A “big problem, maybe the major one,” with risk-reducing medications for breast cancer is low uptake among women at high risk of breast cancer,” Seema A. Khan, MD, told participants at the 2021 Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Dr. Khan is Professor of Surgery and the Bluhm Family...
Risk-reducing medications for breast cancer may be effective for many women, and recently reported and ongoing trials have led to improvements in their tolerability and safety, Seema A. Khan, MD, reported at the 2021 Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium (virtual).1 Dr. Khan is Professor of...
“Nodal status remains the single most important prognostic marker in outcomes for women with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. For that reason, it makes sense to think about optimizing adjuvant therapy, including endocrine treatments, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy,”...
In a study published by Abashidze et al in JAMA Network Open, the investigators found that Black men were at least 23.6% less likely than White men to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) following an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test result. They also found that Hispanic and Asian...
In the Japanese phase III IMPACT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tada et al found that adjuvant gefitinib did not improve disease-free survival vs cisplatin/vinorelbine in patients with completely resected stage II to IIIA EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the...
In a recent study published by Stacey Fedewa, PhD, and colleagues in the journal Cancer, unemployed individuals were less likely to have health insurance and be up to date on getting recommended cancer screening tests. Analyses revealed that their lack of health insurance coverage accounted for...
In a retrospective European study reported in The Lancet Oncology, David J. Pinato, PhD, and colleagues found that among patients with cancer who recovered from COVID-19 infection, a substantial proportion have sequelae that can affect survival and oncologic outcomes. Among patients on systemic...
In a U.S. cluster-randomized trial (GAP70+) reported in The Lancet, Supriya G. Mohile, MD, and colleagues found that geriatric assessment and management recommendations reduced the incidence of grade ≥ 3 toxicity vs usual care among patients aged ≥ 70 years with incurable advanced cancers who were...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Apar Kishor Ganti, MD, MS, and colleagues found that the incidence of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has decreased in the United States in recent years. They also found that prevalence has increased, likely in association with more effective treatment and...
About 9% of patients with cancer experience complications while hospitalized that lead to a deterioration in their condition, a transfer to the intensive care unit, or death. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a machine learning–based early...
New evidence suggests that adding the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib to a standard chemotherapy regimen may improve survival among younger people with a specific form of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The findings, published by Wyndham Wilson, MD, PhD, in Cancer Cell,...
In a Korean phase III trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Kim et al found that the addition of internal mammary node irradiation to adjuvant regional nodal irradiation did not improve 7-year disease-free survival in women with node-positive breast cancer. In an ad hoc analysis, however, benefit was...
In a cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, MD, MSc, and colleagues found that patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 had poorer outcomes vs patients without cancer if they had received recent cancer treatment. Patients with cancer who had not received recent...
The invited discussant of the FIRSTMAPP study, Rocio Garcia-Carbonero, MD, of Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, emphasized that pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma are rare tumors, and once they become metastatic, which is even more rare, there are few treatment options. “This is very...
Results from the phase II FIRSTMAPPP study support the potential use of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib in two rare neuroendocrine malignancies—pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma. Sunitinib significantly improved the primary endpoint of progression-free survival vs placebo, according to...
In a study published by Gauvin et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, researchers examined over 200 patients with gastrostomy tubes and highlighted the need for a multidisciplinary approach to palliative care decision-making for patients with cancer. A gastrostomy tube ...
The immune checkpoint protein B7-H3 may be a potential new target in treatment-resistant prostate cancers, according to two studies presented recently at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021. “Virtually every prostate cancer cell expresses some degree of B7-H3, which...
Results of the European Society for Medical Oncology’s (ESMO) Women for Oncology monitoring and authorship studies were recently published by Berghoff et al in ESMO Open. They revealed that women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions despite making up an increasing proportion of...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yadav et al found that germline pathogenic variants in the cancer predisposition genes ATM, BRCA2, CDH1, CHEK2, and PALB2 were associated with an increased risk of invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast, with no association with BRCA1...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Gidwani et al found that among U.S. patients treated for early-stage breast cancer, those who were considered to be unrepresented in clinical trials have significantly poorer survival than those categorized as well represented....
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most common cancers diagnosed in the United States, accounting for nearly 4% of all cancers. This year, about 81,600 individuals will be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and nearly 21,000 will die from the cancer. A study by Ocier et al published in Cancer...
Amar U. Kishan, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses findings from a meta-analysis of clinical trials in patients with localized prostate cancer. The phase III results suggest that the use of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) or prolonged adjuvant ADT with radiotherapy may...
The invited discussant of the study on out-of-pocket costs of cancer care, Michaela A. Dinan, PhD, Co-Leader of Cancer Prevention and Control at Yale Cancer Center and Associate Professor of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, Connecticut, underscored the study’s key...
Rising cost-sharing requirements from private insurance have exacerbated the financial burden for patients with cancer, according to research presented at the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1 Analysis of claims data on the four most prevalent cancers in the United States—female breast,...
