“A book about the future must be written in advance. Later I won’t have the energy. So I will do it now.” So begins The Iceberg, a memoir set in Britain of a woman, Marion Coutts, whose husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which eventually killed him. Unfortunately, cancer memoirs flood the...
According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), environmental toxic exposures are responsible for between 7% and 19% of human cancers. However, the 2008–2009 President’s Cancer Panel Annual Report estimated that the “true...
An international, multi-institutional research team consisting of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO); The Wistar Institute; Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre; the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has...
A new report assesses how the nation fared against the ambitious goal set by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to reduce cancer death rates by 50% over 25 years ending in 2015. The report finds areas where progress was substantial, and others where it was not. Published by Byers et al,1 the report ...
Vice President Joe Biden offered remarks on the White House’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative on Monday, June 6, to attendees at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. Essential Elements “The Moonshot Initiative can be a vehicle for major new progress against cancer, and ASCO’s Annual...
Value framework tools made a splash in 2015, with five different groups unveiling methods to help physicians and patients compare therapies based on efficacy, toxicity, and/or cost. Now these potential users are beginning to examine and debate the tools, including how and whether they will work in...
ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, issued this statement on May 10. “In comments1 submitted yesterday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASCO underscored the urgent need to advance a more fair and responsible payment system for oncology than what is proposed in...
The global economic crisis has been associated with increased unemployment and reduced public-sector expenditure on health care. In a study reported in The Lancet, Maruthappu et al found that the global economic crisis beginning in 2008 was also associated with a large excess in cancer mortality...
In a study using National Cancer Data Base data reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nussbaum et al found that preoperative and postoperative radiotherapy improved overall survival vs surgery alone in patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma. Study Details The study consisted of case-control, propensity ...
The International Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia–International Prognostic Index (CLL-IPI) working group has developed an IPI for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia based on a meta-analysis of individual patient data, as reported in The Lancet Oncology. Study Details The meta-analysis...
Play-based procedural preparation not only helps children cope with the stress and anxiety of radiation therapy, but can also help reduce the amount of sedation used and cut costs, according to a study from the Child Life Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The study was...
After serving as ASCO’s CEO for 10 years, Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO, is stepping down. Dr. Lichter, who has been an ASCO member since 1980, has served the Society in numerous capacities. Along with his distinguished career at ASCO, Dr. Lichter is a nationally recognized radiation oncologist,...
ASCO established a State Affiliate Council in 2012 consisting of representatives from each of the Society’s 48 state or regional oncology societies. The Council met on April 21–22 at ASCO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The ASCO Post talked with Paul Celano, MD, FACP, President, Maryland/DC...
The recent study by Rosenberg et al in The Lancet—summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post—is a very important paper in the field of bladder cancer therapy.1 It is the first phase II trial in metastatic transitional cell carcinoma that demonstrates the single-agent activity of the...
I like economies of scale, and thus it makes perfect sense that ASCO has set a formal process to allow potential endorsement of selected guidelines from other organizations, rather than redoing the whole process. Recently, we have seen the publication of a formal endorsement of the European...
Neratinib is an oral anti-HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has shown promising activity in the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.1 It differs from monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab (Herceptin) because, as a small molecule, neratinib blocks the ATP binding site on the...
The “collateral damage” of cancer treatment is a topic that is familiar to Susan Love, MD, MBA. As a breast cancer surgeon and chief visionary officer of Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, she has learned much about the consequences of cancer treatment. But she came by an important aspect of her...
“There are a lot of myths around new and emerging tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, and unfortunately, the biggest misconception is that these products are fairly or entirely harmless and risk-free,” Alexander V. Prokhorov, MD, PhD, said in an interview with The ASCO Post about a new...
A new rule extending U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight to all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), and banning the sale of these products to anyone under the age of 181 was hailed as a major advanced by many leaders of medical and health organizations....
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® (NCCN Guidelines®), covering eight tumor types. The NCCN Guidelines® are now published for more than 60 tumor types and topics. Some of the key updates for 2016 were...
Is cancer really “curable,” and if so, how? For a “Cancer Dialogue” held during the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, half a dozen stellar participants from the research, industry, regulatory, and advocacy communities convened to debate the topic. The ASCO Post was ...
The Middle East is a vast region comprised largely of developing nations with complicated sociopolitical challenges, violent internecine disputes, and deeply fragmented health-care systems. Not surprisingly, the region’s suboptimal health care contributes to the late diagnosis and poor survival...
BookmarkTitle: Dying: A TransitionAuthor: Monika Renz, PhD; translated by Mark Kyburz and John PeckPublisher: Columbia University PressPublication date: October 2015Price: $38.00; hardcover, 176 pages The night before Julius Caesar was assassinated, he had dinner with his friend Marcus...
In March, ASCO announced that Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO, was stepping down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the end of June, ending his 10-year tenure as head of the Society and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, Chief of Breast Medicine Service and Vice...
