An article in The New York Times about women who had chosen not to have reconstruction following breast cancer surgery might prompt questions from newly diagnosed patients considering their options.1 Deanna J. Attai, MD, FACS, told The ASCO Post that whenever an article on breast cancer appears in...
A “nascent movement to ‘go flat’” is how an article in The New York Times characterized the decisions by some women to opt out of reconstruction following surgery for breast cancer.1 The article examined the reasons several patients made that decision, which included avoiding multiple surgeries and ...
Elisabeth Heath, MD, FACP, Leader of the Genitourinary Oncology Multidisciplinary Team and the Patricia C. and E. Jan Hartmann Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, was recently honored with the Michigan Cancer Consortium’s inaugural Champion...
On November 21, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone, or bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone, for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior...
The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted to rename an area of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in honor of a longtime professor who has made extraordinary contributions to the institution. The Center for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research, established in 2003, was renamed by...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medicine have announced that they have established a new drug discovery company called Bridge Medicines. Launched in partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd and health-care investment firms Bay City Capital ...
DECEMBER 58th ASH Annual Meeting & ExpositionDecember 3-6 • San Diego, California For more information: www.hematology.org/Annual-Meeting/ 17th World Conference on Lung CancerDecember 4-7 • Vienna, Austria For more information: www.iaslc.org/events/17th-iaslc-world-conference-lung-cancer 14th...
Michael O’Connell, MD, received the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) 2016 Clinical Research Award in recognition of the significant and positive impact of his research on the oncology patient, family, and the community. ACCC President Jennie R. Crews, MD, MMM, FACP, accepted the...
Carrie Lee, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger’s Clinical Protocol Office, has been appointed the Chair-Elect of the Association of American Cancer Institute’s (AACI) Clinical Research Initiative Steering Committee. Her Chair term will start in 2017. Dr. ...
Shirley A. Johnson, RN, MS, MBA, has been appointed as Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Senior Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer. Ms. Johnson officially joined the Roswell Park staff on October 31, 2016, bringing with her nearly 25 years of experience in...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor Zhu Chen, MD, PhD, of Shanghai Institute of Hematology, and Hugues de Thé, MD, PhD, of Collège de France, with the 2016 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for their significant research advances in the area of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)....
Julie C. Brabbs, MBA, was named Cancer Center Chief Administrative Officer at the University of Michigan (U-M) Comprehensive Cancer Center. She will also serve as Associate Director for Administration for the Center’s National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant. Ms. Brabbs has served for ...
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Lifespan—Rhode Island’s first health system—leadership have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a partnership that will advance cancer treatment and expand research. The details will be finalized early next year. “Over the past 6 months, our staff members...
It should not come as a surprise to anyone who has read Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s brilliant—and unforgettable—memoir, When Breath Becomes Air (Random House, 2016), that nearly a year after publication, it remains on The New York Times best-seller list, its popularity only increasing with time. Written...
Susan J. Mandel, MD, MPH, Director of Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and Professor in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, has been elected President-Elect of the Endocrine Society. Dr. ...
Anne Gross, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, has been named Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, effective December 1, 2016. Dr. Gross joined Dana-Farber in 2002 after 12 years at Cambridge Health Alliance as the nursing leader in...
Over the past few years, the term value-based cancer care has become integrated into the vernacular of the oncology community. Value is a subjective term, which is defined largely by its clinical setting. However, value in cancer care is evaluated by the multiple stakeholders involved in the...
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) honored Cary A. Presant, MD, FACP, FASCO, with the prestigious David King Community Clinical Scientist Award, for his demonstrated leadership in the development, participation, and evaluation of clinical studies for cancer patients. Throughout his ...
Team-based health-care models are emerging as preferred methods for providing coordinated, cost-effective and high-quality health care for patients. Earlier this month, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced its adoption of ethical guidance for physicians as leader-members of care ...
A relatively recent study by Areej El-Jawahri, MD, and her colleagues is showing how the use of visual media can empower patients with advanced cancer, as well as other life-threatening illnesses, to make more informed decisions about their end-of-life care.1 The aim of Dr. El-Jawahri’s study was ...
Charles G. Drake, MD, PhD, has joined NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center as Director of Genitourinary Oncology and Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Drake will also serve as Co-Director of Columbia’s Cancer...
In renal cell carcinoma and other cancer types, a consistent paradigm in drug development exists: Observe efficacy of a drug in the metastatic setting and move quickly to explore the agent in the adjuvant setting. In the cytokine era, there were multiple efforts to characterize whether adjuvant...
The 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress revealed many important positive findings from key trials in a number of tumor types, but many highly anticipated phase III trials in advanced disease failed to meet their primary endpoints. The ASCO Post has summarized several of these ...
Most women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer receive endocrine therapy as part of their treatment, but “the reality is that patients who receive antihormone therapy in the metastatic disease setting ultimately develop disease progression, ” William J. Gradishar, MD, stated at the 18th...
