American Association for Cancer Research, April 14-19

The annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research was held this year from April 14 to 19 in Orlando, Florida, and attracted approximately 19,000 participants from around the world, including scientists, cancer survivors, clinicians, allied health professionals, and industry professionals. The conference highlighted recent advances in the treatment, management, and prevention of cancer.

In one study, Ben Park, M.D., Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues found that a novel liquid biopsy-based multicancer early detection (MCED) test can distinguish patients who have a given type of cancer from healthy individuals.

The authors performed a retrospective case-control analysis to determine the ability of the novel MCED test to detect 12 cancer types among approximately 4,000 individuals with newly diagnosed, treatment-naive cancer and age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Using the new technology for isolating methylated DNA, the researchers were able to pull out enough methylated circulating tumor DNA and analyze it across multiple different cancer types and multiple different stages.

"We have not yet tested patients at high risk or healthy patients as a screening tool, which is the ultimate goal. Our first step was to prove the test can distinguish between noncancer versus cancer patients and to that end, the test was very successful, even in patients with early-stage cancers," Park said. "We have to first prove this will be accurate as a screening tool. Then the trickiest part is to prove even if we can detect cancers very early, does it actually lead to improved outcomes?"

The study was funded by Adela. Park disclosed financial ties to the diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries.

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In another study, Eric Adjei Boakye, Ph.D., of Henry Ford Health in Detroit, and colleagues found that awareness within the United States regarding the association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and anal, oral, and penile cancers remains very low, despite availability of the HPV vaccine since 2006.

The authors evaluated data from five time points between 2014 and 2020 from the Health Information National Trends Survey. The researchers found that only one in three American adults is aware of the causal link between HPV and these cancers. In addition, there has not been a change in the awareness level for any of the cancers during the last decade. In fact, for cervical cancer, awareness has decreased.

"The United States failed to achieve the Healthy People 2020 target of 80 percent HPV vaccination coverage. Given the associations between HPV-associated cancer awareness and HPV vaccination uptake, it is important we increase the population's awareness of this link as it may help increase vaccine uptake. Otherwise, we risk meeting the Healthy People 2030 target of 80 percent," Boakye said. "While cervical cancer incidence is decreasing, anal and oropharyngeal cancer incidences are increasing, and yet awareness for those cancers is very low, which calls for interventions to increase the awareness level. The HPV vaccine could prevent over 90 percent of HPV-associated cancers; therefore, we should improve vaccine uptake to decrease preventable cases and death from these cancers."

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In the KEYNOTE-966 phase III clinical trial, Robin Kelley, M.D., of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues found that combining pembrolizumab immunotherapy with standard gemcitabine plus cisplatin chemotherapy as first-line treatment for patients with advanced stages of biliary tract cancers improves overall survival.

The authors randomly assigned 1,069 patients to receive either pembrolizumab (533 patients) or placebo (536 patients) in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin. The researchers found that immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy improved outcomes as first-line therapy for patients with advanced biliary tract cancers without contraindications to immunotherapy. The treatment was associated with longer duration of response and similar rates of adverse events compared with the same chemotherapy regimen without pembrolizumab.

"The KEYNOTE-966 study, along with a contemporary trial, TOPAZ-1, validates the survival benefit of adding a checkpoint inhibitor to chemotherapy as initial management of patients with advanced-stage biliary tract cancers," Kelley said. "In addition, the design of KEYNOTE-966 permitted continuation of gemcitabine until progression, unacceptable toxicity, or treating-investigator discretion, without a maximum number of cycles; this is in contrast to the design of TOPAZ-1, in which gemcitabine and cisplatin were both discontinued after six months in all patients. The allowance of continuation of gemcitabine in KEYNOTE-966 accommodates individualized patient treatment decisions about the duration of chemotherapy."

The study was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme, the manufacturer of pembrolizumab.

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MONDAY, May 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer, neoadjuvant and adjuvant durvalumab offers benefits in terms of pathologic complete response and event-free survival, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held from April 14 to 19 in Orlando, Florida.

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AACR: Awareness That HPV Causes Cancer Is Ebbing Among Americans

MONDAY, April 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Public awareness that human papillomavirus can cause a range of cancers is slipping in the United States, according to the results of a survey presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held from April 14 to 19 in Orlando, Florida.

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