Patients with stage I to III colorectal cancer who have a high risk for recurrence may be identified by serial testing of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) after resection, according to a study in which ctDNA proved more reliable than carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) surveillance or standard radiologic...
Ivosidenib, an inhibitor of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), improved overall survival by almost 3 months in previously treated patients with advanced IDH1-mutated cholangiocarcinoma, compared with placebo, researchers of the global phase III ClarIDHy trial reported at the 2021 Gastrointestinal...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, members of the international Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) identified the risk of disease associated with germline protein-truncating and rare missense variants of putative susceptibility genes in a large population of breast ...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet, Lheureux et al found that the addition of the oral Wee1 inhibitor adavosertib to gemcitabine significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with platinum-resistant/refractory recurrent ovarian cancer. As related by the investigators, the...
Engineering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to overcome CD58 loss may be a way to boost responses in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who do not respond to treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel and other CAR T-cell therapies, according to an experimental study presented...
In a phase II trial (SWOG S1406) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of vemurafenib to irinotecan and cetuximab significantly improved progression-free survival in previously treated patients with BRAF V600E–mutant metastatic...
Four years after patients with melanoma were treated with a personalized cancer vaccine, the immune response caused by the vaccine remained robust and effective in keeping cancer cells under control, according to a new study published by Hu et al in Nature Medicine. The findings demonstrate the...
Nearly 500 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have earned the lifetime distinction of AAAS Fellow. The Fellows are elected each year by their peers serving on the Council of AAAS, the organization’s member-run governing body. The title recognizes important...
The studies of ALLO-715 “off-the-shelf” CAR T-cell therapy and bb21217 impressed two experts in the field. Sagar Lonial, MD, the Anne and Bernard Gray Family Chair in Cancer, Chair and Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and Adam D. Cohen, MD, ...
Yuan Yuan, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at City of Hope, Duarte, California, commented on the IPATunity130 trial. “Targeting the PIK3CA/AKT/mTOR cancer driver pathway is the holy grail for breast cancer in general. About 30% to 40% of breast cancers carry an alteration. Activation of this pathway ...
Tenna V. Henriksen, PhD Candidate, of Aarhus University, discusses her findings on how circulating tumor DNA may help assess recurrence risk and the benefit of adjuvant therapy, and more quickly detect early relapse after treatment in patients with colorectal cancer (Abstract 11).
In a new study published by Kawasaki et al in the journal Cancer, researchers reported that certain oral pathogens are more prevalent in patients with esophageal cancer, and pointed out this information may be used as a novel diagnostic tool. The oral cavity is a rich source of microbial diversity, ...
In an analysis from the international phase III SJMB03 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gajjar et al identified lower- and higher-risk groups of pediatric patients with medulloblastoma based on molecular and clinical risk factors. Study Details SJMB03 is a phase III trial of...
Patients with stage I to III colorectal cancer and a high risk for disease recurrence may be identified by serial testing of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) after resection, according to a study in which ctDNA was more reliable than carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) surveillance or standard radiologic...
Although patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative, aromatase inhibitor–resistant metastatic breast cancer maintained quality of life for a longer time following treatment with palbociclib plus either exemestane or fulvestrant than capecitabine, those receiving chemotherapy...
Recent research has shed new light on the carcinogenic effect of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, laying the groundwork for improvements in skin cancer risk stratification and prevention. A study published by Lei Wei, PhD, and colleagues in Science Advances detailed a method to measure the...
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have jointly announced a pioneering research collaboration in smoldering myeloma, a precursor disease to multiple myeloma. Combining the strengths of the MMRF, a leader in multiple myeloma data generation, and...
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...
The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and at about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was strongly associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to a large retrospective pooled analysis reported at the 2020 San Antonio Breast...
In a study reported in Nature Communications, Bishoy M. Faltas, MD, of the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, and colleagues identified common germline-somatic variant interactions in advanced urothelial cancer, with these...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Youn et al, interim results of a Korean phase II trial indicated activity with the combination of pembrolizumab plus the therapeutic DNA vaccine GX-188E in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-16– or HPV-18–positive advanced cervical cancer. GX-188E...
In a study reported in Nature Communications, Vosoughi et al identified common germline-somatic variant interactions in advanced urothelial cancer, with these interactions appearing to play a central role in disease progression. As stated by the investigators, “The prevalence and the biologic...
Patients with muscle-invasive urothelial cancer and postsurgical circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) positivity have high risk of disease recurrence following cystectomy and experienced improved clinical outcomes with adjuvant atezolizumab as compared to patients undergoing observation. These...
Many patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may be cured by autologous stem cell transplant, but as many as half eventually relapse. New research presented by Reid Merryman, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition suggests...
A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS from Albert Einstein College of Medicine has received a 5-year, $4.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a research center to investigate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)- and human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers in Africa. The...
