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Showing 10351 - 10400MicroRNA miR-181a Reduces NFκB Signaling in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas
A recent study by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine showed that a microRNA called miR-181a dampens signals from the cancer-driving NFκB protein pathway in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). By reducing NFκB...
Pathologic Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy Associated With Improved Outcomes in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
Pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer was associated with a significantly better outcome vs non–pathologic complete response, in a patient-level meta-analysis reported by Broglio et al in JAMA Oncology. Response vs No Response The study included...
New Commission on Cancer Standards Clarifies and Emphasizes Process, Quality, Data Reporting, and More
The 2016 edition of the Commission on Cancer’s accreditation standards manual clarifies and provides additional information in many areas and raises the bar for compliance in some, including psychosocial distress screening, survivorship care, data reporting, and activities in prevention and...
Outcome Measures in Quality and Identifying High-Quality Practice
At this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Craig Earle, MD, MSc, of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, used Donabedian’s Triad—structure, process, and outcome—to set the stage for his presentation on the science of quality. “The theory behind Donabedian’s Triad is that structure...
Experts Consider What It Means to Improve Quality of Care in an Era of Increasing Reliance on Targeted Therapies
Precision medicine is judged according to different values across the multiple stakeholders involved in cancer care. At this year’s Quality Care Symposium, presenters from different sectors of oncology addressed a central question: How do we assess quality in the age of precision medicine?1,2 Right ...
A Business Professor and Husband Turns Breast Cancer Researcher
In more than 25 years of viewing posters at oncology meetings, I’ve met researchers from virtually all professional walks of life, but it was not until the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, that the author’s affiliation turned my head: It was a business school. “Utilizing Metastatic Tumor...
Metastatic Breast Cancer With Discordant Tumors: Small Study Reports Treatment by Primary Status May Improve Survival
In a small retrospective series, patients with metastatic breast cancer treated according to the receptor status of the primary tumor, not the metastatic one, had significantly longer median overall survival. The study was reported at the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference by T. Allen Pannell, Jr, ...
Breast Cancer Vaccines Moving Forward at a Fast Clip
Vaccines for both secondary and primary prevention of breast cancer are showing potential in clinical trials, according to Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, who is leading much of the vaccine research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Vaccine platforms being explored...
Expert Point of View: Kathleen Moore, MD
Session moderator Kathleen Moore, MD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, said that while the response rates are “not incredibly high,” trabectedin offers another line of therapy where there previously was none. “I think ...
Trabectedin Improves Progression-Free Survival in Uterine Leiomyosarcoma
In women with uterine leiomyosarcoma, trabectedin (Yondelis), a novel cytotoxic agent, significantly improved progression-free survival, compared with dacarbazine (4.2 vs 1.5 months, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55, P < .001). According to the study’s authors, a lack of cumulative toxicity allows...
Computer-Assisted Decision Support in Medical Oncology: We Need It Now
Today’s medical oncologist is increasingly challenged to stay current with the latest developments in cancer treatment. I have been fortunate to speak with many oncologists over the past quarter-century on how professional life has evolved since the 1990s. These conversations have left me with a...
Throwing Out the Baby With the Bathwater: A Critical Appraisal of the USPSTF Recommendation Against Screening for Prostate Cancer
In 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a recommendation against routine screening for prostate cancer.1,2 The grade D recommendation was considered controversial at the time, and remains so now, because many stakeholders have weighed the same body of evidence and come to...
The POPLAR Trial: PD-L1 Blockade With Atezolizumab in Second- or Third-Line Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The randomized phase II POPLAR trial—reported by Fehrenbacher and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—is another key piece of information for the medical community regarding the value of immune checkpoint blockers in second/third-line treatment of patients with non–small cell...
ENDO 2016: Engineered Ovary Implant Restores Fertility in Mice
Northwestern University scientists used a three-dimensional (3D) printer to create a prosthetic ovary—an implant that allowed mice that had their ovaries surgically removed to bear live young. The results were presented by Laronda et al on Saturday, April 2, at the Endocrine Society's Annual...
ENDO 2016: BPA Changes Fetal Development of the Mammary Gland, Can Raise Breast Cancer Risk
A new culture system that tests the role of chemical exposure on the developing mammary gland has found that bisphenol A (BPA) directly affects the mammary gland of mouse embryos. The study results, presented by Speroni et al Friday, April 1, at the Endocrine Society's Annual Meeting in Boston...
TP53 Gene Variant S47 May Contribute to Increased Cancer Risk in People of African Descent
For years, clinical data have shown that African Americans have a higher death rate and shorter period of survival among patients with commonly diagnosed cancers. While studies have focused on whether socioeconomic factors contribute to these statistics, researchers have been diligently trying to...
Widely Cited Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening Publications Influence Biopsy Rates and Associated Complications
While absolute rates of biopsy and postbiopsy complications have decreased following several benchmark prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening publications, the relative risk for each patient continues to increase, according to a new study by Mayo Clinic researchers. The study is the largest to...
