“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” —Mark Twain To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings focusing on...
On April 23, 2021, loncastuximab tesirine-lpyl, a CD19-directed antibody and alkylating agent conjugate, was granted accelerated approval for treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell...
The Brigham and Women’s hospital community mourns the loss of Francisco Marty, MD, of the Division of Infectious Diseases, who died April 8, 2021, after a tragic accident while hiking in the Dominican Republic. He was 53. A member of the Brigham community for more than 20 years, Dr. Marty is...
In women with locally advanced cervical cancer, adjuvant chemotherapy adds no benefit to standard cisplatin-based chemoradiation, results of the international phase III OUTBACK study have shown,1 as reported at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting by Linda R. Mileshkin, MD, Professor of Medical Oncology at ...
As our population rapidly ages, the burden of cancer incidence increases accordingly, creating an urgent need for greater and more incisive research on the diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship issues for older adults with cancer. Given the numerous challenges faced by today’s busy oncologists, a...
Invited discussant of the KEYNOTE-564 trial, Rana R. McKay, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of California San Diego, offered these comments about these trial results. “This is a positive study, showing a 32% reduction in the risk of recurrence or death with...
Adjuvant pembrolizumab following surgery significantly improved disease-free survival compared with placebo among patients with high-risk clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to the international phase III KEYNOTE-564 study presented at the Plenary session during the 2021 ASCO Annual...
Morocco is an Arab country in North Africa. It covers 716,550 square kilometers and has a population of nearly 36 million. The median age is 29.3 years. Morocco’s estimated gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 was $122 million. As of 2019, Morocco’s health budget was equivalent to 4.5% of the total ...
When I interviewed for my current post as a first-time consultant in medical oncology in the United Kingdom, I was asked about my 5-year career plan. I remember some detail of my reply, but I don’t think it even remotely encompassed the depth of insight I would gain from the patients I’ve treated...
Mark G. Kris, MD, FASCO, Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service and the William and Joy Ruane Chair in Thoracic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the excitement in the field of lung cancer about the new drugs targeting KRAS. Sotorasib is one of several new...
Established by Michael C. Ost, MD, MBA, the 2012–2013 American Urological Association Young Urologists Committee Chair, the Young Urologist of the Year Award is presented annually to select early-career association members in recognition of their efforts and commitment to advancing the development...
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), has been selected as a Temple University Gallery of Success honoree for 2021. Each year, Temple University showcases exceptional alumni from its 17 schools and colleges in its Gallery...
Cynthia M. Yoshida, MD, is one of six winners of a national award recognizing health-care providers and institutions for their work to increase colorectal cancer screening rates. Dr. Yoshida, a gastroenterologist and medical leader of the University of Virginia (UVA) Cancer Center’s Colorectal...
Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD, will join the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center as Associate Director for Cancer Equity, a newly created position, and the Keck School of Medicine of USC as Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Preventive...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently presented Mary B. Daly, MD, PhD, FACP, Professor in the Department of Clinical Genetics and Director of the Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, with the Rodger Winn Award. The Rodger Winn Award is given annually to one NCCN...
This past October, in a virtually held ceremony of the General Assembly of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Anil K. D’Cruz, MBBS, MS, DNB, FRCS (Hon), Director of Oncology at Apollo Hospitals in Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, India, began his 2-year tenure as President of the global...
The breakthrough KRAS-specific inhibitor sotorasib achieved responses in patients with KRAS G12C–mutated non–small lung cancer (NSCLC) who had experienced disease progression on platinum-based chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or both treatments. The objective response rate was 37.1%, and responses...
Although both incidence and mortality rates in colorectal cancer have been declining among people older than 65 by 3.3% and 3% annually, respectively, among individuals younger than age 50, the incidence rate has risen about 2% annually, and death rates have increased by 1.3% annually.1 Colorectal...
Formal discussant of OlympiA, Nadine M. Tung, MD, Director of Breast Medical Oncology and the Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, was enthusiastic about the ability of olaparib to improve invasive disease–free survival and...
The role of vaccines in mitigating the significant morbidity and mortality associated with infections in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a developing field of study, punctuated by the advent of novel therapeutic agents and pressing questions regarding the global SARS–CoV-2 vaccination...
Adjuvant therapy with the PARP inhibitor olaparib for 1 year extended disease-free survival in patients with high-risk early-stage HER2-negative breast cancer with BRCA1/2 germline (inherited) mutations, according to a prespecified interim analysis of the phase III OlympiA trial presented at the...
In an Italian study reported in Leukemia, Francesca Romana Mauro, MD, of the Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, and colleagues found that only a small minority of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) developed an adequate immune response to...
Session moderator during the 2021 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting, Sarah Blair, MD, FACS, Vice Chair of Academic Affairs for the Department of Surgery at University of California San Diego, urged widespread dissemination of these survey findings. “I was struck by how important...
Cristina Gasparetto, MD, of Duke University, discusses findings from a study that suggests patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma benefit from weekly selinexor, carfilzomib, and dexamethasone, which was reported to be active, with an overall response rate of 78% and an overall...
Ruben A. Mesa, MD, of UT Health San Antonio Cancer Center, discusses new findings on momelotinib, a potent JAK1, JAK2, and ACVR1 inhibitor with clinical activity against hallmark features of myelofibrosis such as anemia and splenomegaly. Results showed that transfusion independence was associated...
