Chris Marshall, FRS, FMedSci, a rigorous scientist with a lasting legacy of game-changing discoveries in cancer research and generous support for his younger colleagues, has died at 66. The cause of death was colorectal cancer. Professor Marshall was the Head of the Division for Cancer Biology at...
Carolyn Mary Kaelin, MD, MPH, FACS, died on July 28 at the age of 54. A gifted and compassionate breast cancer surgeon, Dr. Kaelin was a surgical oncologist in the Women’s Cancers Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Center and Director of the Breast Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kaelin...
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and the ...
Diane Simeone, MD, Director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center at the University of Michigan, was recently named the Upcoming Chair of the National Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). Her 2-year term as Chair runs from 2017 to 2019. Dr. Simeone will ...
Thomas J. Lynch Jr, MD, Director of Yale Cancer Center and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, left Yale in August to become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. Dr. Lynch joined Yale Cancer Center as Director in 2009 ...
Bookmark Title: The Cancer Solution: Taking Charge of Your Life With CancerAuthor: Jack C. Westman, MD, MSPublisher: Archway PublishingPublication date: January 15, 2015Price: $20.00; paperback, 310 pages I was at a meeting in San Francisco in 1978 and received a call from my wife, Nancy:...
Through the Lens of Oncology History: A Century of Progress The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The photos below are from the volume titled “The...
New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center announced the appointment of physician-scientist and brain tumor specialist Andrew S. Chi, MD, PhD, as Chief of Neuro-Oncology for its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center and Co-Director of the NYU Langone Brain Tumor Center. In his new role,...
Iuliana Shapira, MD, has joined SUNY Downstate Medical Center as Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology. In this position, Dr. Shapira will provide leadership in the clinical, academic, and administrative aspects of the program, as well as broaden the relationship with SUNY Downstate’s...
Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, has been recruited to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to lead a new Center for Immunobiology, a structure supported by the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, the Department of Medicine, and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). He took on his ...
W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Alexander Professor for Translational Science and Associate Director for Training and Education at the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named Director of Vanderbilt’s Division of Hematology and Oncology. She began her new...
Despite enormous advances in modern medicine and the explosion of biomedical information over the past century, the way medical education is taught in the United States is stuck in a format that does not optimize learning, according to Charles Prober, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education ...
Access to cancer medicines—including some old standbys—is inconsistent across Europe, depriving many patients of treatments that are the standard of care elsewhere,1 according to Alexandru E. Eniu, MD, PhD, Chair of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Emerging Countries Committee and...
Breast cancer expert Massimo Cristofanilli, MD, has been appointed Associate Director for Precision Medicine and Translational Research at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and Director of Northwestern Onco-SET (Sequence, Evaluate, Treat). Dr. Cristofanilli ...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected 17 distinguished members to receive the ASTRO Fellows designation. The 2015 class of Fellows will receive the recognition at the Awards Ceremony at ASTRO’s 57th Annual Meeting on Tuesday, October 20 in San Antonio, Texas. ASTRO...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Long et al1 have reported the final overall survival analysis of the COMBI-d phase III trial comparing combination therapy with the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and the MEK inhibitor trametinib (Mekinist) to monotherapy with dabrafenib alone,...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has named Keith Perry, MBA, as Chief Information Officer (CIO) to provide strategic counsel and leadership for the hospital’s information technology initiatives. “Our internal information technology systems and operations play a critical role in the success...
In January 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced changes related to the easing of sanctions on Cuba, which loosened some restrictions on travel for Americans, although some rules still apply. There are 12 legal categories of travel to Cuba,...
It’s been 10 years since floodwaters washed away lives in New Orleans—for most, figuratively or temporarily, but for more than 1,800, literally. We who call this place home all lost something—homes, possessions, jobs, pets, loved ones, our sanity. Mold and muck marked our days for a long time, but...
Pasquale W. Benedetto, MD, the Leonard M. Miller Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, recently spoke at the 2015 New Orleans Summer Cancer Meeting about his approach to diagnosing and treating germ cell tumors in men.1 The ASCO Post was there to...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences is partnering with Sage Bionetworks for “Up for a Challenge (U4C): Stimulating Innovation in Breast Cancer Genetic Epidemiology.” This prize competition aims to explore the genomic basis of breast cancer in...
You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails,” said Mindy Greenstein, PhD, consulting psychologist and author, to begin her talk at the 2015 World Congress of Psycho-Oncology, held in July in Washington, DC. The sense of this proverb pervaded the entire session on cancer and aging....
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has elected three new officers to the Board of Directors and three members to serve on the Nominating Committee. Terms for all positions begin on October 20, 2015 at ASTRO’s 57th Annual Meeting. The new officers to the Board of Directors are:...
The International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) announced four award winners at the 2015 World Congress of Psycho-Oncology, held July 28 to August 1 in Washington, DC. Arthur M. Sutherland Award: William H. Redd, PhD Dr. Redd is Professor of Oncological Sciences at the Mount Sinai Hospital. He is...
Detectable oral HPV16 DNA in oral rinses post treatment for oropharyngeal cancer appears to be a harbinger of poor prognosis and can predict recurrence. Oral HPV16 DNA rinses are a potential tool for long-term tumor surveillance, according to a study selected for the Best of ASCO® 2015.1 “The goal ...
