant cancer disparities facing Asian Americans. The virtual “conversation” focused on the unfair burden impacting...
The Board of Directors for the King Hussein Award for Cancer Research is currently accepting applications for its 2022 honorees. Established in 2020 in memory of His Majesty the late King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, the award promotes and celebrates cancer research efforts across the Arab world,...
In a German trial (WSG-ADAPT-HR1/HER2–) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nitz et al found no difference in invasive disease-free survival between women with early hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with zero to three positive nodes who had a 21-gene recurrence score ...
In the UK phase II NEOBLADE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Hussain et al found that the addition of nintedanib to neoadjuvant gemcitabine/cisplatin did not improve pathologic complete response rate in patients with locally advanced muscle-invasive bladder cancer. In the double-blind...
As reported in The Lancet by Fizazi et al, the phase III PEACE-1 trial has shown that the addition of abiraterone and prednisone to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and docetaxel improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with de novo metastatic...
Zev Wainberg, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, discusses preliminary data on the safety and efficacy of TTX-030, an anti-CD39 antibody, in combination with budigalimab and FOLFOX for the first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic gastric or...
David A. Barbie, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses his laboratory’s studies, showing that malignant pleural mesothelioma, an inflamed cancer type with marginal response to immune checkpoint blockade, demonstrated high tumor cell STING expression and response to STING agonists in...
John Mascarenhas, MD, Director of the Adult Leukemia Program at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on the implications of the FIGHT-203 trial, which evaluated pemigatinib in myeloid or lymphoid neoplasms. Pemigatinib is an oral small-molecule receptor tyrosine kinase...
In patients with myeloid or lymphoid neoplasms with FGFR1 rearrangements, pemigatinib produced high and durable response rates, despite patients’ extensive use of prior treatments or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), according to the early results of the multicenter phase II FIGHT-203 ...
The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab to first-line chemotherapy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50% and, despite a 49% crossover rate, numerically boosted overall survival in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer, Zhang et al...
Artificial intelligence (AI) reduced the rate at which precancerous polyps were missed in colorectal cancer screening by twofold, reported a team of international researchers in a study published by Wallace et al in Gastroenterology. Between February 2020 and May 2021, 230 study participants were...
In the German TOSYMA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Heindel et al found that screening with digital breast tomosynthesis plus synthesized mammography was superior in detecting invasive breast cancer vs standard digital mammography. As stated by the investigators, “Two-dimensional (2D)...
In a case-control study among U.S. active-duty personnel reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, McLeod et al found that preexisting thyroid autoimmunity was associated with an increased risk of developing papillary thyroid cancer. The study included 451 randomly selected personnel serving...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Malinowski et al found that Medicaid expansion resulted in a reduction in the racial and ethnic disparities in mortality among patients with de novo stage IV breast cancer. As stated by the investigators, “Patients who are uninsured and belong to racial and...
Ann S. LaCasce, MD, MMSc, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the various agents available to treat patients with indolent B-cell lymphomas: lenalidomide plus rituximab, which has a superior progression-free survival profile compared with rituximab monotherapy; the PI3K inhibitors copanlisib ...
The next-generation inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) may be effective in mantle cell lymphoma for patients previously treated with an older BTK inhibitor, according to results from the phase I/II BRUIN trial. These findings were reported at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH)...
In an International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership study reported in The Lancet Oncology, McPhail et al identified the proportions of cancer diagnoses made within 30 days after emergency presentation and hospital admission. They also analyzed risk factors and outcomes for such diagnoses in a group ...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Kana et al found that changes to Medicaid dental benefits in California from comprehensive to emergency services—and then back to comprehensive—were associated with reduced, then increased, percentages of cases of oral cavity cancer...
In a Norwegian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fosså et al identified factors associated with increased mortality and second cancer risk among testicular cancer survivors, including treatment factors and modifiable adverse health outcomes. Study Details The study included data...
Today, 1 year after its founding, Break Through Cancer announced $50 million in grants to support several cutting-edge research projects using a novel “TeamLab” structure—designed to maximize interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sidney Kimmel...
In an analysis from the UK phase III MYELOMA XI trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, de Tute et al found that persistent measurable residual disease (MRD)-negative status after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) and conversion from MRD-positive to -negative status were...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: Colorectal Cancer Screening have recently incorporated significant changes, reflecting recommendations that will spare some patients unnecessary interventions and, in other cases, detect cancer earlier. The ...
Results from two early-stage clinical trials show two drugs that target the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway in cancers—the ATR inhibitor elimusertib and the PARP inhibitor AZD5305—are safe and clinically beneficial in treating patients with advanced solid tumors. Principal investigator Timothy...
