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Showing 10201 - 10250David G. Nathan, MD, Wins Lifetime Impact Award at Boston Children’s Hospital Innovation Summit
David G. Nathan, MD, President Emeritus of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Physician-in-Chief Emeritus of Boston Children’s Hospital, was recently honored as the inaugural recipient of the Boston Children’s Hospital Lifetime Impact Award at the Hospital’s second Annual Global Pediatric Innovation...
ASCO Members Reflect on ‘Lessons From Chernobyl’
As part of ASCO’s 50th anniversary, the Society has published a weekly series on special moments in its history. In this edition of The ASCO Post, we revisit a unique time when ASCO’s history intersected with major world events. To read the entire series, visit the “News and Views” page on...
Expert Point of View: Hope S. Rugo, MD
Hope S. Rugo, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education for the University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed the two studies on maintenance bevacizumab (Avastin) for metastatic breast cancer...
Postoperative Radiation Therapy Improves Overall Survival for Patients With Resected Pathologic N2 Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Patients who received postoperative radiation therapy lived an average of 4 months longer when compared to the patients who had the same disease site, tumor histology, and treatment criteria and who did not receive postoperative radiotherapy, according to research presented at the 2014 Chicago...
Emerging Drugs Effectively Tackle Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Mutations
For advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), targeting of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and the ALK abnormality has become an established strategy. Later-generation drugs in these categories are now showing efficacy in trials, including for the treatment of...
Pazopanib Improves Progression-Free Survival in Advanced Pretreated GIST
Patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) can achieve remission on tyrosine kinase inhibitors, but almost all of them eventually develop resistance to these agents. The PAZOGIST trial results suggest that pazopanib (Votrient)—a broad-spectrum tyrosine kinase inhibitor—may be an effective ...
Genomic Score Predicts Aggressiveness of Prostate Cancer in Biopsy Specimens
A prospectively designed study establishes the17-gene Oncotype DX prostate cancer test as a robust and independent predictor of the aggressiveness of prostate cancer based on a patient’s diagnostic specimen. Tumor aggressiveness, as measured by the test’s Genomic Prostate Score, was similar in...
Clinically Relevant Survival Benefit Seen for Everolimus in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
Final results from the RADIANT-3 trial showed a 6-month difference in overall survival favoring everolimus (Afinitor) plus best supportive care over placebo plus best supportive care in patients with well-differentiated advanced and progressive pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.1 Although the...
Oral Rivaroxaban Has Efficacy Similar to Enoxaparin Plus Vitamin K Antagonist in Preventing Recurrent Venous Thromboembolism
In a subgroup analysis of the pooled results of the EINSTEIN-DVT and EINSTEIN-PE trials reported at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress and published recently in The Lancet Haematology, Martin H. Prins, MD, of Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht,...
European Studies Explore Maintenance Strategies for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress in Madrid added insight regarding maintenance therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer, an area lacking a clear recommended strategy following first-line regimens. Two phase III trials found benefit for bevacizumab...
Expert Point of View: Andrés Cervantes, MD, PhD
During a special session at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress, additional analyses from the FIRE-3 and Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB)/SWOG 80405 trial were presented, and an expert panel was charged with putting the findings into context. Role of Subsequent...
All-RAS Testing in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Just the First Step
Now that clinicians know to “think beyond KRAS” in metastatic colorectal cancer—and test for all RAS mutations, not just those in exon 2—it seems this is still not sufficient for selecting the best drugs. At the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress in Madrid, a proffered paper ...
Young Adults With Cancer: Unique Issues Highlight Importance of Patient-Centered Care
Suleika Jaouad, a journalist, was 22 and had just gotten her first chance to cover a major news story—the revolution underway in Tunisia—when she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome that had evolved into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Months into her treatment, she began to write again, but...
Noteworthy Abstracts From the Breast Cancer Symposium Include Studies of Novel Therapies and of the Impact of Disease Subtypes on Outcomes
More than 150 oral and poster presentations were featured at the 2014 Breast Cancer Symposium, held September 4–6 in San Francisco. The multidisciplinary meeting is sponsored by ASCO, the American Society of Breast Disease, American Society of Breast Surgeons, American Society for Radiation...
Targeted Therapies in Indolent Lymphoma: Challenging the Current Paradigm
The use of targeted therapies in indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is a burgeoning area. New targeted therapies directed at the cell surface, intracellular pathways, and the microenvironment are being studied for relapsed indolent NHL. These treatments, if validated in large randomized trials,...
For Selected Patients With Metastatic Colorectal Cancer, Taking a Break From Combination Chemotherapy Might Be Appropriate and Appreciated
Two phase III studies presented at the Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago shed more light on the role of maintenance therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer undergoing first-line treatment with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy. The two studies compared maintenance therapy with bevacizumab...
