A prospective study examining a trimodality treatment approach in localized bladder cancer cases using adaptive image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy found that the bladder preservation rate at 3 years was 83%. These findings were published by Murthy et al in the International Journal ...
On March 30, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved defibrotide sodium (Defitelio) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with hepatic veno-occlusive disease, also known as sinusoidal obstructive syndrome, with renal or pulmonary dysfunction following hematopoietic...
In a single-center retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, McDonald et al found that adding digital breast tomosynthesis to digital mammography reduced recall rates, increased cancer detection, and was associated with a numeric reduction in interval cancers. Study Details The analysis...
The phase II portion of the Italian HD0801 study suggests that treatment based on positron-emission tomography (PET) performed early in first-line therapy for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma may improve outcome in patients at risk of first-line treatment failure. Zinzani et al reported their findings in...
In a small trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Mogil et al found that low-magnitude, high-frequency mechanical stimulation improved the whole-body bone mineral density score in childhood cancer survivors with low bone mineral density. Study Details In the double-blind trial, 65 survivors of...
As summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, Ivey and colleagues demonstrated that assessing for NPM1-mutated gene transcripts by reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay is a feasible approach for measuring minimal residual disease after acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...
Two quality improvement projects described in the Journal of Oncology Practice resulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous (IV) and oral chemotherapy. A project at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types of...
In a study using managed-care organization data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Armenian et al found that survivors of adult-onset multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, lung/bronchus cancer, and breast cancer had an increased risk for subsequent cardiovascular disease. Study...
Immunotherapy using anti–programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) antibodies has revolutionized the treatment of advanced melanoma and a growing list of other cancers. But 60% to 70% of melanoma tumors are resistant to anti–PD-1 antibodies, and there is an urgent need to understand how to...
As reported by Hodi et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, use of conventional Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) to assess response may have underestimated the benefit of treatment with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the...
Annual screening with the fecal immunochemical test is highly sensitive for detecting colorectal cancer and “is feasible and effective for population-level colorectal cancer screening,” according to a large-scale retrospective cohort study assessing this test over four rounds of annual screening....
In a one-story concrete industrial building across the street from a lumberyard in Austin, Texas, Greg Matthews and his computers are tracking everything that more than 500,000 U.S.-based physicians post publicly on social media. Every tweet. Every public blog, Facebook, or Instagram post. Every...
The increased rate of bilateral mastectomies, as shown in recently released data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is “perplexing,” Ismail Jatoi, MD, PhD, told The ASCO Post. “We are seeing more and more women with unilateral breast cancer opt for bilateral mastectomy,...
There are approximately 14 million cancer survivors in the United States, a number that is steadily increasing, thanks to our advances in detection and treatment. However, surviving cancer can leave a host of physical, emotional, and financial hardships for years after diagnosis and treatment. In ...
Longevity is a common goal among humans. And like all things human, it is not distributed equally. According to world health data, Japan is number one on the longevity list; its 130 million citizens have a life expectancy of about 84.74 years. The sub-Saharan country of Chad is number 224, having ...
Since the late 1970s, researchers have identified several gene mutations that are implicated in cancer. Many of these mutations are acquired during our lifetime, but, as we know, some are inherited in families. Identifying heritable cancer-causing genetic mutations is a double-edged sword,...
My diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer at age 35 was a shock, also because I come from a family with no history of cancer. In disbelief, I was literally speechless—I lost my voice completely for several days. I grew up in the former Soviet Union and then in the newly independent Kyrgyzstan. My...
Breast-conserving therapy (lumpectomy plus radiation therapy) appears to improve 10-year overall survival for women with early breast cancer compared with mastectomy, according to a very large population-based study from the Netherlands.1 However, the study raises more questions than it answers,...
Patients with pancreatic cancer can obtain molecular tumor profiling through the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s Know Your TumorSM precision medicine initiative, a partnership with Perthera, a personalized medicine service company that facilitates the multi-omic profiling and generates the...
Wells Messersmith, MD, Professor and Head of Medical Oncology and Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program, University of Colorado, Denver, discussed the two studies. Closer Look at STEAM Dr. Messersmith said the FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, oxaliplatin, irinotecan) vs FOLFOX...
Two trials reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium evaluated bevacizumab (Avastin)-containing regimens in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and supported some, but not all, previous findings. The STEAM trial found some numerical differences but no...
New data on molecular biomarkers in advanced prostate cancer are accumulating at a fast pace. The studies in this area can now be broadly grouped in two distinct areas—those that broadly relate to androgen signaling and those that relate to DNA-repair pathways. The Androgen-Signaling Pathway With...
In the TOPARP-A phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Joaquin Mateo, MD, of the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden in London, and colleagues, found that the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) produced a high response rate in patients with previously treated ...
“New!” “Improved!” “Throw out that old [fill in the blank] and go buy a new [fill in the blank]!” Sound familiar? The key to marketing is to convince customers that they need a product without which they had previously been quite happy. All too often, this strategy is accompanied by a caveat emptor ...
Adding a genetically engineered “switch receptor” to second-generation CAR T cells blocked PD-1–mediated immune suppression, and made the immunotherapy effective against solid tumors in preclinical models, according to a study published by Liu et al in Cancer Research....