Lung Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Individuals With a Negative Low-Dose CT Prevalence Screen
In an analysis of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) cohort reported in The Lancet Oncology, Patz et al found that participants who had a negative low-dose computed tomography (CT) prevalence screen had a low incidence of lung cancer detected at first annual screen and exhibited reduced...
ASCO Endorses Cancer Care Ontario Recommendations on Decision-Making in Adjuvant Systemic Therapy for Early-Stage, Operable Breast Cancer
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by N. Lynn Henry, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline recommendations on the role of patient and disease factors in decisions on adjuvant systemic...
Endoscopic Mucosal Resection Is an Alternative to Surgery in Most Patients With Complex Colon Polyps
Using the latest advances in endoscopic resection techniques, more than 75% of patients with complex colon polyps could avoid surgery for their polyp removal, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings, published by Raju et al in Gastrointestinal ...
PET Probe [18F]CFA Detects Deoxycytidine Kinase Activity, May Lead to New Ways to Improve Response to Treatment
A promising new discovery by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) scientists could lead to a new method of identifying cancer patients whose disease expresses high levels of an enzyme and who are more likely to respond to particular treatments. Their findings were published by Kim et al in...
Therapeutic Combinations May Prevent Resistance to CDK4/6 Inhibition in Estrogen Receptor–Positive Breast Cancer
In preclinical studies, breast cancer cells became resistant to therapeutics targeting CDK4/6, such as palbociclib (Ibrance), in multiple ways. According to the research published by Herrera-Abreu et al in Cancer Research, different combinations of therapeutics might prevent and overcome the...
Meta-analysis of Gene-Expression Datasets Identifies Novel Five-Gene Pancreatic Cancer Classifier
Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage, when curative treatment is no longer possible. A team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) identified and validated an accurate five-gene classifier for discriminating early pancreatic cancer from nonmalignant...
ASCO Guideline on Use of Biomarkers to Guide Decisions on Adjuvant Systemic Therapy in Women With Early-Stage Invasive Breast Cancer
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Harris et al, ASCO released a clinical practice guideline on the use of biomarkers in addition to estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor and HER2 status to guide decisions on adjuvant systemic therapy in women with early-stage invasive breast...
MRI-Guided Adaptive Reoptimization in Radiotherapy Shows Promise in Urinary Bladder Cancer Treatment
A new radiotherapy technique could help doctors to focus treatment more precisely on tumors in the bladder and reduce damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Researchers showed that pretreatment imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was effective at guiding radiotherapy toward tumors in the...
Microneedle Patch Delivers Localized Anti–PD-1 Antibody Immunotherapy to Melanoma in Preclinical Models
Biomedical engineering researchers at North Carolina State University (NC State) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill) have developed a technique that uses a patch embedded with microneedles to deliver cancer immunotherapy treatment directly to the site of melanoma....
Minimal Residual Disease in AML: Worth Looking?
As summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, Ivey and colleagues demonstrated that assessing for NPM1-mutated gene transcripts by reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay is a feasible approach for measuring minimal residual disease after acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...
Quality Improvement Projects Aim at Reducing Errors in Prescribing IV and Oral Chemotherapy
Two quality improvement projects described in the Journal of Oncology Practice resulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous (IV) and oral chemotherapy. A project at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types of...
Patients Diagnosed With Stage I to III Rectal Cancer at Younger Age Have Increased Risk for Positive Lymph Nodes
Patients diagnosed with stage I to III rectal cancer at a younger age are at increased risk of having positive lymph nodes, according to an analysis of data published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “This finding merits further investigation and may ultimately impact treatment...
340B Drug Pricing Program Revisited
I have to disagree with some of the conclusions drawn by Drs. Hagop Kantarjian and Robert Chapman in their editorial on the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which appeared in the January 25 issue of The ASCO Post. Although I’m sure I’m not the best person to provide an alternate view, I do feel strongly...
I Never Forget I Have Cancer
I have a history of fibrocystic breasts, which required biopsies to make certain the cysts were benign, and for years they were. But in 2009, my mammogram screening picked up a suspicious lump in my right breast, which turned out to be stage III estrogen receptor–positive/progesterone...
Somebody’s Watching You: Meet the Tweet Trackers of the Social Oncology Project
In a one-story concrete industrial building across the street from a lumberyard in Austin, Texas, Greg Matthews and his computers are tracking everything that more than 500,000 U.S.-based physicians post publicly on social media. Every tweet. Every public blog, Facebook, or Instagram post. Every...
Expect Questions and Heightened Interest About Bilateral Mastectomy
Recently released data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) showed that the rate of mastectomies increased between 2005 and 2013, with much of that increase attributed to bilateral mastectomies among women with early-stage cancer in one breast opting for bilateral...