Systematic liquid biopsies are transforming treatment approaches for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Many GI tumors are detected late, which ultimately reduces 5-year overall survival rates. Liquid biopsies may become increasingly important both in the early detection and treatment...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors may prove to be effective in treating patients with two rare cancer types—leptomeningeal metastases and angiosarcoma, according to early-phase clinical trials reported at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), which was held virtually ...
Prostate cancer has lagged behind other solid tumors with regard to molecularly targeted therapy and precision medicine, with no targeted therapies approved specifically in prostate cancer, but that has changed with the recent approval in 2020 of a PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor for...
That Moses Judah Folkman would buck tradition, breaking his family’s long line of rabbinical succession and pursuing a career in science and medicine instead, was evident from the time he was a young child. Born in Cleveland on February 24, 1933, the first child of Rabbi Jerome and Bessie Folkman, ...
Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, Co-Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was born and reared in North Platte, a small city located in the west-central part of Nebraska. “My love of science was sparked and nurtured by my father, who was a chemistry professor for...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Jensen and colleagues found that clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) involving DNA repair genes can interfere with prostate cancer plasma cell-free DNA testing used to determine eligibility for poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Cullinane et al found that higher levels of plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were associated with poorer disease-free survival in patients with both early and advanced breast cancer, with the association being stronger with ...
A phase I/II study found that IMGN632, a novel CD123-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, was tolerable and resulted in a 29% overall response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare but aggressive form of leukemia. Treatment with the...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions for agents to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), biliary tract cancer, and graft-vs-host disease. Priority Review for Loncastuximab Tesirine...
Dual CTLA-4/PD-1 blockade with ipilimumab plus nivolumab provided durable responses in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, according to updated efficacy and safety findings from a phase II study presented by Kao et al at ESMO Asia Virtual Congress 2020 (Abstract 266O)....
The statistically significant benefit of alpelisib in reducing disease progression, as reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2 years ago, did not translate into a significant improvement in overall survival, although a numerical 8-month gain was observed in the final ...
In a comprehensive analysis of patients with cancer who had exceptional responses to therapy, researchers identified molecular changes in the patients’ tumors that may explain some of these outcomes. The results, published by Wheeler et al in Cancer Cell, demonstrated that genomic characterizations ...
The ELSA-seq assay was able to detect diverse cancer types at early stages with high specificity and was able to provide information regarding the tissue of origin, according to findings presented by Gao et al at the ESMO Asia Virtual Congress 2020 (Abstract LBA3). Qiang Gao, MD, PhD, of the Liver...
Clinicians who treat multiple myeloma can anticipate a host of new treatments: melflufen, cereblon E3 ligase modulators (CELMoDs), antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, FASCO, Director of the Jerome Lipper...
On October 23, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the next-generation sequencing–based FoundationOne CDx test as a companion diagnostic to identify fusions in the neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase (NTRK) genes NTRK1, NTRK2, and NTRK3 in DNA isolated from tumor tissue...
A “blood-first” approach could soon shift the diagnostic paradigm in advanced lung cancer, replacing tissue biopsy with minimally invasive assays. According to Natasha B. Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO, there is rapidly mounting evidence that liquid biopsy serves a prognostic function in advanced...
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 invited discussant of PRODIGE 13 was Tim Price, MBBS, DHthSc, Professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia, senior consultant medical oncologist, and Director of Medical Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. As he reminded listeners, the current ASCO...
On November 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved FoundationOne Liquid CDx to be used as a companion diagnostic for olaparib. As a companion diagnostic, FoundationOne Liquid CDx will use a blood-based biopsy to identify patients with BRCA1, BRCA2, and/or ATM alterations and...
“Triple-negative breast cancer has multiple different subtypes, and there are targeted therapies that can be used based on the biomarkers that we identify for each patient,” Kari B. Wisinski, MD, noted in a review of recently approved and emerging therapies at the 2020 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer...
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, discusses lung cancer screening for aggressive early-stage lung cancer; adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment, including the ADAURA study of EGFR-positive tumors; and how cell-free DNA analysis might be used in the future to...
The invited discussant of the phase III INOVATYON trial was Andreas du Bois, MD, PhD, Chairman of the Department of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology at Kliniken Essen Mitte, Germany, and Chairman of the AGO Study Group. As Dr. du Bois explained, the study “dealt with an old question: Does...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to a PD-1 inhibitor for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and also granted Priority Review to a HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate for patients with...
Researchers have found two common genetic variants that may be used to predict whether patients with cancer may have severe adverse events when treated with the anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody bevacizumab. A genome-wide association study—according to researchers, the largest such study in patients...
A study by Liu et al published in Molecular Cancer Research investigated why Black men appear to be more likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer than White men. Researchers found that prostate tumors in Black men had higher frequencies of distinct genetic alterations, which may contribute to...