Invited discussant of the C-144-01 study,1 Jason J. Luke, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center, University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, noted that lifileucel is “clearly an active regimen in the post–PD-1/CTLA-4 setting and one ...
In this installment of the occasional department on Global Health-Care Equity, Guest Editor, Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, spoke with Augusto Leon, MD, a surgical oncologist and Head of the Program of Cancer at Pontifical University of Chile, Santiago. Dr. Are is JL & CJ Varner...
Despite the fact that we have made significant progress in metastatic melanoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors—now the standard of care—most patients experience disease progression and are left without approved treatments. There is a need for newer treatments with clinical benefit. Lifileucel, an ...
Although we are just halfway through 2021, the outlook for improvements in global cancer trends looks grim. According to new estimates by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Global Cancer Observatory, the global cancer burden rose to 19.3 million cases and 10 million deaths in 2020...
The first overall survival analysis of the WGS-ADAPT HER2+/HR– study, which evaluated neoadjuvant therapy in patients with hormone receptor–negative, HER2-positive disease, showed that treatment with pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus paclitaxel—or with the chemotherapy-free regimen of...
The results of Cohort 1 of the phase II trial TROPHY-U-01 (IMMU-132-06; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03547973), published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Tagawa et al and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, led to the recent accelerated U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...
In a cohort of the phase II TROPHY-U-01 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Scott T. Tagawa, MD, MS, of Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, and colleagues, found that the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy produced durable responses in patients with metastatic...
The dire cancer incidence and mortality statistics for Black patients compared with White patients are well known. Collectively, Black individuals have the highest mortality rate and shortest survival of any racial or ethnic group in the United States for most cancers. Black men also have the...
The first known clinical trial report of an antibody-drug conjugate was a phase 0/I pharmacodynamic and safety study of a conjugate that targeted carcinoembryonic antigen and delivered a payload of vinca alkaloid in eight patients with ovarian or colorectal cancer.1 This work built on the work of...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Thomas Powles, MD, of Barts Cancer Centre, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III EV-301 trial has shown improved overall survival with the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab...
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet, the GlobalSurg Collaborative found that 30-day mortality after surgery for colorectal and gastric cancers, but not breast cancer, was higher in low- or middle-income countries vs high-income countries.1 Among all patients, mortality rates...
In a study reported in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, Leila Dorling, PhD, of the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Departments of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues in the international Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC),...
The University of California (UC) Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has named Edward Kim, MD, PhD, as Medical Director for the Office of Clinical Research. Dr. Kim is a UC Davis Health oncologist and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine who specializes in treating gastrointestinal...
The Wistar Institute, an international biomedical research leader in cancer, immunology, and infectious diseases, recently announced the appointment of Noam Auslander, PhD, as Assistant Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center. Dr....
Caryn Lerman, PhD, is the new President of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI). Dr. Lerman is Director of the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles and Associate Dean for Cancer Programs and the H. Leslie and Elaine S. Hoffman...
On May 20, 2021, nivolumab was approved for adjuvant treatment of patients with completely resected esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer with residual pathologic disease after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings from the...
On this week's episode, we’re discussing the effect of a 5- vs 2-year course of zoledronate for patients with early breast cancer; a recent FDA approval in locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; and a study that examined how reduced time to completion of treatment in patients with...
On July 9, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev), a Nectin-4–directed antibody and microtubule inhibitor conjugate, for adults with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor and...
Patients with multiple myeloma had a wide variety of responses to COVID-19 vaccines—in some cases, no detectable response at all—pointing to the need for antibody testing and precautions for these patients after vaccination, according to a study published by Van Oekelen et al in Cancer Cell. Mount...
Study findings presented by Perrott et al at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer (Abstract SO-25) showed that the use of antibiotics may be linked to colon tumor formation across all patient age groups, especially in those younger than 50 years. These results raise fresh concerns...
In the phase Ib/II CARTITUDE-1 trial reported in The Lancet, Jesus G. Berdeja, MD, and colleagues found that ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel), a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with two B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-targeting single-domain antibodies, produced a high rate of...
Overall cancer death rates continue to decline in men and women for all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. During 2001 to 2018, declines in lung cancer death rates accelerated, and death rates for melanoma...
In a cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Hart et al found that treatment with either neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with an increased risk of complications or poorer patient-reported outcomes in women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer with immediate breast...
In a Danish population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Øvlisen et al found that parenthood rates in younger Hodgkin lymphoma survivors who did not experience early relapse were similar to those in the general population, but that use of assisted reproductive techniques...
A team of investigators in Japan used a personalized assay for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) levels in plasma to monitor molecular residual disease following surgery in patients with resectable colorectal cancer. Their subgroup analysis found statistically significant associations between ctDNA...
For patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, molecular imaging may improve staging and clinical management of the disease, according to research published by Röhrich et al in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. In a retrospective study of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, the...
