Mark J. Ratain, MD, of the University of Chicago, and Daniel Goldstein, MD, of the Rabin Medical Center, discuss the challenges of achieving cancer care value, evolution of the “more-is-better” philosophy when it comes to oncology drugs, and highlights of the First International Summit on...
For people with cancer who have a mental health disorder, getting mental health treatment may help them live longer, a new study published by Berchuck et al in JAMA Oncology suggests. In the retrospective study, of more than 50,000 veterans treated for lung cancer within the Veterans Affairs (VA)...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has proved to be a valuable treatment option for patients with lymphoma in whom other therapies have failed. In clinical trials, the cellular immunotherapy was shown to provide durable remissions for nearly 40% of patients with large B-cell lymphoma....
Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers her perspective on near-equivalence, Bayesian noninferiority, and the value of cancer drug optimization.
Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers her perspective on near-equivalence, Bayesian noninferiority, and the value of cancer drug optimization.
Two new studies led by Renuka Iyer, MD, Section Chief for Gastrointestinal Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and published in Oncotarget and Cancer, respectively, highlight possible new treatment options for patients with neuroendocrine tumors. SurVaxM The first report,...
Lung cancer in nonsmokers is a diverse and distinct disease from lung cancer in smokers and is likely to respond differently to targeted treatments, according to results from a new study published by Chen et al in the journal Cell. Scientists studied a patient population in Taiwan with high rates...
According to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, an investigational vaccine designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—mRNA-1273—was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults. These interim results were...
“The IKEMA trial is based on the interest of adding a CD38 naked antibody to a carfilzomib-plus-dexamethasone skeleton, a protocol nearly identical to the recently presented CANDOR trial,” said Craig Hofmeister MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute...
Mark J. Ratain, MD, of the University of Chicago, talks about why ibrutinib—which can lead to cardiotoxicities—should be studied at a lower dose for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Data suggest a reduced dose may prevent dose interruption due to adverse events and may have a better...
In a preplanned secondary analysis of the BRE12-158 trial published in JAMA Oncology, Milan Radovich, PhD, and colleagues found that the presence of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the plasma of women who have received neoadjuvant treatment for stage I, II, or...
Medications commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure may also reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, according to new research published by Cheung et al in the journal Hypertension. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) are often prescribed...
R. Donald Harvey, PharmD, BCOP, FCCP, FHOPA, of Emory University, discusses the ways in which clinical pharmacology can help yield cost savings without sacrificing efficacy by, for example, altering regimens to extend drug supplies, lowering doses, dosing less frequently, or shortening the duration ...
Blase N. Polite, MD, MPP, of the University of Chicago Medical Center, discusses his belief that, in the next few years, we can bend the cancer drug cost curve and tame health-care costs if physicians, pharmaceutical companies, payers, and government come together and agree on the value of...
New research published by Douglas et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network examined coverage trends for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing, also known as liquid biopsy. In the first-ever study to analyze insurance coverage for ctDNA-based panel tests, researchers found ...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has updated its guideline for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, adapting a 2019 update from the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACS first issued a guideline for routine use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, with an update issued in...
I have had to come to terms with my own mortality three times in my life and I’m only 46. When I was 17, I was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and experienced renal failure 2 years later. I underwent my first kidney transplant at 21, just before starting medical school. Finally, I thought my ...
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that women with early-stage cervical cancer treated with minimally invasive radical hysterectomy had a 71% increased risk of disease recurrence and a 56% increased risk of death compared with those treated with open radical hysterectomy.1 “These...
Women with early-stage cervical cancer treated with minimally invasive radical hysterectomy had a 71% increased risk of recurrence and a 56% increased risk of death compared with those treated with open radical hysterectomy, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 studies involving ...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has honored Patricia S. Steeg, PhD, with its 2020 Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship. Dr. Steeg, Co-Director of the Office of Translational Resources and Associate Director of the Center for Cancer Research at the...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is honoring Christopher I. Amos, PhD, with the 2020 AACR–American Cancer Society (ACS) Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention. Dr. Amos, the Selzman Endowed Professor, Director of the Institute for Clinical and...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is honoring Benjamin F. Cravatt, PhD, with the 2020 AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research. Dr. Cravatt, Professor at the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology for the...
The Fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy have chosen Charles L. Sawyers, MD, FAACR, as President-Elect for 2020–2021. Dr. Sawyers will assume the presidency during the 2021 AACR Annual Meeting. Dr. Sawyers holds the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair in Human...
Neil Spector, MD, a physician-scientist, translational research leader, and oncology mentor died on June 14, 2020. He was 63. Dr. Spector was the Sandra Coates Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and a member of the Duke Cancer ...
Beth Levine, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Microbiology, Director of the Center for Autophagy Research, and Charles Cameron Sprague Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern), and an investigator at the Howard Hughes ...
