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...
In a German prospective cross-sectional study reported in JAMA Oncology, Bartels et al found that a high proportion of patients with lung cancer had neuronal antibodies that may be associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment. As stated by the investigators, “Paraneoplastic neurological...
In a population-based cohort study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Stephanie B. Wheeler, PhD, and colleagues found a low rate of oral anticancer agent use within 12 months after detection of metastatic disease in patients with renal cell carcinoma. Study Details The study used a novel, North...
Longer follow-up of the LEAP-004 trial in metastatic melanoma upheld the benefit seen with the VEGF kinase inhibitor lenvatinib plus the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab for patients experiencing disease progression on prior checkpoint blockade, investigators reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sperger et al found that use of a novel liquid biopsy technology resulted in identification of a prognostic transcriptional profile in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The profile was prognostic...
Paul G. Richardson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses challenges patients with multiple myeloma have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the research he and his international colleagues are conducting to better understand these difficulties and improve patient care.
Obese patients with colorectal cancer receive lower cumulative doses of adjuvant chemotherapy relative to their body surface area than nonobese patients, according to results from a large meta-analysis reported by Slawinski et al at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021 (Abstract...
Today, ASCO and the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) jointly released new Oncology Medical Home (OMH) standards, which provide a comprehensive roadmap for oncology practices to deliver high-quality, evidence-based cancer care. These standards, which were published by Woofter et al in JCO Oncology...
The invited discussant of APACT,1 Thomas Seufferlein, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Ulm in Germany, said the updated overall survival data “suggest an improved outcome with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine vs gemcitabine alone…. The combination improves long-term survival and...
Trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki demonstrated clinically meaningful benefit across specific subgroups of patients with HER2-positive and HER2-low advanced gastric cancer, according to findings from a post hoc exploratory biomarker analysis presented by Kohei Shitara, MD, and colleagues at the ESMO World ...
Five-year outcomes in the APACT trial uphold the overall survival benefit with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine in the adjuvant treatment of patients with resected pancreatic cancer, according to Margaret A. Tempero, MD, Director of the University of California San Francisco Pancreas Center, who...
In a phase III trial (DFCI 11-001) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vrooman et al found that the novel pegylated asparaginase formulation calaspargase pegol (calaspargase) given every 3 weeks was associated with similar serum asparaginase activity nadir values, survival outcomes, and...
In a 1-year interim analysis of a Dutch study (I CARE) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Vos et al found no clinically meaningful difference in changes in quality of life from baseline among patients with colon cancer with general practitioner– vs surgeon-led survivorship care. In addition,...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Marcia S. Brose, MD, and colleagues, the phase III COSMIC-311 trial has shown that cabozantinib produced a numerically higher objective response rate and significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with previously treated,...
Mount Sinai Health System has recruited an internationally recognized expert in the management of breast cancer and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated malignancies, Joseph A. Sparano, MD, FACP, as Chief of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute...
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, has been named Executive Director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. An internationally renowned thoracic oncologist and physician-scientist, Dr. Ramalingam has served as Winship’s Deputy Director since 2016. He began his new post on July 1. Dr. Ramalingam...
Martin H. Dreyling, MD, PhD, of University Hospital Munich Grosshadern Klinikum, discusses phase II results from the ELARA trial, which suggests tisagenlecleucel may be a promising immunotherapy for adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (Abstract S210).
Invited discussant of the VISION trial, Mary-Ellen Taplin, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, commented on the study, noting that she was a co-investigator of the trial. “Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer have a number of treatment options. There are 10...
Lutetium-177–PSMA-617 (LuPSMA)—an investigational radiolabeled small molecule—significantly improved radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival when added to the standard of care compared with the standard of care alone for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer...
Pediatric melanoma is a rare disease, with only around 400 cases diagnosed in the United States every year. To better understand this disease and how best to treat it, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists created a registry called Molecular Analysis of Childhood MELanocytic Tumors...
Black men most likely to benefit from advanced prostate cancer therapies are 11% less likely to receive them than non-Black men. This happens despite apparent equal opportunities in obtaining health-care services, a new study focused on American veterans has shown. Disparities Exposed Published by...
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, John Mascarenhas, MD, and colleagues found that treatment with the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat at a dose of 9.4 mg/kg produced clinical benefit in patients with relapsed or refractory myelofibrosis after Janus-associated kinase...
