Alexandra Levine, MD, MACP, the Chief Medical Officer of City of Hope National Medical Center, has traveled to 74 countries, seeking out adventures in some of the world’s most far-flung regions. Her illustrious oncology journey has also been an adventure, from the front lines of the AIDS pandemic...
Born in Baghdad, Iraq, renowned prostate and bladder cancer specialist Maha H. Hussain, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, remembers that she always wanted to become a doctor. She had strong role models in three uncles who were...
Mary K. Gospodarowicz, MD, FRCPC, is determined to help reduce the worldwide burden of cancer, a problem of epic proportions. Her approach is simple: adopt what works and reject what doesn’t. Much progress in the fight against cancer can be made without waiting for the next paradigm-changing...
Lawrence H. Einhorn, MD, grew up in Dayton, Ohio, in a time and place that he describes as pleasant and community-oriented. Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Einhorn has maintained strong roots in the Midwest. “After finishing high school, I did my undergrad at Indiana University and went to ...
Switzerland, a landlocked country with a population about that of New York City, has four geographic regions, each with its own official language. Internationally regarded lymphoma and breast cancer expert, Franco Cavalli, MD, FRCP, was born and raised in Locarno, a town in the Italian region of...
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, grew up in a steadfastly academic environment that spurned typical children’s entertainment such as comic books or television. Born in New York City during World War II, she moved to Washington, DC, with her family while her father, an expert on labor and industrial...
Charles M. Balch, MD, FACS, PhD (hc), was born in Milford, Delaware, where his father was a research chemist for DuPont during World War II. “My father was part of the team that developed rayon for parachutes. It was a top priority program because they couldn’t get nylon from the Philippines. After ...
ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, grew up in northeast Philadelphia in the 1960s, a robust period in U.S. history dominated by American industry and ingenuity. His early memories are of a hard-working blue-collar neighborhood of identical row and semidetached twin houses and of a time of...
The pages of medical history are dog-eared with breakthroughs that have transformed medicine and saved lives. One of those dog-eared pages belongs to Emil Frei III, MD, known to his colleagues and friends as Tom. In the dawn of oncology, Dr. Frei, along with his associate, Emil Freireich, MD, did...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present this special anniversary issue in recognition of the publication’s 4th year serving the oncology community. We hope you enjoy this commemorative supplement profiling several of the many leaders in the oncology community. In coming issues of The ASCO Post and in...
Even as a child, Janet D. Rowley, MD, found the intellectual order and logic of science appealing. Born on April 5, 1925, in New York, Dr. Rowley’s parents, Hurford and Ethel Ballantyne Davison, moved the family to Chicago 2 years later. Both educators, the Davisons encouraged their only child in...
Among young adults with advanced cancer, developing a strong alliance with their oncologist was associated with greater perceived social support, a greater willingness to adhere to treatment, and greater adherence to oral medication, according to results of a study published in the Journal of...
The ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) Score, a multigene expression assay, quantifies the risk of local recurrence and invasive local recurrence for women with DCIS treated with surgical excision, researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “The DCIS Score can aid clinical...
Long-term follow-up of Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9343 “confirms and extends the earlier report that in women age ≥ 70 years with clinical stage I, [estrogen receptor (ER)]-positive breast cancer treated with lumpectomy followed by tamoxifen, irradiation adds no significant benefit in...
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy events resulted in limiting the dosing of chemotherapy in a significant proportion of women with nonmetastatic breast cancer being treated with paclitaxel, and those who had their dose reduced or discontinued received significantly less cumulative drug,...
For women who are considering prophylactic bilateral mastectomies, “I strongly encourage genetic testing, Todd M. Tuttle, MD, MS, said in an interview with The ASCO Post about the increased interest in preventive double mastectomy following Angelina Jolie’s disclosure that she had the procedure to...
Angelina Jolie, in a New York Times article entitled “My Medical Choice,”1 disclosed that having a BRCA1 mutation and an estimated 87% risk of breast cancer, “I decided to be proactive and minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.” She was writing...
Available data suggest that DNA methylation in blood is a potential epigenetic marker of cancer risk, but this has not been evaluated on a genome-wide scale in prospective studies of breast cancer. Xu and colleagues measured DNA methylation at 27,578 CpG sites (ie, DNA regions where cytosine and...
The oncogenic microRNAs miR-21and miR-31 negatively regulate tumor-suppressor genes. Toiyama and colleagues conducted a series of studies to assess their potential as serum biomarkers in colorectal cancer. Screening in medium from two colorectal cancer cell lines and serum analysis in 12 patients...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved lenalidomide (Revlimid) for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma whose disease has relapsed or progressed after two prior therapies, one of which included bortezomib (Velcade). Clinical Trial The approval was based on the results of...
Even before I had a colonoscopy to determine the cause of abdominal pains I had been having, I instinctively knew that the news wouldn’t be good. A colonoscopy and subsequent pathology report confirmed stage IIIC colorectal cancer. Because I was just 47 years old at the time of my diagnosis and had ...
With a roster of over 600 members that includes community and institutional oncologists, administrators, registered nurses, and patient navigators, the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology (GASCO) is one of ASCO’s largest State Affiliates. Founded in 1986, the Atlanta-based Society is active in...
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. Indication On May 29, 2013, trametinib (Mekinist) was approved by...
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to establish a network of sites for clinical trial testing of innovative blood cancer therapies in community oncology settings across the country. This Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP) will...