Oscar Colegio, MD, PhD, the Lawrence P. & Joan Castellani Family Endowed Chair in Dermatology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, died unexpectedly on June 13, 2020, at a family residence in Connecticut. He was 47. Dr. Colegio had relocated to Buffalo when he was...
A recently opened center at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC–James) gives patients direct, expedited access to diagnostic testing for cancer. The goal, said Chief Medical Officer David Cohn, MD,...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology, as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
During its recent Virtual Annual Meeting II, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presented its 2020 Team Science Awards to the founding members and the current project team associated with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). TCGA began in 2006 as a joint effort between the National...
Elected by a body of fellow immunotherapy researchers from across the globe, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Deputy Director Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, has been named At-Large Director of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Board of Directors. Dr. Odunsi will begin his ...
Bjørn Henning Gronberg, MD, PhD, presented a paper at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program reporting astounding positive results favoring higher-dose, twice-daily radiation therapy in limited-stage small cell lung cancer.1 This was a phase II study (large for phase II but small for phase III)...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Yen Nien Hou, PharmD, DiplOM, LAc, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, focus on...
An international panel of experts led by researchers and thought leaders at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health (SKCC) and the Department of Urology at Jefferson have published the first multidisciplinary, consensus-driven, prostate cancer genetic implementation framework for the...
In 2007, sorafenib became the first approved systemic therapy for hepatocellular cancers and the first agent to improve overall survival in these patients.1 In a similar multikinase inhibitor strategy, lenvatinib was found to be noninferior to sorafenib in overall survival in the same patient...
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took an additional step in harnessing real-world data to help inform the agency’s overall response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The FDA announced its participation in the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator, a...
Palliative care’s road to acceptance as standard-of-care practice has been a remarkably unsmooth one, given its core mission: improving the quality of life of patients and their families by relieving the pain, symptoms, and stress of a serious or life-limiting illness. A person’s relationship with...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is honoring three clinical cancer researchers for their outstanding achievements. Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, FASCO, will receive the 2020 AACR–Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research. Lisa A. Newman, MD,...
Fox Chase Cancer Center announced that Jessica Karen Wong, MD, MEng, recently joined the Department of Radiation Oncology as Assistant Professor in the academic clinician track. Dr. Wong completed her radiation oncology residency program at Fox Chase, where she served as Chief Resident in 2019 and...
Study discussant Daniel Y. Heng, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist at Tom Baker Cancer Centre, University of Calgary, Canada, called the negative trial results important. IMvigor010 randomly assigned patients with high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma to adjuvant atezolizumab or observation...
Adjuvant atezolizumab, a PD-L1–blocking antibody, failed to meet the primary endpoint of disease-free survival in patients at high risk of recurrence of muscle-invasive bladder cancer compared with observation alone, according to the primary analysis of the IMvigor010 trial reported during the...
Clinicians interested in breast cancer who logged into the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program were greeted with an abundance of high-impact presentations. The ASCO Post has reported on several studies in depth elsewhere, but here we offer our readers a roundup of several important studies in early...
The ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program was the forum for an unusual but profoundly important event in oncology. Four studies that should be practice-changing were presented.1-4 These studies provided irrefutable evidence that we can improve the quality of life of older patients by reducing toxicity. ...
Philip McCarthy, MD, Professor of Oncology and Internal Medicine and Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Center at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, found the results of the DREAMM-6 study to be “exciting and promising.” He commented: “The overall response...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced its newest class of grant recipients. Fellowships The 2019 Anna D. Barker Fellowship in Basic Cancer Research was awarded to Chaoyun Pan, PhD, of Emory University, Atlanta, and Conghui Yao, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, Cambridge....
The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) recently announced that Trudy Oliver, PhD, has joined its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Oliver is Associate Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), where she has served since 2011, and is an HCI...
Data from the phase II PrE0505 multicenter trial showed that adding durvalumab, an immune checkpoint antibody targeting programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), to the combination of cisplatin and pemetrexed chemotherapy improved outcomes in previously untreated patients with unresectable malignant...
At the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, Nathalie LeVasseur, MD, BSc, FRCPC, received the Annual Meeting Merit Award for a project titled, “Whole-Genome Sequencing in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Lessons Learned From the BC Cancer Personalized Oncogenomics Program.” Along with her clinical work, Dr....
Although the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with cancer is still being evaluated, data from several studies show that in comparison with people who do not have cancer, those who do generally experience a higher risk of severe events including admittance to the intensive care unit, ...
Pain is among the most difficult medical issues for oncologists to confront, said Tony L. Yaksh, PhD, Professor of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, during his keynote address at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium. Failure to adequately manage...
With the rapid expansion of scientific advances, the intersection of ethics and the delivery of cancer care becomes ever more complicated. To shed light on some of the challenging ethical issues faced by today’s busy oncology practitioners, The ASCO Post spoke with Rebecca D. Pentz, PhD, Professor ...