In a poster session earlier today David Ilson, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues reported on a preplanned subgroup analysis of the double-blind phase III TAGS study looking at the safety and efficacy of the oral agent trifluridine/tipiracil (FTP/TPI) in heavily...
A subset of patients with aggressive prostate cancer are carriers of germline BRCA2 mutations, which are also linked to hereditary breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Study findings also showed family members of patients with prostate cancer who carry BRCA2 and DNA-repair...
In a phase III trial (HOVON 105/ALLG NHL 24) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bromberg et al found no significant benefit of the addition of rituximab to high-dose methotrexate-based chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. Study Details In the...
In a French phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Mariette et al found that a hybrid minimally invasive surgical procedure was associated with reduced postoperative complications vs transthoracic open esophagectomy in patients with resectable cancer of the middle or lower ...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib. The FDA’s approval of cabozantinib was based on results from the phase III CELESTIAL trial....
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ansell et al found that nivolumab was associated with low response rates among patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who were ineligible for or experienced failure of autologous hematopoietic cell ...
Scientists have developed a new test that scans the shapes of tumor cells to select women with especially aggressive ovarian cancer. A team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, created an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that looks for clusters of cells within tumors with misshapen...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Reck et al, an updated analysis of the phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial indicates continued overall survival benefit of first-line pembrolizumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a...
Global Cancer Institute recently announced the results of its Patient Navigation Program in Mexico City. The average time to referral before the program’s inception was 5 months, but the implementation of patient navigators reduced that average to 7 days. These findings were published by ...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Shah et al, the phase II KEYNOTE-180 trial has shown that pembrolizumab produces durable responses in some patients with pretreated locally advanced or metastatic esophageal adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. Study Details In the trial, 121 patients with...
In a trial with a modified primary endpoint due to slow accrual reported in JAMA Oncology, Bex et al found that deferred cytoreductive nephrectomy after sunitinib did not improve 28-week progression-free rate (PFR) vs immediate nephrectomy followed by sunitinib in patients with metastatic renal...
A steady 25-year decline has resulted in a 27% drop in the overall cancer death rate in the United States between 1991 and 2016. The data come from “Cancer Statistics, 2019,” the American Cancer Society’s annual report on cancer rates and trends. The report was published in CA: A...
A recent study published by Ostrom et al in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology showed that compared to the rest of the United States, the Appalachian region has a 5% higher incidence of malignant primary brain tumors and other central nervous system (CNS) tumors, a higher mortality rate due to ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Abida et al found that approximately 3% of patients with prostate cancer had microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H)/mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) tumors and that some of these patients exhibited durable responses to treatment with immune...
Exposure to the sun, whether cumulative or intermittent, is a known risk factor for the development of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). Past studies have found that greater body mass index (BMI) actually lessens the risk of women developing NMSCs. With this in mind, researchers sought to determine...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dellapasqua et al found that neoadjuvant treatment with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist degarelix was more effective than the GnRH agonist triptorelin in achieving ovarian function suppression (OFS) in...
New research has found that quality of life for people with cancer is reduced by an accumulation of low-level toxicities just as much as it is from high-level adverse events. Additionally, patient-reported outcomes were more likely to reflect the impact on a patient’s physical well-being than ...
In a pooled analysis of French and U.S. follicular lymphoma cohorts reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sarkozy and colleagues found that lymphoma was the most common cause of death during the first decade of the rituximab era in treatment of the disease. The study involved data from...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Moore et al, the phase III SOLO-1 trial has shown that maintenance with olaparib, following complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy, significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Marcoux et al provided further evidence that EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can undergo transformation to small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and identified factors associated with such transformation. It has been estimated...
On January 2, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the indication for dasatinib (Sprycel) tablets to include the treatment of pediatric patients 1 year of age and older with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in...
The shift from film to digital mammography increased the detection of breast cancer overall in the United Kingdom—without increasing the recall rate—according to a study published by Blanks et al in Radiology. “Image quality with digital mammography is improved over that of...
In a UK phase III trial (Myeloma XI) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jackson et al found that lenalidomide maintenance was associated with improved progression-free survival but not overall survival among patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma with at least minimal response to induction...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Gounder et al found that sorafenib improved progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with progressive, symptomatic, or recurrent desmoid tumors. As noted by the investigators, there is no current standard of care for...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Dignam et al, analysis of outcomes in the phase III NRG/RTOG 9202 trial indicates that the time interval to biochemical failure (IBF) could serve as a surrogate endpoint for clinical outcomes in patients receiving radiotherapy plus long-term...
Multiple recent reports have addressed the activity of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab and avelumab, in Merkel cell carcinoma. However, approximately half of all patients who receive these agents do not maintain a persistent response. In an...