Claire Harrison, MD, of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, discusses survival results from the JAKARTA and JAKARTA2 trials, which showed that fedratinib, an oral JAK2 inhibitor, significantly improved progression-free survival vs placebo as a first-line treatment for patients with myelofibrosis...
Martin Hutchings, MD, PhD, of Copenhagen University Hospital, discusses a 5-year update of the phase III ECHELON-1 study, which suggested brentuximab vedotin plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine benefits patients with previously untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma...
Philippe Moreau, MD, of University Hospital Hôtel-Dieu, discusses findings from the CASSIOPEIA trial, Part 1, on daratumumab maintenance vs observation in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who have been treated with bortezomib, thalidomide, and dexamethasone, with or without...
Martin Kaiser, MD, of The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, discusses findings from the UK OPTIMUM/MUKNINE trial on the depth of response and minimal residual disease status in patients with ultra-high–risk newly diagnosed multiple myeloma and plasma cell leukemia who were...
Gaurav Goyal, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, reports on findings from a large multi-institutional database study, which showed there was no apparent difference in overall survival between R-CHOP and R-EPOCH among patients with advanced-stage MYC-rearranged, double-hit, or...
In the Korean phase III PRODIGY trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yoon-Koo Kang, MD, and colleagues found that the addition of neoadjuvant docetaxel, oxaliplatin, and S-1 (DOS) to D2 gastrectomy followed by adjuvant S-1 was associated with improved progression-free survival in...
Most survivors of head and neck squamous cell cancers report that their sense of taste is dulled, changed, or lost during radiation treatment. In a study of taste and smell dysfunction in 40 cancer survivors, scientists found that the tips of these individuals' tongues were significantly less...
A study published by Strother et al in BJU International found that patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer can safely receive cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy, even when their tumors are blocking their kidneys. The findings suggest that patients with the most serious type of this...
A study by Lin et al comparing patients with colon cancer enrolled in the U.S. Military Health System, which provides universal health-care to its beneficiaries, with those in the general population has found that patients in the Military Health System had an 18% lower risk of death compared with...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the use of convalescent plasma therapy was associated with improved 30-day mortality among patients with hematologic cancers hospitalized for COVID-19. Study Details The study...
In a Canadian/Australian phase II/III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Arjun Sahgal, MD, and colleagues found that stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) produced a higher complete pain response rate vs conventional external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in patients with painful spinal metastases. ...
Over the past month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Priority Review to therapies for multiple myeloma, cervical cancer, chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, and myelofibrosis. The FDA also granted a number of Breakthrough Therapy designations, including those for treatments in ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Paul G. Richardson, MD, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis of the phase III TOURMALINE-MM1 trial showed no overall survival benefit with the addition of ixazomib to lenalidomide/dexamethasone (Rd) in relapsed or refractory multiple ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jeff M. Michalski, MBA, MD, and colleagues, the Children’s Oncology Group noninferiority phase III ACNS0331 trial has shown no decrease in event-free survival with reduced radiation boost volume in patients with newly diagnosed, average-risk...
In a prospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frank et al found that monitoring of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) improved detection of early relapse after axicabtagene ciloleucel infusion in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma. Study Details A total of...
In a Chinese phase III study reported in The Lancet, Chen et al found that the use of adjuvant metronomic capecitabine improved failure-free survival vs observation after definitive chemoradiotherapy in patients with high-risk locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Study Details In the...
Neeraj Agarwal, MD, of Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, discusses three studies that examined real-world treatment patterns and utilization of advanced therapies in men with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, which served to highlight the ways in which Black men...
Bijal D. Shah, MD, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses phase II results of the ZUMA-3 study, which evaluated brexucabtagene autoleucel (KTE-X19), an anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, in adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Abstract 7002).
Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of LungenClinic, discusses a 2-year update of the CheckMate 9LA study, which sought to determine whether nivolumab plus ipilimumab combined with two cycles of chemotherapy is more effective than four cycles of chemotherapy alone as a first-line treatment for patients with...
Priya Rastogi, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, discusses results from the NRG Oncology/NSABP B-42 trial, which evaluated the utility of the 70-gene MammaPrint assay in predicting the benefit of extended letrozole therapy in patients who had completed 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy...
Peter H. O’Donnell, MD, of The University of Chicago, discusses response and survival results from the phase II KEYNOTE-052 study, which showed that after up to 5 years of follow-up, pembrolizumab continued to elicit clinically meaningful, durable antitumor activity in cisplatin-ineligible patients ...
Brian K. Link, MD, of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, reviews three abstracts on state-of-the-art therapies for mantle cell lymphoma: bendamustine, rituximab, lenalidomide and bortezomib; treatment patterns and outcomes for previously untreated patients; and venetoclax,...
Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD, of the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, discusses phase II results from the CAPTIVATE study, which examined ibrutinib plus venetoclax as a fixed-duration first-line treatment in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (Abstract 7501).
Matt D. Galsky, MD, of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses results from a phase II trial designed to test gemcitabine and cisplatin plus nivolumab as neoadjuvant therapy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer and to better predict benefit in...
Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80% to 85% of cases of lung cancer; when it is diagnosed early, there is a 5-year survival rate of 50% to 80%. Black patients have a lower overall incidence of NSCLC than White patients but are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages. They also...