In 1978, Charles A. “Mickey” LeMaistre, MD, was named President of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. During his 18-year tenure, MD Anderson became a world leader in outpatient care for cancer patients and the nation’s largest ambulatory treatment and surgery programs in cancers....
“The big thing that is going to become more and more of an issue, and that you are going to hear a lot more of this year, and in the next several years, is overdiagnosis,” Otis W. Brawley, MD, FACP, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, told The ASCO Post in an interview following...
New research suggests that young patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)—the most common type of pediatric cancer—and their parents are likely to report to their physician that they took more of their anticancer medication than they actually did. The study, published by Landier et al in...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) is excited to partner with David M. Waterhouse, MD, MPH, of Oncology Hematology Care in Cincinnati, Ohio, to increase awareness for the Foundation’s Campaign to Conquer Cancer. The Conquer Cancer Foundation was proud to support Dr. Waterhouse with a Young...
There’s no getting around it: the practice of oncology can be inherently stressful. First, there’s the workload: compared to other medical specialists, oncologists see a larger number of patients and spend more time with them in face-to-face interactions. It’s not unusual for oncologists to work 60 ...
Researchers have found a link between microbes in the gut (the microbiome) and response to immunotherapy. In the study, the ability of patients with advanced melanoma to respond to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitors depended on the presence of a diverse microbiome...
“This is a very important systematic review,” commented invited discussant, Paul Mitchell, MD, Associate Professor at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. “There are theoretical reasons why programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors might cause less...
Edward Garon, MD, a member of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, has received a 5-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to...
Increasing experience with immunotherapy for lung cancer in both the lab and the clinic is helping to refine treatment approaches and point the way forward, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, Director of both Thoracic Oncology and Immunotherapeutics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York....
The immune checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab (also known as MEDI4736) is active and achieves durable responses in patients with heavily pretreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that does not have any epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)...
“The OAK subgroup analyses showed the benefit of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) virtually “across the board,” including among patients with programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–negative tumors, remarked invited discussant, Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer and Conjoint Chair of Medical...
Philip B. Paty, MD, a surgical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the findings for The ASCO Post. Dr. Paty is leading studies of surveillance at his own institution, which is not part of the International Watch & Wait Database. Consistency of Outcomes...
The problem of pain management facing clinicians today is twofold: how to ensure safe and effective treatment for patients with cancer in chronic pain, while avoiding the overuse of opioid medications and the potential for substance use disorder and diversion. According to the American Cancer...
New research suggests that young patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and their parents are likely to report to their physician that they took more of their anticancer medication than they actually did. The study, published by Landier et al in Blood, found that 84% of patients with ALL...
Peter Nowell, MD, was a pathologist at the University of Pennsylvania studying leukemia cells under a microscope when he happened to wash his slides with tap water instead of laboratory solution. Viewing the newly cleaned slides under a microscope, he saw that the water had caused the cell’s...
Phase I Study Title: Qigong Mind-Body Exercise for Persistent Post-Surgical Pain in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Pilot Study Study Type: Phase I/interventional/single-group assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Spaulding...
Women over 50 who have been treated for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are more likely to be alive 10 years later than women in the general population, according to new research presented by Elshof et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (ECCO) (Abstract 173). DCIS differs from breast cancer...
In October 2015, ASCO launched the Health Policy Fellowship program to help the next generation of oncologists with an interest in health policy to develop the skills and experience necessary to achieve their goals and shape cancer care policy in an increasingly complicated and diverse care...
Born and reared in Anchorage, a city located in Southcentral Alaska, farther north than St. Petersburg, Russia, Jennifer Lycette, MD, grew up during the 1970s and 1980s. “We were fairly isolated from the lower 48. We didn’t have cable TV in Anchorage, and I remember my father would turn off the TV ...
The statistics on the rising rates of skin cancer are alarming. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, each year over 5.4 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer are treated in more than 3.3 million people, and an additional 76,380 people are diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer,...
ASCO has launched a new journal dedicated to precision oncology, JCO Precision Oncology (JCO PO). JCO PO features original clinical research, scientific reviews, and editorials on genomics. James M. Ford, MD, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, said JCO PO offers precision oncologists a place to...
What if more patients with lung cancer could benefit from immunotherapy? Although progress in this area of research is exciting, unfortunately, a vast majority of patients with thoracic malignancies do not respond to this pioneering form of treatment. Vamsidhar Velcheti, MD, Assistant Professor of ...
New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center has announced that surgeon and scientist Diane M. Simeone, MD, will join its Perlmutter Cancer Center on March 1, 2017, to serve as Associate Director for Translational Research and to lead its newly established Pancreatic Cancer Center. Currently...
In older patients, a current or previous cancer diagnosis confers a 15% to 20% greater risk of suffering a fall.1 Defined as an “unexpected event in which the participant comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level,” a fall occurs in 30% to 50% of cancer patients 65 years of age or...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy continues to have impressive showings in patients with aggressive hematologic malignancies and no other good treatment options. Interim results of the pivotal phase II ZUMA-1 trial, the first multicenter trial of the experimental CAR T-cell therapy...
New research from the University of Wisconsin (UW) Carbone Cancer Center has clarified the mechanisms involved in a common growth pathway implicated in many solid tumor types and could lead to better outcomes for patients with head and neck, lung, and triple-negative breast cancer,...
