AS PART of The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here is an update on seven different studies on new therapeutics in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Among the treatments highlighted here are the erythroid maturation...
A study published by Cook et al in JAMA Oncology focused on whether treatment with checkpoint inhibitors is both safe and effective in patients with advanced cancer who are also human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive. Because checkpoint inhibitors manipulate the immune system, the concern has...
Although colorectal cancer rates in older adults have been decreasing in the United States since the mid-1980s, incidence rates for the cancer have been increasing among young and middle-aged adults, according to a study by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Based on the new data, in 2018, the ACS...
For patients at the end of life, palliative care can prolong survival and improve the quality of life for patients with a life-threatening illness and for their families—but studies have found that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive end-of-life palliative care than...
In a Chinese, single-center, noninferiority phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wang et al found that postmastectomy hypofractionated radiotherapy was noninferior to and associated with similar toxicities vs conventionally fractionated radiotherapy in patients with high-risk breast...
The approval of several new agents for metastatic melanoma in the past several years has led to changes in how the disease is treated and managed. Treatments such as the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, and nivolumab; BRAF inhibitors; and MEK inhibitors...
The first report from a phase II, multicenter clinical trial has found that a newer, more aggressive form of radiation therapy—stereotactic ablative radiation—can extend long-term survival for some patients with stage IV cancers, while maintaining their quality of life. The study was...
In a Dutch-Belgian study (CYPTAM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sanchez-Spitman et al found no associations between CYP2D6 genotypes or levels of endoxifen (active metabolite of tamoxifen) and clinical outcomes in patients receiving adjuvant tamoxifen for early-stage breast cancer....
In phase Ib results from the JAVELIN Solid Tumor Trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Disis et al found that avelumab produced durable responses in some patients with recurrent or refractory ovarian cancer. In the study, an expansion cohort of 125 women with advanced disease who had received...
In a population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Downing et al found little difference in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between men with advanced vs localized prostate cancer. Sexual function problems were common among all patients—and often not addressed—and use of ...
A new study has found rates are increasing for 6 of 12 cancers related to obesity in younger adults in the United States, with steeper increases in progressively younger ages and successively younger generations. The study, published by Sung et al in The Lancet Public Health, also looked at rates...
In the release of its annual report on progress against cancer, Clinical Cancer Advances 2019, ASCO recognized progress in treating rare cancers as the Advance of the Year. The report catalogs a year’s worth of remarkable research advancements, reinforces the need for continued federal research...
In discussions after these presentations, several points were made by several experts. To begin, Steven Gore, MD, Director of Hematologic Malignancies at Yale Medical School, called the study of venetoclax plus 10-day decitabine “very important,” but he raised the issue of appropriate dosing. He...
The benefit of adding venetoclax to a hypomethylating agent or low-dose cytarabine in the front-line treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was evident from a number of studies reported at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (see Table 1). For elderly...
The burgeoning pipeline of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) in multiple myeloma was on full display at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. A bispecific antibody also made its debut in this busy...
In the randomized, double-blind, phase III MEDALIST trial, the experimental drug luspatercept significantly reduced the need for frequent red blood cell transfusions in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and ring sideroblasts. With luspatercept, 37.9% remained transfusion-free ...
Partial-breast irradiation delivered over 5 to 10 days did not meet noninferiority criteria compared with whole-breast irradiation given over 5 to 7 weeks, according to 10-year results of the large NRG (NSABP B-39/RTOG 0413) trial presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 However, ...
Pancreaticoduodenectomy, or the Whipple procedure, is one of the most complex abdominal surgeries, and is commonly prescribed as a first line of therapy for cancer located within the pancreatic head. Investigators reported that following a 5-day accelerated recovery pathway after surgery helped to...
Each year, The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, to offer his picks for the most important research presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vaarwerk et al found that presence of indeterminate pulmonary nodules at diagnosis of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma did not adversely affect treatment outcome in otherwise localized disease. The study involved 316 patients from the European...
In the phase III REACH-2 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Zhu et al found that ramucirumab improved overall and progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and increased α-fetoprotein levels who had previously received sorafenib. Study...
When added to first-line chemotherapy in patients with untreated metastatic HER2-positive esophageal, gastroesophageal junction, and gastric adenocarcinoma, the combination of pembrolizumab and trastuzumab produced responses in 87% of patients, with 100% of patients experiencing disease control and ...
As invited discussant of the GAMMA-1 trial, Martine Extermann, MD, PhD, of Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida, first commented on the “teaser” in the findings—the potential for benefit of andecaliximab in older patients. “The drug works better in older patients. As a...
As reported by Solomon et al in The Lancet Oncology1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, results from a global phase II study of the third-generation ALK inhibitor lorlatinib showed a high overall response rate and high intracranial response rate for patients with advanced ALK-positive...
KEYNOTE-181’s invited discussant, Harry H. Yoon, MD, Associate Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said the findings have a “potentially immediate clinical impact” for second-line treatment of esophageal cancer, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and Siewert...
