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Showing 1351 - 1400Calculating the Value of Cancer Drugs
For nearly a decade, Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, Director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, has been a leading voice in sounding the alarm over the escalating cost of cancer drugs and in seeking a solution to the problem. In 2012, Dr....
‘Right to Try’ Laws: Helpful or Harmful?
Since 2014, “Right to Try” legislation has been sweeping the nation. Created to enable terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental drugs, biologics, and devices by sidestepping the approval process of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), at press time, 22 states have enacted...
Increased Interest in Simple Injection to Treat Women With Postmastectomy Pain
After presenting results of a study showing that injecting a standard analgesic combination into trigger points of pain along the inframammary fold relieved postmastectomy pain, Laura J. Esserman, MD, MBA, Director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center and Co-Leader of the Breast Oncology...
Never Say Never
The following essay by Grace Wang, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org. D.K. came to me ...
Charting a New Course: From Clinical Investigator to University President
What first intrigued Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, FACP, about the prospect of becoming the 16th President of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon was the chance to give back to an institution and a country that had given him so much. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1963, Dr. Khuri was raised ...
Making Their Voices Heard: 118 Oncologists Speak Out About Stemming the High Cost of Cancer Drugs
In a bold move to shed light on the ramifications of the ever-increasing cost of cancer drugs for patients with cancer and for the health-care system, 118 prominent oncologists came together to write a commentary in Mayo Clinic Proceedings detailing their concerns.1 To learn more about these...
Our Children’s Future Is Our Responsibility
Cancer prevention is a child-care issue. With many of cancer’s instigators planting their seeds during childhood, we—as a profession and as a nation—must seize this important window of opportunity to protect the health and well-being of future generations. Current estimates suggest that up to...
Measuring Global Health Issues, Seven Billion Times
BOOKMARK Title: Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion PatientsAuthor: Jeremy N. SmithPublisher: Harper WavePublication date: April 7, 2015Price: $26.99; hardcover, 352 pages Health measures are essential tools in assessing public health and safety. Collecting large amounts of data is a laborious ...
Varied Reactions to Study Finding That Preventing Ipsilateral Recurrence Did Not Prevent Death From Breast Cancer
Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ have a low risk of dying of breast cancer, according to an observational study looking at data from 108,196 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ between 1988 and 2011.1 The breast cancer–specific mortality rate for these women was 1.1% at 10...
The Need for a Multidisciplinary Approach to Combating Cancer-Related Pain
The statistics are staggering. Despite the development of novel analgesics and the increasing awareness of the importance of adequately controlling pain from cancer or its treatment, up to 50% of patients undergoing treatment and between 70% and 90% of patients with advanced disease experience some ...
Patient and Survivor Care Studies Yield Useful Results to Improve Quality of Life
Recent studies have yielded useful results that clinicians can put into practice, some right now, to help improve the quality of life for patients with cancer. Concerns addressed included cachexia, pain, “chemobrain,” and fertility preservation. At the Best of ASCO®/Chicago meeting, Arif Kamal,...
Expert Point of View: Martin Reck, MD, PhD
Martin Reck, MD, PhD, of the Department of Thoracic Oncology at the Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf in Germany, discussed the studies. In pretreated patients, he said, “We have seen confirmed efficacy” [for AZD9291] and “impressive activity.” In the first-line setting, its efficacy is still being...
EGFR Gene Copy Number as Biomarker for Antibody Treatment in Squamous Cell NSCLC
Two studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer suggest that high expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), or gene copy number, may indicate potential benefit from EGFR antibodies in squamous cell non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The studies were presented by...
What Do You Say When She Is No Longer Living With Cancer?
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Confessions of a Neurosurgeon
BookmarkTitle: Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain SurgeryAuthor: Henry Marsh, CBE, FRCSPublisher: Thomas Dunne BooksPublication date: May 26, 2015Price: $25.99, hardcover; 288 pages “I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing. With a pair of diathermy forceps I ...
A Neurologist’s Life: Oliver Sacks, MD
BookmarkTitle: On the Move: A LifeAuthor: Oliver Sacks, MDPublisher: Alfred A. KnopfPublication date: April 28, 2015Price: $27.95, hardcover; 416 pages Our ability to detect cancer has grown markedly over the past several decades, with the advent of more sensitive screening methods, new...
Discussing Financial Toxicity With Patients Who Have Cancer
Patient: “Doc, how much are these drugs going to cost me?” Physician: “They are expensive, and you can see our financial counselor to help you understand the costs.” Cancer care is not a black-and-white endeavor, and costs are considered a distasteful subject to be passed over in tactful silence. ...