New research published in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network assessed the quality of cancer care delivered through extended sites coordinated by some of the country’s largest cancer centers. The study was developed to implement strategies for disseminating discoveries and...
In a Chinese phase II/III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Qin et al found that donafenib, a multikinase inhibitor and deuterated sorafenib derivative, improved overall survival vs sorafenib in the first-line treatment of unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma. As...
In a Chinese study (CCLG-APL2016) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zheng et al found that the combination of arsenic with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) was associated with good survival outcomes in pediatric patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. Study Details The multicenter...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Awad et al identified potential mechanisms of acquired resistance to the KRAS G12C inhibitor adagrasib in patients receiving the agent for treatment of KRAS G12C–mutant cancers. As noted by the investigators, clinical trials of the KRAS...
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Human Reproduction Programme (HRP)—the main instrument within the United Nations system for research in human reproduction—have launched a new guideline to help countries make faster progress, more equitably, in the screening and treatment of cervical...
Research published by Pratt et al in Annals of Surgical Oncology showed an increase in survival rates when treatment options—surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation—are completed within 38 weeks from the time of diagnosis for patients with breast cancer. Optimal Treatment Duration The observational...
Among 506 hospitalized patients with cancer at risk of malnutrition, individualized nutritional support reduced the risk of mortality compared to consumption of standard hospital food. The findings from a preplanned secondary analysis of the prospective, randomized, multicenter EFFORT trial,...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Osama E. Rahma, MD, and colleagues, initial results of the phase II NRG-GI002 trial showed no improvement in mean neoadjuvant rectal score with the addition of pembrolizumab to chemoradiotherapy in total neoadjuvant therapy for patients with locally advanced rectal...
In a first-in-human phase I trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fares et al found that neural stem cell delivery of an oncolytic adenovirus (NSC-CRAd-S-pk7) was safe and feasible in patients with newly diagnosed malignant glioma, with immunologic and histopathologic findings supporting continued ...
In a retrospective analysis reported by researchers from the International Esodata Study Group (IESG) in JAMA Surgery, D’Journo et al developed a model for predicting risk of 90-day mortality following esophagectomy for patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. As stated by the...
On July 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an expanded label for pembrolizumab, an anti–PD-1 agent, as monotherapy for patients with locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma that is not curable by surgery or radiation. This approval is based on data from the second...
Mutations in a gene related to HER2, a gene frequently implicated in breast cancers and a variety of other malignancies, can amplify activity that spurs tumor growth, according to a new study. The findings, published by Hanker et al in Cancer Cell, could explain why many patients with HER2...
A new study has found evidence of the adverse effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on cancer detection and surgical treatments. The study, published by Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA, and colleagues in JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found a 10.2% decline in real-time electronic pathology ...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Braga et al identified metastatic disease, choriocarcinoma histology, and higher pretreatment human chorionic gonadotropin concentration as independent predictors of resistance to single-agent chemotherapy in women with low-risk...
In a prospective analysis from the phase III Lymphoma Study Association AHL2011 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Demeestere et al found that patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma receiving a positron-emission tomography (PET)-adapted regimen had a reduced risk of gonadal...
In a pilot study reported by Myers et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a humanized CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product developed by the investigators (huCART19) was found to produce durable remissions and prolonged CAR T-cell persistence in CAR-naive and CAR-exposed...
Answers to questions about first-line treatment of metastatic melanoma are “going to be shifting,” Jason J. Luke, MD, told The ASCO Post, with the change coming on the heels of the phase III RELATIVITY-047 trial reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 That abstract reported that using two...
Despite new and effective treatments for melanoma with checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies, patients with metastatic melanoma who progress on frontline treatment generally do very poorly. “We really need to make sure we give these patients access to drugs that we know have some efficacy,”...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Hsiehchen et al found that replacement of in-person with telehealth visits among patients with cancer initiating systemic therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with poorer efficiency in components of oncology care or ...
In an analysis from the European Neuroblastoma Study Group (SIOPEN) HR-NBL1 high-risk neuroblastoma trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bellini et al found that ALK amplification and clonal mutation were associated with poorer outcomes in pediatric patients with high-risk...
In a validation study reported in Annals of Oncology, Klein et al found that a targeted methylation-based multicancer early detection (MCED) assay using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing had high specificity for cancer signal detection and high accuracy in predicting cancer signal origin across a...
This week, we hear from authors who presented data on multiple myeloma, myelofibrosis, and leukemia at the European Hematology Association 2021 Virtual Congress.
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alison J. Moskowitz, MD, and colleagues found that second-line therapy with pembrolizumab plus gemcitabine, vinorelbine, and liposomal doxorubicin (GVD) in relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin lymphoma produced responses in all...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued regulatory decisions related to treatments for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), acute leukemia, and mantle cell lymphoma. Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Adagrasib in Advanced NSCLC With KRAS G12C Mutation On June 24, 2021, the...