In the global phase III KEYNOTE-181 trial, pembrolizumab as second-line therapy for advanced esophageal cancer did not improve overall survival in the whole population, vs chemotherapy, but did improve survival for patients with strong expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1),...
Injection of a genetically modified virus that induces the body’s own immune cells to attack metastatic melanoma effectively treated almost 40% of patients with tumors that could not be surgically removed, according to findings published by Louie et al in the Journal of the American...
In a French phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Scherpereel et al found evidence of activity with nivolumab or the combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with relapsed malignant pleural mesothelioma. Study Details In the open-label, noncomparative trial, 125 patients...
In a Dutch study (IMPROVE) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Polman et al found that human papillomavirus (HPV) testing with a clinically validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–based assay had similar accuracy using self-collected vs clinician-collected samples in detecting cervical...
In a phase Ib trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Hassan et al found that the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 antibody avelumab produced durable responses and a high rate of disease control in some patients with advanced unresectable mesothelioma progressing after platinum and pemetrexed...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for a new indication for pemetrexed (Alimta) for injection in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and platinum chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted the following application, designations, and clearance: sBLA for Atezolizumab Plus Chemotherapy for First-Line Treatment of Metastatic, Nonsquamous NSCLC On January 17, the FDA accepted a supplemental biologics license application...
In a prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ramsey et al identified the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in patients with newly diagnosed cancer and found that a substantial proportion were unaware of...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Surgery, Eaglehouse et al found that time to breast cancer surgery was delayed for non-Hispanic black vs non-Hispanic white women in the Military Health System but that this difference did not account for poorer overall survival in non-Hispanic black ...
A new report published by Wang et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that using Oncotype DX—the most commonly used test for predicting the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy to reduce the risk of disease recurrence—is not...
In a single-center retrospective case series analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Smith et al found that a watch-and-wait approach was associated with a high rate of rectal preservation and pelvic tumor control in patients with rectal cancer with complete clinical response to neoadjuvant therapy,...
Invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is typically treated surgically, with guidelines in place recommending surgical margins for excision based on the SCC being classified as low or high risk. Researchers undertook a study to examine recurrence rates of SCC after surgical excision, taking into...
In a phase I trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Craddock et al found evidence that the sequential combination of azacitidine and lenalidomide may be an effective salvage therapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) relapsing after allogeneic stem cell transplantation...
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Potter et al found that complications following immediate implant-based breast reconstruction—with or without mesh—were higher than considered acceptable by UK national standards. As noted by the investigators, the study was ...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, interviewed V. Shanta, MD, an internationally renowned oncologist and Chairperson of the Cancer Institute in Adyar, Chennai, India. Dr. Shanta has been with the Institute since 1955, holding several positions...
TRIPLE-NEGATIVE breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease that comprises several subtypes, which may respond differently to therapy. Breast cancer researchers at the Mayo Clinic are developing a novel genomic signature that may improve the identification of the luminal androgen receptor vs basal...
THE IMPASSION130 trial—reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Schmid et al1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—was an eagerly awaited study in newly diagnosed metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. To briefly review, 902 patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to...
AS REPORTED in The New England Journal of Medicine by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, the phase III IMpassion130 trial has shown that the addition of atezolizumab to nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel significantly...
THE MULTIPLE MYELOMA Research Foundation (MMRF) has announced the launch of MyDRUG, the first platform trial exclusively in multiple myeloma, which aims to investigate targeted treatments for patients with high-risk myeloma. MyDRUG represents the culmination of the MMRF’s Precision Medicine Model,...
ADVANCES IN treating breast cancer over the past 20 years have brought us to the point where treatment can be confidently de-escalated for some patients, and immunotherapy and precision decision-making may change the way breast cancer is treated for others, William Gradishar MD, FASCO, told the...
“SURGEONS AND radiation oncologists are obsessed with locoregional recurrence of breast cancer,” Monica Morrow, MD, FASCO, remarked at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Chicago. Working to prevent locoregional recurrence, “even if it may not be the major threat to mortality, is...
THE RISK of local recurrence in breast cancer “does not differ substantially based on the operation we perform, but it does differ substantially by subtype,” Tari A. King MD, FACS, stated at the 2018 Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago.1 At 10-year follow-up, Dr. King reported, local...
IN AN OPEN-LABEL phase I study of 153 patients newly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) or IDH2, treatment with standard chemotherapy plus the oral IDH inhibitors ivosidenib and enasidenib led to high response rates and possibly impressive ...
LATE-BREAKING results from the large, randomized, placebo-controlled CASSINI trial showed that primary prophylaxis with the direct oral anticoagulation agent rivaroxaban reduced the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) as well as VTE-related deaths in high-risk patients with cancer who were...
THE MULTIARM, multicollaborative BEAT AML umbrella trial demonstrated the feasibility of using next-generation sequencing to assign treatment tailored to individual genomics of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) within 7 days. This may prove to be a major advance, since typically...