In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Evens et al found that a regimen of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) given sequentially before and after standard doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD) was associated with good outcomes in untreated older patients with...
A new study suggests chemotherapy may cause acute amenorrhea, leading to early menopause in women with lung cancer. The study is the first to comment on amenorrhea rates in women younger than 50, concluding that women with lung cancer who desire future fertility should be educated about risks and...
Research grants are vital to the success of academic research and researchers apply for these grants at all stages of their career. This makes writing stand-out grant applications an incredibly valuable skill for clinical investigators—and an intimidating task for first-time grant applicants....
The tumultuous history of modern South Africa has numerous stories that lie beneath the surface of the sociopolitical headlines, such as the story of lung cancer expert Leora Horn, MD. “I was born and reared in Johannesburg, South Africa, a second-generation African family. In 1987, because of the...
Patients with advanced cancer often get more aggressive treatment than they want because too few oncologists elicit their end-of-life treatment preferences.1,2 In response to this problem, leading associations, including ASCO3,4 and the Institute of Medicine,5 have called for more advance care...
THE PERSHING Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance will open for applications for its 2019 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research on October 1, 2018. At least six New York City area–based scientists will each be awarded $200,000 per year for up to 3 years. Applicants...
As the population continues to age, the interplay between aging and cancer increasingly shows cancer to be a disease of older people. By the year 2030, there will be an increased incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in older individuals.1 The median age of patients diagnosed with diffuse large...
USING THE National Cancer Database, Bhatt et al1 recently reported that of the 61,775 adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), those who received chemotherapy from 2003 to 2011 lived longer than those who, in those same years, did not; the study is reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post....
IN PATIENTS with unresectable or metastatic melanoma, adding epacadostat to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) did not result in greater clinical benefit over pembrolizumab alone, according to data from the phase III ECHO-301/KEYNOTE-252 study. These results were originally presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual...
THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) issued the following approvals and prescribing information revisions in August 2018. Lenvatinib Approved for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma THE FDA approved lenvatinib (Lenvima) for the first-line treatment of patients with unresectable...
IN PATIENTS with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, nimotuzumab—a humanized monoclonal antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor—in combination with cisplatin and radiotherapy was superior to cisplatin and radiotherapy alone in improving progression-free...
ON AUGUST 27, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the combination of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and rituximab (Rituxan) for patients with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. The recent approval expands the label for ibrutinib in Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia beyond its current...
AS MORE is learned about the genomic landscape in non-Hodgkin lymphoma, clinicians are grappling with how to apply this information in the clinic. At the 2018 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference, Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, helped them understand this emerging area.1 Dr. Zelenetz is Professor of...
As novel therapies come on board for treating relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma, the field is advancing toward more personalized therapy. The goal, even in the advanced-disease setting, is to increase the chances of complete response and negative positron-emission tomography (PET), while...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vatner et al identified factors associated with an increased risk of endocrine deficiency in pediatric and young adult patients receiving radiation therapy for brain tumors, including hypothalamus and pituitary radiation dose. Study Details ...
Widespread use of antiretroviral therapy in the treatment of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has led to a decline in the incidence of HIV-related Kaposi sarcoma, an incurable malignancy associated with HIV. Nevertheless, about 15% of these patients will go on to...
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and the Movember Foundation recently announced four new Movember Foundation–PCF Challenge Award teams at some of the world’s leading academic research institutions will receive a total of $3.5 million to support cross-disciplinary pioneering research toward the...
I have always been plagued with nagging headaches, so when they intensified in late 2010, I wasn’t too concerned. But when my eyes began involuntarily moving rapidly back and forth as I was writing Christmas cards, I knew the symptoms were a sign of something serious. A magnetic resonance imaging...
In an interim analysis of a European trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Francois-Xavier Mahon, MD, of Institut Bergonié, Bordeaux, and colleagues found that discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with deep molecular response was...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Aaron M. Goodman, MD, of the University of California, San Diego Moores Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy, and colleagues found amplification of PDL1 genes in 0.7% of solid tumors, including more than 100 tumor types. Response to checkpoint inhibition was ...
IN PATIENTS with advanced BRAF V600–mutant melanoma, combining the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib (Braftovi) with the MEK inhibitor binimetinib (Mektovi) improved overall survival compared to vemurafenib (Zelboraf) or encorafenib as monotherapy, with a favorable toxicity profile, according to updated...
In the July 10, 2018, issue of The ASCO Post, the article “KEYNOTE-407: Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy Benefits Response, Survival in Squamous NSCLC” contained an error in the regimen for pembrolizumab (Keytruda). The study regimen, which has been corrected in the online version on ASCOPost.com,...
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. Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, present information on the potential...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On July 18, 2018, the indication for ribociclib (Kisqali) ...
