40 Under 40 in cancer is an awards initiative to identify and recognize contributions from across the field of oncology by approximately rising stars and emerging leaders younger than 40. Awardees were nominated by colleagues and selected by a panel of reviewers from a range of areas in oncology....
Laura Goff, MD, Medical Director of the Hematology and Oncology Division at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, was born in Chicago but reared in Lewisville, a suburb of Dallas. “I come from a long line of nurses, which early on influenced my decision to pursue a career in medicine....
Laura Dawson, MD, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, viewed these initial study results as “a strong signal with high promise.” “Radiation therapy improves local control and delays local disease progression in patients with pancreatic...
The American Cancer Society and Pfizer have approved grants totaling more than $3.7 million focused on reducing racial disparities in care and helping to optimize cancer outcomes for Black men and women in 10 communities. The goal is to address systemic race-related barriers and disparities in the...
Enrichment of the lungs with oral commensal microbes was associated with advanced-stage disease, worse prognosis, and tumor progression in patients with lung cancer, according to results from a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.1 “The...
That Moses Judah Folkman would buck tradition, breaking his family’s long line of rabbinical succession and pursuing a career in science and medicine instead, was evident from the time he was a young child. Born in Cleveland on February 24, 1933, the first child of Rabbi Jerome and Bessie Folkman, ...
A study investigating a computational method that integrates deep learning on histology specimens with clinicodemographic variables has found that the artificial intelligence may help predict response to immune checkpoint blockade among patients with advanced melanoma. This computational approach...
A new study by Tsay et al sheds light on the role the lung microbiome may play in lung cancer pathogenesis and prognosis. According to the study’s findings, enrichment of the lungs with oral commensal microbes was associated with advanced-stage disease, worse prognosis, and tumor progression....
Tomas Lyons, MB BCh, BAO, MRCPI, a medical oncologist at the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, died suddenly on September 29 at the age of 38. During his career at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK), he was a celebrated collaborator on multidisciplinary ...
Cleveland Clinic recently announced the following additions to its oncology staff: Ruth Keri, PhD, has joined Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute Department of Cancer Biology. She will study breast cancer, focusing on identifying the molecular processes that control the formation of breast...
Susan G. Komen is recognizing two widely respected and innovative breast cancer researchers—Donald McDonnell, PhD, and Laura Esserman, MD, MBA—as this year’s recipients of their highest scientific honor, the Brinker Awards. Established by Komen in 1992, the awards recognize advances in the...
The benefit of anti–PD-1 antibodies in the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma continues to be observed at around 4 years for both pembrolizumab and nivolumab, according to updates of pivotal trials presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual ...
The Eighth Annual Giants of Cancer Care class of inductees was recently announced by OncLive, a multimedia resource focused on providing oncology professionals with relevant information on patient care. The virtual awards ceremony will be held on November 5 at 7.30 PM EST and will be available...
Great strides in research and clinical practice have decreased breast cancer mortality rates by more than 35% since 1990, yet about 40,000 American women die of the disease each year. In Radical: The Science, Culture, and History of Breast Cancer in America, health-care journalist Kate Pickert...
In a 3-year follow-up analysis of the phase II I-SPY 2 trial reported in JAMA Oncology, researchers in the I-SPY 2 Trial Consortium found that pathologic complete response was associated with improved event-free and distant recurrence–free survival—irrespective of molecular subtype or neoadjuvant...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has announced its newest class of grant recipients. Fellowships The 2019 Anna D. Barker Fellowship in Basic Cancer Research was awarded to Chaoyun Pan, PhD, of Emory University, Atlanta, and Conghui Yao, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, Cambridge....
Breast surgical oncologist Laura S. Dominici, MD, was born and reared in Litchfield, a small town in the southern portion of New Hampshire. “Our house was on a long dirt road, in a very rural area,” she shared. “There were only about 5,000 residents in the town. My mother was a teacher, and my dad...
The American Cancer Society has updated its guideline on diet and physical activity for cancer prevention. Staying at a healthy weight, staying active throughout life, following a healthy eating pattern, and avoiding or limiting alcohol may greatly reduce a person's lifetime risk of developing or...
In early triple-negative breast cancer, the presence of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and circulating tumor cells after neoadjuvant chemotherapy may enable risk stratification of patients for disease recurrence and may predict outcomes, according to a preplanned correlative analysis of the phase II ...
For community oncologists treating patients with chronic myeloid leukemia or chronic lymphocytic leukemia during the COVID-19 pandemic, what resources and clinical pearls would you suggest? Recorded April 24, 2020.
At this time, would you consider pausing therapy—specifically signaling inhibitors and/or monoclonal antibodies—in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia? Recorded April 24, 2020.
Are you treating patients with advanced chronic myeloid leukemia (accelerated phase or blast crisis) any differently during the COVID-19 pandemic? Recorded April 24, 2020.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your approach to the selection of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia? Recorded April 24, 2020.