A new report assesses how the nation fared against the ambitious goal set by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to reduce cancer death rates by 50% over 25 years ending in 2015. The report finds areas where progress was substantial, and others where it was not. Published by Byers et al in CA: A ...
ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, issued this statement on May 10. “In comments submitted yesterday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASCO underscored the urgent need to advance a more fair and responsible payment system for oncology than what is proposed ...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been working together for many years on an idea known as breakthrough therapy, and it has produced results beyond anyone’s hopes. Said Ellen Sigal, PhD, Friends Chair and Founder, “When we were first talking...
It was over 2 decades ago that my colleagues and I reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a first-generation oral antiandrogen, flutamide, when added to a luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, improved survival by nearly 6 months compared to an LHRH agonist alone in...
The national nonprofit organization CancerCare has announced the publication of a comprehensive report on experiences, perceptions, and needs of people who are living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. The 2016 CancerCare Patient Access and Engagement Report is a compilation of results from six...
The primary analysis of the MINDACT trial confirms the value of genomic profiling for patients with early breast cancer with zero to three positive lymph nodes, according to MINDACT investigators and breast cancer specialists who heard the results at the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research ...
Excitement was high on the last day of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in anticipation of Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s remarks related to the Moonshot Initiative to accelerate progress in cancer research. The Secret Service made elaborate...
Radiation is a commonly used therapeutic option to treat liver metastases, with the majority of tumors maintained under control after a year. However, some patients do not respond as well to radiation treatment, and the factors that predict patient outcomes are unclear. Moffitt Cancer Center...
“In order to take advantage of today’s advancements in science, drug development, and patient treatment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) structure needs reorganization to focus its resources and ensure the best outcomes for patients. Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) proposes...
I’m used to having bumps and cysts pop up on my body, so when I felt a lump on the front of my throat, just below my Adam’s apple, I brushed it off. But when it was still there 6 months later, I became concerned and decided to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He performed a fine-needle...
A Partner at Tennessee Oncology, PLLC, W. Charles Penley, MD, FASCO, has been an ASCO member since 1988. He has served on the Conquer Cancer Foundation Board of Directors since 2005 and currently holds the role of Immediate Past Chair. What led you to oncology? WCP: While it may sound silly to say ...
Among females who received radiotherapy to the chest as part of treatment for a childhood cancer, those who had either of two specific genetic variants were at significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life, according to research presented by Morton et al at the 2016 AACR...
Steven J. Cohen, MD, Chief of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been elected by his peers to serve as Vice Chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Pancreas Task Force of the Gastrointestinal Steering Committee (GISC). “I am honored to be elected to serve as the ...
A City of Hope research team led by Steven T. Rosen, MD, City of Hope’s Provost and Chief Scientific Officer, has been awarded a $2.3 million Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to fund studies associated with a phase I/II clinical trial in relapsed/refractory...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Piero Dalerba, MD, of Columbia University, and colleagues found that absence of the transcription factor CDX2 was prognostic for poor outcome in patients with stage II and III colon cancer vs cancers with CDX2 expression.1 However,...
Three commercially available diagnostic tests were similarly effective in measuring programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein expression on non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor samples, indicating that health-care providers may someday be able to use these tests interchangeably when...
The investigational drug LOXO-101, which selectively targets a family of proteins called neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptors (NTRKs), produced significant tumor regression in patients whose tumors had NTRK gene fusions, according to data from a phase I clinical trial presented by Hong et al at...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) primary concern in the drug approval process is to ensure that the drug is safe and effective. For the past several decades, the advocacy groups have vociferously painted the agency as a stodgy bureaucracy that prevents desperate patients access to...
At this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Craig Earle, MD, MSc, of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, used Donabedian’s Triad—structure, process, and outcome—to set the stage for his presentation on the science of quality. “The theory behind Donabedian’s Triad is that structure...
Today’s medical oncologist is increasingly challenged to stay current with the latest developments in cancer treatment. I have been fortunate to speak with many oncologists over the past quarter-century on how professional life has evolved since the 1990s. These conversations have left me with a...
In preclinical studies, breast cancer cells became resistant to therapeutics targeting CDK4/6, such as palbociclib (Ibrance), in multiple ways. According to the research published by Herrera-Abreu et al in Cancer Research, different combinations of therapeutics might prevent and overcome the...
Fascination with electricity reached its peak in the last decades of the 19th century. Thomas Edison’s invention in 1879 of a practical light bulb set the stage for thousands of new devices. When Edison and Westinghouse created direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) delivery plants,...
The relationship between disease and microbes was first proposed in the 17th century, but the basic standards for proving that infection causes disease were not laid down until 1883, when the German bacteriologists Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler provided the first evidence of the processes...
The ASCO Post recently spoke with nationally recognized surgical oncologist Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, Jerald L & Carolynn J. Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology & Global Health; Vice Chair of Education; and Program Director, General Surgery Residency, University of Nebraska ...
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...
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,...