Clinical trials involving adult patients conducted within the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) over the past 4 decades are estimated to have extended the lives of U.S. patients with cancer by at least 14.2 million patient-years, according to a new study published...
“I was in bed in the surgical wing of Duke University Hospital when the doctor popped his head in and smiled apologetically before flicking on the fluorescent lights. It was 4:00 AM, the end of my second night in the hospital, but nobody sleeps in the conventional sense,” writes Kate Bowler in the...
Although mandates by ASCO and the American Cancer Society to meet the needs of underserved populations have drawn much-needed awareness to the issue, patients with cancer who experience bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other debilitating mental illnesses continue to experience significantly...
In 2017, I noticed a roadside billboard touting the benefits of low-dose computed tomography (CT) imaging for lung cancer screening. The message probably saved my life. The public service campaign, called Saved by the Scan from the American Lung Association, included an Internet address where I...
Gladys Magaly Rodriguez, MD, was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, a city situated along the banks of the Rio Grande. At age 6, her family immigrated to Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town of some 30,000 people that is predominantly Latinx and Spanish speaking. “Even though I lived and attended school...
Lymphoma expert Alex Herrera, MD, was born in Miami; his parents were just 19 years old when he was born. Dr. Herrera’s father was born in Puerto Rico to Cuban and Ecuadorian parents. His mother was born in Cuba and came to the United States via Operation Peter Pan, the clandestine program that...
The novel MinimuMM-seq technique may make it possible to detect tumor cells in individuals at higher risk for multiple myeloma, assess the risk of disease progression in patients with myeloma, and track genetic changes in tumor cells over time from a single blood sample, according to a new study...
Richter syndrome is an aggressive lymphoma that develops in up to 1% of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and it serves as an example of histologic transformation. While recent advances have transformed the treatment landscape of CLL, Richter syndrome remains associated with poor...
The bispecific T-cell engager molecule blinatumomab was found to improve overall survival for patients with no measurable residual disease (MRD) after initial treatment for B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to the phase III ECOG-ACRIN E1910 trial presented by Litzow et al at...
The use of a simplified treatment regimen by oncologists—along with management recommendations and 24/7 support provided by a limited and dedicated group of academic disease experts—resulted in a decrease in early deaths from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). In the multicenter prospective trial...
The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel was deemed safe and showed encouraging signs of efficacy in a small pilot trial involving patients with lymphoma of the brain and/or spinal cord, according to findings presented by Caron A. Jacobson, MD, MMSc, and colleagues ...
The use of stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia increased by about 55% worldwide from 2009 to 2016, according to new findings presented by Niederweiser et al at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 3638). Although the largest...
In a new survey, a majority (64%) of patients diagnosed with breast cancer younger than 46 years reported significant impacts to their sexual health, yet 86% of patients reported that their health-care provider was unable to help address sexual health issues, according to findings presented by...
Editor’s Note: ASCO was deeply saddened by the news that Dr. Jeff Ward passed away on November 3, 2022. In an interview with Dr. Ward this past summer, published in ASCO Connection (August 30, 2022), ASCO recognized Dr. Ward’s commitment to exceptional patient care and public advocacy. An...
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, when he was just 55 years old. He died 6 years later. The cancer was so aggressive, it took only a few weeks from the time he was diagnosed for the cancer to grow to the size of a softball, and even a radical prostatectomy couldn’t save his...
“I knew my husband was dying in June. He’d been living with a terminal diagnosis for 6 years, but suddenly his cancer turned aggressive…. The last time we saw the oncologist, he sent us home with a DNR order and told me to put it on the refrigerator, because that’s where the EMTs look,” writes...
Breast cancer specialist Brittany L. Bychkovsky, MD, MSc, grew up primarily in Kansas; however, given that her father was a pilot, her childhood was not wholly centered in the Sunflower State. “When I was 12 years old, my mom, who was a schoolteacher, was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. Her ...
The repercussions from the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, to overturn Roe v Wade, effectively ending a nearly 50-year federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing instead states to determine abortion access, are starting to be felt in the cancer care community. The ...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, a physician-scientist who currently serves as President of the City of Hope National Medical Center and the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief...
A new ASCO guideline on the management of advanced colorectal cancer summarizes the latest treatments supported by quality data that could expand oncologists’ armamentarium and potentially improve survival outcomes.1 “[Colorectal cancer] remains the second-leading class of cancer deaths among men ...
Chemotherapy-induced hair loss affects 65% of patients with cancer,1 and the psychosocial impact on these patients can be profound; it may include anxiety, depression, a negative body image, lowered self-esteem, and a reduced sense of well-being.2 In some instances, the fear of hair loss from...
The HER3-directed antibody-drug conjugate patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd) showed activity in patients with heavily pretreated HER3-expressing metastatic breast cancer in a phase I/II study. Ian E. Krop, MD, PhD, Associate Director, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, presented these...
According to a recent article published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, cancer care in the United States exceeded $208 billion in 2020 and is expected to surpass $240 billion by 2030.1 These estimates are driven largely by a growing and aging population. The expenditures...
The statistics are grim: Worldwide, pancreatic cancer is the 12th most common cancer and the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality.1 In the United States, the malignancy has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers. It is currently the third leading cause of cancer-related death after...
Formal discussant of the PCS5 trial, Sophia C. Kamran, MD, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, said the goal of trials like this one is to optimize...
