The remarkable progress in medical research—primarily supported by federal investments in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI)—over the past 3 decades, coupled with advances in cancer prevention and early detection, has led to a 33% reduction in cancer...
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is recognized every September to help shine a light on the realities of pediatric cancer and raise awareness of the important work being done to make a difference for the children who are diagnosed with cancer. September 15 also marked the start of Hispanic Heritage ...
On September 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated labeling for temozolomide (Temodar) for the treatment of CNS cancers under Project Renewal, an Oncology Center of Excellence initiative aimed at updating labeling information for older oncology drugs to ensure information ...
Head and neck cancers comprise approximately 4% of all new cancer diagnoses globally and represent approximately 110,000 new cancer diagnoses and 17,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States. Head and neck cancers are a heterogenous group of malignancies where prognosis and treatment varies...
The invited discussant of the VERSATILE-002 and CUE-101-01 trials, Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS, said both are examples of a growing interest in evaluating immunotherapeutic strategies and treatment sequences in early-stage head and neck squamous cell cancer as well as in metastatic disease. Dr. ...
Researchers have found that the Taiwan National Lung Cancer Early Detection Program successfully detected 85% of stage 0 and stage I lung cancer cases. The findings by Yang et al were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung...
The newly renamed Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC) has been awarded comprehensive designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health. As a result, MECCC was awarded a 5-year, $20 million Cancer Center Support Grant to advance the...
In a Chinese study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Li et al found evidence that the anti–Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) anti-BNLF2b total antibody, P85-Ab, may be a promising biomarker for nasopharyngeal cancer screening. Study Details In the study, a peptide library representing highly...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Knikman et al found that reduced doses of fluoropyrimidine therapy in patients with cancer with DPYD variant alleles did not result in poorer outcomes vs DPYD wild-type controls receiving full fluoropyrimidine doses. Study Details The...
Extended pleurectomy decortication combined with chemotherapy was associated with worse survival outcomes, a higher incidence of serious adverse events, and a diminished quality of life in patients with resectable mesothelioma compared with platinum and pemetrexed chemotherapy alone, according to...
ASCO has updated a guideline on the practical assessment and management of age-associated vulnerabilities in older patients receiving systemic cancer therapy.1 Among the updates, the guideline adds more detail to domains that should be evaluated in geriatric assessments (GAs) and expands patient...
Novel treatments beyond the current chemoimmunotherapies are offering more treatment options in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), though real breakthroughs remain elusive, according to Ticiana Leal, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School...
Two phase III trials presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting explored treatments under study for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In an exploratory analysis of the CodeBreaK 200 trial, the KRAS inhibitor sotorasib was compared with docetaxel chemotherapy in subsets of patients...
A new artificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic tool for colposcopy examinations may improve the accuracy of diagnosing cancerous and precancerous cervical lesions, including cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), according to a retrospective validation study presented at the 2023 ASCO...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®)—a not-for-profit alliance of leading academic cancer centers—announced Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, FACP, as incoming Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Denlinger—who is currently NCCN’s Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer—will lead the ...
“Dr. Hope Kestrel was the only person who knew the patient in Room 132 wasn’t responding to the algorithm-selected treatment. She shuffled forward in the hospital security line, wanting to ger her day started already yet dreading how she’d tell her patient the unexpected and devastating news.” So...
In this installment of The ASCO Post’s Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Oncology at Paris-Saclay University, Orsay, France, and lung cancer specialist at Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Villejuif. Currently, Dr....
My intuition about my health has served me well over the past 10 years, possibly even saving my life from two serious cancers. In 2013, I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. I believe that my awareness of changes in my body led to its early discovery. One evening, after exercising at the gym...
Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) recently announced that Vivek Subbiah, MD, has joined the organization as Chief, Early-Phase Drug Development. In his role, Dr. Subbiah will oversee SCRI’s nine drug development units and lead the expansion of early-phase capabilities and programs across the...
In a phase II trial (I-SABR) reported in The Lancet, Joe Y. Chang, MD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues found that the addition of immunotherapy with nivolumab to stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) improved ...
In a study reported in a research letter in JACC: CardioOncology, Hibler et al found that survivors of young adult cancers who were exposed to anthracyclines were at an increased risk of subsequent diagnosis of heart failure. Study Details The study involved electronic health record data from the...
Pediatric patients with Down syndrome may undergo almost 10 times as many medical imaging examinations as other pediatric patients, potentially exposing them to more ionizing radiation, according to a recent study published by Marlow et al in PLOS ONE. Background Ionizing radiation is present in...
ASCO joined the President’s Cancer Panel on September 7, 2023, to highlight the numerous ways ASCO is working to advance the National Cancer Plan and achieve President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot goal of “ending cancer as we know it.” This all-day, virtual event was the first public meeting in support...
Aaron C. Tan, PhD, MBBS, of the National Cancer Centre Singapore, discusses new findings on early evaluation of circulating tumor DNA via low-pass whole-genome sequencing. The results of his study suggest this method may represent an early pharmacodynamic biomarker of therapeutic response...
In an analysis of the UKCTOCS study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Menon et al found that patients with high-grade serous tubo-ovarian cancer detected on multimodal screening may have a survival benefit over those whose disease was diagnosed without screening. The investigator stated, “In...
