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Showing 12451 - 12500Cancer Has Given Me a Greater Appreciation for Life
I’ve been blessed with good health for most of my life, and I was careful to keep it that way. I don’t smoke, I eat a healthy diet, and I maintain a healthy weight. I also was fortunate to be born with pretty good genes and have no family history of cancer. In fact, except for an occasional...
Ibrutinib in Previously Treated Mantle Cell Lymphoma
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 13, 2013, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) was granted...
The Quest to Optimize Personalized Therapies for Cancer
In the late 1980s, Brian J. Druker, MD, was investigating the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase as a target for therapeutic intervention for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in a laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. By 1993, Dr. Druker had moved to Oregon Health & Science University in...
Ginkgo biloba
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased 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...
Society for Integrative Oncology Is Helping to Advance Evidence-Based, Comprehensive Integrative Health Care
Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD, was named President of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) at the organization’s 10th International Conference in October. Dr. Greenlee is Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New...
Highlights From the 10th International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology
The 10th International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) was held recently in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and attracted over 300 oncologists and internal medicine physicians, researchers, nurses, integrative medicine practitioners, cancer survivors, and patient...
How to Measure the Impact of Dermatologic and Mucosal Adverse Events on Symptom Burden and Quality of Life
Targeted anticancer therapies like epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors, multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (mTKIs), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors frequently result in dermatologic adverse events and mucosal adverse events, or, taken together, mucocutaneous ...
National Cancer Policy Summit: Setting Priorities for the Next 3 Years
Welcome to the meeting we hold every 3 years to choose our next projects,” said John Mendelsohn, MD, Chair of the National Cancer Policy Forum and Director of the Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. “We have here a...
Patient-Reported Outcomes, a Central Component to Value and Rapid-Learning Systems
With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, value became the operative word in assessing the success of health care, from outcomes to cost. To drive more value, the Affordable Care Act seeks to implement initiatives such as comparative effectiveness research that...
FDA Approves Sorafenib to Treat Late-Stage Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently expanded the approved uses of sorafenib (Nexavar) to treat late-stage differentiated thyroid cancer. The new indication is for patients with locally recurrent or metastatic, progressive differentiated thyroid cancer that no longer responds to...
Oncology Drug Dosing: Can an Optimal Dose Be Fine-Tuned for Each Patient?
ASCO Chief Medical Officer Richard L. Schilsky, MD, and other oncology drug experts presented a panel on drug dosing at a recent meeting, cosponsored by the Friends of Cancer Research and the Brookings Institution, in Washington, DC.1 The presentations made it clear that issues surrounding drug...
A New Gift to Add to Your List—One to Conquer Cancer
Conquering cancer requires the commitment, talent, and resources of all members of our community. It requires the innovation of researchers and the insight of clinicians, the courage of our worldwide community of patients and survivors, and it requires the generosity of everyone who believes in a...
Newly Updated: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care
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 financial paperwork. ...
Clinical Cancer Advances 2013: ASCO's Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer
The Society has recently published Clinical Cancer Advances 2013: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer, a comprehensive review of progress in clinical cancer research that has come to fruition in 2013. The report highlights advances across the entire continuum of cancer care, from...
Expert Point of View: Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO
Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, the Stuart B. Padnos Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, wrote an accompanying editorial on the value of these newly developed omics-related criteria.1 Dr. Hayes pointed out that since the cloning of the human genome, there has...
NCI-Led Scientists Develop Criteria for 'Omics' Tests Used in Clinical Investigations
High-throughput “omics” technologies that generate molecular profiles on tumor specimens are increasingly being incorporated into clinical trials, but some of these assays have not been well validated, leading many in the research community to question their fitness for use in patient-care...
Valganciclovir in Glioblastoma, Selection Bias, and Flawed Conclusions
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Söderberg-Nauclér et al from the Karolinska Institute have written a provocative letter to The New England Journal of Medicine suggesting that long-term administration of valganciclovir (Valcyte), a drug that targets cytomegalovirus (CMV), improves...
Investigators Report Valganciclovir May Increase Survival in Glioblastoma
In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, described experience with the anti-cytomegalovirus (CMV) agent valganciclovir (Valcyte) in the treatment of glioblastoma, citing dramatically improved...
