The publication of ASCO’s toxicity management guidelines for immune checkpoint antibodies by Brahmer and colleagues,1 reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, has been long awaited, considering more than 15 distinct indications have been granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The ...
The publication of the ASCO clinical practice guideline for the management of immune therapy–related adverse events—reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—represents an important next step in the incorporation of checkpoint blocking antibodies as standard cancer treatment modalities.1 The U.S....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Julie R. Brahmer, MD, of 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.1 Immune...
Robert M. Arnold, MD, a researcher and physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), has been recently recognized by the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine for his efforts to train clinicians to have difficult end-of-life conversations. Dr. Arnold accepted the 2018 Eric G....
GUEST EDITOR Prevention in Oncology is guest edited by Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, Chair of ASCO’s Energy Balance Working Group and a member of ASCO’s Cancer Survivorship and Cancer Prevention Committees. Dr. Ligibel is Director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber...
Radiotherapy given in high doses over a shorter period of time is safe and effective for patients with prostate cancer, according to research from a phase III trial presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) 37 Conference.1 The treatment—called ultrahypofractionated...
The 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting was abuzz with more than 22,000 attendees from around the world who came to Chicago to hear the latest in basic science and clinical trial results. Here we present summaries of a few of the highlights from the AACR meeting...
Formal discussant of the study on BLU-667, Alexander Drilon, MD, Clinical Director, Early Drug Development Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, was enthusiastic about these early results. “We’ve known about RET for more than 30 years. To date, no targeted therapy has been...
A first-in-human study provides proof of concept that a novel oral agent targeted to RET genetic alterations is safe and active in RET-driven cancers. The agent, called BLU-667, achieved durable disease control in patients with lung and thyroid cancers harboring the RET oncogene, according to the...
Named by ASCO as Advance of the Year for both 2016 and 2017,1 and with more than 10 U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved indications—and more on the way—it’s safe to say the era of cancer immunotherapy is upon us. To prepare, physicians must understand not only which patients will benefit,...
To stem the rising tide of financial toxicity in cancer care, creative physician reimbursement strategies, by themselves, will not work, according to a thought leader in the field who advocated for elimination of the federal mandate against price negotiation, curbing the power of monopolies, and...
Douglas Fearon, MD, Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and colleagues may have discovered how pancreatic cancer metastasizes to the liver following surgery, as reported by Pommier et al in Science. “This discovery is significant because for patients who undergo pancreatic cancer...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) covering 8 tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. Some of the key updates were presented at NCCN’s 23rd...
“In the era of improved systemic therapy, checkpoint blockade for metastatic melanoma and the ability to surgically resect all disease after treatment are associated with survival of 75%, better than what has been previously reported,” Danielle M. Bello, MD, said in summarizing study results during ...
On May 1, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified, high grade...
“Endocrine therapy remains the most effective and least toxic treatment for breast cancer, but we have many problems to solve. And there will have to be many different solutions,” according to George W. Sledge, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford...
“These are excellent results, both overall and for patients randomly assigned to nelarabine with either high-dose methotrexate or escalated-dose methotrexate,” said Howard Weinstein, MD, Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, who was not involved in this...
Upfront use of nelarabine plus standard Children’s Oncology Group–augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (aBFM) chemotherapy boosted survival rates in children and young adults with newly diagnosed T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-LL), according to the...
The opportunity to serve as ASCO President is the greatest honor of my professional career. It has been a pleasure and a highly rewarding experience to interact with our members and members of ASCO’s Board, executive leadership, and professional staff during my tenure. The year has allowed me to...
With all the advances in oncology care over the past decade, the most important contribution to high-quality care remains the personal connection between oncologist and patient, said Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, ASCO President-Elect, who will take the reins as ASCO’s 55th President...
The ASCO Post obtained comments about the Persephone trial results from two breast cancer experts. William M. Sikov, MD, is Associate Director of Clinical Research at the Program in Women’s Oncology at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island and Associate Professor of Medicine and of...
The noninferiority phase III Persephone trial could shake up the standard of care for adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin), showing that patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer derived as much benefit from 6 months of trastuzumab as 12 months, according to research from the United Kingdom ...
ASCO and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) have announced that they are working to co-create a pathway to provide doctors with a flexible way to maintain board certification. Beginning in 2020, oncologists will be able to choose from two different assessment pathways. They may take an ...
Patients with cancer have an increased risk of developing blood clots, with roughly one in five experiencing venous thromboembolism (VTE)—either deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Although there are many causes and risk factors for VTE, patients with cancer are...
In an interim analysis of a European trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Saussele et al found that discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with deep molecular response was associated with good molecular relapse-free survival,...
Surgical oncologists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine may have developed an improved scoring system for predicting survival in people with colorectal cancers that have metastasized to the liver. According to the researchers, the system, called the Genetic and Morphological...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, McCarthy et al identified the risk of interval breast cancer after negative screening mammography, including risk of poor-prognosis breast cancer. Study Details The study involved mammography data from the Population-Based Research Optimizing Screening...
