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Showing 14801 - 14850Low-dose CT Detects Twice as Many Early-stage Lung Cancers as Chest X-ray, According to Additional NLST Results
Results of the first of three planned annual screening examinations from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) were recently published and physicians may now have more information to share with their patients about the benefits and risks of low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening.1...
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Reaches Agreement with FDA on Phase III Trial Design for Bavituximab in NSCLC
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals recently announced that it has reached agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a phase III registration trial design of the company’s lead clinical immunotherapeutic candidate bavituximab in second-line non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The trial...
Expert Point of View: Giulia Veronesi, MD
The study discussant, Giulia Veronesi, MD, of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy, said that diagnostic algorithms aim to strike a balance between a too-invasive workup that exposes screened persons to useless invasive procedures and overtreatment, and...
Evaluation of Lung Cancer Screening Strategy in the First Three Rounds of the NELSON Trial
The Dutch-Belgian Randomized Lung Cancer Screening Trial (Dutch acronym: NELSON study) was designed to investigate whether screening for lung cancer by low-dose multidetector computed tomography (CT) in high-risk subjects would lead to a decrease in 10-year lung cancer mortality of at least 25%...
Expert Point of View: Elisabeth Quoix, MD
The study discussant, Elisabeth Quoix, MD, of the University Hospitals of Strasbourg, France, said that this meta-analysis confirmed that platinum-based doublets remain the standard treatment in this setting. Benefit of platinum-based doublets over non–platinum-based chemotherapy is essentially due ...
Meta-analysis Slightly Favors Platinum-based First-line Treatment in Patients with Advanced NSCLC
Several meta-analyses conducted in the past have suggested that survival of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is improved if first-line chemotherapy includes platinum derivatives. Results from a new meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials show that platinum-based...
Simultaneous EGFR Mutations and HER2 Gene Amplifications in Large Series of Patients with Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
In a molecular profile analysis of 2,271 cases of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), EGFR was mutated in 12% and KRAS in 32% of cases. HER2 gene amplification was confirmed as a rare event in NSCLC (4%). Coexistence of HER2 gene amplification and EGFR mutation was identified in three cases, while...
Joseph A. Sparano, MD, Named Vice Chair of ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group
The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ECOG-ACRIN) Cancer Research Group recently announced that it has appointed Joseph A. Sparano, MD, as its Vice Chair. In his new role, Dr. Sparano will assist the Group leadership in defining research...
John P. Leonard, MD, Leads NCI's Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Lymphoma Committee
John P. Leonard, MD, a hematology and oncology expert specializing in the treatment of lymphomas at Weill Cornell Medical College, has been named Chair of the Lymphoma Committee for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored group, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Dr. Leonard is the ...
A New Center for Lymphoid Malignancies Aims to Provide Precision Patient Care
In January, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center opened the Center for Lymphoid Malignancies, a 3,700 square foot outpatient clinic, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. The Center is solely focused on the treatment of all forms of Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma,...
Intensified Liposomal Daunorubicin May Offer High Survival Rates without Added Cardiotoxicity for Children with Leukemia
Treating pediatric leukemia patients with a liposomal formulation of anthracycline-based chemotherapy at an intensified dose during initial treatment may result in high survival rates without causing any added heart toxicity, according to the results of a study published online in Blood.1 Acute...
Cancer Organizations Recognize Sen. Shelby and Rep. DeLauro for Their Commitment to the Fight against Cancer
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) were recognized recently by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, and Friends of Cancer Research for their outstanding commitment to cancer...
Double the Mastectomy, Double the Complications
A retrospective analysis of a large surgical database has documented that bilateral mastectomy is associated with a doubling in complication rates, compared with unilateral mastectomy. Researchers reported the findings at the 14th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in...
Pulmonary Metastasectomy in Patients with Colorectal Cancer
The largest-to-date and only prospective Spanish series of 549 patients who underwent surgical resection of lung metastases from colorectal carcinoma demonstrated a good postoperative recovery from the procedure. A further analysis on morbidity, the correlation between imaging studies and...
Expert Point of View: Alison Freifeld, MD
The EORTC Infectious Diseases Group Trial XV “is a long-awaited study because it finally is an investigation of outpatient management of low-risk fever and neutropenia in a large number of patients,” Alison Freifeld, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, commented in an...
Once-daily Moxifloxacin for Low-risk Patients with Febrile Neutropenia
Once-daily oral moxifloxacin works at least as well as twice-daily oral ciprofloxacin plus amoxicillin–clavulanic acid when it comes to treating febrile neutropenia in patients who are at low risk for complications, according to a randomized, double-blind trial reported in the Journal of Clinical...
