Lena E. Winestone, MD, MSHP, of the University of California, San Francisco and Benioff Children’s Hospital, reviews different aspects of bias in treatment delivery, including patient selection for clinical trials; racial and ethnic disparities in survival for indolent non-Hodgkin diffuse large...
A research team has revealed a distinct molecular signature in the tumor tissues of Black patients with breast cancer. The new work, published by Yao et al in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, reported that an elevated number of “exhausted,” nonfunctional T cells appears to lead to...
The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HPV is associated with health problems—including cancers—but a vaccine for the virus has been available since 2006. The CDC...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Shah and Neal found that only a small proportion of unplanned hospital encounters were related to anticancer therapy among patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with almost one-quarter of such encounters being considered...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Tan et al, the phase III FeDeriCa trial showed comparable pharmacokinetics and pathologic complete response rates with a subcutaneous (SC) fixed-dose combination of pertuzumab and trastuzumab vs the same combination administered intravenously (IV)—both given...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Peters et al, the phase III FORUM trial showed superior overall survival with total-body irradiation plus etoposide vs combination chemoconditioning in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic...
Recent research has shed new light on the carcinogenic effect of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, laying the groundwork for improvements in skin cancer risk stratification and prevention. A study published by Lei Wei, PhD, and colleagues in Science Advances detailed a method to measure the...
Many patients with prostate cancer are treated with androgen-deprivation therapy. However, patients receiving androgen-deprivation therapy often experience higher levels of fatigue, depression, and cognitive impairment. In a new study published by Hoogland et al in the journal Cancer, researchers...
In the German phase II PAPGEMO trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Hans-Joachim Schmoll, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the combination of pazopanib and gemcitabine improved 12-week progression-free survival vs pazopanib alone in patients with anthracycline- or ifosfamide-refractory soft-tissue...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Zhong et al, the final overall survival results of the phase III CTONG1104 trial indicated no significant advantage of adjuvant gefitinib vs vinorelbine/cisplatin in patients with EGFR-mutant stage II–IIIA (N1–2) non–small cell lung cancer ...
In a post hoc analysis from the ICON8 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Morgan et al found evidence indicating that the evaluation of response to platinum-based neoadjuvant therapy in women with ovarian carcinoma using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), version 1.1, should...
Steven M. Horwitz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II data from the Primo trial, which support continued evaluation of duvelisib as a treatment option for relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma due to consistent response rates (Abstract 44).
Researchers profiled more than 45,000 individual cells from patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis and defined the extensive cellular heterogeneity, as well as identified two distinct cell subtypes correlated with patient survival. The findings were published by Wang et al in Nature Medicine....
A research team has published findings from a study that brought together data from genomic prostate cancer studies. Including more than 200,000 men of European, African, Asian, and Hispanic ancestry from around the world, the study is reportedly the largest, most diverse genetic analysis ever...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Catto et al, the BRAVO-Feasibility study showed that recruitment of patients with high-grade, non–muscle invasive bladder cancer into a randomized trial comparing radical cystectomy vs intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) proved difficult,...
In a retrospective study reported as a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Aschele et al found that the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 0.68% among a large population of patients receiving anticancer treatment in Italy over an approximately 3.5-month period in 2020. Study Details The study...
Pooled results of two phase I studies, reported in The Lancet by Benjamin et al, indicate that the genome-edited, donor-derived allogeneic anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product UCART19 is active and has a manageable toxicity profile in pediatric and adult patients with relapsed...
On January 4, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, MD, and Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Peter Marks, MD, PhD, issued the following statement on FDA-authorized dosing schedules for each COVID-19 vaccine. Two different mRNA...
Surgery, in addition to treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, may improve survival for certain patients with metastatic breast cancer. A research team studied nearly 13,000 patients with stage IV disease and found that those who had surgery in addition to other treatments had a...
A study published by Hyuna Sung, PhD, and colleagues in JAMA found that adult-onset cancer survivors may have a greater risk of developing and dying from subsequent primary cancers than the general population. Cancers associated with smoking or obesity accounted for a majority of subsequent primary ...
Thierry André, MD, and colleagues reported the prospective pooled analysis of six phase III trials in the IDEA collaboration in The Lancet Oncology. The analysis showed that noninferiority in overall survival for 3 vs 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy was not established in patients with stage III...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Areej El-Jawahri, MD, and colleagues found that integrated palliative and oncology care was associated with better quality of life vs usual care among patients receiving treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The investigators stated, “Patients with AML...
On December 29, Bristol Myers Squibb issued the following statement on nivolumab’s small cell lung cancer (SCLC) indication in the United States. In 2018, nivolumab was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with SCLC whose disease...
In an analysis from the phase III MAIA trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Perrot et al found that the combination of daratumumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (D-Rd) was associated with better health-related quality-of-life outcomes vs lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Rd) in...
A research team has quantified the effects of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) on the development of cervical cancer. Their results show that the risk of developing cervical cancer is six times higher in women who are infected with HIV, and that women who live in Southern and...
