Although literature demonstrates a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease in individuals with various cancers—including squamous cell cancers (SCC) and basal cell cancers (BCC)—there is a paucity of literature to substantiate an association between malignant melanoma and...
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) have a survival advantage if they receive treatment at a pediatric cancer center vs an adult center, according to a study published by Muffly et al in Blood Advances. The findings also suggest that treatment at a center...
On April 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for Priority Review a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for nivolumab (Opdivo) to treat patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) whose disease has progressed after two or more prior lines of therapy. ...
ASCO AND THE ONCOLOGY COMMUNITY mourn the loss of Karen Durham, who passed away on March 26, 2018, in Tyler, Texas. Karen was a highly respected and beloved advocate for people living with cancer. Karen was diagnosed with stage II invasive breast cancer in 1989 and began volunteering with Susan...
ASCO AND THE ONCOLOGY COMMUNITY are deeply saddened by the loss of James F. Holland, MD, FASCO, who passed away on March 22, 2018. He was 92. Dr. Holland was a Distinguished Professor of Neoplastic Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at...
THE NEUROENDOCRINE Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF) has awarded six new research grants, totaling about $1.85 million, to leading academic institutions around the world. The grants fund clinical, translational, and basic research in the United States, Australia, Switzerland, and the United...
THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) have announced that the 2018 Heine H. Hansen Award was given to Fabrice Barlesi, MD, PhD. The award was presented at the 2018 European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC 2018) in early...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Ting Bao, MD, DABMA, MS, reviews the current data on the use of massage to...
A new study published by Banegas et al in JNCCN–Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has found that cancer care costs in the United States are higher for people under age 65—and that costs increase with disease stage. Despite the fact that nearly half of new cancer...
On April 18, Calithera Biosciences, Inc, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to CB-839 in combination with cabozantinib (Cabometyx) for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who have received one or two prior lines ...
On April 19, Polyphor announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation for its novel immuno-oncology candidate balixafortide (POL6326) in combination with eribulin (Halaven) for the treatment of patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib and Landgren review the underlying data that shaped the updated International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) diagnostic criteria for...
Barbara McAneny, MD, Co-Founder and CEO, New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants; President-Elect, American Medical Association, speaks during Panel 2: The Business of Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School,...
Actinic keratoses may show extension down into follicles, not only in cases with full-thickness epidermal atypia (bowenoid actinic keratosis), but also in cases with atypia limited to the epidermal basalis. Previous studies have demonstrated that, in bowenoid actinic keratosis, follicular...
The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) has released the 2018 Community Oncology Practice Impact Report, which tracks data on the changing landscape of cancer care in the United States. It details a decade-long trend of closure and consolidation in the U.S. cancer system that has resulted in a...
A new type of cancer vaccine has yielded promising results in an initial clinical trial conducted at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The personalized vaccine is made from a patient’s own immune ...
On April 12, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital launched the St. Jude Cloud, an online data-sharing and collaboration platform that provides researchers access to the world's largest public repository of pediatric cancer genomics data. Developed as a partnership among St. Jude,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently finalized two guidances to drive the efficient development of next-generation sequencing, which scans a person’s DNA to diagnose genetic diseases, and guide medical treatments. The guidances provide recommendations for designing,...
Pfizer recently announced that the independent data monitoring committee for the phase III ATLAS trial, which is evaluating axitinib (Inlyta) as adjuvant therapy for patients at high risk of recurrent renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after nephrectomy, recommended stopping the trial at a planned interim...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Kutluk Oktay, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on fertility preservation in adults and children with cancer. The update was informed by an update panel systematic...
On April 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved osimertinib (Tagrisso) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations, as...
Norman Sharpless, MD, Director, National Cancer Institute, presents the Keynote Address at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.
Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, presents the Keynote Address at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow Cancer Hospital...
Charles Sawyers, MD, Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, speaks during Panel 5: Legal and Policy Issues Associated With Cutting-Edge Cancer Treatments at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and...
Peter Bach, MD, MAPP, Director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, speaks during Panel 4: Drug Development and the Cost of Researching and Treating Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and...
Amy Kapczynski, JD, Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Global Health Justice Partnership, Yale Law School, speaks during Panel 4: Drug Development and the Cost of Researching and Treating Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy ...
