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Showing 12551 - 12600Nab-paclitaxel vs Solvent-based Paclitaxel in First-line Treatment of Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer: Final Results
Nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) is a solvent-free paclitaxel formulation intended to reduce solvent-related adverse reactions and improve tumor penetration via the physiologic transport properties of albumin. The final results of a phase III trial comparing nab-paclitaxel and ...
Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Predicted by Disease, Age, and Insurance Type, but Not by Race
Breast cancer mortality has been found to be higher among black and Hispanic women than among white women, with the differences in outcome being attributed in part to more advanced disease stage and greater frequency of unfavorable tumor biology among black and Hispanic women. Studies to date have...
Novel Agents for Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer Impressive in Early Trials
Several sessions at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Vienna focused on novel targeted therapies in various stages of development. Summarized here are data on two promising drugs for breast cancer and two for prostate cancer. E-3810 in Breast Cancer Two experimental...
Highlights From the Ninth International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology
The theme of this year’s International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) was “Honoring Diversity in Cancer Prevention and Control.” The conference was held October 8–10, 2012, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and examined such varied topics as health-care disparities, novel...
Integrative Medicine Showing Benefits in Cancer Management
Donald I. Abrams, MD, Chief of Hematology-Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and Integrative Oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, has been investigating and incorporating integrative medicine approaches in his clinical treatment...
Contralateral Breast Cancer Risk Is Highly Overestimated
Breast cancer is highly unlikely to develop in the contralateral breast of women treated for primary breast cancer, yet many women continue to fear it and undergo prophylactic mastectomies. “Regardless, the perceived risk of developing and dying from a contralateral breast cancer is highly...
SIDEBAR: Mammography Study Stokes Overdiagnosis Debate
Overdiagnosis and the harms associated with unnecessary procedures is becoming a vibrant subject in today’s health-care dialogue, with serious implications for providers and patients alike. A new study from the Norwegian Screening Program concluded that 15% to 25% of breast cancers identified on...
Updated Results from T-DM1 and Regorafenib Trials, plus Other Highlights from ESMO 2012
The 35th European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Vienna broke all records for attendance, with about 16,000 attendees from all over the world. Some sessions were standing room only, including the Presidential Symposia, the ESMO-ASCO Joint Symposium on genomics in breast cancer, and ...
Defining a Cure for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Strategies to Achieve this Goal
In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), continued long-term therapy that prevents both progression to accelerated-phase disease and the emergence of resistance may be thought of as an “operational” or “functional” cure. However, long-term disease control without the requirement for continuous treatment...
Managing Treatment Failure in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
As John Goldman, DM, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, discussed earlier, a substantial minority of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) experience treatment failure. Jorge Cortes, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, introduced this session with two patient cases to illustrate...
Defining and Recognizing the Causes of Imatinib Resistance and the Importance of Adherence
Imatinib (Gleevec) is a highly effective therapy for the majority of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In the IRIS study, only 30% of patients could be considered to have failed imatinib treatment after 6 years.1 However, these 30% of patients are a substantial minority. John Goldman,...
Beyond Molecular Monitoring: Cytogenetic Testing and Mutational Analysis in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
Cytogenetic analysis remains an important component of patient monitoring until a complete cytogenetic response is achieved. In addition, the ability of conventional cytogenetics to identify additional chromosomal abnormalities not detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization is noteworthy. Jorge ...
CE Activity Instructions
*Corresponding author, MediCom Worldwide, Inc, 101 Washington Street, Morrisville, PA 19067, e-mail: gtombler@medicaled.com Activity Release Date: November 15, 2012Period of Validity: November 15, 2013 Program Overview This activity presents highlights from a satellite symposium held in...
Role of Glutamate and Effect of Its Blockade in Prostate Cancer
Glutamate plays a role in oncogenic metabolic and signaling pathways. In a recently reported study, Koochekpour and colleagues from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, investigated potential correlations of glutamate levels with prostate cancer in patients with primary or...
