On this episode, we’re reviewing recommendations from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer on the use of liquid biopsy for lung cancer. We’ll also hear about a study that compared two regimens added to radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer.
Moderator of the session at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Virtual Oncology Policy Summit, Clifford Goodman, PhD, Senior Vice President at The Lewin Group, said he was struck by the diverse impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic had on cancer care. One area that remained relatively...
From a dramatic drop in caseloads to missed screenings and diagnoses as well as the emergence of telemedicine, COVID-19 turned the world of oncology upside down. During the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Virtual Oncology Policy Summit, “Defining the ‘New Normal’ 2021 and the State of...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted special designation status to treatments for myelodysplastic syndromes and advanced triple-negative breast cancer. Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Venetoclax in Combination With Azacitidine for Myelodysplastic Syndromes Venetoclax...
In a retrospective study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Gafita et al developed nomograms for predicting overall survival and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression-free survival outcomes in men receiving lutetium-177–PSMA (LuPSMA) treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Scott N. Gettinger, MD, and colleagues, the phase III Lung Cancer Master Protocol S1400I trial showed no improvement in overall survival with the addition of ipilimumab to nivolumab in previously treated, immune checkpoint inhibitor–naive patients with stage IV...
Evidence shows that early detection and treatment of cancer can significantly improve health outcomes. However, women in Mississippi—particularly in underserved populations—experience high rates of late-stage cancer diagnoses. A report published by Michelle Williams, PhD, and colleagues in the...
In a pooled analysis of individual patient data from breast cancer neoadjuvant clinical trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Carsten Denkert, MD, and colleagues found that pathologic complete response and survival rates for patients with HER2-low–positive vs HER2-zero tumors differed according...
“The phase III ENGOT/GCIG study1 proved to be negative, with no advantage seen with the extension of bevacizumab treatment,” said the abstract’s invited discussant, Carol Aghajanian, MD, Chief of the Medical Gynecologic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr....
In advanced ovarian cancer, the duration of maintenance bevacizumab should remain 15 months, according to the European multicenter phase III ENGOT/GCIG trial. These results were presented during the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Jacobus Pfisterer, MD, PhD, of the AGO Study Group and Gynecologic...
A new study has found that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to significant disruptions in breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screenings at federally qualified health systems spanning 15 states across the United States. The postponed screenings have created backlogs that systems will need to...
In the phase III REACH3 trial, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Robert Zeiser, MD, and colleagues found that ruxolitinib produced a significantly higher overall response rate vs investigator-selected control treatments in patients with glucocorticoid-refractory or -dependent chronic ...
In the phase III REACT trial reported in JAMA Oncology, R. Charles Coombes, MD, PhD, and colleagues found no disease-free survival benefit with the addition of 2 years of adjuvant celecoxib vs placebo to conventional adjuvant treatment in patients with HER2-negative breast cancer. Study Details...
In the phase II cohort of a phase I/II trial (PIVOT-02) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Adi Diab, MD, and colleagues found that the combination of the interleukin-2 pathway agonist bempegaldesleukin and nivolumab produced high response rates and extended progression-free survival in...
On July 21, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with lenvatinib (Lenvima) for patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma that is not microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR). These patients must have ...
A screening tool used to evaluate the need for endometrial cancer biopsies in women frequently misses the signs of this cancer in Black women, according to a new study published by Kemi M. Doll, MD, and colleagues in JAMA Oncology. Dr. Doll, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington...
A report published by Oba et al in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer shares new data on combining standard treatment for breast cancer with a particular form of cancer immunotherapy—dendritic cell vaccines. The study is reportedly the first to demonstrate that in situ dendritic cell vaccines...
A study published by D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, and colleagues in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology has helped to define MET amplification as a rare but potentially actionable driver for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Camidge said many of the major developments in the treatment of NSCLC have ...
In the phase III IPATential150 trial reported in The Lancet, Christopher Sweeney, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of the AKT inhibitor ipatasertib to abiraterone and prednisolone produced a significant improvement in progression-free survival among patients with metastatic...
In a Swedish cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, de Boniface et al found that breast-conserving surgery plus radiation therapy for women with breast cancer was associated with better survival vs mastectomy with or without radiotherapy in analysis adjusting for comorbidities and socioeconomic...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sant P. Chawla, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of the heterologous prime-boost vaccination regimen CMB305 to atezolizumab did not improve survival outcomes in patients with soft-tissue sarcomas expressing the...
Despite advances in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), only 29.5% of patients with the cancer are alive 5 years after diagnosis. Even with aggressive therapy, just 30% of patients achieve a complete remission with a median survival of 7.5 months, making it imperative to develop novel...
A phase II study published by Kanwal Raghav, MBBS, MD, and colleagues in Cancer Discovery found that combination treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab and the VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab was well tolerated and resulted in a 40% objective response rate in patients with advanced malignant...
A study from the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) estimates that annual costs associated with metastatic breast cancer treatment among women in the United States will total $152.4 billion in 2030—nearly two and a half times the estimate for 2015 costs—due to an increase ...
