In a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Kerlikowske et al found that the combined use of Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) breast density and Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC)-defined risk for breast cancer may be an effective way of identifying women with dense...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the inclusion of overall survival from the PACIFIC trial in the U.S. prescribing information for durvalumab and accepted applications for a new drug in the treatment of epithelioid sarcoma and two orphan drugs in the treatment of acute...
A research team led by investigators from Georgetown University Medical Center and Fudan University in China has devised a noninvasive and individualized technique for detecting and treating bladder cancer. Their findings were published by Jiang et al in Protein & Cell. The method uses a...
Scientists have demonstrated that an artificial intelligence (AI) tool can perform as well as human reviewers—and much more rapidly—in extracting clinical information regarding changes in tumors from unstructured radiology reports for patients with lung cancer. These findings were...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Lyons et al found that transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU) or on-ward death occurred in 9% of admissions to cancer wards at an urban tertiary cancer hospital. Investigators identified factors associated with clinical deterioration...
In a Dutch phase II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Theelen et al found that although use of stereotactic body radiotherapy prior to pembrolizumab increased the objective response rate vs pembrolizumab alone in metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the difference did not meet study...
This week, we discuss a study that found a disconnect between rates of colonoscopy and recent increases in colorectal cancer incidence in younger adults. In addition, Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers her insights on the rising rates of colorectal cancer in young adults....
ASCO’S CENTER FOR Research and Analytics (CENTRA) is now accepting research applications from ASCO members who wish to conduct surveys of the Society’s membership for research purposes. The Research Survey Pool (RSP) is a service made available to ASCO members who engage in survey research. It...
FINDING TRUSTED resources to support some conversations with your patients can be challenging—ASCO is here to help. Use the ASCO Answers booklet bundle to guide discussions with patients and caregivers and provide them with the ideal take-home resource. This topic-specific booklet bundle includes...
THE DIRECTOR OF the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE), Richard Pazdur, MD, joins ASCO Chief Executive Officer Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, in the latest ASCO in Action Podcast to discuss the FDA’s new program to make it easier for physicians to...
Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation, presented more than $7 million in grants and awards to exceptional oncology researchers at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. ASCO and Conquer Cancer congratulate the recipients and offer their profound thanks to those who generously supported these awards. Visit...
CANCERCARE® has announced the publication of a patient manifesto that emphasizes the importance of including patients’ values and priorities in cancer treatment planning. This manifesto can be used to inform and advocate with policymakers, insurers, health-care administrators, electronic medical...
In April 2019, a 3-year-old boy, Noah McAdams, missed the third round of chemotherapy for his acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His parents wanted instead to focus on alternative remedies of cannabidiol oil, alkaline water, mushroom tea, and herbal extracts. The sheriff was summoned; Noah’s parents...
FLORIDA CANCER SPECIALISTS & Research Institute (FCS) recently announced that medical oncologist and hematologist Barry S. Berman, MD, has joined the statewide practice and will be seeing patients in two offices: West Palm Beach and Wellington North. Board-certified in medical oncology,...
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, San Francisco (UCSF) has opened a pioneering cancer center devoted to providing adult patients with highly advanced treatments, including immunotherapy, genetic counseling, molecular profiling of tumors, fully integrated clinical trials, and advanced imaging. The UCSF...
KRISTA NELSON, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, BCD, has been awarded the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) 2019 Leadership in Oncology Social Work Award. The award was conferred during the AOSW 35th Annual Conference, in Tucson. The Leadership in Oncology Social Work Award is sponsored by the American...
PATIENTPOINT AND the National Comprehensive Cancer Network®(NCCN®) recently announced a new collaboration to integrate the NCCN Guidelines for Patients® on Nausea and Vomiting into the PatientPoint Interact Exam Room Program. PatientPoint is also promoting NCCN programs and evidence-based NCCN...
THE TREATMENT LANDSCAPE for bladder cancer has changed dramatically over the past few years, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) recently announced the newly published NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Bladder Cancer, created with funding through the NCCN Foundation. The guidelines...
Developed in 1925 by British statistician Sir Ronald Fisher, the P value is a measure that is ever-present in abstracts and studies, a small statistical tool that has enormous power to aid research being published in the literature or support drug approval. Over the past several years, however, a...
William Cance, MD, Deputy Director of the University of Arizona (UA) Cancer Center in Phoenix has been appointed Interim Director of the UA Cancer Center. Dr. Cance, who joined the UA in October 2016, is also Professor in the Departments of Interdisciplinary Oncology, Pharmacology and Toxicology,...
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), with its scientific partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), announced two new members of the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee: John D. Carpten, PhD, Director of the Institute of Translational Genomics at the Keck School of Medicine of the...
CATHY ENG, MD, FASCO, Professor of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, is joining Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). She was recruited to assume the role of Co-Leader of the VICC Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Program. Dr. Eng ...
THE INVITED discussants of the presentations on repotrectinib and AMG 510 were enthusiastic about these agents. Sarina Anne Piha-Paul, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discussed AMG 510, and Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, Head of the Cancer Medicine Department at the Institut...
The 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting provided attendees with an abundance of clinically relevant abstracts in gastrointestinal cancers. Briefly featured here are clinical trial updates on pembrolizumab in the second-line treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (KEYNOTE-240 trial), laparoscopic vs open...
FRIENDS OF CANCER RESEARCH (Friends) is launching the next phase of its Real-World Evidence pilot project after a broad stakeholder meeting in February 2019. At the meeting, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and various data partners expressed interest in continuing to address several...
