February 25, 2015 (View All Issues)
Ramucirumab Added to FOLFIRI Yields Results Similar to Bevacizumab or Aflibercept in Second‑Line Colorectal Cancer
The phase III international RAISE trial found that ramucirumab (Cyramza) extends survival when given with chemotherapy to metastatic colorectal cancer patients who progress on treatment,1 but some experts commented that “financial toxicity” might be an issue, given the modest benefit.
“The RAISE...
Translational Research: Under Assault From the Bottom Line
One of the disheartening aspects of becoming a senior medical administrator is that you have the opportunity to view the health-care system from two sides.
From the Presidential suite, it is clear that there is increasing chaos in health care in the United States, characterized by blowouts of...
ABIM President Richard J. Baron, MD, Announces Immediate Changes to Maintenance of Certification Program
The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) announced substantial changes to its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program and indicated a desire to work more closely with the internal medicine community. ABIM President and CEO Richard J. Baron, MD, MACP, reached out to diplomates via e-mail to ...
Surgery Plus Immunotherapy Improves Survival in Melanoma Patients With Gastrointestinal Metastases
When melanoma patients develop metastases to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or pancreas, resection of these lesions may improve survival, according to two single-institution studies presented at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. In a study that earned a Merit Award, researchers reported ...
Pancreatic Cancer: Latest Drug Development Hits and Misses
Targeting one of the deadliest cancers and seeking to fill an unmet need, drug development in pancreatic cancer is an area of high interest. This was certainly the case at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, where results were impressive for some novel agents but disappointing for several...
FOLFIRINOX Plus Radiation Renders Some Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Patients Resectable
Investigators from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, have reported an approach to pancreatic cancer that downstages some locally advanced patients to borderline resectable status and achieves a negative surgical margin rate exceeding 96%. The study earned a Merit Award at the 2015...
Radiotherapy Alone as Effective as Chemoradiation Therapy in Palliation of Dysphagia in Patients With Advanced Esophageal Cancer
Palliation of dysphagia associated with advanced esophageal cancer can be effectively accomplished with radiotherapy alone, without the addition of chemotherapy, according to a multinational phase III study presented at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1
“There was no significant...
First Randomized Trial to Show Benefit of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor in Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Sorafenib (Nexavar) added to chemotherapy improved event-free survival and relapse-free survival in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia, according to results of the randomized, controlled phase II SORAML trial.1 However, no significant improvement in overall survival has been seen to date.
...
High Hopes for AG-221 in Advanced Leukemia
Although the data are preliminary, single-agent AG-221 therapy targeted to the IDH2 (isocitrate dehydrogenase 2) mutation holds great promise as a nonchemotherapy approach to the treatment of advanced hematologic malignancies, including relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and...
Radiotherapy in Good-Prognosis DLBCL
Limited-stage nonbulky diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) carries an excellent prognosis, and radiotherapy provides no value in patients who obtain a complete response, according to the phase III 02-03 trial from the Lysa/Goelams group, presented at the 56th American Society of Hematology (ASH)...
Oral Proteasome Inhibitors Advancing in Multiple Myeloma Trials
Two orally administered proteasome inhibitors—oprozomib and ixazomib—looked encouraging in multiple myeloma studies presented at the 2014 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition.
Study Details for Oprozomib
Oprozomib, given as a single agent in a dose-escalation study of heavily pretreated patients,...
Tailoring Therapy for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma by Interim PET May Be Problematic
In a study that reflected clinical practice, treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma based on the results of interim positron-emission tomography (PET) was feasible; however, switching PET-positive patients to an alternative treatment still resulted in inferior treatment outcomes, and the...
International Society of Geriatric Oncology: At the Forefront of Physician Education and Research Dissemination in Geriatric Oncology
The ASCO Post announces a new department on geriatric oncology to be published on an occasional basis. Geriatrics for the Oncologist is guest edited by Stuart Lichtman, MD, and developed in collaboration with the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Visit SIOG.org for more on...
CMS Issues Final Decision to Cover Lung CT Screening
Earlier this month the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final national coverage determination that provides for Medicare coverage of screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT).
Effective immediately, Medicare will now cover lung cancer screening...
TNT Trial Supports Platinums in BRCA-Mutated Breast Cancer
The TNT trial, presented at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, provided no evidence that unselected advanced triple-negative breast cancer patients are more likely to respond to carboplatin than to docetaxel.1 However, patients with BRCA1/2 mutations do have a greater response and a...
Shedding Light on the Mystery of Male Breast Cancer
Male breast cancer represents less than 1% of all breast cancers, which partially explains why so little is known about the disease. Two presentations at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium focused on the characteristics of male breast cancer drawn from a large international registry and...
