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Showing 15901 - 15950The Ongoing Struggle Against Tobacco: Past Accomplishments, Future Steps
In 1913, 10 doctors and 5 laypersons in New York founded the American Cancer Society (ACS). At that time, a cancer diagnosis was almost always fatal and was rarely discussed in public. The Society’s original charter was to raise awareness about cancer, and although that mission has remained firm,...
Nivolumab in Metastatic Squamous Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer After Platinum Therapy
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 March 4, 2015, the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) ...
The ASPIRE Trial of Carfilzomib in Relapsed Myeloma: A Major Step Forward
Currently in myeloma, there are at least five new agents that are either approved or in the late-stage of development with impending approval. Major questions in the field relate to how we, as clinicians, will use these new agents and where they will fit in the overall treatment schema. The phase...
Increased Progression-Free Survival With Addition of Carfilzomib to Lenalidomide/Dexamethasone in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma
In a planned interim analysis of the phase III ASPIRE trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, A. Keith Stewart, MB, ChB, of the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, and colleagues found that the addition of the proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib (Kyprolis) to lenalidomide...
The Emerging Role of Radiation Therapy in Gastrointestinal Cancers
The use of radiation therapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer has evolved over the past several decades, in a gradual, stepwise fashion. Since most gastrointestinal cancers are diagnosed at a locally advanced stage, coupled with the inherent sensitivity of most parts of the...
Researchers and Scientists Honored for Improving Cancer Prevention, Treatment, and Patient Care
The ASCO Special Awards recognize the dedication and significant contributions of researchers, patient advocates, and leaders of the global oncology community to enhancing cancer prevention, treatment, and patient care. Among this year’s awardees are an international leader in geriatric oncology...
Current Progress Against Cancer and What Lies Ahead in the Next Decade
In January, ASCO released its report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2015: An Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer,1 which details research advances over the past decade that have led to longer survival and better quality of life for the more than half-a-million people diagnosed with cancer each...
Adjuvant Chemotherapy and Overall Survival in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer: Still Climbing the Mountain
Muscle-invasive bladder cancer can be a lethal disease despite curative intent local therapy, with 5-year survival that can be as low as 30% based on the extent of T status and/or lymph node involvement. The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with MVAC (methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and...
No Overall Survival Difference for Immediate vs Deferred Chemotherapy After Radical Cystectomy in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer
In the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 30994 trial, a phase III intergroup study reported in The Lancet Oncology,1 Cora N. Sternberg, MD, FACP, Chief of Medical Oncology at San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals, Rome, and colleagues found no overall survival...
Breast Cancer Management in Review
Anyone who has attended the major oncology meetings knows that research from clinical trials in breast cancer often dominates the stage, with countless abstracts featuring new and updated results. To help the readers of The ASCO Post stay up to date with the latest discoveries and findings...
FDA Approves Nivolumab to Treat Metastatic Squamous NSCLC
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds to the...
Results of RTOG 0617 Reconsidered
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...
No Benefit of High- vs Standard-Dose Radiotherapy or Addition of Cetuximab to Chemoradiation in Stage IIIA/IIIB NSCLC
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Jeffrey D. Bradley, MD, of Washington University, and colleagues, the phase III Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 0617 trial showed no survival benefit of high- vs standard-dose radiotherapy or addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to concurrent...
Dinutuximab in Pediatric High-Risk Neuroblastoma
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 March 10, 2015, the chimeric monoclonal antibody dinutuximab...
Expert Point of View: Eric J. Small, MD
Eric J. Small, MD, of the University of California at San Francisco, discussed what he thought went wrong for cabozantinib (Cometriq) in the COMET-1 trial, yet another example of a phase III trial that failed to deliver on the promise of phase II results. “Although this was a negative study,...
Expert Point of View: Howard Scher, MD
AR-V7 is only one of the many prostate cancer predictive biomarker candidates currently under investigation,” said Howard Scher, MD, Chief of the Genitourinary Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. While preliminary data are promising, further development of AR-V7 will...