In a study published by Magenau et al in the journal Blood Advances, researchers found that patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who received a form of type I interferon after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant experienced reduced rates of disease relapse. Additionally,...
In a Dutch cohort study (PLASTIC) reported in JAMA Surgery, Gertsen et al found that staging laparoscopy provided more diagnostic information resulting in change of treatment intent than F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in patients with...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Thomson et al found that current smokers had a threefold greater risk of overall cancer mortality between the ages of 25 and 79 years vs never-smokers, with risk being modulated according to age at smoking initiation and age at cessation in ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Engels et al found that patients with a previous cancer diagnosis who underwent solid organ transplantation had high cancer cure probabilities. Additionally, posttransplantation cancer-specific survival was associated with cancer cure...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to agents for several kinds of lymphoma, as well as nasopharyngeal cancer; a Breakthrough Therapy designation for a treatment for patients with NTRK-positive advanced solid tumors; and Fast Track designation for...
Karen M. Winkfield, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who co-chaired a session (PS 02) on digital health, summarizes the talks, which included ways to reduce disparities with digital innovations and the importance of patient input, especially in the form of patient-reported outcomes ...
The invited discussant of this study on patient-reported outcomes, Areej El-Jawahri, MD, Associate Director of Cancer Outcomes Research and Education Program and Director of Bone Marrow Transplant Survivorship Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said these findings underscore the importance...
According to data presented during the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium,1 1-month changes in patient-reported outcomes may predict treatment response and survival outcomes in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers. The results of a prospective study of 159 patients with metastatic...
Survivorship care plans are an important tool to help cancer survivors transition from active treatment to follow-up care, but a study published by Timsina et al in Supportive Care in Cancer has found that a number of vulnerable groups have a lower likelihood of receiving such plans. Cancer...
In an article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Emily E. Johnston, MD, MS, and colleagues detailed characteristics, effects on cancer treatment, and outcomes of SARS–CoV-2 infection in pediatric patients with cancer based on data from The Pediatric Oncology COVID-19 Case Report...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the phase II ECOG-ACRIN E3311 trial has shown high progression-free survival rates and good functional outcomes in patients with intermediate-risk human papillomavirus (HPV; p16)-positive locally advanced...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Susana Banerjee, MBBS, PhD, and colleagues, 5-year follow-up of the pivotal phase III SOLO-1/GOG 3004 trial has shown a median progression-free survival of 56 months with maintenance olaparib following response to platinum-based chemotherapy in newly diagnosed...
Findings from a novel telemedicine effort to screen patients for lung cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic show that virtual single-visit screenings may be just as effective as single-visit screenings done in person, according to a study presented by Magarinos et al at the American College ...
In a single-center phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tang et al found that definitive radiotherapy in place of systemic therapy was feasible and effective for the treatment of oligometastatic renal cell carcinoma. As stated by the investigators, “The role of radiotherapy in metastatic ...
In the phase II portion of a French phase II/III trial (PRODIGE 38 AMEBICA) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Phelip et al found that modified (m) FOLFIRINOX (oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin, and fluorouracil) did not improve 6-month progression-free survival vs the combination of...
As reported in JAMA Surgery by Huang et al, the Chinese phase III CLASS-01 trial has shown no difference in 5-year overall survival in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who underwent laparoscopic vs open distal gastrectomy. The previously reported primary analysis of the trial showed no ...
On October 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the kinase inhibitor asciminib (Scemblix) for patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+ CML) in chronic phase who have been previously treated with two or more tyrosine...
On October 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 to include children aged 5 through 11 years. The authorization was based on the FDA’s thorough and transparent evaluation of the data that...
Morgan R.L. Lichtenstein, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, discusses a single-center prospective study examining the complex relationship between time to oral oncolytic receipt and clinical or process-related factors, such as prior authorization, diagnosis, and insurance type.
Daniel J. Ma, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, discusses results from a phase III study of patients with HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Comparing a 2-week course of de-escalated adjuvant radiation therapy with the standard 6-week course, investigators found...
C. Jillian Tsai, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results from the first randomized trial of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat oligoprogressive, metastatic lung and breast cancers. The standard of care for patients with these types of tumors is to...
Cleveland Clinic researchers have shown that diet-associated molecules in the gut may be associated with aggressive prostate cancer, suggesting dietary interventions may help reduce risk. These findings were published by Reichard et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. While...
The incidence of pancreatic cancer—which historically has been higher in men than in women—has increased among both men and women during the past decade, with a significantly greater relative increase observed in women younger than age 55 years, and especially among those aged 15 to 34 years. These ...
In a Chinese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy with FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin; FOLFOX-HAIC) improved overall survival vs transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) as first-line treatment for...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maas et al developed a novel integrated molecular-morphologic risk classification score that improved prediction of disease recurrence in patients with meningioma. Study Details The study involved DNA methylation, copy-number, and mutation...
In a single-institution prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Gamble et al found that patients with hereditary lobular breast cancer due to CDH1 variants also had a high prevalence of occult signet ring cell gastric carcinoma. Study Details The study involved 283 patients from 151...