BOOKMARK Title: White Hot Grief Parade: A Memoir Author: Alexandra Silber Publisher: Pegasus Books Publication date: July 2018 Price: $25.95, hardcover; 288 pages The sudden death of a loved one produces a different type of trauma for family and friends than the protracted fading away of cancer. ...
On July 10, 2018, ipilimumab (Yervoy) was granted accelerated approval for use in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients at least 12 years of age with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer progressing...
Advanced practice providers (APPs) have increasingly become integral members of the oncology care delivery team, according to the first large-scale study of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in oncology. The study was conducted collaboratively by ASCO, the American Academy of ...
GUEST EDITOR The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this special feature on the worldwide cancer burden. Each installment focuses on a country from one of the six regions of the world, as defined by the World Health Organization (ie, Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern...
In 2009, as Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, was preparing his Presidential Address for that year’s ASCO Annual Meeting, he came across his 6th grade essay titled “My Ambition,” which foretold with eerie specificity the career path he would follow over the next 6 decades. In the paper,...
Subsolid nodules can be considered a biomarker of lung cancer risk and should be managed with long-term active surveillance. Conservative management of subsolid nodules may reduce unnecessary surgery and overtreatment in patients with multiple comorbidities and aggressive lung cancer arising from...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Chino et al found that high proportions of insured patients with cancer—most with stage IV disease—reported being willing to make considerable personal and financial sacrifices to receive cancer care. The study included a...
In a Children’s Oncology Group phase I/II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Cole et al found that the combination of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) and gemcitabine was active in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. As noted by the...
According to the American Cancer Society, excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among men and women in the United States, with over 97,000 new cases expected this year, and is the third leading cause of cancer-related death, with over 50,000 deaths predicted in...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sun et al developed a radiomic signature of infiltrating CD8 cells that could identify tumor immune phenotype and help predict outcome of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor treatment. Study Details...
Cancer may be linked to an increased risk of death and prehospitalization in patients with broken heart syndrome, according to research presented by Santoro et al at the 2018 European Society of Cardiology Congress. Study author Francesco Santoro, MD, of the University of Foggia, Italy, said, ...
In the phase II PERTAIN trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rimawi et al found that adding pertuzumab to trastuzumab plus an aromatase inhibitor improved progression-free survival in patients with advanced HER2-positive, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. Study Details ...
In the phase II CheckMate 204 study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tawbi et al found that combined nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) produced a high rate of intracranial clinical benefit in patients with melanoma brain metastases. Study Details The study included 94...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Karim et al found that a quality improvement initiative at a single cancer center improved documentation of goals-of-care discussions and referral to palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. Study Details In the study,...
In a long-term follow-up of a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hoffman et al found that dose-escalated moderately hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (HIMRT) improved disease control and reduced treatment duration vs conventionally fractionated IMRT...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Janjigian et al, the phase I/II CheckMate-032 study has shown activity of nivolumab (Opdivo) and nivolumab plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in advanced esophagogastric cancer. In the esophagogastric cohort of the multicohort study, 160 patients (who...
As reported in JAMA, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has updated its 2012 recommendations on screening for cervical cancer. Key Recommendations The key USPSTF recommendations on screening are as follows: The USPSTF recommends screening for cervical cancer every 3 years with...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for elotuzumab (Empliciti) in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst) and low-dose dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ibrutinib (Imbruvica) plus rituximab (Rituxan) for the treatment of adult patients with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM). With this approval, the ibrutinib prescribing information now includes combination use with rituximab,...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Litton et al, the phase III EMBRACA trial has shown significantly improved progression-free survival with the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor talazoparib vs physician choice of standard single-agent therapy in patients with advanced...
Compared with nondrinkers, men who consumed at least 7 drinks per week during adolescence (ages 15–19) had 3 times the odds of being diagnosed with clinically significant prostate cancer, according to results published by Michael et al in Cancer Prevention Research. “The prostate...
As reported by Kim and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, the phase III MAVORIC trial showed that the anti-C-C chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) monoclonal antibody mogamulizumab (Poteligeo) significantly improved progression-free survival vs vorinostat (Zolinza) among patients with previously treated...
DATA FROM a new survey show that as many as 80% of oncologists have discussed medical marijuana use with their patients. According to the authors, this is the first nationally representative survey to examine oncologists’ practices and beliefs on the subject since the implementation of state...
The phase III NGR015 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Vanesa Gregorc, MD, of Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, and colleagues found no benefit of adding NGR-hTNF to best investigator choice of treatment in patients with previously treated malignant pleural mesothelioma. NGR-hTNF consists of...
EARLY IN 2018, blinatumomab (Blincyto) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in first or second complete remission with minimal residual disease ≥ 0.1%.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS...
ON JULY 20, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ivosidenib (Tibsovo) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation, as detected by an FDA-approved test.1,2 The FDA...