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Showing 1101 - 1150Most Patients Do Not Report that Cure Is Highly Unlikely with Chemotherapy for Advanced Cancer
Chemotherapy for metastatic lung or colorectal cancer can provide palliation and modestly prolong life, but is not curative. In a study recently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jane C. Weeks, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Insitute, and colleagues found that the majority of patients...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions from Patients with Diabetes and Cancer
Patients with diabetes and cancer need to know that some chemotherapy drugs and adjuvant agents may require modifications in how they manage their diabetes. For example, patients who are receiving steroids might have to further restrict their diet to keep blood sugar levels under control. “You...
Keeping Diabetes under Control Is Critical to Good Outcomes for Patients Who Also Have Cancer
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Cancer and diabetes can be comorbid...
International Members Cite Networking, Enhanced Patient Care Among Benefits of ASCO Membership
Thanks to the membership category ASCO designed for physicians in developing countries, Brazilian oncologist Milena Mak, MD, can greatly enhance the care she delivers in the very busy 580-bed Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo. And radiation oncologist Pooja Nandwani Patel, MD, can use the...
Solving a 30-year Mystery
When I began experiencing severe neck and back pain about 9 years ago, I had no idea it could be a late side effect from the radiation therapy I had received 31 years ago to treat my Hodgkin lymphoma. And none of the doctors I’ve seen over the past decade have been able to make the connection...
Expert Point of View: William M. Grady, MD and Jordan Berlin, MD
William M. Grady, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, a member of the news planning team for the symposium, commented, “There has been considerable interest in determining whether molecular alterations in primary colorectal cancer are more accurate prognostic indicators than ...
Expert Point of View: Martin Dreyling, MD
“The BRIGHT study had a noninferiority design, but I question why BR was not found superior, because the StiL trial showed a huge difference in progression-free survival favoring BR,” said Martin Dreyling, MD, Professor at the University of Munich in Germany. “In BRIGHT, BR achieved higher...
Expert Point of View: William Oh, MD
“The durability of PSA response is encouraging [with ARN-509], as is the toxicity data, but these are relatively asymptomatic patients,” said formal discussant William Oh, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Professor of Medicine and Urology, and the Ezra M. Greenspan, MD, ...
Reduced Risk of PSA Failure with Adjuvant Radiotherapy vs Wait-and-see Approach in Stage T3 Prostate Cancer
Extended follow-up of the German ARO 96-02 trial shows that adjuvant radiotherapy reduces the risk of biochemical failure in men whose prostate cancer extends through the prostate capsule (stage T3), compared with a wait-and-see approach, after radical prostatectomy. Adjuvant radiotherapy reduced...
Building CancerLinQ: The Road to Faster, More Efficient Treatment Delivery
In June, Clifford A. Hudis, MD, Chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service and Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Professor in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, will begin his term as President of ASCO. Among Dr. Hudis’ priorities will be...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions from Your Patients
Recently reported data from the Prostate Cancer Outcome Study (PCOS) can “serve as a tool for a medical oncologist, a urologic oncologist, or a radiation oncologist to say, ‘Here is what could happen on average at 2, 5, 15 years after treatment with either surgery or radiation,’” according to the...
Recently Reported Long-term Outcomes Could Motivate More Men with Prostate Cancer to Consider Active Surveillance
Fifteen years after being treated with radical prostatectomy or external-beam radiation for localized prostate cancer, “the prevalence of erectile dysfunction was nearly universal,” among men enrolled in a long-term functional outcomes analysis of the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study (PCOS). There...
AACR Briefs Congressional Staffers on Importance of Continued Funding for Research
As we all now know, the start of the sequestration prescribed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 was delayed until March 1, 2013, by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. With Congress unable to strike a deal, the mandatory reductions in Federal spending were triggered on March 1. Those...
ASCO Leadership Development Program Participants 'Give Back' by Supporting the Conquer Cancer Foundation
In the fast-paced world of oncology, where the science of patient care is constantly evolving, it is critical for practitioners—and, by extension, their Society—to consistently be one step ahead. For ASCO and the Conquer Cancer Foundation, that means maintaining a strong focus not only on the...
Expert Point of View: Anthony V. D’Amico, MD, PhD
“Thirty-six months of hormone therapy is the standard of care for the treatment of high-risk prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy,” said formal discussant Anthony V. D’Amico, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Genitourinary...