Expect Questions About Updated Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines
As Chair of the American Cancer Society (ACS) panel that issued an updated guideline for breast cancer screening, Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, has answered questions and offered perspective on the updated guideline and its development for The New York Times, USA Today, and other major media outlets. As...
Updated ACS Breast Cancer Screening Guideline Recognizes Greater Role for Individual’s Values and Preferences
The reactions to the updated breast cancer screening guideline from the American Cancer Society (ACS) have been many, varied, and not consistently favorable but not surprising to Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, who chaired the ACS panel that issued the guideline. Breast cancer screening “is an area that...
ASCO Launches TAPUR to Assess the Off-Label Use of Targeted Therapies for Patients With Advanced Cancers
Two years ago, Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer of ASCO, proposed a unique clinical trial concept during an educational session on the challenges of delivering precision medicine services in a community setting at ASCO’s Annual Meeting. The idea was to design a clinical...
Expert Point of View: David Beyer, MD
In an interview with The ASCO Post, incoming ASTRO President David Beyer, MD, provided his perspective on the use of hypofractionation in prostate cancer. Dr. Beyer is Medical Director of the Cancer Centers of Northern Arizona in Sedona. “Fractionation has been an important topic over the past few...
Hypofractionated Radiotherapy Makes Inroads as Primary Treatment of Prostate Cancer
Several studies presented at the 2015 ASTRO Annual Meeting explored the use of hypofractionation (delivering higher doses of radiation in fewer fractions) in the treatment of patients with prostate cancer. These studies found comparable outcomes in terms of efficacy and adverse events. Although...
Expert Point of View: Clifford Hudis, MD, Shanu Modi, MD, and Richard Gelber, PhD
Discussant Clifford Hudis, MD, Chief of Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, highlighted neratinib’s benefits while also advocating caution in interpreting the results due to incomplete data, the serious side effect of diarrhea, and the potentially...
Does Low-Dose Radiation Cause Leukemia?
Data from A-bomb survivors, persons with ankylosing spondylitis and neoplasms treated with radiation therapy, and many other sources show a strong association between exposure to ionizing radiation (particles or electromagnetic waves with sufficient energy to cause an ionization such as photons and ...
Nationally Regarded Oncology Nurse Practitioner, Mary Pazdur, RN, MSN, Remembered by Friends and Colleagues
Oncology nurse practitioner Mary Pazdur, RN, MSN, spent her professional life bettering the clinical care and outcomes of cancer patients, culminating in her career at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), in the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, working with patients on cancer vaccine...
One Long Shift With a Nurse on a Cancer Ward
Bookmark Title: The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives Author: Theresa Brown, RN Publisher: Algonquin Books Publication date: September 22, 2015 Price: $15.59; hardcover, 272 pages If health care were looked at through an architect’s eyes, nurses would be the girders holding the...
You’ve Lived A Good Life
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Practicing the Humanistic and Holistic Approach to End-of-Life Care
In 1990, when Bruce (B.J.) Miller, MD, was an undergraduate at Princeton University, the practice of medicine was far from his mind. Then a student in Chinese and Asian studies and later an art history major, Dr. Miller would come to pursue a career specializing in palliative medicine after an...
Evidence-Based Practice Needed in End-of-Life Care
Evidence-based oncology practice is a systematic approach to problem solving for cancer care providers, characterized by the use of the best evidence currently available for clinical decision-making. Over the past several decades, the oncology community, led by its major organizations such as ASCO...
Reducing Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality Trends to Improve Outcomes
A recent report by DeSantis and colleagues from the American Cancer Society, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, presented breast cancer incidence and mortality data from an extensive analysis of the U.S. system of state-based tumor registries.1 The data showed that the incidence of breast...
Filial Gaze at Our Noble Profession
As we stood outside patient X’s room going over the vitals, from a distance, I saw the father of the patient by the side of her bed. I saw him standing there and looking down at his child conveying what I guess were words of reassurance and reinforcing the pillars of strength needed for her...
Expect Questions About Prostate Cancer Screening and Active Surveillance
A study finding that the incidence of prostate cancer has declined in recent years may at first seem like good news to physicians and patients, but, as widely reported by the media, the decline is not seen as an indication that prostate cancer has become less prevalent, but that screening for it...
Decline in PSA Testing and Incidence of Early Prostate Cancer Coincide With 2012 Recommendation Against PSA Screening
Two recent studies1,2 found that the rates of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening have declined since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against PSA screening in 2012. One of those studies additionally found that the incidence of early-stage prostate cancer also...
Acute Myeloid Leukemia in the Elderly: Trial Data Stir Hope for the Transplant Option
Older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have high relapse rates after induction chemotherapy, low survival rates, and fewer treatment options compared with younger patients. One of the options for both younger and older patients is hematopoietic cell transplantation, but relatively few...
