Sara Khan, DO, of the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and HCA Healthcare, discusses her findings showing that women received only 33% of grants from the National Institutes of Health from 2012 to 2022 in nonmalignant hematologic research. Although some agencies have made...
Researchers discovered that the blood vessel–relaxing agent carvedilol may be safe and effective at reducing the risk of heart failure in childhood cancer survivors, according to a recent study published by Armenian et al in The Lancet Oncology. These findings indicate carvedilol may improve...
A novel vaccine may be effective at preventing relapse in patients with KRAS-mutated pancreatic and colorectal cancers, according to a recent study published by Pant et al in Nature Medicine. Background KRAS-mutated cancers make up about 25% of all solid tumors, including 90% of pancreatic cancer...
Investigators have discovered that individuals who view climate change as a health threat may be more likely to undergo cancer screening, according to a recent study published by Qian et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The recent findings supported the development of public...
Researchers have evaluated the efficacy of atezolizumab in combination with carboplatin in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, according to a recent study published by Lehmann et al in JAMA Oncology. The new findings may help researchers better understand biomarkers of immunotherapy...
New research published by Lee et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found patients treated with first-line immunotherapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had similar results in terms of overall survival, progression-free survival, and treatment duration, ...
Investigators analyzed cells within triple-negative breast cancers before and after radiation therapy combined with pembrolizumab and identified three patient groups with different responses to the treatment. Their study, published by Shiao et al in Cancer Cell, found that for some patients with...
Researchers may have uncovered a mechanism contributing to the development of colitis in patients with cancer receiving immunotherapy as well as a novel strategy to deliver immune-based therapy without causing the adverse side effect, according to a recent study published by Lo et al in Science....
Investigators have found that involving patients as partners in the treatment decision-making process may be a critical aspect of patient-centered care, according to a recent study published by Aggarwal et al in Cancer. Study Methods and Results In the study, the investigators used 2016 to 2018...
Adam S. Kittai, MD, of The Ohio State University, discusses his data supporting the use of CAR T-cell therapy for patients with Richter’s transformation. Given the high response rate to CD19 CAR T-cell treatment, along with early relapse in most patients, allogeneic stem cell transplantation at...
A recent study showed that the HER2-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib was associated with improved overall survival in patients with initially HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and HER2-positive circulating tumor cells (CTCs). These findings were published by Fehm et al in Clinical...
Robotic surgery may offer significant benefits over laparoscopic procedures in patients with colorectal cancer undergoing colectomies, according to a recent study published by Farah et al in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology. These findings suggest that a majority of patients receiving robotic ...
Investigators have found that providing prophylactic treatment with the biological agent tocilizumab prior to immunotherapy may reduce the incidence of cytokine-release syndrome in patients with multiple myeloma, according to a study published by Kowalski et al in Blood Cancer Discovery. ...
Michael Wang, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the Sympatico study, which shows the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax improved progression-free survival vs ibrutinib plus placebo in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell...
Treatment in community cancer centers may be associated with a lower rate of survival among patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx, according to a recent study published by Trakimas et al in the Journal of the National Cancer...
A rare subset of T cells called V-delta 1 gamma-delta (Vd1-gd) T cells could help predict which patients with advanced skin cancer may be responsive to immunotherapy, according to a novel study published by Davies et al in Nature Cancer. The new findings may lead to the development of new and more...
Jennifer A. Woyach, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase I/II findings of the BRUIN study on the use of pirtobrutinib after covalent Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma...
Sarah C. Rutherford, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses findings of the SWOG S1826 study, which showed nivolumab plus AVD (doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) improved progression-free and event-free survival and seemed to be better tolerated than brentuximab vedotin plus AVD in...
Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London and Barts Cancer Institute, discusses phase III findings from KEYNOTE-522 showing that neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab continues to show a clinically meaningful improvement in event-free...
Next-generation sequencing may help better identify patients with cancer and mismatch repair deficiency who may benefit from immunotherapy, according to a recent study published by Farhat et al in Cancer Cell. The new findings indicated that treating more patients with immunotherapy may require...
The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel may be a cost-effective second-line treatment option in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to a recent study published by Choe et al in Blood Advances. Background In cases...
Hamish S. Scott, PhD, and Chris Hahn, PhD, both of Australia’s SA Pathology and Centre for Cancer, discuss ERG, a new predisposition gene for bone marrow failure and hematologic malignancy. Identifying causal germline ERG variants has direct clinical implications for diagnosis, counseling,...
Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, discusses phase I findings showing the safety and tolerability of copanlisib and fulvestrant in combination with continuous or intermittent abemaciclib in patients with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative...
Rana R. McKay, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses phase II findings from the Neptune study of neoadjuvant olaparib plus androgen-deprivation therapy followed by radical prostatectomy in patients with intermediate-risk or high-risk prostate cancer marked by germline or somatic ...
Immunotherapy pioneer Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Biden. It is the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. Dr. Rosenberg is Chief of the Surgery Branch at the Center for Cancer Research at the National...
