In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Network Open, Zhao et al found that the rate of complications from invasive diagnostic procedures after low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening in the community setting was lower than a prior estimate—but still higher than reported in ...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Kasi et al found that total neoadjuvant therapy was associated with improved pathologic complete response rates vs standard therapy with neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy plus adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Burnett et al, findings from the phase III MRC AML17 trial indicated that four courses of chemotherapy, compared to three courses, reduced the cumulative incidence of relapse and improved relapse-free survival, but not overall survival, in younger...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Peters et al, the phase III FORUM trial showed superior overall survival with total-body irradiation plus etoposide vs combination chemoconditioning in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic...
In a post hoc analysis from the ICON8 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Morgan et al found evidence indicating that the evaluation of response to platinum-based neoadjuvant therapy in women with ovarian carcinoma using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), version 1.1, should...
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, discusses phase II data from the CITADEL-204 study, showing that patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma who were not previously treated with a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor achieved rapid and durable ...
Researchers profiled more than 45,000 individual cells from patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis and defined the extensive cellular heterogeneity, as well as identified two distinct cell subtypes correlated with patient survival. The findings were published by Wang et al in Nature Medicine....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Catto et al, the BRAVO-Feasibility study showed that recruitment of patients with high-grade, non–muscle invasive bladder cancer into a randomized trial comparing radical cystectomy vs intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) proved difficult,...
In a retrospective study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Aschele et al found that the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 0.68% among a large population of patients receiving anticancer treatment in Italy over an approximately 3.5-month period in 2020. Study Details The study...
Pooled results of two phase I studies, reported in The Lancet by Benjamin et al, indicate that the genome-edited, donor-derived allogeneic anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product UCART19 is active and has a manageable toxicity profile in pediatric and adult patients with relapsed...
On January 4, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, MD, and Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Peter Marks, MD, PhD, issued the following statement on FDA-authorized dosing schedules for each COVID-19 vaccine. Two different mRNA...
Surgery, in addition to treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, may improve survival for certain patients with metastatic breast cancer. A research team studied nearly 13,000 patients with stage IV disease and found that those who had surgery in addition to other treatments had a...
A study published by Hyuna Sung, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA found that adult-onset cancer survivors may have a greater risk of developing and dying from subsequent primary cancers than the general population. Cancers associated with smoking or obesity accounted for a majority of subsequent primary ...
Thierry André, MD, and colleagues reported the prospective pooled analysis of six phase III trials in the IDEA collaboration in The Lancet Oncology. The analysis showed that noninferiority in overall survival for 3 vs 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy was not established in patients with stage III...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Areej El-Jawahri, MD, and colleagues found that integrated palliative and oncology care was associated with better quality of life vs usual care among patients receiving treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The investigators stated, “Patients with AML...
On December 29, Bristol Myers Squibb issued the following statement on nivolumab’s small cell lung cancer (SCLC) indication in the United States. In 2018, nivolumab was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with SCLC whose disease...
A research team has quantified the effects of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) on the development of cervical cancer. Their results show that the risk of developing cervical cancer is six times higher in women who are infected with HIV, and that women who live in Southern and...
A comprehensive study involving more than 250,000 women showed that oral contraceptive use may be protective against the development of ovarian and endometrial cancers, but the effect on lifetime risk of breast cancer is more limited. The protective effect on ovarian and endometrial cancers was...
In a single-institution phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cheung et al found that a subcutaneous ganglioside G2/G3 vaccine plus oral β-glucan produced antibody responses in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, with higher anti–GD2-IgG1 titers being associated with...
In a National Cancer Database analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Tobias et al found that receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved short-term but not long-term survival vs primary debulking surgery in patients with metastatic endometrial cancer. As stated by the...
On December 15, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the latest estimates on the global burden of cancer. The GLOBOCAN 2020 database, accessible online as part of the IARC Global Cancer Observatory, provides estimates of incidence and mortality in 185 countries for 36...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the second vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. The emergency use authorization allows the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the United States for use in...
Although efforts have been made by various medical societies, including ASCO, over the past decade to address the needs of sexual and gender minorities in the cancer care setting, research shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) patients continue to face...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded over $107 million to support new, nontraditional approaches and reimagined uses of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and surveillance. The program will also develop platforms that can be deployed in future outbreaks of COVID-19...
Reporting on how deferred care worsened outcomes for patients with lung cancer when the COVID-19 pandemic first surged in the spring of 2020, Robert M. Van Haren, MD, MSPH, FACS, and colleagues explained that they have identified a framework that could help people with serious health conditions...
In an observational cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Catherine H. Van Poznak, MD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the 3-year incidence of osteonecrosis of the jaw was 2.8% among patients with cancer receiving zoledronic acid for metastatic bone disease. Shorter dosing interval, fewer teeth, ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its Home Health Prospective Payment System final rule for 2021. The final rule reflects comments ASCO submitted on the proposed rule in support of increased access to telemedicine in home health care and concerns over home...
