The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted approval, expanded approval, and breakthrough therapy designation to numerous treatments across a range of tumor types and malignancies. New Drug Approvals Daunorubicin-Cytarabine Combination (Vyxeos): On August 3, the FDA granted...
Two years ago, I was on my way to hospice care after numerous treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy failed to stop the progression of my stage IV castration-resistant prostate cancer. A last-minute call from my oncologist about a phase I combination trial of the...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Wang et al, many older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) do not receive hospice care at the end of life, with those who do tending to enroll in hospice within days of death. Study Details The population-based retrospective cohort study...
In a Hong Kong study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Chan et al found that screening for circulating cell-free Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA is useful in detecting nasopharyngeal carcinoma in asymptomatic individuals. Study Details In the study, 20,174 participants underwent...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Gary Deng, MD, PhD, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, present information on...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer. These studies highlight dietary intervention, supplements, immunotherapy, combination chemotherapy, neoadjuvant therapy, and...
Triple-negative breast cancer has a reputation for being a particularly challenging malignancy, but breast cancer specialist Nancy Davidson, MD, Senior Vice President of the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, put this in perspective in a recent...
As reported by Shindo et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, deleterious germline mutations in known pancreatic cancer susceptibility genes were frequently found in patients with pancreatic cancer who do not have a reported family history of cancer. Study Details The study involved sequencing ...
The French phase III ALLOZITHRO trial, stopped early due to excessive hematologic relapse in the azithromycin group, showed worse airflow decline–free survival with azithromycin vs placebo after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for hematologic malignancy. The study findings were ...
In a research letter to JAMA, Siegel et al reported that overall colorectal cancer mortality rates have declined in the United States between 1970 and 2014 in patients aged 20 to 54 years but increased in white persons in this age group between 2004 and 2014. Study Details In the study,...
The UK IMPORT LOW phase III trial has shown noninferiority in local relapse for partial-breast and reduced-dose vs standard whole-breast radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in early breast cancer. These study results were reported by Coles et al in The Lancet. Study Details In the...
In a study of nearly 9,000 people treated for solid tumors, researchers found that radiation treatment and tobacco use were linked to higher rates of blood-based DNA mutations that could lead to a higher risk for blood cancers such as leukemia. The study, published by Coombs et al in...
The phase III FIRSTANA trial has shown no difference in overall survival with two dose regimens of cabazitaxel (Jevtana) vs docetaxel in the first-line treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Results were reported by Oudard et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
As reported in The Lancet by Tewari et al, the final overall survival results of the phase III Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) 240 trial show continued benefit of the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic, persistent, or recurrent cervical carcinoma. Study...
In a health-related quality-of-life study among patients in the phase III TOAD trial, immediate vs delayed androgen-deprivation therapy was associated with early worsening of androgen-deprivation therapy–related symptoms but few other comparative adverse effects on functioning or quality of...
On August 3, the leadership of Kids v Cancer, an advocacy group promoting pediatric cancer research, issued the following statement: Today, the U.S. Senate passed the FDA Reauthorization Act and with it, the RACE for Children Act. Now, new cancer drugs will be developed not only for...
In the phase III DATA trial reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by van Hellemond et al, 12% of women with breast cancer who had chemotherapy-induced ovarian function failure experienced ovarian function recovery during 30 months of aromatase inhibitor therapy with anastrozole....
Most cancer-related deaths are the result of postsurgical metastatic recurrence. A new Tel Aviv University (TAU) study published by Shaashua et al in Clinical Cancer Research found a specific drug regimen administered prior to and after surgery significantly reduces the risk of postsurgical cancer...
According to a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by McCarthy et al, lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance therapy after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) was associated with improved progression-free and overall survival vs placebo or observation in patients with...
The phase II CheckMate 142 trial has shown that nivolumab (Opdivo) produces durable responses in recurrent or metastatic DNA mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR)/microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) colorectal cancer. These study findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by Overman...
NEW DRUGS that will improve the outcome of adult patients who develop a deadly disease such as acute leukemia are badly needed; combinations of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs may have reached an upper limit of utility. Agents that eradicate leukemia by alternative mechanisms would be of...
IN THE PHASE III TOWER TRIAL reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Hagop Kantarjian, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues found that blinatumomab (Blincyto) treatment improved overall survival vs chemotherapy in heavily pretreated patients with B-cell ...
THYROID CANCER diagnoses are increasing at a rate faster than any other malignancy in the United States. In 2017, there will be 56,870 new cases, accounting for 3.4% of all cancers, and 2,010 people will die of thyroid cancer.1 This represents a more than 200% increase in incidence since the...
In July, ASCO issued a comprehensive set of recommendations to remedy the problem of escalating drug pricing on cancer therapies.1 ASCO’s position statement comes at a time when new cancer drugs are routinely priced at $100,000 a year or more—imatinib (Gleevec) costs up to $146,000 a year2—causing...
THE REPORTED INCIDENCE of thyroid cancer has markedly increased in the United States in recent decades, largely reflecting an increase in reported rates of papillary thyroid cancer. It has been unclear whether the increase in incidence is reflected in mortality rates over time. In a study of...
