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Showing 10451 - 10500Study Questions Routine Use of Imaging after Treatment for Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma
Most relapses following treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are detected by abnormalities on physical exam, lab tests, and symptoms—not by routine imaging, according to a study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.1 In fact, in a prospective study assessing post-treatment outcomes of...
Expert Point of View: Sandra M. Swain, MD, FACP
Sandra M. Swain, MD, FACP, Immediate Past President of ASCO commented on the findings. “This is an exciting discovery and an example of early success in precision medicine. It’s targeting PI3K-delta, which is overactive in B-cell malignancies and is used in a disease that is very refractory to...
Expert Point of View: Clifford A. Hudis, MD
“This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the treatment of cancer,” commented Clifford A. Hudis, MD, President-Elect of ASCO and moderator of the press briefing. “These studies focus on our ability to productively manipulate the immune system by targeting PD-L1 and PD-1, which allows the ...
Expert Point of View: Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD
This study should be placed in the context of treating to cure, said Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine and Chief of Medical Oncology at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. “If we can further increase the cure rate in stage III non–small cell lung cancer...
Impressive Results Shown for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: Anti-PD1 and Anti-PD-L1 Antibodies
Antibody-mediated blockade of the programmed death 1 protein (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) resulted in potent and durable tumor regression and prolonged stabilization of disease in patients with advanced solid tumors, according to early data on these drugs presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting. ...
'Less Is More' with Regard to Adjuvant Radiation in Stage III Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Standard-dose conformal radiotherapy (60 Gy) is more effective and safer than high-dose radiotherapy (74 Gy) in patients with locally advanced stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergoing chemotherapy, according to results of the phase III randomized, controlled Radiation Therapy...
One Cancer Center's Approach to Death with Dignity
In November 2008, the Washington State legislature passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act allowing patients with a terminal diagnosis and less than 6 months to live to request and self-administer lethal medication. After considerable internal debate, our cancer center elected to develop a...
Caring for the Whole Patient Both during Active Treatment and at End of Life
Despite studies showing that a majority of patients prefer to die at home rather than in an institutional setting,1 in many parts of the country, over 30% die in nursing homes and over 50% die in hospitals, according to Ira Byock, MD, Director of Palliative Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical...
SIDEBAR: Understanding the PD-1/PD-L1 Pathway and Its Promise
Tumors can be recognized by the immune system, but they have multiple mechanisms for evading eradication by the immune system. The tumor microenvironment suppresses the immune response, partly because tumors can express molecules that inhibit immune responses. The cancer clinical trials summarized...
For Renowned Researcher, Seeing Basic Science Turn into Promising Therapies Is the 'Holy Grail' of Oncology
“From bench to bedside” is a phrase that captures the essence of modern oncology: Researchers at the bench seek to solve the biologic puzzles of cancer that can translate into the development of therapeutics delivered at the bedside. Owen N. Witte, MD, has spent most of his career as a basic bench...
The Power of Listening: From Candy Striper to the Front Lines of the Early AIDS Pandemic
Alexandra Levine, MD, MACP, the Chief Medical Officer of City of Hope National Medical Center, has traveled to 74 countries, seeking out adventures in some of the world’s most far-flung regions. Her illustrious oncology journey has also been an adventure, from the front lines of the AIDS pandemic...
Expert Genitourinary Oncologist's Drive Led Her from Baghdad to the United States
Born in Baghdad, Iraq, renowned prostate and bladder cancer specialist Maha H. Hussain, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, remembers that she always wanted to become a doctor. She had strong role models in three uncles who were...
UICC President Balances Innovation and Pragmatism to Reduce the Global Burden of Cancer
Mary K. Gospodarowicz, MD, FRCPC, is determined to help reduce the worldwide burden of cancer, a problem of epic proportions. Her approach is simple: adopt what works and reject what doesn’t. Much progress in the fight against cancer can be made without waiting for the next paradigm-changing...
Pioneering Oncologist's Research on Cisplatin Revolutionized Testicular Cancer Treatment
Lawrence H. Einhorn, MD, grew up in Dayton, Ohio, in a time and place that he describes as pleasant and community-oriented. Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Einhorn has maintained strong roots in the Midwest. “After finishing high school, I did my undergrad at Indiana University and went to ...
After a Distinguished Career, Trailblazing Swiss Oncologist Remains Devoted to Addressing the Global Cancer Challenge
Switzerland, a landlocked country with a population about that of New York City, has four geographic regions, each with its own official language. Internationally regarded lymphoma and breast cancer expert, Franco Cavalli, MD, FRCP, was born and raised in Locarno, a town in the Italian region of...
Distinguished Researcher Changed the Face of Hematologic Malignancies
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, grew up in a steadfastly academic environment that spurned typical children’s entertainment such as comic books or television. Born in New York City during World War II, she moved to Washington, DC, with her family while her father, an expert on labor and industrial...
