Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the combination of the dual RAF/MEK inhibitor avutometinib and the FAK inhibitor defactinib (Avmapki Fakzynja Co-pack) for adults with KRAS-mutated, recurrent, low-grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC) who have...
The accelerated approval program of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows certain medications to be marketed if they are indicated for serious disease and there has been preliminary evidence of the drug’s efficacy. Pharmaceutical companies must then conduct postapproval trials to...
When screening for breast cancer, the most effective strategy to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) may involve collaboration with human radiologists, according to a recent study published by Ahsen et al in Nature Communications. The findings could help shape how hospitals and clinics integrate...
A 1-week course of postsurgery radiotherapy demonstrated comparable safety and efficacy to the traditional 3-week regimen in patients with early-stage breast cancer, according to new findings presented by Brunt et al at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) 2025 Annual Meeting...
The first sign that something was terribly wrong was in 2015, when I began to feel so fatigued that it was difficult to get out of bed even after 8 to 10 hours of sleep. I’ve been full of energy my whole life and couldn’t understand why I was so tired all the time. Then I began to experience...
Ablative radiation therapy is considered to be an alternative to surgery, providing an effective noninvasive option for local treatment of many types of cancer, but it is unknown whether ablative radiation therapy is effective for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Surgery provides improved...
Thomas B. Tomasi, Jr, MD, PhD, who led Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as President and Chief Executive Officer from 1986 to 1996, died on March 23 at age 97. His tenure marked a renaissance at Roswell Park that elevated it to a place among the nation’s top cancer centers. The pinnacle of ...
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR, as the AACR President-Elect for 2025–2026. He will assume the Presidency in April 2026 at the AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego. Dr. Flaherty is Director of Clinical Cancer Research and the ...
The 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research was presented to Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, during the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Chicago. This award honors individuals who have made significant fundamental contributions to cancer...
The recent approval of the oral menin inhibitor revumenib brought much-needed treatment to patients with a challenging subset of disease: adults and children with relapsed or refractory acute leukemia harboring a lysine methyltransferase 2A gene (KMT2A) translocation or rearrangement. Approval was...
Several medical organizations recently released a joint Clinical Practice Guideline to provide recommendations on opioid conversion in adults with cancer.1 ASCO, together with the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC), American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine,...
Overall deaths from cancer over the past 2 decades have steadily declined in both men and women in the United States, according to the 2024 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, which was published by Recinda L. Sherman, MPH, PhD, ODS-C, of the North American Association of Central...
The phase III MARIPOSA trial was a head-to-head comparison of the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib and the combination of the bispecific EGF receptor–directed and MET receptor–directed monoclonal antibody amivantamab-vmjw and the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor lazertinib in the first-line ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in 2017 to treat children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.1 Over the past decade, other CAR T-cell therapies have been FDA approved to treat adults with blood cancers, including...
For more than a decade, the field of gynecologic oncology has witnessed a movement toward surgical de-escalation through the increased use of minimally invasive surgical techniques and sentinel lymph node techniques. At the 2025 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s...
Angela Nolin, MD, a gynecologic oncology fellow at Duke University Health System in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues conducted a multi-institutional study to determine whether racial differences in transvaginal ultrasound efficacy combined with timely receipt of indicated endometrial...
The 2025 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer advanced the field with updates of practice-changing trials and other research that challenges the conventional approaches to treating gynecologic cancers. We have briefly captured some of that research here for readers ...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sperduto and colleagues analyzed trends in survival associated with newly diagnosed melanoma brain metastases and updated the Melanoma Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA). Study Details The study involved retrospective data from...
In a Children’s Oncology Group (COG) study (AAML1831) reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Huang et al found that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) was associated with improved outcomes in pediatric patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Study Details The study...
In patients with aggressive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, first-line treatment with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus and the somatostatin analog lanreotide more than doubled the median progression-free survival for patients vs everolimus alone, in the phase III JCOG1901 (STARTER-NET)...
In a single-institution cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Chang et al identified patterns of symptoms preceding unplanned acute care encounters for patients with cancer. Study Details The study involved data from all unplanned acute care encounters (emergency department visits and...
Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are less likely to receive potentially life-saving cancer treatment if they reside in communities with lower income levels and educational attainment, according to a recent study published by Islam et al in Cancer. Study Methods and Results...
Despite steady increases in the rates of immediate postmastectomy breast reconstruction, racial disparities in receipt of the procedure have persisted in the years since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a recent study published by Schafer et al in Plastic and...
The phase III HYPO-RT-PC trial has shown that a shorter course of radiotherapy (2 weeks) for localized prostate cancer is just as safe and effective as the traditional 8-week schedule—even 10 years after treatment. The findings, presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology's...
A major international study, PORTEC-4a, provides evidence that molecular profiling may safely reduce the need for radiotherapy in some women with early-stage endometrial cancer while identifying those who would benefit from more intensive treatment. The results, presented at ESTRO 2025, may mark a...
Five pivotal studies presented at ESTRO 2025 showcase how radiotherapy is reshaping the landscape for anal and rectal cancers. From reduced-dose treatments to cutting-edge combinations with immunotherapy and chemotherapy, these innovations offer safer, more effective, and organ-preserving...
