Invited discussant Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, called MINDACT “a heroic effort” whose results show that combining stage, pathology, and...
Formal discussant of the ado-trastuzumab emtansine plus pertuzumab trial, Mark Pegram, MD, Director of the Breast Cancer Program at Stanford Women’s Cancer Center and Co-Director of Stanford’s Molecular Therapeutics Program, Stanford, California, said that I-SPY 2 has several strengths. They...
The combination of ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) plus pertuzumab (Perjeta) is a worthy combination to pursue in phase III studies as neoadjuvant therapy for HER2-positive invasive breast cancer, according to findings in the I-SPY 2 trial presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American...
Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck that progresses after platinum-based therapy has a dismal prognosis, and there is no effective standard of care. No treatment has improved survival for this patient population, but that may be about to change. Nivolumab (Opdivo), an anti–PD-1 (programmed ...
The news is good from the longest follow-up survival study of patients with advanced melanoma who were treated with the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) agent nivolumab (Opdivo).1 Thirty-four percent of patients who received the drug in a phase I trial (CA909-003) were alive 5 years...
As reported by Vasen et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, surveillance for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in high-risk individuals appears to be of benefit in individuals at risk due to CDKN2A mutation, with the advantage being less clear among individuals at risk due to familial clustering ...
Loss of appetite during illness is a common and potentially debilitating phenomenon. In cancer patients especially, it can even shorten lifespan. Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered how an immune system molecule controls a brain circuit and reduces appetite. Their...
Eli Lilly and Company announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Priority Review for the biologics license application (BLA) for olaratumab, a platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα) antagonist, in combination with doxorubicin, for the...
In a phase III trial (EORTC 20012 Intergroup Trial) reported by Carde et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, similar outcomes were achieved with eight cycles of ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) vs four cycles each of escalated BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin,...
Although the publication of results of clinical trials carried out in the United States within 12 months of their completion has been mandatory since 2007, a remarkably high number of phase III radiotherapy trials did not do so, according to new research presented at the European Society for...
In a Canadian retrospective population-based cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Thavendiranathan et al found that trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based regimens were associated with an increased risk of treatment-related cardiac dysfunction among women with breast cancer, with an...
ASCO has adapted a Clinical Care Ontario (CCO) clinical practice guideline on the selection of optimal adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer and adjuvant targeted therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer, as reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The adaptation was based on review by...
In an analysis of the phase III BOLERO trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, André et al found that the addition of everolimus (Afinitor) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and chemotherapy was associated with a progression-free survival benefit in advanced HER2-positive breast cancer ...
A 5-year study published by Hannan et al in the European Journal of Cancer showed that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat prostate cancer offers a higher cure rate than more traditional approaches, according to researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center Harold C. Simmons...
On April 25, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma in patients who have received prior antiangiogenic therapy. Cabozantinib is a dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor of MET and VEGFR2. The...
On April 25, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted breakthrough therapy designation to the anti–programmed death 1 antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck that previously received...
Results from the I-SPY 2 TRIAL show that a neoadjuvant therapy combination of the antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) was more beneficial than paclitaxel plus trastuzumab for women with HER2-positive invasive breast cancer, according to research...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and ASCO have issued a Breast Cancer Survivorship Care guideline, published jointly in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.1,2 The guideline recommendations were formulated by a multidisciplinary expert work group and are based...
For the latest information on CheckMate-141, click here, here, or here. Treatment with the immunotherapeutic nivolumab (Opdivo) improved survival for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy compared with...
Reeder-Hayes et al found that adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) may be underused in older women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer and reported their study results in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Adjuvant trastuzumab also was used less often in black women than in white women. Rates...
In a French phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Ribrag et al showed that adding rituximab (Rituxan) to dose-dense chemotherapy improved event-free survival among adults with Burkitt lymphoma. Study Details In the open-label trial, 260 patients were randomized between October 2004 and...
In a recent issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dalerba et al published an impressive article describing a novel bioinformatics approach to identifying new prognostic and predictive biomarkers in patients with stage II and III colon cancer (see summary in this issue of The ASCO Post).1...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Piero Dalerba, MD, of Columbia University, and colleagues found that absence of the transcription factor CDX2 was prognostic for poor outcome in patients with stage II and III colon cancer vs cancers with CDX2 expression.1 However,...
Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy in the management of breast cancer is woefully underutilized by U.S. clinicians, according to advocates of this approach who made their case at the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference.1 In postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–rich tumors, neoadjuvant endocrine...
In a phase II US Intergroup trial (Southwest Oncology Group S0816) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Press et al found that early interim fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG-PET) to guide response-adapted therapy resulted in progression-free survival substantially...
