In a U.S. cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Wang et al found that fully vaccinated patients with multiple myeloma were at increased risk of breakthrough SARS–CoV-2 infection, and that those with breakthrough infection were more likely to be hospitalized vs fully vaccinated persons without ...
Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center, commented on the KEYNOTE-355 final analysis1 for The ASCO Post. “We now have a drug with full approval of the U.S. Food and Drug...
The final overall survival results from the KEYNOTE-355 study showed a statistically significant 27% reduction in the risk of death for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer whose tumors were strongly positive for PD-L1, defined as a combined positive score (CPS) of at least 10 and ...
Patients with multiple myeloma lacking an antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination may also fail to mount a T-cell response, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have reported. This scenario seemed to be most common among patients actively treated with anti-CD38 and...
In a European Network of Gynecologic Oncology Trialists–Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup trial (DESKTOP III) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Philipp Harter, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of cytoreductive surgery to platinum-based chemotherapy improved overall...
In a single-institution Israeli study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Rottenberg et al found that a booster dose of the SARS–CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA resulted in increased spike protein antibody titers in patients with solid tumors undergoing active treatment. Study Details The study...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gibson et al identified significant associations of donor clonal hematopoiesis with outcomes in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). As stated by the investigators, “Clonal hematopoiesis can be...
In the Italian phase II FORTE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Francesca Gay, PhD, and colleagues found that induction therapy with carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd) produced a higher response rate vs carfilzomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone (KCd) among patients aged...
On December 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the adjuvant treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with stage IIB or IIC melanoma following complete resection. KEYNOTE-716 Efficacy was evaluated in KEYNOTE-716, a...
Sean Khozin, MD, MPH, of CancerLinQ, discusses the therapeutic advances that have made cancer care more targeted, even as real-world patient outcomes lag behind those reported in clinical trials. Dr. Khozin makes the case for the use of digital decision support tools to advance precision at the...
Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD, of NYU Langone Medical Center, offers his perspective on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncology care and cancer clinical trials, as clinicians strive to provide optimal treatment to patients while reducing their risk of contracting the coronavirus. The steep decline ...
The addition of vidutolimod to pembrolizumab could help overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition in patients with metastatic or unresectable cutaneous melanoma, according to data presented by John M. Kirkwood, MD, and colleagues at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of metastatic melanoma, but a significant number of patients still fail to respond to anti–PD-1 therapy. The novel combination of sotigalimab, an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody, and the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab could help address this...
The novel PD-1 inhibitor retifanlimab appears to be safe and effective in patients with pretreated, recurrent microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) endometrial cancer, according to according to data presented by Berton-Rigaud et al at the Society for...
A novel vaccine platform administered in combination with pembrolizumab appears to be safe and effective in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), according to data presented by Mark Yarchoan, MD, and colleagues at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021 Annual Meeting...
On this episode, we’ll hear about a study that examined the impact of the time of day that a patient with advanced melanoma receives an immune checkpoint inhibitor infusion on overall survival. Then, we’ll hear about two recent approvals from the FDA—one in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma,...
John M. Kirkwood, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discusses phase Ib findings on the combination of vidutolimod plus pembrolizumab, as well as vidutolimod monotherapy, both of which showed clinical activity in patients with PD-1 blockade–refractory melanoma. The duration of...
Next-generation sequencing of bone marrow samples from pediatric and young adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with tisagenlecleucel was more accurate in predicting relapse than flow cytometry and monitoring of B-cell aplasia, according to the results from a study by...
In an interim analysis of a phase II basket trial (ROAR) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Patrick Y. Wen, MD, and colleagues found that the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib produced responses in adult patients with recurrent or progressive BRAF V600E–mutant high-grade and low-grade glioma. ...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Sigler et al found that an oncology nurse–led primary palliative care intervention known as CONNECT did not increase realistic illness expectations among patients with advanced cancer. Study Details The study involved adults with advanced solid tumors...
On December 2, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rituximab (Rituxan) in combination with chemotherapy for pediatric patients (≥ 6 months to < 18 years old) with previously untreated, advanced-stage, CD20-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), Burkitt lymphoma,...
In a study reported in JAMA Network Open, Montminy et al found that the incidence of colorectal adenocarcinoma in people aged 40 to 49 years in the United States has increased in White individuals and remained stable in Black individuals between 2000 and 2017, with incidence rates being equivalent...
Advances in treating breast cancer “increasingly create opportunities to consider where radiation therapy might safely be omitted,” Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, told participants at the 2021 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “But, I would encourage us,” she continued, “not to assume that women who...
Hannah E. Dzimitrowicz, MD, of Duke Cancer Center, discusses study results showing that in patients with melanoma and renal cell cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, the COVID-19 vaccination appears to be well tolerated and safe. A higher rate of post-vaccination symptoms reported...
Hans Wildiers, MD, of University Hospitals Leuven, discusses the final results from the phase IIb AIPAC study, which suggested that eftilagimod added to paclitaxel may be of benefit to patients older than 65 years with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer after...
