In a phase I study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Luke et al found that a strategy of multisite stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) followed by pembrolizumab was feasible in patients with metastatic solid tumors. It was hypothesized that stimulation of immune responses by SBRT...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Julie R. Brahmer, MD, of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on management of immune-related adverse events in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. To develop...
Research shows that secondhand smoke is a major cause of disease, including lung cancer and heart disease, as well as respiratory problems in nonsmokers. In addition, exposure to secondhand smoke increases the likelihood of nonsmokers becoming active smokers. In a study assessing the impact of...
As reported by Smith et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, the phase III SPARTAN trial has shown that the androgen receptor inhibitor apalutamide (Erleada) produces significant improvement in metastasis-free survival and time to symptomatic progression vs placebo among men with...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Drilon et al found that the oral tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) inhibitor larotrectinib produced a high response rate and enduring responses in patients with TRK fusion–positive cancers. These fusions have been found to lead to...
In a study published by Williamson et al in JAMA Ophthalmology, University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) researchers found that nearly all patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma had a number of unmet psychological and health information needs, particularly during the first 3 months after their ...
The use of maintenance therapy in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is theoretically sensible, but its clinical value remains uncertain. The phase III HOVON97 randomized study demonstrated that maintenance therapy with the hypomethylating agent azacitidine may improve disease-free...
HERE IS AN UPDATE on four different studies featured at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Topics focus on advanced systemic mastocytosis, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), amyloidosis, and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Systemic Mastocytosis...
The results of a phase II trial have shown high activity of guadecitabine, a next-generation hypomethylating drug, in treatment-naive older patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson...
As reported by Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Alexandra Hospital, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III ENDEAVOR trial has shown a significant overall survival benefit for carfilzomib (Kyprolis)...
In the phase II EORTC 75111-10114 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wildiers et al found that the addition of metronomic oral cyclophosphamide to pertuzumab (Perjeta) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) improved progression-free survival in elderly or frail women with HER2-positive metastatic breast...
It is well established that adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer—defined by the National Cancer Institute as those between the ages of 15 and 39 years—have not reaped a comparable survival benefit as either younger or older adult cancer survivors over the past 4 decades, despite...
Law and Ethics in Oncology explores the legal and ethical issues oncologists must be aware of in this era of precision medicine and changing health-care policy, both to protect patients’ rights and to safeguard against potential legal jeopardy. Increasingly, across the United States, hospitals are...
TOPLINE RESULTS of the phase III ARROW trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02412878) were recently announced by Amgen. The study showed carfilzomib (Kyprolis) administered once weekly at 70 mg/m2 with dexamethasone allowed patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma to live 3.6 months ...
AS REPORTED in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Arlene A. Forastiere, MD, of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on the use of larynx-preservation strategies in the treatment of laryngeal cancer.1...
A DETAILED quality-of-life analysis of the phase III EF-14 trial of tumor-treating fields (Optune) in combination with temozolomide for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma was published by Taphoorn et al in JAMA Oncology.1 This secondary endpoint analysis showed the addition of...
As reported by Petrylak et al in JAMA Oncology, long-term follow-up of patients in a phase I study expansion cohort indicated enduring clinical benefit and maintained tolerability of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Study Details The study involved...
In a European phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dimopoulos et al found that pomalidomide (Pomalyst) plus low-dose dexamethasone produced responses in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and renal impairment. Study Details In the study, 81 patients with ...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Grill et al found that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to radiotherapy plus temozolomide (RT + TMZ) did not improve event-free survival in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma. Study Details In the...
On January 30, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals announced it has received notice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that U.S. studies of BPX-501—an agent being studied to improve outcomes for patients undergoing stem cell transplant who lack a matched donor—have been placed on a clinical hold ...
Temporary ovarian suppression during chemotherapy as a means of preserving ovarian function and fertility in young women with early breast cancer is controversial. An eagerly awaited meta-analysis including individual patient data from five randomized controlled trials found that the use of...
Matthew J. Ellis, MB, PhD, Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, commented on the POETIC trial for The ASCO Post. “This is a wonderful study that validates a point that our research team has also made over the years—that Ki67 is much more...
We have covered many of the important presentations from the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in the pages of The ASCO Post and in our online Evening News. Here are summaries of additional noteworthy studies presented at the meeting. We hope you will find them of interest. Predicting...
“To what extent do treatments for prostate cancer impact sexual functioning? To a great extent,” Christian Nelson, PhD, Chief, Psychiatry Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, told participants at the 11th Annual Oncofertility Consortium Conference in Chicago.1 Most men with...
In a phase III noninferiority trial reported in The Lancet, Kudo et al found that first-line lenvatinib was noninferior to sorafenib in overall survival of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Study Details In the open-label trial, 954 patients from 154 sites in 20 countries in...
