A novel study led by medical oncologists Deepak Vadehra, DO, and Sarbajit Mukherjee, MD, MS, to be presented in a podium presentation at the ASCO 2023 Annual Meeting is shedding light on factors that may affect treatment response in younger people with CRC. The information could guide the development of new treatments for younger patients, who typically have poorer outcomes.

An observational cohort study out of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center demonstrates that race and ethnicity affect a woman’s 21-gene recurrence score, a tool used to determine risk of recurrence and distant metastasis in patients with early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Based on the expression of 21 cancer-related genes detected in pre-treatment tumor specimens, recurrence score is used routinely in clinical care to identify patients who might benefit from chemotherapy as part of their treatment plan. Scores range from 0-100, with a score of 26 or higher indicating greater risk of recurrence and poorer overall survival.

Research has shown that the immune system doesn’t function properly in patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that occurs when plasma cells — a type of white blood cell — multiply out of control. But a clinical trial led by Jens Hillengass, MD, PhD, Chief of Myeloma at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, shows that exercise may have the power to strengthen the immune system in those patients, providing a nonpharmaceutical method of helping control the disease.