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Showing 15151 - 15200Potential of Liquid Biopsies in Detecting Cancer and Establishing Prognosis
Tests in development to detect circulating tumor cells that escape from solid tumors and travel through the blood, spreading cancer to new sites, may serve as an alternative to conventional tissue biopsy for early cancer diagnosis and gene-expression analysis over the next decade. According to...
FDA Grants Priority Review to Lanreotide Injection for Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and granted priority review to Ipsen’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the somatostatin analog lanreotide (Somatuline Depot) 120 mg injection in the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The FDA designates...
Delivering Cancer Care in Low-Income Countries
In eealthy industrialized nations like the United States, escalating costs of cancer care have put the term “cost-effective care” on the forefront of health-care policy discussions. However, the cost issues we wrestle with in our $3 trillion health-care system are vague abstractions for much of the ...
Drew Pinsky, MD, Elected to Prostate Cancer Foundation Board of Directors
The Prostate Cancer Foundation has announced that Drew Pinsky, MD, has been elected to the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Dr. Pinsky, a cancer survivor, is a Practicing Physician and a Member of the Staff of Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. He is also Assistant Clinical...
Gene Therapy Betters Chemotherapy Tolerance, Effectiveness in Small Glioblastoma Study
Using gene therapy and a combination of chemotherapy drugs, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have been able to enhance the tolerance and effectiveness of medications used in treating glioblastoma while also protecting healthy cells from their toxic effects. The report,...
Moffitt Appoints Louis B. Harrison, MD, New Chair, Radiation Oncology
Louis B. Harrison, MD, has joined Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa as Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, and Senior Member. Moffitt’s Radiation Oncology program includes faculty of cancer specialists who provide comprehensive cancer care for tumors at all anatomical locations, as well as...
UNC Lineberger Secures Three Major NCI Grants to Advance the Nation’s Clinical Trials Program
At the national level, clinical trials are seeing a lot of change. In an effort to increase efficiency and keep up with national changes in the types of clinical trials offered to cancer patients, the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) is undergoing a major...
Breast Cancer Screening Using Tomosynthesis in Combination With Digital Mammography
In a study reported in JAMA and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Friedewald and colleagues1 showed that the addition of tomosynthesis to digital mammography2 resulted in a decrease in the screening recall rate3 and an increase in the cancer detection rate.4,5 This retrospective analysis of...
National Cancer Institute Launches the National Clinical Trials Network to Expedite Scientific Advances
In March, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) transformed its Cooperative Group Program into the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). Spurred by recommendations in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) 2010 report, A National Cancer Clinical Trials System for the 21st Century: Reinvigorating the NCI...
NIH Launches Human Safety Study of Ebola Vaccine Candidate
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched initial human testing of an investigational vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease, according to a news release issued by NIH. The early-stage trial has begun initial human...
Kenneth S. Ramos, MD, PhD, PharmB, Named New MD-PhD Head at University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson
Kenneth S. Ramos, MD, PhD, PharmB, has been named the new MD-PhD Program Director at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson. The Program was established in 1990 to provide dual training in medicine and research to students interested in careers as research-intensive physicians...
Timing and Meaning of Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders in the Palliative Care Setting
Although a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order does not mean “do not treat,” that is how it is often interpreted, according to a study examining the level of care oncology inpatients at a tertiary care hospital received.1 The study found that the interpretation of DNR orders among oncology nurses and...
CDC’s Breast and Cervical Screening Program Benefits Millions of Underserved Women in the United States
More than 4.3 million women with limited access to health care received breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services in the first 20 years of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. From 1991 to 2011, 56,662...
Complications No Different Between Open and Robot-Assisted Radical Cystectomy When Open Urinary Diversion Performed
We read the letter to the editor in the July 24, 2014, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine entitled, “A Randomized Trial of Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Cystectomy,” with great interest.1 Provocative Results In the letter, reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Bochner and...
City of Hope Investigator Receives Grant for Immunotherapy Research
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has awarded a $450,000 grant to an investigator studying T cells at City of Hope in Duarte. Elizabeth Budde, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope, Duarte, received The Jake...
Rwanda Offers Women Free Cervical Cancer Screening, HPV Vaccination
Cervical cancer is one of the major killers among women in Rwanda, and with the support of Rwanda’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, the country is rolling out a free human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and cervical cancer screening program in collaboration with Marck, Qiagen (a Dutch...
NCCN Marks 20 Years of Evidence-Based Decision-Making in Small Cell Lung Cancer
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently announced publication of the 20th annual edition of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC). One of the eight original NCCN Guidelines, the NCCN Guidelines for SCLC was initially...
