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Showing 16401 - 16450SIDEBAR: Stay Tuned for More Information on Neuropathy-related Genes
According to Daniel F. Hayes, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who moderated the Best of ASCO® Miami conference, taxane-induced neuropathy is a more complicated story than the study by Schneider and colleagues may suggest. “There are now three observations regarding inherited germline ...
Other Breast Cancer Studies of Note
At this year’s Best of ASCO® Miami meeting, Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, discussed several studies he found interesting and relevant to clinical practice. Genomic Assays One study examined two genomic assays for ER-positive breast cancer, Oncotype DX and PAM50, and found considerable overlap among the ...
SIDEBAR: Studies Sparked Questions to Breast Cancer Specialists
Based on the MAP.3 findings, should we be using exemestane to prevent breast cancer in high-risk patients? Dr. Harold Burstein: The risk of developing breast cancer was 2.5% in the placebo arm, vs 1% to 1.5% risk with exemestane. Also, the cancers that were avoided were probably ones with good...
Breast Cancer Studies Explore Wide Variety of Prevention and Treatment Strategies, Offering New Insights
At the Best of ASCO® meeting in Miami, Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and Carey K. Anders, MD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presented high-impact breast cancer abstracts that will enable clinicians to optimize their use of radiotherapy and biologics. ...
SIDEBAR: Searching for More Efficacious, Less Toxic Adjuvant Chemotherapy for NSCLC
Accumulating data are helping to better define the risk-benefit profile of various adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the impact of adding biologic agents to the mix, according to H. Jack West, MD, of the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle. In the randomized ...
Incremental Advances Demonstrated in Management of Locoregional Lung Cancer
Data presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting this year on the management of locoregional lung cancer present a mixed picture, with some advances and some disappointments, according to H. Jack West, MD, of the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, who reviewed studies in this area at the Best of ASCO...
SIDEBAR: Molecular Heterogeneity Complicates Management of Resistance
The molecular heterogeneity of lung cancers will make it a challenge to manage resistance in this era of targeted therapy, according to D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, of the University of Colorado, Denver. A case in point: the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) story. Recently updated data for crizotinib ...
Research Increasingly Points to the Role of Molecular Diversity in Metastatic Lung Cancer
Molecular diversity—its existence, extent, and implications for therapy—was a central theme of key metastatic lung cancer studies presented at this year’s ASCO meeting, according to D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, of the University of Colorado, Denver, who addressed major findings in advanced lung cancer ...
Special Supplement: Reports from Best of ASCO® Annual Meeting '11
The ASCO Post is pleased to present this special supplement with a focused review of more than 50 key abstracts from the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), as presented and discussed at the Best of ASCO ’11 meetings (July 29-30, 2011, Miami, Florida, and August 5-6, ...
BRCA Mutation Has Little Effect on Outcome with Neoadjuvant Therapy
A retrospective analysis to determine the efficacy of neoadjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer patients with and without BRCA mutations found the overall prognosis was similar in both groups of patients. “No significant differences were noted in survival outcomes with respect to BRCA status...
Physicians Can Help Patients Set Realistic Expectations for Sexual Functioning after Treatment for Prostate Cancer
Models that can be personalized to predict erectile function of individual patients following treatment for early-stage prostate cancer have been developed and validated in a study involving a total of 2,940 men, and are ready for use in clinical practice, according to Martin G. Sanda, MD, the...
Important Briefs from the 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium
The 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium was recently held in San Francisco, bringing together a multidisciplinary group of specialists and sponsored by ASCO, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American Society of Breast Disease, the American Society of...
Bevacizumab Labeling Revised to Include New Risks
The FDA recently announced changes made to the bevacizumab (Avastin) package insert regarding new safety concerns. These changes include the following: A new Warning subsection describing the increased risk of ovarian failure in premenopausal patients receiving bevacizumab and chemotherapy and...
Gel for Blood Vessel Surgery Approved
The FDA has approved LeGoo (PluroMed Inc, Woburn, Mass), a gel that allows surgeons to temporarily stop blood flow during surgery so that they can join blood vessels without clamps or elastic loops. LeGoo has been shown to minimize blood flow into the surgical area without damaging blood vessels....
FDA Issues Safety Announcement on Dasatinib
The FDA is warning the public that the leukemia drug dasatinib (Sprycel) may increase the risk of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Information about this risk has been added to the Warnings and Precautions section of the dasatinib drug label. In reported cases, patients developed PAH after...
Expert Point of View: Panitumumab Is Not Beneficial in KRAS Mutations: No Exceptions
Axel Grothey, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, found the findings presented by Marc Peeters, MD, PhD,1 at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress to be of great interest, from both clinical and research perspectives. “We have two discrepant analyses now for G13D. When we...