Improving hospital care pathways may help reduce inpatient opioid use by 50% and cut the median opioid prescription volumes at discharge to zero in patients undergoing pancreatic cancer surgery, according to a recent study published by Boyev et al in JAMA Surgery. The new findings could help reduce ...
Patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma who were treated with a chemoimmunotherapy regimen containing the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab experienced significantly improved overall survival compared with those treated with chemotherapy alone, with acceptable tolerability, according...
A commercially available artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm may perform comparably to human readers at assessing screening mammograms, according to a recent study published by Chen et al in Radiology. False-positive interpretations on screening mammograms can result in women without cancer...
Researchers have launched a new clinical trial examining the effectiveness of behavioral and psychological interventions at reducing cardiovascular damage caused by anticancer therapies in patients with breast cancer. Background Breast cancer—the most common cancer type in the European...
The Program for Lung Cancer Screening and Tobacco Cessation trial tested different adaptive interventions based on the evidence-based Tobacco Longitudinal Care (TLC) program, in part to learn how best to incorporate TLC into annual lung cancer screening as a smoking cessation standard. The findings ...
An interim analysis of the CABINET trial has shown that the phase III pivotal trial has met its primary endpoint, according to a press release from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Cabozantinib demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in...
In a study using SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) registry data reported in JAMA Network Open, Koh et al found that the incidence of cancer among individuals in the United States younger than age 50 years—defined as early-onset cancer—increased significantly between 2010 and 2019. ...
Fifty-two years ago, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971 into law, which established the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in its current form. At the time, the budget was $1.6 billion. Today, it is $7.8 billion, $4.5 billion less than the amount needed to keep up with...
Researchers have found that the novel targeted therapy zolbetuximab in combination with a standard chemotherapy may extend survival in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma and overexpression of the claudin-18 isoform 2 protein (CLDN18.2), according to a novel...
The antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan-hziy continued to demonstrate superior benefit for patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer when compared with standard chemotherapy, according to the final analysis of the phase III TROPiCS-02 study published...
On August 23, 2023, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) announced Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, FACP, as incoming Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Denlinger, who is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of NCCN, will lead the global guidelines organization...
Researchers have developed a personalized calculator that may be capable of predicting the reduced risk of early recurrence in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a recent study published by Chen et al in eGastroenterology. Background Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common...
In a German prospective registry study (SenTa) reported in JAMA Surgery, Kuemmel et al found that targeted axillary dissection alone after neoadjuvant systemic therapy was associated with outcomes similar to those obtained with targeted axillary dissection plus axillary lymph node dissection in...
Understanding the complexities of health disparities within cancer care requires an exploration beyond immediate clinical factors. According to Elisa Rodriguez, PhD, MS, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, geography plays a critical role in defining health outcomes in...
Several recent studies have shown an increasingly disturbing trend: the incidence of early-onset cancers—those diagnosed in individuals younger than age 50—is on the rise, and not just in the United States but globally as well. Worldwide, in 2019, there were a reported 1.19 million new cases of...
A new ASCO guideline rapid update provides updated recommendations for the management of stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These updated recommendations made by the ASCO expert panel cover treatment options for patients with resected disease and specific genetic mutations as well as...
A prospective study in China found that a noninvasive, multitarget stool DNA methylation assay was accurate in the early detection and identification of the tissue of origin of gastrointestinal cancers.1 The study, conducted by Li-Yue Sun, MD, of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital,...
Researchers may have identified how the TET2 gene may fuel rapid cancer growth in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a recent study published by Li et al in Cell Stem Cell. Background AML is distinguished by the rapid division and metastasis of immature leukemia stem cells....
Patients with pancreatic cancer who were treated with the benzodiazepine lorazepam had shorter progression-free survival periods than patients who were not, according to study results published by Cornwell et al in Clinical Cancer Research. In contrast, patients who were treated with the...
A Vietnamese prospective study by Hanh Thi-Hue Nguyen, BS, and Le Son Tran, PhD, both of the Medical Genetics Institute and Gene Solutions, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and colleagues, investigating the feasibility and performance of a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analyzing test in the early...
Platinum resistance occurs in almost all patients whose ovarian cancer recurs. Single-agent chemotherapies are commonly used in this setting, but outcomes are generally poor, leaving a large unmet need for effective treatment. At the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2023 Annual Meeting on...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recently announced the appointment of Christopher Flowers, MD, MSc, FASCO, a physician-scientist and leader in oncology, as Division Head of Cancer Medicine. This is the largest academic division at MD Anderson, including 13 clinical academic...
Grim, grimmer, and grinding are among the terms reported in the press to describe the current chemotherapy shortage.1,2 And, “it is not going away,” Mark J. Ratain, MD, FASCO, Chief Hospital Pharmacologist, University of Chicago Medicine, told The ASCO Post. “This is a progressive problem like...
In a preplanned analysis of the phase III PALLAS trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pfeiler et al found that higher body mass index (BMI) reduced the risk of neutropenia and treatment discontinuation in patients with early hormone receptor–positive breast cancer receiving adjuvant...
Researchers have found that the new PENK methylation (mePENK) test could potentially pave the way for a breakthrough in early bladder cancer detection in patients with hematuria, according to a novel study published by Oh et al in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. The findings could reduce the...