In 2017, ASCO announced the launch of its Center for Research and Analytics (CENTRA). CENTRA’s mission is to conquer cancer by generating, integrating, analyzing, and sharing oncology data to foster innovation in research and patient care. CENTRA aims to make its cancer data available to the...
Members of the research community can access resources developed by the ASCO Research Community Forum year-round to address challenges they may be facing in conducting and managing clinical trials, including the ASCO Toolkit of Resources on the Business of Clinical Trials; the ASCO Insurance...
As part of ASCO’s State of Cancer Care in America initiative, the Journal of Oncology Practice recently published an infographic about opioids and cancer pain, which highlights the specific needs of patients with cancer and some of the hurdles they face in trying to access prescribed opioids to...
The Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society (NNECOS) is a tristate regional affiliate of ASCO serving oncology practices within Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. A long-time supporter of Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation, and its Young Investigator Award (YIA) program, NNECOS expanded...
Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors are approved for the second-line treatment of head and neck cancer and likely will be soon in the first-line treatment of locally advanced disease. According to Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, developments in immunotherapy for this population should be...
In this debut episode of The ASCO Post Podcast, experts in breast, prostate, and lung cancers and multiple myeloma provide clinical insights about selected studies presented at the recent ASCO Annual Meeting, plus news from the FDA.
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ruxolitinib (Jakafi) for steroid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) in adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older. Approval was based on the REACH1 trial/Study INCB 18424-271, an open-label, single-arm, multicenter...
On May 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the NovoTTF-100L System in combination with pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of unresectable locally advanced or metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma. NovoTTF-100L is a noninvasive,...
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the PIK3CA inhibitor alpelisib (Piqray) tablets to be used in combination with the FDA-approved endocrine therapy fulvestrant to treat postmenopausal women and men with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA-mutated, advanced ...
An interim analysis of the large Pediatric MATCH trial found that 24% of children and young adolescents with cancers refractory to current treatments had been assigned to treatment with investigational targeted study agents based on genetic alterations detected in their tumors,1 which is more than...
Before the introduction of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, the 5-year life expectancy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was 5.5%. This dismal outlook has changed. Treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab dramatically improved overall...
The past 20 years have seen an unprecedented increase in the development of effective drugs for the management of cancer. The advent of immunotherapy offers even the promise of cure for some previously highly resistant diseases. The science is brilliant, the need is ever increasing—but the cost is ...
At the Plenary Session, formal discussant of Dr. Davidoff’s study, Yousuf Zafar, MD, of Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, North Carolina, gave an impassioned talk about the need to address racial disparities in cancer care. “This is a nontraditional study to be selected for the ASCO Plenary Session....
The evidence is in: the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has enabled improved access to earlier diagnosis, earlier care, and reduced racial disparities in access to care for patients with cancer, according to two studies presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. In states that adopted Medicaid...
Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, FASCO, Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute and Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program, commented on what...
In a trial presented by Baumann et al at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 6521), patients with locally advanced cancer treated with proton chemoradiotherapy instead of traditional photon chemoradiotherapy were at a lower risk of experiencing side effects. However, cure rates were almost...
The first statistically significant overall survival benefit has been shown for a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor plus endocrine therapy as first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer. The results are from the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial, which evaluated ribociclib plus endocrine...
In an effort to advance cancer data sharing and improve the quality and coordination of patient care, three health and technology organizations have established a core set of data elements and recommended technical specifications (the Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements [mCODE]) that are...
A specialized pain management program for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in 8% of patients going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100% who would have received them without this enhanced recovery protocol. The group of patients...
Results of the phase II Smart Start trial revealed that combination targeted therapy consisting of rituximab, lenalidomide, and ibrutinib had an 84.6% overall response rate (ORR) and 38.5% complete response rate (CRR) when given prior to any chemotherapy for newly diagnosed patients with a...
In a propensity score analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bonnot et al found that the addition of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to cytoreductive surgery improved outcomes among patients with gastric cancer with peritoneal metastases. The study included 277...
Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, of Magee-Womens Hospital and the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discusses phase III study findings on neratinib plus capecitabine vs lapatinib plus capecitabine in patients previously treated for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer...
Jason Westin, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings of the Smart Start study on the chemotherapy-free combination of rituximab, lenalidomide, and ibrutinib in newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 7508).
Jame Abraham, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, provides commentary on the NALA study findings on neratinib plus capecitabine vs lapatinib plus capecitabine in patients previously treated with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract 1002).
Kerry A. Rogers, MD, of The Ohio State University, discusses a 3-year follow-up of phase Ib safety and efficacy findings with the selective BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab in patients with CLL (Abstract 7500).
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the TRANSCEND CLL 004 trial, which studied the use of an experimental CD19-directed CAR T-cell product in heavily pretreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (Abstract ...
Yeon Hee Park, MD, of the Samsung Medical Center, discusses phase II study findings that showed exemestane plus palbociclib with ovarian suppression improved progression-free survival compared with capecitabine in premenopausal estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract 1007).
