In the phase III MAIA trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Facon et al found that the addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide/dexamethasone significantly improved progression-free survival in previously untreated multiple myeloma ineligible for autologous stem cell transplantation ...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved trastuzumab-anns (Kanjinti) for all approved indications of the reference product trastuzumab (Herceptin): for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer and HER2-overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal...
Results from the phase III NRG Oncology clinical trial GOG 0261 comparing paclitaxel plus carboplatin to paclitaxel plus ifosfamide in women with stage I–IV recurrent carcinosarcoma of the uterus or ovary found that treatment with paclitaxel/carboplatin was not inferior to...
New research on the immunotherapy talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC)—an injectable oncolytic virus—for patients with unresectable melanoma was presented by Milhem et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 9524). Researchers reported the ad hoc analysis of progression-free survival...
In an extended analysis of the COMBI-d and COMBI-v trials reported at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 9507) and in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert et al found a 5-year overall survival rate of 34% with the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib in previously untreated...
New information about adjuvant therapy to prevent recurrence of breast cancer in women 50 years of age or younger has emerged from the Trial Assigning Individualized Options for Treatment (Rx), or TAILORx. An analysis of a prespecified secondary endpoint in this trial found that an assessment of a ...
Results from an experimental arm of the phase II NRG-GI002 trial using veliparib, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, as part of total neoadjuvant therapy (induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy and surgery) in patients with locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma were...
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, discusses 3-year outcomes from the first phase III study to test a non-conventional regimen for the neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer (Abstract 500).
The phase III CLL14 trial—reported by Fischer et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 7502) and in The New England Journal of Medicine—found that the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax plus the monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab prolonged progression-free survival vs obinutuzumab and...
Findings in a cohort of the phase II CheckMate 205 study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ramchandren et al, indicate that nivolumab monotherapy followed by nivolumab plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (N-AVD) is highly active in newly diagnosed, advanced-stage classical ...
Two studies that explored types of discrimination and gender bias in health-care organizations were presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. Discrimination Experienced by Fellows An abstract that reviewed discrimination and inclusion among hematology and oncology trainees was presented by...
In an analysis from the UK RAPID study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Barrington et al found that a postchemotherapy positron-emission tomography (PET) score of 5 was associated with poorer outcomes among patients with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma. Study Details In the trial,...
On June 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic or unresectable recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Pembrolizumab was...
On June 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to polatuzumab vedotin-piiq (Polivy), a CD79b-directed antibody-drug conjugate, in combination with bendamustine and a rituximab product for adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Breelyn Wilky, MD, and colleagues found evidence of activity of axitinib plus pembrolizumab in advanced sarcomas, including alveolar soft-part sarcoma. Study Details The study involved 33 patients with advanced or metastatic sarcomas, including...
In an interim analysis of the phase III NEJ026 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Makoto Maemondo, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of bevacizumab to erlotinib improved progression-free survival in patients with EGFR-positive, nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the...
BOOKMARK Title: Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of BloodAuthor: Rose GeorgePublisher: Metropolitan BooksPublication date: October 2018Price: $27.00, hardcover, 368 pages Blood has been mythologized and misunderstood since the earliest records of humankind and still ...
An Oklahoma jury recently awarded $25.5 million to the widower of a 53-year-old woman diagnosed with stage IV nasopharyngeal cancer who was denied coverage for proton therapy by her health insurer, Aetna. The patient’s family subsequently raised $92,000 to cover her proton therapy at The University ...
Against the backdrop of the online crowd-sourcing initiative PCROWD and other research by faculty investigators on precursor conditions that may develop into leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), or multiple myeloma, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has opened the Center for the Prevention of...
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on novel therapeutic regimens for plasma cell dyscrasias, particularly multiple myeloma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit ...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review for daratumumab in combination with a triplet therapy in multiple myeloma, Breakthrough Therapy designation to copanlisib for marginal zone lymphoma, and Fast Track designation for ARV-110 in metastatic...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel hematology and oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. Early in 2019, ibrutinib was approved for...
In addition to its well-known cardioprotective benefits, aspirin has a substantial body of observational, preclinical, and clinical evidence supporting its efficacy in preventing cancer, most strongly for colorectal cancer.1 The strength of this evidence led the U.S. Preventive Services Task...
Mathematics, modeling, and simulation to study cancer are topics covered in a new special series in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics (JCO CCI). On April 24, JCO CCI published its fourth special collection of articles, “Mathematical Oncology,” which showcases the current state of the field and new...
The discussant of the abstract on the use of prophylactic cranial irradiation in patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), Kristin Higgins, MD, underscored the marked shift in practice patterns in the United States. However, she noted that many questions remain concerning...