A new study suggests that homologous recombination deficiency may have significant prognostic implications for patients with ovarian cancer, highlighting the importance of genetic testing in this population.1 According to the data, patients with ovarian cancer who have mutations in genes affecting...
Although high-dose chemotherapy plus autologous transplantation has been a standard of care in the treatment of younger patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the advent of effective novel agents for the cancer over the past 15 years has raised the question of whether transplantation, with ...
Compelling hypotheses are emerging about the mechanisms driving triple-negative breast cancer, and they are driving drug development in this area, according to Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, Celebrating Women Chair of Breast Cancer Research at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. She is also Medical...
Among patients with early-stage breast cancer who were considered at high risk for disease recurrence based on clinical and biologic criteria, the MammaPrint genetic test identified a large group of patients for whom 5-year distant metastasis–free survival was equally good whether or not they ...
Patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer benefit most from necitumumab (Portrazza) added to gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy, according to a subgroup analysis from the SQUIRE trial presented by Paz-Ares et al (Abstract ...
Hypofractionated radiotherapy was not inferior to conventional radiotherapy in terms of disease-free survival among men with low-risk prostate cancer, according to the results of the phase III NRG Oncology RTOG 0415 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Lee et al. However, it was...
The third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso) is effective in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a late-breaking abstract presented by Ramalingam et al (Abstract...
The addition of chemotherapy with procarbazine, lomustine, and vincristine to radiotherapy significantly prolonged overall survival in patients with low-grade glioma, according to the final results of the phase III RTOG 9802 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Buckner et al. A...
In a Japanese phase III trial (WJOG 5108L) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Urata et al found that noninferiority of gefitinib vs erlotinib was not established in previously treated patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer. Study Details In the open-label trial, 559...
The survival benefits of reducing the time to surgery following a diagnosis of breast cancer, and time to initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery were outlined in two articles and an accompanying editorial in JAMA Oncology. Analyzing two independent population-based studies with a...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Solomon et al found that crizotinib (Xalkori) was associated with a significantly better disease control rate vs chemotherapy among patients with brain metastases in ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Crizotinib was also...
In the phase III EORTC 22991 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bolla et al found that the addition of 6 months of androgen suppression to radiotherapy improved biochemical and clinical disease-free survival in patients with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer. Study...
The oncology research team at HonorHealth Research Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona, is spearheading a phase Ib/II trial that is demonstrating promising results with a novel regimen in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. “The patients we are treating have advanced adenocarcinoma of the...
In a phase III trial (RADIANT-4) reported in The Lancet, James C. Yao, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues found that everolimus (Afinitor) and supportive care significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo and supportive care in patients with...
African American patients with esophageal cancer survive fewer months after diagnosis than white patients, but only if they also have low incomes, according to a study presented by Loretta Erhunmwunsee, MD, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Dr. Erhunmwunsee led the study...
Here is the final installment of selected abstracts from the proceedings of the 2015 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, focusing on Hodgkin lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. For other selected abstracts...
Pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer was associated with a significantly better outcome vs non–pathologic complete response, in a patient-level meta-analysis reported by Broglio et al in JAMA Oncology. Response vs No Response The study included...
Addition of the antifolate receptor-α antibody farletuzumab to carboplatin/taxane did not improve progression-free survival in patients with ovarian cancer in first platinum-sensitive relapse, reported Vergote et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. However, benefit was observed in...
In more than 25 years of viewing posters at oncology meetings, I’ve met researchers from virtually all professional walks of life, but it was not until the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, that the author’s affiliation turned my head: It was a business school. “Utilizing Metastatic Tumor...
Vaccines for both secondary and primary prevention of breast cancer are showing potential in clinical trials, according to Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, who is leading much of the vaccine research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Vaccine platforms being explored...
In women with uterine leiomyosarcoma, trabectedin (Yondelis), a novel cytotoxic agent, significantly improved progression-free survival, compared with dacarbazine (4.2 vs 1.5 months, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55, P < .001). According to the study’s authors, a lack of cumulative toxicity allows...
The randomized phase II POPLAR trial—reported by Fehrenbacher and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—is another key piece of information for the medical community regarding the value of immune checkpoint blockers in second/third-line treatment of patients with non–small cell...
Adding the anti–vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) antibody ramucirumab to docetaxel improved progression-free survival among previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, reported Petrylak et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. ...
Use of comprehensive geriatric assessment to guide therapy in elderly patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not improve treatment failure–free or overall survival but was associated with slightly reduced toxicity, based on the results of the phase III...
Treatment with low-dose metformin reduced the risk of metachronous colorectal adenomas and polyps over 12 months in nondiabetic patients who had undergone endoscopic polypectomy, according to a report by Higurashi et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study Details In the double-blind phase III trial,...