October 10, 2015 (View All Issues)
EGFR Gene Copy Number as Biomarker for Antibody Treatment in Squamous Cell NSCLC
Two studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer suggest that high expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), or gene copy number, may indicate potential benefit from EGFR antibodies in squamous cell non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The studies were presented by...
NCCN Turns 20: Value-Based Care Has Arrived
Twenty years ago, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) began as a cooperative effort of 12 prestigious cancer centers, working to define and promote national guidelines for the care of patients with cancer. A major goal was to encourage uniformity in the management of malignant...
Ductal Carcinoma in Situ: Where We Have Been and Where We Can Be
Ductal carcinoma in situ has been a recent topic of debate in the news because of a recent article by Narod et al1 and an accompanying editorial2 about the study in JAMA Oncology. This study, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, chronicled the long-term outcomes for women diagnosed with...
AZD9291 Updates Encouraging for Treatment-Resistant NSCLC
At the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer, several studies showed consistent activity with the investigational third-generation inhibitor AZD9291 in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is resistant to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors....
Lung Cancer Rates Doubling Among Nonsmokers
Lung cancer is becoming an equal-opportunity malignancy—with rates rising among never-smokers, especially females, according to studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver.
British investigators reported that in one large tertiary medical center, the proportion of...
Nivolumab in Lung Cancer Supported by Updated Trial Data
For the treatment of advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) continues to show results in key trials that now report 18-month data. The updates were reported at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver,...
Patient and Survivor Care Studies Yield Useful Results to Improve Quality of Life
Recent studies have yielded useful results that clinicians can put into practice, some right now, to help improve the quality of life for patients with cancer. Concerns addressed included cachexia, pain, “chemobrain,” and fertility preservation. At the Best of ASCO®/Chicago meeting, Arif Kamal,...
MMRF Announces Enrollment Completion of CoMMpass Study
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) announced that the MMRF CoMMpass StudySM, the most comprehensive long-term genomic study ever conducted in myeloma, has reached full enrollment, with 1,000 patients now participating. The global study is mapping the genomic profile of each enrolled...
FDA Approves New Oral Medication for the Treatment of Refractory Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have been previously treated with chemotherapy and biologic therapy and are no longer responding to treatment.
Mechanism of Action
The new oral agent is a...
Better Definitions and Biomarkers Needed to Reduce Cancer Overdiagnosis
At the third annual Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference, speakers described the prevalence and consequences of overdiagnosis in several medical specialties, including cancer. The Conference, which had the theme “Winding Back the Harms of Too Much Medicine,” was co-sponsored by the National Cancer...
Bridging the Gap Between Pediatric and Adult Oncology Care
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about 70,000 adolescents and young adults—defined by the NCI as those in the 15- to 39-year-old range—are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, about six times the number of cases diagnosed in children aged 0 to 14.1 And, although...
EBCTCG Meta-analyses Show Improved Outcomes With Aromatase Inhibitors vs Tamoxifen and a Potential Benefit of Adjuvant Bisphosphonates Limited to Postmenopausal Women
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) patient-level meta-analyses, concurrently reported in The Lancet, sought to clarify the effects of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor vs tamoxifen treatment and adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment in early breast cancer.1,2
The endocrine...
Adjuvant Treatment of Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Meta-analyses Provide More Clarity
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) continues its practice of being a lighthouse, shedding its beacon of light on the vast ocean of breast cancer research through the publication of two large, individual patient level–data meta-analyses on the management of women with...
Male Breast Cancer: An Understudied Disease and Clinical Challenge
Male breast cancer is an uncommon disease, although the incidence has increased over the past couple of decades. As with many other “orphan” diseases, male breast cancer is understudied, especially in randomized controlled trials. Although it shares similarities with female breast cancer, some...
Adding Docetaxel to Androgen-Deprivation Therapy Prolongs Overall Survival in Metastatic Prostate Cancer
In a phase III trial (E3805) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Christopher J. Sweeney, MBBS, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found that chemohormonal therapy with docetaxel plus androgen-deprivation therapy produced a significant 13.6-month increase in median...
Docetaxel Chemohormonal Therapy in Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
Sweeney et al reported on the results of a seminal phase III trial (E3805) of chemohormonal therapy vs androgen-deprivation therapy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer in a recent issue of The New England Journal of Medicine,1 and the study is summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post.
...
ASCO Statement: Improving the Evidence Base for Treating Older Adults With Cancer
Older persons are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population and account for the majority of cancer diagnoses and deaths and the majority of cancer survivors. However, since this population is underrepresented in clinical trials, the evidence base for treating older patients is poor. As...
Older Patients With Cancer: A Growing Population in Need of Evidence-Based Care
The 2013 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Delivering High Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis1 identified the dearth of evidence on older adults as a major quality-of-care issue. The U.S. population is aging at a rapid rate, and cancer is a disease that primarily...
