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Showing 10951 - 11000Aftermath of the AIDS Pandemic: Cancer Care in Botswana
The Republic of Botswana is slightly smaller than the state of Texas and with a population of just over 2 million people it is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. Botswana was among Africa’s poorest countries at the time it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966....
Alcohol Consumption Between Menarche and Pregnancy and Breast Cancer Risk: Factors in Risk Accumulation
In a study recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, we found a relationship between alcohol intake between menarche and first pregnancy and risk for breast cancer. Placing this study in context can help us interpret the data...
A Great IDEA: Supporting the Next Generation of Oncology Leaders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Leadership has been cited as a critical success factor for improving access to cancer care in low- and middle-income countries.1 Effective clinical leaders in these countries can be transformative by supporting the development of cancer treatments to meet the needs of their patients, by advocating...
Sheldon Davidson, MD: Helping Advance the Field of Oncology Through Philanthropy
Sheldon Davidson, MD, has been an ASCO member for nearly 30 years, and has been a donor to the Conquer Cancer Foundation since its origins as The ASCO Foundation nearly 15 years ago. As a practicing oncologist, Dr. Davidson’s explanation for why he has chosen to support the Conquer Cancer...
Comparative Effectiveness Research: Its Time Has Arrived
Reigning in the nation’s runaway medical costs was an underlying theme of President Obama’s health-care reform platform. Citing projects like The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which documented large gaps in the quality, costs, and outcomes of health services around the country, the...
Myeloma Foundation Launches Open Access Gateways to Accelerate Drug Development
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) has announced two open access gateways, the MMRF Researcher Gateway, which will upload genomic data as it becomes available and make it accessible to all researchers, and the MMRF CoMMunity Gateway, which will aggregate subtypes of myeloma patients...
American Society of Radiologic Technologists Mammography Checklist
The American Society of Radiologic Technologists has provided a preparation checklist to assist women in preparing for their annual mammograms. Tips include: Schedule your mammogram just after your menstrual period, when your breasts are less tender. Wear a two-piece outfit on the day of your...
Germline Mutations and Breast Cancer Prognosis: Does the Cause Matter?
Since the discovery of BRCA1 and BRCA2, investigators have sought to determine whether the presence of a germline mutation independently influences the outcome of a breast cancer diagnosed in a woman with an inherited mutation. The question is highly relevant to an unaffected woman with a mutation, ...
More Active Physician Intervention Needed to Keep Patients From Smoking
More active support and interventions by physicians are required to get patients who still smoke to stop, according to two articles published online by the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP),1,2 and to prevent school-aged children and adolescents from starting to use tobacco, according to a U.S....
ASCO Releases Statement on the Impact of the Government Shutdown on Cancer Care
All nonessential government services were suspended at midnight on October 1, 2013, after Congress failed to reach a budget compromise to keep the government funded before the start of the new fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2013. ASCO issued a statement in response to the government shutdown...
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Offers Near-Complete Tumor Control for Medically Inoperable Early-Stage NSCLC
Patients with stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are medically inoperable have an excellent chance at full local tumor control and long-term survival with stereotactic body radiation therapy. Hak Choy, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University...
Ancient Chinese Military Tactics Might Help Win the War on Lung Cancer
At the 14th International Lung Cancer Congress, held recently in Huntington Beach, California, Tony S.K. Mok, MD, Professor of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was the honored recipient of the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation Award. The award was presented by Ms....
Challenging and Changing the Standard of Care for Cervical and Ovarian Cancers
“It was a very exciting session this year, particularly for cervical cancers,” said Paul Haluska MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, in speaking of the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting’s gynecologic oncology session and the abstracts highlighted recently at Best of ASCO in Chicago. In one...
Important Findings in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Studies Address Treatment, Management Options
At the Best of ASCO Meeting in Los Angeles, Tony Reid, MD, PhD, Director of the Early Phase Clinical Research Program and Professor of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Diego, reviewed important findings in metastatic colorectal cancer presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual...
FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Status to Entinostat for Advanced Breast Cancer
Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated entinostat as a Breakthrough Therapy for the treatment of locally recurrent or metastatic estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer when added to exemestane in postmenopausal women whose disease ...
Applying Molecular Profiling to Clinical Practice: Promises and Challenges
A “new kind of pathology,” with anatomy and histology being supplemented by molecular etiology, has been emerging over the past decade and promises better response rates among patients with cancer, as genomic alterations continue to be identified and treated with targeted therapies. “The list of...
FDA Approves Nab-Paclitaxel for Late-Stage Pancreatic Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the approved uses of paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension, albumin-bound (nab-paclitaxel, Abraxane) to treat patients with late-stage pancreatic cancer. “Patients with pancreatic cancer are often diagnosed after the...
