American Society of Clinical Oncology, May 31-June 3

The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology was held from May 31 to June 3 in Chicago and hosted more than 35,000 participants, including clinicians, academicians, allied health professionals, and others interested in oncology. The conference featured the latest advances in clinical cancer research, including oral abstract presentations and poster presentations in disease-based and specialty tracks. Presentations focused on novel targeted therapies as well as improvements in chemotherapy and radiation therapy approaches.

As part of the international CHALLENGE clinical trial, Christopher Booth, M.D., of Queen”s University and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues found that a three-year structured exercise program improves quality of life, reduces cancer recurrence, and increases survival following surgery and chemotherapy among patients with stage III and high-risk stage II colorectal cancer.

The authors randomly assigned 889 patients from Canada and Australia (median age, 61 years old) to a structured exercise program or to receive health education materials promoting physical activity and healthy nutrition.

The researchers found that patients undergoing the structured exercise program improved their physical function and maintained it significantly more than the patients who received the educational materials, even though those patients did see some improvement in physical function. Patients who underwent the structured exercise program demonstrated significant improvements in quality of life, reduced cancer recurrence, and increased survival compared with those who received the educational materials. However, patients who underwent the structured exercise program experienced more musculoskeletal injuries compared with those who received the health education materials.

“This should now be considered a standard of care and health systems should ensure that patients have access to a funded exercise program after they complete chemotherapy,” Booth said. “We cannot simply tell patients to exercise — we need to provide them with the behavior support program and personal trainer that will allow them to make this important change in lifestyle.”

Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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In another study, David R. Spigel, M.D., of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues demonstrated that a gene expression test can accurately assess who will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy among patients with early-stage (IA to IIA), resected, nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).