When Evelyn H. Lauder was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989, she became a vocal spokesperson for women’s health, and in 1993, along with Larry Norton, MD, now Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Breast Cancer Programs and Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® (NCCN Guidelines®), covering eight tumor types. The NCCN Guidelines® are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. Some of the key updates for 2016 were...
In this installment of Hematology Expert Review, I will summarize five studies from the recent literature addressing important questions about leukemias and their treatment, anticoagulant therapy with the new agent defibrotide (Defitelio), and the use of antilymphocyte globulin to prevent chronic...
More than 100 years after William B. Coley, MD, used bacterial toxins to goad the immune system into recognizing cancer cells as foreign to the body and mount an immune response to go after and kill them, the recognition of immunotherapy as a powerful anticancer therapy is finally being...
“When we treat our patients, overall survival is the gold standard. We are all waiting for phase III overall survival data from CheckMate 067,” said formal discussant Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, Professor; Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy Platform; and Co-Director of the Parker Institute for ...
Is cancer really “curable,” and if so, how? For a “Cancer Dialogue” held during the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, half a dozen stellar participants from the research, industry, regulatory, and advocacy communities convened to debate the topic. The ASCO Post was ...
Two experts in multiple myeloma commented on the EMN02/HO95 MM trial for The ASCO Post: Shaji K. Kumar, MD, Professor of Hematology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester; and Sergio A. Giralt, MD, Chief of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Both...
Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), a Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is approved therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the United States. Imatinib is a miraculous drug that results in a normal functional lifespan in most patients with CML who can afford and comply with the treatment and who ...
With new immunotherapies available for the treatment of advanced melanoma, an important question is how best to combine and sequence them. Long-term follow-up from the KEYNOTE-001 trial suggests that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) can improve survival in newly diagnosed patients and in those treated...
This is an exciting time to be an oncologist. I often say I wish I were 30 again and just starting out in my oncology career. Never before have we had such sophisticated technology for evaluation of the tumor or such a potent arsenal of targeted and effective therapies to treat cancer. Further, the ...
The Middle East is a vast region comprised largely of developing nations with complicated sociopolitical challenges, violent internecine disputes, and deeply fragmented health-care systems. Not surprisingly, the region’s suboptimal health care contributes to the late diagnosis and poor survival...
BookmarkTitle: Dying: A TransitionAuthor: Monika Renz, PhD; translated by Mark Kyburz and John PeckPublisher: Columbia University PressPublication date: October 2015Price: $38.00; hardcover, 176 pages The night before Julius Caesar was assassinated, he had dinner with his friend Marcus...
In March, ASCO announced that Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO, was stepping down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the end of June, ending his 10-year tenure as head of the Society and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, Chief of Breast Medicine Service and Vice...
Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, commented on the findings for The ASCO Post. She said the inferior survival of patients with right-sided tumors “is almost certainly because of the molecular...
In metastatic colorectal cancer, the anatomic location of the tumor within the colon appears to make a difference in overall survival as well as response to pivotal treatments, according to a retrospective analysis of the pivotal CALGB/SWOG 80405 (Alliance) trial.1 “While previous studies had...
Cell-free (cf) DNA from plasma offers a minimally invasive approach to obtain material for BRAF mutation analysis for diagnostics and response monitoring. A study by Janku et al investigating whether the detection of BRAF V600 mutations in plasma cfDNA from patients with advanced cancers using the...
In the phase III GETUG-AFU 16 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Carrie et al found that adding short-term androgen suppression therapy to salvage radiotherapy was associated with improved biochemical or clinical progression-free survival among patients with prostate cancer who exhibited rising ...
It is well known that men and women differ in terms of cancer susceptibility, survival, and mortality, but exactly why this occurs at a molecular level has been poorly understood. A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reviewed 13 cancer types and provided a molecular...
Women with early-stage breast cancer for whom chemotherapy was indicated and who used dietary supplements and multiple types of complementary and alternative medicine were less likely to start chemotherapy than nonusers of alternative therapies, according to research led by Heather Greenlee, ND,...
A protein called Bim may hold the clue to which patients may be successful on immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, according to the results of a study by Mayo Clinic researchers led by senior author Haidong Dong, MD, PhD, and published by Dronca et al in JCI Insight. “Immune checkpoint...
Early findings from a phase III clinical trial (EMN02/HO95 MM) showed that patients with multiple myeloma who received an autologous stem cell transplant survived longer without disease progression than those who received only chemotherapy using novel agents. This is the largest study reported to...
A meta-analysis of 346 phase I clinical trials involving more than 13,000 patients found that patients whose treatment was selected based on the molecular characteristics of their tumor had significantly better outcomes. The study was featured in a press briefing today and will be presented by...
A randomized clinical trial found that introducing palliative care shortly after a cancer diagnosis results in better quality of life and fewer symptoms of depression among family caregivers. According to the authors, the study is the first to show that early palliative care alone for a...
Long-term follow-up from a phase Ib trial (KEYNOTE-001) in newly diagnosed and previously treated patients with advanced melanoma showed that 40% of patients were alive 3 years after starting the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda), with similar 36-month...
