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Showing 12151 - 12200Plenary Session Included Findings on Partial- vs Whole-breast Techniques and Patient Beliefs about Radiotherapy
When the dates were picked for the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), no one could have anticipated that the meeting would coincide with Hurricane Sandy’s devastation of parts of the northeast. As the storm approached on Monday and Boston shut down its...
Surgical Resection for Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases: Who, When, How?
Many patients with colorectal liver metastases can undergo surgical resection with curative intent. Who are these patients and how are they best managed? In an interview with The ASCO Post, Steven A. Curley, MD, Professor of Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,...
Combination Therapy Not Better than Single-agent Bevacizumab for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma in BeST Trial
None of three combination therapies tested among patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma in the BeST trial came close to achieving the primary objective of a 67% improvement in median progression-free survival compared to single-agent bevacizumab (Avastin), Keith T. Flaherty, MD, reported at...
Medical and Behavioral Variables Have More Impact on Physical Functioning Than Finasteride Treatment
Taking finasteride over a 7-year period as part of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) “did not affect any of the three primary health-related quality-of-life domains—physical function, mental health, or vitality—either positively or negatively,” according to a study published in the...
Statin Use Associated with Reduced Cancer-related Mortality in Danish Study
Cancer-related mortality among patients in the Danish population receiving a diagnosis of cancer at age ≥ 40 years between 1995 and 2007 was significantly reduced in those who were receiving statin therapy at the time of diagnosis, according to an analysis reported by Nielsen and colleagues in The...
Expert Point of View: Meena S. Moran, MD
“Breast cancer in the geriatric population is a major health issue. Of the more than 230,000 new cases diagnosed annually, somewhere between 40% and 50% will occur in women 65 and over. Furthermore, the elderly population has been and will continue to increase exponentially over time,” stated Meena ...
Radiation Therapy Extends Survival in Elderly Women with Early Breast Cancer
Chronologic age alone should not preclude use of radiation in elderly women with early breast cancer, suggest two studies presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Both studies showed a survival improvement in elderly women with early breast cancer ...
Memantine Provides Modest Improvement in Cognition after Cranial Irradiation
Memantine, a drug used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, slowed cognitive decline in patients with brain cancer treated with whole-brain radiation therapy in a phase III trial reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), held recently in Boston. Cognitive...
Current Perspectives on Triple-negative Breast Cancers
Triple-negative breast cancer—which lacks expression of the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 oncogene—is a challenge for oncologists. The emergence of data showing strong heterogeneity for this subtype of breast cancer creates even more confusion regarding prognosis and...
Screening for Ovarian Cancer: A Gynecologic Oncologist’s Perspective
The recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Reaffirmation Recommendation Statement concluded that in the population of asymptomatic women without known genetic mutations that increase risk for ovarian cancer, clinicians should not screen for ovarian cancer using transvaginal ultrasound...
Bone Marrow Transplants Reduce Risk of Graft-vs-Host Disease Compared to Peripheral Blood
Patients who receive bone marrow transplants are significantly less likely to develop chronic graft-vs-host disease than those who receive peripheral blood stem cell transplants, according to a new, large randomized trial, the first of its kind with unrelated donors. Published recently in The New...
Analysis Suggests Screening Mammography Results in Substantial Overdiagnosis with Small Effect on Mortality
An analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data from 1976 through 2008 “suggests that whatever the mortality benefit, breast-cancer screening involved a substantial harm of excess detection of additional early-stage cancers that was not matched by a reduction in late-stage...
Screening and Risk-reduction without Testing Positive for BRCA Mutation
Many women who do not test positive for a BRCA mutation undergo additional ovarian cancer screenings and risk-reducing procedures, despite limited data to determine the effectiveness of these interventions among an average-risk population. Results of an analysis of data from 1,077 women who were...
Patients Treated for Colon Cancer Can Reduce Risk of Recurrence with Balanced Diet and Lower Carbohydrate Intake
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. Patients who have received standard...
Green Tea
The use of dietary supplements by cancer patients has risen significantly over the past 2 decades despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and the...
Oncology Meetings
January 2013 Breast-Gynecological International Cancer CongressJanuary 17-18 • Cairo, EgyptFor more information: www.bgicc.eg.net/ Highlights of ASH® San Diego, CA and Toronto, CanadaJanuary 18-19 • San Diego, CA and Toronto, Ontario, CanadaFor more information: www.hematology.org/meetings...
I’m Not the Same Person I Was before Cancer
It’s not clear to me—and my doctors can’t say with any certainty—whether taking birth control pills for many years had anything to do with my getting breast cancer 3 years ago, at age 44. But the cancer growing in my left breast was diagnosed as stage I, estrogen receptor–positive. Although I never ...
