Marc S. Ernstoff, MD, has been appointed Professor and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Chair of the Department of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Clinical...
The ASCO Post interviewed Irvin M. Modlin, MD, Emeritus Professor of Gastroenterological Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, regarding his thoughts on the NETTER-1 results and peptide receptor radionuclide therapies for neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Modlin led the first study of a peptide...
A radiolabeled somatostatin analog compound, 177Lu-DOTA0-Tyr3-Octreotate (Lu-177 dotatate), reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 79% in the international phase III NETTER-1 population of previously treated, advanced neuroendocrine tumors of midgut origin.1 Lu-177 dotatate belongs to...
Although President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act in 1971, essentially declaring a war on cancer, the genesis of the idea had actually been born 2 years earlier, after the first landing on the moon set off a new era of scientific exploration and sparked a belief that any scientific...
Two neuroendocrine tumor experts had slightly different reactions to the latest RADIANT-4 data. Irvin M. Modlin, MD, Emeritus Professor of Gastroenterological Surgery at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, said in an interview that he essentially restricts his use of...
In a subgroup analysis of the phase III RADIANT-4 trial, focusing on neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal origin, the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) essentially doubled the median progression-free survival time, compared with placebo, researchers reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal...
In a retrospective case-controlled study conducted in patients with colorectal cancer who had received primary tumor resection with or without preoperative radiofrequency ablation for liver metastases, the electrical procedure was found to induce antitumor immune responses in the...
A study that revealed new findings about prostate cells may point to future strategies for treating aggressive and therapy-resistant forms of prostate cancer. The study proved that the prostate basal cell layer contains adult stem cells, which possess a unique gene-expression profile resembling the ...
Among uveal melanomas categorized as class 1, those with high levels of PRAME mRNA were more likely to metastasize than those with low levels of PRAME mRNA, suggesting that patients who have class 1 uveal melanoma with high levels of PRAME mRNA should be monitored more closely for metastatic...
Metabolic phenotyping of blood plasma by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR) identified unique metabolic biomarkers specific to lung cancer patients and allowed for the accurate identification of a cohort of patients with early and late-stage lung cancer. These findings were published by...
The 69th Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium, being held March 2–5 in Boston, will include featured lecturers with ties to the recently announced White House “moonshot” initiative to cure cancer—a proposed $1 billion in spending on cancer research over ...
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that light reflectance spectroscopy can differentiate between malignant and benign prostate tissue with 85% accuracy, a finding that may lead to real-time tissue analysis during prostate cancer surgery. These findings were reported...
In women undergoing breast reconstruction using autologous tissue, newer muscle-sparing abdominal flaps can reduce complications while improving some aspects of quality of life, according to a study by Macadem et al in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Comparison of four types of abdominal flaps ...
The number of men smoking tobacco in India rose by more than one third to 108 million between 1998 and 2015, according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Global Health. The study also found that cigarettes were replacing the traditional bidi, a small, inexpensive Indian cigarette,...
A new report published by Ostrom et al in the journal Neuro-Oncology sponsored by the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) found that malignant brain tumors are the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 39, and the most common cancer occurring...
Steven Shak, MD, of Genomic Health, discusses mortality among patients with early-stage hormone receptor–positive invasive breast cancer in the SEER database who were treated based on the 21-gene Recurrence Score results (Abstract 176).
Ethan Basch, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, summarizes a session he chaired on the burgeoning use of patient-reported outcomes and wearable sensors in clinical practice and research.
Monika K. Krzyzanowska, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, summarizes a session that she co-chaired on this key topic.
Randall F. Holcombe, MD, of the Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine, discusses the challenges of delivering quality care in an academic setting at a large hospital.
Lee N. Newcomer, MD, of the UnitedHealth Group, gives his perspective on how to assess quality in the age of precision medicine.
Robert Miller, MD, ASCO’S Vice President of Quality and Guidelines, discusses CancerLinQ, the “big data” technology platform, and implementation of a rapid learning system for oncology based on Institute of Medicine principles.
Allison Kurian, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses pressing questions about the clinical utility and value of extended genomic testing and other forms of precision medicine.
Joseph O. Jacobson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses a session he co-chaired on the thorny questions of how best to improve cancer care.
Sandra L. Wong, MD, of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, summarizes three abstracts for which she was the discussant. The topics were rates of surgical site infections, an online resource for hospital cancer surgery volumes, and barriers to oncology appointments at comprehensive cancer...
Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his paper, which explores lessons learned from analyses of the National Cancer Data Base. (Abstract 173)
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the University of California at Los Angeles, the 2016 winner of the Joseph V. Simone Award, summarizes her “Lecture for Excellence in Quality and Safety in the Care of Patients With Cancer.”
Sarina Isenberg, PhD Candidate, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discusses the cost savings of a comprehensive hospital-based palliative care program. (Abstract 2)
Joseph V. Simone, MD, of the Simone Consulting Company, reflects on the prospects for the future of safety and quality.
Craig Earle, MD, of Canada’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, summarizes abstracts discussed in a ticketed session that he co-chaired on this key topic. (Abstracts 173, 174, 175)
Kerin B. Adelson, MD, of the Yale Cancer Center, discusses an electronic decision support tool to capture staging data. This information allows automated reports for clinical trial screening, outcomes analysis, quality comparisons, and reporting. (Abstract 151)
Kerin B. Adelson, MD, of the Yale Cancer Center, discusses the major healthcare cost drivers at the end of life—aggressive treatments, emergency room visits, and futile care—and strategies for improving value. (Abstract 3)
Dawn L. Hershman, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, summarizes a joint ASCO/NCI session on this important topic, including the challenges and solutions.
A quality improvement initiative to reduce patients’ reliance on emergency room (ER) visits to treat cancer treatment side effects has shown to be highly effective, according to early findings from a new study. The strategy, involving a telephone triage service coupled with patient education, ...
To facilitate doctor/patient conversations about costs of cancer care, researchers developed and piloted an online tool for oncologists. The innovative resource lists prices for the 50 most commonly prescribed cancer treatment regimens. A survey of the pilot users at four clinics in Washington...
A new study suggests that up to 60% of the computed tomography (CT) scans, bone scans, and positron-emission tomography (PET) scans performed for more than 29,000 Michigan women diagnosed with early breast cancer between 2008 and 2014 could not be medically justified based on retrospective record...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved everolimus (Afinitor) for the treatment of adult patients with progressive, well-differentiated nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumors of gastrointestinal or lung origin with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic disease. ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for use in combination with bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) followed by obinutuzumab monotherapy for the treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma who relapsed after, or are refractory to, a rituximab...
A new report outlines substantial progress in reducing the mortality gap between blacks and whites for some cancers, while the gap has widened or remained level for two leading cancers: breast cancer in women and colorectal cancer in men. The findings are included in Cancer Statistics for African...
A new analysis indicates that higher body weight and taller stature during adolescence increase the risk of developing Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The findings were published by Leiba et al in Cancer. Rates of NHL have increased worldwide, and research suggests that rising rates of obesity may be...
Two quality improvement projects described in the Journal of Oncology Practice resulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous (IV) and oral chemotherapy. A project at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types of...
“We commend the U.S. Senate for confirming Robert M. Califf, MD, as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Califf brings extraordinary expertise and vision to this position and we are confident that his appointment will positively impact cancer care. “Dr. Califf's...
A study from Lund University in Sweden has shown that commonly used chemotherapy toxins impair the eyesight in childhood cancer survivors in a way that indicates an impact on the central nervous system. The results were published by Einarsson et al in PLOS One. It was not the former patients' ...
ONC201, an investigational anticancer drug that triggers cell death in various tumor types, may have clinical potential for some blood cancers including mantle cell lymphoma and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a recent clinical study. A research team led by Michael Andreeff, MD, PhD,...
As reported by Ronald C. Chen, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO has endorsed, with qualifications, the 2015 Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline on active surveillance for management of localized prostate cancer....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Burstein et al, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline update on ovarian suppression as part of the extant guideline on adjuvant endocrine therapy in hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The update is based on an update panel...
Patients who received chemotherapy after surgical resection of pancreatic cancer have fewer distant disease recurrences and longer overall survival than those who also had adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. While a course of radiotherapy in addition to chemotherapy and a cancer operation reduced the...
Head and neck cancer patients who receive induction chemotherapy rather than the standard treatment of concurrent chemoradiation do not benefit from increased survival rates and are less likely to receive a full course of radiation, according to research presented by Stokes et al at the 2016...
All National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers have united to support human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination (see below). A team of HPV experts drafted a consensus statement that advises widespread use of HPV vaccines to prevent cancer. HPV causes cancer of the cervix, anus, and...
The results of the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (IRG) Pilot Project Competition for Junior Investigators that was held in December 2015 have been announced. The competition was open to eligible junior faculty at Fox Chase Cancer Center or Temple...
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and...