In a French randomized phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Thomas et al found that clofarabine-based consolidation may provide improved relapse-free survival vs conventional high-dose cytarabine in postremission treatment in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia...
The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and its clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, has officially dedicated the new Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha. Joe Biden, the former two-term Vice President who headed a national Cancer Moonshot Task Force, served as keynote speaker...
In the phase III CA184-095trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tomasz M. Beer, MD, FACP, of the Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, and colleagues found that ipilimumab (Yervoy) did not increase overall survival vs placebo in men with asymptomatic or...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by W.U. Shipley, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues in the NRG Oncology Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), the final analysis of the phase III RTOG 9601 trial shows that the addition of...
The OAK study—recently reported by Rittmeyer and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—is the first study to show patients with previously treated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with a humanized antibody (atezolizumab, Tecentriq) directed against the programmed cell...
In the phase III OAK trial reported in The Lancet by Achim Rittmeyer, MD, of Lungenfachklinik Immenhausen, Germany, and colleagues, treatment with the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody atezolizumab (Tecentriq) improved overall survival vs docetaxel in previously treated non–small ...
Over the past 20 years, the Intergroupe Francophone du Myelome (IFM) and Dr. Michel Attal have pioneered the use of autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) for multiple myeloma in a series of randomized studies. Notable studies include comparisons of planned upfront AHCT vs...
In the French phase III IFM 2009 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Michel Attal, MD, of the Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse-Oncopole, and colleagues, consolidation treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid), bortezomib (Velcade), and dexamethasone (RVD) was...
This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a pilot project for prequalifying biosimilar medicines, a step toward making some of the most expensive treatments for cancer more widely available in low- and middle-income countries. The decision comes after a 2-day meeting in Geneva...
Geriatrics for the Oncologist is guest edited by Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO, and developed in collaboration with the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Dr. Lichtman is an Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Commack, New York, and Professor of...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 America Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting newer therapeutics for the development for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit...
One of the most active areas of research in breast cancer involves the targeting of the androgen receptor. Trials underway for androgen receptor antagonists and modulators, alone and in various combinations of available agents and novel therapies, are yielding encouraging early results. At the 2017 ...
Head and neck cancer can take away a patient’s “right to feel human,” and its impact on physical appearance, physical functioning, and general quality of life can be devastating, according to Merry Sebelik, MD, Associate Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at Emory University in Atlanta. At a...
Radiation oncology is vital to the management of patients with cancer of the head and neck, and for certain patients, proton therapy may offer significant benefit over intensity-modulated radiation therapy, according to Walter J. Curran, MD, Executive Director of the Winship Cancer Institute of...
The impact of targeted therapies in head and neck cancer has been limited, but we can strategize to integrate the development of targeted and immunotherapeutic agents, according to Christine H. Chung, MD, Senior Member and Chair in the Department of Head and Neck-Endocrine Oncology at Moffitt...
Alice Tsang Shaw, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Tony Mok, MD, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, discuss their two ASCO-featured abstracts on non–small cell lung cancer: alectinib vs crizotinib in treatment-naive advanced ALK+ disease, and dacomitinib vs gefitinib for...
Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors represent a highly active class of drug for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Idelalisib (Zydelig), a PI3K-delta inhibitor and the first PI3K inhibitor to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for CLL, has...
Preliminary study results suggest that venetoclax (Venclexta) plus rituximab (Rituxan) is a highly active combination in relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), achieving durable responses and minimal residual disease negativity in previously treated patients. “The results of our...
Manish Shah, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, was impressed with the findings of the two subanalyses of CALGB 89803. “The study found a 46% reduction in the risk of recurrence with two servings of tree nuts a week, and that’s more than ...
Tree nut consumption, as well as a generally healthy lifestyle, significantly reduced the risk of cancer recurrence and death in patients with stage III colon cancer treated in the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 89803 trial, researchers reported at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting. Two subanalyses ...
Combining the kinase inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica) with an investigational personalized cellular therapy known as CTL119 can lead to complete remission in patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University...
As new treatment decision-making tools make their way toward and into the clinic, oncologists are getting a sense of how they may affect clinical practice—and beginning to look farther down the road. “What do you see ahead for clinicians?” asked Christian Downs, JD, Executive Director of the...
“The results of this trial are promising but need to be reproduced in the United States and other countries before clear recommendations can be made. There are adjuvant studies such as ALCHEMIST underway to test this strategy in U.S. patients,” said Trever Bivona, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of...
Adjuvant therapy with gefitinib (Iressa), an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted agent, was more successful at preventing recurrence than standard-of-care chemotherapy, in a phase III study of patients with EGFR-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1 Gefitinib extended...
Among patients with cancer, as many as 53% of emergency department visits that do not require admission could be avoided with better symptom management and greater availability of outpatient care tailored to their needs, according to a new study from Fred Hutchinson Cancer...
Younger patients with colon cancer appear to have more than three times as many mutations in their tumors as older patients, which could lead to more effective treatment decisions, according to researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. In a new study, they found that tumor...
ASCO’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study continues to expand and now has more than 300 participants enrolled on study drug, more than 100 sites, new partnerships, and a revised protocol to lower the age of eligibility. “We are very pleased with the...
