As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Arlene O. Siefker-Radtke, MD, and colleagues, the final analysis of the phase II BLC2001 trial has shown maintained activity of the pan-fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor erdafitinib in patients with locally advanced unresectable ...
In a long-term longitudinal analysis of the phase II ORATOR trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Anthony Nichols, MD, and colleagues found that a statistically significant improvement in swallowing quality of life persisted through 3 years after treatment with radiotherapy vs...
The phase III PANTHER trial, which evaluated pevonedistat plus azacitidine vs azacitidine alone in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and low–blast count acute myeloid leukemia (AML), failed to meet its primary endpoint of event-free survival, though lessons...
In the phase III ECOG-ACRIN E2108 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Seema A. Khan, MD, MPH, and colleagues found no difference in overall survival with early locoregional therapy vs continued systemic therapy among women with newly diagnosed stage IV breast cancer and an intact...
Invited discussant Anne Blaes, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, commented on Dr. Braybrooke’s study. “In 18,000 patients in randomized trials initiated before 2012, there was a 15% improvement in recurrence with the use of anthracyclines plus taxanes...
In a large patient-level meta-analysis of 16 trials, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS),1 the combination of an anthracycline plus a taxane achieved a substantial 15% reduction in breast cancer recurrence at 10 years vs taxane chemotherapy alone, representing an...
Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with lutetium-177 (Lu-177) dotatate is a treatment for well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved in 2018, but clinicians have lacked a metric for predicting its benefit on an individual patient basis....
Independent drug action—not synergy nor additivity—accounted for the clinical efficacy of nearly all examined combination therapies involving immune checkpoint inhibitors in clinical trials, according to results from a retrospective analysis published by Palmer et al in Clinical Cancer Research....
In a study reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Cao et al found that fulfillment of more components of a healthy lifestyle was associated with a reduced risk of developing cancer in a baseline cancer-free cohort, and a reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in both the...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cheng et al found that the addition of patient-reported diet and lifestyle factors to prediction models based on clinical and pathologic characteristics improved predictions of disease recurrence and mortality among patients with stage III...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Pilonis et al found that nonendoscopic cell collection device (marked as the Cytosponge)–detected atypia and p53 overexpression could be used in combination with clinical risk factors to triage patients with Barrett’s esophagus for endoscopic...
Results from the randomized international phase III HIMALAYA trial showed that a combination of the anti–PD-L1 immunotherapy durvalumab plus the anti–CTLA-4 immunotherapy tremelimumab reduced the risk of death by 22% in patients with stage III or IV unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma compared to ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fahrmann et al found that a four-component blood-based biomarker panel showed predictive ability for the development of lung cancer. Prediction was improved when the panel was used in conjunction with the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and...
Direct oral anticoagulants should be considered the standard of care to treat adult patients with cancer-associated thrombosis, according to a new, ongoing study by Mayo Clinic researchers published by Riaz et al in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The report examined the results of four randomized...
In a phase II trial (Children’s Oncology Group AALL1621) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, O’Brien et al found that inotuzumab ozogamicin produced a high response rate in children and adolescents with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Study Details In the ...
In an Asian phase II/III trial (ATTRACTION-4) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of nivolumab to oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy improved progression-free survival—but not overall survival—as first-line treatment of HER2-negative, unresectable, ...
Despite growing national awareness of health-care inequities, cancer care for many rural Americans remains inadequate. To shed some light on the challenges faced by patients with cancer in rural areas, The ASCO Post spoke with Mary Charlton, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the...
Yevgeniy R. Semenov, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, discusses new findings suggesting cutaneous adverse events such as vitiligo, lichenoid dermatitis, and psoriasis—which often occur in patients with cancer who receive immune checkpoint inhibitors—may be strongly...
Biliary tract cancer is a rare and often fatal disease comprised primarily of bile duct and gallbladder cancers; it is diagnosed in about 12,000 individuals each year in the United States. The cancer has a 5-year relative survival rate of 25% for localized intrahepatic bile duct cancers and just...
Steven J. Isakoff, MD, PhD, Director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, found the TAMARISK study “interesting.” “Looking at genomic profiles of uterine cancer in both tamoxifen-associated uterine cancer, the researchers found a lower frequency of PIK3...
Even though it is infrequent, uterine cancer can develop in patients treated with tamoxifen. A study presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) suggests that the mechanism by which uterine cancers develop is tamoxifen-induced PI3K pathway activation.1 Patients treated with...
Rates of cervical cancer screening have dropped recently in the United States, with screening rates lowest among Asian and Hispanic women, as well as women who live in rural areas, are uninsured, or are sexual minorities, according to findings published by Ryan Suk, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA...
On February 4, 2022, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) will launch a new 3-year campaign for World Cancer Day that brings together individuals, organizations, and governments around the world in an effort to create awareness and help close the gap in cancer care. The campaign...
In a phase III trial (MPD-RC 112) reported in the journal Blood, John Mascarenhas, MD, and colleagues found no difference in 12-month complete response rates between treatment with pegylated interferon-alfa vs hydroxyurea in previously untreated patients with high-risk polycythemia vera or...
In a study reported in JAMA, Hahn et al found that a depression screening and intervention program resulted in a higher rate of referral to behavioral health services vs education alone among patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer at community oncology centers located in Southern California....