Ductal Carcinoma in Situ and Relevant Endpoints for Omission of Standard Treatments: Are We There Yet?
The optimal management strategy for ductal carcinoma in situ has become increasingly controversial with respect to potential overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Much of the controversy for ductal carcinoma in situ stems from its exceptional breast cancer–specific survival, which approaches close to...
Clinical Trial System Badly in Need of Overhaul, Say Panelists at Friends-Brookings Conference
Cancer clinical trials in three distinct phases, as they have been conducted for decades, are probably no longer the best way to bring a drug or biologic agent to market. This was the consensus of three panels at the 8th Annual Conference on Clinical Cancer Research convened by Friends of Cancer...
Breast Cancer Survivors May Expect More Extensive or Frequent Follow-up Testing Than Recommended
Patients who have been treated for breast cancer may overestimate the value of follow-up testing and may expect—or even ask for—more testing than recommended, Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, told participants at the Lynn Sage...
Optimizing the Treatment of HIV-Associated Lymphoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection generally can be treated the same as lymphoma in non–HIV-infected patients, with a few caveats, according to Lawrence D. Kaplan, MD, of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of...
Adjuvant Denosumab Improves Disease-Free Survival in Estrogen Receptor–Positive Postmenopausal Breast Cancer
There is good news about denosumab (Prolia). The primary analysis of the ABCSG-18 trial showed that adjuvant denosumab (given at low doses) reduces the risk of clinical fracture by 50% in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer who are taking an aromatase inhibitor.1 More good news is that...
Patients With Incomplete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Benefit From Capecitabine
Treatment with capecitabine increased disease-free and overall survival in breast cancer patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to a study reported by researchers from Japan and Korea at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “It has been unclear whether...
A Shot to End Cancer: HPV Vaccination
As health-care providers, we have an obligation and a responsibility not only to care for our patients, but also to educate them—and the general public—about their cancer risk and ways to reduce or prevent it. We are living in the golden era of cancer prevention and treatment, made possible by...
Expert Point of View: Sagar Lonial, MD
At an educational session at the 2015 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Sagar Lonial, MD, of Emory University, Atlanta, elaborated upon this topic. The pooled analysis of daratumumab (Darzalex) monotherapy, he said, “demonstrated significant activity and, not only this,...
New ‘Condensed’ Grading System Shown to Be Accurate for Predicting Prostate Cancer Outcomes
Using information gleaned from more than 20,000 men, researchers at Johns Hopkins have affirmed the value of their alternative system for assessing the likelihood of growth and spread of prostate cancer. The new grading system, they said, is not only easier to use and understand, but also more...
Patient Symptom Surveys Linked to Reduced ER Visits, Improved Survival and Quality of Life
Systematic collection of cancer patients’ symptoms using computer surveys was linked to less frequent emergency room admissions, longer average chemotherapy adherence, greater quality-of-life improvements, and improved survival, according to a new randomized, controlled trial spearheaded by a ...
ASH 2015: Test Creates Simulations That May Help Predict Drug Responses, Drive Personalized Treatment
Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry are partnering with a private company to develop computer simulations that can help personalize cancer care by predicting how a patient will respond to a drug treatment. Their findings were presented by Brogden et al at the 57th American...
Researchers Call for Hospitals to Establish Bereavement Programs for Families of Deceased Patients
Backed by a growing body of research, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are calling for all hospitals to establish bereavement programs for families of deceased patients. In a report published by Morris and Block in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, researchers say such...
Most Women Undergoing BRCA Genetic Testing Do Not Receive Pretest Genetic Counseling
In the ABOUT study reported in JAMA Oncology, Armstrong et al found that the majority of BRCA-tested women in a commercially insured population responding to a questionnaire about their experience had not received genetic counseling from a genetics clinician prior to testing. The study was...
Exercise Could Provide a Margin of Safety for Women Who Want to Delay Preventive Mastectomy
Regular physical activity could play a role in helping women at high-risk of breast cancer delay the need for drastic preventive measures such as prophylactic mastectomy, according to new research led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Results of the WISER Sister...
Three-Gene Signaling Network Found to Have a Role in Neuroblastoma
Researchers have discovered details of the abnormal molecular signals and biologic events that drive a high-risk form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. They aim to use these findings to develop more effective targeted treatments. “As we improve our knowledge of different biologic...
Study Examines Links Between Viral and Bacterial Microbial Signatures and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Cancer is the result of normal cellular functions going wildly awry on a genetic level. That fact has been known for some time, but increasing evidence is showing that the human microbiome, the diverse population of microorganisms within every person, may play a key role in either setting the stage ...
