Tumour budding demonstrates independent prognostic value for disease-free and overall survival in patients with stage III colon cancer

 Joint research conducted in Paris at the Department of Pathology, Sorbonne University, and the Department of Oncology, Georges Pompidou Hospital, indicates that the use of tumour budding as a prognostic biomarker in colon cancer could influence disease-free and overall survival for patients diagnosed at stage III.  Defined as "a single cancer cell of up to four cancer cells at the tumour invasive margin", tumour budding was applied to 1,048 stage III colon cancer patients in the joint Paris post-hoc study.  While the study authors acknowledge that further research is required, their findings do support the notion that "tumour budding seems to provide additional and clinically relevant prognostic information beside risk groups and Immunoscore." 

To learn more about this study, click here. 

Source mentioned: Basile D, Broudin C, Emile JF, et al. Tumor budding is an independent prognostic factor in stage III colon cancer patients: A post-hoc analysis of the IDEA-France phase III trial (PRODIGE-GERCOR). Annals of Oncology; Published online 16 March 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2022.03.002

COVID-19 & cancer: future of the pandemic [YouTube video presentation]

Dr. Otis Brawley, a renowned cancer control expert from Johns Hopkins University recently held a question and answer session discussing "the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic and what cancer survivors need to know going forward to best protect themselves."  Dr. Brawley's research is focused on cancer screening strategies and lifestyle reduction programs, including "striving to close racial, economic, and social disparities in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer in the United States and worldwide." 

To view the complete session, click here. 

Survivors of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer not at increased risk of testing positive for COVID-19, nor for serious sequelae when contracting infection

A recent study conducted in Ontario explored population-based registries to identify all 5-year survivors of childhood cancer between 0-17 years of age, as well as 6 common cancers afflicting young adults between 15-21 years old.  Findings indicated that "survivors were not at increased risk of receiving a positive COVID-19 test...and were more likely to be fully vaccinated."  Further, there was no increased risk to survivors in the emergency department or who needed to be admitted, and "no survivor experienced intensive care unit admission or died after COVID-19 infection. 

To read more about this study, click here. 

Source mentioned: Gupta S, Sutradhar R, Alexander S, et al. Risk of COVID-19 Infections and of Severe Complications Among Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer: A Population-Based Study in Ontario, Canada. JCO; Published online 28 February 2022. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.21.02592

Humoral response to the third dose of the MRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine in a large cohort of patients with cancer

 A recently published letter to the editor in Annals of Oncology, authored by Dr. Vincenzo Di Noia from the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome, Italy, "described the serological response to the third dose of the BNT162b2 mENA COVID-19 vaccine in a large cohort of patients with cancer."  407 patients received a third dose of BN1162b3 between September - November 2021.  366 (89.9%) of patients were on active anticancer treatment 28 days before BNT162b2 was administered.  Median age of patients was 67, with breast (28.5%) and lung (19.9%) identified as the most common cancer types.  402 (98.8%) of patients studied "had a positive serological status after the third vaccine dose." 

To read more about this study, click here. 

Study mentioned: Di Noia V, Pimpinelli F, Renna D, et al. Potentiation of humoral response to BNT162b2 vaccine after the third dose in patients with solid cancer. Annals of Oncology; Published online 21 February 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2022.02.006