On October 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the kinase inhibitor asciminib (Scemblix) for patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML) in chronic phase who have been previously treated with two or more tyrosine...
On October 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 to include children aged 5 through 11 years. The authorization was based on the FDA’s thorough and transparent evaluation of the data that...
The 2021 ASTRO Annual Meeting took place in Chicago from October 24 to October 27. This week, we’re hearing from authors of three late-breaking abstracts. Their research focuses on the role of radiotherapy in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer, as well as in oligoprogressive lung and breast...
Morgan R.L. Lichtenstein, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, discusses a single-center prospective study examining the complex relationship between time to oral oncolytic receipt and clinical or process-related factors, such as prior authorization, diagnosis, and insurance type.
Daniel J. Ma, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, discusses results from a phase III study of patients with HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Comparing a 2-week course of de-escalated adjuvant radiation therapy with the standard 6-week course, investigators found...
C. Jillian Tsai, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results from the first randomized trial of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat oligoprogressive, metastatic lung and breast cancers. The standard of care for patients with these types of tumors is to...
Cleveland Clinic researchers have shown that diet-associated molecules in the gut may be associated with aggressive prostate cancer, suggesting dietary interventions may help reduce risk. These findings were published by Reichard et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. While...
The incidence of pancreatic cancer—which historically has been higher in men than in women—has increased among both men and women during the past decade, with a significantly greater relative increase observed in women younger than age 55 years, and especially among those aged 15 to 34 years. These ...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin; FOLFOX-HAIC) improved overall survival vs transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) as first-line treatment for...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maas et al developed a novel integrated molecular-morphologic risk classification score that improved prediction of disease recurrence in patients with meningioma. Study Details The study involved DNA methylation, copy-number, and mutation...
In a single-institution prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Gamble et al found that patients with hereditary lobular breast cancer due to CDH1 variants also had a high prevalence of occult signet ring cell gastric carcinoma. Study Details The study involved 283 patients from 151...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Bancroft et al, the first round of prostate cancer screening in the IMPACT study of men with pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes showed an increased risk of prostate cancer in carriers of MSH2 and MSH6 variants compared with noncarrier controls. As...
Aadel A. Chaudhuri, MD, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, discusses circulating tumor DNA, which has the potential to better personalize treatment for patients with oligometastatic cancer and help clinicians determine whether to offer systemic therapy alone or...
Patients with multiple myeloma lacking an antibody response to COVID-19 vaccine may also fail to mount a T-cell response, according to research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Concerningly, this scenario was most common among patients actively treated with anti-CD38 and...
A primary endpoint analysis of the NRG Oncology phase III NRG-GU003 clinical trial, which compared hypofractionated postoperative prostate bed radiotherapy (HYPORT) to conventional postprostatectomy radiotherapy (COPORT) for men with prostate cancer, determined that treatment with HYPORT yielded no ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ademuyiwa et al, a survey of U.S. breast oncologists showed that physicians believe that Black women with breast cancer face more barriers to genetic counseling and testing compared to White women with breast cancer. Study Details The study...
Even though patients with metastatic colorectal cancer younger than age 50 tend to be more fit and receive more intensive treatment than older patients, survival for both groups is roughly the same, according to a study published by Lipsyc-Sharf et al in the Journal of the National Cancer...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Courtney D. DiNardo, MD, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase II portion of a phase Ib/II trial (AG221-AML-005) showed that the addition of the oral mutant IDH2 protein inhibitor enasidenib to azacitidine significantly improved overall response rate ...
In the phase III CONFIRM trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Dean A. Fennell, FRCP, PhD, and colleagues found that nivolumab improved progression-free and overall survival vs placebo in patients with relapsed malignant mesothelioma. In October 2020, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab...
Youssef Zeidan, MD, PhD, of Florida International University and the Lynn Cancer Institute, discusses the advances in radiotherapy planning and delivery that have reduced cardiac radiation exposure in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who are treated with radiotherapy and trastuzumab...
David A. Palma, MD, PhD, of Ontario’s London Health Sciences Centre, discusses results of the ORATOR2 study, which compared two treatment options that could be de-escalated for patients with HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a lower-dose radiation approach (6 weeks instead of 7, ...
Both dose-escalated radiation therapy and short-course androgen-deprivation therapy (SADT) have been shown to improve outcomes in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Researchers then posed a new question—is giving both modalities upfront to newly diagnosed patients of benefit? Findings ...
Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) awaiting liver transplantation may benefit from noninvasive treatment with external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) but are rarely given this therapy, according to a new analysis of U.S. national data. Findings were presented by Nima Nabavizadeh, MD, at the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Leavey et al, the phase III Children’s Oncology Group AEWS1031 trial showed no improvement in event-free or overall survival with the addition of vincristine, topotecan, and cyclophosphamide (VTC) to standard five-drug interval-compressed...
The invited discussant of the FOCUS4-C trial was Pierre Laurent-Puig, MD, Professor of Medicine, Université de Paris, Institut du Cancer Paris CARPEM. According to Dr. Laurent-Puig, the “promising results” for the WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib in colorectal cancer in the FOCUS4-C trial could apply to ...
