Jason Harris

Articles by Jason Harris

Over the years, cancer treatments that have improved patients outcomes have come out of clinical trial research. These studies have greatly contributed to the decline in cancer mortality in the United States since 1975, as well as the global cancer burden and mortality rate. During a presentation for the 38th Annual Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium (CFS), Clifford A. Hudis, MD, explained the need for monetary investment in research initiatives.

Outcomes for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome range from a median of 5.3 years in the lower-risk population to 8.4 months among patient with very high-risk disease. These outcomes are changing as novel therapies for the lower-risk population enter the treatment landscape.

As compared with placebo, regorafenib induced favorable progression-free survival rates at 24 weeks versus placebo in patients with Ewing sarcoma in the phase 2 REGOBONE study. Despite this, the trial failed to meet its primary end point of non-progression at 8 weeks, according to findings presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology Virtual Congress 2020.

Adjuvant treatment with talimogene laherparepvec in patients with resectable advanced melanoma demonstrated better recurrence-free survival and overall survival compared with surgery alone, according to results of a study presented at a poster session at the 16th International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research.

All patients with advanced renal cell car­cinoma assigned to nivolumab plus ipilimumab in the phase III CheckMate 214 trial had a longer treatment-free survival than patients treated with sunitinib. Furthermore, those patients assigned to the combination spent less time experiencing treatment-related adverse events.

Nearly 12 years after discontinuing treatment, anastrozole, an aromatase inhibitor, maintained a preventive effect for postmenopausal women at high risk for breast cancer. Women assigned to anastrozole were 49% less likely to have developed breast cancer compared with women assigned to placebom according to data presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Japanese patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer had a significant improvement in invasive disease-free survival with the addition of the novel oral fluoropyrimidine derivative S-1, according to findings from the phase III POTENT trial presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Immotherapuetic agents have grown in popularity for treating mismatch repair&ndash;deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer, becoming the standard of care in the second line, <strong>Howard Hochster, MD</strong>, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference. Furthermore, ongoing clinical trials suggest that these agents may play a larger role in treating CRC going forward.

What is the ideal first-line<strong> </strong>therapy for nonresectable, non&ndash; transplant eligible, liver-only hepatocellular carcinoma? In a debate at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference, Mark Yarchoan, MD, had the unenviable task of convincing the audience that systemic therapy was the way to go.