Targeted Agents Making Inroads Against Sarcoma
Targeted agents have started to make inroads in sarcoma therapies, and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is the poster child for this success,” Mark Agulnik, MD, stated in summarizing progress in GIST and other sarcomas at the Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago. Dr. Agulnik is Associate Professor, ...
Financial Toxicity Potentially Harmful Treatment‑Related Effect
It turns out that in addition to treatment-related toxicity, cancer patients commonly experience “financial toxicity,” a phrase that is increasingly coming into parlance in the cancer community. Patients should be assessed for financial toxicity as early as possible following diagnosis so that they ...
Overutilization a Key Target in Efforts to Control Health-Care Costs
Overutilization of health-care interventions has become a prime target of efforts to rein in health-care costs. Overtreatment of cancer patients is associated with a number of common harms to the patient—not just financial harm to the health-care system. At the recent ASCO Quality Care Symposium in ...
Striving for Quality, Not Quantity, of Life
Advances in science and medicine have led to humans living longer than at any other time in history. According to a new report1 on mortality from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy in the United States is at an all-time high of...
IMPRESS Trial: Lung Cancer Progression on First-Line Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Indicates the Drug Should Be Stopped
The IMPRESS trial found no benefit for continuing treatment with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EFGR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitinib (Iressa, discontinued in the United States) plus chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone in patients with EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who...
Second-Line Gemcitabine the Preferred Option for Relapsed or Refractory Lymphoma
For patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive lymphoma in a National Cancer Institute of Canada clinical trial, second-line treatment with GDP (gemcitabine, dexamethasone, and cisplatin) was as effective as DHAP (dexamethasone, cytarabine, and cisplatin). Treatment with GDP “can be considered ...
Over 14 Million Major Medical Conditions in U.S. Adults Linked to Cigarette Smoking
At least 14 million major medical conditions among U.S. adults aged 35 years and older were attributed to cigarette smoking by a study estimating the disease burden of cigarette smoking, which, according to the study’s authors, “remains immense.” Among current and former smokers, prevalence ratios...
South Korean Study Sparks Warnings About the Hazards of Overscreening
An “epidemic of diagnosis” of thyroid cancer is occurring in South Korea and “absolutely could happen here,” according to H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Hanover, New Hampshire. Dr. Welch is coauthor of an article...
Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Hodgkin Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes clinical studies actively recruiting people with Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including AIDS-related NHL, as well as studies that are also recruiting patients with multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma....
Beating the Odds
I know it sounds odd, but the past 10 years spent living with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been very productive, wonderful years. It is not the life I had before my diagnosis, but it is the life I remember most clearly, and knowing how deadly this cancer is, I’m grateful for every day of ...
Chevalier Jackson, MD, Performing Bronchoscopy, Philadelphia, Circa 1920
The bronchoscope was first used for extracting foreign bodies and the evaluation of infectious processes, especially abscesses. By the end of the twentieth century, the bronchoscope had been determined the single most useful tool for accurate diagnosis of lung cancer. It allowed for the collection...
Preoperative Rodent Cancer: Patient of Charles Moore, MD, Albumen Print, London, 1864
A disease more repulsive and distressing can hardly be conceived than a Rodent Cancer of the face. Commencing in some trifling manner in the skin, and then sometimes producing so little irritation as scarcely to attract notice, it spreads abroad in all directions with a slow but unswerving advance. ...
Bevacizumab Plus Chemotherapy in Platinum-Resistant Recurrent Epithelial Ovarian, Fallopian Tube, or Primary Peritoneal Cancer
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 November 14, 2014, bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with...
Major Strides Seen This Year in Survivorship Care
"This year was actually a boon for the patient and survivor care section,” Arif H. Kamal, MD, said at the Best of ASCO meeting in Seattle, where he reviewed the leading abstracts and gave some of his own perspective. “What you see is a lot of the limitations of research in the palliative care and...
ASH Awards New Bridge Grants to Help Alleviate Pain of Federal Funding Cuts
In November, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) announced the names of seven recipients of its Bridge Grant awards. These 1-year, $150,000 awards provide critical interim support for hematology research proposals that, despite earning high scores, could not be funded by the National...
Proteome-Scale Map of the Human Interactome Network Created
Researchers have produced a new largest-scale map of human protein interactions that will better enable scientists to trace how genetic changes lead to diseases ranging from cancer to Huntington’s disease. The expanded map, published in the journal Cell,1 is about 30% larger than the combination of ...
Treating Brain Cancer in 2014
While primary malignant brain tumors account for only 2% of all adult cancers, these deadly neoplasms cause severe cancer-related disability; the 5-year survival rates for brain tumors rank third lowest among all cancers, with those for pancreas and lung cancers being first and second lowest,...
HDAC Inhibitors and Triple Therapy in Relapsed Myeloma
The use of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as human cancer therapy has focused on the impact of these agents on epigenetic regulation and gene transcription. However, the use of HDAC inhibitors in myeloma may be working through a different mechanism. Specifically, HDAC6 is known to regulate...
