I continue to be struck by the creativity of medical oncologists. The reimagining of dosing, duration, or regimen composition to respond to patient symptoms or preferences is like a master chef in the kitchen. Although standardization has, with good reason, become the paragon, delivering...
This is Part 1 of Updates in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, a three-part video roundtable series. Stay tuned for future installments in the coming months. In this video, Dr. Prithviraj Bose and Dr. Ruben Mesa discuss how best to manage the risk of thrombosis in patients with polycythemia vera....
This is Part 3 of Updates in Renal Cell Carcinoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Wenxin (Vincent) Xu, David Braun, and Bradley McGregor discuss the role of adjuvant therapy in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The...
This is Part 2 of Updates in Renal Cell Carcinoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Wenxin (Vincent) Xu, David Braun, and Bradley McGregor discuss second-line therapy and beyond in clear cell renal cell carcinoma...
This is Part 4 of Updates in Colorectal Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Cathy Eng, Arvind Dasari, and Smitha Krishnamurthi discuss the management of microsatellite instability (MSI)-high rectal...
This is Part 3 of Updates in Colorectal Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Cathy Eng, Arvind Dasari, and Smitha Krishnamurthi discuss the management of HER2-positive colorectal cancer. The patient is a...
In 2019, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed V. Craig Jordan, CMG, OBE, PhD, DSc, FMedSci, Companion of the Most Distinguished order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG), honoring his extraordinary scientific work in the development of selective estrogen receptor modulators, most notably...
Exposure to a synthetic chemical found widely in the environment may be linked to the development of nonviral hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a new study published by Goodrich et al in JHEP Reports. The chemical—called perfluorooctane sulfate, or PFOS—is one of a class of man-made chemicals...
About 7 years ago, I had emergency hernia surgery and soon after began experiencing severe constipation and abdominal bloating. I had started to have minor symptoms leading up to the surgery, but now the pain and exhaustion of trying to have a bowel movement became unbearable. I met with a...
Daily exposure to a class of chemicals used in the production of many household items may lead to cancer, thyroid disease, and childhood obesity, a new study published by Obsekov et al in the journal Exposure and Health showed. The resulting economic burden is estimated to cost Americans a minimum...
This is Part 3 of Updates in Lymphoma, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Alison J. Moskowitz, Andrew M. Evens, and Ann S. LaCasce discuss Hodgkin lymphoma in patients age ≥ 60 years. The patient is a 65-year-old man...
Global health crusader Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, had a wildly unconventional childhood, which helped inform his adult life as a medical humanitarian. Dr. Farmer was born in West Adams, a town that lies along the verdant valley surrounding the Hoosic River in northern Massachusetts. He was the second of ...
On a cool, gray November morning, I took the call from a walk-in doctor about Carla, a 26-year-old woman with progressive lymphadenopathy who was refusing investigations because of severe needle phobia. Carla was willing to meet with me to discuss treatment options for a suspected diagnosis of...
Michael Silbermann, DMD, PhD, was born on January 19, 1935, in the old quarter of Acre, a northern Arab city stretching along the north end of the Bay of Haifa in present-day Israel. “Acre, which was developed more than 4,000 years ago, was one of the primary harbors of the Phoenician people....
Community practices have long been a keystone of our nation’s oncology care delivery system by allowing patients with cancer to receive specialized treatment near their homes and places of business. Innovative clinicians in the community setting are also leading efforts to create a more efficient...
Prior to the birth of the steel industry, Luxembourg was a poor and rural country. At the start of the 19th century, many Luxembourgers searching opportunity emigrated to the United States. The hardiest among them ventured into the Great Plains region to take advantage of homesteading...
Success in tennis demands precision timing, extraordinary hand-eye dexterity, and commanding mental and physical vigor. According to Harold P. Freeman, MD, the discipline and skills he learned on the tennis courts at an early age stood him in good stead during his remarkable life’s journey. “My...
"The reality is that closure is a myth. My personal and professional experience with those who have lost friends and family, including children, has taught me that going on with life is not the same as gaining closure. The wound of loss is a part of each person’s life forever,” wrote...
Rakesh Chopra, MD, former Chairman and Head of the Oncology Department of Artemis Hospitals, was born in New Delhi, the capital of modern India. As a child, he attended the Lawrence School, Sanawar, a private boarding school in Himachal Pradesh, among beautiful sylvan surroundings. “Sanawar was...
In this video, Drs. Celestia (Tia) Higano, Julie Graff, and Neal Shore discuss the role of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted radioligand therapy in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The patient is an 81-year-old man with 13-year history of prostate...
This is Part 3 of Updates in Prostate Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Celestia (Tia) Higano, Julie Graff, and Neal Shore discuss the first-line therapy for BRCA2-mutated metastatic castration-resistant...
This is Part 2 of Updates in Prostate Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Celestia (Tia) Higano, Julie Graff, and Neal Shore discuss doublet and triplet androgen-deprivation therapy options for metastatic...
This is Part 1 of Updates in Prostate Cancer, a four-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. �In this video, Drs. Celestia (Tia) Higano, Julie Graff, and Neal Shore discuss the management of metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer in elderly...
Editor’s Note: The following is adapted from Dr. Hrynkiv’s presentation at the March 18 ASCO/ECO Briefing: Cancer Care During the War in Ukraine. Find resources for impacted patients and providers at asco.org/ukraine and onco-help.org. Official statistics regarding damage and losses in Ukraine are...