Androgen-Deprivation Therapy Added to Radiation Therapy Improves Disease Control in Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer
The addition of 6 months of androgen-deprivation therapy to radiation therapy as primary therapy for intermediate-risk prostate cancer improved biochemical control and disease-free survival but did not translate to an improvement in overall survival, in a phase III trial reported at the 2015...
Too Early to Use Genome Sequencing for Breast Cancers in the Clinic
The role of next-generation sequencing (high-throughput technologies that allow DNA and RNA to be analyzed more quickly and inexpensively than earlier techniques) in breast cancer remains unclear and at present is primarily a research tool. Therefore, clinicians should be cautious in using genetic...
Should Oncologists Be Ordering Breast Cancer Gene Panels?
Two oncologic surgeons squared off at the 32nd Miami Breast Cancer Conference to debate whether breast cancer genetic susceptibility panel testing is ready for routine use in the clinic. J. Michael Dixon, MD, Professor of Surgery and Consultant Surgeon at the Edinburgh Breast Unit in the United...
Immune Gene Profile Strongly Associated With Benefit of Adjuvant Trastuzumab in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Edith A. Perez, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, and colleagues found that an immune function gene profile was associated with significantly improved relapse-free survival among patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer who...
Clinical Trial Participation: ‘Is It All Worth It?’
Clinical trials have become increasingly complex over the past several years, and unfortunately, this has resulted in the typical scenario described below. We are fortunate that there are so many promising agents available for patients, and we want to encourage their participation in clinical...
No Survival Benefit From Adjuvant Sorafenib or Sunitinib in Kidney Cancer
Adjuvant therapy with sorafenib (Nexavar) or sunitinib (Sutent) failed to make any inroads in improving disease-free survival in patients with locally advanced kidney cancer in the randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter, phase III Adjuvant Sorafenib and Sunitinib for Unfavorable Renal...
Nivolumab in Lung Cancer
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...
Objective Response Rate of 44% Among Patients With Relapsed/Refractory DLBCL Receiving Brentuximab Vedotin
A phase II, open-label study evaluating the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), an anti-CD antibody-drug conjugate, found that among 48 evaluable patients with CD30-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 21 (44%) had objective responses. These responses included 8 patients (17%)...
Expect Questions About Cold Caps to Spare Hair During Chemotherapy
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,”...
Scalp Cooling Caps Offer Option to Prevent Hair Loss During 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 ...
Too Young to Have Cancer
The first inkling I had that something could be seriously wrong occurred just over a year ago, when I was suddenly inflicted with such severe heartburn it kept me awake at night. Prescriptions from my doctor for ranitidine (Zantac) and meloxicam (Mobic) not only failed to tamp down the fiery pain,...
Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Works to Change the Treatment Landscape of an Aggressive Form of Breast Cancer
Hayley Dinerman, Cofounder and Executive Director of the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, remembers how she and a group of close female friends first learned about the devastating effects of triple-negative breast cancer. It was 2005 when these new mothers, who had recently formed a...
Michael E. Jung, PhD, Charles Sawyers, MD, and Howard I. Scher, MD, Receive Team Science Award From American Association for Cancer Research
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...
Preparing for the ‘Silver Tsunami’ and the Impact of an Aging Population on Cancer Care
“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...
Persistence of HER2-Specific CAR T Cells in HER2-Positive Sarcoma
In a phase I/II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 Nabil Ahmed, MD, MSc, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and colleagues, found that infusion of T cells expressing HER2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) with a CD28.ζ signaling domain (HER2-CAR T cells) could produce...
Aspirin as Adjuvant Therapy for Colon Cancer: Is the Time Right?
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...
Evidence of Recurrence-Free, Disease-Free, and Overall Survival Benefit of Aspirin and COX‑2 Inhibitor Use in Stage III Colon Cancer
In an analysis from the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 89803 adjuvant trial reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found consistent trends suggesting benefit of aspirin use and cyclo-oxygenase-2...
Breast Cancer Management in Review
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...
Overweight Girls Face Increased Risk of Colorectal Cancer Later in Life
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,...
Opioid-Reduction Strategy for Postoperative Pain After Breast Cancer Surgery
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,...
