An antibody that binds simultaneously to two distinct regions of the HER2 receptor to block the growth of cancer cells has shown antitumor activity in a number of cancers, including those of the esophagus, stomach, and bowel. Updated results from a phase I clinical trial of the treatment, called...
New results from the long-running I-SPY 2 trial, which aimed to identify which new drugs or combinations of drugs are most effective in which types of breast cancer, demonstrated the usefulness of two genomic tests. Laura van ‘t Veer, PhD, leader of the Breast Oncology Program at the...
In a late-breaking presentation at the 30th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, Zev Wainberg, MD, reported on results from a phase II international clinical trial of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) plus trametinib (Mekinist), which showed some activity in 36 patients ...
On November 21, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to venetoclax (Venclexta) in combination with azacitidine or decitabine or low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults who are age 75 years or older or...
On November 26, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to larotrectinib (Vitrakvi) for adult and pediatric patients with solid tumors that have a neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase (NTRK) gene fusion without a known acquired resistance mutation, whose...
The combination of symptoms I began experiencing in the spring of 2007, including night sweats so severe they woke me from a sound sleep and midline chest wall swelling so extreme I needed a larger shirt size, drove me to seek immediate medical attention. A series of imaging and blood tests...
“BLACK WOMEN are more likely to develop breast cancer at a younger age, compared with white American women, and at all ages, younger and older individuals are more likely to develop triple-negative breast cancers,” Lisa A. Newman, MD, MPH, told The ASCO Post. “So, I think it is very clear that if...
"WE ABSOLUTELY have an obligation to evaluate all of the features describing our patients with cancer when we are trying to figure out why some patients do better than others,” Lisa A. Newman, MD, MPH, reminded the nearly 700 participants at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, hosted by...
Elisha Waldman, MD, is a pediatric oncologist and Associate Chief in the Division of Palliative Care at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. He grew up in a Connecticut suburb, the son of a conservative rabbi. Early on, Dr. Waldman majored in religious studies and felt...
Cancer memoirs are generally written by people who have an intimate relationship with the disease, mostly survivors, sometimes by those who are dying while writing, such as the breathtaking book, The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying, by the poet Nina Riggs. Once in a while, a scientist or...
ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with the kinase inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar). KEYNOTE-224 APPROVAL WAS based on KEYNOTE-224, a...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. Shelly Latte-Naor, MD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, explore some of the beneficial effects attributed ...
Formed in 1991, the Rocky Mountain Oncology Society (RMOS), a Chapter Member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) and State Affiliate of ASCO, serves as the voice for Colorado’s multidisciplinary cancer care teams and the patients they serve. Representing the common interests of...
MICHAEL A . CALIGIURI, MD, President of City of Hope National Medical Center, and Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief Distinguished Chair, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Membership in the Academy...
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,...
SIX HOSPITAL systems across the country are launching a new research collaboration to improve the reporting and management of cancer treatment–related symptoms. The initiative, known as the SIMPRO Research Center, will integrate the use of patient-reported outcomes into the routine practice of...
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY (ASH) will recognize Freda K. Stevenson, DPhil, of the University of Southampton and Southampton University Hospitals in the United Kingdom, and Brunangelo Falini, MD, of the University of Perugia and the Institute of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation...
DURING THE 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego this December, ASH will honor Cage S. Johnson, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Physiology, and Biophysics at the University of Southern California, and José A. López, MD, Professor of Medicine...
“‘Sickness’ is what is happening to the patient. Listen to him. Disease is what is happening to science and to populations.” —Lawrence Weed, MD, 1978 America’s massive health-care system is highly complex, with its own unique language, methods, technologies, and scientific approaches, developed and ...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, ASCO’s Chief Executive Officer. Prior to his current position, Dr. Hudis served in a variety of roles at ASCO, including President during ASCO’s 50th anniversary...
RESEARCHERS AT LA JOLLA INSTITUTE for Immunology and University of California (UC), San Diego, have been awarded $4.5 million as part of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. The funding will support research to develop new and improved immunotherapeutic options for patients...
For the past 50 years or more, oncologists have designed their treatment plans around the three pillars: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Now, with a series of recent successes, immunotherapy is rapidly reemerging as the fourth pillar in the oncologic armamentarium. Despite major advancements...
ON NOVEMBER 16, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the approved use of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) injection in combination with chemotherapy for adult patients with certain types of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL)—adults with previously untreated systemic anaplastic...
THE SAN ANTONIO Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will honor three researchers for their work in breast cancer at the upcoming 2018 SABCS in December. They are Ian Smith, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, who will receive the SABCS William L. McGuire Memorial...