Two separate retrospective studies have further refined our understanding of the respective contributions of surgery and radiotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer. However, these studies are not definitive, and “gold standard” trials are needed to arrive at definitive recommendations. Both...
With a growing number of options for follicular lymphoma, clinicians may wonder whether there is one best regimen. James O. Armitage, MD, FACP, FRCP, Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska, Omaha—and Editor-in-Chief of The ASCO Post—tackled this question and offered recommendations at...
What first intrigued Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, FACP, about the prospect of becoming the 16th President of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon was the chance to give back to an institution and a country that had given him so much. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1963, Dr. Khuri was raised ...
The long wait for monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of multiple myeloma is over. In the landmark ELOQUENT-2 study, reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Lonial and colleagues convincingly demonstrate the effectiveness of elotuzumab, a monoclonal antibody directed against SLAMF7, in the...
ASCO Answers: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care explains the various costs associated with cancer treatment, including health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a list of financial resources available to help offset expenses related to care and tips for organizing...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, an expert in immunotherapy and melanoma, will join the senior faculty of NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center. Dr. Weber will serve as Deputy Director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center and Codirector of its Melanoma Program and will...
Gianni Bonadonna, MD, was considered the “Father of Italian Oncology,” but his scientific contributions to the field and his generous collegial spirit extended far beyond the shores of his native land. Dr. Bonadonna was at the forefront in the battle to convince the surgical establishment that...
BOOKMARK Title: The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-life CareAuthor: Angelo E. Volandes, MDPublisher: BloomsburyPublication date: January 13, 2015Price: $26.00; hardcover, 240 pages A quick Google search on books about end-of-life care will yield pages of hits on the subject. The...
BOOKMARK Title: The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles With the Heroes of the HospitalAuthor: Alexandra RobbinsPublisher: Workman Publishing CompanyPublication date: April 14, 20155Price: $17.53; hardcover, 368 pages Florence Nightingale, the most famous and influential figure in...
OCTOBER Advances in Cancer ImmunotherapyTMOctober 2 • Nashville, Tennessee For more information: www.sitcancer.org/sitc-meetings/aci2015/tn Institute for Clinical Immuno-Oncology (ICLIO) 1st Annual National ConferenceOctober 2 • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania For more information:...
BOOKMARK Title: 10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and HappinessAuthor: Alanna CollenPublisher: Harper CollinsPublication date: April 27, 2015Price: $39.99; hardcover, 400 pages "As I walked back through the forest that night in the summer of 2005, with twenty bats in...
Valerae O. Lewis, MD, has been named Chair of Orthopaedic Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Lewis has been a faculty member at MD Anderson for 15 years, serving in a variety of roles. The unit she will lead, the Department of Orthopaedic Oncology, is a new...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Chlebowski and colleagues1 reported differing patterns of breast cancer risk during or after hormonal therapy with estrogen plus progestin2 or estrogen alone,3 in an analysis of two Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials. This recent update on risk...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and The UNM Cancer Center (UNMCC) at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center status. An NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center must demonstrate depth and breadth of...
Bristol-Myers Squibb and AbbVie recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for priority review the Biologics License Application for elotuzumab, an investigational signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAMF7)-directed immunostimulatory antibody, for the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) as post–autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation consolidation treatment for patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma at high risk of relapse or progression, Seattle Genetics has announced. The approval is...
ASCO University has released an updated version of ASCO’s Curricula for Advanced Practice Providers (ACAPP™). This popular series assists with the orientation of advanced practice providers (APPs) into oncology practices—a growing need as increasing numbers of APPs are hired to meet the demand for...
Northwestern University has received a 5-year, $11.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to use nanotechnology to develop next-generation cancer treatments. With NCI support, the new Northwestern University Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (Northwestern CCNE) will use...
The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University announced the addition of medical oncologist Barbara Pro, MD. A leader in the research and treatment of lymphomas, Dr. Pro joined the Lurie Cancer Center in September 2015. She has been appointed Professor of Medicine in...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rolapitant (Varubi) to prevent delayed-phase chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Rolapitant is approved in adults in combination with other antiemetic agents that prevent nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected seven leading physician-researchers to receive a total of $675,000 in awards and grants to advance radiation oncology research. Together, the grants will support studies in cancer biology, radiation physics, translational research,...
Carl H. June, MD, an internationally recognized leader in the growing field of immunotherapy, was awarded the Watanabe Prize at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) on September 11 on the campus of Indiana University–Purdue University...
Chang Chang, PhD, a leader in proton therapy medical physics, has been named Director of Physics at Texas Center for Proton Therapy. Previously, as Senior Medical Physicist at ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Somerset, New Jersey, Dr. Chang was involved in the commissioning of new proton technology ...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has chosen three radiation oncology physicians and researchers to receive the 2015 ASTRO Gold Medal: Carl R. Bogardus, Jr, MD, FASTRO; Carl M. Mansfield, MD, ScD (Hon), FASTRO; and James B. Mitchell, PhD, FASTRO. Drs. Bogardus, Mansfield, and...