As the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 8th Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies was drawing to a close, The ASCO Post spoke with Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, about the themes of the meeting and the take-home messages for attendees and for our readers. Dr. Zelenetz is Vice Chair...
In the past, we considered multiple myeloma the poor sibling among lymphoid malignancies. We have seen an amazing amount of change in this field, and Dr. Anderson and colleagues have contributed to that progress. But despite the progress, most patients still relapse,” noted Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD,...
Although upfront therapy can achieve remission in multiple myeloma, most patients will ultimately relapse. Newer targeted therapies and genomic analysis are moving the management of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma forward, according to Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Director, Jerome Lipper Multiple...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Cunningham and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, the AVEX trial was an open-label randomized phase III trial limited to patients over the age of 70 years with previously untreated, unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer who were not...
At the 2013 European Cancer Congress, two investigative teams attempted to explain how aspirin may protect against colorectal cancer recurrences, with one study showing PIK3CA mutations associated with protection from aspirin, but not a COX-2 inhibitor, and the other study implicating HLA class I...
The Co-Directors of the 2013 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which will be held December 10–14, 2013, have highlighted what they consider to be the most important abstracts to be presented at the Symposium. In a telebriefing in advance of the December meeting, C. Kent Osborne, MD,...
More than 90% of women undergoing mammography screening could not give an accurate estimate of their personal risk of developing breast cancer, according to results of a large survey reported at the 2013 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium and featured in a premeeting presscast. The survey showed that a...
The good news about HER2-positive breast cancer is that recurrent disease is plummeting, owing to the impact of adjuvant trastuzumab [Herceptin]. Hopefully, first-line metastatic treatment is becoming a thing of the past,” said Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston....
The primacy of science and the overwhelming belief in medical research by the American people has sustained the research community and improved quality of life roughly since the turn of the 20th century. Almost without exception, the American people have voted for politicians who promise improved...
We are just 7 months into the $1 trillion in automatic federal budget spending cuts known as sequestration, and the impact on scientists in all areas of research is already so great, some say its full effects may be irreversible. The ASCO Post recently interviewed ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, ...
The engineered monoclonal antibody MPDL3280A achieved encouraging and durable responses in a phase I study in metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in both smokers and nonsmokers, as well as in cancers of squamous and adenocarcinoma histology. Responses were more robust in smokers than...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for use in combination with chlorambucil (Leukeran) to treat patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Obinutuzumab is the first drug with Breakthrough Therapy designation to receive FDA...
ASCO recognizes the importance of evidence-based cancer care and making wise choices in the diagnosis and management of patients with cancer. After careful consideration by experienced oncologists, ASCO annually highlights five categories of tests, procedures and/or treatments annually whose common ...
“Patients with breast cancer who connect to relevant patient assistance programs receive useful informational and psychosocial but not practical help,” concluded Nina A. Bickell, MD, MPH, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and colleagues who conducted a randomized trial among 374 women...
The impact of hormone replacement therapy on breast cancer risk varies according to the patient’s to race/ethnicity, body mass index, and breast density. An analysis of 1,642,824 screening mammograms with 9,300 breast cancer cases in postmenopausal women aged 45 years or older found that hormone...
A clear and consistent protective effect of marriage among patients harboring one of the 10 most clinically significant malignancies affecting Americans” was found in a study analyzing Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEE) data for 734,889 patients diagnosed with lung, colorectal,...
CancerCare recently announced the launch of a new edition of A Helping Hand: The Resource Guide for People With Cancer, Financial Edition, a reference guide to assist patients with cancer and their families in navigating the financial resources available to them. A Helping Hand is a comprehensive...
Common Name: Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) Brand Names: Omegaven, Max-EPA 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...
The National Institutes of Health has awarded 10 new grants totaling up to $17 million over the next 4 years to support genomics research in Africa, as part of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program. This set of grants is the second disbursement of H3Africa awards and brings the ...
The Institute of Medicine has (IOM) presented the 2013 Gustav O. Lienhard Award to Steven A. Schroeder, MD, whose pioneering efforts to control tobacco use have helped save millions from premature, smoking-related deaths. The award also recognizes Dr. Schroeder’s leadership in general medicine as...
The second largest state in the nation (after Alaska), Texas covers a total area of 268,581 square miles and has a diverse population of over 26 million people. In 1987, the Texas Society of Medical Oncology, now the Texas Society of Clinical Oncology (TxSCO), was formed to address the oncology...
Impaired sleep quality is a concerning problem for many patients with cancer, and pharmacologic treatments come with many negative effects. Several small studies indicate that yoga improves persistent fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and quality of life, in addition to reducing the need for...
November Academy of Oncology Nurse Navigators 4th Annual Navigation and Survivorship Conference November 14-17 • Memphis, Tennessee For more information: aonnonline.org/conference Iowa Oncology Society Fall Membership ConferenceNovember 15 • West Des Moines, IowaFor more information:...
The PrefHer trial provides notable data showing that > 90% of patients favored the quicker subcutaneous administration of trastuzumab (Herceptin) compared to the standard intravenous infusion. The primary reasons for this preference, as per patients in the trial, included that it was timesaving...
A psychiatrist for more than 40 years, Jimmie C. Holland, MD, Attending Psychiatrist and Wayne E. Chapman Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, is internationally recognized as the founder of the...