Mutations that have been linked to endometrial cancer can be found in the uterine lavage fluid of pre- and postmenopausal women both with and without detectable cancer, according to a study published by Nair et al in PLOS Medicine. “Today, there are no effective screening methods for...
In a new study published by Jagsi et al in JAMA Surgery, nearly half of patients with early-stage breast cancer considered having double mastectomy, and one in six received it—including many who were at low risk of developing a second breast cancer. Many patients who chose double...
Despite many successes in treating pediatric cancer, young children remain at high risk for developing severe, long-lasting impairments in their brain, heart, and other vital organs from chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In adults, however, these tissues are relatively spared. This disparity, ...
Press conference moderator Carlos L. Arteaga, MD, said: “This drug is not necessarily the same as palbociclib [Ibrance] or ribociclib. There are subtle differences among these three [cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6] inhibitors. The tissue analysis provides us with an enormous opportunity to...
W.K. Alfred Yung, MD, has wanted a career in medicine since he was a high-school student and has spent nearly 4 decades fulfilling that dream, specifically in the research and treatment of one of the deadliest cancers, malignant brain tumor, especially glioblastoma multiforme, the most common...
Sergio A. Giralt, MD, Chief of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and the Melvin Berlin Family Chair in Multiple Myeloma, commented on the findings of the StaMINA trial for The ASCO Post. He said the results of the largest randomized U.S....
The Conquer Cancer Foundation has an incredible opportunity for you to make an amazing impact! An anonymous donor is offering a Matching Gift Challenge, which will double the value of every gift we receive by December 31—dollar for dollar—up to $64,000! This amount is enough to fund one of our...
There has been no better time than the present for women in the field of oncology: Women at all stages of their careers are finding more opportunities and avenues to excel. At the time of the last ASCO workforce survey, women made up 28.4% of the oncologist workforce, and that proportion is rising...
Michael Gnant, MD, Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria and President of the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study Group, was the invited discussant of the three studies of extended endocrine therapy. “The trials did not reach the necessary statistical levels ...
Around 20% of patients with breast cancer in Sweden do not complete endocrine therapy, according to research that will be reported at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress (Abstract 62O_PR), to be held December 16–19 in Singapore.The study in over 5,500 women found that younger patients and those who...
Cardiovascular toxicities associated with cancer treatments are not new. What is new, and what has prompted recent articles in The New England Journal of Medicine,1,2 is the explosion of cancer therapies, which has dramatically changed the natural course of many cancers but can lead to cardiac,...
Among the most widely attended sessions at the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium in September was the keynote lecture, “Wit, Hex, Vin, Life, Death: Using Wit as a Teaching Tool,” given by Margaret Edson, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Wit. Wit tells the story of an accomplished ...
On March 10, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to dinutuximab (formerly known as chimeric 14.18 antibody; Unituxin) for use in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and 13-cis-retinoic acid...
GUEST EDITORAdolescent and Young Adult Oncology explores the unique physical, psychosocial, social, emotional, sexual, and financial challenges adolescents and young adults with cancer face. The column is guest edited by Brandon M. Hayes-Lattin, MD, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine and...
Ellen V. Sigal, PhD, Chair and Founder of Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) began the annual meeting with a conversation with Douglas R. Lowy, MD, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Acting Director, and Robert M. Califf, MD, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. “Cancer research is ...
We have an incredible opportunity for you to make an amazing impact at the Conquer Cancer Foundation! An anonymous donor is offering a Matching Gift Challenge, which will double the value of every gift we receive by December 31—dollar for dollar—up to $64,000! This amount is enough to fund one of...
Priscilla Brastianos, MDDirector, Central Nervous System Metastasis ProgramMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, BostonMetastatic brain cancer People are inspired to pursue careers in cancer research for any number of reasons: They might like the challenging nature...
Elizabeth M. Swisher, MD, Medical Director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Prevention Program at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, enjoys developing long-term patient relationships and helping patients who are confronted with cancer and terminal issues. She is particularly interested in the...
One immune checkpoint inhibitor has now moved to the front of the line for treating advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Based on pivotal studies presented at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) became a first-line option, and it is...
Compared with standard therapy, pacritinib significantly reduces spleen size among people with myelofibrosis who have very low levels of platelets, according to a late-breaking study presented by Mascarenhas et al during the 58th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition...
A late-breaking abstract being presented by Churchman et al during the 58th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego (Abstract LBA-2) identifies inherited genetic mutations in the gene IKZF1 that confer a higher likelihood of developing pediatric...
An article in The New York Times about women who had chosen not to have reconstruction following breast cancer surgery might prompt questions from newly diagnosed patients considering their options.1 Deanna J. Attai, MD, FACS, told The ASCO Post that whenever an article on breast cancer appears in...
A “nascent movement to ‘go flat’” is how an article in The New York Times characterized the decisions by some women to opt out of reconstruction following surgery for breast cancer.1 The article examined the reasons several patients made that decision, which included avoiding multiple surgeries and ...
It was 1983, and I was in my third year as an attending physician at a major East Coast university medical center and just 5 years out of fellowship. As was common at the time, I saw and treated all malignancies except leukemia and gynecologic cancers. In the middle of a typically busy day at the ...