On May 24, 2019, alpelisib was approved for use in combination with fulvestrant for postmenopausal women, and men, with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test following...
Imagine undergoing major surgery in a grimy operating room without any form of antisepsis. That was the grim reality in the 1800s, when the ruling theory was that damage from “bad air” was responsible for infections in surgical wounds. Hospitals simply aired out the surgical wards at midday to...
On July 30, 2019, pembrolizumab was approved for the treatment of patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus whose tumors express programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1; Combined Positive Score [CPS] ≥ 10), as determined by a U.S. Food and Drug...
On June 10, 2019, pembrolizumab was approved for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic or unresectable recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.1,2 Pembrolizumab was approved for use in combination with platinum and fluorouracil (5-FU) for all patients and as a single agent...
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,...
Oncologist Nakul Singhal, MD, has joined New York Cancer & Blood Specialists (NYCBS) and will be accepting new patients at the Bayside and New Hyde Park locations. NYCBS also welcomes oncologist Nicole Carreau, MD. Prior to joining NYCBS, Dr. Singhal practiced at Hackensack Meridian Health...
For this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Tatiana M. Prowell, MD, who currently serves as Associate Professor of Oncology in the Breast Cancer Program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and as a Medical Officer and...
Many clinicians are confused by the evolving opioid prescribing guideline issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) meant to stem the rising epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose in the United States.1 Many are also worried about regulatory oversight by the U.S. Drug...
Two scientists, whose discoveries in stem cell and cancer cell biology have led to innovative advances in fields ranging from oncology and immunology to cancer genomics and regenerative medicine, will receive the 2019 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. Bert Vogelstein, ...
Primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma is a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in which standards of care have not been well established. In light of recent insights into its pathophysiology and the emergence of novel approaches, The ASCO Post asked Tracy T. Batchelor, MD, a specialist in...
On October 18, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval to axicabtagene ciloleucel for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma. Specifically, this treatment can be used after two or more lines of systemic therapy for diffuse...
On August 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to entrectinib (Rozlytrek) for adult and adolescent patients whose cancers have an NTRK (neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase) genetic fusion and for whom there are no effective treatments. Entrectinib was also...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology,1Zhaoming Wang, PhD, and colleagues at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, found that the presence of a germline BRCA2 mutation increased the risk of development of pediatric or adolescent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. As noted by the...
Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, has made patient advocacy—with a specific emphasis on health equity and access to high-quality care—front and center of her oncology practice since she completed her residency at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program in Boston, where she noticed that most of the...
In a clinical trial testing the toxicity of a KRAS inhibitor, the treatment demonstrated early promising antitumor activity and few adverse side effects in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring a KRAS G12C mutation. The research was presented by Govindan et al at the...
First-line therapy consisting of nivolumab plus ipilimumab showed a consistent safety profile in special populations with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to research presented by Fabrice Barlesi, MD, PhD, of Aix-Marseille University, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille...
At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2019 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), two presentations showed that tumor mutational burden is not associated with the efficacy of pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy in patients with non–small cell lung cancer...
In a study reported at the ASCO Quality Care Symposium and simultaneously published in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Campbell et al found that an ASCO Quality Training Program Project—the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) initiative—resulted in improvement in primary caregiver identification and...
In a study published in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology, Mody et al described results from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing in a real-time clinical context. The authors wrote, “[ctDNA assessment] holds incredible promise for early...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to magrolimab in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The agency also granted Breakthrough Therapy designations in lung cancer and desmoid tumors, as well as Breakthrough Device designations...
GUEST EDITOR Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine and Chief of Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Cancer and its treatments are associated with severe fatigue, depression, ...
Advanced melanoma has become a different entity in the era of immunotherapy and targeted agents. Considering the potential for good outcomes from systemic therapy in advanced disease, has the role of surgery changed? Should it be offered up front or limited to patients with oligometastatic ...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Panagiotis A. Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD, and colleagues found evidence of promising activity of the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor avelumab in mismatch repair–deficient (MMRD) recurrent or persistent endometrial...
This week, we’ll be talking about an extended follow-up of a phase III trial that investigated first-line nivolumab and ipilimumab vs sunitinib in advanced renal cell carcinoma. Then we’ll go over a research letter that identified strong predictors of response to immune checkpoint inhibitor...
Women who experienced six or more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in life had a twofold greater risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women who never experienced any PTSD symptoms. These findings were published by Roberts et al in Cancer Research. The...
In a study reported in The Lancet, the Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer found that the use of menopausal hormone therapy is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, with risk increasing as the duration of use increases, in both current and past users. Study...