A comprehensive study involving more than 250,000 women showed that oral contraceptive use may be protective against the development of ovarian and endometrial cancers, but the effect on lifetime risk of breast cancer is more limited. The protective effect on ovarian and endometrial cancers was...
In a single-institution phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cheung et al found that a subcutaneous ganglioside G2/G3 vaccine plus oral β-glucan produced antibody responses in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, with higher anti–GD2-IgG1 titers being associated with...
In a retrospective cohort analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Atkins et al identified a volume (V, percent) of exposure of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery to a radiation dose (V15 Gy ≥10%) that is an independent risk factor for major adverse cardiac events and all-cause mortality ...
In a National Cancer Database analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Tobias et al found that receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved short-term but not long-term survival vs primary debulking surgery in patients with metastatic endometrial cancer. As stated by the...
On December 15, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the latest estimates on the global burden of cancer. The GLOBOCAN 2020 database, accessible online as part of the IARC Global Cancer Observatory, provides estimates of incidence and mortality in 185 countries for 36...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the second vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. The emergency use authorization allows the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the United States for use in...
A new report found that despite progress in the decline of cancer mortality, there are still critical gaps, including the need to develop better tools and explore research opportunities that would lead to limiting cancer as a major health concern. This blueprint article completes an eight-part...
As reported in The Lancet by Javier Cortes, MD, and colleagues, the phase III KEYNOTE-355 trial has shown that the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy improved progression-free survival among previously untreated patients with locally recurrent inoperable or metastatic triple-negative breast...
In the phase IIb VITAL trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rocconi et al found that front-line maintenance with the autologous tumor cell vaccine gemogenovatucel-T did not improve recurrence-free survival vs placebo in patients with stage III/IV ovarian cancer in clinical complete response after ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Wang et al found that patients with cancer were at a greater risk of being infected with COVID-19 and having worse outcomes vs patients without cancer. Risk was greatest among patients with a more recent diagnosis and was even further exacerbated among Black...
Although efforts have been made by various medical societies, including ASCO, over the past decade to address the needs of sexual and gender minorities in the cancer care setting, research shows that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) patients continue to face...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded over $107 million to support new, nontraditional approaches and reimagined uses of existing tools to address gaps in COVID-19 testing and surveillance. The program will also develop platforms that can be deployed in future outbreaks of COVID-19...
Reporting on how deferred care worsened outcomes for patients with lung cancer when the COVID-19 pandemic first surged in the spring of 2020, Robert M. Van Haren, MD, MSPH, FACS, and colleagues explained that they have identified a framework that could help people with serious health conditions...
In an observational cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Catherine H. Van Poznak, MD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the 3-year incidence of osteonecrosis of the jaw was 2.8% among patients with cancer receiving zoledronic acid for metastatic bone disease. Shorter dosing interval, fewer teeth, ...
New recommendations aimed at advancing the status of global oncology as an academic discipline were published in November as a special article in JCO Global Oncology.1 The field of global oncology is important. According to the World Health Organization,2 cancer is the second-leading cause of death ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its Home Health Prospective Payment System final rule for 2021. The final rule reflects comments ASCO submitted on the proposed rule in support of increased access to telemedicine in home health care and concerns over home...
What makes Cancer.Net one of the most trustworthy websites for patients with cancer? ASCO’s expertise. All content on Cancer.Net is approved by an editorial board composed of more than 150 oncologists, oncology nurses, physician assistants, social workers, and patient advocates. Oncologists refer...
In 2017, Women Who Conquer Cancer (WWCC) awarded Catherine Handy Marshall, MD, MPH, a Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award (YIA) grant to explore the impact of cardiovascular disease risk factors on cancer outcomes. Three years after receiving the WWCC YIA, Dr. Handy Marshall is pursuing...
“Equity: Every Patient. Every Day. Everywhere” was selected by 2020–2021 ASCO President Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, as the theme for her presidential term. As oncology care providers work to put this theme into practice, they can find support in ASCO eLearning’s new Cultural Literacy course...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Fernandez et al found high rates of conditional recurrence-free survival during watch-and-wait surveillance among patients with rectal cancer who maintained clinical complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for 1, 3, or 5 years. Study Details In the...
On November 13, 2020, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in combination with chemotherapy for patients with locally recurrent unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer with tumors expressing PD-L1 (Combined ...
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Igor Puzanov, MD, MSCI, FACP, Andrew Hyland, PhD, and Maciej Goniewicz, PhD, PharmD, have all recently been recognized as global scientific pioneers on Clarivate Plc’s Highly Cited Researchers list for 2020. The list recognizes researchers who have...
In the phase II ProCAID study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Crabb et al found that the addition of the pan-AKT inhibitor capivasertib to docetaxel and prednisolone did not significantly improve progression-free survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate...
The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Susan E. Hankinson, ScD, MPH, for her significant contributions to breast cancer research. Dr. Hankinson received the 2020 AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research award...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, sat down with Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical advisor to President-Elect Joseph Biden, for a virtual fireside chat about COVID-19 and cancer at...