The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) awarded Lourdes A. Báezconde-Garbanati, PhD, the 2020 AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities. Dr. Báezconde-Garbanati presented her award lecture, “Optimizing Engagement to Reduce Disparities Among...
The National Minority Quality Forum announced that Anthony Fauci, MD, will receive its 2020 Bernard J. Tyson Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes health-care leaders who have helped to decrease health disparities and to build sustainable healthy communities. Dr. Fauci—who has served as...
Over the past decade, the field of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation has made great strides, evolving into a curative procedure for blood cancers that once were almost always fatal. However, chronic graft-vs-host disease, whose biologic etiology remains unclear, continues to be the...
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has received a $1.6 million, 5-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to support the Rutgers Youth Enjoy Science (RUYES) Program. RUYES seeks to increase the diversity of the biomedical, cancer research workforce to reduce cancer disparities in New...
Formal discussant of the -IPATential150 trial, Henrik Grönberg, MD, Professor at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, found the study results intriguing, especially in the PTEN-loss patients. “Biomarkers are the wave of the future,” he said. “The study population was compared with an adequately...
Ipatasertib plus abiraterone plus prednisone achieved significantly superior radiographic progression–free survival and antitumor activity compared with placebo plus abiraterone plus prednisonein patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and PTEN loss, according to the results...
The PARP inhibitor olaparib reduced the risk of death by 31% compared with a second hormonal treatment (enzalutamide or abiraterone) in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer characterized by BRCA1, BRCA2, or ATM mutations, in the final analysis of the phase III PROfound trial...
On October 7, 2020, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 would be awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD, and Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD, “for the development of a method for genome editing,” the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. “There is enormous power...
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists who have made a decisive contribution to the treatment of blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world. Harvey J. Alter, MD; Michael Houghton,...
Although KRAS is one of the most frequently mutated oncogenes in human cancers, an almost 4-decade long search for drugs that hit this target has been elusive—until now. Sotorasib (formerly called AMG-510), a small-molecule inhibitor of the KRAS G12C mutation, demonstrated clinical activity and...
Invited discussant of the EMPOWER-Lung 1 trial, Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, FACP, FASCO, Chief, Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, pointed out the tremendous progress that has been made since 2000 in treating NSCLC. “In 2000, median survival for advanced NSCLC was 7.9...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 presented several abstracts with good news for patients with lung cancer. Long-term follow-up of immunotherapies showed excellent survival, a promising new ALK inhibitor improved outcomes compared with the standard of care, the...
In a large, randomized clinical trial, researchers evaluated the immunotherapy drug avelumab for patients with advanced urothelial cancer. The findings of the trial, called the JAVELIN Bladder 100 study, are “very exciting,” even “practice-changing,” said the trial’s co-leader, Petros Grivas, MD,...
Invited discussant of the xevinapant study, Sjoukje Oosting, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, commented: “There is finally hope on the horizon that we can increase the cure rate of our patients with head and neck cancer, if these data are confirmed in a phase...
Xevinapant, an investigational inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP) blocker, prolonged overall survival when added to standard chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, according to an updated analysis of a randomized, placebo-controlled phase II study presented ...
The encouraging results of the phase III ASCENT trial suggest that sacituzumab govitecan has clearly earned a place in the treatment algorithm for advanced triple-negative breast cancer, said the study’s invited discussant, Fatima Cardoso, MD, Director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud...
An inspiring case series of fit patients aged 98 and older who recovered from hospitalization for COVID-19, published by Huang et al, reminds us that older age may not be a barrier to recovery.1 On behalf of the Cancer and Aging Research Group, we do not support “ageism” in the care of older...
The rate of obesity is rising dramatically in the United States and Europe, with more than 60% of women in the United States1,2 and 50% of women in Europe3 classified as overweight or obese based on their body mass index (BMI). Obesity is associated with an increased risk of hormone...
Lorlatinib was strategically designed to have activity against ALK and to be highly CNS-penetrant,” said formal discussant Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville. “We look forward to seeing more data from this trial. Alectinib had a progression-free survival of...
Lorlatinib significantly improved progression-free survival compared with crizotinib in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a planned interim analysis of the phase III CROWN trial presented at the European Society for...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to treatments for EGFR-mutant lung cancer and advanced renal cell carcinoma; granted Fast Track designation to agents in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors; and more....
Skin cancers are the most common malignancy in the United States and worldwide. Between 1994 and 2014, the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers in the United States increased by 77%.1 The cost of treating melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers to the health-care system...
On October 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the antiviral drug remdesivir (Veklury) for use in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kg for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. Remdesivir should only be administered...
The tumors of patients with stage I and II non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) demonstrated a generally higher tumor mutational burden and more often displayed the mutational signature associated with tobacco smoking than those of patients with more advanced disease, according to findings presented...
In the Chinese phase II CLAP study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lan et al found that the combination of the anti–PD-1 antibody camrelizumab and the VEGFR inhibitor apatinib produced high response rates in previously treated women with advanced cervical cancer. Study Details The...