Jeffrey Schwartz, MBA, Managing Director, Bain Capital Life Sciences, speaks during Panel 4: Drug Development and the Cost of Researching and Treating Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration...
Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President, Global Development & Medical Affairs, Eli Lilly, speaks during Panel 4: Drug Development and the Cost of Researching and Treating Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale...
Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, Chief, Division of Population Sciences, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, speaks during Panel 3: Cancer, Health Justice, and Disparities at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The...
Blase Polite, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center, speaks during Panel 3: Cancer, Health Justice, and Disparities at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with...
Otis Brawley, MD, Chief Medical Officer, American Cancer Society, speaks during Panel 3: Cancer, Health Justice, and Disparities at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow Cancer Hospital and...
Lee Newcomer, MD, MHA, Senior Vice President, Oncology, Genetics and Women’s Health, UnitedHealthcare, speaks during Panel 2: The Business of Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow...
Randall Oyer, MD, Medical Director, Oncology Program, Lancaster General Hospital, speaks during Panel 2: The Business of Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow Cancer Hospital and...
Ed Benz, MD, President and CEO Emeritus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, speaks during Panel 2: The Business of Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer...
Abe Lopman, MBA, Senior Vice President, Operations; Executive Director, Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, speaks during Panel 2: The Business of Cancer at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration...
Richard Schilsky, MD, Chief Medical Officer, ASCO, speaks during Panel 1: Is the Federal Government a Productive Partner in Cancer Policy? at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow Cancer...
A diet high in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables—along with exercise and maintaining a healthy body weight—can improve the 5-year survival rate for patients with stage III colorectal cancer, according to a new report published by Van Blarigan et al in JAMA Oncology. The findings...
On April 9, the phase III KEYNOTE-042 trial evaluating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC, including nonsquamous or squamous histologies) met its primary endpoint of overall survival (OS). An ...
Nancy Goodman, JD, MPP, Executive Director, Kids V Cancer, speaks during Panel 1: Is the Federal Government a Productive Partner in Cancer Policy? at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow...
Nancy Goodman, JD, MPP, Executive Director, Kids V Cancer, speaks during Panel 1: Is the Federal Government a Productive Partner in Cancer Policy? at The Policy, Politics and Law of Cancer, presented by The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, in collaboration with Smilow...
People with stage III colon cancer who regularly eat tree nuts are at significantly lower risk of cancer recurrence and mortality than those who don’t, according to findings published by Fadelu et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 Study Findings The study followed 826 participants in the...
Recently, Curant House announced the publication of Healing Hope: Through and Beyond Cancer by Wendy S. Harpham, MD, FACP, a physician-survivor of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and award-winning thought leader in survivorship. In this book (her eighth), Dr. Harpham presents 50 illness-related aphorisms in...
Some T cells have excellent memories. These subtypes—known as memory T cells—may explain why some immunotherapies are more effective than others and could potentially lead to researchers designing more effective studies using combination checkpoint blockade treatments, according to...
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 14% of all lung cancers and is often rapidly resistant to chemotherapy, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Treatment has changed little for decades, but a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center offers a potential explanation for...
On April 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fostamatinib disodium hexahydrate (Tavalisse) for the treatment of thrombocytopenia in adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment. Fostamatinib is an oral spleen ...
I’ll admit it. When I was first asked if I would chair the Cancer Control for Primary Care (CCPC) Course in Bhutan, I immediately exclaimed yes... and then sheepishly went to look up where exactly Bhutan was on a map. For the uninitiated, Bhutan is a country nestled between India and Tibet in the...
The second year of the Quality Payment Program (QPP), established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), began on January 1, 2018. This year, oncology practices face more robust quality reporting requirements to successfully participate in QPP and avoid a financial penalty in...
ASCO is launching ASCO Practice Central, a new website that serves as an online information hub to help oncology professionals navigate a complicated and ever-changing practice environment while providing high-quality patient care. The first ASCO website dedicated to the business of oncology, ASCO...
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is April 28, 2018. Help ASCO educate patients about how to dispose of unused or expired medications by equipping them with the ASCO Answers fact sheet on Safe Storage and Disposal of Pain Medications. Download a free copy at www.cancer.net/ascoanswers or...
ASCO and ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation are proud to recognize the winners of ASCO’s Special Awards and Conquer Cancer’s Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards. The recipients of these awards include researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology leaders who have worked to transform...