The ASCO Post asked Joseph Mikhael, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation and Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center), to comment on the GMMG-HD7...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In ...
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor with the BC Cancer Centre for Lymphoid Cancer and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Alex Herrera, MD, Associate Professor in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope,...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has made an impact on the treatment of certain blood cancers, but in clinical study, the cellular therapy has not been as successful for patients with solid tumors, due in part to the lack of tumor targets not expressed in vital tissues. In a new study ...
Immunotherapy has become a potential strategy in treating triple-negative breast cancer, though many questions remain to be answered before long-term survival is achieved by all patients. This exciting field of breast cancer research was explored at the 2022 Miami Breast Cancer Conference by...
According to the results of a new study published by Drysdale et al in the Journal of Medical Screening, 51.4% of women preferred self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV)-based cervical cancer screening, compared to 36.5% who preferred being tested by a clinician. The findings came from a...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has revolutionized the treatment of blood cancers, including certain leukemias, lymphomas, and multiple myeloma. However, Black and Hispanic patients were largely absent from the major clinical trials that led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
Contrary to what has been assumed, all recurrences of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are not genetically the same, according to a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022.1 Almost 20% of ipsilateral recurrences found in the study were genetically...
Amandeep Salhotra, MD, Associate Professor of Leukemia at City of Hope, in California, said this study should form the basis for a prospective phase III study in which older patients with AML (60–75 years) should have equal chance at randomization to either arm to remove bias on the part of...
Genetics and other factors that can determine if a woman is at risk for a recurrence of breast cancer have been identified by investigators at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, providing new research avenues for preventing a new tumor from developing. The discovery was made possible...
Cheryl L. Willman, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the profound cancer health disparities among Native Americans, exacerbated by low rates of screening and limited access to care. Dr. Willman is heading an effort to promote community engagement in comprehensive genomic ...
A new study published by Englisch et al in the journal Blood Advances suggests that people with cancer and non-O blood types—such as types A, B, and AB—may face an increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) 3 months after their initial diagnosis. Scientists have long strived to...
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells from patients whose cancers did not respond to CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy had gene regulation signatures that could potentially facilitate treatment resistance, according to results presented at the American Association for...
The accuracy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer could be improved by accounting for genetic factors that cause changes in PSA levels not associated with cancer, according to data presented by Kachuri et al during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)...
A rapid recommendation update to an ASCO guideline offers revised parameters for adjuvant therapy in patients with resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have stage IB to IIIA disease.1,2 The new guidance reflects the findings from two randomized clinical trials that assessed the use of...
“Refugees and displaced people may see their cancer treatment interrupted, or they may develop a new cancer while they are in host countries. They often present with advanced disease and suffer more complications. These patients have poor outcomes because of poor hygiene and living conditions, as...
Nothing can really prepare you for cancer, but it helped that I have dedicated my life in service to others as a minister and advocate for social justice and health equity in breast cancer survivorship. Before my own breast cancer diagnosis in 2016, I had spent years as a volunteer for several...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present the Hematology Expert Review, an occasional feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib, Kröger, and Mikulska focus on the challenges of providing cancer care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here they present two...
The Prevent Cancer Foundation recently announced funding for seven scientists who are researching cancer prevention and early detection. Each scientist has been awarded $100,000 for 2 years. The following individuals are the 2022 research grantees: Sarah Bernhardt, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow Oregon...
On February 2, 2022, City of Hope announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a network of oncology hospitals and outpatient care centers across the United States. City of Hope, in Duarte, California, now has expanded its...
Margaret A. Tempero, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the most effective ways to use the regimens available to treat patients with pancreatic cancer (FOLFIRINOX [fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin] and...
In a Dutch retrospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, de Jong et al found that higher levels of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) were associated with “excellent prognosis” in young women with node-negative triple-negative breast cancer who did not receive...
“Prior to these two studies, smaller studies showed a lack of response to PARP [poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitors in previously treated patients with urothelial cancer, both as monotherapy and in combinations,” said formal discussant of the BAYOU and ATLANTIS trials, Sandy Srinivas, MD,...
The ASCO Post invited Mandana Kamgar, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, LaBahn Pancreatic Cancer Program, Milwaukee, to comment on the KRYSTAL-1 trial. “The KRYSTAL-1 study in totality is a multiphase and multiarm ongoing study exploring the role of...
The past year has seen unprecedented progress across the spectrum of gastrointestinal malignances, including the advancement of immunotherapy and targeted molecular agents and the refinement of adjuvant therapy using novel as well as existing therapies. Three themes emerging from these reports are: ...
