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Showing 12251 - 12300Expert Point of View: Aditya Bardia, MD
These results are promising. The fact that there were two patients with a complete response caught my eye. This is very exciting in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. These were heavily pretreated patients; 85% had more than four lines of prior therapy,” said Aditya Bardia, MD, a breast...
Anti–PD-L1 Agent Shows Activity in Early Study of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
An investigational immunotherapy called MPDL3280A showed encouraging and durable clinical activity in heavily pretreated patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, in an early study presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR).1 Responses...
Studies Evaluate Effectiveness of Active Surveillance in Prostate Cancer Patients
Active surveillance has become a viable option for many men with low-risk prostate cancer who choose not to undergo active treatment such as surgery or radiotherapy. Four studies evaluating the effectiveness, trends, and other considerations for active surveillance in managing prostate cancer were...
New Studies Call for Smarter Approach to Prostate Cancer Screening
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in American men, yet controversy over the utilization and frequency of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening methods remains, due to the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of men with low-grade, less-aggressive forms of the disease. At the 110th...
Expert Point of View: Julie A. Margenthaler, MD
Julie A. Margenthaler, MD, of Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis, who moderated a press briefing at the American Society of Breast Surgeons 16th Annual Meeting, commented on these findings and fielded some questions about the procedure. Dr. Margenthaler indicated that although nipple-sparing...
Cost Analysis of Bilateral Prophylactic Mastectomy
Bilateral prophylactic mastectomy may ease cancer-related anxiety for patients at high risk of breast cancer, but it does very little to contain the costs. A study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons 16th Annual Meeting found that bilateral prophylactic mastectomy was not...
Expert Point of View: Alison M. Friedmann, MD
Commenting on the AREN0532/AREN0533 data, Alison M. Friedmann, MD, of the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, said that this is an important study. “This continues to build on the highly successful risk-adapted treatment approach of the previous National...
Intensified Therapy Improves Survival in Wilms Tumor Patients With Rare Genetic Abnormality
Data from two phase III studies led by the Children’s Oncology Group show that augmenting or intensifying therapy for children with high-risk Wilms tumor improved relapse-free survival. These children are deemed to be at high risk due to a specific chromosomal abnormality that confers worse...
Expert Point of View: Andrew B. Lassman, MD
Formal discussant, Andrew B. Lassman, MD, of the Department of Neurology at Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and Columbia University Medical Center in New York, congratulated Dr. Brown and his coauthors for undertaking and completing a “herculean task” that took 10 years. To illustrate...
Whole-Brain Radiation: Risks Outweigh Benefits for Limited Brain Metastases
New data from a phase III Alliance trial weighs in on a longstanding debate in the treatment of brain metastases: Should whole-brain radiation therapy be added to stereotactic radiosurgery? The study found that although whole-brain radiation therapy improved local tumor control in patients with...
Expert Point of View: Lori J. Wirth, MD
Pembrolizumab [Keytruda] has a more favorable side-effect profile than cytotoxic chemotherapy and cetuximab [Erbitux]. This is particularly important for recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer patients who have been so beaten up by their disease, the treatment for their disease, and their...
Clinically Meaningful Preliminary Results With Pembrolizumab in Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is making inroads into head and neck cancer, with encouraging results in heavily pre-treated patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, according to a report on the expansion-cohort KEYNOTE-012 study presented at the 2015 ASCO...
Second-Line Nivolumab Therapy Improves Survival in Patients With Nonsquamous Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) immunotherapy with nivolumab (Opdivo) extended survival in patients with the most common form of lung cancer—nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients whose disease progressed on standard platinum doublet therapy who were treated with...
Expert Point of View: Neil Howard Segal, MD, PhD
Neil Howard Segal, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, who discussed the study at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, emphasized that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) exerted a “clear benefit in patients with mismatch repair deficiency,” based on the “very impressive response rate of...
Mismatch Repair Deficiency Predicts Benefit With Pembrolizumab in Colorectal Cancer
A genetic marker to predict response to anti–PD-1 (anti-programmed cell death protein 1) antibodies may have emerged in colorectal cancer, a tumor type that is a newcomer to the anti–PD-1 ballgame. In a phase II study of colorectal cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab (Keytruda), the presence ...
Clinical Trials, Drug Costs, and Restoring the Primacy of the Patient Volunteer
“What’s past is prologue.” —William Shakespeare Today, a cancer drug under study in a clinical trial is commonly provided for a finite period of time after the study closes to accrual. If that drug were not yet U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved when the study began, the complimentary ...