Myeloma is a disease of aging, with a median age at diagnosis in the United States of 69 years.1 As the population ages, forecasts estimate that, within 20 years, 3 of every 4 people diagnosed with multiple myeloma in the United States will be between the ages of 64 and 84 years.2 In anticipation...
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, did more than make it possible for millions of Americans to afford health care; it also established an abbreviated approval pathway for biologic products that are “biosimilar” to, or shown to be “interchangeable” with, a U.S....
On February 26, 2016, obinutuzumab (Gazyva) was approved for use in combination with bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) followed by obinutuzumab monotherapy for treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma who have relapsed after or are refractory to a rituximab (Rituxan)-containing regimen.1,2...
Intravenous pegylated (PEG) Escherichia coli (E coli) asparaginase was associated with similar toxicity and efficacy compared with intramuscular native E coli L-asparaginase in children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, according to the results of a phase III trial (DFCI 05-001).1 ...
For oncology professionals looking to maximize their learning and networking opportunities, ASCO will be offering two types of Pre–Annual Meeting Educational Programs ahead of its 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago this summer. Offered since 2012, Pre–Annual Meeting Seminars are a series of in-depth...
On February 19, 2016, palbociclib (Ibrance) was approved for use in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) for treatment of hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following endocrine therapy.1,2 In February 2015, palbociclib in...
Soon after effective therapies for some childhood malignancies were first identified, early leaders in our field had concerns about what would happen to surviving patients as they aged. In 1975, Giulio D’Angio, MD, one of the founders of modern pediatric radiation oncology, presciently called for...
ASCO has announced the two physicians selected for its new Health Policy Fellowship, which kicked off this past October. Robert M. Daly, MD, and Steve Y. Lee, MD, will be the fellows for the inaugural class, which runs from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017. The program, aimed at oncologists in the...
Proton-beam radiation therapy may be an attractive option for reirradiation of recurrent head and neck cancer, with encouraging disease control and survival rates and improved toxicity rates compared to photon reirradiation, according to John Han-Chih Chang, MD. Most head and neck cancers present...
Efforts to reduce the late toxicity associated with chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer have focused on radiation therapy dose de-escalation in select populations, according to James Melotek, MD, a radiation oncologist at the University of Chicago. “Patients...
Definitive radiation, with or without chemotherapy, induces a combination of immune-stimulating and inhibitory effects in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, according to research presented by Jonathan Schoenfeld, MD, MPhil, MPH, at the 2016 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck...
On March 26, 2013, ASCO announced that it had completed a prototype of CancerLinQ™, the Society’s groundbreaking health information–technology initiative to achieve higher quality, higher value cancer care with better outcomes for patients. At this year’s 2016 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Robert S. ...
Venous thromboembolic events are more prevalent in patients with cancer than in persons without it. Cancer is associated with a high rate of venous thromboembolism recurrence, bleeding, requirement for long-term anticoagulation, and reduced quality of life. Moreover, thrombosis is the second most...
The phase III ICON6 trial showed that adding cediranib to platinum-based therapy increased progression-free survival and toxicity in women with first relapse of platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, reported Ledermann et al in The Lancet. Study Details In the double-blind trial, 456 women with...
Updated results of the phase I ASCEND-1 trial, reported by Kim et al in The Lancet Oncology, indicate that the ALK inhibitor ceritinib (Zykadia) produced high response rates in advanced ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including intracranial disease, in both patients with...
In a long-term follow up of two large U.S. prospective cohorts reported in JAMA Oncology, Cao et al found that regular use of aspirin was associated with a reduced risk of gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancers. In 2015, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended the use of aspirin in...
In a phase III trial (ECOG-ACRIN E2805) reported in The Lancet by Haas et al, no benefit of adjuvant VEGFR (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor) inhibitor treatment with sunitinib or sorafenib (Nexavar) was observed vs placebo in patients with completely resected high-risk nonmetastatic...
Latinas who eat processed meats such as bacon and sausage may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study that did not find the same association among white women. The study, published by Kim et al in Cancer Causes & Control, suggests that race, ethnicity, genetics,...
Consuming a diet with a high glycemic index was independently associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer in non-Hispanic whites, according to a new epidemiologic study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This research, published by Melkonian et al in Cancer...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Garcia-Manero et al, the phase III ONTIME trial showed that treatment with the Ras mimetic rigosertib did not significantly improve overall survival vs best supportive care in patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes after failure of hypomethylating...
The oral Aurora A kinase inhibitor alisertib was active in combination with irinotecan/temozolomide in patients with relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma, in a phase I dose-escalation trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by DuBois et al. The maximum tolerated dose of alisertib was 60...
A tumor’s immune response to a single dose of the HER2 inhibitor trastuzumab (Herceptin) predicted which patients with HER2-positive breast cancer would respond to the drug on a more long-term basis, according to the results of a study published by Varadan et al in Clinical Cancer Research....
Using the National Cancer Institute’s Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), researchers from Columbia University, New York, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, identified six severe adverse events clusters in patients with advanced prostate cancer. The...
Radiotherapy effectively damages brain tumors, but the cancer cells can repair themselves in order to live on. Now, researchers at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University have tested a strategy that combines radiotherapy with a drug that shuts down the ability of tumor to mend...
University of Louisville School of Dentistry researchers have found that a bacterial species responsible for gum disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis, is present in 61% of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The findings, published by Gao et al in Infectious Agents and Cancer, only...