More than 650 attendees gathered in San Francisco on September 9 and 10 for the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, focusing on the theme of “Patient-Centered Care Across the Cancer Continuum.” Research presented during the Symposium demonstrated how integrating palliative care into cancer...
A collaboration of international experts is tackling the challenges involved in understanding and managing the treatment of cutaneous lymphomas. The Prospective Cutaneous Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (PROCLIPI) study from the Cutaneous Lymphoma International Consortium brings together...
Although progress in treatment and supportive care for children with cancer has resulted in improved survival of these patients, some survivors experience ongoing medical conditions from their cancer or its treatment, including poor general health, poor mental health, functional impairment,...
On November 17, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued an updated clinical practice statement for accelerated partial-breast irradiation for early-stage breast cancer. The updated guideline reflects recent evidence that greater numbers of patients can benefit from accelerated...
High-throughput sequencing of T-cell receptors may be a solution to some of the challenges confronting oncologists who treat cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. According to experts who presented talks on high-throughput sequencing of T-cell receptors at the 3rd World Congress of Cutaneous Lymphoma...
In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Johnson et al reported the occurrence of fulminant, fatal immune-related myocarditis in two patients who received combined ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) for metastatic melanoma. Patient Courses One patient was a 65-year-old woman...
Invited discussant Paul Baas, MD, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, first commented on the need for measures to improve outcomes in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). “Even in stage I patients, we still have a failure rate of 30% to 40% at 5 years, and that...
Earlier this month, ASCO announced it has collaborated with Innovative Oncology Business Solutions, Inc (IOBS) to launch ASCO COME HOME, a patient-centered oncology medical home, to help transition community oncology practices from volume-based care to value-based care and to prepare oncologists to ...
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) is safe and feasible in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The results come from the first report of PD-1 blockade prior to surgery in this tumor, according to Patrick Forde, MD, of...
Earlier this year, Sean Parker, the cofounder of the music streaming service Napster and an early president of Facebook, joined a growing list of entrepreneurs who are committing large portions of their wealth to funding cancer research. In April, Mr. Parker announced he was donating $250 million...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Brian Rini, MD, and colleagues recently reported results from the phase III IMPRINT trial,1 which randomized HLA-A*02–positive patients with treatment-naive metastatic clear cell variant renal cell carcinoma, in favorable- and intermediate- risk...
For the first time, a randomized trial has provided good evidence to support the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for treatment of high-risk soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities or trunk wall.1 But the findings of the study were surprising, because neoadjuvant chemotherapy with one-size-fits-all...
A landmark study showed that the investigational PARP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase) 1/2 inhibitor niraparib, when used as maintenance therapy, significantly improves the outcome of platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer. Specifically, niraparib significantly prolonged progression-free survival ...
November is National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, the impetus for this article. Pancreatic cancer is a huge health challenge. It's the eighth most common cancer in the United States and the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths but is expected to become the second most common cause of...
Genomic assays have had a powerful influence on the management of early-stage breast cancer, particularly estrogen receptor–positive tumors. The mainstay of adjuvant treatment for early-stage, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer has been endocrine therapy, either with tamoxifen and an...
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in lung cancer. In the past 2 years, the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) inhibitors nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) were found to improve overall survival in the second-line setting compared with docetaxel for patients with...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of the German Center of Lung Research, Grosshansdorf, and colleagues, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) significantly improved progression-free and overall survival vs platinum-based chemotherapy in...
Here is a brief look at the study findings and clinical implications of several recent and important clinical trials in neoplastic hematology. Attention is focused on myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Myelodysplastic Syndromes Clinical Trial:...
An interim efficacy analysis from a phase I/II study of the combination of lirilumab and nivolumab (Opdivo) in the cohort of advanced platinum refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, including exploratory biomarker analyses of patient response by level of programmed death ligand 1...
Faltas et al identified factors in the clonal evolution of chemotherapy-resistant urothelial carcinoma, according to a study reported in Nature Genetics. Findings included wide intrapatient mutational heterogeneity and enrichment for clonal mutations involving L1 cell–adhesion molecule...
Combination immunotherapy is producing response rates ranging from 26% to 38% among patients with metastatic bladder cancer in the early stages of a three-arm clinical trial presented at the 2016 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. “Until...
Pang et al found that the enrollment disparity in clinical trials in lung cancer has been reduced in recent years for older patients and women overall, according to a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. However, disparities persist for elderly women, blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders, ...
In a propensity score–matched analysis of National Cancer Database data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mokdad et al found that neoadjuvant therapy followed by resection was associated with a survival benefit vs upfront resection. Patricio M. Polanco, MD, of the Division of Surgical...
Clement et al found that 25% of survivors of childhood brain tumors were diagnosed with endocrine disorders over 6.6 years of follow-up, based on a Dutch nationwide study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Hanneke M. van Santen, MD, PhD, of Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, University...
In the HIV-negative population, there is growing evidence suggesting that chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are both associated with the development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), although the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. The incidence rate of NHL ...
In a pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Michel Meignan, MD, PhD, of the Université Paris-Est Créteil, and colleagues found that higher baseline total metabolic tumor volume measured by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron-emission tomography–computed tomography (FDG...