Lower Risk of Recurrence in Patients with HBV-related Liver Cancer Receiving Nucleoside Analogs
Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma who received nucleoside analogs after curative liver resection had an associated lower risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in a nationwide cohort study using data from the Taiwan National Health Research Data Base. The study was...
Small Increase in Cardiac Events for Trastuzumab plus Anthracycline in HER2-positive Disease
A 7-year follow-up of the phase III National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) protocol B-31 found that the cumulative difference in the rate of cardiac events was 3.1% between patients with HER2-positive, node-positive breast cancer who received trastuzumab (Herceptin) in addition ...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions and Respond with Reasoned Explanations
“Soaring spending has presented the medical community with a new obligation. When choosing treatments for a patient, we have to consider the financial strains they may cause alongside the benefits they might deliver,” three physicians from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York...
MSKCC’s Decision Not to Purchase New Cancer Drug Sparks Editorial and Unprecedented Actions
“At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, we recently made a decision that should have been a no-brainer: we are not going to give a phenomenally expensive new cancer drug to our patients.” That was the opening sentence of a New York Times op-ed piece written by three physicians from Memorial...
I Am Not a Victim
Six years ago, at age 62, I was feeling in great shape. The year before, I had taken over custody of my 2- and 3-year-old great-grandchildren and decided to change the course of my career from motivational speaker to motivational coach to be home more often with the kids. It was during one of our...
Oncology Meetings
January 2013 3rd International Conference on Medical, Biological and Pharmaceutical SciencesJanuary 4-5 • Bali, Indonesia For more information: www.psrcentre.org Breast-Gynecological International Cancer CongressJanuary 17-18 • Cairo, Egypt For more information: www.bgicc.eg.net/ Highlights of ASH® ...
Acupuncture: Does It Alleviate Symptoms Associated with Cancer Care?
A therapeutic modality of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture has been extensively investigated in Western medical settings. Its clinical use is increasingly common for the management of pain and other conditions. In the oncology setting, research demonstrates that acupuncture can...
Health-care Crisis Reconsidered
As an oncologist in private practice, I usually read with great interest the many articles in The ASCO Post on issues regarding the politics of oncology practice. These articles deal with the major topics of the day, ranging from the high cost of oncologic care to shortages of generic drugs, to...
Top 10 Most Viewed Articles on ASCOPost.com for 2012
Novel Multikinase Inhibitor Improves Survival in Metastatic Colorectal CancerBy Caroline HelwickThe novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor regorafenib, given as a single agent to patients with treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer, significantly improved overall survival and delayed disease...
Prevention and Treatment of Multikinase Inhibitor–induced Hand-Foot Syndrome
Multikinase inhibitors (sorafenib [Nexavar], sunitinib [Sutent], pazopanib [Votrient], axitinib [Inlyta], regorafenib [Stivarga]) block various proteins including vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR). They have been approved by...
Expert Point of View: Jeffrey Bradley, MD
Commenting on both radiotherapy studies and the use of proton-beam therapy in general, Jeffrey Bradley, MD, of Washington University in St Louis, agreed with both presenters that a randomized prospective trial is needed to justify the use of proton-beam therapy in prostate cancer. Washington...
Early Quality of Life Better with Proton-beam Therapy, but Late Effects Similar to Other Treatment Modalities for Prostate Cancer
Differing patterns of patient-reported quality of life for three-dimensional (3D) conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, and proton-beam therapy were reported in a nonrandomized comparison of three modern cohorts of patients with prostate cancer. The study was presented at...
Expert Point of View: Thomas Pisansky, MD
Commenting on this paper, Thomas Pisansky, MD, the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, reminded listeners that about 50% of patients treated with external-beam radiation therapy and about 33% of those treated with brachytherapy already have erectile dysfunction prior to treatment. After radiation...
Expert Point of View: Jason A. Efstathiou, MD, DPhil
Although these two trials reported at the ASTRO Annual Meeting are seemingly different, they both establish the value of radiation-based therapy in prostate cancer, demonstrating overall survival benefit and favorable toxicity profiles in high-risk, locally advanced, and castrate-resistant...