Adding Pan-Deacetylase Inhibitor Panobinostat to Bortezomib and Dexamethasone Improves Progression-Free Survival in Relapsed Myeloma
In the phase III PANORAMA 1 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jesus F. San-Miguel, MD, of Clinica Universidad de Navarra-CIMA, Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues found that adding the pan-deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat to bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone improved progression-free...
Advancing ASCO’s Commitment to Quality to Ensure That Every Patient Receives the Highest Level of Cancer Care
On December 3, 2014, Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, FASCO, will start his new position as Medical Director of ASCO’s Institute for Quality (iQ). Established in 2012 to oversee the development of clinical practice guidelines, the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), the QOPI Certification...
ASCO Announces Top 5 Advances in Modern Oncology
To mark ASCO’s 50th anniversary, the Society called on the oncology community to select the five most pivotal advances in cancer research and patient care over the past 50 years. Now, with more than 2,000 votes cast, ASCO has announced the results on CancerProgress.Net, its interactive website on...
Focused Ultrasound, a Young Technology, Begins to Grow
In the United States, it’s been a good 2 years for focused ultrasound. The technology, which uses multiple, intersecting ultrasound beams to treat cancer and other diseases, completed its first successful U.S. phase III oncology trial—to alleviate the pain of bone metastases—and received approval...
With New Innovator Award, Biomedical Engineer to Study How Ovarian Cancer Spreads
With approximately 22,000 diagnoses annually in the United States, ovarian cancer isn’t among the most commonly occurring cancers. Yet, the mortality rate for women who have ovarian cancer hovers above 60%. For Pamela Kreeger, PhD, a University of Wisconsin–Madison Assistant Professor of Biomedical ...
The Harvard Global Equity Initiative: From Research to Policy
The Harvard Global Equity Initiative is a research program at Harvard University that is dedicated to promoting equitable global development, with a strong emphasis on health-care issues. This initiative brings together scholars, policymakers, advocates, and practitioners from around the world to...
FDA Grants Orphan Drug Designation to BGB324 for Acute Myeloid Leukemia
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to BGB324 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). BGB324 is a first-in-class, highly selective small-molecule inhibitor of the Axl receptor tyrosine kinase. It blocks the epithelial-mesenchymal transition...
CD19-Directed CAR T Cells Produce Sustained Remission in Relapsed/Refractory Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Shannon L. Maude, MD, PhD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Noelle Frey, MD, of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues reported achieving sustained remissions in children and adults with...
Patients With Advanced Papillary Kidney Cancer Respond Well to Bevacizumab/Erlotinib Combination Therapy
Researchers have found that patients with an advanced form of kidney cancer, for which there is no standard treatment and a very poor prognosis, respond well to a combination of two existing anticancer drugs. The combination of bevacizumab (Avastin) and erlotinib (Tarceva) produced excellent...
Assessing the Nature of Unplanned Emergency Cancer Care Situations
Unplanned cancer care—emergency department presentations and other unanticipated events—can result in poor outcomes that are potentially preventable. Suzanne Tamang, PhD, Stanford University, Stanford, California, addressed this important issue in her presentation at this year’s Quality Care...
A National Cancer Database and Cancer Care Quality Improvement
At this year’s Quality Care Symposium, Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, Chief of Staff and Director of the Center for Global Cancer Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, looked at the issue of quality infrastructure development through the prism of several tools developed by the American...
Checklists: Simple Tools That Enhance Quality
Evidence indicates that the use of surgical safety checklists results in marked improvements in patient outcomes. Unfortunately, their adoption in the field of medicine has largely been limited to equipment operations or parts of specific treatment algorithms. Yet they have tremendous potential to...
Top 5 Breakthroughs in the Treatment of Advanced Lung Cancer
A countdown of the top 5 breakthrough therapies in the treatment of advanced lung cancer was presented by D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology.1 Dr. Camidge is Director, Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Clinical Research Programs, and...
FDA Approves Bevacizumab Plus Chemotherapy for Platinum-Resistant, Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with paclitaxel, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or topotecan for the treatment of patients with platinum-resistant, recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. The approval is ...
Optimizing HER2 Therapy in Early and Advanced Breast Cancers
Trastuzumab (Herceptin) has been the cornerstone of therapy for HER2-positive tumors, which comprise about 20% of all breast tumors. Additional therapies targeted to other HER2 pathways or other targets to be used in combination with trastuzumab are being explored in both the adjuvant and...
Vincent T. DeVita, Jr, Helped Usher in the Era of Chemotherapy, Turning Lethal Cancers Into Curable Ones
Although Vincent T. DeVita, Jr, MD, harbored fantasies as a young child of becoming an ice deliveryman when he grew up, his love of chemistry and biology, as well as admonitions from his mother, Isabel, “to become a doctor,” propelled him toward a career in medicine. Now, more than 6 decades later, ...