Perry Robins, MD, Founder and President of the Skin Cancer Foundation, was honored at the organization’s Champions for Change Gala, held October 18 at the Mandarin Oriental New York. Dr. Robins was honored at the event as a “Champion for Change” for his lifetime commitment to decreasing the...
New research shows that excess weight increases the risk that a benign blood disorder will progress to multiple myeloma. The study, by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Being overweight or obese has been...
Glioblastoma multiforme remains the most common and highly lethal brain cancer, known for its tendency to recur. Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a pathway by which cancer cells aggressively spread and grow in the brain, opening up new possibilities...
William H. Sharfman, MD, has been awarded the first Mary Jo Rogers Professorship in Cancer Immunology and Melanoma Research at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Sharfman is Associate Professor of Oncology and Dermatology, Director of Cutaneous Oncology, Clinical Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present this special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the world. For the convenience of the reader, each issue will focus on one country from one of the six regions of ...
Christian U. Blank, MD, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses in German study findings on neoadjuvant ipilimumab plus nivolumab in patients with palpable stage III melanoma. (Abstract LBA39)
Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN) has named physician-scientist John A. Martignetti, MD, PhD, Network Director of the Laboratory for Translational Research at the WCHN Biomedical Research Institute. Dr. Martignetti is Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Oncological...
On November 17, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued an updated clinical practice statement for accelerated partial-breast irradiation for early-stage breast cancer. The updated guideline reflects recent evidence that greater numbers of patients can benefit from accelerated...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recently announced the election of four new members to its Executive Committee for terms beginning after the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting, December 3–6, in San Diego. Roy L. Silverstein, MD, will serve a 1-year term as Vice President followed by successive...
Johns Hopkins Medicine specialists reported they have developed a urine test for the likely emergence of cervical cancer that is highly accurate compared to other tests based on genetic markers derived directly from cervical tissue. The new urine test, they said, is different because it analyzes...
The current plethora of drugs in development for oncology is leading to the testing of novel agents in common as well as rare diseases. Targeted therapies have been a focus of great interest in soft-tissue sarcomas, with testing of a variety of oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors leading to the...
Commenting on ASCEND-5, Alice T. Shaw, MD, PhD, Director of Thoracic Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, noted that it is the first randomized study to examine how a second-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor compares to standard second-line...
The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation recently announced the opening of the Saha Laboratory for Liver Cancer Translational Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Supriya Saha, MD, PhD, has joined scientists there to study the prevention, detection, and treatment of...
Earlier this year, Sean Parker, the cofounder of the music streaming service Napster and an early president of Facebook, joined a growing list of entrepreneurs who are committing large portions of their wealth to funding cancer research. In April, Mr. Parker announced he was donating $250 million...
The Commack, Long Island–based hospital of Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center was opened in 2002, providing personalized cancer care closer to home for individuals living on eastern Long Island. Now, more than 14 years later, MSK is reinforcing its commitment to the local community in...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Brian Rini, MD, and colleagues recently reported results from the phase III IMPRINT trial,1 which randomized HLA-A*02–positive patients with treatment-naive metastatic clear cell variant renal cell carcinoma, in favorable- and intermediate- risk...
“The AMA House of Delegates, reflecting more than 170 state and specialty medical societies from across the country, today reaffirmed its commitment to health care reform that improves access to care for all patients. “Using a comprehensive policy framework that has been refined over the past 2...
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only potentially curative treatment for myelofibrosis. The ASCO Post asked an expert in this field, Ayalew Tefferi, MD, how and when he uses stem cell transplant in myelofibrosis, which is a topic he outlined in greater detail in the...
Genomic assays have had a powerful influence on the management of early-stage breast cancer, particularly estrogen receptor–positive tumors. The mainstay of adjuvant treatment for early-stage, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer has been endocrine therapy, either with tamoxifen and an...
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in lung cancer. In the past 2 years, the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (anti–PD-1) inhibitors nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) were found to improve overall survival in the second-line setting compared with docetaxel for patients with...
Cancer researcher Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms that drive the disease. In recognition of her accomplishments, she has been named a recipient of the Outstanding Investigator Award, an honor presented by the National Cancer Institute...
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch) has announced the official opening of a first-of-its-kind clinic dedicated to providing immunotherapies for cancer patients in clinical trials. The Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic, named in recognition of a family that has been deeply committed...
More than 100 participants are now enrolled on study drug in ASCO’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study. The trial launched in March 2016 at 37 sites, and in November, it welcomed its newest participating clinical sites: Cancer Treatment Centers of America,...
Safety and efficacy data from a phase I/II study of urelumab in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with hematologic and solid tumors, including biomarker analyses by level of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, was recently presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer ...
An interim efficacy analysis from a phase I/II study of the combination of lirilumab and nivolumab (Opdivo) in the cohort of advanced platinum refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, including exploratory biomarker analyses of patient response by level of programmed death ligand 1...
While it is well established that obesity is closely linked to endometrial cancer risk, most past findings have only looked at risk in relation to one measure of body size at a time. In a new study led by the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, published by Horn-Ross et al in Cancer Causes...