Panitumumab Is Not Beneficial in KRAS Mutations: No Exceptions
The need to restrict treatment with panitumumab (Vectibix) to metastatic colorectal cancer patients with wild-type (normal) KRAS tumors was upheld in a study presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (EMCC). The investigation found a consistent lack of benefit for the drug...
New Technologies Are Driving Up Costs: Are They Worth the Price?
Expensive new cancer therapies and technologies are alluring for both physicians and their patients. Prostate cancer, because of the sheer volume of cases and the variability of treatment options, serves as a dynamic disease model in the ongoing debate over how to curb spending and maintain...
Coming Soon—Survivorship Booklet for Patients and Their Families
A new booklet from Cancer.Net explains survivorship and gives an overview of the challenges faced by cancer survivors. It provides the next steps cancer survivors can take after treatment, including the importance of follow-up care, rehabilitation, managing long-term side effects, and maintaining...
ASCO Symposium Helps Practices Leverage Health IT, Understand EHR Policy Changes
To help community oncology practices and large institutions navigate recent health-care policy changes and leverage health information technology (HIT) to improve the quality of care, ASCO will hold the 2011 HIT/EHR Symposium at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta on November 4–5. “This symposium ...
GI Symposium Helps Oncologists Stay Abreast of Fast-moving Research
Gastrointestinal cancers are a key therapeutic area in research, and science is moving forward in that arena at a fast clip. But how are those who focus on gastrointestinal malignancies in the clinic supposed to stay on top of it all? One great way is to attend the annual Gastrointestinal Cancers...
Susan Halabi, PhD, Is Helping to Fund Future of Cancer Research
Susan Halabi, PhD, thinks in terms of probabilities. Based at Duke University School of Medicine, where she is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Dr. Halabi specializes in the design and analysis of clinical trials, statistical analysis of biomarker and microarray data, and ...
A Conversation with Richard J. Gilbertson, MD, PhD
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, the country’s first and only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, recently appointed internationally regarded pediatric brain tumor researcher, Richard J. Gilbertson, MD, PhD, as its new Cancer Center Director. In a...
Do We Need the USPSTF?
Like most of the folks reading this commentary, I’m a taxpayer. Although I sometimes become impatient with the strategic games on Capitol Hill, I basically appreciate that government helps many things to work, and some of them even work well. However, there are aspects of government function that...
FDA Commissioner Announces Decision on Bevacizumab
On November 18, FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, said she is revoking the agency’s approval of the breast cancer indication for bevacizumab (Avastin) after concluding that the drug has not been shown to be safe and effective for that use. Bevacizumab will still remain on the market as an...
ASCO Supports the United Nations Political Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases
In September, government leaders from around the world as well as representatives from civil society, the private sector and academia gathered at the United Nations in New York for the first-ever summit on the growing economic and human crisis posed by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), especially in ...
Rates of Surgery and Survival Increasing for Early-stage Cancers
Surgery is increasingly being used to treat patients with early-stage laryngeal cancer in the United States, and chemotherapy in combination with radiation therapy is being used increasingly to treat patients in an advanced stage of the disease, according to a report in the October issue of...
Alternative Treatment for Advanced Ovarian Cancer Reduces Neurotoxicity and Alopecia
A randomized phase III clinical trial found that carboplatin/pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil) was not superior in prolonging progression compared to the standard carboplatin/paclitaxel as first-line therapy of patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The carboplatin/liposomal doxorubicin...
Fewer False-positives, Small Increased Risk of Late Diagnosis with Biennial Mammography
Screening mammography every other year reduced false-positive recalls by about one-third compared to annual screening, but was associated with a small increase in the probability of late-stage cancer diagnosis, according to a study funded by the NCI and published in Annals of Internal Medicine. To...
Low-level Expression of ESR1 Tied to Tamoxifen Resistance
Data from a retrospective analysis of two pivotal breast cancer studies suggest that the low-level expression of the estrogen receptor (ER) gene ESR1 “is a determinant of tamoxifen resistance in ER-positive breast cancer,” reported researchers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “We performed...
Oxaliplatin Improved Overall Survival in Patients under 70
The addition of oxaliplatin to fluorouracil (5-FU) plus leucovorin improved overall survival in patients younger than 70 years old participating in the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) C-07 trial. Patients eligible for the trial had either stage II or III colon cancer and ...
Should Age at Initial Screening Colonoscopy Be Younger for Men?
A study to investigate the most appropriate age for initial screening colonoscopy to improve detection of adenomas, advanced adenomas, and colorectal cancer, and lower colorectal cancer mortality found that the most appropriate age might be different for men and women. “In our study, analysis of...
MRI Helps Predict Survival Outcomes in Patients with Rectal Cancer
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used after neoadjuvant therapy for rectal cancer to predict survival outcomes for good and poor responders and offer patients additional treatment options before definitive surgery, according to a study conducted at 11 specialist colorectal cancer units in...
