Latest Conference Articles

Andrea B. Apolo, MD, principal investigator and the head of the Bladder Cancer Section in the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch at the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research, discusses the updated findings of the phase Ib JAVELIN trial exploring avelumab (Bavencio) for the treatment of patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Comprehensive genomic testing is not yet widespread, but a French study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting suggested that DNA profiling can be of important value in advancing personalized medicine.

Deanna J. Attai, MD, assistant clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), breast surgeon at UCLA Health, discusses studies exploring the challenges with survivorship care plan implementation for patients with cancer in an interview during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Three out of 4 patients representing a range of TRK fusion–positive solid tumors responded to the novel pan-TRK inhibitor larotrectinib (LOXO-101) and remain on treatment, setting the stage for the well-tolerated oral agent to become a standard of care for adults and children with any advanced tumor harboring this mutation.

Adding the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib to fulvestrant reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 45% versus fulvestrant alone in pretreated patients with HR+/HER2-negative breast cancer, according to findings presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The frontline combination of pembrolizumab, pemetrexed, and carboplatin reduced the risk of progression or death by 50% and nearly doubled objective response rates compared with chemotherapy alone for patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC.

A new, high-intensity genomic sequencing approach for circulating tumor DNA uncovered at least 1 genetic change in both the tumor DNA and the blood of 89% of patients, demonstrating a high rate of concordance between 2 approaches for detecting molecular aberrations, according to a study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Earlier intervention with abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) lowered the risk of death by nearly 40% for men with high-risk advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who were newly diagnosed or had not yet received hormone therapy in findings from 2 clinical trials presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Women who have had early breast cancer, along with their doctors, often worry that pregnancy could cause disease recurrence. But according to the results of a new study, that’s not the case.

Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, deputy cancer center director, Translational Research Program, co-leader, Molecular Therapeutics Program, professor, Department Hematology/Oncology, William Wikoff Smith Chair in Cancer Research, American Cancer Society Research Professor, discusses the importance of understanding tumor heterogeneity an interview during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Arjun V. Balar, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, New York University Cancer Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the mature clinical trial results and biomarker findings of KEYNOTE-052, first-line pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with cisplatin-ineligible advanced urothelial cancer, during the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Newly diagnosed patients with cancer experienced improvements in quality of life and lower levels of distress by participating in a web-based stress management program, according to results of a study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Nearly 40% of testicular cancer survivors had low testosterone levels, leading to a greater likelihood of chronic health problem compared with survivors with normal testosterone levels, according to study findings released at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Advanced cancer exacts an overwhelming emotional toll, and a brief but novel psychological intervention involving individual therapy sessions delivered by trained therapists has been shown to alleviate patients’ distress and help them to manage the profound and practical problems that come with this diagnosis.

The rate of severe long-term side effects caused by treatments for childhood cancers is dropping over time, according to findings from a retrospective analysis of 23,600 survivors enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

Results from a large, phase III trial showed that a single radiation treatment relieves symptoms of spinal cord compression in patients with advanced cancer as effectively as a multifractional course of radiotherapy (RT)

Psychological intervention can substantially lower fear of cancer recurrence in survivors, improving their quality of life, anxiety, and cancer-specific distress, according to a phase II randomized clinical trial presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Frontline treatment with ribociclib plus letrozole improved progression-free survival by 9.3 months compared with letrozole plus placebo for patients with postmenopausal HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.

Adjuvant gefitinib reduced the risk of disease recurrence by 40% versus standard chemotherapy in patients with EGFR-positive non­–small cell lung cancer, study reports.

Patients with stage III colorectal cancer who maintained a healthy body weight, engaged in regular physical activity, and adopted other healthy lifestyle behaviors experienced a 42% lower chance of death and a trend toward reduced cancer recurrence.

The efficacy of the human papillomavirus vaccine continues to be impressive, with newly reported findings showing that it reduced the prevalence of high-risk oral HPV infections by 88% in young adults who had at least 1 dose of the vaccine; however, low vaccine uptake remains a concern.

More Stage I cancers were diagnosed after the passage of the Affordable Care Act within five screenable disease types than were diagnosed before ACA implementation.

Findings of a new prospective study suggest that eating tree nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pecans can improve overall survival and reduce the risk of recurrence in patients with colon cancer.

Treatment with adjuvant capecitabine improved overall survival by 15 months compared with observation alone for patients with macroscopically resected biliary tract cancer, according to findings from the phase III BILCAP study released in advance of the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Ellen K. Ritchie, MD, highlights current and emerging novel treatments, and the possibility of using immunotherapy to treat patients with systemic mastocytosis, advanced symptomatic hypereosinoophic disorder, myelofibrosis, and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia

John P. Leonard, MD, discusses advancements across hematologic malignancies and pivotal trial data he is anticipating at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Sarah Rutherford, MD, John P. Leonard, M.D./Gwirtzman Family Research Scholar in Lymphoma , assistant professor of medicine, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine , Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the classification and prevalence of double-hit and double-expressor lymphomas.

Gail J. Roboz, MD, discusses the recent FDA approval of midostaurin and what else is emerging in the treatment landscape in AML.

Lisa Giulino Roth, MD, assistant professor of Pediatrics in Medicine, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine , Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses treating adolescent and young adult patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.

Ruben Niesvizky, MD, discusses some of the exciting advances, the potential of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, and emerging combination regimens on the horizon in multiple myeloma.