Translating basic discoveries into new treatments that tangibly improve human health requires innovative collaborations and resources, as well as a diverse, highly trained workforce. To help meet these needs, the National Institutes of Health recently announced more than $79 million in fiscal year...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Sahgal et al reported a multi-institutional analysis aimed at clarifying the risk of developing either new or progressive vertebral body compression fractures following high-dose spinal stereotactic body radiation therapy. In the period studied, they...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Arjun Sahgal, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, and colleagues evaluated the occurrence of vertebral compression fractures in patients undergoing spinal stereotactic body radiotherapy.1 Vertebral compression fractures occurred in ...
Although fewer Medicare patients with cancer died in the hospital in 2010 than in the years 2003–2007, aggressive treatment continues at the end of life, according to a new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project.1 The findings also show that a significant number of patients were likely to receive...
For clinicians and health service researchers striving to improve care for people living with life-threatening conditions, September was a sobering month. The Dartmouth Atlas group released a brief report on Trends in Cancer Care Near the End of Life1 showing that while the proportion of patients...
For oncologists, continuous quality improvement is a key goal. We measure and assess the quality of care we deliver and constantly look for areas where we can do better,” said ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP. “ASCO’s Quality Training Program will guide oncology care providers in...
The latest additions to Cancer.Net’s patient-friendly versions of ASCO’s Clinical Practice Guidelines include guidance on HER2 testing, as well as an endorsement of colorectal cancer follow-up care recommendations from Cancer Care Ontario. ASCO Care and Treatment Recommendations (formerly called...
In collaboration with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation’s Choosing Wisely® campaign, ASCO recently released a second “Top Five” opportunities list of common practices or procedures in oncology whose clinical value is not supported by available evidence and if eliminated, can ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking two actions to further enhance the agency’s ongoing efforts to prevent and resolve drug shortages. The FDA has released a strategic plan called for in the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) of 2012 to improve the...
In the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), initially reported in 2003, finasteride significantly reduced the risk of prostate cancer by 24.8% but was associated with a relative 26.9% increase in risk of high-grade disease compared with placebo. In a study reported in The New England Journal of ...
Oncology and medicine as a whole are likely to benefit from a variety of technologic innovations recently showcased at the third annual The Atlantic Meets the Pacific symposium, according to Peter P. Yu, MD, President-Elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and medical oncologist and...
The Institute of Medicine recently announced 10 foreign associates during its 43rd Annual Meeting. They are: Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, PhD, DSc, FRCS, FRCOG, St. George’s University of London Patrick Couvreur, PhD, PharMD, University of Paris-Sud, France Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, PC,...
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the FDA and its policies and procedures. In this first installment, FDA Clinical Reviewers Laleh Amiri-Kordestani, MD, and Suparna Wedam, MD, discuss FDA’s recent approval of pertuzumab (Perjeta) for the neoadjuvant treatment of...
Hepatocellular carcinoma is a devastating disease worldwide. Although advances in liver transplantation, surgery, and locoregional therapies have made tumor control or even cure possible for a minority of patients, the majority of patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma will develop...
The investigational drug brivanib is a dual inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor and fibroblast growth factor signaling, both implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma. The agent was recently evaluated in two phase III trials, one comparing first-line brivanib with sorafenib (Nexavar) in...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have the ALK gene rearrangement usually respond to the drug crizotinib (Xalkori), with a median duration of response of approximately 10 months. In a study reported by Shirish Gadgeel, MD, of Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, and...
Over the past decade, Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, Professor and Roberto C. Goizueta Distinguished Chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Deputy Director of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, has focused his research and clinical career on investigating novel approaches in the ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked the manufacturer of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib (Iclusig) to suspend marketing and sales of the drug because of the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels. Ariad Pharmaceuticals has agreed to...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved hydrocodone bitartrate extended-release capsules (Zohydro ER) for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate. The drug, a Schedule...
Colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy have been shown to provide protection against colorectal cancer, but the magnitude and duration of protection, particularly against proximal colon cancer, remain undefined. A study of long-term colorectal cancer incidence and mortality after lower endoscopy reported in ...
In general, we have come to think of mismatch repair–deficient colon cancer as having a more favorable prognosis, being less likely to metastasize to regional nodes or distant sites, and being resistant to fluoropyrimidines. Much of our data, however, come from trials combining stage II and III...
The 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC), held September 27 to October 1 in Amsterdam, was jointly sponsored by the European Society of Medical Oncology, the European Cancer Organization, and the European Society of Radiation Oncology. With the Congress theme being “Reinforcing Multidisciplinarity,” ...
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently announced the names of 70 new members and 10 foreign associates during its 43rd Annual Meeting. “It is an honor to welcome our highly distinguished colleagues to the Institute of Medicine,” said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg. “These individuals have...
Formal discussant of the AURELIA and ICON7 presentations, Rebecca Kristeleit, MD, University College London Hospital, London, said that a consistent message in both trials was the benefit of bevacizumab (Avastin) in high-risk disease. “Angiogenesis seems to be a particular driver of advanced...
The optimal use of bevacizumab (Avastin) in ovarian cancer appears to be in high-risk subgroups and in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, according to results of two phase III trials presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Amsterdam. AURELIA investigated the safety and ...