Does All DCIS Need Treatment? Debaters Take Sides at Surgical Oncology Meeting
There are a few things about ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) on which everyone agrees: Incidence increased dramatically with the advent of mammography screening, not all cases detected will go on to cause symptoms in the patient’s lifetime, and there’s no proven way to tell which cases will...
Sexual Health after Cancer: Communicating with Your Patients
Studies show virtually all cancer survivors will experience some form of sexual dysfunction following a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Yet few cancer survivors seek help for physical problems they may be experiencing, such as vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, chemically induced menopause, reduced...
Sentinel Node Biopsy in Melanoma: Essential or Optional?
Is sentinel node biopsy in melanoma an essential component of care? Despite a large multinational trial and recently published or updated guidelines, the question is still a thorny one according to experts who debated the issue at the recent meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology in...
NCCN Patient Guidelines for Adolescents and Young Adults
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has issued new NCCN Guidelines for Patients, titled “Caring for Adolescents and Young Adults [AYA].” These guidelines fill an unmet need in oncology, as Peter F. Coccia, MD, Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Young Adult Oncology and a member of...
Debt and the Oncology Fellow
Despite today’s challenging economy, health care is one field that offers vast career opportunities. Oncology, with the impending workforce shortage, is especially eager for bright young doctors to join its ranks. But the rising costs of medical school can be a deterrent, leading the best and...
ASCO President’s Personal Philanthropy Honors Founder Jane C. Wright, MD
During her term as ASCO President, Sandra M. Swain, MD, FACP, of the Washington Cancer Institute has kept a solid focus on her presidential and 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting theme of “Building Bridges to Conquer Cancer.” These bridges take many forms, spanning challenges to be overcome in oncology...
Managing Female Reproductive Complications after Cancer Treatment in Children and Young Adults
Follow-up care for female patients treated for cancer as children, adolescents, or young adults should include assessment and management of the late effects that therapy may have on reproductive health, as detailed in updated guidelines from the Children’s Oncology Group. “It is important for...
On the Potential for Conflicts of Interest
In a recent issue of The ASCO Post, I counted 14 expert commentaries where the authority who wrote or was interviewed for the piece reported “no potential conflicts of interest.” I wondered how likely that was. We need to be clearer on the meaning of potential conflicts of interest. How often have...
Study Clarifies Appropriate Timing of Follow-up Imaging after Benign Breast Biopsies
Follow-up imaging for patients with benign breast biopsies can be safely done at 12 months rather than 6 months, when radiologic and pathologic findings are concordant, according to a study reported at the American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting in Chicago.1 Current guidelines from the...
Francis Crick's Discovery of the Structure of DNA Transformed 20th Century Biologic Sciences
“My Dear Michael, Jim Watson and I have probably made a most important discovery. We have built a model for the structure of des-oxy-ribose-nucleic-acid, called DNA for short.… In other words we think we have found the basic copying mechanism by which life comes from life,” wrote Francis Crick,...
Gold Nanoparticles Can Help Fight Ovarian Cancer
Positively charged gold nanoparticles are usually toxic to cells, but cancer cells somehow manage to avoid nanoparticle toxicity. Mayo Clinic researchers found out why and determined how to make the nanoparticles effective against ovarian cancer cells. The discovery is detailed in the current...
Attention to Patient Concerns Leads to Customized Treatment and Improved Care, Explains Oncology Nurse Researcher
The Mara Mogensen Flagherty Lecture at this year’s 38th Annual Congress of the Oncology Nursing Society in Washington, DC, focused on the importance of listening to and acknowledging the individual stories of patients with cancer and survivors. Once they are adept at listening, clinicians need to...
Improving the Care and Study of Older Patients with Cancer
Predicting toxicity in older patients receiving chemotherapy is an important clinical problem. It has been shown that standard oncology measures such as performance status are not adequate to predict outcomes in the elderly. Clinical measures that are important in geriatric oncology are not...
Potent Activity Shown for First-in-class PI3K-delta Inhibitor in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Heavily pretreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) responded robustly to the first-in-class small-molecule inhibitor idelalisib (formerly GS1101), in a phase I dose-finding study reported in a press briefing prior to the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Idelalisib, a specific inhibitor...
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 ...
It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again
Yogi Berra offered the comment “It’s déjà vu all over again” when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hitting back-to-back home runs in the early 1960s. His pithy remark neatly summarizes my reaction when I read the article, “Dose-Adjusted EPOCH-Rituximab Therapy in Primary...
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...
