A pair of recent studies show a troubling trend: Despite a 20% decrease in cancer mortality rates nationwide over the past 2 decades,1 Americans living in rural regions of the United States are more likely to die of cancer than persons living in metropolitan areas of the country. An analysis of...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, present information on...
A cancer diagnosis presents emotional and psychological challenges for patients and caregivers, and prostate cancer has some unique challenges, in part because management is not writ in stone. At several points along the trajectory of illness, men with prostate cancer face decisions that can be...
A pre-existing diagnosis of dementia was associated with increased risk of death for older patients with advanced colon cancer; however, some of the effects of dementia on survival could be mediated by receipt of chemotherapy, according to results of a study published by Chen et al in Cancer...
The pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) has provided a positive clinical recommendation for the reimbursement of olaparib (Lynparza), a first-of-its-kind treatment for BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer. Lynparza is an oral, potent inhibitor of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) available as a...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this special feature on the worldwide cancer burden. Each installment focuses on a country from one of the six regions of the world, as defined by the World Health Organization (ie, Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and...
At the time this article was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dr. Danaher was practicing at Monash -University, -Melbourne, Australia; Drs. Brand and Mack, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Dr. Pickard, at the Imperial College -Healthcare NHS Trust, London; and Dr. Berry,...
According to researchers from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, being in a high-income bracket may lead to overdiagnosis of cancer and the subsequent harms associated with unnecessary medical treatments. To shed light on this interesting finding and its broader...
Under the direction of Martin J. Edelman, MD, Chair, Department of Hematology/Oncology, who joined Fox Chase Cancer Center earlier this year, the department has been reorganized into four sections: Hematologic Malignancies, Solid Tumor Oncology, General Hematology/Oncology, and Fox Chase at Temple...
Two scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) received the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their significant research leading to the development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The award is the country’s most prestigious biomedical research prize and was...
ASCO OFFERS a bundled resource that combines provider and patient information about cancer survivorship. Providing High Quality Survivorship Care in Practice: An ASCO Guide aims to assist oncologists and other clinicians with implementing high-quality survivorship care programs within their...
The Association of Northern California Oncologists (ANCO), an ASCO Affiliate, is among the newest nonprofit supporters of the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (CCF). ANCO is generously funding a 2018 Young Investigator Award (YIA) for a qualified northern...
Would you rather explain the benefits of three cycles of bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin to a hostile crowd of bored teenagers than talk to your program director, supervisor, or colleagues about feeling burned out? It is an understandable feeling. Professional burnout is a difficult concept to...
ASCO’s Clinical Practice Committee (CPC) and State Affiliate Council (SAC) have a history of supporting the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) Young Investigator Award (YIA) program. Individual members of the CPC and SAC, as well as ASCO State Affiliates, contribute funds to this philanthropic ...
DAVID O. BARBE, MD, President of the American Medical Association (AMA), issued the following statement: "The American Medical Association strongly supports the nomination of Jerome Adams, MD, to become the next Surgeon General of the United States. As Indiana State Health Commissioner, Dr. Adams ...
GARY KOHANBASH, PhD, a neuro-oncology researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has been awarded a scholar grant of $298,000 from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-driven charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer...
KUNLE ODUNSI, MD, PHD, FRCOG, FACOG, Deputy Director of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, has been appointed to the Transplantation, Tolerance, and Tumor (TTT) Immunology Study Section within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review. The TTT section is the panel of peer...
THE NATIONAL COMPREHENSIVE Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is collaborating with Evinance to integrate the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) into the Evinance Decision Support Platform to allow for point-of-care access to treatment recommendations derived from the NCCN...
THE U.S. PREVENTIVE SERVICES TASK FORCE has posted a draft recommendation statement and draft evidence review on screening for cervical cancer. The Task Force recommends that primary care clinicians screen for cervical cancer in women ages 21 to 29 every 3 years with cervical cytology, more...
Over the past several decades, widespread cancer screening has saved lives from various cancer types. However, despite advances in early-detection technologies, many cancers still remain undetected until they become symptomatic, conferring poor prognoses and outcomes. Moreover, some methods of...
Palliative care provided soon after a patient is diagnosed with incurable cancer not only helps improve the patient’s overall quality of life but also improves communication about the patient’s wishes for end-of-life care, according to a study by Jennifer S. Temel, MD, Clinical Director of Thoracic ...
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce “At Microphone 1,” an occasional column written by Steven E. Vogl, MD, of Bronx, New York. When he’s not in his clinic, Dr. Vogl can generally be found at major oncology meetings, and often at the microphone where he stands ready with important questions for...
THE PHASE III MSLT- II TRIAL showed that completion dissection was not associated with improved melanoma-specific overall survival vs observation in patients with sentinel-node metastasis, although a benefit was observed in regional disease control. The findings were reported in The New England...
STAYING UP-TO-DATE in the fast-paced world of oncology literature is a daunting task at best. To assist with that task, The ASCO Post has assembled an assortment of studies recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP). Future installments...