Bart Barolgie, MD, Joins Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai
Bart Barlogie, MD, a myeloma expert who introduced the first curative therapy for multiple myeloma, a multidrug regimen known as Total Therapy 3, is joining the faculty of Tisch Cancer Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMM. Dr. Barlogie will serve as Director of Research in ...
Increased Risk of Death From Breast Cancer for Women With Ductal Carcinoma in Situ vs General Population
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Steven A. Narod, MD, FRCPC, of Women’s College Research Institute, Women’s College Hospital, and the University of Toronto, and colleagues found that the risk of breast cancer mortality was elevated in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ compared with the...
Focus on Geriatric Oncology: ASCO Prepares for an Aging Nation
The United States—and much of the world—is experiencing unprecedented demographic shifts in the population of older people, defined as people age 65 and over. In 2012, the population of older people in the United States reached a never-before seen height of 43.1 million, a number that will more...
Journal of Oncology Practice to Expand in 2016: New Section Dedicated to Practical, Authoritative Clinical Reviews
In early 2016, readers of Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) will be greeted with an expanded journal, featuring a new section of succinct, focused, practical clinical reviews authored by expert opinion leaders in oncology.
These reviews are designed to provide busy, full-time clinicians with...
Updated Resource for Your Patients: Advanced Cancer Care Planning Booklet
The latest version of ASCO Answers Advanced Cancer Care Planning is now available. This booklet contains comprehensive information about how patients can communicate directly and honestly about advanced cancer and end-of-life care with friends, family, children, and the health-care team.
This...
ASCO, ACS, ASTRO Study Finds Increased Travel Distance Affects Whether Patients Receive Adjuvant Chemotherapy
A new study conducted by ASCO in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology1 found that patients who have to travel farther to appointments are less likely to receive adjuvant...
Be a Voice in The Campaign to Conquer Cancer
We'll provide the resources. You provide the voice. The Campaign to Conquer Cancer is raising $150 million to support a world free from the fear of cancer. Our potential to raise money increases with every new person who learns about our work. We need the most trusted leaders in the oncology...
ASCO Asks CMS to Revisit Its Payment Policy to Support Optimal Cancer Care
ASCO has called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider revisions to payment policies that could be administratively burdensome to oncology practices and result in reimbursement that inadequately supports optimal cancer patient care.
In a comment letter to CMS on...
Pembrolizumab Increases Progression-Free Survival in Ipilimumab-Refractory Advanced Melanoma
In a randomized phase II trial (KEYNOTE-002) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Antoni Ribas, MD, of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) prolonged...
Anti–PD-1 Superior to Chemotherapy in the KEYNOTE-002 Trial
Immunotherapy, once considered a niche treatment for a few specific cancers, has rapidly emerged as an additional pillar of cancer therapeutics. With the proliferation of promising results, clinical trials, and new drug approvals, one cannot help but be amazed that only 3 years have elapsed since...
Cancer: Increasing Awareness and Addressing This Lethal Disease on the Global Stage
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce this special focus on the worldwide cancer burden, beginning in this issue with a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in the United States. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
The Need for a Multidisciplinary Approach to Combating Cancer-Related Pain
The statistics are staggering. Despite the development of novel analgesics and the increasing awareness of the importance of adequately controlling pain from cancer or its treatment, up to 50% of patients undergoing treatment and between 70% and 90% of patients with advanced disease experience some ...
Improving Management of Cancer-Related Pain
Despite multiple guidelines from national and international organizations,1,2 the quality of current cancer pain management remains inadequate. The World Health Organization’s three-step analgesic dosing ladder forms the foundation of these guidelines.3 Yet, as noted by William S. Rosenberg, MD,...
‘Modern’ Surgical Scene, Circa 1945
A Century of Progress
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 Anesthesia Era: 1916–1945.” To view...
A Cancer Care Model for Rural Areas
Rural cancer patients have long had to adjust to difficult geographic and financial barriers to access high-quality cancer care. These problems are exacerbated by today’s fiscal challenges, which have disrupted many of the small community practices that once served rural communities.
In 2006, the...
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Is a Founding Member of the New Pediatric Preclinical Testing Consortium
Addressing the relatively small number of new cancer drugs for children, a selective group of leading research centers is joining a new federally funded research consortium aimed at bringing scientific rigor and a concentrated effort to identifying new drug candidates for pediatric clinical trials.
...
NIH Awards Nearly $35 Million to Research Natural Products
Five research centers will focus on the safety of natural products, how they work within the body, and the development of cutting-edge research technologies. The centers, jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the National Center for...
