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Showing 11201 - 11250Many Americans Favor a Tax Increase to Support the 'Moonshot' Cancer Initiative
Vice President Joe Biden's “moonshot” initiative to defeat cancer earned support for a tax increase to fund cancer research among half of respondents (50%) in a new national public opinion survey commissioned by Research!America. Thirty-eight percent disagree and an additional 12% are...
French Trial Shows Addition of First-Line Bevacizumab to Cisplatin/Pemetrexed Improves Survival in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
In the French phase III MAPS trial reported in The Lancet, Zalcman et al found that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard cisplatin/pemetrexed (Alimta) treatment increased overall and progression-free survival in patients with newly diagnosed pleural mesothelioma. Vascular endothelial...
Afatinib Shows Clinical Benefit for Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients With Brain Metastases
Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with common epidermal growth factor (EGFR) mutations and brain metastases showed improved progression-free survival and response from the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) compared to standard platinum doublet chemotherapy....
Clifford Goodman, PhD, and Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, on Value-Based Decision-Making at the Bedside
Clifford Goodman, PhD, of the The Lewin Group, and Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discuss the affordability of cancer care, the “financial toxicities” of high drug prices, and what could and should be done about it.
James L. Mulshine, MD, on Lung Cancer Screening in the United States: Can It Happen?
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, discusses the profound challenges of implementing national CT screening to ensure delivery of high-quality, best-practice early lung cancer detection in the target population of tobacco-exposed individuals (Abstract MS 15.01).
Silvia Novello, MD, PhD: Lung Cancer Is a Women's Disease Too
Silvia Novello, MD, PhD, of the University of Turin, discusses a much-neglected aspect of lung cancer: It is not just the province of men; women are affected in great numbers as well.
ASCO Praises President’s Sharp Focus on Cancer
ASCO applauds President Obama for his bold vision to launch a national effort on cancer, which he described during his State of the Union address on January 12, 2016. We also join him in recognizing Vice President Biden’s leadership in calling for a “moonshot” that will reduce the cancer-related...
USPSTF Recommendation Confirms Value of Screening Mammography
The recently updated U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation once again confirmed the value of screening mammography, concluding that the benefit of mammography outweighs the harms of screening in all age groups from age 40 through age 74. It emphasizes that both women and...
Evolution
Ten years ago, ASCO created the Journal of Oncology Practice to address a gap in the literature; there were no peer-reviewed journals dedicated to the practical issues of delivering quality oncology care. The original research and editorials published in JOP focus on care delivery topics such as...
Nationally Regarded Cancer Advocate Ellen Stovall Dies
Passion is a much-needed virtue in one who seeks to change the world for the better. When you combine intelligence, stamina, iron-willed determination, the grace of an ambassador, and simple human likability with passion, you get that rare person who can turn words and ideas into reality. Such a...
Keeping Up With How Drugs Work
I love reading The ASCO Post, but I have a suggestion. For your reports on drug development, how about making it a policy to note the class or type of any new agent being discussed—ie, a brief description of the drug’s mechanism of action? For example, a recent issue included a nice article...
Same Study, Different Interpretations
An article in The New York Times1 about an ovarian cancer screening study published in The Lancet2 is headlined, “Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer May Become Possible,” and leads with the promise of reduced mortality with multimodal screening for ovarian cancer. An article in MedPage Today3 about...
Could a Screening Test That Would Reduce Deaths From Ovarian Cancer Be on the Way?
"A solid triple but not a home run” is how Karen H. Lu, MD, characterized a study in The Lancet reporting a reduction in deaths from ovarian cancer with the use of multimodal ovarian cancer screening.1 Dr. Lu’s remark was one of several, mostly but not universally, favorable and optimistic comments ...
Mastectomy Healed by Earth Dressing
Through the Lens of Oncology History A Century of Progress The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The photos below are from the volume titled “The...
Pieces of Grief
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD, Joins City of Hope
Medical oncologist and researcher Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD, has joined City of Hope as Professor and Chair in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research. He will play a key leadership role in the expansion of clinical programs at City of Hope’s Duarte campus and in its clinics...
A Noted Breast Surgeon’s Book of Solid Advice
Bookmark Title: The New Generation Breast Cancer Book: How to Navigate Your Diagnosis and Treatment Options—and Remain Optimistic—in an Age of Information Overload Author: Elisa Port, MD Publisher: Ballantine Books Publication date: September 2015 Price: $20.00; paperback, 320 pages When a new...