The novel WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib, given after induction chemotherapy, yielded a 65% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death compared with active monitoring in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and TP53/RAS mutations, according to the randomized phase II FOCUS4-C trial....
In an analysis of SWOG clinical trials reported in JCO Oncology Practice, David Hui, MD, MS, MSc, and colleagues found that better baseline health-related quality of life was associated with better survival outcomes in patients with advanced cancer. Study Details The study involved a review of...
Part 2 of the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer—provided by the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries—has found that patients with cancer in the United...
Diana D. Shi, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, discusses studies being planned and already underway to test BAY 2402234, a de novo pyrimidine synthesis inhibitor that possibly could be used clinically to target IDH-mutant gliomas and may act as a...
Robert A. Olson, MD, of the University of British Columbia, discusses phase II findings from the SABR-5 trial on stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for up to five oligometastases. Although toxicity of liver and adrenal metastases warrants caution, the trial seemed to show that this type of...
“KRAS G12C inhibitors as monotherapy yield a relatively low overall response rate, but when you combine them with an EGFR [epidermal growth factor receptor] inhibitor, the response rate is nearly double,” said Federica Di Nicolantonio, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology at the University of Turin in...
Adagrasib, a covalent inhibitor of KRAS G12C, combined with cetuximab, showed activity in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in the phase I/II KRYSTAL-1 trial, as presented during a Presidential Symposium at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 by Jared Weiss, MD,...
The time required to secure prior authorization approvals for radiation therapy equates to a financial impact of more than $40 million annually for academic medical centers, according to a new study presented by Bingham et al at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual...
Moderator of the session on oncology drug pricing, Arjun Gupta, MBBS, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, observed that generics alone may be insufficient to slow the astronomical rise of drug prices. “The general thinking has always been that generics...
A study presented by Manning et al at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 53) showed that interventions to help Black patients overcome obstacles to completion of treatment can impact disparities in survival outcomes between Black and White patients...
Despite the promise of precision oncology, the cost-effectiveness of targeted treatments remains open to debate. According to Aakash Desai, MD, MPH, there is an urgent need for drug-pricing reform, given the average expenditure of Medicare Part D. An analysis of the Medicare database presented...
A 22-gene genomic classifier (the Decipher score) may be able to predict the course of disease in men with high-risk prostate cancer, according to a patient-level meta-analysis of three randomized clinical trials presented by Paul L. Nguyen, MD, at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology...
Data from a new study showed that those who started to smoke at earlier ages have an elevated likelihood of dying from cancer. Those who began at the youngest ages (before age 10 years) had four times the cancer mortality rates in adulthood than those who had never smoked. However, individuals who...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Hirsch et al found that cabozantinib showed substantial activity in treating brain metastases in patients with renal cell carcinoma. As stated by the investigators, “Patients with brain metastases from renal cell carcinoma have been...
On October 22, Oncopeptides announced its decision to withdraw melphalan flufenamide (Pepaxto), a first-in-class peptide-drug conjugate, from the market in the United States, following results from the phase III OCEAN study in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The decision to...
The first indication I had stage IV lung cancer was a persistent cough during the beginning of the cold-and-flu season in the fall of 2013. I was 35 years old, never smoked, and in otherwise excellent health, so I ignored the cough for several months until I noticed my breathing had also become...
The delivery of high-quality cancer care relies on a vast network of dedicated experts, some of whom work assiduously behind the scenes, building and modernizing the very architecture on which the cancer community operates. One such person was Clayton Dunklin Pruett, an engineer by training, who...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Siemens Healthineers recently announced the collaborative development of a global education program focused on enabling the implementation of consistent, high-quality magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in radiation oncology. The program will...
On September 14, 2021, the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor zanubrutinib was granted accelerated approval for adults with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) who have had at least one prior anti-CD20–based regimen.1 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the...
Although overall cancer cases are declining, they are on the rise in older adolescents and young adults (AYAs). Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) recently announced the establishment of the Lisa and Scott Stuart Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancers (the Stuart Center), expanding ...
Guest Editor’s Note: Cancer-related cognitive difficulties, experienced by many cancer survivors, include perceived or objective deficits in memory, attention, and concentration, which can negatively impact quality of life. Given the important role that healthful sleep plays in cognitive processes, ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of a new indication for the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab (Erbitux) in combination with encorafenib (Braftovi) for the treatment of adults with metastatic colorectal cancer and a BRAF V600E mutation, as detected by an FDA-approved test,...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and BostonGene Corporation recently announced a strategic alliance to advance the development and clinical integration of multiplatform biomarker signatures. Expands Upon Existing Collaborations The alliance brings together BostonGene’s innovative...
The number of deaths related to breast cancer are increasing at an alarming pace worldwide. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) 2020 report, approximately 2,088,849 new cases and 627,000 deaths related to breast cancer occurred in 2018.1 More than 55% of these deaths occurred in low- to ...