Complete Regression of Metastatic Cervical Cancer Is Observed After Treatment With HPV-Targeted Tumor-Infiltrating T Cells
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 researchers at the National Cancer Institute observed complete regression of metastatic cervical tumors in two patients following a single infusion of human papillomavirus (HPV)-targeted tumor-infiltrating T cells. In the protocol, nine patients...
Analysis Shows No Link Between Aromatase Inhibitor–Related Musculoskeletal/Vasomotor Symptoms and Relapse-Free Survival
Retrospective analyses of the ATAC, TEAM, and BIG 1-98 adjuvant endocrine therapy trials in breast cancer have suggested that treatment-emergent endocrine symptoms may be associated with superior survival outcomes. In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vered Stearns, MD,...
20 Years of NCCN: The Best Is Yet to Come
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...
How the International Innovation Grant Is Improving Cancer Care for Women in Myanmar
In 2014, the Conquer Cancer Foundation awarded four inaugural International Innovation Grants to aid novel research projects in Colombia, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The program, which supports a 1-year research grant of up to $20,000 to a nonprofit organization or governmental agency in a low- ...
Heal Thy Patient … Reflections on the Human Side of Medicine
Dr. Are extended to me the opportunity to make additional comments about his article. I am the husband of the most wonderful Mrs. X he discusses. As always, Dr. Are’s comments are very kind and generous. Three Roles Based on my experience and observations, I would like to mention three roles a...
Heal Thy Patient … Reflections on the Human Side of Medicine
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...
Radiotherapy or Not in Older Women Receiving Breast-Conserving Surgery and Endocrine Treatment?
In the phase III PRIME II trial, designed to assess whether whole-breast irradiation could be omitted in women aged ≥ 65 years with early-stage breast cancer undergoing breast-conserving surgery and receiving adjuvant endocrine treatment, Ian H. Kunkler, MB BChir, FRCR, of Western General Hospital, ...
Mammographic Density After Tamoxifen Initiation Linked to Improved Prognosis for Pre- and Postmenopausal Women With ER-Positive Breast Cancer
An improved prognosis for women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer who experience a large reduction in mammographic density following the initiation of tamoxifen treatment extends to premenopausal as well as postmenopausal women, researchers reported in the Journal of the National...
Lower 30-Day Mortality, Increased Likelihood of Adjuvant Chemotherapy With Laparoscopic vs Open Colectomy for Stage III Colon Cancer
“In routine clinical practice, laparoscopic colectomy is associated with a lower 30-day mortality, shorter length of stay, and greater likelihood of adjuvant chemotherapy initiation among stage III colon cancer patients when compared with open colectomy,” according to an analysis of data from the...
Escalation of Oncology Services at End of Life May Be Moderated by Coordinated Care
“Use of oncology-related services is increasingly scrutinized, yet precisely which services are actually rendered to patients, particularly at the end of life, is unknown,” noted an article in the Journal of Oncology Practice. To address this knowledge gap, Eijean Wu, MD, of the Los Angeles County...
‘Frailty Profile’ Predicts Survival and Toxicities in Elderly Patients With Multiple Myeloma
A frailty score predicts mortality and the risk of toxicity in elderly patients with multiple myeloma and can be used to determine more suitable therapies for these patients, the International Myeloma Working Group reported in Blood. “Chronologic age, performance status, and physician’s clinical...
Chemotherapy Trial Results Overestimate Survival for Elderly Medicare Patients With Lung and Pancreatic Cancers
Results of clinical trials evaluating chemotherapy regimens for advanced pancreatic and lung cancers “tended to correctly estimate survival for Medicare patients aged 65 to 74 years but to overestimate survival for older Medicare patients by 6 to 8 weeks,” Elizabeth B. Lamont, MD, MS, of...
Cancer Has Left an Indelible Mark on Me
Even though today I’m cancer-free, the experience of getting a cancer diagnosis and going through treatment leaves an indelible mark on your psyche—as well as your body—that time doesn’t erase. Once you have cancer, you become a cancer survivor, and that status doesn’t change. I’ve known many...
FDA Approves Ramucirumab for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
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)-,...
