The ASCO Post is pleased to present the Hematology Expert Review, an occasional feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib, Kröger, and Mikulska focus on the challenges of providing cancer care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here they present two...
The Prevent Cancer Foundation recently announced funding for seven scientists who are researching cancer prevention and early detection. Each scientist has been awarded $100,000 for 2 years. The following individuals are the 2022 research grantees: Sarah Bernhardt, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow Oregon...
Using the nation’s largest COVID-19 data resource, a research team found that the COVID-19 vaccine offered protection for most patients with cancer. However, patients with certain types of cancer—especially those with hematologic malignancies—had a higher and widely varied risk of breakthrough...
In this edition of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Antônio Drauzio Varella, MD, a Brazilian oncologist, educator, scientist, and medical science popularizer in the press and television, as well as a best-selling author. Antônio Drauzio Varella, MD, was born in 1943 in ...
“Prior to these two studies, smaller studies showed a lack of response to PARP [poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitors in previously treated patients with urothelial cancer, both as monotherapy and in combinations,” said formal discussant of the BAYOU and ATLANTIS trials, Sandy Srinivas, MD,...
In an analysis from the Children’s Oncology Group protocol AAML1013 reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pollard et al found that the addition of sorafenib to standard chemotherapy may benefit pediatric patients with high allelic ratio FLT3-ITD–positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Study...
New research has found that the weakened immune systems of patients with lymphoma may improve after they receive a third COVID-19 vaccination. Patients with lymphoma have defects in their immune system that restrict its response to vaccination; despite this, a study published by Lim et al in Nature ...
Despite advances in treatment for pediatric patients, cancer remains the primary cause of disease-related mortality in children and adolescents. Data from the international clinical trial MAPPYACTS, which aims to define tumor molecular profiles in pediatric patients with recurrent/refractory...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, David R. Freyer, DO, MS, and colleagues found that clinicians consistently undergraded—and caregivers frequently overgraded—the severity of adverse events experienced by children with cancer. Study Details The study included 438...
The phase II ANCHOR CRC study, the largest prospective study of BRAF inhibitor–based therapy as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, has met its primary endpoint, with 47.8% of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer responding to first-line treatment with encorafenib,...
A blood-basedliquid biopsy may accurately predict recurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma following treatment, according to data presented at the 2022 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.1 Results of the large, multi-institutional study...
“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.” —Sir William Osler To complement The ASCO Post’s continued comprehensive coverage of the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting...
The rising incidence and prevalence of gastroenteropancreatic endocrine tumors make them the second-most prevalent gastrointestinal cancer.1 Although most of these tumors are relatively slow growing, their histologic grade and differentiation are closely correlated with their clinical behavior.2,3...
In an analysis from the Women’s Health Initiative reported in JACC: CardioOncology, Kerryn W. Reding, PhD, MPH, RN, and colleagues identified the incidence of hospitalization for heart failure among postmenopausal breast cancer survivors, finding that both incidence of hospitalization and risk of...
A new therapeutic strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that initially primes the tumor with an immune checkpoint inhibitor before using a multikinase inhibitor has shown efficacy in a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Kikuchi et al reported that the new...
A phase I/Ib trial conducted by the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network group NRG Oncology, NRG-GY017, concluded that the addition of the immunotherapy atezolizumab prior to and concurrently given with chemoradiation was safe for women with node-positive, locally advanced...
In a clinical trial involving patients with ovarian cancer previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy, a novel antibody-drug conjugate therapy produced a substantially better response than standard treatments, investigators from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reported at the Society of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Delahunty et al, an Australian pilot study of a genetic testing program (TRACEBACK) for deceased patients with tubo-ovarian cancer was successful in identifying pathogenic variants in samples from the patients, informing family, and engaging family ...
In an analysis from the BMT Survivor Study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, and colleagues assessed late mortality over a 30-year period among patients who underwent autologous blood or marrow transplantation (BMT) for hematologic malignancies. They found an...
We are all following the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine with surprise and horror. I’m sure few readers of The ASCO Post imagined the invasion of a European country by its European neighbor was possible again, naively thinking wars like this ended with the Allied victory in World War II. But...
Black and Hispanic people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the greater Chicago area were more likely to die from the disease than their non-Hispanic White counterparts, with a 59% and 25% greater risk, respectively, according to a new study led by University of Illinois Chicago researchers. In...
Advances over the past 3 decades in improvements in cancer prevention and screening strategies and more effective diagnostics and therapies in cancer care have led to unprecedented declines in death rates from all cancers, including prostate, gynecologic, and colorectal/anal cancers. The fastest...
The presence of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, or CHIP, increases the risk of developing a myeloid malignancy and also cardiovascular disease—which are well-established findings—but it may also protect against developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to findings reported at the...
American Society of Hematology (ASH) session co-moderator Matthew Genyeh Mei, MD, Associate Professor, Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute of City of Hope in Southern California, said the studies of checkpoint inhibitors in newly diagnosed and previously treated Hodgkin ...
