In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dalerba et al found that absence of the transcription factor CDX2, although prognostic for poor outcome in stage II and III colon cancer vs cancers with CDX2 expression, identified a subgroup of high-risk patients who appeared to benefit...
The outcomes of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) have dramatically improved as the result of tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment. Use of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor regimen can lower the blood CML biomarker to levels imperceptible by current detection methods. For patients in “molecular...
Investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have found that significant bone loss occurs during the first month of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is far earlier than previously assumed. Results of the study were published by Orgel et al in the...
Cancer will kill more than 8 million people worldwide this year, which is equivalent to the entire population of New York. Half of these will be people of working age (30–69 years old). It has been estimated that the cost implications on world economies caused by cancer and the other...
Two recently reported phase III trials compared adjuvant anastrozole vs tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive ductal carcinoma in situ. As reported in The Lancet by Margolese et al,1 the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-35 trial, performed in...
Research is the bedrock of progress against cancer, and discoveries in cancer biology are moving from bench to bedside faster than ever. No recent advance has been more transformative than the rise of immunotherapy, particularly over the past year, making this treatment strategy ASCO’s Advance of...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO has received a generous grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in support of a new ASCO initiative, “Improving the Delivery of Cancer Care in Medically Underserved Communities.” Over an 18-month period, this initiative will bring ASCO’s Quality...
At a Capitol Hill briefing today, ASCO announced immunotherapy as the top cancer advance of the year. Recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy—along with almost 60 other important cancer research advances—are described in ASCO's just-released report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2016: ASCO's...
In some patients, blood in the urine, or hematuria, may be the only warning sign of cancer in the urinary tract. A new report from the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) High Value Care Task Force published by Nielsen et al in Annals of Internal Medicine issues advice for physicians on how ...
Neoadjuvant treatment with a chemotherapy-free, anti-HER2 regimen yielded high rates of pathologic complete response in patients with HER2-positive, hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer in the phase II WSG-ADAPT HER2+/HR+ (ADAPT) trial presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer...
Patients with multiple myeloma now have access to an all-oral regimen, with the recent approval of the oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro) in previously treated patients. New pairings for the drug in relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed patients are being studied, with investigators...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced the appointment of an Acting Deputy Office Director and an Associate Director of Clinical Science in its Office of Hematology and Oncology Products (OHOP). Acting Deputy Office Director Amy E. McKee, MD, was recently announced as the...
Late in 2015, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the label for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a humanized antibody, to include the initial treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. Previously, pembrolizumab had received accelerated approval in patients with...
Atezolizumab achieved excellent results in a cohort of patients with platinum-resistant urothelial cancer enrolled in a large phase II trial known as IMvigor 210.1 Overall response rates were greatly improved over those with historical controls, and responses were durable. Although expression of...
In 1956, the American College of Surgeons encouraged the development of hospital-based registries, but for the most part, these efforts were clumsy, inaccessible card files of data. Today, advanced microcomputer technology has increased the ability to not only collect and cull cancer data but also...
A 70-year-old female patient underwent a cardiac procedure to repair her mitral valve, and at the same time, she also underwent a coronary artery bypass grafting. She had an uneventful course for the first four postoperative days. On the sixth postoperative day, she started complaining of abdominal ...
Options for second-line therapy of advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma are expanding. Updates from the CheckMate 025 and METEOR trials presented at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium solidify the value of both nivolumab (Opdivo, an immune checkpoint inhibitor) and cabozantinib...
In a retrospective analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nead et al found that use of androgen-deprivation therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer was associated with an increased risk of subsequent Alzheimer’s disease. Study Details In the study, a text-processing...
During hysterectomies for noncancerous conditions, removing both fallopian tubes while keeping the ovaries may help protect against ovarian cancer and preserve hormonal levels, but few women receive this surgical option, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers. Published by ...
Oncology researchers have discovered that an abnormal fused gene that drives pediatric brain tumors poses a triple threat, operating simultaneously through three distinct biologic mechanisms—the first such example in cancer biology. The study was published by Bandopadhayay et al in Nature...
Women who eat more high-fiber foods during adolescence and young adulthood—especially fruits and vegetables—may have significantly lower breast cancer risk than those who eat less dietary fiber when young, according to a new large-scale study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan...
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...
As reported in The Lancet by Liu et al, a study in UK women that attempted to adjust for the effect of health and lifestyle factors found that self-reported unhappiness was not associated with an increased risk of mortality from cancer or other conditions. Study Details The study involved data...
Ayalew Tefferi, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, on abstract 403, “A Compendium of Cytogenetic Abnormalities in Myelofibrosis: Molecular and Phenotypic Correlates in 826 Patients;” abstract 406, “Integration of Mutations and Karyotype Towards a Genetics-Based Prognostic Scoring System (GPSS) for Primary...
Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses cardiac toxicities in cancer survivors, a new topic for the NCCN Survivorship Guidelines this year, and the need for more research on this important side effect, including prevention and surveillance.
Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and William J. Gradishar, MD, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, discuss the evolution of the breast cancer guidelines, the inclusion of varied fields––such as plastic...
Andrew J. Armstrong, MD, ScM, of Duke Cancer Institute, discusses the recent practice-changing landmark studies that showed significant increases in survival for men with castration-resistant prostate cancer and led to updates in the NCCN Guidelines for this disease.
Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, discusses the incredible progress made in treating multiple myeloma, with nine therapeutic options approved in the past decade, two drugs approved this year, and a number of new options on the horizon.
Peter G. Shields, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, discusses the new NCCN Guidelines for helping patients with cancer to stop smoking. Counseling is a critical part of these new recommendations.
Hans Gerdes, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a new approach to the management of early-stage esophageal cancers with endoscopic resections.
Ingrid A. Mayer, MD, of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses the evolution of endocrine therapy for metastatic breast cancer.
James H. Doroshow, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, describes a new precision medicine initiative called the MATCH trial: Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice. In 2,400 NCI clinical trial sites, 3,000 patients will be screened and their tumors analyzed to determine whether they contain...
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, and Carolyn Jean Presley, MD, of Yale Cancer Center/Yale School of Medicine, discuss the burden on patients and the Medicare system as new lung cancer CT guidelines are put into effect and treatment of early-stage NSCLC increases (Abstract...
Chloe Evelyn Atreya, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, talks with Axel Grothey, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, about new data on trametinib, dabrafenib, and panitumumab in patients with the BRAF V600E mutation and vemurafenib plus irinotecan and cetuximab in BRAF-mutated metastatic...
Andrew James Martin, PhD, of NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney, and Anthony J. Olszanski, RPh, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, discuss a form of vitamin B3 that reduced the incidence of new nonmelanoma skin cancers in high-risk patients (Abstract 9000).
Lee S. Schwartzberg, MD, of The West Clinic, describes a new initiative of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, designed to speed the adoption of immunotherapeutics in the community setting, where 60% of cancer patients are treated.
Andrew James Martin, PhD, of NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney, discusses a form of vitamin B3 that reduced the incidence of new nonmelanoma skin cancers in high-risk patients (Abstract 9000).
Allison J. Applebaum, PhD, and William S. Breitbart, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discuss the early days of this new treatment for despair and distress in cancer patients.
Allison J. Applebaum, PhD, and William S. Breitbart, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, explain how they brought this new treatment to help stressed caregivers of loved ones with cancer.
Bradley J. Zebrack, PhD, of the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and Ursula Sansom-Daly, PhD, of the University of New South Wales, talk about providing supportive care services that meet the unique needs of adolescents and young adults with cancer.
Naiyer A. Rizvi, MD, of Columbia University, offers an update on immune checkpoint inhibitors in non–small cell lung cancer: what’s new and what’s next.
Howard Jack West, MD, of the Swedish Cancer Institute, summarizes three important papers: anlotinib as third-line treatment for refractory advanced non–small cell lung cancer; the EGFR exon 20 mutation as a prognostic/predictive biomarker; and EGFR exon 18 mutations as molecular predictors of...
M. Catherine Pietanza, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses rovalpituzumab tesirine, a promising DLL3-targeted antibody drug conjugate, the first precision treatment for small cell lung cancer (Abstract 7LBA).
Jean-Yves Douillard, MD, PhD, of Centre R Gauducheau, reviews new clinical trials and data on systemic and radiation treatment of small cell lung cancer.
Cora N. Sternberg, MD, of San Camillo Forlanini Hospital, summarizes a teaching lecture on new targets in renal cell carcinoma, and discusses what to expect for the future of treating RCC.
Incoming ECCO President, Peter L. J. Naredi, MD, PhD, of the University of Gothenburg, discusses his upcoming year as the new ECCO President, his vision for the organization, and his views on cancer treatment today.
Ignacio Melero, MD, PhD, of the University Clinic of Navarra, Centre of Applied Medical Research, discusses the latest developments in an important cancer treatment avenue.
Martine J. Piccart-Gebhart, MD, PhD, of the Jules Bordet Institute, and ECCO President, discusses ways in which imaging can form the solution to individualized cancer treatment.
Judith Vick, MD Candidate, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Rachelle E. Bernacki, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss a tool that could help clinicians identify seriously ill patients who would benefit from conversations about their goals and values (Abstract 8).
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...