Prolific Surgical Oncologist Understands the True Value of Mentorship
Charles M. Balch, MD, FACS, PhD (hc), was born in Milford, Delaware, where his father was a research chemist for DuPont during World War II. “My father was part of the team that developed rayon for parachutes. It was a top priority program because they couldn’t get nylon from the Philippines. After ...
The Road to ASCO Presidency, Paved by Education and Persistence
ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, grew up in northeast Philadelphia in the 1960s, a robust period in U.S. history dominated by American industry and ingenuity. His early memories are of a hard-working blue-collar neighborhood of identical row and semidetached twin houses and of a time of...
Emil 'Tom' Frei III, MD 1924–2013
The pages of medical history are dog-eared with breakthroughs that have transformed medicine and saved lives. One of those dog-eared pages belongs to Emil Frei III, MD, known to his colleagues and friends as Tom. In the dawn of oncology, Dr. Frei, along with his associate, Emil Freireich, MD, did...
FDA Clears Multicenter Trial of Treatment for Hair Loss Related to Chemotherapy
The FDA has approved initiation of a multicenter trial of the DigniCap System, a scalp-cooling device for chemotherapy-related hair loss. The trial is the second and final phase of study for the DigniCap System. A pilot study previously conducted by researchers at the University of California San...
DCIS Score Quantifies Risk of Recurrence after Excision
The ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) Score, a multigene expression assay, quantifies the risk of local recurrence and invasive local recurrence for women with DCIS treated with surgical excision, researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “The DCIS Score can aid clinical...
Angelina Jolie's Disclosure of Prophylactic Bilateral Mastectomy: A Positive Example for Women with BRCA Mutations?
Angelina Jolie, in a New York Times article entitled “My Medical Choice,”1 disclosed that having a BRCA1 mutation and an estimated 87% risk of breast cancer, “I decided to be proactive and minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.” She was writing...
Circulating Tumor Cells with ALK Rearrangement in ALK-positive NSCLC
The diagnostic test for ALK rearrangement in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment currently uses biopsy or fine-needle aspiration. Pailler and colleagues assessed whether ALK rearrangement could be detected using circulating tumor cells. They analyzed circulating...
Living Without Fear
Even before I had a colonoscopy to determine the cause of abdominal pains I had been having, I instinctively knew that the news wouldn’t be good. A colonoscopy and subsequent pathology report confirmed stage IIIC colorectal cancer. Because I was just 47 years old at the time of my diagnosis and had ...
Focus on the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology
With a roster of over 600 members that includes community and institutional oncologists, administrators, registered nurses, and patient navigators, the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology (GASCO) is one of ASCO’s largest State Affiliates. Founded in 1986, the Atlanta-based Society is active in...
Vitamin D and Cancer: A Uniform Dose Is Unlikely to Fit All Patients
Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Barrie R. Cassileth, MS, PhD, Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service and Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. The Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center...
Dabrafenib for Unresectable or Metastatic Melanoma with BRAF V600E Mutation
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. Indication On May 29, 2013, dabrafenib (Tafinlar) was approved for ...
Improving Treatment and Care for Patients with Primary Brain Cancers
Despite advances in neuroimaging, the development of focused radiation therapy, and more effective chemotherapy, life expectancy for patients with primary malignant tumors of the brain and spinal cord remains stubbornly low at between 15 and 18 months. However, there are significant advances on the ...
Treating Both the Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Cancer
A growing number of people with cancer are being treated on an outpatient basis. At the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York, to ensure that the psychosocial and psychiatric needs of these patients were being...
Identification of Oncogenic Mutations in Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia and Atypical Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
Among the hematologic cancers for which molecular causes remain unclear are chronic neutrophilic leukemia and atypical (BCR-ABL1–negative) chronic myeloid leukemia. Both disorders currently are diagnosed on the basis of neoplastic expansion of granulocytic cells and exclusion of genetic factors...
Similar Short-term Outcomes with Laparoscopic vs Open Surgery for Rectal Cancer
As recently reported in Lancet Oncology by Martijn H.G.M. van der Pas, MD, of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and colleagues, the phase III COLOR II trial has shown that laparoscopic surgery can produce similar safety outcomes, resection margins, and completeness of resection compared with ...
ASCO's Guideline on Fertility Preservation
Direct your patients to www.cancer.net/whattoknow so they can learn about ASCO’s recent guideline on fertility preservation, including what the recommendations mean for patients and a list of questions to ask the doctor. In addition, patients can view an infographic on ASCO’s recommendations for...
ASCO Issues Guideline Update and Videos on Fertility Preservation
ASCO recently issued an update to its guideline on fertility preservation for people living with cancer, as well as two videos jointly produced with the LIVESTRONG Foundation. Both the guideline and videos are intended to raise awareness and understanding of this important area of cancer care....
In Memoriam: ASCO Remembers Founding Member Jane Cooke Wright, MD
Earlier this year, ASCO and the oncology community at large lost a true pioneer, mentor, and renowned researcher. It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Jane Cooke Wright, MD, one of seven founding members of ASCO—the only woman among the founders—and the Society’s first...