Two presentations given at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 focused on promising strategies for making breakthrough immunotherapies work for more patients. Both studies report findings from clinical trials that advance a novel immunotherapy platform in...
A new study published by Englisch et al in the journal Blood Advances suggests that people with cancer and non-O blood types—such as types A, B, and AB—may face an increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) 3 months after their initial diagnosis. Scientists have long strived to...
In an analysis from the French prospective CANTO study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vaz-Luis et al identified three trajectory groups for the risk of severe global fatigue over time among women treated for breast cancer, consisting of a high-risk group, deteriorating group, and...
In a phase II trial (arm E of the NCI-COG Pediatric MATCH trial) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eckstein et al found that the MEK inhibitor selumetinib showed little activity in pediatric and young adult patients with tumors harboring activating MAPK pathway mutations or fusions. As...
Following an analysis of over 12,000 human genes, research from Yale Cancer Center indicates there is cancer-relevant importance in a much larger proportion of human genes than current cancer research models suggest. Much of cancer biology research focuses on a few dozen well-studied genes called...
Most immunocompromised people with multiple myeloma benefited from a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines—a promising sign after it was shown that two doses tended to not be sufficient for them. However, some people with multiple myeloma still remained vulnerable and may need a fourth dose or antibody...
In a single-center study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Ceballos et al identified turnaround times for request and receipt of melanoma BRAF testing results. They also analyzed factors in differences in turnaround times and effects on time to initiation of treatment. The study included 66...
In an analysis from the prospective cohort Pathways Heart Study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD, and colleagues found that breast cancer survivors were at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality compared with women without breast cancer, with...
Preliminary data from an artificial intelligence (AI) model could potentially predict side effects resulting from new combination therapies, according to results presented by Küçükosmanoğlu et al at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 (Abstract 6312). “Clinicians ...
In the French phase II BIONIKK trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Vano et al assessed outcomes of first-line treatment with nivolumab with or without ipilimumab and VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors given according to characteristics of molecular subgroups in patients with metastatic clear cell...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new bioinformatics platform that predicts optimal treatment combinations for a given group of patients based on co-occurring tumor alterations. In retrospective validation studies, the tool selected combinations that...
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells from patients whose cancers did not respond to CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy had gene regulation signatures that could potentially facilitate treatment resistance, according to results presented at the American Association for...
In a UK observational cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Price et al found that pretreatment absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) was associated with overall survival and predictive of benefit of the addition of cisplatin to radiotherapy in patients with oropharyngeal squamous...
Patients with advanced melanoma whose cancer does not respond to treatment with PD-1 inhibitors are often switched to treatment with a second type of immunotherapy drug, a CTLA-4 inhibitor such as the drug ipilimumab. In a phase II trial presented by Vanderwalde et al during the American...
In a single-institution phase II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Halperin et al found that the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab showed activity in treatment of advanced well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors. As stated by the investigators, “Therapies for patients with advanced...
As reported in The Lancet by Luke et al, the phase III KEYNOTE-716 trial has shown significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival with adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo in patients with high-risk completely resected stage IIB/IIC melanoma at both first and second interim analyses. The first...
CoVac-1, a new vaccine against SARS–CoV-2, induced T-cell immune responses in 93% of patients with B-cell deficiencies, including many patients with leukemia and lymphoma, according to results presented by Tandler et al at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022...
Combination immunotherapy with the anti–PD-L1 monoclonal antibody durvalumab and other novel agents outperforms durvalumab alone in the neoadjuvant setting for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to research presented by Cascone et al at the American Association for Cancer...
A new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product had an acceptable safety profile and showed early signs of efficacy as a monotherapy and in combination with an mRNA vaccine in patients with solid tumors, according to preliminary data from a phase I/II clinical trial presented by Haanen et al...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a new draft guidance to industry for developing plans to enroll more participants from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations in the United States into clinical trials—expanding on the agency’s previous guidances for industry to...
The accuracy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer could be improved by accounting for genetic factors that cause changes in PSA levels not associated with cancer, according to data presented by Kachuri et al during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
According to a large multiethnic study presented by Sok et al at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022, Latinx children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and measurable residual disease (MRD)-negative status were more likely to relapse compared with...
Iván Márquez-Rodas, MD, PhD, of Spain’s Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, discusses final results of the phase II SPOTLIGHT203 study of systemic pembrolizumab in combination with intratumoral BO-112 for patients with advanced melanoma refractory to anti–PD-1–based therapy. The...
Natural killer (NK) cells derived from donated umbilical cord blood and activated with a novel bispecific antibody known as AFM13 (which targets CD16A and CD30) were shown to be effective in patients with pretreated and refractory CD30-positive lymphoma. The overall response rate was 89% in...