The Need for Solid Data During a Global Pandemic
The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 disease on a global scale found the community of clinicians and scientists largely unprepared to face the devastating effects of the pandemic. The stress on health-care systems revealed their weaknesses and brought about associated financial crises. Defining the...
Updated CCC19 Data Offer Insights on Treatment for Patients With Cancer and COVID-19 Infection
Newly released data on treatment outcomes of patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 revealed a racial disparity in access to remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has been shown to shorten hospital stays, and increased mortality associated with dexamethasone, a steroid that has had the opposite...
Study Finds Higher Risk for COVID-19 Infection Among Minorities and Patients With Cancer
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Native American or Alaska Native and non-Hispanic Black people have the highest rates of hospitalization or death from COVID-19, followed by Hispanics and Latinos. A large population-based study using a smartphone app ...
Miguel-Angel Perales, MD, and Syed A. Abutalib, MD, on Bone Marrow Transplants During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Syed A. Abutalib, MD, of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, talks with Miguel-Angel Perales, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, about the challenges and concerns related to transplants for patients with hematologic malignancies who are particularly vulnerable to infection with the coronavirus. Recorded July 13, 2020.
In Keynote Lecture, Anthony Fauci, MD, Explores What We Know About COVID-19 and What’s Being Done to Combat It
Kicking off the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer earlier this week, Anthony Fauci, MD, gave the keynote lecture, “Coronavirus Infections: More Than Just the Common Cold.” As Dr. Fauci told listeners, “[COVID-19]—and other infectious...
Cancer Survivors Are Adhering to COVID-19–Related Preventive Behaviors, but Continuity of Care May Be Impacted
People of any age with serious underlying health conditions are at greater risk for contracting the coronavirus, and cancer survivors are particularly vulnerable to becoming infected with COVID-19, since many cancer therapies can lead to immunosuppression. To reduce exposure to the virus, the...
Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Generates Immune Response, Deemed Safe in Phase I Trial
According to a press release from the National Institutes of Health, an investigational vaccine designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—mRNA-1273—was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralizing antibody activity in healthy adults. These interim results were...
FDA Collaborating on Use of Real-World Data to Inform COVID-19 Response Effort
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took an additional step in harnessing real-world data to help inform the agency’s overall response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The FDA announced its participation in the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator, a...
A Visiting Resident Oncologist’s Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A visiting away elective is a resident’s designated time to visit another academic program to foster the growth of medical knowledge through patient care from the perspective of another health-care system and educational experience. The time dedicated to make this dream happen is grueling. First...
ASCO COVID-19 Registry: Acceptable for MIPS Improvement Activity
ASCO’s Survey on COVID-19 in Oncology Registry (ASCO Registry) is an acceptable clinical trial registry for the attestation of the high-weighted practice Improvement Activity, “COVID-19 Clinical Trials Related to the Emergency Response & Preparedness,” under the Centers for Medicare &...
Guidance Available on Telemedicine Coverage During COVID-19 Pandemic
Effective for services starting March 1, 2020, and for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reimburse for telehealth services for all beneficiaries. To help explain this and other changes to telehealth coverage related to the pandemic,...
2020 ASCO Presidential Address Focuses on ‘Unite and Conquer: Accelerating Progress Together’
The world is grappling with a pandemic and we are all adjusting to a new reality. Fewer handshakes, more masks. Fewer hugs, more fear. COVID-19 has tested us, challenged us, changed us. It’s changed the way we look, the way we work, the way we socialize. It’s changed us, but it can’t stop us. It...
A Visiting Resident Oncologist’s Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A visiting away elective is a resident’s designated time to visit another academic program to foster the growth of medical knowledge through patient care from the perspective of another health-care system and educational experience. The time dedicated to make this dream happen is grueling. First is ...
Mortality Risk in Patients With COVID-19 and Thoracic Malignancies: Initial Report From the TERAVOLT Registry Study
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Marina C. Garassino, MD, and colleagues, initial findings from the Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration (TERAVOLT) registry study have identified potential factors associated with increased risk of mortality in patients infected with COVID-19...
COVID-19 and Patients With Cancer: A Call to Action for Trainees
As oncology trainees, we develop skills to synthesize complex data and communicate this information with empathy as we accompany our patients through the trenches of a cancer diagnosis. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented layer of challenges has surfaced, as our patients who are...
Study Identifies Potential Approach to Treat Severe Respiratory Distress in Patients With COVID-19
Early data from a clinical study published in Science Immunology1 suggest that blocking the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) protein provided clinical benefit to a small group of patients with severe COVID-19 infection.1 Roschewski et al observed that the off-label use of the BTK inhibitor...
ASCO Survey on Early Impact of COVID-19 on Performance of Oncology Clinical Trials
In an article published in JCO Oncology Practice, David Waterhouse, MD, MPH, of Oncology Hematology Care, Cincinnati, Ohio, and colleagues presented the results of a recent ASCO survey of clinical programs on the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of oncology clinical...