Tanya B. Dorff, MD, of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of the City of Hope, discuss two key presentations on prostate cancer: findings on adding abiraterone for men with high-risk prostate cancer starting long-term androgen-deprivation therapy, and an...
Findings from a phase III clinical trial point to a potential new treatment for patients newly diagnosed with advanced, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Compared to the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib (Iressa), one of the standard targeted...
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare cancer, but its incidence has been rising. This cancer is usually associated with asbestos exposure, and patients have a median life expectancy of only 13 to 15 months. All patients relapse despite initial chemotherapy, more than 50% of them within 6 months...
Dean F. Bajorin, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Peter H. O’Donnell, MD, of The University of Chicago Medical Center, discuss their study findings on treating advanced urothelial cancer with pembrolizumab, paclitaxel, docetaxel, or vinflunine. (Abstracts 4501 and 4502)
In an early clinical trial, 33 out of 35 (94%) patients had clinical remission of multiple myeloma upon receiving immunotherapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting B-cell maturation protein, or BCMA. Most patients had only mild side effects. The study was presented by Fan et al...
As reported in the Plenary Session at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Robson et al, the phase III OlympiAD trial showed that the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) prolonged progression-free survival vs standard therapy in...
A phase III clinical trial of 4,805 women with HER2-positive breast cancer suggests the addition of a second HER2-targeted medicine, pertuzumab (Perjeta), to standard-of-care trastuzumab (Herceptin) after surgery may improve outcomes, although the benefit is modest. The study was presented by von...
As reported in the Plenary Session at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Fizazi et al, the phase III LATITUDE trial has shown that the addition of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) and prednisone to androgen-deprivation therapy resulted in marked improvements in...
Julie Vose, MD, MBA, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discusses two hematologic abstracts: results from the OPTIMAL>60 study on radiotherapy to bulky disease PET-negative after immunochemotherapy in elderly patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; and an analysis of autologous...
Findings from a phase III clinical trial of about 300 women may introduce poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors as a new type of treatment for breast cancer. Compared to standard chemotherapy, the oral targeted medicine olaparib (Lynparza) reduced the chance of progression of advanced,...
Adding abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) plus prednisone to standard hormonal therapy for men newly diagnosed with high-risk, metastatic prostate cancer lowers the chance of death by 38%. In a phase III clinical trial of 1,200 men, abiraterone also more than doubled the median time until the cancer...
The STAMPEDE clinical trial of nearly 2,000 men shows that adding abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) to a standard initial treatment regimen for high-risk, advanced prostate cancer lowers the relative risk of death by 37%. The 3-year survival rate was 76% with standard therapy alone vs 83% with standard...
Most patients experience significant distress after they are diagnosed with cancer. This distress not only erodes quality of life, but can also negatively affect the course of the disease and the patient’s ability to tolerate treatment. Yet few patients with cancer receive psychological...
Spinal cord compression is a common complication in people with metastatic cancer and is a major detriment to quality of life. Radiation treatment is widely used to relieve pain and other symptoms, but there is no standard recommended schedule, and approaches currently vary. Findings from a phase...
Advanced cancer triggers enormous distress and brings challenges that can seem overwhelming. Yet most cancer centers lack systematic approaches to help patients and families manage the practical and emotional toll of advanced cancer. Findings from a randomized clinical trial of 305 patients with...
In a study of three radiation therapies for early-stage breast cancer, one treatment option stands out as offering the most value based on factors including health outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and quality of life. The treatment—hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation—also requires...
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) showed activity in previously treated patients with advanced programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–positive endometrial cancer in a cohort of the phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 study. These findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ott et al. Study Details ...
Eric Paul Winer, MD, was born in Boston in 1956, a year when gasoline was 22 cents a gallon and IBM released the world’s first computer with a hard drive. His grandfather on his mother’s side had hemophilia and died 5 years before Dr. Winer was born. Although there was a 50% chance that Dr. Winer...
Bert Vogelstein, MD, was born on June 2, 1949, at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, the same renowned institution where he would later make his mark in the field of cancer genetics. As a young teen, he was an enthusiast and independent consumer of books, one of which helped shape...
Eliezer Robinson, MD, was born in Vienna, Austria, on June 17, 1931. At that time, Vienna, a bustling and prosperous city, was an important center of Jewish culture and education. Jews made up a large portion of the city’s professional class of doctors, lawyers, bankers, and artists. Dr. Robinson...
Susan G. Komen announced new advisory roles for eight leaders in breast cancer who will guide the organization’s education and advocacy work, public health efforts, and help direct Komen’s $920 million research program. On April 1, Jennifer A. Pietenpol, PhD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center,...
Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASCO, FASTRO, grew up in Washington, DC, and moved with her family to Philadelphia while in high school. She still considers the fast-paced DC–Philadelphia corridor her home, but her passion for a career in medicine, in part, took seed in a small town located in North...
Hyman Muss, MD, a pioneer in geriatric oncology, considers himself “a real Brooklyn boy.” His father was a dentist, and his uncle was a general practitioner. “They both practiced out of a small brownstone house in Brownsville-Crown Heights. It was sort of reminiscent of the famous movie The Last...