On December 3, 2019, atezolizumab in combination with nab-paclitaxel and carboplatin was approved for first-line treatment of metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumore aberrations.1,2 The approval was based on findings in the open-label phase III...
Numerous wellness strategies are accessible to busy physicians and oncologists, which can be incorporated into their daily routine. Here we discuss such aspects as stress reduction, mindfulness, eating well, sleeping well, and spirituality for the wellness of oncologists. Those who regularly adhere ...
Forbes magazine released the ninth annual “30 Under 30” list Class of 2020 in December 2019, featuring the newest group of 600 young entrepreneurs, scientists, and innovative individuals who were recognized for their extraordinary accomplishments at early ages. A total of 30 honorees were selected...
For patients with progressing HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer previously treated with trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), no single regimen is an established standard of care. More than 50% of these patients will develop brain metastasis, and thus far, treatments...
Cancer was a disease I feared until 3 years ago, when I was diagnosed with gastric cancer. After receiving the diagnosis, I knew I didn’t have any time to indulge in fear; I had to take action if I was going to survive. In hindsight, symptoms of the cancer, including some fatigue and indigestion,...
Obesity is a leading cause of cancer, and researchers are working to learn more about the biology behind the body’s metabolism and the promotion of cancer growth. “While we know that physical activity and a balanced diet are generally healthy, we don’t yet have the data to make personalized...
The day after Christmas, I walked into the exercise studio and spent the next hour jogging, rowing, and doing exactly what that morning’s coach instructed the 20 or so participants of the class to do next. The hour passed quickly, and I had little or no time to think about anything other than the...
ASCO has elected Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, to serve as its President for the term beginning in June 2021. Dr. Vokes will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2020. Six members were also elected to open positions on...
Value-based care in oncology—a concept that emphasizes quality over quantity—has evolved over the past 2 decades to become a guiding principle of both public and private payers. The concept was part of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) of 2008; informed elements of...
Two grants for research that could transform cancer therapies have been funded through an innovative partnership between the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and MPM Capital through its management of the UBS Oncology Impact Fund. This unique grant program allows investigators to...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Trevor Royce, MS, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that publicly available information on pricing for radiation treatment for prostate cancer was complex and inconsistent, and that pricing varied widely among National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer...
A blood-based screening test using cell-free DNA to identify methylation signals of hard-to-detect gastrointestinal (GI) cancers could potentially help detect disease at earlier stages. This research will be presented by Brian M. Wolpin, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers...
“In the 10-year analysis of the NSABP B-42 trial, the effect of extended treatment with 5 years of letrozole on disease-free survival persisted and reached statistical significance. There was no significant improvement in overall survival with letrozole, but letrozole continued to provide a...
Michael Jain, MD, PhD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, commented on both studies with the combination of brentuximab vedotin/nivolumab. “For older patients, ABVD [doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine] is not easy to tolerate, and it would be good to find an easier...
The combination of brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab is making headway as first-line therapy for older adults with Hodgkin lymphoma and as salvage therapy for adults with relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin lymphoma, according to separate studies presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting &...
Proton pump inhibitors, which are sometimes recommended to ease stomach problems during cancer treatment, may have an unintended side effect: impairment of breast cancer survivors' memory and concentration. These findings were published by Madison et al in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship....
In a paper published by Pruessmann et al in Nature Cancer, investigators presented a new, quantitative technique that leverages DNA sequencing to make more sophisticated and accurate predictions about which primary melanomas are likely to recur and spread. "As recently as 10 years ago, the outlook...
A weekly schedule of nab-paclitaxel as part of neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pathologic complete response compared with nab-paclitaxel given 2 weeks out of every 3 weeks (2/3) in patients with primary breast cancer, with a greater magnitude of benefit in patients with...
A study published by Shapiro et al in JNCI Cancer Spectrum showed that responders to the World Trade Center site after the attacks on September 11, 2001, have statistically significant elevations in cancer incidence for all cancer sites combined, and for prostate and thyroid cancer and leukemia....
The likelihood of a patient responding to immune checkpoint blockade may depend on B cells in the tumor, located within specialized immune-cell clusters known as tertiary lymphoid structures, according to three studies all recently published in Nature. The studies showed that enrichment of B cells...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to treatments for ovarian, prostate, and lung cancer; granted Orphan Drug designation to therapies for chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia and multiple myeloma; and granted Breakthrough Device designation to platforms...
A new study has shown how resistance to fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor treatment develops in patients with cholangiocarcinoma and suggests that adding another therapy at the time of disease progression might resensitize tumor cells to initial therapy. These findings were...
With the pediatric cancer survival rate exceeding 80%, “we can reasonably suspect that most of these children will survive more than 5 years from their diagnosis and then go on to puberty,” when they may have to deal with the consequences of cancer treatment, according to Rebecca Flyckt, MD,...
Researchers have discovered detailed new genetic information about the subtypes of pancreatic cancer. A better understanding of the disease groups may lead to new treatment options and improved clinical outcomes for this lethal disease, Chan-Seng-Yue et al reported in Nature Genetics. The study...
