Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0617 was a study initially designed to address an important issue in radiation oncology regarding the treatment of stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): Are outcomes improved with high-dose as opposed to standard-dose thoracic radiation therapy? The...
The Tobacco Atlas, fifth edition, its companion mobile app, and website TobaccoAtlas.org, were released by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation at the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health held March 17–21, 2015 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Atlas details the scale...
In a show of solidarity, state oncology societies from across the United States joined ASCO in its call on Congress to repeal Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula before the current payment patch expires. In a letter to U.S. House and Senate leadership, 48 signatories, representing tens ...
Tobacco-related diseases are the most preventable cause of death worldwide. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2015, nearly 171,000 of the estimated 589,430 cancer deaths in the United States—more than 25%—will be caused by tobacco smoking. Smoking cessation leads to improvement in cancer ...
We applaud the House of Representatives for passing legislation that eliminates the Sustainable Growth Rate [SGR] formula and takes a giant leap toward meaningful and urgently needed Medicare physician payment reform. Cancer incidence among Medicare beneficiaries is expected to increase by 67% by...
The addition of trastuzumab (Herceptin) to adjuvant chemotherapy undoubtedly transformed HER2-positive breast cancer from one of the most deadly subtypes to a highly treatable disease. Randomized phase III trials established adjuvant trastuzumab as standard of care in HER2-positive breast...
Nivolumab (Opdivo) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of lung cancer on March 4, 2015, before clinical data from the pivotal trials (CheckMate 017 and CheckMate 063) were presented at a major oncology conference or published in a peer-reviewed journal....
I find The ASCO Post to be a good way to hear about new ideas that I might otherwise have missed. I read an article recently about the approval of nivolumab (Opdivo) for treating metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (The ASCO Post, April 10, 2015). I thought it would have been much more...
For patients who have confronted a diagnosis of cancer, then endured weeks of chemotherapy, it would seem that losing their hair would not be a big concern. But for many patients, it can be. “You have to spend a year either putting on wigs or announcing to the world that you’ve had chemotherapy,”...
Hair loss remains one of the most dreaded side effects of chemotherapy, particularly for women. Scalp cooling caps worn by patients during chemotherapy infusion and for brief periods of time before and after offer these patients an option to preserve 50% or more of the hair on their heads. Although ...
The Gairdner Foundation named the winners of the 2015 Canada Gairdner Awards, recognizing some of the most significant medical discoveries around the world. The awards provide a $100,000 (CAD) prize to each scientist for his or her work. The aim of the Gairdner Awards is to promote a culture of...
MAY International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG): Cancer Care of the Older Adult Across the Cancer ContinuumMay 1 • New York, New York For more information: www.siog.org 1st Annual New Treatments in Oncology Conference (ANTO)May 1-2 • Scottsdale, Arizona 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 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recognized six oncologists making valuable contributions to their fields with awards at the Association’s Annual Meeting 2015, held in Philadelphia from April 18–22. William C. Hahn, MD, PhD, was awarded with the 39th Annual AACR–Richard and Hinda ...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Lewis C. Cantley, PhD, with the 9th Annual Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015. Dr. Cantley is the Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor in...
Dana-Farber President and CEO Edward J. Benz, Jr, MD, has announced he will retire from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in 2016, after 16 years running the organization. Dr. Benz will also vacate the positions as Director and Principal Investigator of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center...
Aleksandar Zafirovski, MBA, has been named Executive Administrative Director and Associate Director for Administration for the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He has served as Interim Associate Director since 2014. Mr. Zafirovski has previously been...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced the departure of Scientific and Comprehensive Cancer Center Director, Richard Gilbertson, MD, PhD. Dr. Gilbertson will be Director of the Cambridge Cancer Centre at the University of Cambridge. Since joining St. Jude in 2000, Dr. Gilbertson has led...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Owen N. Witte, MD, Founding Director of the Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research, and Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at the University of California,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Amgen’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for carfilzomib (Kyprolis) injection for the treatment of patients with relapsed multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy. The sNDA is designed to support the conversion of ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to Clovis Oncology’s investigational agent rucaparib as monotherapy treatment of advanced ovarian cancer in patients who have received at least two lines of prior platinum-containing therapy, with BRCA-mutated ...
Michael E. Jung, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Member at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center; Charles Sawyers, MD, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program Director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and Howard I. Scher, MD, Chief of the Genitourinary...
“Older adults constitute the only increasing natural resource in the entire world.” —Linda Fried, PhD, Columbia School of Public Health The good and bad news about our changing demographic world is that the population of older adults is increasing in the United States and worldwide. While it is...
As the oncology community begins the slow and often difficult-to-define transition from volume to value in the delivery of cancer care, the relationship between the price and value of certain high-priced cancer drugs is getting more scrutiny. We generally correlate the efficacy of a new drug and...
Aspirin has long proved to be a multipotent drug, with efficacy as a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory agent, antiplatelet agent, and cardioprotective agent. In the cancer world, a large literature has accumulated demonstrating its ability to prevent various epithelial malignancies, most notably...
