Announcements

Now available:

• December 2019/January 2020 Member Newsletter More Here
• TMIST Q4 2019 Newsletter More Here

Now open: Nominations for the 2020 Young Investigator Award More Here

Don’t miss the Q4 2019 Advocacy Newsletter More Here

Accepting ComboMATCH concept sheets until further notice More Here

Latest News

Komal Jhaveri, MD, FACP (Memorial Sloan Kettering) is the primary author on the publication of NCI-MATCH Arm Q results, published in the Annals of Oncology. The antibody-drug conjugate ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) has promising activity in HER2 amplified salivary gland tumors. More Here

Vitaly Margulis, MD (U Texas Southwestern) and colleagues report on the phase two study EA8141. The results support the use of four cycles of chemotherapy consisting of methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (aMVAC) prior to surgery in patients with high-grade upper urinary tract cancer, a rare but treatable disease. The Journal of Urology

Bapsi Chakravarthy, MD (Vanderbilt) and colleagues report final results from study E5204. This phase three trial tested whether the addition of bevacizumab to mFOLFOX6, following neoadjuvant chemoradiation and definitive surgery, could improve overall survival in patients with stage II/III adenocarcinoma of the rectum. At 17% of its planned accrual, E5204 did not meet its primary endpoint. Published results inform the use of adjuvant therapy following neoadjuvant therapy. The Oncologist

The Journal of Clinical Oncology reports results for Arm Z1D of NCI-MATCH. “The confirmed overall response rate for nivolumab in tumors with DNA mismatch repair deficiencies was 36%–or 15 of 42 patients with cancers other than colon,” says Nilofer Azad, MD (Johns Hopkins) More Here

“Having insurance in and of itself was not enough to ensure access to a clinical trial or a good clinical outcome,” says Samilia Obeng-Gyasi, MD (The Ohio State University) on breast cancer patients with government insurance being at higher risk of death than privately insured More Here

E1912: Tait Shanafelt, MD (Stanford University) and colleagues report extended follow-up data for this practice-changing chronic lymphoctyic leukemia (CLL) trial at the 61st American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting  More Here

PrECOG and Oncolytics Biotech® announce their collaboration for the BRACELET-1 (PrE0113) study to evaluate pelareorep in patients with metastatic breast cancer More Here

San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium honors ECOG-ACRIN vice chair Joseph A. Sparano, MD with its prestigious William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award More Here

Results from E1305, a randomized phase III trial, are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology online ahead of print, on October 16, 2019. The addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy did not improve overall survival in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, but improved the response rate and progression-free survival with increased toxicities. These results encourage biomarker-driven studies of angiogenesis inhibitors with better toxicity profiles in select patients. More Here

TMIST

Visit the Press Center

TAILORx

TAILORx: New data are published September 30, 2019 in JAMA Oncology and orally presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress. This is the fourth peer-reviewed publication for TAILORx, which continues to define new standards in early breast cancer. More Here

• ASCO updates guidelines for early breast cancer based on TAILORx, MINDACT trials News Article
  
  
• TAILORx data guides adjuvant therapy in younger breast cancer patients Press Release
  
  
• The New England Journal of Medicine publishes analysis of a pre-specified secondary analysis that adds new information to the original TAILORx findings NEJM Article
  
  
• “The Precision of Evidence Needed to Practice “Precision Medicine” NEJM Accompanying Editorial
  
  
• Updated ASCO guidelines establish TAILORx-defined cutoffs for determining chemotherapy benefit with the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score^® test in node-negative breast cancer Press Release
  
  
• One Year Post-TAILORx: Attitudes Shift and Questions Linger in Breast Cancer Recurrence Testing GenomeWeb (requires free registration) 
  
  
• Using Genomic Profiling to Guide Treatment Decisions for ER-Positive Breast Cancers, by Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD CancerNetwork
  
  
• New TAILORx Data Provide Treatment Guidance for Women Under 50 With Early Breast Cancer The ASCO Post

NCI-MATCH

• Arm Q results published in Annals of Oncology show promising activity with T-DM1 in salivary gland cancer Press Release
  
  
• Arm Z1D results published in the Journal of Oncology report confirmed overall response rate of 36% for nivolumab in tumors with DNA mismatch repair deficiencies Press Release
  
  
• Arm H finds the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib effective in a heavily pre-treated cohort of 17 distinct tumor types–several rare–with BRAF mutations Press Release

E1912

The results of leukemia trial E1912 are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Tait Shanafelt, MD (Stanford University) and colleagues report that treatment with the combination of ibrutinib and rituximab is superior to standard treatment for patients 70 years of age or younger, with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) More Here 

ACRIN 6685

The Journal of Clinical Oncology has published the results of the ACRIN 6685 trial. Val J. Lowe, MD (Mayo Clinic) and colleagues report that surgical planning for head and neck cancer benefits from FDG-PET/CT, especially in patients who are clinically node-negative  More Here

E2810

• Final results show no benefit from pazopanib in advanced kidney cancer after surgery to remove metastases Press Release
  
  
• ASCO 2019: Randomized, Double-Blind Phase III Study of Pazopanib versus Placebo in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma who have no Evidence of Disease Following Metastasectomy – Medical Oncologist Perspective UroToday
  

• No benefit from pazopanib in advanced kidney cancer after surgery to remove metastases Medical Xpress

E3A06

• Final results demonstrate that lenalidomide reduces the risk that precancer myeloma will progress to overt multiple myeloma in high-risk individuals Press Release

E1609

• Low-Dose Ipilimumab Demonstrates Overall Survival Advantage Over High-Dose Interferon-alpha2b in Resected High-Risk Melanoma ASCO Daily News

Group Meeting Highlight

YouTube Highlights

View the following video highlights on our YouTube channel:

• Dr. Edith P. Mitchell of Jefferson University, co-chair of the EA Health Equity Committee, shares her efforts to bring TMIST to minority and underserved communities
  
  
• Study chair Dr. Etta D. Pisano of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center provides an update on the TMIST breast cancer screening trial as of October 2019
  
  
• EA8143/PROSPER RCC Clinical Trial for Renal Cell Carcinoma
  
  
• Tribute to Roisin M. Connolly, MD, 2019 Young Investigator of the Year
  
  
• Tribute to Mehrdad Hefazi Torghabeh, MD, 2019 Paul Carbone, MD Fellowship Award Recipient
  
  
• Reflections on the NCI-MATCH / EAY131 trial   

Acknowledgments

Welcome

Welcome to the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group website, the source of information about the cooperative group that was formed by the merger of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN). We are excited to share news of our collaborative effort to design and conduct ground-breaking translational and clinical research.

The merger brought together the strengths and capabilities of two highly respected organizations. Since 1955, ECOG has performed practice-changing multicenter cancer clinical trials, working with more than 6000 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, statisticians, clinical research associates, and cancer research advocates from the United States and around the world. ACRIN, the premier imaging science program in the nation, complements ECOG’s research efforts with its expertise in early detection, imaging diagnosis, comparative-effectiveness research, and cost-effectiveness analysis. Now, as a single entity, we aim to achieve earlier cancer detection, more successful therapeutic intervention, higher rates of prevention, and better patient outcomes.

We look forward to sharing our research and partnering with you, as we reshape the future of patient care.

 

Robert L. Comis, MD
Group Co-Chair

Mitchell D. Schnall, MD, PhD
Group Co-Chair