Reducing Unnecessary and High-dose Pediatric CT Scans Could Cut Future Cancers by More than Half
A study examining trends in x-ray computed tomography (CT) use in children in the United States has found that reducing unnecessary scans and lowering the doses for the highest-dose scans could lower the overall lifetime risk of future imaging-related cancers by 62%. The research was published...
Mitigating the Anxiety over Tumor Heterogeneity
This collaborative study with Foundation Medicine (Cambridge, Massachusetts), using very sensitive deep sequencing, partially mitigates some of the anxiety generated by the identification of tumor heterogeneity. While our data in lung cancer confirm that such heterogeneity exists, they also...
Study Shows High Concordance of Recurrent Somatic Alterations in Primary and Matched Metastatic NSCLC
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stéphane Vignot, MD, of Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) Unit 981, Paris, and Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif, France, and colleagues used next-generation sequencing to identify somatic alterations in...
ASTRO to Award Society's Highest Honor to Three Physicians and Researchers
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will award Amato J. Giaccia, PhD, Radhe Mohan, PhD, FASTRO, and Prabhakar Tripuraneni, MD, FASTRO, with the Society’s highest honor—the ASTRO Gold Medal. The 2013 awardees will receive the ASTRO Gold Medal during the society’s 55th Annual Meeting...
ASCO Joins a Global Alliance to Enable Responsible Sharing of Genomic and Clinical Data
ASCO has joined more than 70 leading health care, research, and disease advocacy organizations from around the world in taking the first steps to form an international alliance dedicated to enabling secure sharing of genomic and clinical data. The cost of genome sequencing has fallen one-million...
Expert Point of View: Andrew Seidman, MD
This study shows us that less can be more in the sentinel lymph node era. We can avoid complete axillary resection. As a medical oncologist, I have learned that less can be more in many settings. As a result of this study, I will be able to reassure my patients that radiation therapy to the axilla...
Axillary Radiotherapy: New Standard of Care in Node-positive Breast Cancer?
Radiotherapy to the axilla may replace axillary lymph node dissection for local tumor control in selected patients with sentinel node–positive breast cancer, sparing many patients lymphedema, according to the final results of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)...
Expert Point of View: Ann Partridge, MD
This study showed that 10 years of adjuvant tamoxifen reduced the risk of late recurrence in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, which is a major problem. The study also showed that ‘patience is a virtue’,” stated formal discussant Ann Partridge, MD, Director of the Adult Survivorship Program...
Sorafenib Halts Disease Progression in Metastatic Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
For the first time in decades, a drug has halted disease progression in treatment-resistant differentiated thyroid cancer, according to the results of a phase III study presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 No new drugs have been approved for differentiated thyroid cancer in 40 years, but...
Expert Point of View: Electra D. Paskett, PhD
Formal discussant Electra D. Paskett, PhD, Professor of Medicine at The Ohio State University, was enthusiastic about these trial results and the potential of visual inspection with acetic acid screening, as well as low-cost human papillomavirus (HPV) screening to save lives in the developing...
Simple Rapid Vinegar Test Cuts Cervical Cancer Death Rates by One-third in Rural India
In the era of personalized medicine for cancer care, it was both surprising and encouraging to hear about a simple low-tech intervention delivered by women in the community that cut the rate of death from cervical cancer in India by about one-third. The intervention, a simple visual inspection...
Expert Point of View: Gottfried Konecny, MD
Formal discussant Gottfried Konecny, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, also viewed the study as a game changer. He cited the strengths of the study, including its design, randomization with stratification, P values adjusted for multiple testing, and the...
Practice-changing Study Shows Survival Benefit for Antiangiogenesis in Advanced Cervical Cancer
The addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy prolongs overall survival in women with metastatic cervical cancer compared with chemotherapy alone, according to the results of a randomized phase III study presented at the Plenary Session of the ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Women on the...
SIDEBAR: GM-CSF plus Ipilimumab: Ready to Use in the Clinic?
Lynn Mara Schuchter, MD, the C. Willard Robinson Professor of Hematology-Oncology and Program Leader of the Melanoma Program at Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, commented on the wealth of promising agents now dotting the formerly barren landscape for...
GM-CSF Boosts Survival Benefit of Ipilimumab in Metastatic Melanoma
For metastatic melanoma, the activity of ipilimumab can be boosted by the addition of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF, Leukine), according to a phase II study that found the combination improved overall survival, vs ipilimumab alone. The results were presented at the 2013...
Using Quality Indicators Can Improve Outcomes among Patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma
An expert panel of 13 urologic and medical oncologists worked together to identify 23 quality indicators for renal cell carcinoma, as described in an article in the Journal of Oncology Practice. “These 23 [quality indicators] will provide a means of evaluating the quality of [renal cell carcinoma]...