A handful of investigational drugs in early-phase trials always create a buzz at ASCO Annual Meetings. Two that garnered attention this year, and could eventually change outcomes in the clinic, are the first-in-class KRAS inhibitor AMG 510 and the ROS1 inhibitor repotrectinib. Should late-phase...
Jason S. Lewis, PhD, has been named the 2019 recipient of the Paul C. Aebersold Award. Dr. Lewis is the Emily Tow Jackson Chair in Oncology and Vice Chair for Research and Chief Attending, Radiochemistry and Imaging Sciences Service, Department of Radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer...
As part of The ASCO Post’s coverage of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, featured here are summaries of five abstracts of different clinical trials evaluating newer treatments for follicular and marginal zone lymphomas as well as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Follicular and Marginal Zone Lymphomas...
ON JUNE 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bevacizumab-bvzr (Zirabev), a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin), for the treatment of five types of cancer: metastatic colorectal cancer; unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung...
ON JUNE 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the anti– programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as monotherapy for patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with disease progression on or after platinum-based...
On July 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to selinexor (Xpovio) in combination with dexamethasone for adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is refractory to at least two ...
In addition to our regular coverage of major news stories from the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, here is an additional roundup of important studies related to prostate cancer. ARAMIS: Darolutamide and Quality of Life Darolutamide, a next-generation androgen receptor antagonist, significantly prolonged...
Mark Pegram, MD, the Susy Yuan-Huey Hung Professor of Medical Oncology and Director of the Stanford Breast Oncology Program, said the Dana-Farber study “independently confirms that HER2 heterogeneity is a distinct clinical entity with lower levels of HER2 expression and pathologic complete...
Breast cancers that display heterogeneity of HER2 expression may represent a distinct subset of HER2-positive breast cancer that is associated with lower rates of pathologic complete response, according to a phase II study from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This trial evaluated HER2 heterogeneity...
At the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, two pivotal breast cancer trials reported final or additional analyses: one confirmed the negative results seen in earlier reports,1 and the other supported a new survival benchmark.2 KRISTINE: Neoadjuvant T-DM1/Pertuzumab Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, of the David Geffen...
Earlier this year, ASCO announced plans for its first-ever international meeting, ASCO Breakthrough: A Global Summit for Oncology Innovators, which will be held October 11–13, 2019, in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting is a joint effort by ASCO and the Thai Society of Clinical Oncology to bring...
IT WAS a chilly Chicago morning, and I was sitting at the lobby of my hotel when I saw a smiling gentleman cheerfully waving at me from his car. It was Lawrence H. Einhorn, MD, picking me up for our drive to Indiana. I was one of the recipients of the ASCO International Development and Education...
Just weeks after my wedding in late summer of 2017, I had a sudden bout of abdominal pain so severe that it sent me to the emergency room. I was just 29 years old and in great physical shape. In the emergency room, a physician examined me and was about to release me with a prescription for a...
Commenting for The ASCO Post, melanoma expert Vernon K. Sondak, MD, Chair of the Department of Cutaneous Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, maintained that the association between immunotherapy-related toxicity and better outcomes is not yet clear. He first noted the impact of novel...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Jason Fangusaro, MD, and colleagues found that the MEK1/2 inhibitor selumetinib was active in pediatric patients with recurrent, refractory, or progressive pilocytic astrocytoma with common BRAF aberrations and neurofibromatosis type 1...
In the EORTC 1325/KEYNOTE-054 trial of adjuvant pembrolizumab in patients with stage III melanoma, recurrences were reduced by 44% in the immunotherapy arm, vs placebo, but this benefit increased to a 63% reduction in risk among patients developing an immune-related adverse event on treatment.1...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nitin Jain, MD, and colleagues found that the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax was highly active in previously untreated high-risk and older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In the study, 80 ...
A population-based study of men with low-risk to intermediate-risk prostate cancer found that 18 months after choosing active surveillance, only 15% were fully compliant with recommendations for active surveillance from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Clinical Practice Guidelines ...
Active surveillance of patients with early-stage prostate cancer “is tackling the problem of overtreatment” and, with rigorous monitoring, “is safe and allows us to treat only patients who need treatment when their cancer progresses,” Ronald C. Chen, MD, MPH, affirmed in an interview with The ASCO...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested that Allergan, the manufacturer of a specific type of textured breast implant, recall specific models of its textured implants from the U.S. market due to the risk of breast implant–associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL)....
In a retrospective analysis published by Si et al in Surgical Endoscopy, researchers found minimally invasive surgery led to higher survival and lower local recurrence in patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma vs radiofrequency ablation, whereas radiofrequency ablation was associated with...
In a case-control study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nené et al found that younger women with ovarian cancer or a BRCA1 mutation without cancer were more likely to have cervicovaginal microbiota characterized by a lower (community type O) vs higher (community type L) proportion of...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rituximab-pvvr (Ruxience), a biosimilar to rituximab (Rituxan), for the treatment of adult patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and granulomatosis with polyangiitis and microscopic polyangiitis....
The Hippocratic Oath calls on physicians to “use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment,” but not all versions of the oath call on us to prevent disease. Here we urge our colleagues to acknowledge that additional mandate and renew their commitment to preventing what could ...
BOOKMARK Title: An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It BackAuthor: Elisabeth Rosenthal, MDPublisher: Penguin PressPublication Date: April 2017Price: $27.95, hardcover; 416 pages The United States spends considerably more on health care than all other...