Radium-223 Dichloride Approved for Patients with Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer
On May 15, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved radium Ra 223 dichloride (Xofigo) for the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, symptomatic bone metastases, and no known visceral metastatic disease. Radium-223 dichloride is an alpha-particle–emitting...
FDA Approves Expanded Use for Erlotinib, Companion Diagnostic to Detect Genetic Mutations in NSCLC
The FDA has approved erlotinib (Tarceva) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations. This indication for erlotinib was approved...
SIDEBAR: Physician-assisted Suicide
Readers’ comments extracted from www.nejm.org To force people to live simply because we possess the technology to do so does not speak to either the ethics or the morality of such a decision. Suffering has existential dimensions. Symptoms can be treated with greatest chance. My grandfather...
Study Questions Routine Use of Imaging after Treatment for Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma
Most relapses following treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are detected by abnormalities on physical exam, lab tests, and symptoms—not by routine imaging, according to a study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.1 In fact, in a prospective study assessing post-treatment outcomes of...
Impressive Results Shown for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: Anti-PD1 and Anti-PD-L1 Antibodies
Antibody-mediated blockade of the programmed death 1 protein (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) resulted in potent and durable tumor regression and prolonged stabilization of disease in patients with advanced solid tumors, according to early data on these drugs presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting. ...
One Cancer Center's Approach to Death with Dignity
In November 2008, the Washington State legislature passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act allowing patients with a terminal diagnosis and less than 6 months to live to request and self-administer lethal medication. After considerable internal debate, our cancer center elected to develop a...
Caring for the Whole Patient Both during Active Treatment and at End of Life
Despite studies showing that a majority of patients prefer to die at home rather than in an institutional setting,1 in many parts of the country, over 30% die in nursing homes and over 50% die in hospitals, according to Ira Byock, MD, Director of Palliative Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical...
The Road to ASCO Presidency, Paved by Education and Persistence
ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, grew up in northeast Philadelphia in the 1960s, a robust period in U.S. history dominated by American industry and ingenuity. His early memories are of a hard-working blue-collar neighborhood of identical row and semidetached twin houses and of a time of...
Anniversary Issue: Narratives in Oncology
The ASCO Post is pleased to present this special anniversary issue in recognition of the publication’s 4th year serving the oncology community. We hope you enjoy this commemorative supplement profiling several of the many leaders in the oncology community. In coming issues of The ASCO Post and in...
FDA Clears Multicenter Trial of Treatment for Hair Loss Related to Chemotherapy
The FDA has approved initiation of a multicenter trial of the DigniCap System, a scalp-cooling device for chemotherapy-related hair loss. The trial is the second and final phase of study for the DigniCap System. A pilot study previously conducted by researchers at the University of California San...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions about Preventive Double Mastectomies
For women who are considering prophylactic bilateral mastectomies, “I strongly encourage genetic testing, Todd M. Tuttle, MD, MS, said in an interview with The ASCO Post about the increased interest in preventive double mastectomy following Angelina Jolie’s disclosure that she had the procedure to...
Angelina Jolie's Disclosure of Prophylactic Bilateral Mastectomy: A Positive Example for Women with BRCA Mutations?
Angelina Jolie, in a New York Times article entitled “My Medical Choice,”1 disclosed that having a BRCA1 mutation and an estimated 87% risk of breast cancer, “I decided to be proactive and minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.” She was writing...
FDA Approves Lenalidomide for Relapsed/Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved lenalidomide (Revlimid) for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma whose disease has relapsed or progressed after two prior therapies, one of which included bortezomib (Velcade). Clinical Trial The approval was based on the results of...
Focus on the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology
With a roster of over 600 members that includes community and institutional oncologists, administrators, registered nurses, and patient navigators, the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology (GASCO) is one of ASCO’s largest State Affiliates. Founded in 1986, the Atlanta-based Society is active in...
Trametinib in Unresectable or Metastatic Melanoma with BRAF V600E or BRAF V600K Mutation
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. Indication On May 29, 2013, trametinib (Mekinist) was approved by...
Oncology Meetings
June 2nd International Breakthrough Breast Cancer Conference– Triple Negative Breast CancerJune 26-28 • London, United KingdomFor more information: www.breakthroughconference.org.uk MASCC/ISOO 2013 International Cancer Care SymposiumJune 27-29 • Berlin, GermanyFor more information: mascc.kenes.com ...
Partnership Seeks to Accelerate Development of Innovative Therapies
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to establish a network of sites for clinical trial testing of innovative blood cancer therapies in community oncology settings across the country. This Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP) will...
Orphan Drug Status Granted for Novel Targeted Therapy to Treat Rare Hematologic Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation to Stemline Therapeutics’ SL-401 for the treatment of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, a rare and aggressive hematologic malignancy for which there is no effective treatment. SL-401 also has Orphan Drug...