Physician-Scientist Judah Folkman, MD, Faced Years of Skepticism Before His Theory of Angiogenesis Was Proven
That Moses Judah Folkman would buck tradition, breaking his family’s long line of rabbinical succession and pursuing a career in science and medicine instead, was evident from the time he was a young child. Born in Cleveland on February 24, 1933, the first child of Rabbi Jerome and Bessie Folkman,...
Never a Dull Moment: A Day in the Life of an Oncology Fellow
Oncology fellows represent the future of cancer care, bringing the best and brightest young doctors into a rigorous training environment that molds their future career paths. Due to an impending workforce shortage in cancer care, the public health-care demands placed on today’s oncology fellows...
French Investigators Prospectively Test Genomically Driven Treatment in Metastatic Breast Cancer
Whole-genome DNA analysis prospectively identified alterations in metastatic tumors that could be individually targeted with molecular agents, in a study presented at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress by Fabrice André, MD, of Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France....
Lumpectomy Rates Inconsistent with Response Rates in Early Breast Cancer
Achieving a pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy does not always reduce the aggressiveness of breast cancer surgery, according to an analysis of the NeoALLTO trial presented at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Vienna.1 Carmen Criscitiello, MD, of ...
Online Prostate Cancer Information Is Written at Reading Levels above Many Americans’ Literacy Skills
Although 61% of Americans are going online to access health information,1 many of them may not understand what they find there, including information about prostate cancer treatment options. According to a new study published in The Journal of Urology,2 as many as 90 million Americans have literacy ...
ASCO Secures Major Funding and Data License Agreements for CancerLinQ™
ASCO has secured $3 million in new funding and key data sharing arrangements to support the development of CancerLinQ™, a ground-breaking information technology initiative that aims to achieve higher quality, higher value cancer care with better outcomes for patients. ASCO’s Conquer Cancer...
Gene Profiling Directs Site-specific Therapy for Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Site
Patients with carcinoma of unknown primary site usually receive empiric therapy (eg, with taxane/platinum or gemcitabine/platinum regimens), resulting in a median overall survival of approximately 9 months. As reported recently in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hainsworth and colleagues have shown...
Peter P. Yu, MD, Elected ASCO President, 2014–2015, Others Named to ASCO Board
Peter P. Yu, MD, has been elected President of ASCO for a 1-year term beginning in June 2014. He will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2013. Additionally, three new members were elected to the ASCO Board of Directors, and three new members were...
Management of Brain Metastases
Pearls in Neuro-oncology is guest edited by Tracy Batchelor, MD, Director, Division of Neuro-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston. The series is intended to provide the practicing oncologist with guidance in managing...
Faster Rituximab Infusion for Previously Untreated Follicular Non-Hodgkin and Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphomas
On October 19, 2012, FDA approved a 90-minute infusion for rituximab (Rituxan) starting at cycle 2 for patients with previously untreated follicular non-Hodgkin or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who do not experience a grade 3 or 4 infusion-related reaction during cycle 1.1 Patients with clinically...
Omacetaxine for Chronic or Accelerated Phase CML Patients with Resistance/Intolerance to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors
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. Indication On October 26, 2012, the FDA granted accelerated...
Tumor Grade Is Associated with Risk for Venous Thromboembolism
Recent data suggest that risk for venous thromboembolism is associated with biologic aggressiveness of cancer. Findings in the Vienna Cancer and Thrombosis Study, recently reported by Ahlbrecht and colleagues in Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicate that patients with higher-grade tumors are at...
ASCO’s Approach to Health Information Technology and the Rapid-learning System
The slow, but inevitable evolution of electronic oncology health-care systems has already, at least conceptually, moved to the next generation of machines that not only store and process data, but also have the ability to provide real-time clinical decision support. At ASCO’s first Quality Care...
Expert Point of View: Martin Dreyling, MD and Joshua Brody, MD
Martin Dreyling, MD, Professor at the University of Munich in Germany, said the most important lymphoma studies presented at the 2012 ASH Annual Meeting focused on ibrutinib, the first-in-class Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor. “Basic science has gone mainstream. We will see a revolution during...
Excellent Preliminary Results for Ibrutinib in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Although still in preliminary testing with no phase III data, ibrutinib is poised to become an important new agent for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Two phase II trials reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) found that ibrutinib achieved...
Oral Proteasome Inhibitor May Be a Game-changer in Myeloma
An investigational oral proteasome inhibitor currently known as MLN9708 could make the treatment of multiple myeloma much more convenient and possibly less neurotoxic, according to the results of a phase I/II study of treatment-naive multiple myeloma patients presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of ...