Virtually every region and country in the world are experiencing population aging. Although developed regions still have the largest proportion of older persons, the absolute number of older adults is higher in developing regions of the world. Globally, more than 60% of all persons aged 65 now...
On August 3, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to a liposome-encapsulated combination of daunorubicin and cytarabine (Vyxeos) for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or AML with myelodysplasia-related...
A phase I study reported by Howard A. Burris, MD, of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Tennessee Oncology, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has shown that the first-in-class agonist anti-CD27 antibody varlilumab is well tolerated and active in patients with advanced solid tumors....
As reported by Rebecca Suk Heist, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan showed activity in patients with previously treated metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sacituzumab targets ...
Despite highly aggressive therapy that includes maximal tumor resection, high-dose radiation, and temozolomide chemotherapy, the prognosis for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma is dismal, with a median survival of less than 15 months, prompting researchers to study novel approaches to...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted Genentech’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) and granted Priority Review for alectinib (Alecensa) as a first-line treatment for people with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, locally advanced, or metastatic...
The following essay by Howard A. (Skip) Burris III, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org....
The seemingly impossible-to-cure maladies of our $3 trillion per year health-care system have been hyperanalyzed, fiercely debated, and voluminously written about by the country’s leading public health experts, opinionated doctors, and policymakers on Capitol Hill. The Affordable Care Act extended ...
I first noticed a lump in my left breast in 2001 while taking a shower and shrugged it off. After all, men don’t get breast cancer. To assuage my wife’s concern that I at least have the lump examined, I consented to see our family physician, who agreed that men don’t get breast cancer because, he...
The text and photograph on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, and Elizabeth A. Burns. The photo below is from the volume titled “The X-Ray Era: 1901–1915.” The photograph appears...
In a single-center analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Patel et al found that among men undergoing elective radical prostatectomy, those with low-volume intermediate-risk disease had significantly higher rates of adverse pathologic findings compared than did those with very low-risk and low-risk...
A phase III trial (SOLO2/ENGOT-Ov21) has shown improved progression-free survival with an olaparib tablet formulation vs placebo as maintenance therapy in patients with BRCA1/2-mutant platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer. These study results were reported by Pujade-Lauraine et al in The...
This is the story, told through their own photographs, of a group of adolescent patients with cancer in their search for happiness. Their images relay their hopes and fears, their desire to be normal, and their urge to escape. These photographs are the outcome of a creative arts–based support...
GUEST EDITOR Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology explores the unique physical, psychosocial, social, emotional, sexual, and financial challenges adolescents and young adults with cancer face. The column is guest edited by Brandon Hayes-Lattin, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director...
The oncology community has now conducted several prospectively designed, hypothesis-driven randomized clinical trials among women with breast cancer to address this question: Do adjuvant bisphosphonates decrease the risk of breast cancer bone metastases and other recurrence? A meta-analysis1 by...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sukhbinder Dhesy-Thind, MD, MSc, FRCPC, of Juravinski Cancer Centre, Hamilton Health Sciences, and colleagues, Cancer Care Ontario and ASCO have issued a clinical practice guideline on the use of adjuvant bisphosphonates and other bone-modifying...
WITHIN THE SPECTRUM of breast cancer subtypes, triple-negative disease is “particularly troubling,” but better scientific understanding of this malignancy is leading to advances in its treatment, according to breast cancer expert Nancy Davidson, MD. Triple-negative breast cancer does not express...
IS IT POSSIBLE to identify patients with cancer who are at risk for financial stress and intervene to reduce that risk? And could reducing financial stress—or financial toxicity, as it is often called in the context of cancer care—improve both health-related quality of life and physical health?...
THE 22ND CONGRESS of the European Hematology Association (EHA) was held in June in Madrid, drawing hematologists and allied professionals from every subspecialty of hematology from around the world. Among the extensive educational and scientific program, the EHA Congress provides a forum for...
“THE CONVERGENCE of two very hot and interesting topics—precision medicine and immuno-oncology”—is being advanced by next-generation sequencing, Douglas B. Johnson, MD, MSCI, made clear at the inaugural OncoSET Symposium: Emerging Approaches to Precision Medicine,” sponsored by the Robert H. Lurie ...
RESULTS OF the IDEA trial, which showed that some patients with stage III low-risk colon cancer may require less oxaliplatin therapy (see the June 25 issue of The ASCO Post), were among the findings highlighted at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting Plenary Session. Other studies of interest in colorectal ...
A RANDOMIZED head-to-head comparison in patients with advanced colorectal cancer found that a regimen of FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil/leucovorin, oxaliplatin, irinotecan) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) was more effective than a regimen of FOLFOX (fluorouracil/leucovorin, oxaliplatin) plus bevacizumab as...
DURING JULY, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) made a number of approvals and recommendations on a variety of oncology products. Neratinib ON JULY 1 7, the FDA approved neratinib (Nerlynx) for the extended adjuvant treatment of adult...
On August 2, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for the treatment of adult patients with chronic graft-vs-host disease after failure of one or more lines of systemic therapy. This is the first FDA-approved therapy for the treatment of chronic...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on sarcomas. These studies are focusing on anticancer vaccines, T-cell therapy, combination chemotherapy, pathway inhibitors, preoperative radiotherapy, and more. All of the...