THE BACKBONE treatment for soft-tissue sarcomas has long been anthracycline-based, but new approaches are coming. These novel strategies were discussed at the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference in Sea Island, Georgia, by Melinda L. Yushak, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor ...
SOME RECENT ADVANCES in the treatment of brain tumors are promising, but others are less so, according to Jeffrey J. Olson, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory University, Atlanta. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference, held in Sea Island, Georgia, and...
DOES COMPLETE lymph node dissection for sentinel node–positive melanoma still have a role in the management of this disease? That’s debatable. Although it does not improve overall survival over observation alone, complete lymphadenectomy may have other benefits, according to a dialogue at the...
AMYLOIDOSIS REMAINS a challenging and nuanced diagnosis. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference, held in Sea Island, Georgia, Jonathan L. Kaufman, MD, discussed his approach to diagnosing amyloid light-chain amyloidosis. Dr. Kaufman is Associate Professor of...
AT THE 12TH ANNUAL New Orleans Summer Cancer Meeting, Thomas Herzog, MD, Deputy Director of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Institute and Professor of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, delivered an update on nonimmunotherapy advances in...
FORMAL DISCUSSANT of this trial, Johan Vansteenkiste, MD, PhD, Head of the Respiratory Oncology Unit at the University Hospital KU Leuven, Belgium, was enthusiastic about the PACIFIC trial results. “We had an earthquake of immunotherapy in lung cancer this past year at ESMO. After an earthquake,...
THE PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) improved progression-free survival by 11.2 months compared with placebo in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease did not progress following standard treatment ...
Weill Cornell Medicine has been awarded a 5-year, $11.3 million Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to improve the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of prostate cancer. Established in 1992, SPORE grants serve as the cornerstone of...
LIVER TRANSPLANT offers the highest rates of long-term survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to Maria Russell, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Emory University, Atlanta. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference at Sea Island, Georgia,...
Despite the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation that women between the ages of 50 and 74 undergo mammography every 2 years, only about 50% of American Muslim women do so, compared with 67% of all American women. A study by Padela et al investigating the mammography-related barrier...
ASSUMING THE regimens evaluated in COMBI-AD and CheckMate 238 are both approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of high-risk resected melanoma, clinicians may be faced with a tough choice. ESMO experts and the study’s investigators weighed in on this issue in a lively...
FOR PATIENTS with malignant melanoma, the significant improvement in outcomes with targeted agents and antibodies against the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) has now been observed in the adjuvant setting. Two landmark studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 ...
ON AUGUST 30, 2017, the first genetically engineered T-cell therapy (tisagenlecleucel [Kymriah]) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory or in second or...
Participating in twice-weekly practice of Tibetan yoga may reduce sleep disturbances and improve sleep quality in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, according to a study published by Chaoul et al in Cancer. The study, led by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer...
The phase III MURANO study of venetoclax (Venclexta) tablets in combination with rituximab (Rituxan) met its primary endpoint. Results showed that the combination prolonged progression-free survival in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) compared with bendamustine...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Losk et al found that an intervention including surgeon initiation of gene-expression profile testing with Oncotype DX significantly reduced the time to testing, receipt of testing results, and initiation of chemotherapy in...
Federally funded research that provides a deep understanding of cancer is spurring advances against many types of the disease. With a strong bipartisan commitment from Congress to keep investment in biomedical research a national priority, we can accelerate our pace of progress and save more lives...
Immune-cell based therapies opening a new frontier for cancer treatment carry unique, potentially lethal side effects that provide a new challenge for oncologists—one addressed by a team led by clinicians at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with proposed guidelines for...
The University of Texas System Board of Regents has selected Peter W.T. Pisters, MD, MHCM, as sole finalist for the position of president at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The regents voted unanimously to select Dr. Pisters at a special board meeting on Friday,...
Mature results from the KEYNOTE-045 trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA37_PR) confirmed significantly longer survival in patients with advanced urothelial cancer who received the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab after initial...
A new tool to identify patients who would benefit from early palliative care was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA54_PR). The so-called “Triggers” tool, developed by the London Cancer Alliance to help clinicians in the...
In an analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Seisen et al found that adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with a survival benefit vs observation in patients with adverse prognostic features after neoadjuvant therapy and radical cystectomy for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Study Details The...
Clinical trials are fundamental to the development of new treatments for cancer, yet the annual accrual to cancer clinical trials worldwide is low, estimated at 3%–5%. A nationwide study in Ireland, the preliminary results of which were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
Immunotherapy with the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) may be a better option than standard treatments for patients whose head and neck cancer has spread or recurred after an initial round of chemotherapy, according to results of the KEYNOTE-040 trial presented at the European Society ...
Body fat distribution in the trunk is more influential than body weight when it comes to cancer risk in postmenopausal women, according to a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 1408P_PR). The findings put a new spin on weight...
The results of the MONARCH 3 trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 236O_PR), showed that adding the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib to endocrine therapy improved progression-free survival compared to endocrine...