Investigators have found that implementing the updated World Health Organization (WHO) screening guidelines may effectively reduce the cervical cancer mortality rate in patients residing in low- and middle-income countries, according to two recent studies published by Simms et al and Hall et al in...
Investigators have uncovered concerningly large gaps in evidence regarding the true benefits of opioids for pain relief in patients with cancer, according to a novel study published by Shaheed et al in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The new findings could challenge the commonly held view that ...
The data developed over the past few years have overwhelmingly favored geriatric assessment as part of the routine care for older patients with cancer. It has become the standard of care. ASCO has recently published a Practical Geriatric Assessment to aid in the implementation of this vital...
Researchers have uncovered that psilocybin-assisted therapy may be safe and effective in patients with cancer and comorbid major depressive disorder, according to two novel studies published by Agrawal et al and Beaussant et al in Cancer. Background Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic chemical found in...
Researchers have found that adopting a Lung Nodule Program may increase early lung cancer detection in patients who are not eligible for lung cancer screening under existing age-eligibility criteria, according to a recent study published by Liao et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. ...
On December 18, W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, began her work as the 17th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Rathmell was selected by President Biden to succeed Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, who left NCI to become the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on...
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists may be effective at reducing the risk of colorectal cancer in patients with a higher body mass index (BMI) and diabetes, according to a recent study published by Wang et al in JAMA Oncology. Background Obesity is a chronic health condition that...
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses results from the phase I/II BRUIN study, which shows encouraging response and overall survival in patients with Richter transformation. Although this condition remains a challenging diagnosis, pirtobrutinib...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, reviews key abstracts from ASH 2023 on treatment of myelofibrosis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, large B-cell lymphoma, and acute myeloid leukemia (Abstracts 620, 631, 781,...
Darren Denjay Pan, MD, of Tisch Cancer Institute and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses his findings on risk assessment of CAR T-cell therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. Higher fibrinogen and ferritin values at baseline were associated with inferior overall survival...
Hope S. Rugo, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses patient-reported outcomes from the phase III CAPItello-291 study; the trial centered on adding capivasertib to fulvestrant in patients with aromatase inhibitor–resistant,...
Eleftherios P. Mamounas, MD, of Orlando Health Cancer Institute, discusses primary outcomes from the NRG Oncology/NSABP B-51/RTOG 1304 study of locoregional irradiation in patients with biopsy-proven axillary node involvement at presentation who become pathologically node-negative after neoadjuvant ...
Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD, of LMU University Hospital and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and Daniel Kates-Harbeck, of the West German Study Group and an MD Candidate at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, discuss a learning-based neural network developed by Mr. Kates-Harbeck to predict...
Luca Gianni, MD, of Milan’s Fondazione Michelangelo, discusses findings from the APTneo Michelangelo trial, which showed that adding atezolizumab to chemotherapy and trastuzumab plus pertuzumab did not significantly increase the rate of pathologic complete response (pCR) in women with HER2-positive ...
Oleg Gluz, MD, of the West German Study Group and Breast Center Niederrhein, discusses the impact of age and ovarian function suppression in response to preoperative endocrine treatment for both pre- and postmenopausal patients with early-stage breast cancer. He describes ways in which the outcome...
Pieter Sonneveld, MD, PhD, of the Netherland’s Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, discusses primary results from the Perseus trial, showing that for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are eligible for transplantation, the combination of daratumumab plus bortezomib, lenalidomide, and...
Older patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who were not candidates for the standard treatment of intensive chemotherapy had a median overall survival of 6.5 years on an alternative regimen of dasatinib and blinatumomab, according to long-term results...
The phase II PrE0405 trial met its primary endpoint, achieving a complete response rate of 85% in 33 patients with mantle cell lymphoma over age 60 who received bendamustine and rituximab, a standard chemoimmunotherapy regimen, along with venetoclax, which is investigational in this setting. The...
On December 15, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev) in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. The FDA previously granted accelerated approval to this combination for patients...
Bijal D. Shah, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, discusses a matching-adjusted indirect comparison of brexucabtagene autoleucel and pirtobrutinib in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma who have been previously treated with a BTK inhibitor (Abstract 5136).
ASCO has elected Eric J. Small, MD, FASCO, to lead as its President beginning in June 2025. Dr. Small, a long-time ASCO member and volunteer, will take office as President-Elect immediately following the ASCO Annual Business Meeting in Chicago on June 3, 2025. An additional six ASCO members were...
On December 11, ConcertAI announced the acquisition of CancerLinQ, previously a subsidiary of ASCO. In conjunction with the acquisition, ASCO will maintain a multiyear cooperation agreement with CancerLinQ. Building on CancerLinQ’s mission when launched by ASCO in 2013, this new venture will...
On December 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved belzutifan (Welireg) for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma following treatment with a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor and a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) tyrosine kinase inhibitor. LITESPARK-005 Efficacy was...
Use of venetoclax may increase survival in non-Hispanic Black patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to recent findings presented by Wang et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 955). Background Although the standard treatment...
The targeted therapy bezuclastinib may be safe and effective at reducing markers of disease burden and improving symptoms in patients with nonadvanced systemic mastocytosis, according to recent findings published by Bose et al at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...