New research has shed light on how skewed X chromosome inactivation may be linked to the development of cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a novel study published by Roberts et al in eLife. Background Because the X chromosome has so many more genes than the Y chromosome, in every cell...
Diagnosing early-stage lung cancer using low-dose computed tomography (CT) screenings may improve patients’ long-term survival rate, according to long-term findings from the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2022 Annual...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with C.S. Pramesh, MS, FRCS, Director of the Tata Memorial Hospital and Professor and Head of Thoracic Surgery at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India. Dr. Pramesh is the Convener of the...
Myeloma expert Sarah A. Holstein, MD, PhD, was born and reared in Iowa City, a college town in eastern Iowa along the banks of the Iowa River. “The town itself is small, but it doubles in population when all the college students are present. Both my parents had a PhD in humanities, so I had no...
“Adjuvant osimertinib has been adopted widespread as a standard of care as a result of the primary results of ADAURA,” said formal discussant Sanjay Popat, FRCP, PhD, medical oncologist and lung specialist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, London. “We have more granularity about ...
In a presentation that followed the discussion of symptom self-management,1 Manali I. Patel, MD, MPH, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, emphasized the need to improve symptom management in diverse populations. “We’ve had more than 60 years of...
Fabrice André, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Oncology at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, Villejuif, France, and Chairman of the Biomarker Group at UNICANCER, provided comments on the stage IIA cohort of the PALLAS trial. “The key message from PALLAS1 is there is no signal for efficacy of...
In a preplanned analysis of the stage IIA cohort of the PALLAS trial, the addition of adjuvant palbociclib to standard endocrine therapy did not improve outcomes over endocrine therapy alone. This finding suggests this agent provides no benefit in reducing the risk of early relapse in patients with ...
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion and returning the power to regulate reproductive health for women to the states, ASCO, the American Cancer Society Action...
Formal discussant Jonathan Ledermann, MD, of UCL Cancer Institute University College London, commented on both phase III trials. He was enthusiastic about the SOLO-1 results: “Perhaps, we really are seeing a cure in some of these patients.” He noted that overall survival is still not fully mature, ...
Patients and survivors of breast cancer may have better mental health, physical health, and quality of life when taking part in a “behavioral graded activity” in combination with psychological therapies, according to a new study published by Lahousse et al in the European Journal of Cancer. The new ...
Although socioeconomic status often influences survival outcomes, pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who were living in poverty and were treated with CAR T-cell therapy achieved similar overall survival and were equally likely to achieve a complete...
New research examining whether patients with ovarian cancer were receiving care concordant with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) found clear disparities based on patients’ race, ability to pay, and access to specialists and...
There I was, crying once again all the way from the hospital’s parking lot to my apartment, into the shower, and while trying to fall asleep. This had become the norm during my internal medicine residency. For years, I tried hard every day to be someone else to fit in. It started with off-hand...
Robin Kate Kelley, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, was invited to discuss the results of LEAP-002.1 She said the main takeaway is that lenvatinib monotherapy is active as a preferred first-line agent for fit patients who have contraindications to...
The highly anticipated final analysis of the phase III LEAP-002 trial failed to meet expectations, as first-line treatment with lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab did not significantly improve outcomes in unresectable advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Both progression-free survival and overall survival ...
The ASCO Post asked for comment from Glenn J. Hanna, MD, Director of the Center for Salivary and Rare Head and Neck Cancers, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hanna said it is important to put the findings of KEYNOTE-4121 into context...
Cedars-Sinai Cancer Medical Center recently announced the appointment of Yuan Yuan, MD, PhD, a breast medical oncologist and physician scientist who specializes in triple-negative breast cancer and breast cancer immunotherapy, as Director of Breast Oncology. Finding Cutting-Edge Therapies...
After nearly a year-long search, the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) has announced its new Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Professional Integrity: Don S. Dizon, MD, who is currently Chair of the organization’s Digital Engagement Committee. Dr. Dizon is Director of the Pelvic...
The invited discussant of the post hoc analysis of TROPiCS-02 was Shom Goel, MBBS, PhD, Laboratory Group Leader at the University of Melbourne and a consultant oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Australia. Dr. Goel noted there remains much to learn about the HER2-low subset of...
For the first time in a multicenter randomized trial, T-cell therapy has been shown to improve outcomes in a solid tumor. In the phase III M14TIL trial, first-line or second-line treatment with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) led to a 50% reduction in disease progression or death from advanced ...
The MONARCH 3 study’s invited discussant, Meritxell Bellet Ezquerra, MD, PhD, a senior researcher at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, commented: “The second interim analysis for overall survival in MONARCH 31 indicates a positive trend, which was also observed for the subgroup...
I don’t know why I am so susceptible to developing lung cancer. Since 2014, I have been diagnosed with both non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer, each occurring in my right lung. I have also been diagnosed with precancerous colon polyps, which necessitated invasive surgery. ...
With out-of-pocket costs of cancer care exceeding $21 billion in 2019, financial toxicity among patients and their families in the United States has become too prevalent to ignore. In fact, more than 50% of working-age survivors now report at least one material, psychological, or behavioral domain...
To achieve its goal of eliminating cervical cancer, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on all countries “to reach and maintain an incidence rate of below 4 per 100,000 women.” Doing so would depend on the following: A total of 90% of girls being fully vaccinated against human...