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...
Trudy Nan Small, MD, was a pediatric hematologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center who specialized in the diagnosis and care of children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies and those with life-threatening genetic disorders of the immune system....
Plasma Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) DNA has prognostic significance in Hodgkin lymphoma, both prior to therapy and at 6 months of follow-up, according to results of a study published in Blood. “Plasma EBV-DNA positivity at month 6 is associated with particularly poor outcomes and may serve as an...
About one in five patients who had completed primary breast cancer treatments but had not started endocrine therapy “had elevated memory and/or executive function complaints that were statistically significantly associated with domain-specific” neuropsychological test performances and depressive...
Overall survival benefits of six management strategies for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are within 1 year of each other, according to a disease simulation model integrating empirical data from published literature and quantifying the tradeoffs among the different management strategies with...
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Much of the news about immunotherapy ...
FDA has approved the following new drugs and/or indications in 2013: Denosumab (Xgeva subcutaneous injection) for giant cell tumor of bone. Lenalidomide (Revlimid capsules) for relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma FDA approved. Trametinib (Mekinist tablets) for unresectable or metastatic...
The phase III open-label AXIS trial comparing axitinib (Inlyta) vs sorafenib (Nexavar) as second-line treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma has shown a significant difference in median progression-free survival (8.3 months in the axitinib group vs 5.7 months in the sorafenib group; hazard...
A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database analysis reported by Ravi Shridhar, MD, PhD, and colleagues in Cancer indicates that patients receiving surgery and radiation therapy for metastatic gastric cancer have prolonged survival compared with those receiving either alone or...
A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looking at the prevalence of HPV infections in girls before and after the introduction of the HPV vaccine in 2006 found a significant reduction of 56% in infections among female teenagers aged 14 to 19. About 79 million Americans,...
A new government study investigating the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in females aged 14 to 59 before and after the introduction in 2006 of the HPV vaccine found that the rate of the HPV infection dropped by 56%, decreasing from 11.5% in 2006 to 5.1% in 2010 among female...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the approved use of denosumab (Xgeva) to treat adults and some adolescents with giant cell tumor of the bone, a rare and usually noncancerous tumor. Denosumab, which was granted orphan product designation, was reviewed under the FDA’s...
An editorial by Marc Lippman, MD, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, and C. Kent Osborne, MD, Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,1 accompanied the study by Dawson and colleagues. These authors commented that the study’s key findings—that variation in the...
Management of metastatic breast cancer requires monitoring of tumor burden to assess response to treatment, and there is a need for biomarkers that can measure tumor burden with high sensitivity and specificity. Assays measuring serum cancer antigen (CA) 15-3 and circulating tumor cells have been...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation and ASCO International have just launched a new research funding opportunity, the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO International Innovation Grant, which directly supports research being conducted by investigators in low- and middle-income countries. Advancing Cancer...
To provide a forum for key cancer stakeholders to join with business, finance, and legal thought leaders to explore the future course for oncology, ASCO is co-hosting the seventh annual Cancer Center Business Summit on October 24 and 25 in Chicago, Illinois. Designed as a resource for the business...
As a cancer care specialist, it can be easy to become hyperfocused on your area of expertise within your subspecialty. But that’s exactly what ASCO wants its members—in all specialties—to avoid. The theme of this year’s Breast Cancer Symposium—Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Clinical...
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 15, 2013, radium Ra 223 dichloride (Xofigo) was...
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease.1 This concept has been supported by more than 4 decades of studies showing distinct outcomes of subsets of patients that differ in age, disease type (primary vs secondary vs therapy-related), and cytogenetic and...
One-quarter of women who should take hormone-blocking therapies as part of their breast cancer treatment either do not start or do not complete the 5-year course, according to a new study led by University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers. For many women with hormone...
The close association between cancer and thrombosis has been recognized now for more than 150 years.1 Not only is it now known that patients with cancer are at substantially increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism, even prior to the diagnosis of cancer, but the association between...
ASCO has released a new evidence-based clinical practice guideline for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis and treatment, updating the 2007 practice guideline.1 The update is based on a systematic review of literature published from December 2007 to December 2012. An Update Committee reviewed...
The FIRE-3 investigators did not report the use of salvage treatments, and this may be confounding the results, according to Richard Goldberg, MD, who discussed the paper at an ASCO press briefing. Dr. Goldberg is Professor of Medicine at The Ohio State University, Columbus. “The study shows a...
In patients with advanced colorectal cancer, it remains unclear which biologic agent added to standard chemotherapy is best, even after a head-to-head comparison of two commonly used agents. In the phase III FIRE-3 trial, conducted by the German AIO CRC Study Group, the addition of cetuximab...
“Prostate cancer is a heterogeneous disease and has not yet benefitted from personalized medicine discoveries. Anything that gets us closer to personalized medicine [for prostate cancer] is a plus,” said Michael J. Morris, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New...