Neoadjuvant systemic therapy can shrink tumors in patients with breast cancer and, in some cases, allow patients to receive breast-conserving therapy who would otherwise require mastectomy. However, in the United States, about 55% of patients who become eligible for breast-conserving therapy after...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic regimens for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). For full details of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Tarhini et al, the phase III Intergroup E1609 trial has shown an overall survival advantage with adjuvant ipilimumab at 3 mg/kg—but not at 10 mg/kg—vs high-dose interferon alfa-2b in patients with resected high-risk cutaneous melanoma. The...
Researchers have developed a method based on artificial intelligence (AI) for the histopathologic diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer. The study, published by Ström et al in The Lancet Oncology, showed that the AI system can be trained to detect and grade prostate cancer from needle biopsy...
A new study shows that a test physicians commonly use to guide chemotherapy for patients with breast cancer after surgery may also help them decide whether radiation therapy may be of benefit. Results published by Wendy A. Woodward, MD, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology suggest patients with an...
New research indicates that there is a higher risk of early death among patients with oropharyngeal cancer not associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) vs those whose tumors are HPV-positive. The findings are published by Fullerton et al in Cancer. The incidence of oropharyngeal cancer is...
Patients with advanced melanoma who develop metastases in the leptomeninges usually have a poor prognosis—most patients only survive for 8 to 10 weeks after diagnosis. One reason for this poor prognosis is that very little is known about the molecular development of leptomeningeal melanoma...
As reported in JAMA by O’Brien et al, pooled data from four large U.S.-based prospective cohorts suggest the lack of a significant association between the use of powder in the genital area and an increased risk of ovarian cancer. The investigators noted that the analysis may have not been...
Accurate and timely diagnoses are critical components for developing treatment plans for patients with cancer and also for informing prognosis and assessment of responses. Pathologists are an essential part of the oncology team because they have specialized knowledge that helps inform diagnostic...
About 40 million adults in the United States take a statin to lower their cholesterol and reduce the risk for heart disease—but they may also be getting an added anticancer benefit, a growing body of evidence suggests. According to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific...
On January 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved avapritinib (Ayvakit) for the treatment of adults with unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) that harbors platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA) exon 18 mutation. This approval includes...
At the press conference where these data were presented, moderator Gary Schiller, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, explained that although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a major advance in cellular immunotherapy, enabling killing of cancer cells in blood and bone ...
A novel off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cell (CAR-NK) product called FT596 may prove to be an active therapy for B-cell malignancies. This agent is designed to overcome several challenges inherent in CAR T-cell therapy, including CD19-antigen escape, which leads to relapse in ...
A new study suggests step counters could play a role in predicting outcomes for people undergoing chemoradiation therapy for lung cancer. These findings were published by Ohri et al in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. “I consider step counts to be a new vital...
New research published by Nina N. Sanford, MD, and colleagues in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has found most cancer survivors reported that they are current alcohol drinkers, with a subset of those survivors self-reporting excessive drinking behaviors. “We recommend...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ambrosone et al, an analysis of the SWOG S0221 trial population suggests that use of antioxidant and nonantioxidant dietary supplements, but not multivitamins, before and during adjuvant chemotherapy may be associated with poorer treatment outcomes ...
As reported in The Lancet by Viola Poeschel, MD, and colleagues, the phase III FLYER trial has shown noninferiority of progression-free survival with four vs six cycles of cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine/prednisone (CHOP) in combination with six doses of rituximab in patients with...
Pelvic examinations and cervical cancer screenings are no longer recommended for most females under age 21 during routine health visits, but a new study has found that millions of young women are undergoing the tests, which can lead to false-positive testing, overtreatment, anxiety, and needless...
The cancer death rate declined by 29% from 1991 to 2017, including a 2.2% drop from 2016 to 2017—the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported. These findings were reported in “Cancer Statistics, 2020,” the latest edition of the American Cancer Society’s annual report on cancer...
A pooled analysis of nine prospective studies involving more than 750,000 adults has found that recommended amounts of leisure-time physical activity were linked to a lower risk for seven cancers, with several cancer types having a dose/response relationship. These findings were published by...
Testicular cancer recurrence may be prevented by giving men one cycle of chemotherapy instead of the two cycles used as standard. Lowering the overall exposure to chemotherapy also reduced side effects. These findings were published by Cullen et al in European Urology. Testicular cancer is the most ...
As reported in The Lancet by Maria-Victoria Mateos, MD, and colleagues, interim analysis of overall survival in the phase III ALCYONE trial has shown a significant benefit of the addition of daratumumab to bortezomib, melphalan, and prednisone (D-VMP) in patients with newly diagnosed multiple...
A report by Wang et al in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics described the use of acoustofluidics, a noninvasive method that analyzes saliva for the presence of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16), the pathogenic strain of the disease associated with oropharyngeal cancers. This novel technique...
Amid the epidemic levels of youth use of e-cigarettes and the popularity of certain products among children, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a policy prioritizing enforcement against certain unauthorized flavored e-cigarette products that appeal to children, including fruit...
In a phase I trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hughes et al found that asciminib, an oral BCR-ABL1 inhibitor with a mechanism of action different from available ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors, was active in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) after failure of ABL...
Colorectal cancer screening rates more than doubled among people aged 45 to 49 in the months after the release of updated American Cancer Society guidelines in 2018 recommending screening in that age group, according to a new study. According to the findings from Fedewa et al—published in...