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Showing 12601 - 12650Transplant 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...
Overcoming Drug Development Challenges in the New Era of Cancer Care
While the last 15 years have brought unprecedented advances in oncology drug development, the next 10 years promise to usher in even greater opportunities to realize the goal of precision medicine in the treatment of cancer, providing patients with more effective care and better outcomes. Reaching...
Sorafenib in Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma
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. New Indication On November 22, 2013, sorafenib (Nexavar) was...
ASCO Resources for Transitioning to ICD-10
ASCO has developed resources to educate and assist oncology practices in transitioning to the 10th Edition of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) coding system. Practices are encouraged to prepare for the transition before the October 1,...
Cancer.Net Launches New Brand of Printed Materials With Four Guides to Cancer
During the second half of 2013, four new guides to cancer, known collectively as the ASCO Answers Guides to Cancer, were released on Cancer.Net, ASCO’s patient information website. The guides to breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer were completely redesigned and reimagined to help newly...
ASCO Celebrates 50 Years of Advancing Progress Against Cancer
Fifty years ago, cancer was viewed as a monolithic and largely untreatable disease, with only a handful of hard-to-tolerate and mostly ineffective therapies available. Stigma and silence left many patients with cancer with little support or information. Determined to change this, a group of seven...
Ongoing NCI-Funded Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Advanced Cancer
This issue of The ASCO Post launches a Clinical Trials Resource Guide to increase awareness of NCI-funded phase I, II, and III clinical studies for your patients with advanced cancer. All of the studies are listed on the National Institutes of Health website at ClinicalTrials.gov. The clinical...
ESMO Releases Position Paper on Med-Oncs' Role in Cancer Care
A new position statement from the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) reports that medical oncologists have a vital role to play in cancer care.1 According to the position statement, medical oncologists are specialist cancer physicians trained to provide treatment with drugs, spanning from ...
Cautious Comments on the TARGIT-A Trial
Numerous randomized trials have demonstrated that whole-breast irradiation plays an important role after breast-conserving surgery for invasive breast cancer. A recent meta-analysis of these trials indicated that whole-breast irradiation decreased the risk of total breast cancer relapse events and...
Molecularly Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column offering insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. This installment addresses a changing paradigm in the treatment of lung cancer, exemplified by concurrent approval of a companion diagnostic with each of several new targeted agents or new...
Surprising Findings for Lenalidomide Maintenance in Updated IFM 2005-02 Analysis
A new analysis of the multiple myeloma Intergroupe Francophone du Myelome (IFM) 2005-02 trial showed that lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance prolongs progression-free survival after stem cell transplantation, but does not improve overall survival.1 This is possibly attributed to the shorter...
Overall Survival Improved by Adding Panitumumab to FOLFOX4 but Only in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Without RAS Mutation
Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that harbors KRAS mutations in exon 2 and patients with other activating RAS mutations do not benefit from anti–epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapy and may in fact be harmed by it. In an analysis reported in The New England Journal of Medicine ...
Study Explores Protective Effect of Aspirin Against Colorectal Cancer
It has been posited that aspirin treatment may reduce risk for colorectal cancer through inhibition of WNT/cadherin-associated protein β1 (CTNNB1, or β-catenin) signaling. In a study reported recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Nan et al investigated the potential role of the...
Genetic Flaw That Drives Some Ovarian Cancers Identified
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, have identified an overactive gene that drives about one-third of high-grade serous ovarian tumors—the most common and malignant type of ovarian cancer. The gene, GAB2, isn’t mutated or abnormal, but triggers cancerous cell growth because the...
Can Postoperative Radiotherapy Be Avoided in Older Women With Early Breast Cancer and High Estrogen Receptor Expression?
A more conservative approach that avoids radiation therapy seems to be a reasonable option for a subgroup of older women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer at low risk of recurrence. Overall outcomes were similar with or without radiation in older women with hormone receptor–positive...
Expert Point of View: Debu Tripathy, MD
Debu Tripathy, MD, Professor of Medicine, Co-Leader of the Women’s Cancer Program, and the Priscilla and Art Ulene Chair in Women’s Cancer at the University of Southern California Norris Cancer Center, Los Angeles, commented on the APT study for The ASCO Post. “In treating early-stage...
HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients With Small Tumors Benefit From Low-Toxicity Regimen
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors—a breast cancer subset for whom treatment recommendations have not been established but for whom there is still risk of recurrence—and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San...
Seven Studies at SABCS Make Dr. Jame Abraham's List of 'Practice-Changing' Talks
From December 10 to 14, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, and Baylor College of Medicine once again hosted the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), presenting...
Philips Receives FDA Clearance for Spectral Breast Density Measurement Application
Royal Philips has announced that that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Spectral Breast Density Management Application for its MicroDose SI full-field digital mammography system. The application is the first spectral breast density measurement ...
Addressing the Challenges of an Aging Population
We have an aging population, which is a good thing since people are living longer. [But] cancer is a disease that tends to occur most frequently in older people, so the combination of those two events will lead to many more older people with cancer, a larger cancer population in general, and a...
Evaluating and Screening Geriatric Patients for Treatment
One of the key questions in geriatric oncology is: How can we use all of the work geriatricians have done over the years in general geriatrics and apply that to the field of oncology? One-quarter to one-third of us are going to develop cancer throughout our lifetime, and half of the time it is...
ASCO's 50th Anniversary and the Road Ahead
As the American Society of Clinical Oncology celebrates its 50th anniversary, ASCO’s Chief Executive Officer Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO, recently talked with The ASCO Post about the Society’s past, present, and future. Important Milestone What are your thoughts about ASCO’s origins and its 50th...
Risk-Based Breast Cancer Screening: Studies Suggest Alternatives to Age-Based Guidelines
Measuring certain hormone levels could help determine a woman’s risk for breast cancer and add a key factor to current risk-prediction models, according to investigators from Harvard Medical School. Their new study results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
Expert Point of View: Joseph R. Mikhael, MD
These are exciting data from the head-to-head phase III comparison of MPT [melphalan, prednisone, and thalidomide (Thalomid)], a globally accepted standard of care, to the novel combination of lenalidomide/low-dose dexamethasone in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients ineligible for...
Leukemia Pioneer John M. Goldman, DM, Dies at 75
“He gave his honours to the world again,his blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.” —William Shakespeare, Henry VIII In 1971, John M. Goldman, DM, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, began research in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a uniformly fatal disease at the time. Over the ensuing decades, Dr....
Final Overall Survival Data Show Better Results With Higher Dose of Fulvestrant
Among patients with locally advanced or metastatic estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, fulvestrant (Faslodex) given at 500 mg “is associated with a 19% reduction in risk of death and a 4.1-month difference in median overall survival compared with fulvestrant 250 mg,” according to final...
Expect Questions, and Some Reluctance, About Getting a Flu Shot
People with weakened immune systems due to diseases like cancer are at increased risk of severe complications from the flu virus and should get flu shots annually. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strongly encourages this practice, and most oncologists would recommend that for...