“Whether or not individual professionals support the clinical use of herbal cannabis, all clinicians will encounter patients who elect to use it and therefore need to be prepared to advise them on cannabis-related clinical issues despite limited evidence to guide care,” according to a recently...
Marijuana, or cannabis, used to be legal in the United States and was “actually listed in the U.S. formulary in 1854,” according to Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN, Director, Cancer Pain Program, Division of Hematology-Oncology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “Many of...
With reports about new marijuana dispensaries sprouting up as more states approve the legal use of medical marijuana, and patients and family members questioning how to get it, medical marijuana is a “topic you can’t escape,” noted Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN.1 Dr. Paice is Director of the Cancer...
The smartest guys in the room were never from the big energy companies, and they’re not running hedge funds on Wall Street or building the next Facebook. For me, the smartest guys in the room are the selfless men and women who’ve transformed cancer from what was all too often a death sentence to...
In a new report published by Young et al in Cancer Medicine,1 a two-gene circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) blood test for postsurgical monitoring of colorectal cancer recurrence has been shown to detect twice the number of recurrence cases as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) testing, a standard-of-care...
What are the factors that add up to the best outcomes for patients who have surgery to treat cancer? Looking for a better way to measure quality of care and share best practices in surgical oncology, a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute developed a quality assessment tool and validated it in a ...
I still remember the day I met Kensie. It was Valentine’s Day. I had sneaked out of the hospital to get my wife a Valentine’s Day card, taking my place among scores of other husbands and boyfriends in front of the rapidly emptying rack of cards. As I started browsing, my beeper sounded. It was the ...
Nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue sarcomas account for about 5% of all childhood malignancies and are also diagnosed in adolescents and young adults, as well as in older adults, and can require different approaches to treatment based on a patient’s age and stage of disease. These sarcomas comprise...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization (CPDC) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, will work together to create novel molecular probes for noninvasive imaging in cancer research, drug development, and patient care. The two leading...
As cancer therapies improve and the population as a whole increases, there are rising numbers of elderly patients with cancer. More than half of patients newly diagnosed with cancer are aged 65 years or older.1 In January 2012, it was estimated that more than 8 million cancer survivors were over...
ASCO is excited to launch two new online-only journals, JCO Precision Oncology (JCO PO) and JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics (JCO CCI). Both journals will be exploring the latest topics in oncology and filling a void for the oncology community. Manuscripts will go through the traditional peer-review ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its first biosimilar drug, filgrastim-sndz (Zarxio), in 2015, allowing it to compete with the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor filgrastim (Neupogen) to treat neutropenia in chemotherapy patients. So far, filgrastim-sndz is the only...
Invited discussant Celeste Lebbé, MD, of the Hospital Saint Louis in Paris, noted that the study met its primary endpoints and produced “very impressive data”; however, “major toxicity” was a concern. She said that in this small study of 18 patients (10 for efficacy), several lessons were learned: ...
In the phase III MINDACT trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Fatima Cardoso, MD, of Champalimaud Clinical Center–Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, and colleagues found that adjuvant chemotherapy may be avoidable in women with early-stage breast cancer who are at high clinical...
In a spirited debate, abounding with citations of clinical trials and other evidence, but not without humor and mutual respect, E. Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, and Armando E. Giuliano, MD, reviewed the data and their clinical experience managing ductal carcinoma in situ and reached opposite...
Pancreatic cancer has been notably unresponsive to immunotherapeutic approaches, but a Stand Up 2 Cancer Dream Team believes their research can change that. Team co-leader Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ...
Around one in six women (17%) diagnosed with breast cancer go to their doctor with a symptom other than a lump—the most commonly reported breast cancer symptom—according to new research presented by Koo et al at the 2016 National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in...
Although progress in treatment and supportive care for children with cancer has resulted in improved survival of these patients, some survivors experience ongoing medical conditions from their cancer or its treatment, including poor general health, poor mental health, functional impairment,...
The injectable oncolytic immunotherapy talimogene laherparepvec (also known as T-VEC, Imlygic) may become a valuable component of combination immunotherapy approaches in melanoma, a strategy believed to help overcome resistance of tumors to single-agent immunotherapies. “[Talimogene laherparepvec] ...
Standard treatment for advanced head and neck cancer—including chemotherapy and radiation—causes painful side effects that impair quality of life, as well as the ability to socialize and engage in daily life activities. A new study of patients with platinum-refractory recurrent, metastatic head...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gomez et al found that local consolidative therapy (with or without maintenance therapy) improved progression-free survival in patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had up to three metastatic disease lesions and no...
Patients with malignant melanoma are more likely to respond to immunotherapy treatment if they have greater diversity in their gut bacteria, according to new research presented by Wargo et al at the National Cancer Research Institute's (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom....
The phase III KEYNOTE-045 trial, investigating the use of the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) therapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with previously treated advanced urothelial cancer, met the primary endpoint of overall survival, according to a news release issued by Merck. In...
Checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but evidence of their benefit was restricted to the second-line setting. However, early-phase trials with both pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated favorable results in...