Pregnancy after breast cancer appears to be safe in patients with germline BRCA mutations—and particularly among those with BRCA1 mutations—according to new research. Limited data are available on the safety of pregnancy and reproductive outcomes in patients with breast cancer and BRCA mutations,...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Thomas E. Stinchcombe, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of bevacizumab to erlotinib did not significantly improve progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details The...
Cancer drugs currently account for 27% of all new drug approvals in the United States since 2010—an increase from the 4% share they occupied in the 1980s, a newly completed analysis summarized in the most recent issue of the Tufts CSDD Impact Report. From 1980 through 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug...
Bleeding during the first 6 months after discharge from the hospital for acute coronary syndrome may be linked to subsequent cancer diagnosis, according to research presented by Muñoz Pousa et al at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2019 (Abstract P677). “Our results suggest that patients ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jennifer K. Litton, MD, and colleagues found that 6 months of neoadjuvant talazoparib therapy resulted in a high rate of residual cancer burden (RCB) of 0 (pathologic complete response) in patients with stage I–III breast cancer with germline ...
Early intervention in smoldering multiple myeloma prevents progression to symptomatic disease and should be strongly considered for patients meeting new criteria for high risk, according to Sagar Lonial, MD, Professor and Chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology and the Anne and Bernard Gray...
A retrospective analysis from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study reported in The Lancet Oncology by Dietz et al found that the need for solid organ transplantation was infrequent in aging survivors of childhood cancer, with greater organ-specific risk being associated with particular therapeutic...
In a study to be presented by Unger et al at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, researchers found patients living in socioeconomically deprived areas were more likely to experience worse survival in cancer clinical trials, even after adjustments for race and insurance (Abstract 162). Methods...
In a study to be presented by Khaki et al at the 2019 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, researchers found more aggressive end-of-life measures—including use of chemotherapy and admissions to the intensive care unit (ICU)—were employed in the last 30 days of life in Western Washington state vs Alberta,...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ornstein et al found that individualized axitinib regimens showed activity in patients with locally recurrent or metastatic renal cell carcinoma who had previously received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, although the progression-free...
Drug costs and requirements for prior authorization of treatment plans pose barriers to cancer treatment and can potentially affect outcomes for many patients, according to two studies that will be presented at the ASCO Quality Care Symposium. The studies respectively examine how the high...
Researchers from the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle investigated the relationship between participation in a clinical trial and overall survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Cristina Merkhofer, MD, MHS, will present...
Androgen-deprivation therapy has been, and remains, the standard of care for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Patients are often surprised to know that was all we would do to control their disease and sometimes asked why they would not get chemotherapy, as for other cancers. I would take...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Kim N. Chi, MD, of BC Cancer and Vancouver Prostate Centre, and colleagues, the first analysis of the phase III TITAN trial has shown that the addition of apalutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy improved radiographic progression-free and...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that duodenoscope manufacturers and health-care facilities transition to different types of duodenoscopes that may pose less risk to patient safety. Specifically, because of challenges with cleaning these devices for reuse and persistent...
During 2012–2016, an average of approximately 34,800 human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers were reported each year, according to a new study published by Senkomago et al in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Among the cancers probably caused by HPV, 92% are attributable to the HPV types ...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Galeas et al found that intervention in key drivers in the care process could reduce the time to initiation of chemotherapy in patients with elective admission to a hematologic malignancy service. Study Details The goal of...
New results from ASCO’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study have demonstrated that single-agent palbociclib has no meaningful clinical activity in patients with CDKN2A-mutated or -deleted advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma. These findings were...
In a Chinese phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Ma et al, the combination of the pan-ErbB inhibitor pyrotinib and capecitabine improved response rate vs lapatinib/capecitabine in women with HER2-positive relapsed or metastatic breast cancer previously treated with...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Angenendt et al found that adverse-risk cytogenetics were associated with significantly poorer outcomes vs normal karyotype among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) mutation. As stated by the...
Based on the recently published ENZAMET, ARCHES, and TITAN trials,1-3 we now have several choices of systemic combination therapies for men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer; the ENZAMET trial is reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post. In 2019, men are now faced with decisions of...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ian D. Davis, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FAChPM, of Monash University and Eastern Health in Melbourne, and colleagues, the phase III ENZAMET trial has shown that the androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide improved progression-free and overall survival ...
When The ASCO Post asked physician-scientist Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, where she was from, she answered, “North America.” Actually, she was born in Canada, but her father worked for a large international company, so the family moved regularly through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. “I...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Zheng et al found that patients with cancer and high-deductible health plans had increases in delayed/forgone care, an effect that was attenuated for those with health savings accounts. Emergency department use was similar across insurance...