At least 12 different genetic tests for prostate cancer are under development. The two tests currently available are Oncotype DX (Genomic Health, Redwood City, California) and Prolaris (Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Salt Lake City). Both tests can identify which low-risk patients are “truly” at low...
Priya Rastogi, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, discussed the findings at the session. She noted that previous studies have also shown higher pathologic complete response rates among HER2-enriched patients who were hormone receptor–negative, and...
As a neoadjuvant regimen for HER2-positive early breast cancer, the use of two HER2-directed agents was no more effective than trastuzumab (Herceptin) alone in producing pathologic complete responses, although one subset of patients did benefit from this approach, according to the results of the...
New treatments for melanoma and cervical cancer were cited as the most important subjects of new clinical information presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meerting, according to the second annual ASCO Impact Report released recently by Encuity Research. New treatments for melanoma, with an emphasis...
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, The ASCO Post caught up with new President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, Chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, for a glimpse of his plans for ASCO in the coming year, and his thoughts on being elected ASCO...
“These three excellent, encouraging, tantalizing studies show that we really are making progress in the treatment of chronic CLL, whereas 10 to 12 years ago, we had no real progress to report,” stated Kanti R. Rai, MD, Chief, CLL Research Program, North Shore-LIJ Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY. ...
A trio of presentations at the ASCO Annual Meeting focused on two promising investigational drugs for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). These two drugs—idelalisib and obinutuzumab—join a list of new approaches showing potential. Idelalisib Alone A phase I dose-ranging study of...
The investigational heat shock protein (Hsp)90 inhibitor ganetespib plus docetaxel extended overall survival compared with docetaxel alone as second-line therapy in patients with advanced non–small cell adenocarcinoma of the lung that had progressed on first-line therapy in the randomized phase II...
Encouraging results were seen in a preliminary study of a second-generation ALK inhibitor in advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The drug—dubbed LDK378—achieved tumor shrinkage in almost all patients enrolled in the study, in all mutational subsets, in crizotinib...
On June 13, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that isolated human genes may not be patented. However, the creation of synthetic forms of DNA, known as complementary DNA (cDNA), is eligible for patent protection. The decision resolves the question brought before the Supreme Court justices in...
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, studies evaluating the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard therapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme patients did not meet their primary endpoints. When paired with irinotecan, however, bevacizumab showed activity in MGMT-unmethylated tumors....
Two studies published in Journal of Clinical Oncology indicate that treatment-related symptoms and mammographic density reduction may predict whether a woman with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer will benefit from adjuvant endocrine therapy. In one study, women who had specific adverse...
Men who have metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and have used docetaxel reported a higher prevalence and greater severity of pain than docetaxel-naive patients, according to results of an anonymous survey conducted at five comprehensive cancer centers in the Prostate Cancer Clinical...
The use of advanced treatment technologies, such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy and robotic prostatectomy, has increased among men unlikely to die from prostate cancer, according to a retrospective analysis of data from almost 56,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2009....
Surveying a population-based and health system–based cohort of patients receiving radiation therapy for incurable lung cancer (defined as stage IV or stage IIIB with malignant effusion at diagnosis) revealed that “64% did not understand that [radiotherapy] was not at all likely to cure them.” These ...
Melissa Hudson, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and lead author of a study finding that 98.2% of adult survivors of childhood cancer had a chronic health condition, told The ASCO Post that she hoped that survivors’ awareness of the need for ongoing health monitoring was...
More than 98% of adult survivors of childhood cancer in a large clinically evaluated cohort had a chronic health condition, including a substantial number of previously undiagnosed problems that are more likely to occur in an older population. “These findings underscore the importance of ongoing...
I am a retired oncologist, previously an attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, with a professional lifetime experience in caring for patients with all stages of breast cancer, and now I am a regular reader of The ASCO Post. In recent months there have been several articles...
The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has named Alon Weizer, MD, MS, as Medical Director. In this new role Dr. Weizer will be responsible for managing the day-to-day clinical outpatient operations at the Cancer Center. Dr. Weizer is Associate Professor of Urology at the University...
Pearls in Neuro-oncology is guest edited by Tracy Batchelor, MD, Director, Division of Neuro-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston. The series is intended to provide the practicing oncologist with guidance in managing...
The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) has developed clinical practice recommendations for the management of multiple myeloma-related bone disease based on published study data through August 2012. Consensus of the interdisciplinary panel of clinical experts on the plasma-cell cancer was...
The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a combined research program of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. At the forefront of research to increase access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and improve outcomes, the ...
Among the more than 200 types of cancer are those called “forgotten” or “orphan” cancers, with fewer than 40,000 new cases each year. They present treatment challenges in community cancer centers. Because of the low incidence of these diseases, such as chronic myeloid leukemia, acute promyelocytic...