Improving Treatment and Care for Patients with Primary Brain Cancers
Despite advances in neuroimaging, the development of focused radiation therapy, and more effective chemotherapy, life expectancy for patients with primary malignant tumors of the brain and spinal cord remains stubbornly low at between 15 and 18 months. However, there are significant advances on the ...
Treating Both the Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Cancer
A growing number of people with cancer are being treated on an outpatient basis. At the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York, to ensure that the psychosocial and psychiatric needs of these patients were being...
Celebrations Nationwide Recognize Cancer Survivorship in June
Among the celebrations held nationwide recognizing survivorship day in June, there was a special program held on June 10, 2013, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Mary McCabe, RN, MS, Director, Survivorship Program, at MSKCC, moderated the program. The evening celebration...
College of American Pathologists Issues Statement on Supreme Court Gene Patent Decision
In a statement released earlier this month, the College of American Pathologists applauded the unanimous Supreme Court decision invalidating the patents held by Myriad Genetics on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, calling the decision “a victory for patients and for science.” The College of American...
Reducing Unnecessary and High-dose Pediatric CT Scans Could Cut Future Cancers by More than Half
A study examining trends in x-ray computed tomography (CT) use in children in the United States has found that reducing unnecessary scans and lowering the doses for the highest-dose scans could lower the overall lifetime risk of future imaging-related cancers by 62%. The research was published...
SGX942 Gets Fast Track Status for Treatment of Oral Mucositis
The FDA has granted fast track designation to the SGX942 development program for the treatment of oral mucositis as a result of radiation and/or chemotherapy treatment in patients with head and neck cancer. SGX942 is a fully synthetic, 5-amino acid peptide with high aqueous solubility and stability ...
FDA Approves Two Drugs, Companion Diagnostic Test for Advanced Skin Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved two new drugs, dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist), for patients with advanced or unresectable melanoma. Dabrafenib, a BRAF inhibitor, is approved to treat patients with melanoma whose tumors express the BRAF V600E gene...
ASTRO to Award Society's Highest Honor to Three Physicians and Researchers
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will award Amato J. Giaccia, PhD, Radhe Mohan, PhD, FASTRO, and Prabhakar Tripuraneni, MD, FASTRO, with the Society’s highest honor—the ASTRO Gold Medal. The 2013 awardees will receive the ASTRO Gold Medal during the society’s 55th Annual Meeting...
ASCO Joins a Global Alliance to Enable Responsible Sharing of Genomic and Clinical Data
ASCO has joined more than 70 leading health care, research, and disease advocacy organizations from around the world in taking the first steps to form an international alliance dedicated to enabling secure sharing of genomic and clinical data. The cost of genome sequencing has fallen one-million...
Brian Druker, MD, and Charles Sawyers, MD, Receive 2013 Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Science
Brian Druker, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and Charles Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, will share the 2013 Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Science. The $100,000 prize is given by the A. Alfred Taubman Medical...
FDA Approves New Silicone Gel-filled Breast Implant
The FDA recently approved the MemoryShape Breast Implant for breast augmentation in women at least 22 years old and for breast reconstruction in women of any age. The MemoryShape Breast Implants are manufactured by Mentor Worldwide LLC. The FDA’s approval is based on 6 years of data from 955 women...
ASCO President Clifford Hudis, MD, on the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting
This year’s ASCO Annual Meeting was really exciting in two specific ways. First, we saw the development of high-tech novel therapies and combinations that effectively manipulate the immune system and extend survival in historically difficult-to-treat diseases, like metastatic melanoma (eg,...
It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again
Yogi Berra offered the comment “It’s déjà vu all over again” when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hitting back-to-back home runs in the early 1960s. His pithy remark neatly summarizes my reaction when I read the article, “Dose-Adjusted EPOCH-Rituximab Therapy in Primary...
MSKCC Community Mourns the Death of Trudy Nan Small, MD
Trudy Nan Small, MD, was a pediatric hematologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center who specialized in the diagnosis and care of children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies and those with life-threatening genetic disorders of the immune system....
Erratum
In the June 10 issue of The ASCO Post, the article, “Study Questions Routine Use of Imaging after Treatment for Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma,” includes an error in an Expert Point of View box featuring an interview with Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD. Dr. Zelenetz is quoted as saying that at his...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions about Programmed Death Receptors
In today’s high-tech, sci-fi–loving culture, “programmed death receptor” seems like a term apt to stir up public interest, particularly when those receptors are being “targeted” by “agents.” In this case, however, the agents are antibodies that target programmed death 1 (PD-1) receptor and disable...
