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...
FEBRUARY AACR-SNMMI Joint Conference: State-of-the-Art Molecular Imaging in Cancer Biology and TherapyFebruary 11-14 • San Diego, California For more information: www.aacr.org 2015 BMT Tandem Meeting American Society for Blood and Marrow TransplantationFebruary 11 - 15 • San Diego, California For...
The Melanoma Research Alliance has reported that Suzanne Topalian, MD, Chair of the group’s Scientific Advisory Panel, and former Chief Scientific Officer, has been named one of 10 people in science who mattered in 2014 by the Nature International Weekly Journal of Science. Dr. Topalian was cited...
West Cancer Center has announced the establishment of The University of Tennessee (UT)/West Institute for Cancer Research, a nonprofit public charity fully dedicated to raising funds for adult cancer research in Memphis. The UT/West Institute for Cancer Research is soliciting grants from government ...
In an oncology health-care system that is increasingly changing its delivery and payment models, how do busy oncologists successfully bridge the transition from a volume- to value-based, patient-centric model? This, and other topics on value fueled a robust discussion at the Association of...
Amgen and its subsidiary Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc, announced the submission of a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) carfilzomib (Kyprolis) to seek approval for the treatment of patients with relapsed multiple myeloma who have received at least...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to Celator Pharmaceuticals’ investigational agent CPX-351, a liposomal formulation of cytarabine:daunorubicin, for the treatment of elderly patients with secondary acute myeloid leukemia. The FDA established the Fast...
Nearly 5,000 scientific abstracts were presented at the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exhibition in San Francisco. Along with our targeted coverage of the meeting’s key newsmakers, The ASCO Post provides you with these brief reports of other interesting...
Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida have participated in a global effort that has identified six new regions of the genome that increase risk of epithelial ovarian cancer, according to a news release from Moffitt. The collaborative study was published recently in Nature...
Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, commented on endocrine resistance and the potential of the four-gene panel for assessing resistance for The ASCO Post. Endocrine response and resistance is a research focus...
Radical cystectomy is the standard therapeutic option for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. However, 5-year overall survival for high-risk patients with pT3, pT4, pN-negative, and pN-positive M0 bladder cancer after radical cystectomy is only about 50% and ranges from 32% in patients...
Warren Shlomchik, MD, has been named Director of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cell Therapies for the University of Pittsburgh’s Division of Hematology-Oncology and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). His appointment is effective March 1, 2015. He also will serve as UPCI’s...
Treatment of advanced bladder cancer continues to prove challenging, and therapies that offer long-term survival remain elusive. The ASCO Post recently spoke with Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, FACP, FRACP, FASCO, President of the Levine Cancer Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, about the current state...
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, has appointed Robert Califf, MD, as the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco. Dr. Califf is a leader in cardiology, clinical research, and medical economics, who is currently serving as Vice...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today expanded the approved use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for patients with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a rare, indolent type of B-cell lymphoma. Ibrutinib is the first therapy indicated specifically for Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia and previously...
Inotuzumab ozogamicin combined with a low-intensity chemotherapy called mini-hyper-CVD achieved highly encouraging results in older patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a phase II study reported at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.1 After the...
Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, commented on this study to The ASCO Post: With taxanes after doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (AC), it’s “dealer’s choice.” However, she noted that most oncologists do not give every-3-week paclitaxel now. “Many have...
At the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, The ASCO Post sat down with geneticist Mary-Claire King, PhD, for some personal musings about her career and how she might guide young researchers who want to follow in her footsteps. Dr. King is known for a variety of accomplishments in genetics,...
George J. Chang, MD, Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Director of Clinical Operations, Minimally Invasive and New Technologies in Oncologic Surgery Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, shared his insights on the study by Dr. Smith and colleagues with The ASCO...
Howard A. Fine, MD, has been appointed to lead the newly established neuro-oncology program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective February 2. He will serve as Director of the Brain Tumor Center and Associate Director for Translational Research in the Sandra and...
I am writing in regard to the recent installment to “Clinical Trials” on Glioblastoma published in The ASCO Post (February 10, 2015, pages 69-71). As a principal investigator, I’d also like to call attention to the following glioblastoma trial, which remains open. PHASE II Study Type: Phase...
Thank you very much for including Mr. Richard Heimler’s very rewarding story in The ASCO Post (“Beating the Odds,” December 1, 2014, page 118). It was a short, well-written example of excellent oncology management in the face of episodes of “terminal” lung cancer. His story was the perfect...
ASCO has announced the appointment of David Kerr, MD, DSc, as founding Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s new Journal of Global Oncology (JGO). Dr. Kerr will set the editorial scope and vision for JGO, an online-only, open-access journal, which will focus on cancer care, research, and care-delivery...
