Aldous Huxley’s classic 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World pictures an eerie future where humans are genetically bred, altered to create worthy citizens. Welcome back to the future. First there was the astounding feat of sequencing the entire human genome; now, thanks to a revolutionary...
Some women, because of genetic predisposition, personal, or family history, have a higher-than-average lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. For those women, earlier magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is recommended for cancer screening. But according to new findings presented at the American...
GEROLD BEPLER, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, has been elected to serve a 3-year term on the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) Board of Directors. AACI comprises 97 leading cancer research centers in North America and is...
NORWALK HOSPITAL and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced a new cancer care collaboration that will integrate MSK medical and radiation oncologists and care practices with the existing cancer program at the C. Anthony and Jean Whittingham Cancer Center at Norwalk Hospital. For...
Integrative oncology is an evolving evidence-based specialty providing whole-person care by combining conventional approved cancer treatments with integrative and complementary therapies that best serve the needs of patients based on their diagnosis, prognosis, treatment history, and individual...
RUTH ETZIONI, PhD, a Biostatistician at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, has received a 5–year National Institutes of Health grant to advance the science of cancer surveillance by developing, validating, and deploying a scalable and automated approach for...
PHILADELPHIA PHILANTHROPIST Concetta “Chet” Greenberg has made a transformational gift to create The Marvin and Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center. This multimillion-dollar commitment will significantly accelerate the pace of pancreatic cancer research, and...
ON OCTOBER 25, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved intravenous (IV) rolapitant (Varubi) in combination with other antiemetic agents in adults for the prevention of delayed nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of emetogenic cancer chemotherapy, including...
MUCH PROGRESS has been made in the past decade in the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed metastatic melanoma. In the front-line setting, programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) monotherapy (nivolumab [Opdivo] and pembrolizumab [Keytruda]) and combined PD-1 plus cytotoxic...
THE LONG-TERM RESULTS of a phase III clinical trial indicate that survival rates for patients receiving chemoradiation for unresectable, locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may be more than twice as high as previous estimates, setting a new benchmark of survival for patients with...
GERALDINE M. JACOBSON, MD, MPH, MBA, ASTRO Secretary/Treasurer, Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, went into more detail about the importance of this study. “The study directly compared brachytherapy/chemotherapy, which we use...
WITH THE ADVANCEMENT of surgical and radiation therapy strategies for stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), more patients are being treated, resulting in higher survival rates, according to a study published online in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.1 “More and more patients are being cured...
THE PHASE III ARCHER 1050 trial has shown superior progression-free survival with the second-generation irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor dacomitinib vs gefitinib (Iressa) in the first-line treatment of advanced EGFR-mutant non–small-cell lung cancer...
THE SOCIETY OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY has announced Kelly M. McMasters, MD, PhD, will assume the role of Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Surgical Oncology, effective March 2018. Dr. McMasters will oversee the print and online editions of the journal and, with Mark Roh, MD, Executive Editor, will lead the...
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE announced the election of 70 regular members and 10 international members during its annual meeting in October. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated...
Alcohol use—whether light, moderate, or heavy—is linked with increasing the risk of several leading cancers, including those of the breast, colon, esophagus, and head and neck, according to evidence gathered by ASCO. In a statement released November 7 identifying alcohol as a definite...
On November 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the approval of vemurafenib (Zelboraf) to include the treatment of certain adult patients with Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD), a rare cancer of the blood. Vemurafenib is indicated to treat patients whose cancer cells have a specific ...
On October 25, Genentech announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the company's supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel), followed by bevacizumab alone, for the front-line ...
A new study published by Lipitz-Snyderman et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that among patients presenting to the emergency department, those with cancer, especially those aged 75 years or older, are more likely to be admitted to the hospital—and...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fidler et al found that cancer burden was higher worldwide among women vs men aged 20 to 39 in 2012 and that the incidence was higher but mortality lower in very high vs low Human Development Index regions. Study Details The study involved data from the ...
ASCO Research Community Forum The ASCO Research Community Forum (RCF) Annual Meeting was held September 24–25, with the theme of Advancing Cancer Care Through Research Partnerships. The RCF Annual Meeting brings together ASCO leaders, regulatory experts, physician investigators, and research staff...
Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a cancer so rare that some oncologists have never heard of it. Brittany Sullivan, a 29-year-old anatomy teacher from Nashville, Tennessee, learned about it when she was 3 years old. She has been conquering it ever since. Since her childhood diagnosis, Ms....
In a 2013 survey, oncologists in the United States and Canada said they aim to retire at about age 64 or 65—but the majority transition into retirement in the few years after turning 65.1 When oncologists reach the point of retirement, the transition from ever-busy physician to retiree can be a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the release of new educational materials for health-care professionals about biosimilar and interchangeable products. The agency developed these educational materials to help increase understanding about these important new types of...
Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD, took the oath of office late Tuesday, October 17, 2017, to become the 15th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He succeeds Harold E. Varmus, MD, who stepped down as Director in March 2015. Douglas R. Lowy, ...
According to Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) have 5-year survival rates of 86% and 71%, respectively.1 Although the increased number of survivors is welcome proof of the success of new treatment regimens, it also ...
The treatment paradigm for multiple myeloma has changed dramatically in the past decade with the availability of several efficacious agents in various drug classes. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 13th Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies™, Shaji K. Kumar, MD, Professor...
New therapeutic agents for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) have led to dramatic improvement in remission rates, but questions concerning the proper sequencing and combination of these agents remain. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 13th Annual Congress: Hematologic...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, held in Madrid, featured important news including at least seven practice-changing or potentially practice-changing trials, which are covered in recent issues of The ASCO Post. Here we present additional highlights of studies in breast ...
In this roundup, The ASCO Post offers a glance at key findings from studies in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress from investigators around the world. Docetaxel-Based Triplet in Gastric Cancer The superiority of...
Tumor mutation burden is emerging as a biomarker for selecting non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients for immunotherapy, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, the Price Family Chair of Clinical Translational Medicine, Professor of Medicine, and Director of Thoracic Oncology at Columbia University,...
The study’s invited discussant, Balazs Halmos, MD, Director of Thoracic Oncology and Clinical Cancer Genomics at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, called tumor mutation burden a “highly promising” biomarker of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors....
Patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and a high tumor mutation burden had a near doubling in response rate and 1-year overall survival when ipilimumab (Yervoy) was combined with nivolumab (Opdivo), vs nivolumab alone, new findings from CheckMate 032 have shown. Regardless of the treatment...
“At Microphone 1” is an occasional column written by Steven E. Vogl, MD, of Bronx, New York. When he’s not in his clinic, Dr. Vogl can generally be found at major oncology meetings and often at the microphone, where he stands ready with critical questions for presenters of new data. Here Dr. Vogl...
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has become standard practice, mostly due to the results of the National Lung Screening Trial. Related evidence continues to evolve, informing the benefits and risks of low-dose CT in clinical practice. Mazzone et al presented new ...
Two new studies from CHEST 2017, held recently in Toronto, reveal disparities in lung cancer screening and care that may impact detection as well as mortality and survival rates in the disease. Risk Status and Screening The first study from Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington,...
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! That’s what home buyers are frequently cautioned about before purchasing a property. For trialists, and more importantly, practicing oncologists, a study’s design, akin to a property’s location, must be taken into account prior to buying into the results and changing ...
In a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Soni et al reported reductions in the proportion of nonelderly adult cancer patients who were uninsured between 2010 and 2013 vs 2014, after institution of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Study Details The study used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology,...
On October 23, Novartis announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for dabrafenib (Tafinlar) in combination with trametinib (Mekinist) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation following...
A study reported by Lee et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that approximately 10% of patients undergoing curative-intent surgery for cancer become new persistent opioid users. Study Details The study involved data from 68,463 patients from a national data set of insurance claims...
A new study presented at The Liver Meeting, held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, found that daily aspirin therapy was significantly associated with a reduced risk in hepatitis B virus (HBV)–related liver cancer (Abstract 223). According to AASLD’s...
A new study presented at The Liver Meeting—held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases—found that eradication of the hepatitis C virus induced by direct-acting antiviral medications is associated with a 71% reduction in the risk of liver cancer (Abstract 142)....
The results of a national cancer survey reveal a significant number of childhood cancer survivors are worried about keeping their health insurance, to the point of letting it affect their career decisions. The findings were published by Kirchhoff et al in JAMA Oncology. Anne Kirchhoff, PhD,...
Rare variants combined with background genetic risk factors may account for many unexplained cases of familial breast cancer, and knowing the specific genes involved could inform choice of prevention and treatment strategies, according to findings presented in a plenary session at the American...
Sandip Patel, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses diagnosing and managing immune-related adverse events from immune checkpoint blockade and the toxicities of these treatments.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to acalabrutinib (Calquence) for the treatment of adults with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy. “Mantle cell lymphoma is a particularly aggressive cancer,” said Richard...
The number of early-phase trials in oncology that adopted a seamless approach—as opposed to a traditional trial approach with defined phase I, II, and III plans—is rising, with data from the majority of them presented after 2014, according to a study presented by Barata et al at the...
A computational imaging-based signature of immune-cell infiltration in and around a tumor could predict patients’ responses to treatment with anti–programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immunotherapies, according to data from a study presented by Sun et...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the release of new educational materials for health-care professionals about biosimilar and interchangeable products. The agency developed these educational materials to help increase understanding about these important new types of...
On October 16, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for priority review its supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for nivolumab (Opdivo) to treat patients with melanoma who are at high risk of disease recurrence following complete...