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Showing 13901 - 13950Frederick Pei Li, MD, Pioneer of Cancer Genetics, Dies at 75
Frederick Pei Li, MD, who helped inaugurate the era of cancer genetics by demonstrating that people can inherit a genetic susceptibility to develop certain malignancies, died on June 12 at the age of 75. A Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard T.H. Chan...
Date of Last Chemotherapy Is Not a Proxy for Deciding When to Stop Treating Metastatic NSCLC
“Patients, their families, and oncologists recognize the administration of chemotherapy near death as aggressive and poor-quality care,” William F. Pirl, MD, MPH, and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, wrote in the Journal of Oncology Practice. “However, rates have been slowly...
Building and Adjusting to My Life After Cancer
I had been watching a lump in my left breast for signs of cancer for 10 years, from around the time I was 21. Screening tests had failed to find any tissue abnormality, and my doctor said I was too young to have cancer, so I wasn’t overly concerned. But when I noticed the lump getting bigger in...
Expect and Encourage Questions About the Benefits and Harms of Cancer Screening
Issuing advice for high-value care in screening for five common cancers, the High Value Care Task Force of the American College of Physicians (ACP) stated: “The target audience for this paper is all clinicians. The target patient population is average-risk, asymptomatic patients.” “What we tried...
Agreement on High-Value Screening for Five Common Cancers
Finding agreement on high-value cancer screening among organizations publishing screening guidelines, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued advice listing the least-intensive screening strategies that all the organizations recommend—as well as strategies not recommended—for five common...
Noted Pediatric Oncologist, Robert J. Arceci, MD, PhD, Dies
Over the past 50 years, great strides have been made in diagnosis, treatment, and survival of childhood cancer. In the 1960s, the probability of survival for a child with cancer was less than 25%, whereas today it may exceed 80%. This incredible cancer success story has been made possible by the...
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, FASCO: Never One to Back Down From a Challenge
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, FASCO, always sat in the front row at school. She grew up during a rigidly paternalist period in American society, and her early feminist leanings were brushed aside as grade-school adventures. The medical school lecture room of the 1960s was a male-dominated culture, and...
Translating Study Recommendations Into Medicare Coverage
Lung cancer doggedly remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. This grim mortality figure is due, in part, to a lack of early detection methods; more than half of all lung cancers have metastasized at the time of diagnosis. For decades, lung cancer advocates lobbied...
The Mind-Body Program in Action
Here are several real-life examples of the positive effects of the mind-body program, shared by Robin Hardbattle, MS, LAc, and the parents of children who benefited from it. Breathing Practices and Guided Imagery: Prior to learning breathing practices and guided meditation, Matt, a 12-year-old...
The Pediatric Fitness Program: A Mind-Body Approach
The fundamental challenge in treating children with cancer centers on how to help relieve their suffering while they undergo difficult care. Typically, they do not yet have adult coping skills, and even if they had some ability to cope, many of the issues they face during treatment are...
ASCO Members, Public Working Together to ‘Take Down’ Cancer
From Wrigley Field to McCormick Place, Chicago residents and visitors felt the energy surrounding the launch of The Campaign to Conquer Cancer during the ASCO 2015 Annual Meeting. The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (CCF) threw out the ceremonial first pitch...
ASCO QOPI® Certification Program Benefits Oncology Practices and Patients
Christa Braun-Inglis, MS, NP, has seen her last three practices certified through ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®). Ms. Braun-Inglis, a nurse practitioner with Kaiser Hawaii Region, was not solely responsible for the designations, although she helped some of the practices become...
2015 Breast Cancer Symposium to Encourage Collaboration in Patient Care, Education, and Research
ASCO’s educational symposia have historically provided attendees with a forum for learning and discussion, demonstrating ASCO’s commitment to promoting a network of global oncology expertise. The 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium, to be held in San Francisco, California, from Friday, September 25, to...
Predicting Recurrence After Surgery in Renal Cell Carcinoma: 16-Gene Assay Recurrence Score Ushers in New Era
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Brian Rini, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues showed that a 16-gene assay recurrence score could predict postoperative outcome in patients with stage I to III clear cell renal...
Assessing and Improving Imaging Interpretation in Breast Cancer Screening
The quality of mammography images has markedly improved over the past few decades. However, the quality of the interpretation of mammograms remains variable. That said, more than 38 million mammograms are performed annually in the United States. So said Diana Buist, PhD, Senior Scientific...
Poliovirus for Glioblastoma Grabs National Attention
Researchers at The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University are being barraged by patients wishing to enroll in their clinical trial of an engineered poliovirus for recurrent glioblastoma. This comes as a result of a CBS 60 Minutes interview with lead researcher Matthias...
