Oncology & Hematology

This nonrandomized clinical trial examines the efficacy and safety of adding an immune checkpoint inhibitor to chemotherapy for advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma.

This Viewpoint discusses how various artificial intelligence–powered tools could be used to augment cancer care, specifically clinical decision support tools.

In the Original Investigation titled “Proton Craniospinal Irradiation for Patients With Leptomeningeal Metastasis: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” published online September 4, 2025, and in the November 2025 issue, there was an error in Figure 2. The orange label in the legend was written to indicate “Photon IFRT” but should instead indicate “pCSI,” and the blue label was written to indicate “pCSI” but should instead indicate “Photon IFRT.” This article was corrected online.

To the Editor We read with interest the phase 2 trial by Peng et al, which reported a notable increase in pathologic complete response (pCR) from 14.3% to 38.1% with the addition of atezolizumab to trastuzumab with capecitabine and oxaliplatin (XELOX) in ERBB2-positive, resectable gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers. Although this result is encouraging, we respectfully raise 2 critical concerns that limit the interpretation and generalizability of the findings.

This randomized clinical trial examines proton craniospinal irradiation compared with involved-field radiotherapy in improving superior central nervous system progression-free survival for patients with leptomeningeal metastasis.

This Viewpoint discusses improving clinical decisions through primary trial data review.

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the association between baseline patient-reported outcomes and overall survival in patients with cancer.

This randomized clinical trial examines whether a 400-mg ribociclib starting dose can reduce the incidence of adverse events while maintaining efficacy in advanced breast cancer.

This exploratory 4-year analysis of the NATALEE randomized clinical trial evaluates efficacy and safety of adjuvant ribociclib beyond the planned 3-year treatment period.

In Reply We appreciate the interest of Huang and Lu and Li et al in our recent article on artificial intelligence (AI) for patient-centered research to prioritize patient perspectives. We are delighted to have the opportunity to respond to their addressed concerns.

This secondary analysis of the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) randomized clinical trial explores whether individual characteristics are associated with estimated treatment effects of low-dose aspirin on 5-year cancer incidence in healthy older adults.

To the Editor We commend Kim et al on their innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing to extract patient concerns from clinical communications, potentially reshaping patient-centered oncology research priorities. Nonetheless, several methodological and design aspects merit further consideration.

To the Editor We applaud Kim et al for their innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI)/natural language processing to identify patient-centered research topics in oncology, a critical step toward bridging research and clinical care. However, several statistical and methodological limitations in the study’s evaluation framework merit careful consideration, particularly regarding the interpretation of expert assessment scores and the generalizability of findings.

Hormone therapy (HT) remains the foundation of treatment for hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, both in the early-stage and metastatic settings. These therapies reliably reduce recurrence risk and improve survival in curative contexts while prolonging disease control in metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Clinicopathologic studies and basic science investigations have identified several pathways and specific gene mutations associated with de novo or acquired resistance to HT. As therapies targeting those pathways entered the clinic, combining them with HT was a natural extension.

This cohort study tests whether the oral bacterial and fungal microbiome is associated with the subsequent development of pancreatic cancer.

This JAMA Oncology Patient Page describes causes, types, and symptoms of lung cancer in people younger than 50 years and how it can be treated.

This cohort study evaluates the clinical utility of repeating a prostate-specific antigen test after an elevated measurement by identifying predictors of a subsequent measurement below a given threshold.

A look of disappointment, then anger, then resignation, when I told her that candles were a fire hazard in a hospital room. She asked me, voice battling through the stream of oxygen blasting on her face, and between wheezes so loud I could almost hear them from across the room, “What else will you take from me?” — I look at the remains of the candles resting on my desk, a gift from a friend, with a scent that reminds me of a faraway home. It’s just a shell now, a glass jar with a thin wax wafer at the bottom and soot stains coating the rim and the charred remnants of a wick. I try to light it again, just as I had done every day since it last died out. The wick morphs into a red ember for just one heartbeat but refuses to ignite, a futile result of a futile effort, turning black as coal just as hastily. I pick up the candle and stick my nose as deeply into the jar as the breath I take. Eyes closed, I can still see the fire, and I can still smell the rain.

Huang et al herein present a systematic review and meta-analysis addressing an important question of whether patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide prognostic information for patients with cancer. Their systematic review identified 69 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) including 44 030 patients. A subset of 31 RCTs were included in a meta-analysis to further evaluate the independent association between PROs and overall survival (OS). They found that global health status, physical functioning, and role functioning were independently associated with improved OS and that worsening symptoms (ie, nausea, vomiting, pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, dyspnea) were also associated with worse OS.

This review discusses the treatment landscape for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who may benefit from epidermal growth factor receptor–targeted therapies.

Leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) is among the most formidable and devastating challenges in oncology and has long eluded effective treatments. With a historically dismal prognosis, the incidence of LM appears to be increasing due, in part, to an improved lifespan for patients with metastatic cancer and increasingly sophisticated techniques for detecting metastatic spread. An estimated 5% to 10% of patients with metastatic carcinoma will develop LM, particularly from breast, lung, melanoma, or gastrointestinal cancers, as well as those with specific driver variants.

To the Editor We carefully read the study published by Ricciuti and co-authors. This study is the first to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of combining neoadjuvant programmed cell death 1 protein (PD-1) or programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors with chemotherapy for patients with locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (T4 and/or N2-N3) via a multicenter retrospective analysis. The results showed that this treatment regimen significantly increased both the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate and the surgical resection rate, as well as prolonging event-free survival. This provides new hope for this traditionally treatment-refractory patient population. The study also investigated the predictive value of PD-L1 expression, tumor mutation burden, and specific genetic variants (eg, KRAS/STK11 and KRAS/KEAP1) in predicting treatment response, providing a valuable foundation for developing personalized treatment strategies.

In Reply We carefully read the letter from Tian et al. We appreciate the interest in our study and would like to take this opportunity to further clarify key aspects of its design and rationale.

To the Editor Ricciuti et al are to be commended for addressing a high-risk and understudied population. However, several methodological aspects merit critical discussion.

This Review discusses current controversies and challenges in non–oncogene-addicted synchronous oligometastatic non–small cell lung cancer.

In Reply We thank Di et al and Bertolaccini et al for their interest on our recent article, which demonstrated that neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy may be a feasible strategy for patients with T4 and/or N2-3 stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Our study focused on a distinct subset of patients—those who would conventionally be directed to definitive chemoradiation—who were instead evaluated for potential surgical resection after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. This design accounts for the relatively small number of surgical cases per institution and reflects the selective nature of our study. A complete display of patients who received neoadjuvant programmed cell death 1 protein (PD-1) or programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor therapy is presented in eFigure 1 in Supplement 1.

This population-based cohort study examines longitudinal adverse financial outcomes for patients diagnosed with cancer over a 10-year period in Massachusetts.

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