The HELIOS study is an international phase III trial of bendamustine (Treanda) plus rituximab (Rituxan) in combination with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) vs placebo in patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As reported by Chanan-Khan in The Lancet Oncology1 and reviewed in this...
MARCH 2016 Methods in Clinical Research Workshop for Minority PhysiciansMarch 17-20 • Fort Lauderdale, FloridaFor more information:https://www.roswellpark.edu/education/diversity-clinical-research-workshop The 16th Multidisciplinary Management of Cancers: A Case-Based ApproachMarch 18-20 • Napa,...
Malignant mesothelioma is a rare but deadly form of cancer; the 5-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with the disease is between 5% and 10%. Although aggressive surgery can help some patients with early-stage mesothelioma, current treatments for patients with more advanced mesothelioma are...
Neurosurgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used hyperthermic laser ablation to shrink tumors in patients with recurrent glioblastoma and noted a temporary disruption of the blood-brain barrier, thereby enabling them to deliver chemotherapy to the peritumoral region....
A review of major studies and the current literature underscored the role of geriatric assessment in making treatment recommendations for patients aged 80 years and older with early and metastatic breast cancer. The review was reported by Shachar et al in the Journal of Oncology Practice. The...
Nathan A. Pennell, MD, PhD, an Associate Professor and Director of the Lung Cancer Medical Oncology Program at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and a Poster Walk leader at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, offers advice for anyone planning to attend a Poster Session: Plan ahead. Make sure ...
Stock your practice with Cancer.Net resources. Cancer.Net has a comprehensive guide to colorectal cancer at www.cancer.net/colorectal and a shorter, one-page colorectal cancer fact sheet. You will also find specialized resources for caregiving, survivorship, palliative care, and managing the cost...
The Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, held October 9–10, 2015, in Boston, Massachusetts, brought together more than 670 members of the cancer care community, including oncologists, radiologists, palliative care specialists, nurses, and patient advocates. Sessions delivered information on...
Women Who Conquer Cancer is a group dedicated to advancing cancer research by supporting young women researchers early in their careers through Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Young Investigator Awards (YIAs). These 1-year grants give promising researchers the boost they need to get started on...
ASCO has submitted comments to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chronic Care Working Group regarding the Bipartisan Chronic Care Working Group Policy Options document published in December 2015. The society commended the working group for its efforts to improve the Medicare program for...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (CCF) encourages grantees to share the results of their research to help advance progress against cancer. Publication in peer-reviewed journals is one of the most important ways for scientists to achieve recognition. 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 review, according to the...
Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, was elected ASCO President for the 2017–2018 term this past December and will take office as President-Elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting, June 3–7, 2016, in Chicago. As an ASCO member since 1986, Dr. Johnson brings over 30 years of experience with ASCO to the...
A new study suggests that one approach to watching for a cancer's return is being inappropriately used at many hospitals and isn't helping patients survive longer. The findings are published by Healy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study looked at how often survivors ...
While two advanced radiosurgery approaches—Gamma Knife and RapidArc—offer different strengths, they are equally effective at eradicating cancer in the brain, say researchers at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. Their study, published by Liu et al in Frontiers in Oncology,...
A study published by Bradley et al in Medical Care showed that over a recent 10-year period, the rate of metastatic colorectal cancer patients older than age 75 receiving three or more treatments increased from 2% to 53%. During this period, 1-year treatment costs increased 32% to reach an...
Among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common pediatric cancer, those who live in high-poverty areas are substantially more likely to suffer early relapse than other patients, despite having received the same treatment, according to new research from Dana-Farber/Boston...
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University has named Mylin A. Torres, MD, the new Director of the Glenn Family Breast Center, effective January 19, 2016. She succeeds Ruth O’Regan, MD, who now heads the University of Wisconsin Division of Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Torres is Associate Professor ...
Hidayatullah G. Munshi, MD, has been named Leader of the Tumor Environment and Metastasis (TEAM) Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. The TEAM Program utilizes an integrative approach to elucidate key molecular interactions between tumor cells and...
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)