Routine use of extended-fraction radiation therapy—defined as more than 10 fractions—for the palliative treatment of bone metastases is considered a low-value intervention by the American Society for Radiation Oncology. In a retrospective cohort study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Gupta et al...
An increased proportion of indigenous American ancestry was associated with a greater incidence of HER2-positive breast cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Research.1 “The risk of breast cancer–related mortality varies between different populations, with Latina women having a greater...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) recently welcomed H. Timothy Hsiao, PhD, as its new Director of Scientific Affairs, where he will provide strategic leadership to advance the impact of research and innovation in radiation oncology through ASTRO’s research funding, fellowships,...
Once considered highly experimental, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is now an established third-line treatment option for B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. CAR T-cell therapy has saved the lives of people who would otherwise have run out of treatment options. But the question is...
Laura van’t Veer, PhD, Co-Founder of Agendia Inc. and developer of MammaPrint, the 70-gene risk of recurrence assay for patients with breast cancer, was recognized at the Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC) with its Luminary Award. This award recognizes those individuals who have made...
Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, Professor of Medicine, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the residual cancer burden index is being increasingly used in medical oncology. “The...
The ALK inhibitor ceritinib demonstrated efficacy in patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and active brain metastases, according to the results of the ASCEND-7 trial reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019.1 Substantial intracranial...
Patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was metastatic to the brain at baseline demonstrated whole-body, intracranial, and extracranial responses following treatment with ceritinib, according to findings from the phase II ASCEND-7 study presented by Chow et al at the...
Laura Q.M. Chow, MD, of the University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School and LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes, discusses phase II study findings that showed the ALK inhibitor ceritinib achieved durable intracranial response in patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer that has spread...
Over the past few decades, our understanding of transplant immunology has moved from basic allograft rejection to the current molecular level that offers life-saving treatments for patients with cancer. The scientific elegance of this remarkable therapy’s arc from experimental to standard of care...
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,...
ASCO is pleased to announce the 2019–2020 participants in its Leadership Development Program and Education Scholars Program. Leadership Development Program The ASCO Leadership Development Program, which began in 2009, is a year-long program designed to train future leaders in oncology by supporting ...
Women who experienced six or more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in life had a twofold greater risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women who never experienced any PTSD symptoms. These findings were published by Roberts et al in Cancer Research. The...
The members of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) have elected four new officers to ASTRO’s Board of Directors. Laura Dawson, MD, FASTRO, will begin her term as President-Elect in September during ASTRO’s 61st Annual Meeting in Chicago. Neha Vapiwala, MD, was elected as ASTRO’s new ...
Breast cancer researcher and innovator Laura J. van ’t Veer, PhD, was born and reared in Amsterdam in 1957. “During high school, I had a wonderful biology teacher who was going through his own biology studies at the University of Amsterdam, and he was bringing that university-level education into...
Developed in 1925 by British statistician Sir Ronald Fisher, the P value is a measure that is ever-present in abstracts and studies, a small statistical tool that has enormous power to aid research being published in the literature or support drug approval. Over the past several years, however, a...
A comparison of three types of radiotherapy for pediatric brain tumors suggests that a type of proton therapy called pencil-beam scanning (PBS) offers the best hope of preserving cognitive functions. The study, presented by Toussaint et al at ESTRO 38, the annual congress of the European Society...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Mak et al found that a crowd innovation contest produced automated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms “that replicated the skills of a highly trained physician” in segmenting lung tumors for radiotherapy targeting. The investigators also noted...
ASCO’S CONQUER CANCER FOUNDATION is pleased to announce the recipients of the Gastrointestinal Cancers, Genitourinary Cancers, and Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium Merit Awards. Conquer Cancer Merit Awards recognize oncology fellows’ and trainees’ high-quality research submitted in abstracts to...
NYU LANGONE Health’s Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center has been designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Perlmutter Cancer Center is now among 50 cancer centers across the country to earn this distinction. Perlmutter Cancer Center received an overall...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies that are focused on several different kinds of treatments for kidney cancer. These trials are evaluating gene therapy, immunotherapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and combinations thereof....
NYU Langone Health’s Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center recently announced a philanthropic gift to establish a Center for Blood Cancers. The center will house a new program for multiple myeloma care and research, along with NYU Langone Health’s other blood cancer programs. It will also...
Several breast cancer experts said the findings of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) meta-analysis and the AERAS study are in line with data emerging from other studies of extended treatment with aromatase inhibitors. All of these studies suggest that extended...
Jeffrey M. Drazen, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, wrote in a 2016 editorial, “Data Sharing and the Journal,” that “[W]e believe there is a moral obligation to the people who volunteer to participate in these trials to ensure that their data are widely and responsibly...
For patients with advanced melanoma, the concept of treating to disease progression does not always apply. With many patients responding to checkpoint inhibition for years, when can treatment be safely discontinued? This important clinical question was addressed at the European Society for Medical...
“This study supports the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy,” commented press conference moderator Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, of the Simmons Cancer Center at UTSouthwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “It did not matter whether patients received adjuvant therapy, as long as they had achieved a pathologic...