Delivery of prophylactic cranial irradiation to patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has declined significantly since the publication of a study by Takahashi et al, according to a recent survey of academic radiation oncologists.1 Data presented at the 2019 Multidisciplinary...
Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors are approved for the second-line treatment of head and neck cancer and likely will be soon in the first-line treatment of locally advanced disease. According to Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, developments in immunotherapy for this population should be...
As reported in The Lancet by Tony S.K. Mok, MD, of Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues, the KEYNOTE-042 trial has shown an improvement in overall survival with pembrolizumab vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung ...
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ruxolitinib (Jakafi) for steroid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) in adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older. Approval was based on the REACH1 trial/Study INCB 18424-271, an open-label, single-arm, multicenter...
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the PIK3CA inhibitor alpelisib (Piqray) tablets to be used in combination with the FDA-approved endocrine therapy fulvestrant to treat postmenopausal women and men with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA-mutated, advanced ...
An interim analysis of the large Pediatric MATCH trial found that 24% of children and young adolescents with cancers refractory to current treatments had been assigned to treatment with investigational targeted study agents based on genetic alterations detected in their tumors,1 which is more than...
Before the introduction of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, the 5-year life expectancy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was 5.5%. This dismal outlook has changed. Treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab dramatically improved overall...
The past 20 years have seen an unprecedented increase in the development of effective drugs for the management of cancer. The advent of immunotherapy offers even the promise of cure for some previously highly resistant diseases. The science is brilliant, the need is ever increasing—but the cost is ...
The evidence is in: the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has enabled improved access to earlier diagnosis, earlier care, and reduced racial disparities in access to care for patients with cancer, according to two studies presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. In states that adopted Medicaid...
In a trial presented by Baumann et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 6521), patients with locally advanced cancer treated with proton chemoradiotherapy instead of traditional photon chemoradiotherapy were at a lower risk of experiencing side effects. However, cure rates were almost...
The first statistically significant overall survival benefit has been shown for a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor plus endocrine therapy as first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer. The results are from the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial, which evaluated ribociclib plus endocrine...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fangusaro et al found that the MEK1/2 inhibitor selumetinib was active in pediatric patients with recurrent, refractory, or progressive pilocytic astrocytoma with common BRAF aberrations and neurofibromatosis type 1...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jain et al found that the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax was highly active in previously untreated high-risk and older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In the study, 80 patients...
In the phase II SARC024 trial in sarcoma subtypes reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Davis and colleagues found that regorafenib improved progression-free survival vs placebo in the cohort of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma. The double-blind study included 42 patients from 12 U.S. ...
In a propensity score analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bonnot et al found that the addition of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to cytoreductive surgery improved outcomes among patients with gastric cancer with peritoneal metastases. The study included 277...
Kerry A. Rogers, MD, of The Ohio State University, discusses a 3-year follow-up of phase Ib safety and efficacy findings with the selective BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab in patients with CLL (Abstract 7500).
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by West et al, the phase III IMpower130 trial found that the addition of atezolizumab to carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel significantly improved overall and progression-free survival in first-line treatment of stage IV nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer...
The randomized Norwegian OSLO-COMET trial found that laparoscopic surgery did not change chances of survival compared to open resection to remove metastases that had spread to the liver in patients with colorectal cancer. Overall, patients lived more than 6.5 years after surgery, regardless of...
The randomized phase III POLO trial found that maintenance therapy with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor olaparib significantly delayed the progression of metastatic pancreatic cancer in patients with germline BRCA gene mutations compared with placebo (median...
An interim analysis of the international, randomized phase III ENZAMET trial found that 80% of men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer who received the nonsteroidal antiandrogen agent enzalutamide along with standard-of-care treatment were alive after 3 years, compared with 72% of men ...
A new study analyzing demographic statistics from the National Cancer Database presented by Chamoun et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract LBA107) identified multiple socioeconomic factors—including private insurance, living in a regionally higher-income area, and receiving treatment ...
There is a high, unmet need for effective treatments for patients with recurrent, metastatic, or persistent cervical cancer—most patients are young, and survival rates are poor. Adoptive cell transfer using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) has demonstrated durable responses in some...
The randomized, phase III KEYNOTE-062 trial achieved its primary endpoint, showing that for patients with programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive, HER2-negative, advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer, initial therapy with pembrolizumab resulted in noninferior overall...
Five-year data from the phase Ib KEYNOTE-001 trial showed that treatment with pembrolizumab was safe and effective and substantially increased overall survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Specifically, 23.2% of people who had not previously been treated with...
Results from the phase III TITAN trial, presented by Chi et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 5006), showed that the addition of apalutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) improved radiographic progression-free and overall survival in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive...