AT THE SAN ANTONIO Breast Cancer Symposium, several breast cancer experts interviewed by The ASCO Post noted that the approved dose of tamoxifen was arbitrarily set, and the optimal dose is actually unknown. Studies of lower-dose tamoxifen, therefore, are welcomed. Virginia G. Kaklamani, MD,...
A VERY LOW DOSE of tamoxifen—5 mg/d, given for 3 years rather than 5 years—halved the risk of breast cancer recurrence or new lesions over placebo in women with breast intraepithelial neoplasia, without producing the usual toxicities seen with the standard dose, Italian researchers reported at the...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, Goodwin et al found that only a small proportion of Medicare enrollees undergoing low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer had a prescreening shared decision-making session, which is mandated by the Centers for...
On January 22, 23andMe received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for a genetic health risk report on MUTYH-associated polyposis, a hereditary colorectal cancer syndrome. The clearance follows the FDA’s authorization for 23andMe’s BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants)...
Pieter Tanis, MD, PhD, of Amsterdam University Medical Centers, discusses study findings on adjuvant hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in patients with colon cancer who are at high risk of peritoneal metastases (Abstract 482).
Andrew X. Zhu, MD, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses an analysis of survival and objective response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who took part in a phase III study of lenvatinib (Abstract 186).
Personalized treatment plans may extend life expectancy for patients with early-stage kidney cancer who also have risk factors for worsening kidney disease, according to a new study published by Kang et al in Radiology. Kidney tumors are often discovered at an early stage and are frequently...
The delivery of all radiotherapy and chemotherapy neoadjuvantly—also known as total neoadjuvant therapy—has improved complete response and downstaging rates compared to treatment after surgery in patients with rectal cancer. In a study presented by Chapman et al at the 2019...
On January 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved trastuzumab-dttb (Ontruzant), a biosimilar referencing trastuzumab, across all eligible indications—namely, adjuvant treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer, and metastatic gastric cancer or...
John Mendelsohn, MD, President Emeritus of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, died of glioblastoma on January 7, 2019, at his home in Houston at age 82. He was an internationally acclaimed leader in the field of medicine and scientist whose research helped pioneer a new type of...
The oncology community is deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Arti Hurria, MD, FASCO, a nationally regarded expert and advocate for elderly patients with cancer. Dr. Hurria died on November 7, 2018, in a traffic accident. At the time of her tragic death, Dr. Hurria was Director of the City...
The Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah recently began construction on a proton therapy center. The $31 million, 7,450 square-foot addition to the HCI’s Cancer Hospital will be the first proton therapy center in the Mountain West. The new center will be named in honor of...
Waun Ki Hong, MD, FACP, FASCO, led numerous clinical trials showing that cisplatin-based chemotherapy and radiotherapy could effectively treat patients with cancer of the larynx while sparing their voice box. This seminal work also served as a model for organ-preservation strategies in many other...
Internationally renowned lymphoma expert Bertrand Coiffier, MD, PhD, died on January 2, 2019. He was 71. Dr. Coiffier published more than 500 papers and book chapters that garnered more than 50,000 literature citations, placing him among the top 1% of the most influential researchers globally. His ...
Pioneering hematologist J. Evan Sadler, MD, PhD, an expert in the study and treatment of blood-clotting disorders, died December 13, 2018, at his home in Clayton, Missouri, following a brief illness. He was 67. His death was announced in a news item from the Washington University School of...
In the summer of 2002, I was a physically active 17-year-old boy on the cusp of adulthood. I was about to enter my senior year in high school, and like other teens my age, I was excited about college and the promise of the undreamed-of opportunities that lay ahead. At first, the lethargy I was...
An emerging treatment known as adoptive T-cell therapy has proven effective in a phase II clinical trial for treating progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and often fatal brain infection sometimes observed in patients with cancer and other diseases in which the immune system is...
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has bestowed upon 416 of its members the lifetime honor of being an elected Fellow in recognition of their achievements in advancing science, some of whom are involved in oncology. The Fellows will be recognized at the 2019 AAAS Annual...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies sometimes used by patients with cancer. Eugenie Spiguel, MSN, ANP-BC, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, explore the use of valerian for...
Here is an update on several different studies focusing on novel treatments for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. The featured therapeutics include the oral agent selinexor in...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib. The FDA’s approval of this oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor was based on the results of the phase III...
Despite a recent study showing that patients with cancer who chose alternative therapies over conventional cancer treatment have a higher risk of death, nearly 4 in 10 Americans believe cancer can be cured by alternative remedies alone, according to the results of ASCO’s 2018 National Cancer...
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are testing a first-of-its-kind personalized cancer vaccine combined with an immunotherapy drug, with the aim of improving outcomes for patients with kidney cancer who are at high risk of recurrence after surgery. A two-pronged approach to...
Here is an update on several different studies focusing on novel treatments for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Featured therapeutics include daratumumab plus lenalidomide and dexamethasone, ...