ON NOVEMBER 6, 2018, following Priority Review, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved elotuzumab (Empliciti) injection for intravenous use in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst) and dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at...
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY (ASH) announced the election of four new members to its Executive Committee for terms beginning after the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition in December. Martin S. Tallman, MD, will serve a 1-year term as Vice President, followed by successive terms as...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved glasdegib (Daurismo) tablets to be used in combination with low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults who are 75 years of age or older or with comorbidities that may preclude the use of ...
Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD, is the recipient of the 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Distinguished Lecture on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities, funded by Susan G. Komen. She was honored during the 11th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in...
Despite growing national awareness of health-care inequities, the plight of rural Americans diagnosed with cancer has persistently remained inadequate. Speaking with The ASCO Post, Jan Probst, PhD, Professor at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, noted, “We...
The phase III DUO trial, reported by Flinn et al and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, has led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a novel B-cell receptor (BCR) kinase inhibitor, duvelisib (Copiktra), which targets phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-δ/γ in patients...
In response to the opioid-overdose epidemic, several measures have been put in place, such as the reclassification of hydrocodone as a Schedule II opioid and new requirements for physician review of prescription drug–monitoring program databases in most states. Moreover, the Surgeon General and...
As part of the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative, the National Cancer Institute has awarded $6.3 million to Nicholas Mitsiades, MD, of the Baylor College of Medicine, and a collaborative team at Baylor College of Medicine to establish a Minority Patient-Derived Xenograft Development and Trial...
The University of Pittsburg Medical Center (UPMC) recently announced the opening of a new radiotherapy center in Villa Maria, Italy, which will become part of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center network when it opens to patients later this year. The new center, named the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at...
Amar Kishan, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and a member of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, will receive the 2018 Publication Award from the Radiation Oncology Institute in recognition of a study highlighting the value of...
The link between inflammation and cancer is a field of growing interest in the oncology community. Biologists have theorized that simultaneous DNA damage and cell division during inflammation could lead to cancer. To shed light on this important issue, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Jennifer...
Allen Kachalia, MD, JD, will be appointed Director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and Senior Vice President of Patient Safety and Quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine, starting December 1. During his nearly 20-year career in medicine, Dr. Kachalia has served in a variety...
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society recently announced a $1,175,000 commitment by the Schwartz Ward Family Foundation of Chicago to support two research initiatives. These funds will support two grants in the society’s Career Development Program: Christiane Querfeld, MD, PhD, of City of Hope, is...
When detected early, liver cancer is highly treatable and, in many cases, curable, yet the number of new cases of liver cancer in the United States has increased by 43% in the past 16 years, whereas the incidence of other cancers is on the decline. This past October, during Liver Cancer Awareness...
On November 2, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to lorlatinib (Lorbrena) for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on crizotinib (Xalkori) and at least one other ALK ...
New research by Lichtensztajn et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network examined disparities in care for Latino men with prostate cancer. A team of researchers from UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stanford Cancer Institute, and...
A combination of the chemotherapy drug azacitidine with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated an encouraging response rate and overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to findings from a phase II study published...
In a 2-year follow-up of the phase III SUPREMO trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Galina Velikova, PhD, of the Leeds Cancer Centre, St. James’s University Hospital, United Kingdom, and colleagues found worse chest wall symptoms in women with intermediate-risk breast cancer who did vs did not...
Three prominent medical organizations have issued a new clinical guideline for physicians treating men with early-stage prostate cancer using external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Developed by a panel of experts from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), ASCO, and the American...
The Atlantic Health System, an integrated health-care delivery system, recently announced a partnership with the Translational Genomics Research Institute, an affiliate of City of Hope, and Origin Commercial Ventures to create a new platform to deliver economically viable immunotherapies and other...
Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, MPH, PhD, of St. Louis University, discusses study findings on married cancer survivors with advanced stage disease who were less likely to die by suicide, highlighting the value of supportive care in cancer survivorship (Abstract 181).
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) announced that Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS, a colorectal surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, will be joining the ACS Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care (DROPC) as Medical Director of Cancer Programs. Dr. Nelson comes to the ACS from her...
Allison S. Betof Warner, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for immunotherapy and combination treatments, identifying the agents that lead to toxicities, and ways to manage them.
Charles von Gunten, MD, PhD, of OhioHealth, discusses the critical need for opioids to manage cancer pain as well as the myth of addiction, which may impede best care.
Eric Roeland, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the wide variation among physicians in preventing vomiting from highly emetogenic chemotherapy (Abstract 74).
Charles Gawad, MD, PhD, an assistant member in the Departments of Oncology and Computational Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has been selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive a Director’s New Innovator Award. Established in 2007, this award supports...