No Apparent Benefit of Adjuvant Gefitinib in Resected NSCLC in Prematurely Closed Trial
As reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology by Glenwood D. Goss, MD, of the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Center, and colleagues, the prematurely closed NCIC CTG BR19 study showed no apparent survival benefit of adjuvant gefitinib (Iressa, withdrawn from U.S. market) vs placebo in patients with completely ...
Correctly Assessing Pain Progression and Quality-of-Life Deterioration in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
The therapeutic landscape for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer has changed dramatically in the past 4 years, as five new agents affecting different aspects of the malignant process were proven to prolong life. The results are a great benefit to patients, but at the same time...
Adjuvant Trastuzumab Duration: When Is Enough, Enough?
The duration of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy for breast cancer has been a subject of investigation, scrutiny, and meta-analysis.1,2 With the appreciation that prolonged regimens of cytotoxic chemotherapy of, for example, 1 to 2 years in duration were not superior in reducing breast cancer...
Breast Cancer Vaccines for Primary Prevention Move Toward Clinical Use
The first candidate vaccine to prevent recurrence of breast cancer entered clinical trials about 8 years ago, and since then, the idea of a vaccine for secondary prevention has gained traction; more such vaccines are now in development. But this fall, it was vaccines for primary prevention that had ...
Centers in Massachusetts Collaborate in Joint Center for Cancer Precision Medicine
The Joint Center for Cancer Precision Medicine, a collaborative initiative among Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, has been established to create “precision medicine treatment pathways” for patients...
Expert Point of View: Kenneth C. Anderson, MD
Commenting on the evidence for treating precursor myeloma in the study by Mateos et al,1 Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer ...
Treating Earlier to Avoid Progression to Multiple Myeloma
With an expanded list of drugs to treat multiple myeloma, experts are interested in whether treating precursor diseases to multiple myeloma can prevent progression to full-blown myeloma. In addition, new drugs are entering the armamentarium for treating multiple myeloma, noted Ruben Niesvizky, MD,...
Global Oncology 2013: Disparities in Cancer Care
While much progress has been made against cancer over the last century, a new report1 presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress brings together evidence that not every patient benefits from it, nor even has the opportunity to benefit. The economics of cancer are daunting and the current model...
Transplant Now or Later for High-Risk Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
The use of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic blood or marrow transplantation for high-risk aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been extensively evaluated over the past few decades. This treatment was originally used only for patients with relapsed aggressive lymphoma. However, as...
S9704 Trial: Autologous Transplantation as Consolidation in Aggressive Lymphoma
Autologous bone marrow or stem cell transplantation has had an important role in the treatment of aggressive lymphoma for several decades. The important results of the PARMA study1 demonstrated that patients in first relapse who remained chemosensitive had improved progression-free and overall...
Consent Is Informed and Shared, But Is It Compassionate?
A 72-year-old, obese male patient and a poor operative candidate is diagnosed with esophageal carcinoma. He has multiple comorbidities and a past history of colon carcinoma. His staging workup, which included a colonoscopy, revealed recurrent colon carcinoma. Thus, we have a patient who we...
SIDEBAR: Shared Decisions: What Should We Expect?
There is growing interest by patients, policymakers, and clinicians in shared decision-making as a means to include patients in health decisions and translate patient evidence into clinical practice. Conceptually, sharing of information seems like a natural interplay between doctors and their...
Sharing Treatment Decision-Making With Patients: Where’s the Evidence of Value?
Though certainly not new to oncologists, “shared decision-making” between doctors and patients is receiving increased attention in the medical community today. While it’s an idea with merit, Steven J. Katz, MD, MPH, a specialist in quality care issues, maintains that expectations about the...
Call for Expanded Genetic Profiling in Colorectal Cancer
Testing for codons 12 and 13 on the KRAS gene and BRAF testing can predict whether patients with colorectal cancer will respond to anti–epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapies. However, genetic alterations not captured by testing for KRAS codon 12 and 13 mutations may play an important...
Praise for The ASCO Post
There is so much “stuff” to read and remember—just to get through a day or a week—that it can be difficult to find time to surf the Web and search information sites, even if you select only a few to review routinely. For those of us who focus on one oncology specialty, The ASCO Post is an...
Janet L. Rowley, MD, Matriarch of Modern Cancer Genetics, Dies at Age 88
Dr. Janet L. Rowley’s groundbreaking research in the translocation of genetic material bucked scientific convention and heralded a new understanding that cancer is indeed a genetic disease. Her research was largely responsible for the discoveries that led to the development of the targeted cancer...