'Spectacular' Results with Immunotherapies in Melanoma Galvanize the Oncology Community
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Much of the news about immunotherapy ...
Molecular Landscaping of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Are We Relearning the Past or Informing the Future?
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease.1 This concept has been supported by more than 4 decades of studies showing distinct outcomes of subsets of patients that differ in age, disease type (primary vs secondary vs therapy-related), and cytogenetic and...
ASCO Will Change with the Times
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, The ASCO Post caught up with new President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, Chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, for a glimpse of his plans for ASCO in the coming year, and his thoughts on being elected ASCO...
Encourage Questions about Late Effects of Treatment
Melissa Hudson, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and lead author of a study finding that 98.2% of adult survivors of childhood cancer had a chronic health condition, told The ASCO Post that she hoped that survivors’ awareness of the need for ongoing health monitoring was...
Barriers to Successful Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a combined research program of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. At the forefront of research to increase access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and improve outcomes, the ...
FDA Announces Decisions on New Tobacco Products
For the first time since the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, the agency has authorized the marketing of two new tobacco products and denied the marketing of four others through the substantial equivalence pathway....
Just Say 'Know'
In 1989, Denardo and associates reported the results of intensive care unit (ICU) therapy in a series of patients who developed acute respiratory failure and required mechanical ventilation after bone marrow transplantation. Of those on mechanical ventilatory support longer than 4 days, not one...
Seeking Clarity on the PSA Story
My feature interview in the August 15, 2012, issue of The ASCO Post, entitled “Rethinking the Role of PSA Screening in Public Health”1 drew swift reaction from well-known figures in the prostate cancer field. The subsequent Letters to the Editor, three in all, constituted a two-pronged attack. They ...
Making the Science of Cancer Understandable to a Broad Audience
An educator and scientist for over 30 years, David Sadava, PhD, became interested in the science of cancer while on sabbatical from Claremont Colleges, where he was teaching courses in molecular biology and biotechnology, and went to the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California, to study...
Living and Working with Cancer
The most recent figures from the National Cancer Institute put the number of cancer survivors in the United States at nearly 14 million—by 2022, that number is expected to top 18 million. And for the vast majority of those survivors—more than 80%—returning to work after treatment is a top priority...
SIDEBAR: Key Issues in Joint Commission Statement by American Psychosocial Oncology Society, Association of Oncology Social Work, and Oncology Nursing Society
It is imperative that [Commission on Cancer]-accredited programs adopt a universal definition of distress. We concur with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network definition of distress as an “unpleasant emotional experience of a psychological (cognitive, behavioral, emotional), social, and/or...
Diane E. Meier, MD: From Early Lessons in Critical Thinking to 'Palliative Care Everywhere'
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. —Helen Keller, Optimism, 1903 Shortly past 8:00 AM on July 1977, Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, began the first day of her medical internship. Within minutes she would experience another first: the death of a patient...
Expert Point of View: Ranjana Advani, MD
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, Ranjana Advani, MD, the Saul A. Rosenberg, MD, Professor of Lymphoma at Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, California, discussed the promise of the B-cell signaling inhibitors idelalisib and ibrutinib in lymphoma. Biggest Question Given the...
Expect Questions From Patients About Active Surveillance
While National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) practice guidelines for prostate cancer advise that active surveillance is usually appropriate for men with very low-risk prostate cancer and a life expectancy ≤ 20 years, a Johns Hopkins study suggests that outcomes for African American men...
I'm Not the Person I Was Before Cancer
I’ve been the caretaker for my husband Will since he suffered three strokes in March 2011, followed by a diagnosis of leukemia a few months later. Now, our roles have reversed, and Will is taking care of me as I go through treatment for stage III follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). It’s been a...
Integrating Genomic Sequencing Into Clinical Care
Although the price of next-generation genomic sequencing is coming way down, making it available to more people interested in determining their risk for disease, figuring out how to interpret the results and applying that information in the routine medical care of individual patients remains a...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions From Your Patients
Physicians and patients should engage in open discussion” about the complex issues of cancer screening, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment, according to a report from the chairs of a National Cancer Institute working group tasked with developing a strategy to improve the current approach to cancer...
A Great Privilege to Die Beneath an Open Sky
It was 1:00 AM, and my beeping pager awakened me. When you’re a surgical oncologist, you know that a page from your chief resident at this hour of the morning usually means someone may need to go to the operating room. And, yes, it was the chief resident about a patient in crisis. Except in this...
