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Showing 14401 - 14450Expert 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...
New Concept for Brain Tumors: Tumor Treating Fields
A novel treatment modality that applies electric forces to brain tumors via scalp electrodes improved outcomes in a study reported at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 In the first report of the full dataset, tumor treating fields significantly and consistently prolonged both progression-free...
Expert Point of View: Keith T. Flaherty, MD
Keith T. Flaherty, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy, Boston, was interviewed by The ASCO Post for his thoughts on the findings from Atreya and colleagues. He believes the study’s outcomes are sufficient for...
Expert Point of View: Kenneth Yu, MD, MSc
Kenneth Yu, MD, MSc, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, called investigational PEGPH20 “a very promising tumor microenvironment-targeted approach” that appears to be well tolerated. “The results are preliminary but there appears to be a biomarker ...
Novel Enzyme Improves Outcomes in Subset of Patients With Pancreatic Cancer
Patients with stage IV pancreatic cancer who received a novel enzyme along with standard chemotherapy experienced a doubling in progression-free survival, compared to those given chemotherapy alone, in a study presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Response rates and median duration of...
Expert Point of View: Jeffrey L. Wolf, MD
Jeffrey L. Wolf, MD, Director of the Myeloma Program at the University of California, San Francisco, formally discussed the ENDEAVOR study at the ASCO Annual Meeting. He commented that the “doubling” in progression-free survival is “impressive” and said that “time will tell if this difference...
ASTRO Guidelines on Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced NSCLC: A Good Place to Start
ASCO’s endorsement of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) guidelines on the role of radiotherapy in locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is an important summary of the best evidence on the appropriate role and techniques for radiotherapy in this disease.1 These...
Collaborating Toward a Cure
We’ve seen how dramatically patients’ lives can change when they are matched with the right treatment at the right time in their disease course. Although this is still an exception and not the rule, we believe collaborative research approaches will make this kind of precision medicine a reality for ...
Expert Point of View: Jeremy Abramson, MD
Jeremy Abramson, MD, Clinical Director of the Center for Lymphoma at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, agrees that obinutuzumab is an advance over rituximab. Like rituximab, obinutuzumab targets CD-20, but rituximab does not directly induce cell death. Obinutuzumab is a type 2 antibody and...
Obinutuzumab Moves Into Lymphoma Treatment
The addition of obinutuzumab (Gazyva) to standard bendamustine (Treanda) chemotherapy followed by obinutuzumab maintenance therapy delays the progression of indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), almost doubling progression-free survival in rituximab (Rituxan)-refractory patients, according to the...
Medicare to Reimburse Doctors for End-of-Life Counseling
In a breakthrough proposal announced on July 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to reimburse physicians for end-of-life counseling, a move that the oncology community has long been lobbying for. Arriving just as the presidential election cycle begins to heat up, the CMS ...
Reflections
It is a humbling experience to reach 90 and to have a party and to have friends of the caliber I have. I think what keeps me going is the pleasant activities I have with Drs. Beatriz Pogo [MD, DMSc, Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology at Mount Sinai] and Stella Melana [PhD,...
Daratumumab Expanded Access Program Open to Eligible U.S. Patients With Heavily Pretreated Multiple Myeloma
Janssen Biotech, Inc, announced the opening of a daratumumab expanded access program for eligible patients in the United States. Daratumumab is an investigational human anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody being evaluated in clinical trials as a treatment for patients with multiple myeloma. The...
Cost vs Our Values in Cancer Care
An 80-year-old patient with metastatic prostate cancer asked me to discontinue his treatments, which were costing him more than $1,000 every 3 months. Although he had Medicare, he did not have secondary insurance. I told him that I would seek compassionate-care payment from the pharmaceutical...
The Importance of Including Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer in Their Advance Care Planning
Three years ago, a study of adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 28 with metastatic or recurrent cancer or HIV/AIDS compared the usefulness of two previously developed advance care planning guides—one prepared specifically for adolescents and young adults and one specifically for adults. The...
Charles Rubin, MD, Pediatric Cancer Specialist, Dies at 62
Charles M. Rubin, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine, a highly respected specialist in the care of children with cancer, died on July 17. He was 62. An authority on all aspects of pediatric cancers, Dr. Rubin had a particular interest in brain tumors and...
A Lasting Legacy
When Emil J Freireich, MD, retires from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on September 1, he will have spent 50 years at the institution and a total of 60 years in the pursuit of curing childhood leukemia as well as other cancers and in the educational development of young...
Translational Research: Dogs and Humans Nearly Interchangeable in the Laboratory
“Between animal and human medicine there is no dividing line—nor should there be. The object is different but the experience obtained constitutes the basis of all medicine.” — Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) Everyone has seen photographs of people who look like their dogs: the young woman with long...
American College of Physicians Releases High Value Care Screening Advice for Five Common Cancers
In a paper published in Annals of Internal Medicine1, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued advice for screening average risk adults without symptoms for five common cancers: breast, colorectal, ovarian, prostate, and cervical. In a companion piece also published in Annals2, ACP outlined...
2015–2016 ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO: Leading During a Year of Historic Changes
Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, began her term as the 2015–2016 President of ASCO at the 2015 Annual Meeting on June 1, 2015. Dr. Vose, a leading expert in the treatment of patients with lymphoma, is the current Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professorial Chair and Chief of the Oncology/Hematology ...
