The ASCO Post

On July 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) or pembrolizumab and berahyaluronidase alfa-pmph (Keytruda Qlex), each in combination with the NECTIN4-directed antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin-ejfv (Padcev), as neoadjuvant treatment followed by adjuvant treatment after cystectomy for adults with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC).

On July 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody isatuximab-irfc (Sarclisa Escena) for subcutaneous injection for multiple myeloma indications.

As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Francolini et al, an unplanned long-term analysis of overall survival in the Italian phase II ARTO trial showed a survival benefit with the addition of metastasis-directed therapy with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) to abiraterone acetate and androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) in patients with oligometastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

In the long-term follow-up of a Japanese phase II/III trial (JCOG1008) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tahara et al found maintained noninferiority of chemoradiotherapy with weekly vs every-3-week cisplatin for overall survival in patients with postoperative high-risk locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

In a Chinese phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Li et al found that the first-line combination of disitamab vedotin, tislelizumab, and S-1 was associated with high activity in patients with HER2-overexpressing advance gastric/gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma.

A noninvasive oral brush biopsy test adapted from a molecular assay was able to quickly distinguish oral squamous cell carcinoma from other oral disorders with high accuracy, according to results from a large diagnostic case-control study published in Biomarker Research.

Targeting BCL2 family proteins may counteract acquired resistance to BRAF and MEK inhibition in patients with BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma, according to findings from a preclinical study published in Nature Communications.

Between 2015 and 2022, men were more likely than women to be diagnosed with regional and/or distant stages of 20 nonreproductive solid cancer types in the United States, according to a study published by Maclin et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The study’s findings may provide insight into the discrepancies between men and women for cancer outcomes, the researchers noted. “We know that, overall, males are more likely than females to die from many types of cancer.

The addition of radiotherapy to the S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) chemotherapy regimen did not improve disease-free or overall survival in patients with pathologic T4 and/or node-positive gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent D2 gastrectomy (ie, R0 resection with D2 lymphadenectomy), based on a phase III trial published by Wang et al in JAMA Network Open.

In a European trial (BrIMA) reported in JAMA Surgery, Göker et al found that specimen PET/CT imaging was associated with improved detection of positive margins in surgery for early breast cancer. Study Details The study recruited patients from six European breast centers between June 2022 and March 2025. Patients received an intravenous injection of F-18–fluorodeoxyglucose at a low dose of 0.8 MBq/kg.