Mihir Gupta, MD, a neurosurgery resident at the University of California San Diego and postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurosurgery, and Ganesh M. Shankar, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School,...
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is readily detectable in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma and is a strong prognostic biomarker for outcomes, a team of researchers from Germany and Stanford University reported at the 2021 American Society of...
Scientists have determined that first responders to the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have increased levels of mutations that may escalate their risk for blood cancers or cardiovascular disease, according to a study published by Jasra et al in Nature Medicine....
"One of the great advocates for the poorest and sickest of our planet.” —Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu “Our mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations ...
Updates of phase II studies evaluating fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) in gastrointestinal cancers were presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, continuing to offer support for the antibody-drug conjugate in these malignancies. In HER2-expressing gastric cancer, T-DXd...
Researchers at City of Hope published data pointing to the limitations of a popular liquid biopsy that is used to detect the recurrence of colorectal cancer in patients who who have undergone surgical resection. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open by Marwan Fakih, MD, and colleagues....
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Janna A. Hol, MD, and colleagues found that (epi)genetic predisposing factors could be identified in one-third of children diagnosed with Wilms tumor. As stated by the investigators, “Wilms tumor is associated with (epi)genetic...
Patients treated for Merkel cell carcinoma face a 5-year recurrence rate of 40%—markedly higher than the recurrence rates for melanoma and other skin cancers, according to research published by McEvoy et al in JAMA Dermatology. Additionally, in the study cohort of more than 600 patients, 95% of...
A large, multi-institutional study demonstrated that a blood test to detect circulating tumor DNA may accurately predict recurrence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal cancer following treatment. Results also indicated that the biomarker test may detect recurrent disease earlier than ...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Frederick L. Locke, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ZUMA-7 trial of patients with large B-cell lymphoma has shown improved event-free survival with second-line axicabtagene ciloleucel vs chemoimmunotherapy with high-dose chemotherapy and...
Amy Tiersten, MD, Professor of Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, Director of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,...
Switching from an aromatase inhibitor to fulvestrant upon early identification of the ESR1 mutation in plasma—before disease progression—doubled progression-free survival in the phase III PADA-1 trial, presented at the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “PADA-1 is the first trial to...
A new mutation was identified in 9% of relapsed cases of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that may define a new subtype of the disease, according to a study published by Umeda et al in Blood Cancer Discovery. The mutation is a tandem duplication (a series of adjacent repeats of a DNA...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pires da Silva et al developed predictive models for objective response and progression-free and overall survival among patients receiving anti–PD-1 antibodies with or without ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma. The analyses involved data...
T-cell responses directed against the receptor-binding domain of the SARS–CoV-2 spike protein were associated with protection from SARS–CoV-2 infection in vaccinated individuals with or without cancer, with lower T-cell responses observed in patients with blood cancers, according to results from a...
In the phase II SWOG 1318 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Advani et al found that blinatumomab induction and consolidation followed by maintenance with POMP (prednisone, vincristine, mercaptopurine, and methotrexate) produced good outcomes in patients aged ≥ 65 years with newly...
The ASCO Post asked Joseph Mikhael, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the International Myeloma Foundation and Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center), to comment on the GMMG-HD7...
Precursors to multiple myeloma were identified by population screening in two studies reported at the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. The prevalence of monoclonal gammopathies was determined in the PROMISE trial using cutting-edge technology in a high-risk ...
In the primary analysis of the phase III ZUMA-7 trial, examining second-line therapy for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, the CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel led to a fourfold increase in event-free survival over the standard of care. These findings were presented at the...
Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, formally assumed the role of Executive Director of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on January 1, 2022, ushering in a new era of leadership for the educational and professional society for surgeons. Dr. Turner succeeds David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, MAMSE, who led ...
When I got the call from the radiology department telling me I had to come back for a follow-up mammogram right before Christmas of 2020, I wasn’t surprised or initially concerned. I have dense breasts, and my first mammogram 2 years earlier had also detected suspicious areas in one of my breasts...
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance on the use of external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) to treat adults with primary liver cancers. The guideline, ASTRO’s first for primary liver cancers, is published in Practical Radiation ...
Administering time-limitedcombination regimens of venetoclax plus obinutuzumab or venetoclax plus obinutuzumab and ibrutinib was superior to chemoimmunotherapy in achieving undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) in the peripheral blood at month 15 in fit patients with chronic lymphocytic...
COVID has upended our world, and medical conferences have had to adapt to ever-shifting sands depending on the behavior of the variants of the virus that emerge. The 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition was no exception, offering a hybrid meeting for in-person...
New research published by Keith et al in BMC Cancer showed that angiotensin blockers—commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure—may also impact survival in patients with pancreatic cancer. The results are from the largest population-based study of this question and suggest that a broader,...
The use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assays in early-stage colorectal cancer is highly prognostic for recurrence and may help identify patients who could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, according to findings from the GALAXY trial, presented at the 2022 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers...