A Canadian-led randomized phase III trial found that adding temozolomide chemotherapy during short-course radiation therapy, followed by monthly maintenance doses of temozolomide, significantly improved survival of elderly patients with glioblastoma, reducing the risk of death by 33%. These data...
For updated findings on aromatase inhibitor therapy from the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, please click here, here, or here. A randomized phase III clinical trial, MA.17R, found that postmenopausal women with early breast cancer benefit from extending aromatase inhibitor therapy with...
Michele Cavo, MD, of the Seràgnoli Institute of Hematology, Bologna University School of Medicine, discusses in Italian results from this phase III study of upfront autologous stem cell transplantation vs novel agent-based therapy for multiple myeloma (Abstract 8000). To see the English language ...
Michele Cavo, MD, of the Seràgnoli Institute of Hematology, Bologna University School of Medicine, discusses results from this phase III study of upfront autologous stem cell transplantation vs novel agent-based therapy for multiple myeloma (Abstract 8000). To see the Italian version of this...
Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses findings of this phase III study of sorafenib plus doxorubicin versus sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (Abstract 4003).
Surgery to remove the primary tumor in women diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer followed by standard combination therapies improved survival over standard therapy alone, an international clinical trial revealed. The results of the phase III randomized, controlled trial were presented today...
A study presented by Antonia et al at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 100) showed that utilizing the immunotherapeutic agents nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) could lead to more effective treatment options for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who have progressed after...
Martin J. Van Den Bent, MD, PhD, of the Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, discusses the interim analysis of the EORTC phase III study on concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide in anaplastic glioma without 1p/19q co-deletion (Abstract LBA2000).
John P. Neoptolemos, MD, PhD, of the University of Liverpool, discusses findings from this international phase III study of adjuvant combination chemotherapy: gemcitabine and capecitabine vs monotherapy gemcitabine in patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (Abstract LBA4006).
Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discusses phase III study results on a new possible alternative to trastuzumab for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer: the biosimilar known as Myl-1401O (Abstract LBA503).
For a more in-depth look at these data, please click here. Patients with anaplastic glioma without 1p/19q codeletion benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, according to early results from a European phase III trial. The estimated 5-year survival rates were 56% with radiation therapy and...
For a more in-depth look at these data, as well as commentary, click here. A European phase III trial, one of the largest ever conducted in pancreatic cancer, showed that adding the oral drug capecitabine chemotherapy to gemcitabine prolongs survival without increased toxicity. Adjuvant...
A biosimilar trastuzumab antibody (MYL-1401O) is comparable in efficacy and safety to trastuzumab (Herceptin) in women with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer, according to a randomized phase III study. The response rates were comparable among women who received trastuzumab and among...
A phase I study by Cloughesy et al published in Science Translational Medicine investigating the effectiveness of vocimagene amiretrorepvec (Toca 511), an experimental nonlytic, retroviral replicating vector that delivers cytosine deaminase to cancer cells, and an investigational...
Nearly 20% of women with ovarian cancer do not undergo surgery, despite it being a standard part of treatment recommendations, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings, which suggest that women may live four times longer with...
In a French retrospective study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Tougeron et al found that the addition of adjuvant oxaliplatin to fluoropyrimidine treatment improved disease-free survival in patients with stage III deficient mismatch repair colon cancer. Study Details...
The International Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia–International Prognostic Index (CLL-IPI) working group has developed an IPI for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia based on a meta-analysis of individual patient data, as reported in The Lancet Oncology. Study Details The meta-analysis...
An analysis of the phase III adjuvant ALTTO trial showed that early rash was associated with better clinical outcome with lapatinib (Tykerb) treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, as reported by Sonnenblick et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It had been previously found that...
A new study shows the rate of colorectal cancer continues to increase in individuals under 50 years old, despite the fact that the overall rate of the disease has been declining in recent years. Following examination of more than 1 million colorectal cancer patient records over 10 years,...
David A. Karnofsky, MD, dedicated himself to the pursuit of scientific excellence and the investigation of more effective therapies for cancer for nearly 30 years, from the time he was a resident at the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research of Harvard University, until his...
Sarcoma therapy is a challenge for oncologists. Soft-tissue sarcomas encompass more than 50 different histologies, resulting in limited familiarity of management for many treating physicians. In addition, there have been few available effective therapies. The phase III trial of eribulin (Halavan) ...
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet, Patrick Schöffski, MD, of University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven Cancer Institute, Belgium, and colleagues found that eribulin (Halaven) improved overall survival vs dacarbazine in patients with advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma who had received...
The recent study by Rosenberg et al in The Lancet—summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post—is a very important paper in the field of bladder cancer therapy.1 It is the first phase II trial in metastatic transitional cell carcinoma that demonstrates the single-agent activity of the...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet, Jonathan E. Rosenberg, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues found that the anti–PD-L1 (programmed cell death ligand 1) antibody atezolizumab produced durable responses in a marked proportion of patients with previously treated...
Al B. Benson III, MD, Associate Director for Cooperative Groups at the Lurie Cancer Center, has been elected President of the National Patient Advocate Foundation’s (NPAF) Executive Board. An oncologist and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Feinberg School of...