FDA Approves First Generic Capecitabine to Treat Colorectal and Breast Cancers
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic version of capecitabine (Xeloda), an oral chemotherapy agent used in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and breast cancers. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA has gained FDA approval to market generic capecitabine in 150...
Pathologic Complete Response as a Test Bed for Novel Therapies: Proceed—With Caution!
Pathologic complete response as assessed surgically after neoadjuvant treatment is being touted by some researchers as a stand-alone endpoint justifying early drug approval for breast cancer. They argue that it provides a more efficient means of testing the value of agents that might be useful in...
Expert Point of View: Monica Morrow, MD
Monica Morrow, MD, the Anne Burnett Windfohr Chair of Clinical Oncology and Chief of the Breast Service, Department of Surgery, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, congratulated Christiane K. Kuhl, MD, and colleagues for “an innovative approach to making screening magnetic...
Could MRI Be a Better Breast Cancer Screening Tool Than Mammography?
German investigators reported at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco that an abridged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol can accurately detect cancers among women whose mammographic screenings were negative.1 MRI, therefore, may reveal the type of tumor that mammography...
Radiation Therapy Is Safe in the Management of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: No Increase in Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Radiation therapy as part of the management of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) did not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease 10 years after treatment, according to a large retrospective study presented at a press conference held just prior to the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Longer...
Expert Point of View on ductal carcinoma in situ
In an e-mail interview, E. Shelley Hwang, MD, an expert who has coauthored several papers on ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), weighed in on the two abstracts about management of DCIS featured in this issue of The ASCO Post—one presented by Melissa L. Pilewskie, MD (perioperative MRI in DCIS, page...
What Is on the Horizon in the Management of Breast Cancer?
In Keynote Lectures during the 2013 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, experts George Sledge, MD, and Monica Morrow, MD, offered their opinions and outlook on how the medical and surgical management of breast cancer may continue to evolve over the next 5 to 10 years.1 Dr. Sledge is Chief of Oncology at...
Trying to Improve Value in Cancer Care: An Experiment
One of the more significant problems in modern oncology practice is to provide increased value at a time when costs are spiraling upward, and new parameters of “success” are being introduced into the equation—most visibly, inside the Beltway in Washington, DC. Thus, oncologists will need to address ...
Breast Cancer Care in the Era of Accountable Care Organizations
Prepare for big changes ahead, Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, told oncologists at the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium.1 One change is the emergence of...
Contemporary Studies Dispute Findings of Radiation-Induced Cardiotoxicity
At the 2013 Breast Cancer Symposium, studies suggested that with current radiotherapy techniques the mean radiation doses to the heart are much lower—and thus radiotherapy is presumably much safer—than findings suggested by an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine last spring.1...
Breast Cancer Radiotherapy and Cardiotoxicity: What Is the True Risk?
Evidence has long been accumulating that radiotherapy involving the heart can result in premature ischemic heart disease, but interest peaked last spring when a case control study published in The New England Journal of Medicine1 found an increased risk for cardiac-related deaths in breast cancer...
Intralesional Cytokine Therapy in Cutaneous Melanoma: A Call for Clinical Trials
Cutaneous melanomas are mostly an immunogenic group of tumors, but they are also heterogeneous. Therefore, therapeutic specificity and autogenetic approaches are essential to secure beneficial results. The objective of sentinel lymph node biopsy, at the time of diagnosis, is to identify patients...
Better Risk Communication Strategies Needed to Ensure Decision to Have Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy Is Evidence-Based
Overestimating the risk that cancer in one breast will affect the other breast may cause many young women with breast cancer to choose contralateral prophylactic mastectomy even though most know it does not clearly improve survival. In a survey of 123 women who were diagnosed with cancer in one...
CancerCare Launches New Edition of Financial Resource Guide for People With Cancer
CancerCare recently announced the launch of a new edition of A Helping Hand: The Resource Guide for People With Cancer, Financial Edition, a reference guide to assist patients with cancer and their families in navigating the financial resources available to them. A Helping Hand is a comprehensive...
Claudia I. Henschke, PhD, MD, Took a Circuitous Route to Her Groundbreaking Work in Lung Cancer Screening
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” —Leonardo da Vinci Lung cancer CT screening may have had no greater advocate than Claudia I. Henschke, PhD, MD. In the face of...
Lung Cancer Screening: Actionable Evidence
This recent paper in The New England Journal of Medicine outlines the details of the clinical outcomes with two incidence screens that were conducted as part of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST).1 In the wake of the positive review of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) draft...