Results of a COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) Cohort Study
As reported in The Lancet by Kuderer et al, a cohort study using the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) database has shown that increased risk of severe COVID-19 in patients with cancer is associated with such factors as age, comorbidities, performance status, hematologic malignancy, and...
Factors Associated With COVID-19 Infection Severity in Patients With Cancer: Wuhan City Study
In a retrospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tian et al identified factors associated with severity of illness in patients with cancer hospitalized for COVID-19 over a 2-month period in Wuhan. Study Details The study included all patients aged ≥ 18 years with any type of solid...
UKCCMP Prospective Cohort Study of COVID-19 Mortality in Patients With Cancer
As reported by Lee et al in The Lancet, a prospective cohort study from the United Kingdom performed by the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP) has found that increased risk of COVID-19 mortality in patients with cancer is associated with such factors as age, sex, and comorbidities,...
Jeremy L. Warner, MD, on the Clinical Impact of COVID-19 on Patients With Cancer
Jeremy L. Warner, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses data from the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium cohort study, which included patients with active or prior hematologic or invasive solid malignancies, reported across academic and community sites (Abstract LBA110).
Retrospective Study of Characteristics and Outcomes in Patients With Cancer Hospitalized With COVID-19 in Hubei
In a retrospective cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yang et al described clinical characteristics, outcomes, and risk factors for mortality in patients with cancer hospitalized with COVID-19 over a 2-month period in Hubei, China. Study Details The study included 205 patients with...
Factors Associated With All-Cause 30-Day Mortality in Patients With Cancer Infected With COVID-19: CCC19 Database Analysis
As reported in The Lancet by Jeremy L. Warner, MD, and colleagues, a cohort study using the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) database has shown that increased risk of all-cause mortality in patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 is associated with such factors as increased age, male sex, ...
ACS Survey Finds COVID-19 Health Impact Increasing on Patients With Cancer
An American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) survey of patients with cancer and survivors, conducted in May 2020, focused on COVID-19 effects. Compared with a survey conducted in April 2020, 87% of respondents said the pandemic had affected their health care, up from 51% in the...
App Calculates Risk of Delaying Cancer Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A team of data scientists and oncologists from the University of Michigan and Pennsylvania State University have developed a free, Web-based application to help in comparing the long-term risk to a patient from a months-long postponement of care to the additional risk posed by potential COVID-19...
Leora Horn, MD, on Thoracic Cancer and COVID-19: How Type of Cancer Therapy May Affect Survival
Leora Horn, MD, of Vanderbilt University, discusses the results of the TERAVOLT study, launched by the Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration. It examined the impact of specific chemotherapy and immunotherapy regimens on hospitalization and risk of death in patients with thoracic malignancies who are also infected with COVID-19 (Abstract LBA111).
Cancer and COVID-19: Considerations About Neutropenia, Anemia, and Thrombocytopenia
GUEST EDITORS Dr. Abutalib is Associate Director of the Hematology and Cellular Therapy Program and Director of the Clinical Apheresis Program at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Zion, Illinois; Associate Professor at the Roseland Franklin University of Medicine and Science; and Founder and...
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Cancer Care in Latin America
In a commentary published in The Lancet Oncology, Vasquez et al presented results of a survey of pediatric oncologists/hematologists across Latin America, which showed an adverse early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric cancer care. Study Details The study included a cross-sectional...
Merry-Jennifer Markham, MD: Perspectives on Three Abstracts From the ASCO Cancer Communications Chair
Merry-Jennifer Markham, MD, ASCO’s Cancer Communications Chair, gives her views on key papers presented at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, addressing gynecologic malignancies and COVID-19.
Patients With Cancer Infected With COVID-19 Have More Severe Illness and Higher Mortality Rates Than the General Population
A large cohort study by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on patients with cancer has found that all-cause 30-day mortality and severe illness were significantly higher in this population than previously reported in the general population. Mortality and severe...
Study Finds Patients With Lung Cancer Infected With COVID-19 Are at High Risk for Hospitalization
Data from the global TERAVOLT Consortium, which is investigating the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients with thoracic cancers, have found that these patients are at high risk for hospitalization and death. Prior use of chemotherapy was associated with an increased risk of mortality, as was...
Brain Cancer Prepared Me for the Isolation and Uncertainty of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The symptoms of low-grade oligodendroglioma first appeared in the summer of 2003, when I was 12, but they were vague enough—mild headaches and occasional weird sensations on my right side—to ignore. In the fall, I tripped and fell during a game of rollerblade hockey with my classmates and started...
COVID-19 Evidence Accelerator Leverages Real-World Data
The Reagan-Udall Foundation for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in collaboration with Friends of Cancer Research recently announced the COVID-19 Evidence Accelerator, an expansive public-private partnership combining the efforts of academic, government, and private sector organizations...