For a longer-form examination of these data, click here. A retrospective analysis from a large, federally funded clinical trial finds that the location of the primary tumor within the colon predicts survival and may help inform optimal treatment selection for patients with metastatic colorectal...
Current guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) recommend that operable patients with clinical stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) should receive induction chemotherapy (with or without concurrent radiotherapy) ...
Untreated severe obstructive sleep apnea is associated with increased aggressiveness of malignant cutaneous melanoma, according a multicenter, prospective study. The new study, which involved researchers from 24 teaching hospitals that are part of the Spanish Sleep and Breathing Network, was...
Moreau et al found that adding the oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro) to lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone significantly prolonged progression-free survival among patients with relapsed, refractory, or relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. They reported the findings from the...
A new report assesses how the nation fared against the ambitious goal set by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to reduce cancer death rates by 50% over 25 years ending in 2015. The report finds areas where progress was substantial, and others where it was not. Published by Byers et al in CA: A ...
AstraZeneca announced on May 12 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for the investigational MEK 1/2 inhibitor selumetinib (AZD6244, ARRY-142886) for adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III or IV differentiated thyroid cancer. Differentiated...
A promising new test is detecting prostate cancer more precisely than current tests by identifying molecular changes in the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) protein, according to Cleveland Clinic research presented at the 111th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA)...
Women with breast cancer who know the characteristics of their tumor are more likely to receive the treatment recommended for their type of cancer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators reported in a new study. The study, published by Freedman et al in the Journal of Oncology Practice, is...
Men with low levels of the male sex hormone testosterone need not fear that testosterone replacement therapy will increase their risk of prostate cancer. This is the finding of an analysis of more than a quarter-million medical records of mostly white men in Sweden, research led by investigators at ...
The use of combination therapy with estrogen plus progestin, previously shown to be associated with an increased incidence of estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women in studies based largely on white women, has been shown to increase estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer ...
Pathologists disagree about 8% of the time when interpreting a single breast biopsy slide, with more overinterpretation than underinterpretation in discordant cases, according to an analysis combining results from the B-Path (Breast Pathology) study with data on the prevalence of breast cancer...
The survival benefits of reducing the time to surgery following a diagnosis of breast cancer and the time to initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery were outlined in two articles and an accompanying editorial in JAMA Oncology. Analyzing two independent population-based studies with a...
On April 14, 2016, an 18-month-old patient with cancer named Baron Yerby flew home to Atlanta after receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. However, instead of flying on a crowded commercial plane with the potential for immune deficiency issues, he and his parents flew on a...
In 1997, just 6 weeks after giving birth to my second child, I started having fevers and night sweats and my lymph nodes were swollen. I’m a physician, so I knew something was wrong and that my symptoms were unrelated to having just given birth. I had a blood test, and a biopsy was performed on one ...
On April 13, The Parker Foundation announced a $250 million grant to launch the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a collaboration between scientists, clinicians, and industry partners to lead an unprecedented cancer immunotherapy research effort. The gift is the largest single contribution ...
Imagine accidentally falling off an abyss. One simply cannot fully understand the gravity of the situation! You might skip a beat thinking about it while sitting in a chair in your living room, if you have tons of empathy, as you try to get into the shoes that are flailing for survival. But there...
In 2006, palliative care became a board-certified subspecialty of internal medicine, with specialized fellowships for physicians interested in the field. Despite its formal integration into best practices medical care, about 70% of Americans describe themselves as “not at all knowledgeable” about ...
Surveys indicate that cancer survivors have varying desires regarding the kind of support they want. Some patients find support groups very helpful as they deal with the host of issues in survivorship. Others want to distance themselves from the “world of cancer.” Studies also show that...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it is expanding its award-winning “The Real Cost” campaign to educate rural white male teenagers about the negative health consequences associated with smokeless tobacco use. For the first time, messages on the dangers of smokeless tobacco...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been working together for many years on an idea known as breakthrough therapy, and it has produced results beyond anyone’s hopes. Said Ellen Sigal, PhD, Friends Chair and Founder, “When we were first talking...
Phase I Study Title: A Phase I Study to Examine the Toxicity of Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for Relapsed or Therapy-Refractory Ewing Sarcoma Study Type: Interventional/nonrandomized/single-group assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: University of Louisville Purpose: To examine the...
Press briefing moderator Julie Margenthaler, MD, of Washington University Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis, who is Communications Committee Chair for the American Society of Breast Surgeons, agreed that surveillance would be acceptable only within a clinical trial, and one is underway now....
Sheldon M. Feldman, MD, was named President of the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) at the organization’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Feldman is the Chief of Breast Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and the Vivian L. Milstein Associate...
ASCO launched a new and improved website in early April, with a focus on improving the user experience. The Society’s redesigned online home makes it easier than ever for members and visitors to find the oncology-related information and resources they trust and value. The site’s redesign is the...
Not all men with prostate cancer benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy after radical prostatectomy; however, African American men and men with a higher tumor stage may, according to a new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) study (Abstract PI LBA 06) featured at the 111th Annual Scientific...
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 March 30, 2016, defibrotide sodium (Defitelio) was approved for...