In an analysis from an international consortium reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shern et al identified genomic characteristics and associated outcomes in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma. Among the findings were that MYOD1 and TP53 mutations were associated with poorer outcomes. As stated...
On July 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj (Darzalex Faspro) in combination with pomalidomide and dexamethasone for adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior line of therapy including lenalidomide and a...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, Board Chair of the Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), issued the following statement. “The Association for Clinical Oncology congratulates Chiquita Brooks-LaSure on her confirmation as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ...
ASCO has approved new recommendations for the appropriate dosing of systemic anticancer agents in adults with obesity and cancer.1 The guideline update was based on evidence collected from a systematic review of the literature published between November 1, 2010, and March 27, 2020, regarding dosing ...
The past 2 decades have seen so many advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma; in addition, median patient survival has grown from just 3 years in the late 1990s to between 8 and 10 years today,1 with some patients exceeding that prognosis by many years. Although still considered a stubbornly...
India has witnessed a major paradigm shift in the field of breast cancer and its management over the past 4 decades. The discipline of medical oncology has evolved exponentially over this period—a growth that few other scientific disciplines have experienced. Interventions at the individual,...
Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, is pleased to announce the recipients of its awards supporting researchers with projects spanning across many areas in cancer care, including immunotherapy, precision medicine, breast cancer, and palliative care. This year, Conquer Cancer is funding the largest...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ellen K. Chang, MD, of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and colleagues found that atrial fibrillation occurs in a substantial proportion of patients who have undergone allogeneic...
Perhaps my 35-year career as a surgical oncologist and researcher specializing in soft-tissue sarcomas should have prepared me to recognize the signs of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) when they first appeared a few days before Christmas in 2016, but it did not. In fact, my symptoms were so...
Invited discussant of the BOOSTER trial,1 Edward B. Garon, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, said the study’s research question is appropriate, since osimertinib was established...
For the second-line treatment of advanced EGFR T790M–mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the performance of osimertinib alone was not found to be different from that of osimertinib plus bevacizumab in the phase II ETOP 10-16 BOOSTER trial, reported at a European Society for Medical...
Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, announced that Navneet Majhail, MD, MS, FASTCT, has been named Deputy Physician-in-Chief of Blood Cancers for the Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Network (formerly the Sarah Cannon Blood Cancer Network). In his role, Dr. Majhail...
Heather Wakelee, MD, will assume the role of President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) at the upcoming IASLC 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer Denver, Worldwide Virtual Event (WCLC 2021) on September 8 to 14, 2021. Dr. Wakelee has been President-Elect of...
EA1131 study discussant, Melinda Telli, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Stanford Cancer Institute, and Associate Director of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, commented: “At this point,1 capecitabine remains preferred as...
Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Montefiore Health System have announced that cancer biologist Julio Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, has been named founding Director of the Cancer Dormancy and Tumor Microenvironment Institute (CDTMI), Director of the Gruss-Lipper...
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer who have residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant capecitabine remains the standard of care. In the multicenter randomized noninferiority EA1131 trial, which included primarily basal tumors, noninferiority of adjuvant platinum over...
Invited discussant Nicolas Girard, MD, PhD, of the Curie Institute, Paris, said, “A major challenge in NSCLC is what happens when osimertinib resistance develops.” “A key takeaway point from this study is that the efficacy is driven by resistance mechanism. The overall response rate was 47% in the ...
Combination targeting of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with amivantamab/lazertinib achieved durable responses in more than one-third of chemotherapy-naive patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that had progressed on osimertinib, according to a cohort analysis of the ...
The invited discussant of the phase I trial of lisaftoclax (APG-2575), Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, of Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York, commented on the positive findings: “The 15 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL] had an objective response rate of 80% and a median time to...
“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” –Kahlil Gibran To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting &...
The novel, selective BCL2 inhibitor lisaftoclax (APG-2575) has shown activity in the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in a phase I study reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Preliminary data suggest that lisaftoclax stands out for its favorable safety...
Invited discussant Jacqueline C. Barrientos, MD, MS, of Northwell Health Cancer Institute, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Great Neck, New York, noted that, although both ibrutinib and venetoclax have shown superior results to chemotherapy, each drug is associated with toxicity....
The combination of fixed-duration, first-line treatment with ibrutinib plus venetoclax achieved complete responses in more than half of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic leukemia (SLL), based on the primary analysis of the fixed-dose cohort of the phase II CAPTIVATE ...