Patients with previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma derived a survival benefit from cabozantinib (Cabometyx), in the phase III CELESTIAL trial.1 “Cabozantinib represents a new treatment option for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma after prior systemic anticancer...
In the December 10, 2017, issue of The ASCO Post, I authored an article in which I raised the possibility of curing follicular lymphoma without the dreaded chemotherapy. Clearly, no good deed goes unpunished: My good friend and The ASCO Post’s editor Jim Armitage, MD, challenged me to defend that...
Following the publication of two landmark studies in the United States,1,2 laryngeal preservation with combined chemoradiotherapy has become standard practice as opposed to laryngectomy for patients with locally advanced laryngeal cancer. The Department of Veterans Affairs Laryngeal Cancer Study...
Results from the first and largest prospective trial to determine the safety of multisite ablative stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in combination with anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) suggest the combination regimen may improve outcomes...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Overman et al, findings in the nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) cohort of the CheckMate-142 study indicate a high response rate and durable responses with the combination in previously treated patients with DNA mismatch...
Preliminary results from the phase II portion of the TiNivo study, a phase Ib/II multicenter trial of oral tivozanib in combination with intravenous (IV) nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) were presented by Escudier et al at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers...
Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors is the first of a new generation of immunotherapy treatments, revolutionizing treatment for many different types of cancer. By unleashing the body's immune system to attack cancer, these treatments can send even the most hard-to-treat cancers into...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lin et al found that specific ALK variants may be associated with the development of resistance mutations to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details The study involved...
A follow-up study to a randomized clinical trial reveals that exercising during adjuvant chemotherapy helps people engage in more physical activity years later. Four years later, people with breast or colon cancer who had participated in an 18-week exercise program while receiving chemotherapy...
Maha Hussain, MD, of Northwestern University, discusses phase III findings on enzalutamide in men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (Abstract 3).
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vogl et al found that the investigational oral selective exportin 1 (XPO1) inhibitor selinexor combined with dexamethasone produced responses in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. ...
Results from the phase III PROSPER trial in patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer were presented by Hussain et al at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (Abstract 3). The results show that the use of enzalutamide (Xtandi) plus androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT)...
Combining the antiangiogenic agent axitinib (Inlyta) with the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was found to have promising antitumor activity and no unexpected side effects in an early-phase clinical trial in patients with advanced kidney cancer who had not been previously treated. The full...
Gateway for Cancer Research has renewed and expanded its support for the Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award Program. The organization will underwrite the Gateway for Cancer Research Young Investigator Award (YIA) for each of the next 3 years to enable promising physician-scientists...
In Clinical Cancer Advances 2018: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer, which highlights the most impactful cancer research progress and the importance of federally funded research, ASCO recognized a type of adoptive cell immunotherapy—chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy—as...
AS REPORTED BY Catherine Van Poznak, MD, FASCO, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have collaborated in providing a focused update for the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the role of bone-modifying...
AS REVIEWED in this issue of The ASCO Post, Patel and colleagues have presented data from the phase I JAVELIN study evaluating avelumab (Bavencio) in platinum-refractory patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.1 The drug is active with durable responses when compared with historical...
AS REPORTED in The Lancet Oncology by Manish R. Patel, MD, of Florida Cancer Specialists/Sarah Cannon Research Institute, and colleagues, the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody avelumab (Bavencio) produced durable responses in patients with locally advanced or metastatic...
A phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Traina et al showed activity of the androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) in triple-negative breast cancer expressing the androgen receptor (AR). Study Details The study involved 118 patients from 45 sites in seven...
In a single-center phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Giaccone et al found that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) produced durable responses in patients with recurrent thymic carcinoma. Study Details In the study, 40 evaluable patients with advanced disease progressing after at least one line ...
IN INTERVIEWS with The ASCO Post and in discussions held during the meeting, several breast cancer experts weighed in on the findings of GeparSepto and CALGB 40502. Eric P. Winer, MD, FASCO, Chief of the Division of Women’s Cancers and the Thompson Senior Investigator in Breast Cancer Research at ...
TWO IMPORTANT STUDIES, both updates of earlier findings and presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, provided different findings as to the relative benefit of nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane), vs solvent-based paclitaxel in breast cancer. “The two studies...
THE PHASE III SUCCESS A trial, presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, found no benefit for extending the use of intravenous zoledronic acid from 2 years to 5 years.1 “At this time point, our study showed no difference in disease-free survival or overall survival between 5 years ...
OLDER WOMEN with breast cancer derive benefit from treatment with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors as part of initial endocrine-based therapy for hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, metastatic breast cancer, according to a retrospective pooled subgroup analysis of women aged 70 or ...
ALTHOUGH PRECISION medicine may be a recent discovery in some fields, it is an old story in the field of breast cancer, and one that has been exceptionally important in terms of managing the disease, according to George Sledge, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Medical Oncologist at the...