“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.” —Sir William Osler To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting...
Tanya B. Dorff, MD, of City of Hope National Medical Center, discusses the first-in-human phase I findings showing that prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) CAR T-cell therapy is feasible in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, with preliminary antitumor activity exhibited.
In patients with breast cancer tumors harboring BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, inhibitors of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) have emerged as essential therapeutic agents. What more needs to be done to obtain even more benefit from these targeted agents? This question was tackled at the 2022 Miami...
The past year has witnessed tremendous advances in genitourinary oncology. I am pleased to review these findings in this year’s Genitourinary Oncology Almanac from The ASCO Post. I hope that you will find this roadmap helpful in highlighting a selection of these exciting developments. Checkpoint...
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of City of Hope National Medical Center, discusses some key research developments in kidney cancer, including data on nivolumab and ipilimumab with or without CBM588 in metastatic renal cell carcinoma; intestinal microbiome associated with the development of grade 3 or 4 adverse ...
A new report from an ASCO expert panel that addresses unanswered questions about biosimilars—licensed biologic products that are largely analogous to products approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—found that they may represent an affordable and effective alternative for cancer...
An update to a joint guideline from Cancer Care Ontario (now a division of Ontario Health) and ASCO provides revised recommendations for the use of adjuvant bone-modifying agents for patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer, with the overarching goal of improving relapse and survival rates.1,2...
I still remember having to sit down with her three siblings on that afternoon. It was drizzling, cloudy, and cool—Mother Nature in agreement with the heaviness of what had just taken place. I held them tight. I knew the words I would utter next would change their lives forever. I paused for 10...
OCE Insights is an occasional column developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Gautam U. Mehta, MD, Neurosurgical Oncologist and Clinical Reviewer, Division of Oncology 2; Fatima Rizvi,...
New recommendations for treating advanced breast cancer, coming from a panel of experts at the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Sixth International Consensus Conference (ABC6), were recently published.1 The report highlights advances that have resulted in robust improvements in overall survival for...
American Society of Hematology (ASH) session co-moderator Matthew Genyeh Mei, MD, Associate Professor, Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute of City of Hope in Southern California, said the studies of checkpoint inhibitors in newly diagnosed and previously treated Hodgkin ...
I returned home to the United Arab Emirates in 2017, following my oncology fellowship training and work experience in the United States. I immediately realized that I am now dealing with a considerably different cancer patient population in terms of age of onset, stage at presentation, awareness...
Financial assistance is available for some individuals with cancer from CancerCare, a nonprofit organization helping people cope with and manage the emotional and practical challenges of cancer. Financial assistance for transportation to and from treatment is available via CancerCare’s...
Researchers at City of Hope published data pointing to the limitations of a popular liquid biopsy that is used to detect the recurrence of colorectal cancer in patients who who have undergone surgical resection. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open by Marwan Fakih, MD, and colleagues....
According to the United Nations (UN), more than 1.7 million Ukrainians have already fled to Central Europe due to the Russian invasion, which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has called the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. Many of those fleeing Ukraine and those...
Charles Shapiro, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on the study findings. “MA.32 is a large, randomized placebo-controlled trial of metformin in over 3,600 women with invasive breast cancer. The rationale for...
Invited discussant of the KEYNOTE-355 trial, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, one of the coauthors of the study, had presented the survival data at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021.1 The San Antonio presentation was a more in-depth evaluation of survival by different PD-L1...
The discussant of KEYNOTE-522 at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented: “We are clearly making...
The ASCO Post asked Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor and Chair of Medical Breast Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San...
The ASCO Post asked Joseph Mikhael, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation and Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center), to comment on the GMMG-HD7...
The phase III PANTHER trial, which evaluated pevonedistat plus azacitidine vs azacitidine alone in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and low–blast count acute myeloid leukemia (AML) failed to meet its primary endpoint of event-free survival,1 though lessons...
The bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab achieved deep and durable remissions as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial presented at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In ...
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor with the BC Cancer Centre for Lymphoid Cancer and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Alex Herrera, MD, Associate Professor in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte,...
Poor outcomes are observed in patients with myeloma who are refractory to multiple classes of therapies, with the average patient experiencing disease progression in up to 6 months and living no longer than 6 to 15 months. Patients often rapidly cycle through regimens that use less effective or...
In December 2021, Nobel laureates, cancer center directors, physicians, scientists, politicians, public health officials, and patient advocates gathered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National...