PALB2 Study: Researchers and Patients Must 'Pal' for Progress
The recent publication by Antoniou et al on risk of breast cancer in PALB2 carriers,1 reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post (page 47), is a contribution to the interesting history of the PALB2 gene, and an important milestone in the expansion of hereditary cancer susceptibility testing in the...
Patient-Reported Outcomes in Hematology and Oncology Product Development
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX is an occasional column providing insight into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its policies and procedures. In this installment, Virginia Kwitkowski, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, and Elektra Papadopoulos, MD, MPH, discuss FDA’s current approach to the review of study...
Researchers at University of Michigan Receive $2.3 Million Grant to Promote Safety, Reduce Exposure Risk, at Chemotherapy Infusion Sites
Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Nursing and Comprehensive Cancer Center have received a $2.3 million grant to study oncology nurses’ exposure to hazardous drugs, including identifying ways to reduce exposure. “There are significant acute and long-term side effects from hazardous ...
Fox Chase Cancer Center Announces New Staff
Fox Chase Cancer Center has announced the appointment of two staff to the Center’s Department of Radiation Oncology and Surgical Oncology, respectively. Mark A. Hallman, MD, PhD, joins the Department of Radiation Oncology having served there recently as the Department’s Chief Resident. Sanjay S....
2014 Lasker Award
The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has announced Mary-Claire King, PhD, of the University of Washington, Seattle, will receive the 2014 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award for her contributions to medical science and human rights. Dr. King’s demonstration of the existence of familial...
Angiogenesis in Ovarian Cancer: Are We Missing the Clinical Target?
Production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is increased during normal ovulation, and can account for much of the reversible toxicity associated with ovarian hyperstimulation.1,2 We also have compelling data from multiple clinical trials to validate the importance of tumor-associated...
Early Study Finds Olaparib Tablet Safe in Pretreated Ovarian Cancer Patients; More Effective in Those With BRCA Mutations
An oral tablet form of a poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, olaparib, given in combination with chemotherapy, was safe in heavily pretreated patients with ovarian cancer, and patients with BRCA mutations may have a better response compared with those without a BRCA mutation, according to...
PSA—It Just Keeps Getting Better, So Why Should It Stand Alone?
The updated results of the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC)—reported in The Lancet by Fritz H. Schröder, MD, of Erasmus University Medical Center, and colleagues1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—show a continued decline, as predicted,2 in the number...
FDA Grants Fast Tract Designation to Investigational Combination Therapy In Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for Halozyme Therapeutics’ program investigating pegylated recombinant human hyaluronidase (PEGPH20) in combination with gemcitabine and albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel [Abraxane]) for the treatment of patients...
Novel Immunotherapy for Ovarian Cancer Receives Fast Track Designation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast track designation to the investigation of motolimod (VTX-2337) when administered in combination with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin for the treatment of women with ovarian cancer whose disease has progressed on or recurred after...
FDA Approves Pembrolizumab for Advanced Melanoma
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of patients with advanced or unresectable melanoma who are no longer responding to other drugs. Pembrolizumab is intended for use following treatment...
‘Paradigm-Shifting’ Results in Treatment of Hematologic Disorders
The three leukemia/lymphoma studies selected from the many 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting abstracts for presentation at the recent Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago “are really paradigm-shifting,” noted Lucy A. Godley, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago. These studies, she said, “give great promise for...
In Managing Ovarian Cancer, Precision Medicine Is a Work in Progress
Precision medicine in the management of ovarian cancer “is a work in progress, to be sure,” Steven B. Newman, MD, noted in wrapping up the session on gynecologic cancer at the recent Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago. “A list of different histologic types of ovarian cancer and potential targets are...
Disparities Persist in Early-Stage Breast Cancer Treatment, MD Anderson Study Finds
Despite its acceptance as standard of care for early-stage breast cancer almost 25 years ago, barriers still exist that preclude patients from receiving breast-conserving therapy, with some patients still opting for a mastectomy, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
9/11 and Cancer: What Do We Know?
On September 11, 2001, the devastating terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center left in its wake a unique toxic site in both mass and quantity of hazardous materials. It took 9 months to remove approximately 2 million tons of wreckage from Ground Zero, during which thousands of...
Top 5 Advances in Modern Oncology
1. Chemotherapy Cures Advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma In the first chemotherapy breakthrough for advanced cancer in adults, a four-drug combination chemotherapy regimen, called MOPP (mustargen/oncovin/procarbazine/prednisone), induced long-term remissions in over half of patients with aggressive Hodgkin ...
ASCO 50th Anniversary Poll Names the Top 5 Advances From the Past 50 Years
ASCO has announced the “Top 5 Advances in 50 Years of Modern Oncology,” based on results of worldwide voting on CancerProgress.Net—ASCO’s interactive website documenting the history of progress against cancer. The “Top 5 in 50” results identify pivotal discoveries in chemotherapy, prevention,...