In 2020, health-care providers from all disciplines are facing challenges never before encountered in the modern era of medicine. Advanced practitioners (APs) are playing critical roles in developing protocols, managing health-care teams, and delivering hands-on patient care. JADPRO Live, the...
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance for physicians who use radiation therapy to treat patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Recommendations outline indications and best practices for pelvic radiation treatments, as well as the...
An electronic nudge to clinicians—triggered by an algorithm that used machine-learning methods to flag patients with cancer who would most benefit from a conversation around end-of-life goals—tripled the rate of those discussions, according to a new prospective, randomized study of nearly 15,000...
Delays in the treatment of breast cancer matter, but not as much “as we and our patients typically assume,” Richard J. Bleicher, MD, FACS, informed participants at the 22nd Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Some of these delays are unavoidable and others are tradeoffs that must be made to...
Neoadjuvant combination therapy with the anti–CTLA-4 therapy tremelimumab and the anti–PD-1 therapy durvalumab was well tolerated and showed early signs of activity in patients ineligible to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy, all of whom had tumors with high-risk features that are associated...
In a multi-institutional cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Eitz et al found that hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (HSRT) to the resection cavity in patients with brain metastases appears to be associated with an “excellent risk-benefit profile.” As stated by the investigators, “For...
On June 20, 2020, ASCO approved the first joint Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS)/American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)/ASCO guideline on the care of patients with metastatic carcinoma and myeloma of the femur.1 Guideline recommendations were based on a systematic review of clinical...
Comparison of two techniques used in screening non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor samples demonstrated that fragment analysis could detect large MET exon 14 skipping deletions that were missed by next-generation sequencing, according to findings presented at the Molecular Analysis for...
The value of adjuvant therapy for patients with resected stage III or IV melanoma—in the form of pembrolizumab and nivolumab—continues to be observed after approximately 4 years from the start of therapy, according to Rodabe N. Amaria, MD, Associate Professor of Melanoma Medical Oncology at The...
The benefit of anti–PD-1 antibodies in the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma continues to be observed at around 4 years for both pembrolizumab and nivolumab, according to updates of pivotal trials presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual ...
Limited English-language proficiency may be a risk factor for receiving screening mammograms less often, according to new study results using national data. These findings, concerning women age 40 and older living in the United States, were presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, and colleagues, the phase III TOURMALINE-MM4 trial has shown that postinduction maintenance with ixazomib prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma not undergoing...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Franck Morschhauser, MD, and colleagues found that the oral EZH2 inhibitor tazemetostat produced durable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma with or without an EZH2 mutation. As noted by the investigators,...
COMBI-i’s invited discussant, Bartosz Chmielowski, MD, PhD, Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said this study is one of three key trials in which checkpoint inhibitors were combined with BRAF and MEK inhibitors. “This is...
Patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma harboring BRAF V600 mutations did not benefit from the addition of the anti–PD-1 antibody spartalizumab to dabrafenib and trametinib in the COMBI-i trial, which was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress...
Analysis of DNA copy number variants in the cells exfoliated in urine showed improved sensitivity and similar specificity in detecting urothelial carcinoma compared to urine cytology, according to results published by Zeng et al in Clinical Cancer Research. “Urine cytology, which is widely used to...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Cappell et al, long-term follow-up of a National Cancer Institute phase I trial has shown that anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for various relapsed B-cell malignancies produced responses lasting 3 years or longer in half of ...
Veena Shankaran, MD, of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses study findings from a national sample of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are on systemic therapy. A year into their treatment, nearly three out of four patients had major financial hardships despite access to health...
The increasing incidence rates of skin cancer in the United States are staggering. It is the most common cancer diagnosed in the country, and current estimates show that about 9,500 Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer every day. Over the course of a year, more than 3 million people are...
“Breast cancer brain metastases are a clinical challenge that are only increasing in incidence and are a consequence of advanced breast cancers, largely HER2-positive and triple-negative,” according to Carey K. Anders, MD, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Duke Brain and Spine...
Among accredited cancer centers in the United States, hospitals serving primarily minority patients are as likely as other hospitals to offer the standard of surgical care for early-stage breast cancer, according to results presented at the virtual American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress...
A recent review of scientific literature showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of cancer care and research—from introducing new risks for patients to disrupting the delivery of treatment and the continuity of research. The report, published by Ziad Bakouny, MD, and...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Lei et al found that receipt of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among girls and young women was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of invasive cervical cancer. As stated by the investigators, “The...
Immunotherapy has changed the treatment paradigm for cancer, inducing durable responses in a subset of patients with previously refractory disease. However, current approaches are successful in only approximately 20% of cancers (so-called hot tumors). For the nearly 80% of cancers that are “cold”...
Automated analysis of the routine scans of patients with breast cancer may help to predict which women have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to research presented by Gal et al at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference (Abstract 7). Women who have been treated for...