Investigators may have discovered a link between smoking and the risk of second primary cancers across various first primary cancer types, according to new findings presented by Sung et al at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting (Abstract 4942/20). Study Methods...
Investigators have uncovered how a specific sequence of cancer therapies could improve outcomes among patients with relapsed/refractory mature T- and natural killer (NK)-cell lymphomas, according to a recent study published by Sorial et al in the British Journal of Haematology. Background...
Cancer-related studies were among the nearly 6,000 abstracts presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025, including research on artificial intelligence (AI) in patient communication, polyp detection, and colonoscopy prep. Use of AI in Patient Communication AI outperformed physicians in...
Stomach cancers are increasingly being diagnosed at less advanced, more treatable stages—a shift that marks major progress in detecting one of the deadliest forms of cancer, according to a study presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025 (Abstract Sa1374). “These trends suggest that...
Anal cancer has been steadily increasing in the United States, with the biggest jumps among older women, especially White and Hispanic women, a new study presented at Digestive Disease Week 2025 (Abstract 76) found. According to the investigators, this shift challenges assumptions about high-risk...
The Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute established a Financial Toxicity Tumor Board in 2019. The board is the first known institutional-level intervention of its kind and functions like a traditional disease-focused multidisciplinary tumor board—with a singular focus on financial distress. Now,...
The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is carefully reviewing the Administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 “skinny” budget proposal, which was released May 2 and contains significant cuts to federal health agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—notably, a 40% cut to...
Sequential molecular measurable residual disease (MRD) testing and monitoring led to a survival benefit among younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and NPM1 and FLT3-ITD mutations, according to the results of a study published in The Lancet Haematology. Patients with both mutations...
Applications are now being accepted for the 2025 Integrative Oncology Scholars Program and Integrative Oncology Fellows Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (https://sites.google.com/view/integrative-oncology-scholars-/home). Launched in 2018, the Integrative Oncology Scholars Program ...
In the phase III KEYNOTE-689 trial, perioperative use of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab given with standard therapy significantly improved event-free survival in newly diagnosed, previously untreated patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, researchers reported at the ...
In an analysis from the Scandinavian phase III NARLAL2 trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schytte et al found that fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET–guided heterogeneously dose-escalated radiotherapy was not associated with greater 6-month toxicity vs standard radiotherapy in...
The use of computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) techniques for planning jaw reconstructions for patients with head and neck cancer undergoing free fibula reconstruction of the lower jaw may potentially shorten the duration of the surgery and reduce removal rates due to complications,...
In the phase IIb ADAGIO trial, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Liu et al found that the Wee1 inhibitor adavosertib showed some activity in patients with recurrent or persistent uterine serous carcinoma. However, its use was associated with high toxicity rates. Study Details In the...
Researchers may have uncovered the role of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the development of Burkitt lymphoma, according to a recent study published by Ariera et al in The Journal of Immunology. Background Uncomplicated malaria occurs when a patient’s symptoms are nonspecific, including fever,...
Ruxolitinib may prove to be an effective treatment of parkinsonism arising from ciltacabtagene autoleucel treatment for patients with multiple myeloma, according to the results of a case report published in the Journal of Hematology. The report featured two cases of patients with multiple myeloma...
Patients with colorectal cancer and a history of cannabis use disorder had a more than 20 times higher risk of mortality within 5 years than those without cannabis use order, according to the results of a study published in Annals of Epidemiology. The 5-year mortality rate in patients with a...
Investigators have uncovered mixed progress in major cancer risk factors, preventive behaviors, and screenings in the post–COVID-19 pandemic period among adults in the United States, according to a new study published by Bandi et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Background An ...
“Knowledge is like a lion; it cannot be gently embraced.” –South African Proverb Long-term efficacy and safety confirm that a hypomethylating agent and venetoclax is an improvement in the standard of care for patients with AML who are not eligible for intensive chemotherapy because of advanced age...
A novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy called AIC100, which targets the ICAM-1 protein, demonstrated encouraging responses and an acceptable safety profile in patients with two types of advanced thyroid cancer. Results from a small, first-in-human phase I trial were presented at the ...
A 20-year initiative that offered flexible options for colorectal cancer screening at a major integrated health system doubled colorectal cancer screening rates, cut cancer incidence by a third, halved deaths, and brought racial differences in outcomes to nearly zero, according to a study that will ...
Using next-generation DNA sequencing, researchers have identified four specific genes whose mutations are linked to the development and progression of lethal stomach cancers. This could potentially enable practitioners to offer targeted treatments that would spare many patients from unnecessarily...
A new gene-expression atlas developed using single-cell RNA sequencing data sheds light on how normal hematopoietic cells differentiate and was used to catalog the multiple ways aberrant differentiation can lead to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Andy G.X. Zeng, PhD, an MD/PhD candidate at the...
According to the results of a molecularly matched, tumor-agnostic phase II trial, the combination of the PARP inhibitor olaparib and the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab demonstrated antitumor activity with no new safety signals, particularly in patients with BRCA1/2 mutations. Data from this...
Compared with a placebo gel, an investigational topical BRAF inhibitor (LUT014) was found to improve the symptoms of acneiform rash in patients with colorectal cancer. These phase II clinical trial results were presented by Anisha B. Patel, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology, Deputy Chair of...