Ever since President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law on March 23, 2010, the nondiscrimination provision of the law, Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in certain health ...
ASCO has elected Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, to serve as its President for the term beginning in June 2020. She will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2019. Six new members were also elected to the ASCO Board of ...
For the first time, four nonprofits have joined together to support a Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Young Investigator Award (YIA). Marina Baretti, MD, postdoctoral oncology fellow at Johns Hopkins University, is the recipient of the 2018 Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO/AMMF–The...
In a poster session earlier today David Ilson, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues reported on a preplanned subgroup analysis of the double-blind phase III TAGS study looking at the safety and efficacy of the oral agent trifluridine/tipiracil (FTP/TPI) in heavily...
A study by Graber et al in the International Journal of Cancer has found a significant increase in head and neck cancers among workers and volunteers who responded to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC), pointing to newly emerging risks that require ongoing monitoring ...
Although the emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors over the last decade has revolutionized the treatment of patients with metastatic cancers, only a minority of patients experience long-lasting benefit from the therapy. A study investigating the association between tumor mutational burden and...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Sborov et al found that inaccurate prediction of life expectancy can be associated with greater likelihood of aggressive end-of-life care among patients with metastatic cancer receiving palliative radiation therapy. Study...
Unlike healthy tissues, tumors thrive in low-oxygen environments, often acquiring the ability to resist treatment and spread to other sites in the body. Despite being a well-known cause of therapy resistance and metastasis, the impact of hypoxia on tumor cells is poorly understood. Researchers have ...
A subset of patients with aggressive prostate cancer are carriers of germline BRCA2 mutations, which are also linked to hereditary breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Study findings also showed family members of patients with prostate cancer who carry BRCA2 and DNA-repair...
Patients diagnosed with cancer who also have other illnesses or conditions, such as hypertension, asthma, or a prior cancer, are less likely to talk with their health-care provider about a cancer clinical trial, are less likely to be offered to join a clinical trial, and are ultimately less likely...
On January 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who have been previously treated with sorafenib. The FDA’s approval of cabozantinib was based on results from the phase III CELESTIAL trial....
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ansell et al found that nivolumab was associated with low response rates among patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who were ineligible for or experienced failure of autologous hematopoietic cell ...
Scientists have developed a new test that scans the shapes of tumor cells to select women with especially aggressive ovarian cancer. A team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, created an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that looks for clusters of cells within tumors with misshapen...
Among African American adults undergoing liver transplant to treat hepatocellular carcinoma, patients whose organ donor was also African American lived significantly longer than those with a racially unmatched donor, report authors of a new study using national data. Their findings were published...
In a single-center experience reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Amit et al found that among patients with sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma with a favorable response to induction chemotherapy, disease-specific survival was better in those receiving definitive concurrent...
Findings from a new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) show that patients treated with chemotherapy for most solid tumors from 2000 to 2014 experienced an increased risk of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (MDS/AML). The study, which used U.S. ...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Halabi et al found that overall survival was improved for black men vs white men receiving regimens containing docetaxel and prednisone for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. As noted by the investigators, several studies...
Exposure to the sun, whether cumulative or intermittent, is a known risk factor for the development of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). Past studies have found that greater body mass index (BMI) actually lessens the risk of women developing NMSCs. With this in mind, researchers sought to determine...
Black men diagnosed with prostate cancer classified as low risk may actually have a more aggressive form of the disease that is more likely to be fatal than in nonblack men placed in the same prognostic category, according to results from a new study published as a research letter by Mahal et al in ...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Wolf et al found that patients undergoing Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery for nonmalignant neurosurgical conditions did not appear to be at long-term increased risk of radiation-associated secondary intracranial malignancy or...
New research has found that quality of life for people with cancer is reduced by an accumulation of low-level toxicities just as much as it is from high-level adverse events. Additionally, patient-reported outcomes were more likely to reflect the impact on a patient’s physical well-being than ...
In a pooled analysis of French and U.S. follicular lymphoma cohorts reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sarkozy and colleagues found that lymphoma was the most common cause of death during the first decade of the rituximab era in treatment of the disease. The study involved data from...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Villano et al found that regionalization of retroperitoneal sarcoma surgery—recognized as a complex cancer surgery—to high-volume hospitals has been slower than that observed for similarly complex pancreatic cancer surgery over...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Moore et al, the phase III SOLO-1 trial has shown that maintenance with olaparib, following complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy, significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs placebo in...
Ten years after a negative colonoscopy, patients who were rescreened for colorectal cancer had a lower risk of being diagnosed with and were less likely to die from colorectal cancer compared with those who did not undergo colorectal cancer screening, according to a study published by Lee et al...
In an analysis from the phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ott et al found that response to pembrolizumab across different cancers was more likely in patients with higher tumor mutational burden, T-cell–inflamed gene-expression profile, and programmed...