Adding enzalutamide to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) significantly prolonged radiographic progression-free survival in men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, reducing the risk of disease progression or death by 61% compared with ADT plus placebo, according to the results of the ...
The CARMENA trial presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine,1,2 and reported in this supplement to The ASCO Post, evaluated the role of nephrectomy in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Formal discussant of the trial,...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Karim Fizazi, MD, PhD, and colleagues, the final overall survival analysis in the phase III LATITUDE trial has shown a significant benefit with the addition of abiraterone acetate plus prednisone to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in newly diagnosed,...
In a trial with a modified primary endpoint due to slow accrual reported in JAMA Oncology,1 Axel Bex, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that deferred cytoreductive nephrectomy after sunitinib did not improve the 28-week progression-free rate vs immediate nephrectomy followed by sunitinib in patients...
Cabozantinib, a kinase inhibitor, is approved in metastatic renal cell carcinoma on the basis of studies in clear cell histology. Its activity in non–clear cell renal cell carcinoma is poorly defined. In a retrospective cohort study, Nieves Martinez Chanzá, MD, and colleagues reported that...
The TIVO-3 trial was conducted to confirm progression-free survival results from the TIVO-1 trial, which found an improvement in median progression-free survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tivozanib vs sorafenib. Findings from TIVO-3 were presented by Rini et al...
IN A RETROSPECTIVE analysis of median overall survival from the phase III METEOR trial,1 Ignacio Duran, MD, PhD, and colleagues sought to determine whether early tumor shrinkage following therapy with cabozantinib or everolimus could be an early indicator of prognosis for patients with...
The recently released ASCO Clinical Practice Provisional Clinical Opinion on Evaluating Susceptibility to Pancreatic Cancer highlights the importance of emerging data indicating a relatively high rate of germline mutations in pancreatic cancer.1 Recent studies have demonstrated that up to 1 in 10...
TWO RECENTLY reported phase III trials have shown the benefits of combination therapy vs sunitinib in the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Brian I. Rini, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues,...
A large randomized trial has found that frail and elderly patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer may be safely and successfully treated with dose-reduced chemotherapy. In the GO2 phase III trial, low doses of oxaliplatin/capecitabine performed similarly to intermediate and high doses of the ...
THE FORMAL DISCUSSANT of the KEYNOTE-427 trial, Tracy Rose, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told listeners: “I think pembrolizumab should now be considered an option for non–clear cell kidney cancer. Response rates, however, remain inferior to those seen in clear cell...
The past year has seen groundbreaking advances in the treatment of genitourinary (GU) cancers, which in some cases are resulting in altering the standard of care for patients with renal cell carcinoma, prostate cancer, and urothelial carcinoma. Some of the biggest changes that have occurred are for ...
This past year, I have traveled thousands of miles across the United States meeting with ASCO members and their patients, focusing on members who care for patients in particularly challenging settings. While I am not surprised by the extraordinary work our members are doing in every region of the...
For more than 3 decades, Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, has dedicated his medical career to researching the development of chemotherapies for breast cancer, including ado-trastuzumab emtansine, everolimus, and gemcitabine. In addition, he is credited with changing the standard of...
Irene Ghobrial, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, who has conducted seminal trials in smoldering myeloma, commented on the phase III E3A06 study. Asked by The ASCO Post whether E3A06 settles the issue of treating smoldering disease, Dr. Ghobrial responded,...
In patients with intermediate- to high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma, treatment with single-agent lenalidomide, vs observation, led to a 72% reduction in the risk of disease progression at 3 years.1 Results of the phase III E3A06 study were presented at a press briefing in advance of the 2019...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) has set a challenge goal to reduce overall cancer mortality 40% between 2015 and 2035—a goal set by applying favorable cancer mortality trends among college graduates to the population as a whole. A report on the goal was published by Ma et al in CA: A...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the American Urological Association (AUA) recently announced updates to their joint clinical guideline on adjuvant and salvage radiotherapy after prostatectomy in patients with and without evidence of prostate cancer recurrence to include new...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted designations in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, and Kaposi sarcoma; and the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) held votes on treatments for tenosynovial giant cell tumor and acute...
A large study of postmenopausal women indicated that quitting cigarette smoking was associated with significantly reduced risk of bladder cancer. The most significant reduction in risk occurred in the first 10 years after quitting, with a modest but continued decline in later years. These results...
On May 16, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dalteparin sodium (Fragmin) to reduce the recurrence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pediatric patients 1 month of age and older. This is the first FDA-approved therapy to treat VTE in pediatric patients....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved venetoclax (Venclexta) in combination with obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for the treatment of people with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). The approval is based on the results of the...
A phase III randomized clinical study evaluating the optimum dose of a combination chemotherapy regimen of oxaliplatin and capecitabine in the treatment of advanced gastroesophageal cancer in frail and elderly patients has found that the patients prescribed the lowest dose tested experienced less...
A study investigating the frequency of targetable molecular alterations in pediatric cancer among patients enrolled in the National Cancer Institute–Children’s Oncology Group Pediatric Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) trial has found that about one-quarter of patients with...