Yuki Muroyama, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, discusses the interaction between the immune system and a novel marker—T-cell DNA damage and repair response—to understand how that interaction may affect immune cell biology and therapeutic response (Abstract...
Invited discussant of the phase III DREAMseq trial, Keith T. Flaherty, MD, said the findings still leave room for nuanced decision-making.1 Dr. Flaherty is Professor of Medicine at Harvard and Director of the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy at the Massachusetts General...
In the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma containing BRAF mutations, initial treatment with an immunotherapy combination achieved superior overall survival compared with targeted therapy in the phase III DREAMseq trial, also known as the ECOG-ACRIN EA6134 trial. The results were reported ...
Significant decreases in computed tomography (CT) imaging for cancer persisted even after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020—delaying diagnosis and treatment and raising the possibility of more advanced cancers and poorer outcomes for patients, according to a study presented at the...
In a Japanese phase III noninferiority trial (CONSOLE) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hata et al found that fosnetupitant was noninferior to fosaprepitant in preventing nausea and vomiting in patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy (both in combination with palonosetron and ...
In a substudy of the ECOG-ACRIN E4112 cohort trial reported in JAMA Network Open, Fazeli et al found that approximately half of women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for pretreatment planning experienced fear or anxiety before and during the...
In a single-institution phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jain et al found that chemotherapy-free treatment with the combination of ibrutinib and rituximab produced high overall and complete response rates in patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma aged ≥...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Kutny et al, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) AAML1331 trial has shown that treatment with arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) with no maintenance therapy produced high event-free and overall survival rates in pediatric patients with acute...
The immunomodulatory effects of neoadjuvant immune-based treatments for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are becoming clearer, in part due to data presented by Schmidt et al at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021 Annual Meeting (Abstract 962). The first integrated analysis of...
The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant chemoradiation has failed to overcome the immunosuppressive microenvironment of pancreatic cancer, according to data presented by Osama E. Rahma, MD, and colleagues at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021 Annual...
The addition of the LAG-3 protein eftilagimod alpha to paclitaxel led to a significant improvement in overall survival in younger patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, according to data presented by Hans Wildiers, MD, and colleagues at the Society for ...
HER2-targeted chimeric antigen receptor macrophages (CAR-M) could be the next cell therapies to treat advanced solid tumors overexpressing HER2, according to data presented by Kim A. Reiss, MD, and colleagues at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021 Annual Meeting (Abstract 951)....
On November 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj (Darzalex Faspro) in combination with carfilzomib (Kyprolis) plus dexamethasone for adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received one to three prior lines of...
The invited discussant of monarchE,1 Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, Director, Breast Cancer Research, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, commented: “Based on a hazard ratio of 0.69 for invasive disease–free survival, the results are statistically significant and clinically...
Longer-term follow-up of the global phase III monarchE trial showed an increasing benefit for adding abemaciclib to endocrine therapy in the adjuvant treatment of early high-risk hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, regardless of Ki67 index. The latest findings were reported at a ...
New research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that treatment with antihistamines was associated with improved responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors. The preclinical study, published by Li et al in Cancer Cell, demonstrated that the histamine receptor H1 (HRH1) acts...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Castillo et al found that venetoclax produced a high major response rate in previously treated patients with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. As stated by the investigators, “BCL2 is overexpressed and confers prosurvival signaling in ...
In an observational cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, de Andrade et al identified cancer incidence and patterns in individuals meeting criteria for Li-Fraumeni syndrome on the basis of presence of pathogenic or likely pathogenic germline TP53 variants. As stated by the investigators,...
In the phase II MK-6482-004 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eric Jonasch, MD, and colleagues found that the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-2α inhibitor belzutifan produced responses in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) associated with von Hippel-Lindau disease....
In a small single-institution study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Parvathaneni et al found that SARS–CoV-2 mRNA vaccination produced antibody responses in nearly half—and CD4 T-cell responses in more than half—of patients with B-cell depletion due to treatment with...
Emily Z. Keung, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the complex interactions of immune infiltrates and neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in patients with resectable soft-tissue sarcoma. These interactions may hold the key to understanding pathologic...
Kim A. Reiss, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses results of a phase I trial of a CAR-M engineered macrophage cancer therapy, known as CT-0508, for patients with solid tumors that overexpress HER2. CAR-M, designed to exploit the natural role of macrophages to initiate an antitumor...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Panzone et al found that compared to White patients with a history of cancer, Black patients and ‘other race’ patients—but not Hispanic patients—were significantly more likely to have experienced financial toxicity due to cancer. Study Details The...
In a phase I dose-escalation and dose-expansion study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fischer et al found that the ALK inhibitor ceritinib produced durable responses in pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory, locally advanced or metastatic ALK-positive malignancies. Study Details In the...
A diagnosis of prostate cancer may translate to approximately a 30% increase in the incidence of depression and anxiety, a fourfold higher risk of heart attack, and a twofold higher risk of suicide. A study published by Kaushik et al in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases aimed to evaluate the...