Gynecologic Oncologist Describes His New Normal in a New York Hospital
During the COVID-19 pandemic, The ASCO Post will be interviewing oncologists on how they and their centers are dealing with the crisis. Here, we speak with Alexander Melamed, MD, MPH, a gynecologic oncologist and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia...
NIH Begins Clinical Trial of Combination Regimen to Treat COVID-19
A clinical trial has begun to evaluate whether the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, given together with the antibiotic azithromycin, can prevent hospitalization and death from COVID-19. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health...
Novel Imaging Application Illuminates Processes in Cancer, COVID-19
Medical images for a wide range of diseases, including COVID-19, can now be more easily viewed, compared, and analyzed using a Web-based imaging platform developed by Massachusetts General Hospital and collaborating researchers. The Open Health Imaging Foundation (OHIF) Web viewer was originally...
Is Estrogen Protective Against COVID-19?
Reports suggest that the severity of coronavirus infection may be significantly more pronounced in men than in women.1 Studies have demonstrated that estrogen reduces both influenza virus replication in human female nasal epithelial cells2 and moderates the cytokine storm in murine models of this...
Roswell Park Investigators Study Immunotherapy Combination in Patients With Cancer Infected With COVID-19
A clinical trial investigating a two-drug immunotherapy combination will soon be available to patients with cancer infected with COVID-19 at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized clinical researchers at the center to conduct...
Treating Patients With Leukemia During the COVID-19 Era at MD Anderson Cancer Center
As part of a series of interviews with cancer experts during the COVID-19 pandemic, The ASCO Post spoke with Hagop Kantarjian, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, about the impact of the pandemic on treatment of...
NIH Aims to Quantify Undetected Cases of Coronavirus Infection
A new study has begun recruiting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, to determine how many adults in the United States without a confirmed history of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have antibodies to the virus. The presence of antibodies in...
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Propelling the Delivery of Home Care for Patients With Cancer
In 2019, the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center began planning a demonstration program, called Cancer Care at Home, to broaden the delivery of oncology treatments to patients in the home setting. The existing services offered by Penn...
Evolving Insights Into COVID-19 and Cancer Care
Pulling together the 2020 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting in less than 1 month was a Herculean task, and an important component was producing a session on COVID-19 and cancer care. This special session involved researchers from the front lines of the pandemic...
Overcoming the Challenges of Presenting the ASCO Annual Meeting During the COVID-19 Pandemic
As the worldwide cases of the coronavirus started to mount in February and March, medical societies and organizations monitoring the escalating COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international and domestic travel made the difficult decision to postpone or cancel their scientific conferences. On...
ASTRO Survey Finds Fewer Patients Visiting Radiation Oncology Clinics, Despite Enhanced COVID-19 Safety Measures
Despite facing challenges such as limited access to personal protective equipment (PPE) following the COVID-19 outbreak, radiation oncology clinics quickly implemented safety and process enhancements that allowed them to continue caring for patients, according to a new national survey conducted by...
Lessons Learned on Rotation at COVID-19 Inpatient Service at New York City Hospital
AS I WRITE TO YOU, I am happy to report I have just completed a 7-day rotation at the COVID-19 inpatient service at my hospital in New York City! Overall, it was a positive experience, despite the occasional sad and scary moments. I left the service feeling uplifted and fulfilled. I am glad to have ...
COVID-19 Infection in Pediatric Patients With Cancer
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Boulad et al found a low rate of COVID-19 morbidity among infected pediatric patients with cancer seen in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center pediatric program, as well as a low rate of infection in patients without COVID-19...
Online Guide Offers Tips for Communicating With Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A NEW ONLINE GUIDE provides tips to help oncology and other clinicians navigate the difficult and distressing communications with patients that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anthony Back, MD, a medical oncologist and palliative medicine specialist at the University of Washington and...
ASCO Special Report Provides Guidance to Oncology Practices on Resuming Cancer Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
ASCO has released the ASCO Special Report: A Guide to Cancer Care Delivery During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which provides detailed guidance to oncology practices on the immediate and short-term steps that could be taken to help protect the safety of patients and health-care staff before resuming more ...
Do Men Treated With ADT for Prostate Cancer Have a Lower Risk of Acquiring COVID-19?
A study of 4,532 men in the Veneto region of Italy has found that those who were being treated for prostate cancer with androgen-deprivation therapies (ADT) were less likely to develop COVID-19, and if they were infected, their disease tended to be less severe. This research was published by...
NIH-Led ACTIV Program for the Development of COVID-19 Vaccines
In an article published in Science, Lawrence Corey, MD; John R. Mascola, MD; Anthony S. Fauci, MD; and Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, describe the composition and aims of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-led Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) partnership....