Troubled by Hypocrisy
I am troubled by hypocrisy. An article in the July 25th edition of The ASCO Post on “Stakeholders Are Uniting Around Value in Cancer Care” (July 25, 2014, page 1) tells us how we must “rein in” costs. The vast majority of the articles in this issue, however, trumpet the “new wonder drugs” that we...
Expert Consensus Recommends Echocardiograph as Cornerstone to Protecting Cancer Patients’ Heart Health
Patients with cancer and survivors of cancer are living longer than ever before as a result of significant advances made over the past decade. Importantly, however, cardiovascular complications of their cancer treatment may present a life-threatening issue after their cancer treatment has ended....
LIVESTRONG Narrows Finalists in ‘Big C’ Competition: Winner to Be Announced This Month
Newly launched in 2014 by LIVESTRONG, “The Big C” is a one-of-a-kind global competition to generate innovations that improve the daily quality of life for the 32.5 million people around the world living with cancer now. The competition was open to entrepreneurs, trailblazers, technology whizzes,...
Moderate Form of Male Pattern Baldness Associated With Increased Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Men with moderate pattern baldness on the front and the crown of the head at age 45 had a 40% increased risk, compared to men with no baldness at that age, of developing prostate cancer later in life, according to a study led by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and published in...
Nine-Valent HPV Vaccine May Prevent Nearly 90% of Cervical Cancers
Because nine human papillomavirus (HPV) subtypes were found to cause the majority of cervical precancers, a nine-valent HPV vaccine currently being investigated may be able to prevent more cervical cancers than current vaccines, according to research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers...
Patient Guides Available Through ASCO University Bookstore
ASCO Answers: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care explains the various costs associated with cancer treatment, including health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a list of financial resources available to help offset expenses related to care and tips for organizing...
Fear
The following essay by Michael Feinstein, MD, is excerpted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was co-edited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org....
Roswell Park Researchers Awarded Nearly $5 Million to Support Research Projects
Several faculty members at Roswell Park Cancer Institute have been awarded nearly $5 million in grant funding from public and private organizations to further their efforts to find new and better ways to detect and treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. The 13 awards, including two for ...
2014 Oncology Meetings
OCTOBER 18th SIS World Congress on Breast HealthcareOctober 16-19 • Orlando, Florida For more information: www2.kenes.com/sis/Pages/Home.aspx 2014 Quality Care SymposiumOctober 17-18 • Boston, MassachusettsFor more information: quality.asco.org Atlanta Lung Cancer SymposiumOctober 18 • Atlanta,...
New Books by Authors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Address Aging, Survivorship
Bookmark Title: Survivorship: Living Well During and After CancerAuthor: Barrie Cassileth, PhDFormat: PaperbackISBN: 978-1-938170-35-5Pages: 216Publication Date: April 1, 2014Dimensions: 5.5 × 8.5Also Available: eBook Bookmark Title: Lighter as We Go: Virtues, Character Strengths, and...
Ketan K. Badani, MD, Additional Staff, Appointed to Mount Sinai Health System
Ketan K. Badani, MD, Professor of Urology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, has been named Vice Chairman of Urology and Robotic Operations and Director of the Comprehensive Kidney Cancer Program for the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Badani will also serve as Director of Robotic ...
Researchers at Roswell Park Receive Grants to Study New Anticancer Agent in Lung, Colorectal, and Gastrointestinal Cancers
Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute have been awarded three of four grants by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Oncology Research Program to evaluate and define the clinical effectiveness of the investigational compound nintedanib. Nintedanib is an investigational...
James Herman, MD, Named Co-Leader of UPCI Lung Cancer Program
A leader in the field of epigenetics whose work has led to important discoveries into how cancer develops and progresses has been named the co-leader of the Lung Cancer Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter. James Herman, MD, comes to...
Genetic ‘Hotspot’ Linked to Endometrial Cancer Aggressiveness
Parents of twins often tell them apart through subtle differences such as facial expression, moles, voice tone, and gait. Similarly, physicians treating women with endometrial cancer must be able to distinguish between different versions of this disease form that, on the surface, appear the same....
Sluys-Kessler Radium Apparatus, Paris, 1930
Devices to accurately deliver high-dose radium therapy became extremely sophisticated during the late 1920s. In this photograph, the patient is being treated for a carcinoma of the back by a Sluys-Kessler machine. This apparatus could also accurately deliver therapy for a wide variety of internal...
Lympho-Sarcoma Treated by Radiation, Patient of Francis H. Williams, MD, Boston, 1902
One of the miracles produced by the x-ray was the relatively easy treatment of inoperable or disfiguring tumors. If not a cure, the results frequently gave the patients at least some time to look and feel normal. The young patient shown in these photographs had a remarkable response. Images such as ...