A phase I/IB study evaluating the activity of entrectinib in children and adolescents with recurrent or refractory solid tumors, including central nervous system (CNS) tumors, has found that the agent produced responses in children with tumors harboring target aberrations...
Excluding skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women in the United States. In 2019, the American Cancer Society estimates that about 268,600 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women, and about 41,760 women will die from their disease. ...
A phase III randomized trial (E3A06) by Lonial et al testing the effect of single-agent lenalidomide vs observation in patients with intermediate- or high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma has found that lenalidomide significantly reduces the risk of smoldering multiple myeloma progressing to active ...
On May 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved avelumab (Bavencio) in combination with axitinib (Inlyta) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This is the first FDA approval for an anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)...
Foundational research recently published by Schrock et al in Annals of Oncology may help patients with microsatellite instability (MSI)-high metastatic colorectal cancer decide whether to choose immunotherapy or chemotherapy as their first treatment option. “Immunotherapy is the new,...
Recently, the American Urological Association (AUA) released a new clinical guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of early-stage testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer among men ages 20 to 40. Although it is a less common form of cancer, about 9,600 American men...
In the Chinese phase III ACE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jiang et al found that the addition of the oral histone deacetylase inhibitor tucidinostat to exemestane improved progression-free survival in postmenopausal women with advanced hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer whose...
Elderly survivors of breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma face risk of brain metastasis later in life, and may require extra surveillance in the years following initial cancer treatment, according to results of a study published by Ascha et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, &...
A team of researchers have identified 34 genes that are associated with an increased risk for developing the earliest stages of ovarian cancer. The findings, published by Gusev et al in Nature Genetics, may help identify women who are at highest risk of developing ovarian cancer and pave the way...
Compared to surgery, percutaneous liver ablation interventions in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were associated with lower in-hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, and hospitalization costs, according to a study presented by Sodagari et al at the American Roentgen Ray Society...
Although arterial-phase hyperenhancement is a key feature of untreated or recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma, standard response assessment such as modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST) should be used with caution, particularly in the early phases after stereotactic body...
When appropriate, short-interval follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to identify early-stage breast cancer and avoid unnecessary biopsies, according to a study presented by Lamb et al at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) 2019 Annual Meeting (Abstract 2367). Utilization of ...
On May 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) as a single agent for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients who have an alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level ≥ 400 ng/mL and have been previously treated with sorafenib. REACH-2 Trial Approval was based on the...
IMMUNOTHERAPY IS changing the way that cancer is being treated, but the understanding of the side effects of these treatments is still a developing field. The ASCO Answers “Side Effects of Immunotherapy” fact sheet helps patients learn about which side effects may arise from treatment with...
ACREDITAR ONCOLOGY has become the 3rd practice in Brazil to receive Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) certification through the QOPI Certification Program, LLC, and the 10th practice internationally to receive this accreditation. The practice, located in Brasília’s Federal District,...
NOT EVERY ONCOLOGIST grows up dreaming of becoming a doctor. In the Your Stories podcast episode “The Forest Ranger in a White Coat,” once-reluctant physician Stuart Spigel, MD, shares how becoming a patient changed his approach to practicing medicine with his son and fellow oncologist David...
ASCO HAS KICKED OFF its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 advocacy campaign in support of increased funding for federal cancer research. ASCO is urging Congress to provide $41.6 billion to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—a $2.5 billion increase from FY 2019— and $6.5 billion to the National Cancer...
THE ASCO ANNUAL Meeting is 5 bustling days of cutting-edge research presentations, educational sessions, and networking events. To enhance conference takeaways and connect attendees more closely with content from the 2019 Annual Meeting, ASCO will host a podcast listening station onsite at...
ASCO and ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation have a new partner in supporting innovative cancer research. For over 30 years, Swim Across America (SAA) has been hosting charity swims, with the proceeds being granted to fund high-risk, high-reward cancer research. SAA is among the newest organizations...
ASCO, the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) recently acknowledged receipt of a key clarification1 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on prescribing opioids to manage pain from certain conditions. The clarification...
ON MARCH 27, 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced important new steps to modernize breast cancer screening and help empower patients with more information when they are considering important decisions regarding their breast health care. For the first time in more than 20...
AT THE 2019 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, William J. Gradishar, MD, FASCO, presented a vision of the future in the treatment of advanced hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.1 The refinement of disease subsets, the development of agents targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, the use of novel...
THE AMERICAN Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recognized Emil J Freireich, MD, FAACR, with the 2019 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research at the opening ceremony of this year’s AACR Annual Meeting. Dr. Freireich was honored for his work in establishing combination...
USE OF the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab after two or more prior lines of therapy led to responses in patients with advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in a pooled analysis of two clinical trials: phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 and phase II...
THE FRONT-LINE systemic treatment landscape for metastatic renal cell carcinoma has undergone tremendous movement over the past several years. A better understanding of the current management paradigm for therapy-naive patients warrants a reflection of historic landmark clinical trials that have...
CLINICAL TRIALS are vital for advancing cancer care for our patients. Each trial represents an unanswered problem for which researchers are committed to solving. Designing, funding, recruiting, and completing a trial are tremendous undertakings for each researcher, physician, patient, and...