In 2017, Women Who Conquer Cancer (WWCC) awarded Catherine Handy Marshall, MD, MPH, a Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award (YIA) grant to explore the impact of cardiovascular disease risk factors on cancer outcomes. Three years after receiving the WWCC YIA, Dr. Handy Marshall is pursuing...
“Equity: Every Patient. Every Day. Everywhere” was selected by 2020–2021 ASCO President Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, as the theme for her presidential term. As oncology care providers work to put this theme into practice, they can find support in ASCO eLearning’s new Cultural Literacy course...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fernandez et al found high rates of conditional recurrence-free survival during watch-and-wait surveillance among patients with rectal cancer who maintained clinical complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for 1, 3, or 5 years. Study Details In the...
On November 13, 2020, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in combination with chemotherapy for patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer with tumors expressing PD-L1 (Combined ...
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Igor Puzanov, MD, MSCI, FACP, Andrew Hyland, PhD, and Maciej Goniewicz, PhD, PharmD, have all recently been recognized as global scientific pioneers on Clarivate Plc’s Highly Cited Researchers list for 2020. The list recognizes researchers who have...
The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Susan E. Hankinson, ScD, MPH, for her significant contributions to breast cancer research. Dr. Hankinson received the 2020 AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research award...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, sat down with Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical advisor to President-Elect Joseph Biden, for a virtual fireside chat about COVID-19 and cancer at...
To improve long-term survival odds, individuals with early-stage colon cancer should have their surgery performed by highly skilled surgeons. In a study that used video assessment, surgeons with highly ranked skills gave their patients a 69% lower risk of dying at 5 years as compared with their...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has appointed John Ryan, JD, as its Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Governance Officer. Mr. Ryan has extensive expertise representing health-care and life sciences organizations in public company and nonprofit settings. He has managed a wide range of...
Cancer has been an intimate part of Nancy Borowick’s life since her mother, Laurel, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, when Nancy was 12. She began photographing her mother’s journey with the disease after the cancer recurred in 2009 for her final project for the Documentary Photography and ...
To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are three abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapies for polycythemia vera. For full details of these study...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved osimertinib (Tagrisso) for adjuvant therapy after tumor resection in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations, as...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) announced the appointment of Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, FASTRO, as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (Red Journal), ASTRO’s flagship scientific journal. Dr. Yom, who is Vice Chair and Distinguished...
Lorna Rodriguez-Rodriguez, MD, PhD, Vice Chair of Faculty Development at City of Hope, is among 21 women leaders in the nation who were invited to join the Carol Emmott Fellowship Class of 2021, a 14-month program for “exceptional, innovative women leaders who are making lasting change in their...
The Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania recently announced Bella Kaufman, MD, of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer, Israel, as the recipient of the eighth annual Basser Global Prize. Dr. Kaufman is Director of the Breast Oncology Institute,...
Anita Kinney, PhD, MSN, Professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Associate Director for Population Science and Community Outreach at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, is among 10 recipients across the nation of an American Cancer Society and Pfizer community grant of $399,892 to...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recognized three Choosing Wisely Champions, practitioners working to tackle overuse of hematology tests and treatments, at the all-virtual 2020 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition. Choosing Wisely, a program of the ABIM Foundation and Consumer Reports, aims...
The prevention of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), and its related cancers, has become a focus of the European Cancer Organisation. At the group’s 2020 European Cancer Summit, held virtually, members of the organization’s HPV Action Network convened with other experts to share...
Are we winning the war on cancer? It’s not so clear, especially with COVID-19 poised to erase recent gains, panelists said at a session on global cancer control at the 2020 European Cancer Summit, which was sponsored by the European Cancer Organisation. “We know what we have to do. My question is...
It has become a familiar theme of late: Inequities exist in all aspects of cancer care. Although study after study documents problems with access to care and poorer cancer outcomes among underrepresented groups, less is heard about organized efforts to address these issues. This critical topic was...
Harikrishna Nakshatri, PhD, who is identifying the unique biology that may make Black women more susceptible to aggressive breast cancer, received a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Defense–Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program’s breast cancer research program. Dr. -Nakshatri...
Studies reported at the 2020 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting, which was held virtually, showed promise for the use of intratumoral injections of novel immunotherapies in treating advanced, resectable melanoma. In the 3-year interim analysis of a global phase II randomized...
A first-line regimen combining the novel interleukin-2 (Il-2) agonist bempegaldesleukin (NKTR-214) with nivolumab showed encouraging clinical activity in patients with metastatic melanoma in the phase I/II PIVOT-02 trial, according to a presentation during the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for ...