ASCO Endorses ESMO Guideline on Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Syndromes
Approximately 5% to 6% of cases of colorectal cancer are associated with germline mutations conferring an inherited predisposition for disease. As reported by Stoffel and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 ASCO has endorsed, with qualifying statements, the European Society for Medical ...
ASCO Endorsement of ESMO Guidelines on Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Syndromes
In a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 and as reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, an ASCO expert endorsement panel reviewed and endorsed, with minor qualifications, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) clinical practice guidelines for management of familial/genetic ...
How Changes to ACGME’s Accreditation Standards Are Affecting Fellowship Training
Two years ago, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the nonprofit organization that evaluates and accredits more than 9,000 medical residency programs in the United States, began phasing in implementation of its Next Accreditation System for graduate medical education,...
Molecular Oncology Tumor Boards Invite Discussion of Growing Field in Cancer Care
Oncologists and other related health-care providers now have an online platform for the discussion of the growing area of tumor molecular profiling tests and studies. In January, ASCO launched the Molecular Oncology Tumor Boards, a series of monthly user-driven discussions designed to help...
Conquer Cancer Foundation Researchers Lead Six Key Studies Featured in Clinical Cancer Advances 2015
Six of the studies featured in the recently released Clinical Cancer Advances 2015: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer were led by researchers that whom Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) funded early in their careers through its signature Young Investigator Award (YIA) and Career...
ASCO, AACR Call for Regulation of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems
ASCO and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released a joint statement in January to guide policymakers as they work to minimize the potential negative consequences of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other electronic nicotine delivery systems.
Tobacco use, according to...
Funding Promising Women Researchers: Women Who Conquer Cancer
Tomorrow’s cancer breakthroughs depend on making sure that talented young researchers have the chance to succeed today.
Providing early funding for women in clinical oncology research is the singular goal of Women Who Conquer Cancer, a meaningful program of the ASCO-affiliated Conquer Cancer...
Health-Care Issues Front and Center on Capitol Hill, in Statehouses This Year
As of January 6, Republicans hold the majority in both houses of the 114th Congress. They hold 54 seats in the U.S. Senate and 245 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the state level, Republicans now hold an increased majority of governorships and legislatures that will consider...
Show Your Patients the Latest Research on Genitourinary Cancers
The 2015 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium takes place February 26 to 28 in Orlando, Florida. Direct your patients to www.cancer.net/blog to read about the latest research on prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular, and other genitourinary cancers being presented at the meeting. ■
© 2015. American...
IOM Report Recommends Guidelines for Sharing Clinical Trial Data
A new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) provides recommended guidelines about what data should be shared at key times in a clinical trial. In its report, Sharing Clinical Trial Data: Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Risk, an IOM committee concludes that sharing data is in the public...
Two Case Reports on the Evaluation of Myeloid Neoplasm
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce “Hematology Expert Review,” a new feature including a case report detailing a particular hematologic condition followed by questions. Answers to each question appear with expert commentary. In this first installment, we present two cases of older men with...
Pharmacokinetics and Exposure Response in Drug Development
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column offering insight into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its policies and procedures. In this installment, former clinical pharmacology team leader Julie Bullock, PharmD, and current team leader Nitin Mehrotra, PhD, discuss how...
Ibrutinib for Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs.
On January 29, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
No Benefit of Adding Iniparib to Gemcitabine/Carboplatin in Metastatic Triple‑Negative Breast Cancer
In a phase III trial reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, of Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, Dallas, and colleagues found that the addition of iniparib to gemcitabine and carboplatin did not improve overall survival or progression-free survival in patients...
Iniparib: The Fairy Tale Dream Comes to an End
The first poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor was developed in the early 1990s. Since then, the activity of PARP inhibitors has been explored in a variety of settings, including and perhaps most enthusiastically in the treatment of cancer. The greater dependence of several cancers on PARP,...
Blinatumomab in Philadelphia Chromosome–Negative Relapsed/Refractory B-Cell Precursor ALL
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs.
On December 3, 2014, blinatumomab (Blincyto) was granted...
Capsaicin
Scientific name: 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide
Brand names: Zostrix cream 0.025% or 0.075%, Salonpas Gel-Patch Hot, Sinus Buster (homeopathic intranasal spray).
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years despite insufficient...
ASTRO Announces Additions to Management Team
The American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) Board of Directors has announced three additions to the Society’s management team: Emily Wilson has been named Executive Vice President; Dave Adler has been promoted to Vice President of Advocacy; and Anne Hubbard has been promoted to Director...
At Long Last: CMS Will Cover Lung Cancer Screening
Few issues in health-care debates are more contentious and polarizing than population screening for the early detection of cancer. After a decades-long battle, lung cancer screening advocates have just received what they have long sought: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has...