A special report in The New England Journal of Medicine concluded that atypical hyperplasia of the breast “confers an absolute risk of later breast cancer of 30% at 25 years of follow-up.1” This is higher than previously recognized, and the report’s authors urged “more intensive screening and...
Atypical hyperplasia of the breast has “special importance as a predictor of future breast cancer,” according to a special report in The New England Journal of Medicine.1 That special importance is based on the high incidence of atypical hyperplasia—found in around 10% of the 1 million breast...
Renowned physician and researcher Guido Marcucci, MD, has joined City of Hope in a key leadership role within the institution’s new Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute. As Director of the Gehr Family Center for Leukemia Research and as Chief of the Division of...
Thomas J. Smith, MD, has been selected by the American Cancer Society to be the recipient of the 2015 Trish Greene Quality of Life Award. This award honors the life and work of the late Patricia (Trish) Greene, RN, PhD. As progress in the detection and treatment of cancer prolonged lives and...
The Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Board of Directors has named Candace S. Johnson, PhD, as the Institute’s 15th President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Johnson will be the first female leader for this 117-year-old comprehensive cancer center. “Over the past few months, we have met...
Funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Screening for Psychosocial Distress Program is a joint project of Yale University School of Nursing and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS). The Screening for Psychosocial Distress Program trains cancer care providers on...
Susan M. O’Brien, MD has joined UC Irvine Health as Associate Director for Clinical Science for the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Medical Director of the Sue and Ralph Stern Center for Cancer Clinical Trials and Research. A renowned researcher and clinician, Dr. O’Brien’s leadership...
FEBRUARY Genitourinary Cancers SymposiumFebruary 26-28 • Orlando, Florida For more information: www.gucasym.org 5th Annual Texas Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology ConferenceFebruary 27-28 • Houston, Texas For more information:...
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...
The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The photos below are from the volume titled “The Radium Era: 1916–1945.” To view additional photos from this series...
Few issues in health-care debates are more contentious and polarizing than population screening for the early detection of cancer. After a decades-long battle, lung cancer screening advocates have just received what they have long sought: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) Board of Directors has announced three additions to the Society’s management team: Emily Wilson has been named Executive Vice President; Dave Adler has been promoted to Vice President of Advocacy; and Anne Hubbard has been promoted to Director...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On December 3, 2014, blinatumomab (Blincyto) was granted...
The first poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor was developed in the early 1990s. Since then, the activity of PARP inhibitors has been explored in a variety of settings, including and perhaps most enthusiastically in the treatment of cancer. The greater dependence of several cancers on PARP,...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On January 29, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...
Case 1: Prerequisites for classification of myeloid neoplasm Question 1: Which statement is the one best explanation for the discrepancy observed between the blast percentage by bone marrow aspirate visual inspection and the flow-cytometry study? Correct Answer: C. Flow-cytometry study may not be...
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce “Hematology Expert Review,” a new feature including a case report detailing a particular hematologic condition followed by questions. Answers to each question appear with expert commentary. In this first installment, we present two cases of older men with...
Oncologists and other related health-care providers now have an online platform for the discussion of the growing area of tumor molecular profiling tests and studies. In January, ASCO launched the Molecular Oncology Tumor Boards, a series of monthly user-driven discussions designed to help...
Two years ago, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the nonprofit organization that evaluates and accredits more than 9,000 medical residency programs in the United States, began phasing in implementation of its Next Accreditation System for graduate medical education,...
In a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 and as reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, an ASCO expert endorsement panel reviewed and endorsed, with minor qualifications, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) clinical practice guidelines for management of familial/genetic ...
Discussion of the TNT trial was brisk at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. George Sledge, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, called the study “intriguing” and commented: “The platinum results, I believe, are...
Earlier this month the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final national coverage determination that provides for Medicare coverage of screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). Effective immediately, Medicare will now cover lung cancer screening...
The ASCO Post announces a new department on geriatric oncology to be published on an occasional basis. Geriatrics for the Oncologist is guest edited by Stuart Lichtman, MD, and developed in collaboration with the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Visit SIOG.org for more on...
Investigators from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, have reported an approach to pancreatic cancer that downstages some locally advanced patients to borderline resectable status and achieves a negative surgical margin rate exceeding 96%. The study earned a Merit Award at the 2015...
When melanoma patients develop metastases to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or pancreas, resection of these lesions may improve survival, according to two single-institution studies presented at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. In a study that earned a Merit Award, researchers reported ...
The National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) President Paul Teirstein, MD, released his own statement shortly after Dr. Baron’s letter was released: “ABIM’s recent press release is clearly a step in the right direction. Suspending the practice assessment and patient safety requirements of...
Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, ASCO President, made the following remarks following ABIM’s recent announcement concerning maintenance of certification: “Last year, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) released a new process for maintenance of certification (MOC) that many physicians felt ...