Despite advances in neuroimaging, the development of focused radiation therapy, and more effective chemotherapy, life expectancy for patients with primary malignant tumors of the brain and spinal cord remains stubbornly low at between 15 and 18 months. However, there are significant advances on the ...
A growing number of people with cancer are being treated on an outpatient basis. At the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York, to ensure that the psychosocial and psychiatric needs of these patients were being...
In a statement released earlier this month, the College of American Pathologists applauded the unanimous Supreme Court decision invalidating the patents held by Myriad Genetics on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, calling the decision “a victory for patients and for science.” The College of American...
In the last 30 years, discoveries made through research have fueled great improvements in cancer prevention, treatment, and care. Major progress against cancer has been made, and steady investment both in scientific studies and in the careers of researchers has led to transformations in how doctors ...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology is dedicated to funding breakthrough research and sharing cutting-edge knowledge, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) shares this commitment: It is ranked as the most widely read oncology journal worldwide, with a...
Earlier this year, ASCO and the oncology community at large lost a true pioneer, mentor, and renowned researcher. It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Jane Cooke Wright, MD, one of seven founding members of ASCO—the only woman among the founders—and the Society’s first...
A study examining trends in x-ray computed tomography (CT) use in children in the United States has found that reducing unnecessary scans and lowering the doses for the highest-dose scans could lower the overall lifetime risk of future imaging-related cancers by 62%. The research was published...
This collaborative study with Foundation Medicine (Cambridge, Massachusetts), using very sensitive deep sequencing, partially mitigates some of the anxiety generated by the identification of tumor heterogeneity. While our data in lung cancer confirm that such heterogeneity exists, they also...
In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stéphane Vignot, MD, of Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) Unit 981, Paris, and Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif, France, and colleagues used next-generation sequencing to identify somatic alterations in...
KRAS mutations have been reported in approximately 30% of lung adenocarcinomas. They occur most frequently in codons 12 and 13 in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and are most common in cancer in smokers and in nonsquamous NSCLC. Some data suggest that KRAS mutation is associated with poorer...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will award Amato J. Giaccia, PhD, Radhe Mohan, PhD, FASTRO, and Prabhakar Tripuraneni, MD, FASTRO, with the Society’s highest honor—the ASTRO Gold Medal. The 2013 awardees will receive the ASTRO Gold Medal during the society’s 55th Annual Meeting...
Tumor control is frequently not achieved with standard immunochemotherapy in patients with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, requiring consolidation with mediastinal radiotherapy. However, radiotherapy is associated with serious late adverse effects and is still associated with disease...
Maintenance therapy with the targeted therapy pazopanib (Votrient) extended progression-free survival in women with ovarian cancer who were disease-free following initial treatment with surgery and chemotherapy, according to results of a phase III trial presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of...
Brian Druker, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and Charles Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, will share the 2013 Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Science. The $100,000 prize is given by the A. Alfred Taubman Medical...
This study shows us that less can be more in the sentinel lymph node era. We can avoid complete axillary resection. As a medical oncologist, I have learned that less can be more in many settings. As a result of this study, I will be able to reassure my patients that radiation therapy to the axilla...
The FDA recently approved the MemoryShape Breast Implant for breast augmentation in women at least 22 years old and for breast reconstruction in women of any age. The MemoryShape Breast Implants are manufactured by Mentor Worldwide LLC. The FDA’s approval is based on 6 years of data from 955 women...
This study showed that 10 years of adjuvant tamoxifen reduced the risk of late recurrence in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, which is a major problem. The study also showed that ‘patience is a virtue’,” stated formal discussant Ann Partridge, MD, Director of the Adult Survivorship Program...
The landmark aTTom study showed that 10 years of adjuvant tamoxifen is superior to 5 years of tamoxifen in reducing the risk of breast cancer recurrence or death but that the full survival benefits of extended treatment do not emerge until after the 10 years of treatment. These findings, which were ...
Lynn Mara Schuchter, MD, the C. Willard Robinson Professor of Hematology-Oncology and Program Leader of the Melanoma Program at Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, commented at a press briefing that the study “will ultimately be practice-changing.” She noted,...
For the first time, a drug has proven effective in the treatment of uveal (ocular) melanoma that has metastasized, according to a randomized multicenter phase II study presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 “This study is the first to demonstrate an improved clinical outcome with any systemic...
“These patients finally have options,” commented the DECISION trial’s discussant at the ASCO Plenary Session, Ezra Cohen, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Director for Education at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. He further noted that differentiated thyroid...
For the first time in decades, a drug has halted disease progression in treatment-resistant differentiated thyroid cancer, according to the results of a phase III study presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 No new drugs have been approved for differentiated thyroid cancer in 40 years, but...
In the era of personalized medicine for cancer care, it was both surprising and encouraging to hear about a simple low-tech intervention delivered by women in the community that cut the rate of death from cervical cancer in India by about one-third. The intervention, a simple visual inspection...
The addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy prolongs overall survival in women with metastatic cervical cancer compared with chemotherapy alone, according to the results of a randomized phase III study presented at the Plenary Session of the ASCO Annual Meeting.1 Women on the...
Yogi Berra offered the comment “It’s déjà vu all over again” when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hitting back-to-back home runs in the early 1960s. His pithy remark neatly summarizes my reaction when I read the article, “Dose-Adjusted EPOCH-Rituximab Therapy in Primary...
The American medical education system was in a state of crisis in 1910 when Abraham Flexner published his treatise, Report on Medical Education in the United States and Canada (Carnegie Foundation Bulletin Number Four).1 A century later, we face another crisis in medical education—not in terms of...