While searching for a noninvasive way to detect prostate cancer cells circulating in blood, Duke Cancer Institute researchers have identified some blood markers associated with tumor resistance to two common hormone therapies. In a study published by Gupta et al in Clinical Cancer Research, a team...
In a propensity score–matched analysis of National Cancer Database data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mokdad et al found that neoadjuvant therapy followed by resection was associated with a survival benefit vs upfront resection. Study Details The analysis included adults...
In a new study, men who underwent vasectomy did not have an increased risk of prostate cancer, nor were they more likely to die from prostate cancer than men who did not receive this procedure. According to the researchers, this is the largest prospective study of vasectomy and fatal prostate...
Saul J. Sharkis, PhD, a scientist who studied the biology of blood stem cells and how they could be used to treat cancer through bone marrow transplantation, died on September 4. He was 72. Dr. Sharkis was Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a faculty...
In 2008, Roger Y. Tsien, PhD, shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Drs. Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie for helping turn green fluorescent protein from a jellyfish into a research tool that could tag cancer cells or track the advance of Alzheimer’s disease. “Our work is often described as...
According to a phase III trial reported by Navari et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, the addition of the antipsychotic agent olanzapine vs placebo to dexamethasone, aprepitant, or fosaprepitant, and a 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3–receptor antagonist reduced nausea and improved antiemetic...
Emily L. Sedgwick, MD, Associate Professor of Breast Imaging in the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, part of the National Cancer Institute–designated Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named the 2016 recipient of the Ben and Margaret Love Foundation Bobby Alford Award for...
Even though I was just 3 years old when my symptoms first appeared, the memory is still fresh in my mind to this day, 71 years later. I had just come home from a friend’s birthday party and was sitting on the front patio steps immobilized by severe stomach pain. My parents said I was feeling ill...
There have been numerous books explicating the information a physician or patient needs to know about our current clinical state in the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer. Many of them are good, but rare is a well-written book in the cancer genre that offers solid scientific hope exceeding ...
Earlier this month, members of the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative’s Blue Ribbon Panel submitted an ambitious list of 10 recommendations on the scientific approaches that are most likely to accelerate progress against cancer to the President’s National Cancer Advisory Board. The panel’s...
The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group–American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ECOG-ACRIN) Cancer Research Group has received federal approval to add a quality-of-life research study, Communication and Education in Tumor Profiling (EAQ152), or COMET, to the NCI-MATCH (EAY131) trial, which is ...
The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has announced the winners of the 2016 Lasker Awards for medical science: William G. Kaelin, MD; Peter J. Ratcliffe, MD, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS; and Gregg L. Semenza, MD, PhD for basic medical research; Ralf F.W. Bartenschlager, PhD; Charles M. Rice, PhD;...
On August 13, 2013, more than 100 cancer researchers and physicians from around the world met in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to discuss 2 challenging problem areas in cancer. One group was focused on the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposure to chemical mixtures in the environment, and the...
Phase I Study Title: Phase Ib Study of Nivolumab and Dasatinib in Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Philadelphia Chromosome–Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (Ph+ ALL) Study Type: Phase I/interventional/single-group assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: Northwestern University, National...
Studies show that adolescent and young adult cancer survivors experience distinct challenges and quality-of-life issues from those experienced by either younger or older adult cancer survivors and that those challenges and issues can persist long after the cancer diagnosis and the end of...
Significant advances in cancer care and treatment have led to a steady increase in survivorship—currently, more than 15.5 million cancer survivors are living in the United States. This number is only expected to grow, with an estimate of more than 20 million American cancer survivors in 2026.1 A...
This summer, ASCO members continued their efforts to advocate for key issues that are critical to cancer care. ASCO members are uniquely qualified to communicate with Congress about effective policies for the treatment of patients with cancer and the research that drives scientific breakthroughs....
A new study1 showing that just 1 in 20 terminally ill patients with cancer has sufficient understanding about the prognosis or purpose of treatment is highlighting the need for improvements in both the way oncologists communicate prognosis with their patients and in the development of educational...
Music therapy, an established adjuvant to standard cancer care, is offered in a growing number of cancer centers throughout the United States and internationally. Defined by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) as “the evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individual...
What do up to 60% of cancer survivors have in common? Answer: some type of long-term sexual dysfunction. How many cancer survivors seek professional help for sexual problems? Answer: less than 20%. Even when they do seek help, they may not be successful in finding professionals with expertise in...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and its Chief Executive Officer, Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), were honored with the PHL Life Sciences Ultimate Solution Award for their significant contributions to and impact on the field of cancer research. The award is presented annually by PHL ...
A recent study1 published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (see “Breaking the ‘Conspiracy of Silence’” in this issue of The ASCO Post) found that just 1 in 20 patients with advanced, incurable cancer has sufficient understanding of his or her prognosis or life expectancy. Now, another new study ...
Cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates—perhaps more than any other chronic disease—shine a grim spotlight on global disparities of care. It is one of the most preventable of human malignancies, yet it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women around the world. It kills 260,000 women...