Pacritinib for Myelofibrosis: Effective in Patients With Thrombocytopenia
An emerging JAK inhibitor, pacritinib, appears not only effective in a broad population of patients with myelofibrosis but also among a subset with very low platelet counts, investigators from the global phase III PERSIST-1 trial reported at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 “There is a huge unmet...
Expert Point of View: Sumanta K. Pal, MD
This combination [lenvatinib and everolimus] is a potential game-changer in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. We’ve studied other combinations to no avail; for example, bevacizumab [Avastin] plus everolimus had no advantage over everolimus alone. Other combinations are too toxic, such as sunitinib...
Lenvatinib/Everolimus: Robust Combination in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
The combination of lenvatinib (Lenvima) plus everolimus (Afinitor) significantly extended progression-free survival compared with everolimus alone in metastatic renal cell carcinoma, according to a randomized phase II trial.1 Median progression-free survival for patients who received the...
Expert Point of View: Anees B. Chagpar, MD
“This is an important study. We’ve known for some time that the aromatase inhibitors tend to be better than tamoxifen for postmenopausal women with hormonally sensitive invasive breast cancer. The NSABP B-35 trial asked the same question in ductal carcinoma in situ. These data, which now follow...
Anastrozole and Tamoxifen: Both Options for Ductal Carcinoma in Situ
Anastrozole was found to be at least as safe and effective as tamoxifen in preventing breast cancer recurrence in women with ductal carcinoma in situ, in the large NSABP B-35/SWOG-35 study.1 Among all women in the trial, however, the 10-year breast cancer–free interval rates were higher in women...
Expert Point of View: Shanu Modi, MD
Study discussant Shanu Modi, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented, “Neither T-DM1 [Kadcyla] nor T-DM1 plus pertuzumab [Perjeta] proved to be superior to the old standard of care, taxane plus trastuzumab [Herceptin]. MARIANNE was a valiant trial, but THP (taxane,...
Ado-Trastuzumab Emtansine Fails to Replace Standard of Care in First-Line Metastatic Breast Cancer
Results are now in for the phase III MARIANNE trial. Although ado-trastuzumab emtansine (formerly known as T-DM1, Kadcyla) proved noninferior to trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus a taxane in the first-line metastatic breast cancer setting, it performed no better than the standard of care.1 “T-DM1 and...
How CancerLinQ™ Can Benefit People Living With Cancer
As a regular readers of The ASCO Post know, ASCO is developing an exciting new health information learning system called CancerLinQ™, which will exponentially enlarge our understanding of cancer therapy far beyond what we’ve achieved with our system of clinical trials. Cancer clinical trials have...
Biosimilars: Questions Remain
Biosimilars are biologic drugs that are similar to an already established “reference” or “innovator” biologic drug product and can be manufactured when an original biologic drug product’s patent expires. Reference to the innovator product is an integral component of approval for a biosimilar. The...
Expert Point of View: Michael P. Link, MD
“We have had remarkable success in treating patients with cancer. Millions of survivors are a testament to this success. But the ‘cost of cure’ borne by our patients is substantial in terms of diminished quality and quantity of life,” commented the formal discussant of the study Michael P. Link,...
Survivors of Childhood Cancer Living Longer, Largely Due to Treatment Improvements
Survivors of childhood cancers can expect longer lives than their peers of 30 years ago. Improvements in the care of children with cancer have reduced the long-term mortality rate, according to an analysis of 34,000 participants in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.1 Cumulative all-cause late...
Irwin Rose, PhD, Nobel Laureate and Biochemist, Dies at 88
Scientist and Nobel Laureate Irwin “Ernie” Rose, PhD, passed away June 2, 2015, after a long illness. He was 88. Dr. Rose shared the 2004 Nobel Prize for chemistry with Aaron Ciechanover, MD, DSc, and Avram Hershko, MD, PhD, of the Israel Institute of Technology for their pioneering work in...
Preeminent Cancer Researcher Brian E. Henderson, MD, Dies
Brian E. Henderson, MD, began his medical path as a researcher in virology, and as a young scientist, he ventured to Africa as part of a Centers for Disease Control team to study yellow fever. The better part of his esteemed medical career, however, was as one of the world’s most respected...
My Faith Helped Me Choose a Way Forward With Cancer
I've been fortunate to be strong and healthy for most of my life. In fact, there is no history of any serious illness in my family, which is why I was so unprepared to hear the words “You have breast cancer” 5 years ago. Not only was the diagnosis foreign to me, I had no idea what chemotherapy and...
Expect Questions About Preventing Melanoma
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that the incidence of melanoma “doubled between 1982 and 2011, but comprehensive skin cancer prevention programs could prevent 20% of new cases between 2020 and 2030.”1,2 That report should serve to increase interest...