Saving Children Orphaned by AIDS in South Africa
Bookmark Title: Empty Hands, A Memoir: One Woman’s Journey to Save Children Orphaned by AIDS in South Africa Author: Sister Abegail Ntleko Publisher: North Atlantic Books Publication date: September 1, 2015 Price: $12.95; paperback, 176 pages With the development of the multidrug highly active...
Cancer on the Global Stage: Incidence and Cancer-Related Mortality in Afghanistan
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce this special focus on the worldwide cancer burden, beginning in this issue with a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in the United States. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the...
Acupuncture for Cancer Symptom Clusters
Acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years in Eastern Asian cultures as a component of traditional Chinese medicine.1 In the United States, acupuncture became known to the public as a complementary and alternative medicine technique in the 1970s, but it took many years before it was...
Ibrutinib in Relapsed Mantle Cell Lymphoma
Treatment of mantle cell lymphoma continues to evolve, both in the front-line and relapsed settings. Key advances include better use of established agents, such as the incorporation of high-dose cytarabine into initial induction regimens and application of rituximab (Rituxan)...
New Society of Breast Imaging Website Seeks to End Confusion Surrounding Mammography Screening
Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. In 2015, according to the National Cancer Institute, 231,840 women were to be diagnosed with the disease and 40,290 were to die from it. The death rate is highest among women who are not screened regularly...
Winning the Battle at the Front Lines: Lenalidomide Plus Rituximab— A Promising Initial Treatment for Mantle Cell Lymphoma
Mantle cell lymphoma is a pernicious, incurable disease. Front-line therapies for this disease are not currently standardized; however, novel therapies for relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma can ideally be translated into beneficial treatments for newly diagnosed patients, as clearly...
The New Frontiers of Breast Cancer
A seismic shift is underway in screening and treatment approaches for breast cancer. These changes are being fueled by studies showing that mammography in younger women may do more harm than good and that advances in genomic testing and a better understanding of the biology of breast cancers may...
How Effective Communication Can Improve Patient Care—and Reduce Physician Burnout
Surveys conducted between 1950 and 1970 show that most physicians considered it inhumane to give patients with a poor cancer prognosis the bad news.1,2 Since then, it has been well established that open communication between physician and patient is an essential part of effective cancer care and...
The Evolving Treatment Landscape of ALK-Positive NSCLC
Since the initial discovery of ALK rearrangement in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 2007,1 small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors of ALK have transformed the course of disease for those patients with ALK-rearranged (ie, ALK-positive) NSCLC. Crizotinib (Xalkori), a multitargeted tyrosine...
ASCO University Announces New Immuno-Oncology Program
ASCO University has created a new multidisciplinary immunology program that provides a broad overview of immunobiology, as well as an in-depth focus on topics relevant to the practicing clinician, such as treatment, efficacy, monitoring, and management of immunobiologic agents. ASCO University’s...
International Innovation Grant Supports Novel Breast Cancer Health Education Program in Mexico
The International Innovation Grant, funded by the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) of ASCO, provides research funding in support of novel and innovative projects that can have a significant impact on cancer control in low- and middle-income countries. The grant is intended to support research that...
Global and North American Phase II Studies Show Alectinib Is Highly Active in Crizotinib-Resistant/Refractory ALK-Rearranged NSCLC
In two phase II trials, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and The Lancet Oncology, the ALK inhibitor alectinib (Alecensa), which is active against acquired crizotinib resistance mutations and exhibits high central nervous system (CNS) penetration, was associated with considerable...
Expert Point of View: Sagar Lonial, MD
Responding to the assertion that bortezomib (Velcade)/lenalidomide (Revlimid)/low-dose dexamethasone induction followed by continuous lenalidomide/dexamethasone is potentially a new standard of care in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, Sagar Lonial, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Winship Cancer...
Study Confirms Benefit of Triplet vs Doublet in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma
Triplets should be the standard of care in most newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients, according to a study that validated a practice that has become common in the United States, though not necessarily elsewhere. The use of three drugs led to significant reductions in disease progression and...
Patient Guides Available Through ASCO University Bookstore
ASCO Answers: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care explains the various costs associated with cancer treatment, including health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a list of financial resources available to help offset expenses related to care and tips for organizing...
I Am Not Afraid of Cancer
At age 73, I’m no shrinking violet and I don’t run to the doctor at the first sign of a problem. I practice naturopathy and can usually ward off potential health issues by maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle. When I began experiencing some mild discomfort in my rectum 2½ years ago, I was...