January Is National Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trials Awareness Month
January marks the annual observance of National Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trials Awareness Month. The 5-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is just 6%. In the effort to highlight the urgent need to improve the survival rate for this disease, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is educating...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions From Your Patients About Hyperthermia
Most but not all cancer treatment with hyperthermia is still being done in clinical trials. The exception is using hyperthermia for superficial cancers, most commonly chest wall recurrences in the breast. Using hyperthermia for superficial cancer “is approved and reimbursable by Medicare,” Mark W....
Using Hyperthermia for Cancer Treatment: Proofs, Promises, and Uncertainties
With the headline, “Rare Cancer Treatments, Cleared by F.D.A. but Not Subject to Scrutiny,” a recent article in The New York Times reported that several medical centers were treating patients with cancer using a hyperthermia system that had received a Humanitarian Use Device approval from the U.S....
Ludwig Cancer Research Contributes One-Half Billion in New Funding to Six U.S. Research Institutions
On behalf of its founder, Daniel K. Ludwig, Ludwig Cancer Research has awarded $540 million across six Ludwig Centers, including those at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University, and the...
With the Goal of Curing Cancer, Ezra M. Greenspan, MD, Helped Usher in the Modern Era of Chemotherapy
Two events in Ezra M. Greenspan’s early adult life convinced him to pursue a career in medicine: the death of a college friend from pneumonia when the two were students at Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences and his own bout with the disease soon after. Saved by a local physician who...
Making Progress in Survivorship Care Planning
The recommendation that a survivorship care plan be provided to patients and their primary care providers was first presented in the 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition. The IOM committee proposed that this document include two parts—a ...
Science Magazine Names Cancer Immunotherapy as Scientific Breakthrough of the Year
While acknowledging that the full potential of cancer immunotherapy remains unclear, the editors of the journal Science said that the approach of using the immune system to attack tumors marks a turning point in the treatment of cancer.1 The successes of cancer immunotherapy in clinical trials in...
Assessing Patients for Palliative Care
In 2012, ASCO issued a provisional clinical opinion addressing the integration of palliative care services into standard oncology practice at the time a patient is diagnosed with metastatic or advanced cancer and for patients with uncontrolled symptoms.1 However, despite ASCO’s provisional clinical ...
Stress and Tumor Biology: Insights Into Managing Stress to Help Improve Cancer Care
Stress is ubiquitous in our society, especially for people diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. There is a common misconception that stress is derived from a particular negative event. However, the event itself (the stressors, such as cancer diagnoses and treatment) does not causes stress....
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Names Susan Desmond-Hellman New CEO
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has selected Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, as its next Chief Executive Officer. Currently the Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Dr. Desmond-Hellmann will assume her role on May 1, 2014. “We chose Sue because of her...
Cancer Is in My Soul
The threat of getting cancer began for me before I was born. In 1950, when my mother was pregnant with me, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and refused treatment until after she gave birth, so I have always felt that cancer was woven into my soul. For the first year of my life, I was raised by...
Developing Intermediate Endpoints in Immunotherapy
“The immune system holds tremendous potential for long-term sustained antitumor activity,” said James P. Allison, PhD, Immunology Chair, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, as he opened a panel discussion at a meeting cosponsored by the Friends of Cancer Research and the...
Activation of Innovative Lung Cancer Master Protocol Officially Announced, Enrollment to Begin in March
At a recent meeting in Washington, DC, Friends of Cancer Research and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution officially announced activation of the Lung Cancer Master Protocol, a new research strategy that has the potential to hurdle or bypass known clinical trial...
Diagnosing and Treating Chronic Mucocutaneous Graft-vs-Host Disease
Chronic graft-vs-host disease is a major cause of late, nonrelapse death following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In addition, chronic graft-vs-host disease results in significant functional impairment and decreased quality of life for long-term survivors of stem cell...
Adjuvant Gefitinib in Patients With NSCLC: Bad Idea or Wrong Patient Selection?
Despite optimal surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin-based doublets, the 5-year overall survival for patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains suboptimal. In the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) staging project, the...
Meta-Analysis Upholds Benefit in Progression-Free Survival, but Not Overall Survival, With Lenalidomide Maintenance
Multiple myeloma patients derived a benefit from maintenance lenalidomide (Revlimid) treatment in terms of progression-free but not overall survival, according to a meta-analysis of four key trials presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.1 The study does little to...