Adjuvant Trastuzumab in Nonanthracycline Regimen Studied
One of four large, randomized trials to evaluate adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer—and the only study to include a nonanthracycline chemotherapy regimen—found that regimen had similar efficacy to anthracycline-containing regimens, but with lower rates of...
Challenging Perceptions about Treatment Options for Younger Women with Early-stage Breast Cancer
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. “There is a perception out there...
A Conversation with Craig B. Thompson, MD
In November 2010, Craig B. Thompson, MD, was named President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, succeeding Harold Varmus, MD, who is now Director of the NCI. A cancer clinician and researcher, before coming to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Dr. Thompson was Director of...
Expert Point of View: Lessening Patients’ Suffering at the End of Life
In her interview with The ASCO Post, Judith Redwing Keyssar, RN, sheds light on easing the suffering of patients facing the end of life. Although what she says is appropriate for patients who are clearly dying, I would emphasize that palliative care is also pertinent to patients who are not...
A Conversation with Judith Redwing Keyssar, RN
The number of patients seeking hospice and palliative care has grown significantly since 1974, when the NCI funded the first hospice facility in Branford, Connecticut. Nevertheless, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, 85% of Americans still die in hospitals or nursing homes....
FDA Approves Cetuximab to Treat Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer
On November 7, the FDA approved cetuximab (Erbitux) in combination with platinum-based therapy plus fluorouracil (5-FU) for the first-line treatment of patients with recurrent locoregional disease and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The approval was based primarily on...
Geriatric Oncology, a Much Needed Discipline for Future Cancer Care
The U.S. health-care system, with its rapidly aging population, faces a multitude of difficult clinical and financial challenges in caring for its burgeoning population of older patients with cancer. Moreover, age-related social and medical issues among older patients need to be addressed by a...
American Society of Hematology Recognizes Christoph Klein, MD, PhD, with William Dameshek Prize
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor Christoph Klein, MD, PhD, of Children’s Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, with the 2011 William Dameshek Prize, at the upcoming Annual Meeting in San Diego. Dr. Klein is being recognized by ASH for his many...
Biosimilars in Cancer Treatment: What Should the Oncology Community Expect?
Alternative versions of biologic agents, ie, “biosimilars,” will presumably be getting the green light by the FDA, giving oncologists more choices for treatments that come at lower costs to patients and society. The FDA plans to issue its guidance on biosimilars by the end of this year, paving the...
Test for AML Prognosis Cleared by FDA
Abbott announced today it has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for a new in vitro diagnostic test to aid in determining the prognosis of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) Abbott’s Vysis EGR1 FISH Probe Kit, the third Abbott fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay approved or...
VGX-100 Investigational New Drug Application Approved
The Australian biotechnology company Circadian Technologies announced that its subsidiary, Vegenics Pty Ltd, has received approval for its investigational new drug (IND) application from the FDA to initiate clinical trials of VGX-100. The first phase I trial will study VGX-100 in patients with a...
FDA Approves Molecular Test to Detect HPV
Gen-Probe recently announced that the FDA has approved its APTIMA HPV assay, an amplified nucleic acid test that detects high-risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that are associated with cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. The test has been approved to run on Gen-Probe’s fully...
Tamoxifen vs Surgery Study Shows Older Patients with Breast Cancer Can Achieve a ‘Personal Cure’
A truly final review—when all the patients in the trial have died and the cause of death is known for each—of a randomized trial comparing tamoxifen to surgery in patients over the age of 70 with operable breast cancer found no differences in the survival rates or deaths attributable to breast...
Help Your Patients Understand Lung Cancer
Did you know that November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month? For an introduction to lung cancer, direct your patients to the fact sheet ASCO Answers: Lung Cancer at www.cancer.net/factsheets. For more detailed information, your patients can read the Cancer.Net Guide to Lung Cancer at...
ASCO in Action Online: Your Source for Policy News and Information
The recently enhanced ASCO in Action site ascoaction.asco.org is a one-stop source for the latest policy news related to quality cancer care and research. Whether it is information about legislation that affects cancer patients or oncology practices, easy links to ASCO’s recent policy positions,...
ASCO Journal Apps Now Available for iPad and iPhone
Users of the market-leading mobile devices have been able to access optimized versions of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) websites since the spring of 2011. Now, iPad and iPhone users can download free JCO and JOP apps from the iTunes store. Smooth and...
Oncology’s Only Benchmark Report, National Practice Benchmark, Is Now a Yearly JOP Supplement
Would it surprise you to learn that 40% of your peers in oncology who responded to a survey last year have a certified electronic medical record system in place? Or that 86% of them are in physician-owned practices? Or that the average number of full-time equivalent hematology/oncology physicians...