Deconditioning in Older Adults With Cancer: A Cascade to Dependency
It is estimated that nearly half of adults over age 80 living in the community are frail despite apparent functional well-being.1 Frailty is recognized as a clinical syndrome in which three or more of the following criteria are present: unintentional weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, weakness, ...
Expert Point of View: Jame Abraham, MD, FACP
Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the Taussig Cancer Institute of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said he believes neratinib is “an extremely active drug, once we learn how best to give it.” Dr. Abraham has been involved in some of the studies of neratinib. “In this...
Exploratory Analysis of ExteNET Trial Shows Consistency of Benefit With Neratinib
An exploratory analysis of the ExteNET study of neratinib in early HER2-positive breast cancer after treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin) upheld the findings previously reported for the 2-year analysis, according to the study’s principal investigator Arlene Chan, MD, of the Breast Cancer...
Expert Point of View: George Sledge, MD
George Sledge, MD, Professor, and Chief, Division of Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, told The ASCO Post that he found the data from the pooled analysis “very exciting.” “One of the big questions in triple-negative breast cancer is how to select which drugs work best for which...
Homologous Recombination Deficiency Score Correlated With Response to Platinum in Breast Cancer
The homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) score may be a predictive biomarker of response to neoadjuvant platinum-based therapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, according to studies presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. “We found, in our adjusted analysis,...
Uridine Triacetate Granules for Fluorouracil or Capecitabine Overdose or Early Severe Toxicity
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. On December 11, 2015, uridine triacetate (Vistogard) was approved...
Expert Point of View: Angela DeMichele, MD, and Melinda L. Telli, MD
The formal discussant for the CALGB 40603 and GeparSixto studies at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium was Angela DeMichele, MD, Professor of Medicine and Miller Chair in Breast Cancer Excellence at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennyslvania. “The key questions raised by these ...
Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer: Early Lackluster Study Results yet Promise Remains
Immunotherapy is at the forefront of exciting new approaches to cancer, with excellent and long-lasting responses in metastatic melanoma and non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and several immunotherapy agents now approved for those malignancies by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The...
Expert Point of View: Kevin S. Hughes, MD
This study confirms that what is important is a negative margin, not the margin size,” said Kevin S. Hughes, MD, a breast surgeon who is Co-Director of the Avon Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. “This is a confirmatory study of the consensus...
Myeloablative Conditioning for Stem Cell Transplantation Remains Standard of Care in Patients With MDS and AML
A randomized trial from the Bone and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network was halted early after concluding that allogeneic stem cell transplantation after a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen resulted in higher relapse rates compared to myeloablative conditioning. The phase III randomized ...
Expert Point of View: George Daley, MD, PhD, and David Williams, MD
Press briefing moderator George Daley, MD, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, was enthusiastic about these results, despite the small number of patients treated in studies of CAR-T cells thus far. Most of the results have been in a positive direction, he noted. “It is remarkably exciting to see...
New Use for CAR-T Cells Post Transplantation
The approach of using genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells has received much attention for treating leukemias, where it has achieved spectacular long-lasting complete remissions in some patients with no other treatment options. CAR-T cells are also being studied in...
Expert Point of View: Kanti Rai, MD
In a separate interview, Kanti Rai, MD, of the Northwell Health System in New Hyde Park, New York, noted that venetoclax is one of several “exciting recent developments in this disease.” There is the Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica), the PI3K inhibitor idelalisib (Zydelig),...
Severe Toxicities Seen in Younger Patients Receiving Front-Line Idelalisib for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Hematologists and patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are excited about new drugs that have dramatically improved outcomes. But all drugs have side effects, and it is important to be aware of potential consequences. Hepatotoxicity turns out to be a major concern in younger CLL patients ...
Expert Point of View: Susan O’Brien, MD
Clearly idelalisib improved overall survival when added to bendamustine (Bendetta/Treanda)/rituximab (Rituxan). These results are similar to those from the HELIOS trial reported at last year’s ASCO meeting,” said Susan O’Brien, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Science for the Chao Family...
Idelalisib Improves Progression-Free Survival Over Bendamustine Plus Rituximab in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Idelalisib (Zydelig) combined with bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) plus rituximab (Rituxan) was superior to chemotherapy with bendamustine/rituximab plus placebo, reducing the risk of progressive disease and death while improving progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with...
ALK Rearrangements Common in Young Patients With Lung Cancer
Two investigative groups have reported interesting observations about genomic alterations in the tumors of young patients with lung cancer. Notably, ALK rearrangement was the most common driver mutation found, in studies reported at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer.1,2 “To our knowledge,...