In the Italian phase II REGOMA trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Lombardi et al found that regorafenib was associated with improved overall survival vs lomustine in patients with relapsed glioblastoma. In the open-label trial, 119 patients from 10 Italian sites were randomly assigned between...
In a phase III Canadian and French trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Conroy and colleagues in the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and the Unicancer-GI–PRODIGE Group found that adjuvant modified FOLFIRINOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan, oxaliplatin) produced better...
TO BETTER UNDERSTAND the performance characteristics of ASCO’s Value Framework Net Health Benefit Score version 2 (ASCO-NHB v2)1 and the European Society for Medical Oncology’s (ESMO’s) Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale version 1.1 (ESMO-MCBS v1.1),2 ASCO and ESMO undertook a joint project to...
Maria Papaleontiou, MD, whose research interests focus on the complex issues surrounding the management of thyroid cancer and thyroid disease in general, was born on Cyprus, a small island nestled in the azure waters of the Mediterranean Sea. She recently spoke with The ASCO Post about her life and ...
In a single-center phase II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Erminia Massarelli, MD, and colleagues found combining tumor-specific vaccine and nivolumab (Opdivo) showed evidence of activity in incurable human papillomavirus (HPV) 16–related cancer. The therapeutic vaccine, ISA 101, induces...
In a Dutch study reported in JAMA Surgery, Michael P.M. de Neree tot Babberich, MD, of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, and colleagues found that postoperative outcomes were better in patients with colon cancer, but not rectal cancer, detected...
THE FDA recently granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) for previously untreated systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma or other CD30-expressing peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL), including angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma and PTCL not otherwise specified, in ...
THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) accepted a new drug application and granted Priority Review to quizartinib, a FLT3 inhibitor, for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory FLT3-ITD–positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The FDA is expected to make a decision on...
MINIMALLY INVASIVE radical hysterectomy for women with early-stage cervical cancer has been associated with reduced rates of disease-free and overall survival in the phase III LACC randomized noninferiority trial comparing minimally invasive and open abdominal radical hysterectomy. The results...
ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar).1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS BASED on durable responses in the phase II KEYNOTE-224 trial...
On November 21, 2018, venetoclax (Venclexta) was granted accelerated approval for use in combination with azacitidine or decitabine or low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in patients aged ≥ 75 years or who have comorbidities that preclude the use of ...
Injectable low–molecular-weight heparin has long been considered the standard of care for treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer. However, low–molecular-weight heparin is costly and often disliked by patients due to injection-related discomfort and bruising....
In 2016, ASCO published an update to its Clinical Practice Guideline, “Integration of Palliative Care Into Standard Oncology Care,” which provides evidence-based recommendations for symptom management, clarification of treatment goals, support of coping and distress management, and coordination of...
HERE IS AN UPDATE on six different studies featured at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Topics focused on novel treatments for myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia, as well as systemic mastocytosis. Myelofibrosis ABSTRACT...
On November 2, 2018, lorlatinib (Lorbrena) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with ALK-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on crizotinib (Xalkori) and at least one other ALK inhibitor for metastatic disease or whose disease ...
At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress, important studies were presented for every cancer type. Here, The ASCO Post offers some snapshots of lung cancer studies that may inform approaches to treating this common cancer, which—despite the advances in recent years—remains...
On December 20, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved calaspargase pegol-mknl (Asparlas), an asparagine-specific enzyme, as a component of a multiagent chemotherapeutic regimen for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in pediatric and young adult patients aged 1 month to...
AS REPORTED in The New England Journal of Medicine by Scott J. Antonia, MD, PhD, of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, and colleagues, the phase III PACIFIC trial has shown significantly improved overall survival, a coprimary endpoint, with the programmed cell death ligand 1...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress featured an assortment of study findings, many with far-reaching clinical implications for the treatment of patients with various cancers. Many of these trials were covered in-depth in recent issues of The ASCO Post. Here, we present...
For patients with advanced melanoma, the concept of treating to disease progression does not always apply. With many patients responding to checkpoint inhibition for years, when can treatment be safely discontinued? This important clinical question was addressed at the European Society for Medical...
TWO STUDIES recently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine indicate that minimally invasive radical hysterectomy is associated with poorer survival outcomes than open abdominal radical hysterectomy in women with early-stage cervical cancer. As reported by Pedro T. Ramirez, MD, of The...
The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to a chemoradiotherapy regimen yielded complete response rates of 85% in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. These findings from a phase Ib study were presented at the 2018 Society for...
Although most major cancer organizations agree on the guidelines for prostate cancer screening, there is still uneven application of the test, such as in the older patient population, resulting in overdiagnosis and waste in an already fiscally challenged health-care system. Researchers from the...
As the number of opioid-related deaths continues to rise in the United States, stakeholders are struggling to make sense of the crisis. At the 2018 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium, two experts in the field, Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, and Leslie J. Blackhall, MD,...