As reported in JAMA, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued updated recommendations on prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer. To inform the recommendations, the USPSTF reviewed evidence on benefits and harms of PSA-based screening and treatment of...
On May 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved epoetin alfa-epbx (Retacrit) as a biosimilar to epoetin alfa (Epogen/Procrit) for the treatment of anemia caused by chronic kidney disease, chemotherapy, or use of zidovudine in patients with HIV infection. Epoetin alfa-epbx is also...
A randomized clinical trial evaluating the use of mobile and sensor technology to remotely monitor symptoms in patients receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer found that use of this technology reduced severe symptoms related to cancer and its treatment compared with usual care....
A Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)-supported randomized clinical trial of cancer survivors showed that 8 weeks of either acupuncture or cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) decreased the severity of insomnia among cancer survivors, though improvements were greatest...
An analysis of 1,800 lung cancer screening sites nationwide found that only 1.9% of more than 7 million current and former heavy smokers were screened for lung cancer in 2016, despite U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and ASCO screening recommendations. Results from this study—the...
In a study reported in JAMA Dermatology, Wang et al found that risk of nodal metastasis was higher for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lip with vermilion vs cutaneous location. Disease-specific and overall survival were similar for the two locations. Study Details The retrospective ...
Significant disparities in the quality of end-of-life lung cancer care were found among racial/ethnic minorities, with higher odds of experiencing potentially preventable medical encounters during end of life as compared with non-Hispanic whites. These findings were published by Karanth et al in...
Flushing the bladder with a common chemotherapy drug immediately after surgery significantly reduces the chances of bladder cancer returning, according to a study by Messing et al published in JAMA and led by SWOG. First author Edward M. Messing, MD, is Professor of Urology and...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Loree et al found that ERBB2/ERBB3 mutations in colorectal cancer are associated with microsatellite instability and PIK3CA mutation. Study Details The study involved retrospective analysis of 419 patients from The University of ...
Data from a new survey show that as many as 80% of oncologists have discussed medical marijuana use with their patients. According to the authors, this is the first nationally representative survey to examine oncologists’ practices and beliefs on the subject since the implementation of state...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Morita et al found that clearance of somatic mutations at complete remission—particularly those in nonpreleukemic genes—was associated with improved outcomes in previously untreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML)....
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Alton et al found that current cigarette smokers were less likely to believe that continued smoking after cancer diagnosis was harmful compared with ex-smokers or never-smokers. Continued smoking after cancer diagnosis has been associated...
HOW DO patients really feel when they are in your care? What does it feel like to cure a cancer? How are the children of oncologists affected when grief is a parent’s occupational hazard? These are the personal topics explored in the candid and inspirational mini-podcast series, Your Stories:...
The ASCO Annual Meeting is the world’s largest multidisciplinary oncology conference, attracting over 30,000 attendees each year. Countless advances are unveiled in Chicago year after year. The sense of excitement generated by knowing that clinical practice may change for the bettering of our...
WITH THE MAJORITY of state legislatures currently in session, ASCO and state societies across the country continue to work together to ensure lawmakers understand how legislation impacts the cancer care delivery system. For example, in Rhode Island and Washington, ASCO worked with the Rhode Island ...
Precision medicine is changing cancer care in profound ways. It is expected that the number of patients who benefit from precision medicine will continue to increase in the coming years, as treatments become more effective and research yields more insights on patient populations who are most likely ...
The rising cost of anticancer drugs not only adds fiscal pressure to our overburdened health-care system, but also increases the stress on patients with cancer and their families. High out-of-pocket spending may cause significant financial toxicity, even for patients with good health insurance...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On January 12, 2018, afatinib (Gilotrif) was approved...
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH (AACR) welcomes Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, Deputy Director for the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and Associate Director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, as President of AACR for 2018–2019....
Susannah E. Koontz, PharmD, BCOP, FHOPA, is a consultant for clinical pharmacy services, research, and education in the areas of pediatric hematology/oncology, stem cell transplantation, and cellular therapy. She has held positions at the Children’s Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas MD...
THE USE OF oral chemotherapy drugs is becoming more and more prevalent—for many types and stages of cancer, during different treatment phases, and for varying lengths of time. So it’s vital that physicians, nurses, and advanced practitioners understand all the potential adverse events of these...
THE COMMUNITY ONCOLOGY Alliance (COA) has released the 2018 Community Oncology Practice Impact Report,1 which tracks data on the changing landscape of cancer care in the United States. It details a decade-long trend of closure and consolidation in the U.S. cancer system that has resulted in a...
Dr. Thompson is Professor of Melanoma and Surgical Oncology, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, and Senior Surgeon, Melanoma Institute Australia, Sydney. IN THE MID-1990s, the surgical management of patients presenting with primary cutaneous melanomas changed forever when the...