There are many different ways to treat cancer: surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and more, sometimes used alone and sometimes in combination. But, in certain circumstances, the best treatment option for a patient may not look much like treatment at all. Instead of attempting to eliminate...
The role of advanced practitioners in oncology is growing as the demand for team-based care increases—and with that growth comes a need for training materials specifically tailored to this group. ASCO University®, ASCO’s home for lifelong learning, has collaborated with the Association of Physician ...
On February 19, 2016, palbociclib (Ibrance) was approved for use in combination with fulvestrant (Faslodex) for treatment of hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer with disease progression following endocrine therapy.1,2 In February 2015, palbociclib in...
Soon after effective therapies for some childhood malignancies were first identified, early leaders in our field had concerns about what would happen to surviving patients as they aged. In 1975, Giulio D’Angio, MD, one of the founders of modern pediatric radiation oncology, presciently called for...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Gregory T. Armstrong, MD, MSCE, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, and colleagues found that late mortality has decreased over time among 5-year survivors of childhood cancer in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort.1...
ASCO has announced the two physicians selected for its new Health Policy Fellowship, which kicked off this past October. Robert M. Daly, MD, and Steve Y. Lee, MD, will be the fellows for the inaugural class, which runs from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017. The program, aimed at oncologists in the...
Robert Seeger, MD, Division Head for Basic and Translational Research of the Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), has been selected for the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium (PBMTC). As the eighth...
On February 26, 2016, everolimus (Afinitor) was approved for treatment of adult patients with progressive, well-differentiated, nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal or lung origin that are unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic.1,2 The drug was previously approved for...
Proton-beam radiation therapy may be an attractive option for reirradiation of recurrent head and neck cancer, with encouraging disease control and survival rates and improved toxicity rates compared to photon reirradiation, according to John Han-Chih Chang, MD. Most head and neck cancers present...
Smokers whose oropharyngeal tumors are positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) might need more aggressive treatment for their disease, according to research presented by Jose Zevallos, MD, at the 2016 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona.1 Over time,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved obinutuzumab (Gazyva), an anti-CD-20 monoclonal antibody, for use in combination with bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) followed by obinutuzumab monotherapy for the treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma who relapsed after, or are...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved everolimus (Afinitor), an mTOR inhibitor, for the treatment of adult patients with progressive, well-differentiated nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal (GI) or lung origin with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic ...
The Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium is not only the largest surgical oncology conference in the world, but the 69th meeting, recently held in Boston, is the group’s largest ever, according to SSO Past President Jeffrey A. Drebin, MD, PhD, the John Rhea Barton Professor...
Surgeons are clearly more comfortable in the operating room than the laboratory, but there is a place for them in translational cancer research as well, according to one surgeon who has led cutting-edge research in pancreatic cancer. “Translational studies require access to patients, to tissue, and ...
A quality improvement initiative to reduce the reliance of patients on visits to the emergency department for treatment of side effects related to cancer treatment was reported to be highly effective, according to early findings from a new study. 1 The strategy, involving a telephone triage...
On March 26, 2013, ASCO announced that it had completed a prototype of CancerLinQ™, the Society’s groundbreaking health information–technology initiative to achieve higher quality, higher value cancer care with better outcomes for patients. At this year’s 2016 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Robert S. ...
The Cancer Drug Development Forum exists to provide, as the name implies, a meeting place to bring together academia, the pharmaceutical industry, and most important regulators for full and frank discussions to facilitate anticancer drug development. In the recent past, the Cancer Drug Development...
Venous thromboembolic events are more prevalent in patients with cancer than in persons without it. Cancer is associated with a high rate of venous thromboembolism recurrence, bleeding, requirement for long-term anticoagulation, and reduced quality of life. Moreover, thrombosis is the second most...
Women with advanced ovarian cancer caused by genetic mutations—including in BRCA1 and BRCA2—lived significantly longer than those who did not have a mutation following treatment with a chemotherapy regimen that included bevacizumab (Avastin). According to a study, those with BRCA1 and a ...
As reported by Lichtman et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, an ancillary study (Alliance A171201) of the CALGB 49907 trial showed no significant association of pretreatment creatinine clearance with grade ≥ 3 hematologic toxicity, dose modification, therapy completion, relapse-free...
Updated results of the phase I ASCEND-1 trial, reported by Kim et al in The Lancet Oncology, indicate that the ALK inhibitor ceritinib (Zykadia) produced high response rates in advanced ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including intracranial disease, in both patients with...
Families of patients dying with lung or colorectal cancer judged end-of-life care as better when it was less aggressive, involved earlier hospice, avoided intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and included death outside of the hospital, according to a study reported by Wright et al in JAMA. Study...
In a long-term follow up of two large U.S. prospective cohorts reported in JAMA Oncology, Cao et al found that regular use of aspirin was associated with a reduced risk of gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancers. In 2015, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended the use of aspirin in...
Among patients with breast cancer, lung cancer, or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), those who had a specific form of the CYP3A7 gene (CYP3A7*1C) had worse outcomes compared with those who did not have CYP3A7*1C. This may be related to how the patients metabolize the therapeutics used to treat...
Latinas who eat processed meats such as bacon and sausage may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study that did not find the same association among white women. The study, published by Kim et al in Cancer Causes & Control, suggests that race, ethnicity, genetics,...