The Perplexing Increase in Bilateral Mastectomies
The increased rate of bilateral mastectomies, as shown in recently released data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is “perplexing,” Ismail Jatoi, MD, PhD, told The ASCO Post. “We are seeing more and more women with unilateral breast cancer opt for bilateral mastectomy,...
A Cancer Patient’s Harried Survivorship Story
There are approximately 14 million cancer survivors in the United States, a number that is steadily increasing, thanks to our advances in detection and treatment. However, surviving cancer can leave a host of physical, emotional, and financial hardships for years after diagnosis and treatment. In ...
A Hard Look at the Connection Between Germs and Mental Illness
The relationship between disease and microbes was first proposed in the 17th century, but the basic standards for proving that infection causes disease were not laid down until 1883, when the German bacteriologists Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler provided the first evidence of the processes...
A Doctor’s Prescription for a Long Life
Longevity is a common goal among humans. And like all things human, it is not distributed equally. According to world health data, Japan is number one on the longevity list; its 130 million citizens have a life expectancy of about 84.74 years. The sub-Saharan country of Chad is number 224, having ...
A Gene Hunter’s Advice on How to Take Control of Your Genetic Inheritance
Since the late 1970s, researchers have identified several gene mutations that are implicated in cancer. Many of these mutations are acquired during our lifetime, but, as we know, some are inherited in families. Identifying heritable cancer-causing genetic mutations is a double-edged sword,...
A Drop of Blood
I was a third-year internal medicine resident, rotating through the oncology service, when I was asked to perform my first circumcision. My team was rounding on Tom, a 52-year-old gentleman currently receiving third-line treatment for metastatic esophageal cancer; we were discussing at length his...
A Fight to Remember
In 2006, one of my close friends, Robert O’Connor, won the mayoral race for my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Everyone loved Robert, affectionately known as “Bob” and often referred to as “The People’s Mayor.” Bob was “Mr. Pittsburgh,” and it was his promise to reverse the city’s...
Benefiting From Mind-Body Therapy
My diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer at age 35 was a shock, also because I come from a family with no history of cancer. In disbelief, I was literally speechless—I lost my voice completely for several days. I grew up in the former Soviet Union and then in the newly independent Kyrgyzstan. My...
Expert Point of View: Carlos Arteaga, MD
Carlos Arteaga, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tennessee, said, “Breast-conserving therapy is the right thing to do. This study will not change current practice guidelines. Mastectomy is generally reserved for larger tumors and those with multifocal disease. The study just...
Study Shows Breast-Conserving Therapy Beats Mastectomy, but Questions Remain
Breast-conserving therapy (lumpectomy plus radiation therapy) appears to improve 10-year overall survival for women with early breast cancer compared with mastectomy, according to a very large population-based study from the Netherlands.1 However, the study raises more questions than it answers,...
Expert Point of View: Wells Messersmith, MD
Wells Messersmith, MD, Professor and Head of Medical Oncology and Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program, University of Colorado, Denver, discussed the two studies. Closer Look at STEAM Dr. Messersmith said the FOLFOXIRI (fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, oxaliplatin, irinotecan) vs FOLFOX...
Studies Evaluate Bevacizumab-Containing Regimens in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Two trials reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium evaluated bevacizumab (Avastin)-containing regimens in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and supported some, but not all, previous findings. The STEAM trial found some numerical differences but no...
The Time Is Now for the Worldwide Cancer Community to Be Proactive
The ASCO Post recently spoke with nationally recognized surgical oncologist Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, Jerald L & Carolynn J. Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology & Global Health; Vice Chair of Education; and Program Director, General Surgery Residency, University of Nebraska ...
New High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Advances Treatment for Prostate Cancer
For the estimated 220,000 men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, deciding on a method of treatment can be a challenge. Some with early-stage cancer pursue active surveillance, while others with more severe cancer immediately pursue surgery, including prostatectomy. Others fall...
Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer: PARP Inhibitors and Defects in DNA Repair
New data on molecular biomarkers in advanced prostate cancer are accumulating at a fast pace. The studies in this area can now be broadly grouped in two distinct areas—those that broadly relate to androgen signaling and those that relate to DNA-repair pathways. The Androgen-Signaling Pathway With...
Introduction of New Diagnostic Devices in Oncology: New Is Not Necessarily Better
“New!” “Improved!” “Throw out that old [fill in the blank] and go buy a new [fill in the blank]!” Sound familiar? The key to marketing is to convince customers that they need a product without which they had previously been quite happy. All too often, this strategy is accompanied by a caveat emptor ...
Potential Overdiagnosis of Contralateral Breast Cancer With Preoperative Breast MRI in Older Women With Breast Cancer
In an analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Shi-Yi Wang, MD, PhD, of Yale School of Public Health, and colleagues found that the use of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was associated with...