Expert Point of View: Michael B. Atkins, MD
Michael B. Atkins, MD, Deputy Director, Lombardi Cancer Center of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, discussed CheckMate 067 at the Plenary Session. Pending overall survival data, he concluded, “Nivolumab and nivolumab plus ipilimumab are superior to ipilimumab. These treatments (along with...
CheckMate 067: Dual Checkpoint Blockade Proves Effective in Advanced Melanoma
In advanced melanoma, combination treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) more than doubled the median progression-free survival time over ipilimumab alone in the CheckMate 067 trial. That said, single-agent nivolumab proved almost as powerful in patients expressing the programmed ...
Patients With Relapsed/Refractory CLL That Progresses Early on Ibrutinib Have Poor Outcomes
Most patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who discontinued ibrutinib (Imbruvica) early “were difficult to treat and had poor outcomes,” according to a study of patients enrolled in four different clinical trials of ibrutinib, with or without rituximab (Rituxan), at...
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...
Carpe Diem
My life as a cancer survivor and an oncologist has taught me the importance of living every day to the fullest. Sometimes we all need a little reminding to appreciate life to the fullest. When I think of my former patient, Marc, that is what comes to mind. When I was a senior in high school, I was...
Redefining Cancer
The ability to interrogate cancer cells at the genomic, proteomic, immunologic, and metabolomic levels will transform oncology care from one that relies mainly on trial-and-error treatment strategies based on the anatomy of the tumor to one that is more precisely based on the tumor’s molecular...
Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Oral Cavity and Oropharyngeal Cancers
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers. The trials are investigating combination therapies, treatment toxicity, specialized adjuvant therapies, and proton therapy. All of ...
Hormonal Therapy and Risk of Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States, with an estimated 21,290 new cases expected this year. Ovarian cancer causes 5% of all cancer deaths in women, making it responsible for the highest number of gynecologic cancer deaths.1 Age, family history, and...
Deciphering the Genetic Variability of Cancer to Advance Precision Oncology Care
In 2014, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York opened the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology with the sole purpose of expediting the translation of novel molecular discoveries into clinical innovations to turn the goal of precision oncology care into...
National Cancer Institute Pulls PSA Data From SEER
In a move that reverberated through much of the cancer research community, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently announced that it had removed all prostate-specific antigen (PSA) data from its current Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data submission and associated...
New Resources Developed by ASCO’s Community Research Forum
The ASCO Community Research Forum (CRF) is a solution-oriented venue for community research sites to overcome barriers to conducting clinical trials. Each year, the CRF council, comprising ASCO member volunteers, selects topic areas and specific solution-oriented projects for working groups to make ...
ASCO Releases Payment Reform Proposal to Support Higher Quality, More Affordable Cancer Care
ASCO released a proposal to significantly improve the quality and affordability of care for cancer patients. ASCO’s Patient-Centered Oncology Payment: Payment Reform to Support Higher Quality, More Affordable Cancer Care (PCOP) proposal is designed to simultaneously improve services to patients and ...
Adjuvant Chemotherapy Proves Effective in Localized, High-Risk Prostate Cancer
For the first time, a large randomized trial has suggested that overall survival is improved by the addition of adjuvant chemotherapy to androgen suppression and radiotherapy in men with localized, high-risk, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Docetaxel has been used to treat metastatic...
Two Factors Predict for Recurrent Venous Thromboembolism in Patients With Cancer
Patients with cancer who develop venous thromboembolism are at high risk of such obstructive disease recurring despite adequate anticoagulation. A prespecified analysis of the CATCH trial identified two major predictors of recurrence: venous compression by the tumor and a diagnosis of hepatobiliary ...
Expert Point of View: Lynn Schuchter, MD, and Vernon Sondak, MD
Lynn Schuchter, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, a designated ASCO expert, commented at the press briefing that the results might apply to a select group of patients concerned about lymphedema but not yet to the broader population. “I would say that this is a really important...
Expert Point of View: George Somlo, MD, FACP
This is a significant study. About 30% of patients who undergo breast-conserving surgery or partial mastectomy are likely to have positive margins. Optimal treatment is to remove the entire tumor surgically and then follow with radiation. Standard practice requires reexcision for positive margins,” ...
Routine Resection of Cavity Shave Margins Halved Reexcision Rates in Breast Cancer
Taking additional tissue circumferentially around the cavity left by partial mastectomy (“cavity shave margins”) cut the rate of positive margins by nearly 50% and the rate of reexcision for margin clearance by more than 50% compared with standard partial mastectomy with or without the surgeon...
Single-Agent Daratumumab Activity Deemed ‘Remarkable’ in Refractory Multiple Myeloma
Heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma achieved rapid, durable, and deepening responses to the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody daratumumab, in a phase II study presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 “Daratumumab showed remarkable single-agent activity in heavily pretreated and...
