Visit ASCO’s patient information website, Cancer.Net, for comprehensive guides to non–small cell lung cancer at www.cancer.net/nsclc and small cell lung cancer at www.cancer.net/sclc. A shorter, one-page fact sheet on lung cancer is also available, as well as specialized resources for caregiving,...
ASCO Research Community Forum The ASCO Research Community Forum (RCF) Annual Meeting was held September 24–25, with the theme of Advancing Cancer Care Through Research Partnerships. The RCF Annual Meeting brings together ASCO leaders, regulatory experts, physician investigators, and research staff...
Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a cancer so rare that some oncologists have never heard of it. Brittany Sullivan, a 29-year-old anatomy teacher from Nashville, Tennessee, learned about it when she was 3 years old. She has been conquering it ever since. Since her childhood diagnosis, Ms....
The Conquerors Circle is the Conquer Cancer Foundation’s first-ever donor appreciation society. Donors who contribute $1,000 annually are members of the Conquerors Circle. In appreciation for their generous and loyal support of CCF, Conquerors Circle members receive exclusive benefits based on...
As one of the few organizations exclusively focused on funding research for metastatic breast cancer, Twisted Pink has a unique story to tell. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, the organization was founded in 2014 by breast cancer survivor Caroline Johnson. While Ms. Johnson fully recovered from her...
In a 2013 survey, oncologists in the United States and Canada said they aim to retire at about age 64 or 65—but the majority transition into retirement in the few years after turning 65.1 When oncologists reach the point of retirement, the transition from ever-busy physician to retiree can be a...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the release of new educational materials for health-care professionals about biosimilar and interchangeable products. The agency developed these educational materials to help increase understanding about these important new types of...
Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD, took the oath of office late Tuesday, October 17, 2017, to become the 15th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He succeeds Harold E. Varmus, MD, who stepped down as Director in March 2015. Douglas R. Lowy, ...
The 2017 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium took place October 27–28 in San Diego. Photos shown here, from left to right, as follows: 1. Eduardo Bruera, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center leads a group of attendees on a poster walk and discussion; 2. Charles Loprinzi, MD,...
Communicating effectively with patients with advanced cancer not only helps patients and their family members successfully transition to palliative and end-of-life care, it can prevent physicians from experiencing professional burnout, according to Robert M. Arnold, MD, Distinguished Service...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has granted the newly established ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology to Laurence Zitvogel, MD, PhD, for her innovating and internationally recognized achievements in the field. Dr. Zitvogel is Professor of Immunobiology at the University of Paris XI...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, held in Madrid, featured important news including at least seven practice-changing or potentially practice-changing trials, which are covered in recent issues of The ASCO Post. Here we present additional highlights of studies in breast ...
In this roundup, The ASCO Post offers a glance at key findings from studies in noncolorectal gastrointestinal malignancies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress from investigators around the world. Docetaxel-Based Triplet in Gastric Cancer The superiority of...
IN OCTOBER, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two novel agents for lymphoma indications: -acalabrutinib (Calquence), a kinase inhibitor, for the treatment of adults with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy; and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), a...
Tumor mutation burden is emerging as a biomarker for selecting non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients for immunotherapy, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, the Price Family Chair of Clinical Translational Medicine, Professor of Medicine, and Director of Thoracic Oncology at Columbia University,...
“At Microphone 1” is an occasional column written by Steven E. Vogl, MD, of Bronx, New York. When he’s not in his clinic, Dr. Vogl can generally be found at major oncology meetings and often at the microphone, where he stands ready with critical questions for presenters of new data. Here Dr. Vogl...
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has become standard practice, mostly due to the results of the National Lung Screening Trial. Related evidence continues to evolve, informing the benefits and risks of low-dose CT in clinical practice. Mazzone et al presented new ...
Two new studies from CHEST 2017, held recently in Toronto, reveal disparities in lung cancer screening and care that may impact detection as well as mortality and survival rates in the disease. Risk Status and Screening The first study from Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington,...
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! That’s what home buyers are frequently cautioned about before purchasing a property. For trialists, and more importantly, practicing oncologists, a study’s design, akin to a property’s location, must be taken into account prior to buying into the results and changing ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Harry Quon, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed the recently published American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based clinical practice guideline on radiation therapy for...
On October 23, topline results of the phase III ARROW trial were announced, showing carfilzomib (Kyprolis) administered once weekly at 70 mg/m2 with dexamethasone allowed relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients to live 3.6 months longer without their disease worsening than...
On October 23, Novartis announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for dabrafenib (Tafinlar) in combination with trametinib (Mekinist) for the adjuvant treatment of patients with stage III melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation following...
