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The field of allogeneic stem cell transplantation continues to improve survival for patients with previously incurable blood cancers. However, up to 50% of patients who undergo transplantation with donor cells will develop chronic graft-vs-host disease, a potentially deadly condition that can also...
In a phase II trial (ABA2) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Watkins et al found that the addition of T-cell costimulation blockade with abatacept to calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)/methotrexate (MTX)–based graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis resulted in reduced rates of acute graft-vs-host...
Press conference moderator Virginia Kaklamani, MD, of UT Health San Antonio, and Leader of the Breast Cancer Program, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, weighed in on this study. “This study compared patients’ reports with physicians’ reports about the severity of symptoms. It is a...
Physicians may commonly underrecognize radiation-associated symptoms and their severity compared with self-reports of patients with breast cancer, according to a large study comparing patient-reported outcomes with physician assessments of four common radiation-associated symptoms: pain, pruritus, ...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kadauke et al found that risk-adapted tocilizumab reduced the expected incidence of grade 4 cytokine-release syndrome in pediatric patients receiving CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chang et al found that atrial fibrillation occurs in a substantial proportion of patients who have undergone allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and is associated with poor outcomes. Study Details The...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Allison Magnuson, DO, and colleagues have developed a risk tool for predicting severe toxicity in patients aged 65 and older receiving chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer. Study Details The prospective cohort study included 473 patients...
In a phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Farag et al found that the addition of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4; CD26) inhibitor sitagliptin to tacrolimus and sirolimus prophylaxis resulted in a low rate of acute graft-vs-host disease among patients with hematologic...
In a single-institution phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Absolom et al found that use of the electronic patient self-reporting of adverse events: patient information and advice (eRAPID) system was associated with improvements in patient-reported outcomes vs usual care...
Many patients with prostate cancer are treated with androgen-deprivation therapy. However, patients receiving androgen-deprivation therapy often experience higher levels of fatigue, depression, and cognitive impairment. In a new study published by Hoogland et al in the journal Cancer, researchers...
In an observational cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Catherine H. Van Poznak, MD, FASCO, and colleagues found that the 3-year incidence of osteonecrosis of the jaw was 2.8% among patients with cancer receiving zoledronic acid for metastatic bone disease. Shorter dosing interval, fewer teeth, ...
Although the exact incidence of treatment-related lymphedema among cancer survivors is unknown—most likely due to its prolonged latency period—it can be a lifelong chronic side effect that negatively impacts survivors’ quality of life. Although the condition is often linked to treatment for breast...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Nadler et al describe the development of an intervention at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, that succeeded in increasing referrals of patients with gastrointestinal cancer to a cancer rehabilitation program. As stated by the ...
Among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, symptoms were commonly underrecognized in reports of pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue, with younger patients and Black patients having significantly increased odds of symptom underrecognition. These findings were reported by Reshma...
Ruxolitinib was superior to best available therapy in achieving efficacy as determined by overall response and duration of response, with acceptable safety in adolescents and adults with steroid-dependent or steroid-refractory chronic graft-vs-host disease. Findings from the phase III REACH3 trial...
The clot stabilizer tranexamic acid performed no better than placebo when administered prophylactically to prevent bleeding in patients with hematologic malignancies who also received routine prophylactic platelet transfusions, according to findings presented by Terry B. Gernsheimer, MD, and...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions for agents to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), biliary tract cancer, and graft-vs-host disease. Priority Review for Loncastuximab Tesirine...
Therese Marie Mulvey, MD, FASCO, Director of Quality Safety and Value at the Massachusetts General Hospital North Shore Cancer Center, Boston, told The ASCO Post that this “provocative and elegant” study underscores the importance of listening to patients. “Baseline patient-reported symptoms are...
Fatigue could be an important baseline stratification factor for cancer treatment, according to data presented during the 2020 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1 An analysis of four SWOG treatment trials has found an association between patient fatigue and outcomes in advanced cancer. Data from the...
Formal discussant of the abstract, Monika K. Krzyzanowska, MD, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, said this study extends the evidence base on geriatric assessment in oncology and shows that geriatric assessment should be...
As the number of older patients with cancer continues to rise, interventions that reduce the high rates of symptoms, toxicity, and distress in this population are urgently needed. Research presented during the 2020 ASCO Quality Care Symposium has added to the growing body of evidence supporting...
Anne M. Barry-Weers, RN, of Aurora Health Care/Aurora Cancer Care in Milwaukee, discusses strategies that helped patients with cancer to better manage their chemotherapy-related symptoms at home, thus reducing visits to the emergency department and inpatient admissions, and improving treatment costs (Abstract 11).
Marie A. Flannery, PhD, and Eva Culakova, PhD, both of the University of Rochester, discuss a geriatric assessment tool that helped reduce symptomatic toxicities, as measured by Patient-Reported Outcomes Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (Abstract 138).
Automated analysis of the routine scans of patients with breast cancer may help to predict which women have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to research presented by Gal et al at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference (Abstract 7). Women who have been treated for...
Monika K. Krzyzanowska, MD, MPH, of the Princess Margaret University Health Network, discusses study findings on remote proactive telephone-based toxicity management for patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. Although the telehealth program was associated with fewer grade 3 toxicities and a slight decline in quality of life, it did not lead to fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations (Abstract LBA87).