ASCO Releases Details of Its Conceptual Framework for Assessing Value in Cancer Care
Defining and ensuring the delivery of high-value oncology care has been one of ASCO’s major goals for more than a decade. In 2007, ASCO formed the Task Force on the Cost of Cancer Care, now called the Value in Cancer Care Task Force, to identify the drivers of the increasing costs of oncology care...
Considering Clonality in Precision Medicine
Precision cancer medicine entails treating patients based upon the molecular characteristics of their tumor. One could argue that we have been tailoring therapeutic regimens based upon tumor characteristics for years, whether it be treating patients based upon disease subtypes determined by...
Expert Point of View: Hisham Mehanna, PhD
Formal discussant Hisham Mehanna, PhD, Chief of Head and Neck Surgery and Director of Head and Neck Studies and Education at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, congratulated Dr. D’Cruz on conducting an ambitious and difficult trial. “Like all studies, it has flaws, but the study has...
Elective Neck Dissection Beats Watch and Wait Approach in Early Oral Cancer
Elective neck dissection of node-negative early-stage oral cancer at the time of primary surgery improves overall survival and disease-free survival compared with therapeutic neck dissection (ie, therapeutic neck dissection at the time of nodal relapse, or “watch and wait” approach), according to a ...
Frederick Pei Li, MD, Pioneer of Cancer Genetics, Dies at 75
Frederick Pei Li, MD, who helped inaugurate the era of cancer genetics by demonstrating that people can inherit a genetic susceptibility to develop certain malignancies, died on June 12 at the age of 75. A Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard T.H. Chan...
Agreement on High-Value Screening for Five Common Cancers
Finding agreement on high-value cancer screening among organizations publishing screening guidelines, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued advice listing the least-intensive screening strategies that all the organizations recommend—as well as strategies not recommended—for five common...
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, FASCO: Never One to Back Down From a Challenge
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, FASCO, always sat in the front row at school. She grew up during a rigidly paternalist period in American society, and her early feminist leanings were brushed aside as grade-school adventures. The medical school lecture room of the 1960s was a male-dominated culture, and...
Translating Study Recommendations Into Medicare Coverage
Lung cancer doggedly remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. This grim mortality figure is due, in part, to a lack of early detection methods; more than half of all lung cancers have metastasized at the time of diagnosis. For decades, lung cancer advocates lobbied...
The Pediatric Fitness Program: A Mind-Body Approach
The fundamental challenge in treating children with cancer centers on how to help relieve their suffering while they undergo difficult care. Typically, they do not yet have adult coping skills, and even if they had some ability to cope, many of the issues they face during treatment are...
ASCO Members, Public Working Together to ‘Take Down’ Cancer
From Wrigley Field to McCormick Place, Chicago residents and visitors felt the energy surrounding the launch of The Campaign to Conquer Cancer during the ASCO 2015 Annual Meeting. The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (CCF) threw out the ceremonial first pitch...
ASCO QOPI® Certification Program Benefits Oncology Practices and Patients
Christa Braun-Inglis, MS, NP, has seen her last three practices certified through ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®). Ms. Braun-Inglis, a nurse practitioner with Kaiser Hawaii Region, was not solely responsible for the designations, although she helped some of the practices become...
Pembrolizumab in Advanced NSCLC: The Promise of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
Drugs targeting the immune-checkpoint pathways have shown promising activity in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Garon and colleagues reported the results of the KEYNOTE-001 clinical trial evaluating single-agent pembrolizumab...
Assessing and Improving Imaging Interpretation in Breast Cancer Screening
The quality of mammography images has markedly improved over the past few decades. However, the quality of the interpretation of mammograms remains variable. That said, more than 38 million mammograms are performed annually in the United States. So said Diana Buist, PhD, Senior Scientific...
Oncolytic Immunotherapy in Melanoma: It’s Not All About PD-1
The benefit from immune-directed therapies in patients with advanced melanoma is not limited to the exploding field of checkpoint inhibitors. According to Robert Andtbacka, MD, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology, at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City,...
Poliovirus for Glioblastoma Grabs National Attention
Researchers at The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University are being barraged by patients wishing to enroll in their clinical trial of an engineered poliovirus for recurrent glioblastoma. This comes as a result of a CBS 60 Minutes interview with lead researcher Matthias...
Cost of Immunotherapy Projected to Top $1 Million per Patient per Year
If new immunotherapy combinations were administered to the half a million Americans dying of cancer each year, the nation’s price tag for treating them—for just 1 year—could top $174 billion, according to projections by Leonard Saltz, MD, Chief of Gastrointestinal Oncology and Chair of the Pharmacy ...