Low-Dose CT Screening Identifies More Early Lung Cancer but Has Lower Positive Predictive Value vs Radiography
Results of the two rounds of annual incidence screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) vs radiography in the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) were recently reported by Denise R. Aberle, MD, Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering at the University of California at Los Angeles and...
AACR Cancer Progress Report 2013 Highlights Critical Importance of Biomedical Research
On September 17, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presented highlights of its 2013 Cancer Progress Report1 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. AACR Chief Executive Officer Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), opened the program with a double-edged message, first citing the...
'Master Protocol' Could Revolutionalize Trials in Lung Cancer, and Eventually Other Cancers
Cancer advocates and clinical trialists, for some time, have been proposing a radical change to the laborious drug development process—that industry, academia, funding sources, and other stakeholders actually pool their brain power and financial means and work together, not separately, to develop...
A Look Ahead: How the FDA Is Adapting in the Era of Precision Medicine
Dubbed “Cancer Czar” by the media, Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, said he has the “best job in oncology, with a unique vantage point in cancer drug development.” An oncologist for more than 30 years—including...
ASCO President-Elect Candidate Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO
Cost of Care and Federal Funding How can ASCO address the high cost of cancer care and diminishing federal resources for basic and translational research? We need to work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, private insurers, and health-care systems to encourage evidence-based...
ASCO President-Elect Candidate Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, FASCO
Cost of Care and Federal Funding How can ASCO address the high cost of cancer care and diminishing federal resources for basic and translational research? In answer to the first part of this question, the rising cost of cancer care has certainly become a focus of national conversation given the...
FDA Announces Class-Wide Safety Labeling Changes for Long-Acting Opioid Analgesics to Combat Abuse
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced class-wide safety labeling changes and new postmarketing study requirements for all extended-release and long-acting opioid analgesics intended to treat pain. “The FDA is invoking its authority to require safety labeling changes and postmarket...
Zhe-Bin Liu, MD, PhD, of China Receives 2013 Long-Term International Fellowship in Breast Cancer
Zhe-Bin Liu, MD, PhD, of Shanghai Cancer Center, Fudan University, China, is the recipient of the 2013 Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Long-Term International Fellowship (LIFe) in Breast Cancer, generously supported by The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The LIFe provides early-career...
Highlights on Quality Cancer Care for Patients
In advance of the 2013 Quality Care Symposium, ASCO released a second Top Five List in Oncology, as part of the ongoing Choosing Wisely® campaign that brings together the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation, ASCO, and other medical specialty organizations. Cancer.Net provides...
ASCO Teams Up with the GetWell Network to Provide More Patients With Education Resources
Through a new initiative and partnership with the GetWell Network, ASCO has begun to offer patient education content from its patient information website, Cancer.Net, to patients treated at hospitals within the GetWell Network community. The GetWell Network provides tools to hospitals to help...
International Cancer Corps Provides Valuable First-Time Volunteer Experience
Even as oncologists try to tackle the changing landscape of health care in the United States, many realize that both physicians and patients in this country are still in a better position than those fighting cancer abroad in low- and middle-income countries. In 2009, ASCO joined with Health...
SIDEBAR: IMWG Recommendations
The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) recommends intravenous zoledronic acid as first-line therapy and intravenous pamidronate as second-line therapy for all patients being treated for multiple myeloma, regardless of imaging findings.1 These drugs are given monthly for 2 years and can be...
Options for Management of Bone Health in Patients With Multiple Myeloma
Bone health is critical in patients with multiple myeloma, since up to 85% will suffer bone damage. Options for management include two FDA-approved bisphosphonates—pamidronate and zoledronic acid—and possibly the RANK-L inhibitor denosumab (Xgeva, investigational use). Importance of Supportive ...
Take-Home Messages From the NCCN Hematologic Malignancies Conference
As the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 8th Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies was drawing to a close, The ASCO Post spoke with Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, about the themes of the meeting and the take-home messages for attendees and for our readers. Dr. Zelenetz is Vice Chair...
New Strategies for Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma Explored
Although upfront therapy can achieve remission in multiple myeloma, most patients will ultimately relapse. Newer targeted therapies and genomic analysis are moving the management of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma forward, according to Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Director, Jerome Lipper Multiple...
The AVEX Trial
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Cunningham and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, the AVEX trial was an open-label randomized phase III trial limited to patients over the age of 70 years with previously untreated, unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer who were not...
Expert Point of View: Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD and Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD
At the European Cancer Congress (ECC), Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, Head of the Medical Oncology Department at Vall d’Hebron University in Barcelona, Spain, noted that the ASPECCT study asks a “reasonable question about the efficacy and safety of the two clinically approved anti-EGFR antibodies” and...