Skull Sarcoma Removed Under Local Anesthesia, East Prussia, Circa 1921
The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The photos below are from the volume titled “The Radium Era: 1916–1945.” To view additional photos from this series...
Twenty Years After a Diagnosis … and Counting
In 1995, I was diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer and given little chance to live. The dire diagnosis came years after being assured by several physicians that the problem I was having with rectal bleeding and anemia was nothing more than the result of an internal hemorrhoid. Busy raising...
2015 Oncology Meetings
FEBRUARY
Genitourinary Cancers Symposium
February 26-28 • Orlando, Florida
For more information:
www.gucasym.org
5th Annual Texas Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Conference
February 27-28 • Houston, Texas
For more information:
Susan M. O’Brien Joins UC Irvine/Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Susan M. O’Brien, MD has joined UC Irvine Health as Associate Director for Clinical Science for the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Medical Director of the Sue and Ralph Stern Center for Cancer Clinical Trials and Research. A renowned researcher and clinician, Dr. O’Brien’s leadership...
NCI-Funded Program on Screening for Psychosocial Distress Accepting Applications
Funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Screening for Psychosocial Distress Program is a joint project of Yale University School of Nursing and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS). The Screening for Psychosocial Distress Program trains cancer care providers on...
Roswell Park Cancer Institute Announces Candace S. Johnson, PhD, as 15th President and Chief Executive Officer
The Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Board of Directors has named Candace S. Johnson, PhD, as the Institute’s 15th President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Johnson will be the first female leader for this 117-year-old comprehensive cancer center.
“Over the past few months, we have met ...
First-Line Crizotinib Superior to Pemetrexed‑Plus‑Platinum Chemotherapy in Patients With ALK‑Positive NSCLC
Crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment “was superior to pemetrexed-plus-platinum chemotherapy with respect to progression-free survival, objective response rate, reduction in lung-cancer symptoms, and improvement in quality of life” in patients with previously untreated advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase...
Primary Surgical Therapy Results in Higher 5-Year Survival for Patients With Advanced-Stage Disease
Bucking national trends toward preserving the larynx in patients with advanced laryngeal cancer, treatment of patients for stage IV disease at Louisiana State University (LSU) Health-Shreveport were more likely to involve primary surgical therapy, including total laryngectomy, and more likely to...
Thomas J. Smith, MD, Honored by the American Cancer Society
Thomas J. Smith, MD, has been selected by the American Cancer Society to be the recipient of the 2015 Trish Greene Quality of Life Award. This award honors the life and work of the late Patricia (Trish) Greene, RN, PhD.
As progress in the detection and treatment of cancer prolonged lives and...
Physician-Scientist Guido Marcucci, MD, Joins City of Hope
Renowned physician and researcher Guido Marcucci, MD, has joined City of Hope in a key leadership role within the institution’s new Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute. As Director of the Gehr Family Center for Leukemia Research and as Chief of the Division of...
Atypical Hyperplasia as a Predictor of Future Breast Cancer: Focus on Chemoprevention and Screening
Atypical hyperplasia of the breast has “special importance as a predictor of future breast cancer,” according to a special report in The New England Journal of Medicine.1 That special importance is based on the high incidence of atypical hyperplasia—found in around 10% of the 1 million breast...
ASCO to Launch Journal of Global Oncology, Names Founding Editor-in-Chief
ASCO has announced the appointment of David Kerr, MD, DSc, as founding Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s new Journal of Global Oncology (JGO). Dr. Kerr will set the editorial scope and vision for JGO, an online-only, open-access journal, which will focus on cancer care, research, and care-delivery...
More on Ramucirumab in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
I am writing in regard to the report and commentary in this issue on the RAISE Trial. To begin, a discussion of this phase III clinical trial presented at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (RAISE study) may not be the most appropriate forum to air legitimate views on finances and...
More on Beating the Odds
Thank you very much for including Mr. Richard Heimler’s very rewarding story in The ASCO Post (“Beating the Odds,” December 1, 2014, page 118). It was a short, well-written example of excellent oncology management in the face of episodes of “terminal” lung cancer. His story was the perfect...
Glioblastoma Clinical Trials
I am writing in regard to the recent installment to “Clinical Trials” on Glioblastoma published in The ASCO Post (February 10, 2015, pages 69-71). As a principal investigator, I’d also like to call attention to the following glioblastoma trial, which remains open.
PHASE II
Study Type:...
Dr. Howard Fine Named Founding Director of the Brain Tumor Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Howard A. Fine, MD, has been appointed to lead the newly established neuro-oncology program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective February 2. He will serve as Director of the Brain Tumor Center and Associate Director for Translational Research in the Sandra and...