Consuming a diet with a high glycemic index was independently associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer in non-Hispanic whites, according to a new epidemiologic study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This research, published by Melkonian et al in Cancer...
A study published by Beyaz et al in Nature reveals how a high-fat diet makes the cells of the intestinal lining more likely to become cancerous. It joins a growing body of research that finds obesity and eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet are significant risk factors for many types of cancer....
In a study reported in JAMA, Bekelman et al assessed the site of death, health-care utilization, and hospital expenditures among patients aged ≥ 65 years dying with cancer in Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States. The United States had lower...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Garcia-Manero et al, the phase III ONTIME trial showed that treatment with the Ras mimetic rigosertib did not significantly improve overall survival vs best supportive care in patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes after failure of hypomethylating...
In the phase II POPLAR trial reported in The Lancet, Fehrenbacher et al found that the anti–PD-L1 (programmed cell death ligand 1) antibody atezolizumab improved overall survival vs docetaxel in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had progressed on prior platinum-based...
According to a study led by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) researchers, a majority of patients diagnosed with breast cancer go on to develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and in most of these cases, symptoms persist for at least a year. These findings were published by Voigt et ...
A majority of people with advanced cancer want to hear findings from DNA sequencing and to learn how those results may affect their health and treatment options, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report. Their findings were reported by Gray et al in Genetics in Medicine. The discovery...
The addition of fosaprepitant (Emend) to palonosetron and dexamethasone reduced the risk of emesis during 5 weeks of chemoradiotherapy for cervical cancer, according to the phase III GAND-emesis trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Ruhlmann et al. Study Details In the double-blind trial, 234...
A retrospective analysis of the phase III registration trial IMCL-9815 of cetuximab (Erbitux) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Rosenthal et al suggests that the addition of cetuximab to radiotherapy was of benefit irrespective of p16 expression in patients with locoregionally...
As reported by Shaw et al in The New England Journal of Medicine, a woman with metastatic ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had received multiple prior therapies, including the first- and second-generation ALK inhibitors crizotinib (Xalkori) and ceritinib (Zykadia),...
Researchers at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have confirmed in a screening effectiveness study that early screening with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can reduce breast cancer mortality for female survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma who received chest radiation. The findings published by...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Cristofanilli et al, the final results of the phase III PALOMA-3 trial show that the addition of the CDK4/CDK6 inhibitor palbociclib (Ibrance) to fulvestrant (Faslodex) improved progression-free survival in women with hormone receptor–positive,...
The oral Aurora A kinase inhibitor alisertib was active in combination with irinotecan/temozolomide in patients with relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma, in a phase I dose-escalation trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by DuBois et al. The maximum tolerated dose of alisertib was 60...
A tumor’s immune response to a single dose of the HER2 inhibitor trastuzumab (Herceptin) predicted which patients with HER2-positive breast cancer would respond to the drug on a more long-term basis, according to the results of a study published by Varadan et al in Clinical Cancer Research....
Using the National Cancer Institute’s Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), researchers from Columbia University, New York, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, identified six severe adverse events clusters in patients with advanced prostate cancer. The...
Three measures of aggressive end-of-life care “were associated with relatively large differences in family member–reported quality ratings for end-of-life care and a lower likelihood that patients with advanced-stage cancer received care congruent with their preferences,”...
A survey of oncology surgeons from six hospitals in Washington State found that the surgeons in the sample “displayed and valued cultural awareness and sensitivity” but that “cultural awareness and sensitivity did not necessarily result in culturally competent behavior.” These findings highlight...
A randomized phase II study in symptomatic, untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) found an increased overall response rate with obinutuzumab (Gazyva) at a 2,000 mg vs 1,000 dose. In addition, the “data demonstrate that obinutuzumab produces a higher response rate in...
Bookmark Title: Had I Known: A Memoir of SurvivalAuthor: Joan Lunden with Laura MortonPublisher: Harper CollinsPublication date: September 2015Price: $26.99; hardcover, 336 pages In 1974, several weeks after Betty Ford became the nation’s First Lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer....
A study in Cancer1 finding an increasing rate of colorectal cancer among patients under the age of 50 should serve to raise awareness about the need for testing among those with “red-flag” symptoms and earlier screening for those at high risk, the study’s corresponding author, Samantha Hendren, MD, ...
In clinical practice, Samantha Hendren, MD, MPH, has been “shocked by what a large proportion of patients we are seeing who are under 50 and presenting with colorectal cancer,” often with advanced disease due to delayed diagnosis. “And that is because patients and physicians don’t even think of...
Here are several more abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2015 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, focusing on the topic of anticoagulation and the cancer patient. For other selected abstracts from this conference, see the December 25, 2015, and the...
The HELIOS study is an international phase III trial of bendamustine (Treanda) plus rituximab (Rituxan) in combination with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) vs placebo in patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As reported by Chanan-Khan in The Lancet Oncology1 and reviewed in this...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On January 28, 2016, eribulin mesylate (Halaven) was approved for...
Neurosurgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used hyperthermic laser ablation to shrink tumors in patients with recurrent glioblastoma and noted a temporary disruption of the blood-brain barrier, thereby enabling them to deliver chemotherapy to the peritumoral region....