In a Swedish population-based noninferiority trial (STHLM3-MRI) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eklund et al found magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted biopsy was noninferior to standard biopsy in detecting clinically significant cancers in men with elevated prostate-specific...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Matteo Lambertini, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that breast cancer survivors were less likely to have subsequent pregnancy vs the general population and more likely to have preterm birth. However, no reduction...
In a Swiss phase II trial (SAKK 16/14) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rothschild et al found that the addition of perioperative durvalumab to neoadjuvant cisplatin/docetaxel resulted in a high major pathologic response rate and an event-free survival rate of 73% in patients with...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the emerging role of PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen)-targeted therapy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Dr. Smith presents a case of a 67-year-old man with metastatic castration-resistant...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the role of PARP inhibitors in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and homologous recombination repair deficiency, focusing on data from the PROfound trial. Dr. Smith presents a case of a...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the management of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, focusing on data from the phase III PEACE-1 trial. The faculty present the case of a 61-year-old man with de novo metastatic high-volume...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the management of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, focusing on data from the phase III TITAN trial. The faculty present the case of a 73-year-old man with recurrent, low-volume/low-risk metastatic...
As reported in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology by Christian Rolfo, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has issued a consensus statement on the use of liquid biopsy in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Select recommendations are...
Locoregional delivery of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells has resulted in objective responses in adults with glioblastoma, but the approach has not been evaluated in pediatric patients with brain and central nervous system tumors. The innovative, ongoing phase I BrainChild-01 trial is...
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, elective medical procedures, including screenings for breast cancer, were curtailed to prioritize urgent medical needs and reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus in health-care settings. A study showed that, as of May 2020, preventive...
In a Canadian population-based retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ethier et al identified real-world survival outcomes among women receiving pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) for stage IV HER2-positive breast cancer, observing that outcomes appeared to be poorer than...
In a phase Ib/IIa trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Wagner et al found that the combination of a type I KIT inhibitor, PLX9486, with the type II inhibitor sunitinib produced clinical benefit and improved progression-free survival rates in patients with refractory gastrointestinal stromal tumors...
On July 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved belumosudil (Rezurock), a kinase inhibitor, for adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with chronic graft-vs-host disease after failure of at least two prior lines of systemic therapy. KD025-213 Efficacy was evaluated in ...
On this episode, we're reviewing the FDA full approval of a therapy for previously treated patients with advanced urothelial cancer. Then, we'll hear about a trial that investigated potential mechanisms of acquired resistance to KRAS G12C inhibitors in patients with KRAS G12C–mutant cancers.
Terry P. Mamounas, MD, MPH, of the University of Florida Health Cancer Center, discusses results from the NRG Oncology/NSABP B-42 study, which examined the Breast Cancer Index and its ability to predict whether extended treatment with letrozole benefits patients with hormone receptor–positive...
Invited discussant of the Short-HER trial, Evandro de Azambuja, MD, PhD, Head of the Medical Support Team at the Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, acknowledged the good outcomes in low- and intermediate-risk patients treated with either a short or long duration of trastuzumab but said 1 year of the...
Long-term analysis of the Short-HER trial showed that 9 weeks of adjuvant trastuzumab conveyed benefits comparable to a 1-year course in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer deemed to be at low or intermediate risk for recurrence. High-risk patients, however, derived considerably more...
Researchers have found that specific intestinal microbiota signatures may correlate with high-grade adverse events and response to combined CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade treatment. The study, published by Andrews et al in Nature Medicine, also identified a potential new strategy to treat toxicity—while...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in a research letter in JAMA Surgery, Stokes et al found that risk of minor bleeding events during central venous catheter placement in pediatric patients with cancer was significantly increased among those with platelet counts < 50 × 103/μL at the time...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Anthony V. D’Amico, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of docetaxel to radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) did not improve overall survival in nonmetastatic, unfavorable-risk prostate cancer. However,...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Casolino et al identified the prevalence of homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) genes in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and found that the reported prevalence of HRD was higher with...
Melinda L. Telli, MD, of Stanford University, discusses results of a phase II study on neoadjuvant talazoparib in germline BRCA1/2 mutation–positive, early HER2-negative breast cancer. In this setting, talazoparib monotherapy was active and yielded pathologic complete response rates comparable to...
In a U.S. and Swiss study, nearly all patients with cancer developed an immune response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines 3 to 4 weeks after receiving their second dose. However, a small group of the patients exhibited no response, raising questions about how their protection against the virus will be...
More research into the efficacy of a modified ketogenic diet may be beneficial for people with brain tumors, according to a new study published by Schreck et al in the journal Neurology. The diet, which is high in fat and low in carbohydrates, led to changes in the metabolism in the body and the...
In a Chinese phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zhu et al found that stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) plus pembrolizumab and trametinib produced a modest—but statistically significant—overall survival benefit vs SBRT plus gemcitabine in patients with locally recurrent resected...
The invited discussant of LEAP-004, Jason J. Luke, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center, University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center, said the investigators of LEAP-0041 deserve credit for designing a study with a clearly defined...