The proliferation of immunotherapeutics in the treatment of cancer over the past decade has revolutionized the way many cancers are treated, especially lung cancer and melanoma, as well as some blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, drastically improving outcomes for many patients with...
AS PART of The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here is an update on seven different studies on new therapeutics in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Among the treatments highlighted here are the erythroid maturation...
THE NATIONAL Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) announced that the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) were downloaded more than 10 million times in 2018, marking a 26% increase over downloads in 2017. The NCCN Guidelines provide up-to-date recommendations for...
THE FIRST full year of educational training in the practice of complementary therapies is now underway at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor through its Integrative Oncology Scholars Program, which launched in 2017. The program, which is supported through a 5-year grant from the National...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted the following designations and applications and also issued a statement: Priority Review for Pexidartinib in Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor The FDA has accepted a new drug application (NDA) and granted Priority Review for pexidartinib...
A study published by Cook et al in JAMA Oncology focused on whether treatment with checkpoint inhibitors is both safe and effective in patients with advanced cancer who are also human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive. Because checkpoint inhibitors manipulate the immune system, the concern has...
Although colorectal cancer rates in older adults have been decreasing in the United States since the mid-1980s, incidence rates for the cancer have been increasing among young and middle-aged adults, according to a study by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Based on the new data, in 2018, the ACS...
In an update from the Multiethnic Cohort Study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Stram et al found persistent racial/ethnic differences in risk for lung cancer at similar levels of cigarette smoking intensity. A prior report from the study found that African Americans and...
Leading health-care companies and organizations representing patients, providers, academic medical centers, laboratories, and diagnostic manufacturers urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to revise its interpretation of the National Coverage Determination (NCD) for...
A research team is using a branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning to better target immunotherapy to those who will benefit. In a recent study published by Leiserson et al in PLOS One, the team used data from a clinical trial of patients with bladder cancer to...
For patients at the end of life, palliative care can prolong survival and improve the quality of life for patients with a life-threatening illness and for their families—but studies have found that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive end-of-life palliative care than...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved caplacizumab-yhdp (Cablivi) injection, the first therapy specifically indicated, in combination with plasma exchange and immunosuppressive therapy, for the treatment of adult patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP), a...
This letter is a follow-up to a report published previously in The ASCO Post. Recent trials report comparable or improved efficacy of direct-acting oral coagulants (DOACs) over low–molecular-weight heparins (LMWH) in the treatment of cancer-related VTE (cVTE) at the expense of increased...
The approval of several new agents for metastatic melanoma in the past several years has led to changes in how the disease is treated and managed. Treatments such as the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, and nivolumab; BRAF inhibitors; and MEK inhibitors...
The first report from a phase II, multicenter clinical trial has found that a newer, more aggressive form of radiation therapy—stereotactic ablative radiation—can extend long-term survival for some patients with stage IV cancers, while maintaining their quality of life. The study was...
In a Dutch-Belgian study (CYPTAM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sanchez-Spitman et al found no associations between CYP2D6 genotypes or levels of endoxifen (active metabolite of tamoxifen) and clinical outcomes in patients receiving adjuvant tamoxifen for early-stage breast cancer....
Data on the risk factors for the development of skin cancer after a solid organ transplant are limited. In a retrospective cohort study, researchers sought to determine the relationship between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch and risk of skin cancer after transplant. Their findings were...
According to the American Lung Association’s recently released 2019 State of Tobacco Control report, states and the federal government have not taken meaningful action in establishing policies to prevent and reduce tobacco use, the nation's leading cause of preventable death and disease. ...
In a population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Downing et al found little difference in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between men with advanced vs localized prostate cancer. Sexual function problems were common among all patients—and often not addressed—and use of ...
A new study has found rates are increasing for 6 of 12 cancers related to obesity in younger adults in the United States, with steeper increases in progressively younger ages and successively younger generations. The study, published by Sung et al in The Lancet Public Health, also looked at rates...
ASCO recently published standards on the safe handling of hazardous drugs in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 ASCO’s standards largely endorse best practices issued by other stakeholder groups for safely handling hazardous drugs but offer alternatives in several key areas where more research is...
A new article in the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP)1 looks at how ASCO’s commitment to CancerLinQ® can lead to improvements in the interoperability of electronic health records (EHRs). The article, by Wendy S. Rubinstein, MD, PhD, FACP, FACMG, Deputy Medical Director of CancerLinQ LLC,...
In the release of its annual report on progress against cancer, Clinical Cancer Advances 2019, ASCO recognized progress in treating rare cancers as the Advance of the Year. The report catalogs a year’s worth of remarkable research advancements, reinforces the need for continued federal research...
In discussions after these presentations, several points were made by several experts. To begin, Steven Gore, MD, Director of Hematologic Malignancies at Yale Medical School, called the study of venetoclax plus 10-day decitabine “very important,” but he raised the issue of appropriate dosing. He...