In 1999, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) President Paul Marks, MD, recruited Barrie Cassileth, PhD, to establish an Integrative Medicine Service that “provided evidence-based complementary therapies that improve patients’ quality of life by alleviating physical and emotional symptoms...
In this edition of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Antônio Drauzio Varella, MD, a Brazilian oncologist, educator, scientist, and medical science popularizer in the press and television, as well as a best-selling author. Antônio Drauzio Varella, MD, was born in 1943 in ...
In this video, Drs. Richard Stone, Courtney DiNardo, and Eunice Wang discuss therapy options for minimal residual disease (MRD)-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The case is a 44-year-old man with no past medical history who presents with fevers and fatigue. He is diagnosed with AML and...
In this video, Drs. Richard Stone, Courtney DiNardo, and Eunice Wang treatment options for primary refractory FLT3-ITD–positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The case is a 60-year-old man with a history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia who presents with fatigue. He is diagnosed with...
A new screening tool (called PHS290) that incorporates 290 inherited genetic variants associated with prostate cancer was able to accurately identify people with high vs low lifetime risks of developing metastatic prostate cancer or dying from prostate cancer. These findings of a genetic risk...
A little after noon on December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon entered the White House state dining room. Before 137 esteemed guests from government, science, and industry, he signed the landmark National Cancer Act. It was, in short, a national commitment to conquer cancer. President Nixon...
In part 1 of this two-part review, we looked at early pioneers in the field of medical oncology in Europe, as well as the development of international cooperative trials and the formation of European oncology societies (see related articles below). In part 2, we explore how the field of medical...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with bone marrow transplant expert Mammen Chandy, MD, FRACP, FRACPA, Director of Tata Medical Center, in Kolkata, India. Dr. Chandy was instrumental in establishing the first sustained bone marrow...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
“I vividly remember watching television with my older sister, Suzy, and marveling at President Nixon’s signing of the National Cancer Act in December 1971, and thinking ‘for me, this was like a man going to the moon,’” writes Nancy G. Brinker in the foreword to the recently published Centers of the ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the tragedy of patients dying in isolation, separated from family and friends to limit infection in hospital settings. The process has altered the experience of serious illness for patients and their loved ones, including their ability to grieve, share important...
The measurement of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is changing the way gastrointestinal cancers are managed, according to Bassel F. El-Rayes, MD, Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Emory University, and Associate Cancer Center Director,...
In this video, Drs. Justin F. Gainor, Ibiayi Dagogo-Jack, and Jyoti D. Patel discuss current therapy options for PD-L1–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Gainor presents the case of a 65-year-old man with 55-year smoking history who was diagnosed with stage II NSCLC. The faculty...
In this video, Drs. Justin F. Gainor, Ibiayi Dagogo-Jack, and Jyoti D. Patel discuss the management of NTRK fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Gainor presents the case of a 44-year-old man with a 5 pack-year history of tobacco exposure who was diagnosed with metastatic NSCLC;...
Woe to the child who tastes salty from a kiss on the brow” was a forbidding prophecy from Medieval Europe, presaging unknown disease. Today, we know that salty skin is a telltale sign of cystic fibrosis in children, a disease that eluded medical identification until 1938, when an American...
Women account for a growing proportion of the oncology workforce. Multiple studies, however, show that women oncologists are underrepresented in leadership positions, may have significantly lower salaries than men, and may be subjected to discriminatory practices stimulated by a medical culture...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the emerging role of PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen)-targeted therapy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Dr. Smith presents a case of a 67-year-old man with metastatic castration-resistant...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the role of PARP inhibitors in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and homologous recombination repair deficiency, focusing on data from the PROfound trial. Dr. Smith presents a case of a...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the management of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, focusing on data from the phase III PEACE-1 trial. The faculty present the case of a 61-year-old man with de novo metastatic high-volume...
In this video, Drs. Matthew R. Smith, Xin Gao, and Alicia K. Morgans discuss the management of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, focusing on data from the phase III TITAN trial. The faculty present the case of a 73-year-old man with recurrent, low-volume/low-risk metastatic...
Female gynecologic oncologists have reported in a survey that having a department chair of the same gender is no buffer against gender harassment or discrimination in the workplace. The information comes from a survey of the “Women of Gynecologic Oncology” Facebook group and was reported in March...
The Brigham and Women’s hospital community mourns the loss of Francisco Marty, MD, of the Division of Infectious Diseases, who died April 8, 2021, after a tragic accident while hiking in the Dominican Republic. He was 53. A member of the Brigham community for more than 20 years, Dr. Marty is...
When I interviewed for my current post as a first-time consultant in medical oncology in the United Kingdom, I was asked about my 5-year career plan. I remember some detail of my reply, but I don’t think it even remotely encompassed the depth of insight I would gain from the patients I’ve treated...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently presented Mary B. Daly, MD, PhD, FACP, Professor in the Department of Clinical Genetics and Director of the Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, with the Rodger Winn Award. The Rodger Winn Award is given annually to one NCCN...
COVID-19 pandemic–related disruptions in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and research have varied worldwide and so have the responses to those disruptions. During the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) 2021 International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care, members of the Global Forum of Cancer...
Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD, FASCO, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago as the middle child of three girls. She was, by her own account, extremely shy by nature. Her mother was a graduate of the University of Chicago, but her father’s college education was preempted by his service as a fighter pilot in...