CHICAGO – An analysis of data from the National Cancer Database found that after implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), ovarian cancer was diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage among women under age 65. More women also received treatment within 30 days of diagnosis, thereby increasing chances of survival.

The study will be featured in a press briefing today and presented at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

The randomized, phase III POLO trial found that maintenance therapy with the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza) significantly delayed the progression of metastatic pancreatic cancer in patients with BRCA gene mutations compared with placebo (median progression-free survival: 7.4 months vs. 3.8 months, respectively).

The KEYNOTE-062 phase III randomized clinical trial achieved its primary endpoint, showing that for patients with PD-L1-positive, HER2-negative, advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) cancer, initial therapy with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) resulted in comparable (non-inferior) overall survival as standard chemotherapy.

Chicago — In an effort to advance cancer data sharing and improve the quality and coordination of patient care, three of the nation’s leading health and technology organizations have established a core set of data elements and recommended technical specifications (the Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements, or “mCODE”) that are essential for capturing and reporting the characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of every cancer patient and should be contained in each patient’s electronic health record (EHR). The mCODE™ initiative, a collaboration between the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®), its wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary CancerLinQ LLC, the MITRE Corporation, and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation (Alliance Foundation), released the initial set of common cancer data standards and specifications today at ASCO’s 2019 Annual Meeting in Chicago and published them online at mCODEinitiative.org.

Positive findings from fully enrolled cohorts in non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic breast cancer from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc.’s (ASCO) Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR™) Study will be presented in poster sessions at the 2019 ASCO® Annual Meeting.

In a phase I/IB study of 29 patients, age 4.9 months to 20 years, with rare central nervous system tumors, neuroblastoma, or other solid tumors, responses to entrectinib, a novel targeted treatment, were seen in 12 of the 28 evaluable patients. The 12 pediatric patients who experienced a response to therapy had fusions in NTRK1/2/3, ROS1, or ALK genes (11 patients) or an ALK mutation (1 patient). The study will be presented at the upcoming 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The federally funded Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trial of dietary modification in nearly 49,000 postmenopausal women with no previous history of breast cancer reported that women who followed a balanced diet that was low in fat and included daily servings of fruits, vegetables, and grains had a 21% lower risk of death from breast cancer than women in the control group who continued their normal diet, which was higher in fat overall.