In a single-center Indian phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Naik et al found that the addition of olanzapine to standard antiemetic treatment significantly increased the rate of complete response (CR; defined as no vomiting or use of rescue medication) among children and ...
Cancer is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes neither is the treatment, according to information presented during the ASCO20 Virtual Education Program.1 Approximately 30% of patients who receive cancer therapy will have cardiovascular complications.2 What’s more, in anthracycline-treated...
The standard of care since 2003, sentinel lymph node biopsy has dramatically reduced the risk of lymphedema in early breast cancer, but more than 6% of patients still develop the condition. At the ASCO20 Virtual Education Program, Nicole L. Stout, DPT, CLT-LANA, FAPTA, Research Assistant Professor...
In a prospective lymphedema screening trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Naoum et al found that although regional lymph node radiation increased the incidence of breast cancer–related lymphedema, the primary driver of risk was the type of axillary surgery used. Study Details The...
Updated clinical practice guidelines for managing mucositis—a common and often debilitating complication of cancer therapy—were recently published by Elad et al in the journal Cancer. The new guidelines summary, which will provide health-care professionals with better tools to deliver care for...
Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most prominent chronic side effects of chemotherapy and can linger for years, causing discomfort as well as impaired functionality and quality of life. Yet oncologists have struggled to identify definitive treatment and prevention strategies. In an effort to help ...
In a small single-center randomized trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, David Hui, MD, MS, MSc, and colleagues found that increasing haloperidol dose, rotating to chlorpromazine, and combining haloperidol and chlorpromazine each appeared to improve refractory agitation in patients with terminal...
In a Chinese trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chang et al found that the addition of antithymocyte globulin to standard graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis reduced the risk of acute graft-vs-host disease in patients undergoing human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling donor...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has proved to be a valuable treatment option for patients with lymphoma in whom other therapies have failed. In clinical trials, the cellular immunotherapy was shown to provide durable remissions for nearly 40% of patients with large B-cell lymphoma....
In an Australian study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sim et al found that the osteoanabolic agent teriparatide improved the rate of resolution of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw lesions vs placebo in a population of patients who had previous exposure to either...
In a study published by Wolpert et al in the European Journal of Cancer, venous thromboembolic events (VTE) were reported in 12% of a cohort of patients with cancer that had metastasized to the brain. Researchers identified thrombogenicity of primary tumor, immobilization, chemotherapy, obesity,...
The antipsychotic agent olanzapine may be helpful in reducing nausea and vomiting caused by advanced cancer, according to results of a study by Loprinzi et al published recently in JAMA Oncology. “There was a dramatic reduction [in nausea and vomiting] within 24 hours in the people who received...
In the phase III REACH2 trial reported in TheNew England Journal of Medicine, Robert Zeiser, MD, of the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany, and colleagues found that the JAK1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib improved response rate...
Due to COVID-19, this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting was convened using a virtual format. It was multidisciplinary, featuring more than 250 oral and 2,500 poster presentations from around the world in 24 disease-based and specialty tracks. Among the exciting talks in the session on symptoms and...
Advances in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and some of their associated symptoms were presented during EHA25 Virtual, an ongoing online conference from the European Hematology Association (EHA). Advances in the Treatment of High-Risk CLL: CLL2-GIVe Results In the CLL2-GIVe trial, the...
On June 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a biosimilar to pegfilgrastim (Neulasta), pegfilgrastim-apgf (Nyvepria), to decrease the incidence of febrile neutropenia in patients with nonmyeloid malignancies receiving myelosuppressive anticancer drugs associated with a...
ASCO recently released a new evidence-based guideline regarding the clinical management of cancer cachexia in adults with advanced cancer.1 The guideline is the result of a literature review that included 20 systematic reviews and 13 randomized clinical trials. An expert panel was convened to...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Goyal et al found that use of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) self-assessment tool during weekly on-treatment physician visits was associated with reduced symptom severity vs routine symptom management in patients...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Shi et al found that use of higher-than-currently-recommended severity thresholds for symptom alerts for patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy would result in failure to identify and treat many patients requiring clinical intervention for ...
In the phase III REACH2 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Zeiser et al found that the JAK1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib improved response rate vs investigator’s choice of therapy in patients with glucocorticoid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic stem...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wagner et al found that patient-reported cognitive impairment was worse at 3 and 6 months in women with early breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemoendocrine therapy vs endocrine therapy alone in the TAILORx trial, with no significant...
A study reported in JAMA Oncology by Dolladille et al using pharmacovigilance data from the World Health Organization database VigiBase found that the same immune-related adverse events (irAEs) associated with discontinuation of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy recurred in 28.8% of patients...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Holmes et al found that a program instituted at the University of Vermont Medical Center was successful in improving venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment, patient education, and rates of prophylaxis use in patients initiating anticancer...
Karen Wonders, PhD, of Wright State University, discusses the safety and efficacy of exercise during cancer treatment in minimizing toxicities and addressing the short- and long-term effects of cancer therapy. Dr. Wonders suggests that exercise becomes a standard of care for patients with cancer (Abstract HSR20-110).