Ahmad A. Tarhini, MD, PhD, of Emory University and Winship Cancer Institute, discusses phase III findings from the U.S. Intergroup E1609 trial, which showed survival benefits for patients with resected high-risk melanoma—for the first time in the history of melanoma adjuvant therapy (Abstract...
Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence and Acting Director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, discusses the launch of Project Facilitate, a new pilot program to...
A questionnaire aimed at assessing how well community oncologists understand “molecular profiling” results from tumor specimens found that 69% of participants either said they didn't know the answers or they responded incorrectly. In six different clinical scenarios, the oncologists...
Partial-breast irradiation produces similar long-term survival rates and risk for recurrence compared with whole-breast irradiation for many women with low-risk, early-stage breast cancer, according to new data from the NRG Oncology/NSABP B-39/RTOG 0413 trial. Results were presented by Ganz et al...
Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the first study of ribociclib plus endocrine therapy vs endocrine therapy alone to demonstrate significantly longer overall survival in peri- and premenopausal women with advanced breast cancer (Abstract LBA1008).
Javier Sastre, MD, PhD, of Hospital Clinico San Carlos, discusses phase III findings on the assessment of circulating tumor cells as a prognostic factor and FOLFOXIRI plus bevacizumab combination outcomes for patients with poor-prognosis colorectal cancer (Abstract 3507).
Sagar Lonial, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discusses the potentially practice-changing phase III findings showing that lenalidomide substantially delayed progression of smoldering multiple myeloma to aggressive disease when compared with observation alone (Abstract 8001).
William D. Tap, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses negative study findings on doxorubicin plus olaratumab vs doxorubicin plus placebo, which showed no difference in overall survival between the two treatments in patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcomas. The manufacturer is...
Panagiotis A. Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses his phase II study on the response to avelumab in microsatellite-stable and -instable recurrent or persistent endometrial cancer with a polymerase epsilon mutation (Abstract 5502).
Angela Lamarca, MD, PhD, of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester, discusses phase III findings from a multicenter study of active symptom control alone or active symptom control with oxaliplatin and fluorouracil for patients with locally advanced or metastatic biliary...
Don S. Dizon, MD, of the Lifespan Cancer Institute, and Richard T. Penson, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discuss phase III study findings on the PARP inhibitor olaparib, which showed a significantly higher objective response rate vs nonplatinum chemotherapy for patients with...
Gilberto Lopes, MD, MBA, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, offers commentary on phase III findings from the RELAY study, which showed that erlotinib plus ramucirumab led to superior progression-free survival in previously untreated patients with EGFR...
Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, of Advocate Aurora Health, discusses the implications of the revised diagnostic criteria for multiple myeloma, which removed patients at the highest risk of disease progression from the smoldering group, and a new model for smoldering disease that incorporates revised...
Francesca Gay, MD, of GIMEMA, European Myeloma Network, discusses the results of the FORTE trial on the efficacy of carfilzomib/lenalidomide/dexamethasone with or without autologous stem cell transplantation according to risk status in newly diagnosed disease (Abstract 8002).
Kim N. Chi, MD, of BC Cancer, discusses the first phase III findings from the TITAN study of apalutamide vs placebo in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer receiving androgen-deprivation therapy (Abstract 5006).
Kim N. Chi, MD, of BC Cancer, discusses updated results from a phase II study of cabazitaxel vs abiraterone or enzalutamide in patients with poor-prognosis metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (Abstract 5003).
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, and Ziad Bakouny, MD, both of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss a retrospective review of genomically profiled patients with sarcomatoid/rhabdoid renal cell cancer who were found to have better outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitors and to harbor mutations associated...
Michael J. Morris, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the phase III findings from the Alliance A031201 trial, which showed that adding abiraterone acetate to enzalutamide did not improve survival in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (Abstract 5008).
Brian C. Baumann, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, discusses study findings suggesting postoperative radiotherapy may be an option for patients with locally advanced bladder cancer after radical cystectomy who are unable or unwilling to use adjuvant chemotherapy (Abstract 4507).
Brian C. Baumann, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, discusses study findings that showed, for adults with locally advanced cancer across five different disease sites, proton chemoradiotherapy was associated with significantly reduced acute adverse events, with no difference in...
Thomas J. George, MD, of NRG Oncology and The University of Florida Health Cancer Center, discusses the initial phase II results from a clinical trial using total neoadjuvant therapy (including veliparib and chemoradiation treatment) for locally advanced rectal cancer (Abstract 3505).
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of NRG Oncology and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, discusses the NRG/NSABP phase III findings, which showed that partial-breast irradiation was more convenient and resulted in less fatigue but slightly poorer cosmesis at 36 months in patients who did not receive...
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, and Sarah Abou Alaiwi, MD, both of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss the association of polybromo-associated BAF-type mutations with overall survival in patients with different solid tumors treated with checkpoint inhibitors (Abstract 103).