Tycel Phillips, MD, of the Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, discusses phase II findings from the CITADEL-204 study of parsaclisib, a next-generation inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. The agent, used as a monotherapy, appeared to benefit patients with relapsed or refractory...
Although radiation can be an effective therapy for prostate cancer, about one in six men will experience more frequent or painful urination as a lingering side effect. These disruptive genitourinary toxicities can occur whether the patient receives conventionally fractionated radiotherapy or...
In a recent phase II clinical trial, the combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab and the CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab curtailed tumor growth in some patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was resistant to a single immunotherapy agent. The addition of radiation therapy to the...
A study published by Deng et al in JAMA Network Open showed that chemotherapy after surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma was significantly associated with longer survival in patients with chemosensitive disease, but not in those with very sensitive or refractory disease. These findings suggest that...
In an analysis from the phase III CheckMate 9ER trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, David Cella, PhD, FASCO, and colleagues found that nivolumab/cabozantinib was associated with maintained or improved patient-reported outcomes vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Heikki Joensuu, MD, and colleagues, 15-year overall survival results from the Finland Capecitabine Trial (FinXX) showed that the addition of capecitabine to taxane/anthracycline adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved overall survival...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Franco et al found that RET and NTRK fusions were common somatic genetic alterations in pediatric patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and were associated with an increased risk of metastasis and poorer treatment outcome. Study ...
On this episode, we’ll hear about a combination therapy that improved progression-free survival (PFS) in previously untreated patients with melanoma. Then, we’ll hear about a report that looked into the effects of prior radiotherapy on the development of adverse events in patients treated with...
Commenting on the update of RxPONDER presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium were Anne Blaes, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Minnesota and Co-Director of the Screening, Prevention, Etiology and Cancer Survivorship Program at the Masonic...
Updated results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial confirmed the key takeaway from the previous analysis: adjuvant chemotherapy benefits premenopausal women but not postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative disease, one to three positive lymph nodes, and a 21-gene Oncotype DX ...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami, called the results of the AGILE study “very promising.” He moderated a press briefing that featured the abstract at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. “Patients with the...
A retrospective, registry-based multicenter study by Bazarbachi et al published in Clinical Cancer Research evaluated clinical outcomes in patients with relapsed Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation over a...
In patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with an IDH1 mutation who were ineligible for intensive chemotherapy, the addition of the IDH1 inhibitor ivosidenib to azacitidine significantly improved survival vs azacitidine alone, according to data presented at the 2021 American...
In a study published by Charnita Zeigler-Johnson, PhD, MPH, and colleagues in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, gathering men at high risk for developing prostate cancer for discussion about prostate cancer or other health concerns increased their knowledge about prostate cancer...
Two recent studies correct a long-standing misconception about the origins of Barrett’s esophagus and, in doing so, may point to new avenues of treatment or prevention to lower the risk of esophageal cancer. The first study, published by Singh et al in the journal Gastroenterology, demonstrated...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, McClelland et al found that among academic radiation oncologists at National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCCs), less than 5% were from underrepresented minority groups, senior faculty included more men than women, and women ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, researchers in the Prophylactic Antibiotic Regimens in Tumor Surgery Investigators group found that 5 days vs 1 day of postoperative intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis did not reduce the incidence of surgical site infection and was associated with more...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Powell et al, the phase III NRG Oncology GOG-0261 trial has shown that paclitaxel/carboplatin is noninferior to paclitaxel/ifosfamide in terms of overall survival among chemotherapy-naive patients with uterine carcinosarcoma. Study Details The...
Mehmet Altan, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings from a phase Ib dose-escalation study, which showed early evidence of activity for NKTR-255, an investigational IL-15 receptor agonist, plus cetuximab in patients with solid tumors. Treatment appeared to lead ...
Lynda Chin, MD, of the University of Texas, Austin Dell Medical School and Apricity Health, discusses precision medicine, barriers to its progress, and the challenges that must be met to facilitate better outcomes for patients. Building evidence and trust is key, Dr. Chin explains, as is developing ...
A molecular feature in prostate cancer called endogenous retroviral (ERV) RNA has been found to have prognostic value and also distinguish differences between prostate tumors in men of African and European or Middle Eastern ancestry, according to a study published by Kumar et al in the journal...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, researchers in the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Cancer Collaboration found a global increase in new cases of cancer, cancer deaths, and cancer-related disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) between 2010 and 2019, with aspects of cancer burden differing...
Proteasome inhibitors, the therapeutic backbone of current treatments for multiple myeloma, are effective in treating newly diagnosed disease, but resistance or intolerance to these molecules often develops, leading to relapse. While studying a neglected tropical disease, Buruli ulcer, researchers...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have become the standard of care for many patients with advanced cancers; however, these medications cause cutaneous adverse events in 20% to 40% of all patients who receive them. A study by Tang et al published in JAMA Dermatology indicated that these side effects may...
Meredith M. Regan, ScD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses findings that point to the potential benefits of using adjuvant exemestane plus ovarian function suppression (OFS) to treat premenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive early breast cancer. This conclusion came after 13 years...