Ablation did not improve survival in oligometastatic breast cancer
The 2 cancer-care developments that matter from the last 36 hours, strongest evidence first.
- Ablation did not improve survival in oligometastatic breast cancer
- Financial incentives increased smoking abstinence among people referred for lung cancer screening
Ablation did not improve survival in oligometastatic breast cancer
In a trial of 125 people with oligometastatic breast cancer, adding ablation to first-line drug treatment did not significantly improve time before the cancer grew: 23.0 months without ablation versus 19.5 months with it.
“Although ablation was generally well tolerated, the investigators concluded that the approach should not be routinely used outside clinical trials, except for palliation.”
What this means. A large, final-stage trial in breast cancer. This is the kind of result regulators use when deciding whether to approve a treatment.
The ASCO Post, 22 Oct 2026 · Phase III human clinical trial | 129 patientsFinancial incentives increased smoking abstinence among people referred for lung cancer screening
In a trial of 3,220 underserved adults who smoked and were referred for lung cancer screening, 8.8% stayed smoke-free for six months with financial incentives, compared with 4.3% with usual care alone.
“Among medically underserved adults who smoked and were referred for lung cancer screening, the addition of financial incentives to usual care and free pharmacotherapy significantly increased rates of sustained tobacco abstinence compared with usual care alone or usual care plus free pharmacotherapy, according to findings from a pragmatic trial published by Hart et al in JAMA . “These findings could be rapidly scaled into practice,” the investigators wrote, as the interventions “avoided individualized, labor-intensive outreach and counseling that would be challenging for [lung cancer screening] programs to scale.” The analysis included a total of 3,259 patients who currently smoked, were referred for lung cancer screening at five centers across four U.S. health systems, and identified as Black or Hispanic, lived in rural areas, or had low socioeconomic status.”
What this means. A trial in lung cancer that split people into groups at random, the fairest kind of test.
The ASCO Post, 22 Oct 2026 · Randomized human trial | 3,259 patientsDeals and stopped trials
- A Study to Assess the Adverse Events and How Intravenously Infused Livmoniplimab in Combination With Budigalimab Moves Through the Bodies of Adult Chinese Participants With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Hepatocellular CarcinomaTerminated · Phase I · AbbVie · Reason given: Strategic considerations
New trials
- Clinical Trial to Assess the Safety, Tolerability, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity of a 10 Valent Human Papillomavirus Virus (10vHPV) VaccineCancer vaccines · Phase I/II · 72 people · Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. · Australia
- Using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tool for Melanoma DiagnosisAI and cancer · Phase III · 14,000 people · Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center · United States
- A Study of [225Ac]Ac-AKY-2519 in Patients With B7-H3 Expressing Solid TumorsRadiopharmaceuticals · Phase I · 152 people · Aktis Oncology, Inc. · United States
Worth watching
- Cancer theranosticsResearch finding, Nature Reviews Cancer, 22 Oct 2026
- Research priorities to move circulating tumour DNA assays into clinical decision making in early-stage breast cancerResearch finding, Nature Portfolio, 22 Oct 2026