With the expansion of our understanding of signaling pathways in normal cells and how they are co-opted or corrupted in malignancy, the number of potential antitumor agents to be tested has exploded, exposing the limitations of traditional antineoplastic drug development and challenging us to...
A new study from Drexel University College of Medicine suggests all organ transplant recipients, regardless of race, should receive routine, total-body screenings for skin cancer. Out of 259 nonwhite transplant recipients who were evaluated in the study, 19 skin cancer lesions were identified in...
Research from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and and other U.S. health and academic institutions shows a diet high in calcium and low in lactose may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in African American women. The work, published by Qin et al in the British Journal of Cancer, also found sun ...
In the Canadian phase III PANCREOX trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gill et al found no benefit of modified FOLFOX6 (infusional fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) vs infusional 5-FU/leucovorin as second-line treatment in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who ...
Maintenance olaparib (Lynparza) appeared to be associated with an overall survival benefit vs placebo in women with platinum-sensitive serous ovarian cancer and BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, according to an updated analysis of a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ledermann et al....
Earlier this month, ASCO, in collaboration with the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Society for Surgical Oncology (SSO), jointly issued an update to a clinical practice guideline for physicians treating women with breast cancer who have undergone a mastectomy. The update...
Clinicians face a number of questions in evaluating and treating patients with stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). One expert in the field, Rafael Santana-Davila, MD, reviewed key issues in managing this disease in the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP). The ASCO Post asked Dr....
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently updated its guidelines for colorectal cancer screening1 from 2008 and has now included seven acceptable strategies, including direct-visualization modalities (ie, endoscopy and computed tomography...
As reported in JAMA, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued new recommendations for colorectal cancer screening.1 In brief, the USPSTF recommends colorectal cancer screening starting at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years (grade A recommendation = “The USPSTF...
A collaborative Cleveland Clinic–Mayo Clinic team of researchers has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier of their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality. The findings, published by Hearn et al in The...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental Biologics License Application for the use of ofatumumab (Arzerra) in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide for the treatment of patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The application, which...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will present the 2016 William Dameshek Prize to Charles Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, for his leadership in defining the landscape of genetic alterations of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), which has provided...
Attendees at the 2016 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference held July 18–22 in Koloa, Hawaii, got a peek at early data for a number of novel agents in the treatment of various lymphoma subtypes. The ASCO Post captured these findings. Denintuzumab Mafodotin in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Denintuzumab...
There is no role for routine imaging as a means of following patients with large cell lymphoma, according to Bruce D. Cheson, MD, Deputy Chief of Hematology-Oncology and Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC. “Routine...
A small device implanted under the skin may improve breast cancer survival by catching cancer cells, slowing the development of metastatic tumors in other organs, and allowing time to intervene with surgery or other therapies. These findings, reported by Rao et al in Cancer Research, suggest a path ...
Intraoperative frozen margins from the tumor bed help to assess the prognosis of oral cancer, but the permanent specimen margin remains king, according to a retrospective cohort study reported at the 9th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer.1 Results indicated that the rate of local...
“This (adverse cardiac effects of chemotherapy) is a difficult problem to address because the side effects of chemotherapy in terms of its impact on the heart show up many years, sometimes decades, later. So that makes it harder to study and treat. It’s a real problem,” commented session...
The anabolic hormone testosterone may lessen the early adverse cardiovascular effects of chemotherapy and chemoradiation for advanced or recurrent cancer, according to a randomized controlled trial reported at the 9th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer.1 Among the patients studied,...
For several years now, the American health-care system has been undergoing a transformation. Innovative ideas are being explored, new systems continue to be created, and millions of lives have been impacted. As health-care providers and research engines, academic institutions have an opportunity...
For the majority of patients who are diagnosed with advanced-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), platinum-based doublets have been the standard of care for over 30 years. Recently, the immune checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrated superior survival ...
Although targeted drugs like imatinib (Gleevec) have revolutionized the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), patients generally must take them for the rest of their lives and may cease benefiting from them over time. New research conducted by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...
Racial/ethnic minority parents were more likely to express regret about initial cancer treatment decisions for their children, according to a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Mack et al found that factors associated with less decisional regret included receiving high-quality...
A new study indicates that adolescent females with acute leukemia have low rates of pregnancy screening prior to receiving chemotherapy that can cause birth defects. These findings were published by Rao et al in Cancer. Although many chemotherapy drugs can cause birth defects, there are no...
Survival with hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from unrelated cord-blood donors was at least as good as that with HLA-matched unrelated donors and better than that with HLA-mismatched unrelated donors in patients with acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome who had pretransplantation...
Today, Vice President Joe Biden announced a series of new steps focused on increasing access to information about clinical trials and improving the efficiency of our clinical research system. These steps include making it easier for participants to find clinical trial opportunities as quickly as...
Federally funded research continues to spur progress against cancer; however, accelerating the pace of progress will require robust, sustained, and predictable annual funding increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Food and Drug...
A drop in the number of cancer cells detected in a patient’s blood could be the best indicator yet as to whether treatment for prostate cancer is working. A new study, published by Lorente et al in European Urology, shows that a 30% decline in a patient’s numbers of circulating tumor...