In the phase III ECOG-ACRIN E2805 trial reported in The Lancet by Naomi B. Haas, MD, of Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, no benefit of adjuvant vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibitor treatment with sunitinib or sorafenib (Nexavar) was...
I like economies of scale, and thus it makes perfect sense that ASCO has set a formal process to allow potential endorsement of selected guidelines from other organizations, rather than redoing the whole process. Recently, we have seen the publication of a formal endorsement of the European...
In the phase III GERCOR LAP07 trial reported by Pascal Hammel, MD, of Beaujon Hospital, Clichy, France, and colleagues in JAMA, there was no survival benefit of chemoradiotherapy vs continued chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer controlled after 4 months of gemcitabine...
In the phase III ExteNET trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Arlene Chan, MD, of the Breast Cancer Research Centre-Western Australia, Perth, and colleagues found that 1 year of treatment with the HER1, HER2, and HER4 tyrosine kinase inhibitor neratinib improved invasive disease–free survival...
Overweight colorectal cancer patients were 55% less likely to die from their cancer than normal-weight patients who have the disease, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published by Kroenke et al in JAMA Oncology. Of cancers affecting both men and women, colorectal cancer is the...
Three and a half years ago, Oliver Bogler, PhD, a cancer biologist and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, saw his personal and professional worlds collide. He received a cancer diagnosis—one that mirrored his wife’s. “Some might say that ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) met April 12 to consider a New Drug Application by Clovis Oncology for rociletinib, an investigational therapy for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients...
Earlier this month, AstraZeneca announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for the investigational MEK1/2 inhibitor selumetinib for adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III or IV differentiated thyroid cancer. Selumetinib inhibits the MEK...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced its 11 newly elected Fellows of the AACR Academy. The AACR Academy serves to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose major scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. All...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On April 25, 2016, a tablet formulation of cabozantinib...
Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Barrie R. Cassileth, MS, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Regular physical activity has long been associated with decreased risk of disease, including many types of cancer. Such benefits may translate into increased life expectancy...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® (NCCN Guidelines®), covering eight tumor types. The NCCN Guidelines® are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. Some of the key updates for 2016 were...
In this installment of Hematology Expert Review, I will summarize five studies from the recent literature addressing important questions about leukemias and their treatment, anticoagulant therapy with the new agent defibrotide (Defitelio), and the use of antilymphocyte globulin to prevent chronic...
On May 17, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD‑1) inhibitor, nivolumab (Opdivo), for the treatment of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma that has relapsed or progressed after autologous hematopoietic stem...
More than 100 years after William B. Coley, MD, used bacterial toxins to goad the immune system into recognizing cancer cells as foreign to the body and mount an immune response to go after and kill them, the recognition of immunotherapy as a powerful anticancer therapy is finally being...
“When we treat our patients, overall survival is the gold standard. We are all waiting for phase III overall survival data from CheckMate 067,” said formal discussant Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, Professor; Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy Platform; and Co-Director of the Parker Institute for ...
With the recent explosion in immunotherapies for advanced melanoma and other tumors, all eyes are on how best to sequence or combine these therapies. Initial reports of overall survival from the phase II randomized CheckMate 069 trial suggest that the combination of ipilimumab (Yervoy, an...
In a meta-analysis of neoadjuvant studies totaling over 18,000 patients, achievement of pathologic complete response was associated with significantly reduced disease recurrence and mortality across the various breast cancer subtypes. Laura Spring, MD, a senior medical oncology fellow at...
Is cancer really “curable,” and if so, how? For a “Cancer Dialogue” held during the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, half a dozen stellar participants from the research, industry, regulatory, and advocacy communities convened to debate the topic. The ASCO Post was ...
Upfront autologous stem cell transplant remains the standard of care in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, even in the era of novel agents, according to a phase III study of the European Myeloma Network.1 “Our findings show that autologous stem cell transplant should remain the...
The Middle East is a vast region comprised largely of developing nations with complicated sociopolitical challenges, violent internecine disputes, and deeply fragmented health-care systems. Not surprisingly, the region’s suboptimal health care contributes to the late diagnosis and poor survival...
As reported by Ekholm et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 25-year follow-up of a Swedish phase III trial suggests a survival benefit with 2 years of adjuvant tamoxifen vs no systemic treatment in premenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive stage II primary breast cancer. Study ...
In metastatic colorectal cancer, the anatomic location of the tumor within the colon appears to make a difference in overall survival as well as response to pivotal treatments, according to a retrospective analysis of the pivotal CALGB/SWOG 80405 (Alliance) trial.1 “While previous studies had...
In the phase III GETUG-AFU 16 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Carrie et al found that adding short-term androgen suppression therapy to salvage radiotherapy was associated with improved biochemical or clinical progression-free survival among patients with prostate cancer who exhibited rising ...
Among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer harboring normal forms of the KRAS gene, only those who had two copies of a specific version of the FCGR2A gene (FCGR2A H/H) had a statistically significant increase in median overall survival when cetuximab (Erbitux) treatment was added to best...