The benefit of adding venetoclax to a hypomethylating agent or low-dose cytarabine in the front-line treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was evident from a number of studies reported at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (see Table 1). For elderly...
Ravi Vij, MD, Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, and Saad Usmani, MD, Director of Plasma Cell Disorders at Levine Cancer Institute, Charlotte, North Carolina, spoke to The ASCO Post about the studies presented on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell...
The burgeoning pipeline of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) in multiple myeloma was on full display at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. A bispecific antibody also made its debut in this busy...
Mrinal S. Patnaik, MBBS, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Oncology and a consultant in hematology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, commented on the MEDALIST trial for The ASCO Post. “Given its unique mode of action, relative ease of administration, and excellent tolerability,...
At a press conference held during the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, moderator Virginia Kaklamani, MD, said that partial-breast irradiation is underutilized in the United States for women with breast cancer. Dr. Kaklamani is Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas at San...
Partial-breast irradiation delivered over 5 to 10 days did not meet noninferiority criteria compared with whole-breast irradiation given over 5 to 7 weeks, according to 10-year results of the large NRG (NSABP B-39/RTOG 0413) trial presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 However, ...
Each year, The ASCO Post asks Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Taussig Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, to offer his picks for the most important research presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer ...
World Cancer Day 2019—February 4—highlights the need for urgent action to increase early-stage cancer detection, screening, and diagnosis to significantly improve patients’ chances of survival. Taking place with the theme of “I Am and I Will,” World Cancer...
Harry H. Yoon, MD, Associate Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, the invited discussant of the study presented by Janjigan et al, commented on the strong rationale for combining an anti-HER2 agent, anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) agent, and chemotherapy....
As invited discussant of the GAMMA-1 trial, Martine Extermann, MD, PhD, of Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida, first commented on the “teaser” in the findings—the potential for benefit of andecaliximab in older patients. “The drug works better in older patients. As a...
The large phase III GAMMA-1 trial failed to replicate the encouraging findings from a previous smaller study of andecaliximab plus chemotherapy in untreated HER2-negative gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, according to Manish A. Shah, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine/New York...
Clinical trials aimed to improve health and quality of life are the cornerstone of progress in medicine. Support comes from academic medical centers, philanthropy, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), industry, or combinations thereof. Clinical trials need to be hypothesis-driven and address...
As reported by Solomon et al in The Lancet Oncology1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, results from a global phase II study of the third-generation ALK inhibitor lorlatinib showed a high overall response rate and high intracranial response rate for patients with advanced ALK-positive...
KEYNOTE-181’s invited discussant, Harry H. Yoon, MD, Associate Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said the findings have a “potentially immediate clinical impact” for second-line treatment of esophageal cancer, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and Siewert...
The Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP), the first precision medicine trial in lung cancer supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is undergoing a major expansion to include patients with all non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). The trial previously tested treatments for people ...
Injection of a genetically modified virus that induces the body’s own immune cells to attack metastatic melanoma effectively treated almost 40% of patients with tumors that could not be surgically removed, according to findings published by Louie et al in the Journal of the American...
Over the past year, major research advances provided new treatment options for patients with rare, difficult-to-treat cancers. In recognition of these achievements, ASCO named “Progress in Treating Rare Cancers” as the Advance of the Year. To continue the forward momentum, ASCO also...
Barrett’s esophagus is the only known precursor of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Although endoscopy and biopsy are standard methods for diagnosing Barrett’s esophagus, their high cost and risk limit their use as a screening modality. Researchers sought to develop a screening method based...
In a prospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Ramsey et al identified the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in patients with newly diagnosed cancer and found that a substantial proportion were unaware of...
A new report published by Wang et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that using Oncotype DX—the most commonly used test for predicting the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy to reduce the risk of disease recurrence—is not...
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Goodman et al reported a long-term follow-up of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial indicating that finasteride treatment was not associated with an increased risk of death from prostate cancer. Study Details As previously...
In a single-center retrospective case series analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Smith et al found that a watch-and-wait approach was associated with a high rate of rectal preservation and pelvic tumor control in patients with rectal cancer with complete clinical response to neoadjuvant therapy,...
As reported by Willemze and colleagues in Blood, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) have released a 2018 update of their classification of primary cutaneous lymphomas. As noted by the authors, “Primary cutaneous...
The recently reported results of ANNOUNCE, the phase III study of olaratumab in combination with doxorubicin in patients with advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma, did not confirm the clinical benefit of olaratumab in combination with doxorubicin as compared to doxorubicin, a...
In a prospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Potter et al found that complications following immediate implant-based breast reconstruction—with or without mesh—were higher than considered acceptable by UK national standards. As noted by the investigators, the study was ...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Gray et al found that constitutional loss of function single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the pattern recognition receptors FPR1, TLR3, and TLR4 were not associated with preferential benefit of oxaliplatin in colorectal cancer. As...