With the field of breast oncology as complex as ever, a brief update of the latest findings impacting breast cancer treatment seems timely. To that end, I have assembled highlights from a collection of newsworthy studies featured over the past year and into early 2015. Part 1 of this review, which...
Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of the Office of Oncology and Hematology Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune Magazine. The list also included names such as Pope Francis, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Chief Justice of the United...
Girls who are overweight as young children and teens may face increased risk for colorectal cancer decades later, regardless of what they weigh as adults, suggests a new study published by Xuehong Zhang, MD, ScD, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues in Cancer Epidemiology,...
One persistent and potentially debilitating problem breast cancer patients suffer with is postoperative pain. Studies show that proper pain management is an essential component in the healing process, but undertreatment of pain symptoms remains an ongoing issue in the oncology community. Opioids,...
When meeting with patients to discuss adjuvant endocrine therapy for breast cancer, the question often arises, “How will I know that the treatment is working?” While the efficacy of these treatments has been demonstrated for the majority of patients in multiple large randomized clinical trials,...
Jane Carrie Weeks, MD, MSc, a prominent researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Center, died of cancer on September 10, 2013, at the age of 61. At the time of her death, Dr. Weeks was Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public ...
As the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) celebrates its 20th year, The ASCO Post asked its Chief Executive Officer, Robert W. Carlson, MD, to reflect on the organization’s accomplishments, mission, and future and on the role he may have played in its success. The Early Years You became...
The first time I met Mrs. X and her husband was to discuss the surgical treatment options for pancreatic cancer. She had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at her local hospital and was being referred to a tertiary care center for operative management. Mrs. X and her husband were no...
Despite the high prevalence of breast cancer worldwide, it is important to recognize that > 40% of all cases occur in women aged 65 years or older in both the United States and the United Kingdom.1,2 Breast cancers in older patients are more often associated with indolent features and with...
MAY 13th Annual Meeting of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT)May 11-13 • Mainz, Germany For more information: www.meeting.cimt.eu 54th Annual Conference of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative GroupMay 18-23 • San Diego, California For more information: http://ptcog54.org American...
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...
Robert L. Coleman, MD, Professor, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, started his 1-year term as the 47th President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) and 5th President of the Foundation for Gynecologic...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) for use in combination with FOLFIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil, irinotecan) for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose disease has progressed on a first-line bevacizumab (Avastin)-,...
Physicians are being “bombarded” with changes in health care and beyond, Richard R. Barakat, MD, FACS, noted in his Presidential Address at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer. These changes are being precipitated by steeply rising health-care costs amid...
The 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting will feature three activities to help attendees earn American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) points while onsite. Annual Meeting Practice-Centered Session MOC Self-Assessment Activity This activity is designed for attendees who want ...
In July 2014, ASCO President Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, wrote a lengthy letter to the CEO of the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), commenting on the proposal for Chapter <800> regulations, saying “it is not evidence-based and is fundamentally flawed” and urging USP to “engage with...
Overdiagnosis associated with breast cancer screening has been the subject of much attention in recent years. The notion that cancer screening—largely believed to be beneficial—could actually be harmful is simultaneously fascinating and difficult to believe. With the publication of multiple studies ...
Hodgkin lymphoma is generally thought to be a malignancy with a favorable prognosis. Overall, approximately 80% of patients will have durable, long-term remissions with initial chemotherapy. Some patients, however, demonstrate evidence of disease progression, and these patients usually receive...
“Immunosignatures” may be well suited to enable the detection of ovarian cancer, researchers reported at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 20th Annual Conference.1 “We developed a new concept for disease detection based on immunosignatures. From a drop of blood, HealthTell’s...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Foundation has awarded grants to six young investigators from NCCN Member Institutions. These awardees, dedicated to advancing and discovering new treatments for cancer, enhancing quality, and improving patient education, represent the fifth series...
The quality and quantity of original research presented at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Conference continue to grow since poster sessions debuted a few years ago. The ASCO Post offers summaries for just a few that caught our eye, out of more than 65 presented this year....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to crizotinib (Xalkori) for the potential treatment of patients with ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Crizotinib currently is FDA-approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) inaugurated José Baselga, MD, PhD, as President for 2015–2016 at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015. Dr. Baselga, an internationally recognized physician-scientist whose research focuses on the clinical development of novel molecularly targeted agents...
In March, ASCO published its second annual report, The State of Cancer Care in America: 2015.1 Its findings show a mixed landscape, on the one hand, spotlighting advances in therapy and improving survival rates, but on the other, describing a cancer care system under stress from increasing demand...
The Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) has elected Scott Soefje, PharmD, MBA, BCOP, FCCP, to serve as President for the 2015–2016 term. His term began at the 11th HOPA Annual Conference, held March 25–28. Dr. Soefje has served as President-Elect since March 2014. Dr. Soefje is a...