Radiation Therapy for Patients with Invasive Breast Cancer: 3 Weeks Proves as Effective as 5 Weeks
Ten-year follow-up of the two-part UK Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy Trials (START) supported the 5-year findings, demonstrating that a 3-week course of adjuvant radiation therapy is equivalent to a 5-week course of radiation for women with invasive breast cancer. The update was presented...
Overall Survival Benefit Achieved with Pomalidomide in Advanced Myeloma
Support for the oral immunomodulatory agent pomalidomide for multiple myeloma took a step forward when the phase III MM-003 trial showed a survival advantage in patients with advanced disease, in addition to a doubling in progression-free survival, when pomalidomide was given with low-dose...
FDA Approves Ponatinib to Treat CML and Philadelphia Chromosome–positive ALL
In December, the FDA granted accelerated approval to ponatinib (Iclusig) for the treatment of adult patients with chronic-, accelerated-, or blast-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) that is resistant or intolerant to prior tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy or Philadelphia chromosome–positive...
Pivotal Trial Shows Robust Activity of Ponatinib in Some Heavily Pretreated Leukemias
The pivotal phase II Ponatinib Ph+ ALL and CML Evaluation (PACE trial) found that 1 year of treatment with the novel investigational drug ponatinib achieved robust activity in heavily pretreated patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic...
Are We Winning the War on Cancer?
On December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the U.S. National Cancer Act. This date is widely considered to mark the beginning of the so-called “War on Cancer,” although that phrase was introduced only later on. Over recent decades, journalists have from time to time questioned whether we...
E-mail Reminders to Providers May Improve Documentation of Code Status in Patients with Advanced Disease
E-mail reminders to providers at the start of each new chemotherapy regimen may improve the rate and timing of code status documentation for patients with advanced lung cancer, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Jennifer S. Temel, MD, and colleagues from Massachusetts General ...
'Practice-changing' ATLAS Study Supports 10 vs 5 Years of Tamoxifen Therapy in Women with Breast Cancer
"Practice-changing" is the term several physicians and researchers used when asked by the media to describe the results of a study showing that extending tamoxifen therapy from 5 to 10 years for women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer further reduced recurrence and mortality....
Social Media Is Helping My Brother Fight Kidney Cancer
My brother, Rick Thomas, is a great guy. I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother. He’s funny, warm, and kind to everyone he meets. He became a commercial airline pilot for American Airlines after flying C-5s in the Air Force for 12 years and has always been a responsible person and a...
Oncology Trailblazer James F. Holland, MD, Recalls a Time of Unbridled Scientific Excitement
James F. Holland, MD, began his journey into oncology when it was still a nascent discipline, working alongside groundbreaking pioneers in the field such as Drs. Emil “Tom” Frei and C. Gordon Zubrod. Dr. Holland recently shared a glimpse of his role in oncology’s formative years with The ASCO Post. ...
Oncology Meetings
February Highlights of ASH® Miami, FL and San Francisco, CAFebruary 1-2 • Miami, Florida, and San Francisco, CaliforniaFor more information: www.hematology.org/meetings Optimizing Outcomes in Colorectal CancerFebruary 7 • Boston, MassachusettsFor more information: www.omedlive.com Interventional...
Expert Point of View: Eduardo Bruera, MD, FAAHPM
The study by Weeks and colleagues is an important one that shows quite unexpected results. There are three main possible reasons for the very low rate of accurate reporting by the patients: (1) Physicians are not communicating prognosis adequately. (2) Patients are unable to understand the...
Most 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...
Cabozantinib in Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer
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. Indication On November 29, 2012, cabozantinib (Cometriq) was...
ASCO Decision Aids Intersect Evidence-based Guidelines, Productive Patient Communication
Imagine this common clinical scenario: A 64-year-old woman presents with a new abnormality on a mammogram. A core needle biopsy and subsequent partial mastectomy reveal a 1.8-cm invasive ductal carcinoma. Sentinel lymph nodes are negative for cancer. The tumor is moderately differentiated and is...
Pediatric Cancer Foundation Names Four Recipients of 2012 Award, Each to Receive Grant for Research
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to finding cures for all children with cancer, has named four researchers 2012 recipients of the “A” Award. Christopher Vakoc, MD, PhD, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Roland Walter, MD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research...
PET-negative Scan after Short-course Chemotherapy Identifies Early Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients Who Can Forgo Radiation
Positron-emission tomography (PET)-directed therapy is promising for early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, according to results of the UK NCRI RAPID trial presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).1 The use of PET scan enabled the identification of a population of...
SIDEBAR: Treating Earlier with Eribulin
Eribulin is also being evaluated for use earlier in patients with breast cancer, in both the metastatic and adjuvant settings, in three studies described at the San Antonio meeting. In a phase II study of eribulin as first-line treatment for locally recurrent or metastatic HER2-negative breast...