Androgen-deprivation Therapy plus Radiation Proven as Standard of Care for High-risk Prostate Cancer
A combined-modality approach of androgen-deprivation therapy plus radiation therapy achieves a substantial survival benefit over androgen-deprivation therapy alone in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer according to final analysis of an intergroup randomized phase III study conducted by...
SIDEBAR: How Other Countries Are Controlling Oncology Costs
The refrain is familiar: The United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized country, but the investment does not correspond to superior care. A recent study by The Commonwealth Fund, a health-care policy research foundation, shows just how stark the contrast is. Instructive ...
The Ethics of Rationing Cancer Care
Should cost be a consideration when deciding on treatment for patients with cancer, and if so, what kind of ethical dilemma does that pose for oncologists? With U.S. spending on oncology drugs expected to climb more than 20% annually over the next decade—reaching $173 billion by 2020, according to...
Genetic Variation in Vitamin D Pathway Is Tied to Colorectal Cancer Risk among African Americans
African Americans’ risk of colorectal cancer varies according to whether they have certain genetic variants that affect vitamin D metabolism, according to a study presented at the Fifth American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held...
Expert Point of View: Paul Harari, MD
Formal discussant of this trial, Paul Harari, MD, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, commended the N09C6 investigators for conducting a randomized controlled phase III trial on symptom relief. “Most phase III trials are conducted to evaluate a new cancer...
Oral Rinse Doxepin Relieves Painful Mucositis in Head and Neck Cancer
Doxepin oral rinse significantly improved oral mucositis in patients treated with radiation therapy for head and neck cancer according to results of a phase III trial presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in Boston. However, the improvement was...
Significant Reduction in Cancer Risk Seen with Daily Multivitamin Use in Middle-aged and Older Men
Large-scale trials over the past several years have shown a general lack of effect of single vitamins or small numbers of vitamins given at high doses in preventing cancer. However, as recently reported in JAMA by Gaziano and colleagues, the Physicians’ Health Study II has found a modest but...
FDA Grants Fast Track Designation to Etirinotecan Pegol for the Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer
Nektar Therapeutics announced that the FDA has designated etirinotecan pegol (NKTR-102) as a Fast Track development program for the treatment of patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer progressing after treatment with an anthracycline, a taxane, and capecitabine (ATC)....
Effects of LKB1 Mutation and mTOR Inhibition on IGFR1 Pathway in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
LKB1 is a serine/threonine kinase that has been found to be mutated in approximately 20% to 30% of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). LKB1 acts as a tumor suppressor by activating AMPK, and loss of LKB1 by point mutation or deletion suppresses AMPK, leading to increased mTOR...
How Sequestration May Affect Cancer Research
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) began his political career in 1974 as a state representative in Ohio. He served as Ohio’s Secretary of State between 1983 and 1991, went on to serve in the U.S. Congress from 1993 to 2006, and was elected to the Senate in 2006. A supporter of biomedical and cancer...
Fox Chase Researchers Find Most Medicare Patients Wait Weeks before Breast Cancer Surgery
Although patients may feel anxious waiting weeks from the time of their first doctor visit to evaluate their breast until they have breast cancer surgery, new findings from Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia show that these waits are typical in the United States. Results were published...
Plenary 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,...
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 ...
Expert Point of View: Vinai Gondi, MD
This memantine study is a critical first step in understanding and delaying cognitive deterioration in brain metastasis patients, noted formal discussant Vinai Gondi, MD, Associate Director of Research at the CDH Proton Center in Warrenville, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor at the...
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...
Gene-expression Profiles of Triple-negative Breast Cancers Differ between African American and Native African Women
Triple-negative breast cancers in African-American women and native African women have differing gene-expression profiles that may have implications for treatment, according to the first study to directly compare tumor gene expression between these populations. Results were reported at the Fifth...
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...