2015 Oncology Meetings
OCTOBER
ASTRO’s 57th Annual Meeting
October 18-21 • San Antonio, Texas
For more information:
www.astro.org/Meetings-and-Events/2015-Annual-Meeting/Index.aspx
2015 International Cancer Education Conference
October 21-23 • Tucson, Arizona
For more information:
http://2015.attendicec.org
ACCC 32nd...
Recent Johns Hopkins Oncology Faculty Appointments
Nina Wagner-Johnston, MD, has been appointed Associate Professor of Oncology in the Hematologic Malignancies Division, and will lead the Lymphoma Drug Development Program. At the Siteman Cancer Center at the Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Wagner-Johnston made several important...
Todd Demmy, MD, FACS, FCCP, Joins Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has named Todd Demmy, MD, FACS, FCCP, as its new Chief of Thoracic Oncology and Associate Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology. Dr. Demmy, who is leading Rutgers Cancer Institute’s Thoracic Oncology Program, is an international leader in minimally...
Varied Reactions to Study Finding That Preventing Ipsilateral Recurrence Did Not Prevent Death From Breast Cancer
Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ have a low risk of dying of breast cancer, according to an observational study looking at data from 108,196 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ between 1988 and 2011.1 The breast cancer–specific mortality rate for these women was 1.1% at 10...
Lisa Kachnic, MD, Named Chair of Radiation Oncology at Vanderbilt
Lisa Kachnic, MD, former Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology and Associate Director of Multidisciplinary Cancer Research at Boston University School of Medicine, and Chief of Radiation Oncology at Boston Medical Center, has been named Professor and Chair of the Vanderbilt University Medical...
Melanoma Research Alliance Appoints President and CEO-Elect
The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) announced the appointment of Robin L. Davisson, PhD, as President and CEO-Elect, effective October 1, 2015.
Dr. Davisson, The Andrew Dickson White Professor of Molecular Physiology at Cornell University, brings to MRA more than 25 years of internationally...
Measuring Global Health Issues, Seven Billion Times
BOOKMARK
Title: Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients
Author: Jeremy N. Smith
Publisher: Harper Wave
Publication date: April 7, 2015
Price: $26.99; hardcover, 352 pages
Health measures are essential tools in assessing public health and safety. Collecting large amounts of data is a...
Extraordinary Medical Advances and the Conundrum They Pose
BOOKMARK
Title: Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives, and Where to Draw the Line
Author: Sharon R. Kaufman
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: May 29, 2015
Price: $26.95 paperback, 336 pages
Medicine has changed radically over the past 15 years. Who doesn’t welcome ...
A Practical Guide to Surviving Breast Cancer and Its Treatments
BOOKMARK
Title: Bald Is Better With Earrings: A Survivor’s Guide to Getting Through Breast Cancer
Author: Andrea Hutton
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: July 7, 2015
Price: $17.99; paperback, 224 pages
There are a plethora of books written by breast cancer survivors, and there are sure to...
Scotty’s Gift
The following essay by Emil J. Freireich, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org.
I learned...
Diagnosis of Additional Small Cancers Suggests Screening Mammography Leads to Overdiagnosis
A study of screening mammography across U.S. counties found that “the clearest result of mammography screening is the diagnosis of additional small cancers” but without a “concomitant decline in the detection of larger cancers, which might explain the absence of any significant difference in the...
Decreased Mortality in Men With Unfavorable-Risk Prostate Cancer and Moderate or Severe Comorbidities Treated With Radiotherapy Alone
Men with unfavorable-risk prostate cancer and moderate or severe comorbidities had significantly decreased overall and cardiac mortality when treated with radiotherapy alone vs radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy, according to a study described in a research letter in The Journal of the...
Sidney Mirvish, PhD, Carcinogenesis Researcher, Dies at 86
Sidney Mirvish, PhD, Professor Emeritus in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), whose pioneering research into nitrosamines and carcinogenesis led to changes in the way lunch meats, hot dogs, and sausages were made,...
Thomas A. Stamey, MD, Noted Urologist and Prostate Cancer Expert, Dies at 87
Thomas A. Stamey, MD, Professor Emeritus of Urology at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a leader in the study and treatment of prostate cancer, died of Alzheimer’s disease September 4. He was 87.
A True Pioneer in the Field
Dr. Stamey helped lay the groundwork for the...
Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates Worldwide
As discussed in the new series “Global Oncology Burden”, analysis of the cancer burden based on the regions as divided by the World Health Organization (WHO) (ie, Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific), reveals the marked differences (see Table...
Over Three-Quarters of People With Cancer Worldwide Have No Access to Safe Surgery
Over 80% of the 15 million people diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2015 will need surgery, but less than one-quarter of them will have access to proper, safe, affordable surgical care when they need it, according to a major new Commission examining the state of global cancer surgery. The...