Capitalizing on Increased Interest in Skin Cancer During Summer to Reeducate People About Sunscreens and ‘Smart Sun Strategies’
Amid the encouraging studies reported at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting about advances in the treatment of melanoma was a troubling finding about the incidence of melanoma increasing. An analysis of data from nine Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries found that the incidence...
Adjuvant Ipilimumab in High-Risk Stage III Melanoma: Encouraging Study Results Yet Questions Remain
Ipilimumab (Yervoy) is a fully human monoclonal antibody that blocks the negative T-cell regulator cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and has improved overall survival for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma in two phase III studies.1,2 Based upon these results, ipilimumab was...
American Ginseng
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years 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 the ...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Receives Gift of $150 Million From David H. Koch
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced that it has received the largest gift in its history, a commitment of $150 million, from long-time MSK board member David H. Koch. This unprecedented contribution will fund a state-of-the-art outpatient medical facility to be known as The David ...
FDA’s Pregnancy Category Labeling
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its policies and procedures. In this installment, FDA supervisory toxicologist Todd Palmby, PhD, and pharmacologist Eias Zahalka, PhD, MBA, discuss the approach taken in the Office of ...
Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Melanoma
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with melanoma. The trials are investigating immune response; vaccine therapy; ipilimumab in conjunction with numerous therapies; and chemotherapy regimens. All of the studies ...
Microangiopathic Hemolytic Anemia and Thrombocytopenia
Question 1: In this case, what is the most appropriate next best test? Correct Answer: B. Peripheral blood smear examination. Expert Perspective In the appropriate clinical setting, information obtained from a carefully examined peripheral blood smear film is indispensable. The peripheral blood...
Laura van’t Veer, PhD, Receives European Inventor Award 2015
Laura van’t Veer, PhD, Co-leader of the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCCC) Breast Oncology Program, and her team at the Netherlands Cancer Institute were awarded the European Inventor Award for the invention of a gene-based tissue test,...
John A. Zaia, MD, Named Director of Center for Gene Therapy at City of Hope
Gene therapy pioneer John A. Zaia, MD, has been named Director of the Center for Gene Therapy within City of Hope’s Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute. Internationally known and respected for his groundbreaking research into potential gene therapy treatments for HIV,...
Matthew Trunnell Named Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center announced the appointment of Matthew Trunnell as its Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO). Mr. Trunnell has worked at the intersection of information technology and life sciences research in both academic and commercial environments in support of ...
Gynecologic Cancer in the Older Patient: The Activities of the Elderly Working Group of NRG Oncology
Geriatrics for the Oncologist is guest edited by Stuart Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO, and developed in collaboration with the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Visit SIOG.org for more on geriatric oncology. The elderly population in the United States is growing, and by the year...
ASCO Endorses ASTRO Guideline on Definitive and Adjuvant Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced NSCLC
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Andrea Bezjak, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, and colleagues,1 ASCO has recently endorsed the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based guideline on external-beam radiotherapy for patients with locally...
Progress in the Treatment of Patients With EGFR-Mutated NSCLC
Approximately 10% to 15% of patients with advanced non–small cell lung (NSCLC) cancer have mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in tumor cells. Specific therapies to inhibit the activity of EGFR-mutated NSCLC have now been clearly shown to improve response rate and...
NCCS Advocates for Legislation to Establish Medicare Service for Cancer Survivorship Care Planning
Some years after successful treatment of a childhood cancer, a 16-year-old survivor required surgery to replace both hip joints, which were damaged from therapy containing steroids. An x-ray of the teenager’s destroyed joints is a stark reminder of the serious health challenges faced by cancer...
Cyrus Ghajar, PhD, Receives $4.1 Million From Department of Defense
Cyrus Ghajar, PhD, a metastatic breast cancer researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has received a $4.1 million Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) “Era of Hope” Scholar Award. The Department of Defense’s BCRP is the second biggest funder of breast cancer...
Precision Medicine Trials Bring Targeted Treatments to More Patients
At the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, both ASCO and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) unveiled details of new precision medicine trials that will greatly expand the number of patients with cancer who are benefiting from targeted agents. The trials will match a patient’s tumor molecular profile with an ...
Expert Point of View: Daniel G. Coit, MD
Daniel G. Coit, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Melanoma Guidelines Panel, discussed the findings reported by Lewin et al at the ASCO Annual Meeting. “This is a small retrospective study examining a prospective...
Advancing Classification and Risk Stratification for Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Refinements in the classification and risk stratification for leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes were reported by three different investigators at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting. The first study showed that leukemia stem cell phenotypes are associated with outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia...
Expert Point of View: Martin J. van den Bent, MD
Commenting on the EF14 study was Martin J. van den Bent, MD, of The Brain Tumor Center at Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, who was reticent to predict that tumor treating fields will become a standard of care. He noted that 57% of patients are still alive; therefore, the...