A new study presented at The Liver Meeting, held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, found that daily aspirin therapy was significantly associated with a reduced risk in hepatitis B virus (HBV)–related liver cancer (Abstract 223). According to AASLD’s...
A new study presented at The Liver Meeting—held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases—found that eradication of the hepatitis C virus induced by direct-acting antiviral medications is associated with a 71% reduction in the risk of liver cancer (Abstract 142)....
Jeremy Hirst, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, offers concrete advice on assessing the need for these medications, using them safely, and knowing when to deprescribe them.
The results of a national cancer survey reveal a significant number of childhood cancer survivors are worried about keeping their health insurance, to the point of letting it affect their career decisions. The findings were published by Kirchhoff et al in JAMA Oncology. Anne Kirchhoff, PhD,...
As reported by Catherine Van Poznak, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have collaborated in providing a focused update for the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the role of bone-modifying agents in...
Rare variants combined with background genetic risk factors may account for many unexplained cases of familial breast cancer, and knowing the specific genes involved could inform choice of prevention and treatment strategies, according to findings presented in a plenary session at the American...
Abby R. Rosenberg, MD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital, discusses study findings on a skills-based intervention that helped teens and young adults with cancer manage stress to improve their quality of life and reduce distress (Abstract 176).
Areej El-Jawahri, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses a video tool that helps overcome communication barriers so that patients can make more informed decisions for end-of-life care and their preferences are respected.
Sandip Patel, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses diagnosing and managing immune-related adverse events from immune checkpoint blockade and the toxicities of these treatments.
Jamie Jacobs, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses study results that showed integrating oncology and palliative care early in the course of treatment helps people with incurable lung and gastrointestinal cancers cope better and have an improved quality of life and less...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to acalabrutinib (Calquence) for the treatment of adults with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy. “Mantle cell lymphoma is a particularly aggressive cancer,” said Richard...
Anthony L. Back, MD, of the University of Washington, talks about how clinicians can protect themselves from burnout and develop resilience. The default approach––“pretending we are not affected by stress”––often backfires, he says, and makes caregivers more susceptible to workplace pressures.
Michael Hoerger, PhD, of Tulane University, discusses the effect on quality of life, depression, and end-of-life care when physicians focus on coping or on decision-making and advance care planning (Abstract 154).
Jacob J. Strand, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses tips and tools that clinicians can use to develop universal precautions for prescribing opioids in oncology and palliative care practice.
Thomas J. Smith, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discusses successful models of integrating palliative care into outpatient oncology.
The number of early-phase trials in oncology that adopted a seamless approach—as opposed to a traditional trial approach with defined phase I, II, and III plans—is rising, with data from the majority of them presented after 2014, according to a study presented by Barata et al at the...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) clinical trial has achieved the goal of screening nearly 6,000 patients in just under 2 years, according to data presented by Chen et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer...
A computational imaging-based signature of immune-cell infiltration in and around a tumor could predict patients’ responses to treatment with anti–programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immunotherapies, according to data from a study presented by Sun et...
An investigational test that screens for colorectal cancer could detect genetic mutations that are indicative of the disease with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity, according to results of a study presented by Powell et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular...
Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, of OhioHealth, discusses an online curriculum that changed younger physicians’ use of palliative medicine in practice during the year after fellowship training (Abstract 202).
Eric Roeland, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, summarizes key papers delivered at the Palliative Care Symposium on managing insomnia, fatigue, nausea, and the ways in which physical therapy and nausea can reduce the side effect burden.
On October 18, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma...
Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, President and Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, recently delivered the following testimony and answered questions from members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. His remarks...
Preliminary results from a phase II open-label trial of tipifarnib, a farnesyltransferase inhibitor, in patients with HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) were presented by Alan L. Ho, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International...
Children with relapsed or refractory malignant rhabdoid tumors, epithelioid sarcomas, or poorly differentiated chordomas with a particular genetic defect tolerated treatment with the investigational drug tazemetostat well, and some had objective and durable responses, according to data from a phase ...
Whole-exome sequencing revealed that colorectal cancers with high mutational load (microsatellite instability–high, or MSI-H) predominantly use “immunoediting” to escape immune surveillance, while colorectal cancers with low mutational load (microsatellite stable, or MSS) use...
More than a quarter of patients with recurrent high-grade glioma treated with the retroviral vector Toca 511 (vocimagene amiretrorepvec) combined with Toca FC (an extended-release formulation of fluorocytosine, a prodrug of fluorouracil [5-FU]) were alive more than 3 years after...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the release of new educational materials for health-care professionals about biosimilar and interchangeable products. The agency developed these educational materials to help increase understanding about these important new types of...