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Showing 1701 - 1750Improving Quality Measurement in Cancer Care: Policy Recommendations
Quality measurement—how we assess cost and effectiveness of cancer care—cannot be separated from policy decisions that have a profound influence on the overall health-care system. At the recent ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Jennifer L. Malin, MD, PhD, Medical Director for Oncology at WellPoint, Inc, ...
German Analysis in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: Hypothesis-Generating Rather Than Definitive?
In their retrospective analysis of German High-Grade Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Held and colleagues assessed the effects of rituximab (Rituxan) and radiotherapy in patients with aggressive B-cell...
What Does ‘Myeloma’ Mean?
Over the centuries it has become clear that, as physicians, what we say and how we say it can have a major impact on those who seek our help. Our pronouncement that a patient is in remission or harbors a serious illness carries with it a large number of spoken and unspoken implications. So when we...
Innovative Payment Models Needed to Sustain Quality Cancer Care
Nationally regarded health-care expert Lee N. Newcomer, MD, MHA, began his presentation at this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium with a rhetorical question. “Why are we talking about money when we’re gathered in San Diego for 2 days to discuss some wonderful ways to impact the quality of cancer...
Steven T. Rosen, MD, Named Provost and Chief Scientific Officer of City of Hope
City of Hope has selected Steven T. Rosen, MD, the Director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, as its first Provost and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Rosen will set the scientific direction of City of Hope as it embarks on a...
Focus on the Massachusetts Society of Clinical Oncologists
The Massachusetts Society of Clinical Oncologists (MSCO) is among the oldest and largest of ASCO’s State Affiliates. Based in the same building as the Massachusetts Medical Society in Waltham, MSCO was founded in 1985 and has a growing membership of 160 members, including medical, surgical, and...
Society for Integrative Oncology Is Helping to Advance Evidence-Based, Comprehensive Integrative Health Care
Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD, was named President of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) at the organization’s 10th International Conference in October. Dr. Greenlee is Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New...
Expert Point of View: Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO
Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, the Stuart B. Padnos Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, wrote an accompanying editorial on the value of these newly developed omics-related criteria.1 Dr. Hayes pointed out that since the cloning of the human genome, there has...
NCI-Led Scientists Develop Criteria for 'Omics' Tests Used in Clinical Investigations
High-throughput “omics” technologies that generate molecular profiles on tumor specimens are increasingly being incorporated into clinical trials, but some of these assays have not been well validated, leading many in the research community to question their fitness for use in patient-care...
Activation of Innovative Lung Cancer Master Protocol Officially Announced, Enrollment to Begin in March
At a recent meeting in Washington, DC, Friends of Cancer Research and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution officially announced activation of the Lung Cancer Master Protocol, a new research strategy that has the potential to hurdle or bypass known clinical trial...
L-Type Amino Acid Transporters (LAT) Inhibition May Be a New Therapeutic Option for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
L-type amino acid transporters (LATs) uptake neutral amino acids including L-leucine into cells, stimulating mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling and protein synthesis. LAT1 and LAT3 are overexpressed at different stages of prostate cancer and are involved in increasing nutrients and stimulating cell...
HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients With Small Tumors Benefit From Low-Toxicity Regimen
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors—a breast cancer subset for whom treatment recommendations have not been established but for whom there is still risk of recurrence—and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San...
Evaluating and Screening Geriatric Patients for Treatment
One of the key questions in geriatric oncology is: How can we use all of the work geriatricians have done over the years in general geriatrics and apply that to the field of oncology? One-quarter to one-third of us are going to develop cancer throughout our lifetime, and half of the time it is...
Health IT Safety Guide
A new set of guides and interactive tools to help health-care providers more safely use electronic health information technology products, such as electronic health records (EHRs), are now available at www.HealthIT.gov. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)...
Conquer Cancer Foundation Funds Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries for the First Time
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology has announced the four recipients of the inaugural 2014 International Innovation Grant, which is a new program that underscores the Foundation’s continued commitment to improving the care of patients worldwide. The 1-year...
ASCO President Issues Statement on Major Decline in Lung Cancer
Editor’s note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued a report on lung cancer incidence trends in the United States.1 According to the report, incidence rates for lung cancer have decreased between 2005 and 2009, the period evaluated. Lung cancer incidence has...
Common Mutations May Impact Neoadjuvant Treatment Outcomes in Breast Cancer
Emerging research is suggesting that outcomes from neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be correlated with two genetic mutations that are common in breast cancer—PIK3CA and TP53. Their presence may affect response to treatment, and mutational shift after treatment may affect survival, according to studies...
Lessons Learned in Cancer Care Communication
Over the past several decades, outcomes data have traced the success stories in cancer research and therapeutics. However, during those decades of increasingly rapid scientific breakthroughs, certain psychosocial components in the continuum of cancer care were often overlooked. One such element is...
Focus on the Michigan Society of Hematology and Oncology
Founded nearly 3 decades ago in response to unfavorable changes in Medicare reimbursement regulations and growing coverage issues with Michigan’s private payers that threatened oncologists’ ability to provide quality cancer care to patients, the Michigan Society of Hematology and Oncology (MSHO)...
It’s Time to Reignite Our Nation’s Commitment to Cancer Research
As 2014 rolls in, ASCO is calling for a renewed commitment to federal funding of cancer research. In a letter sent to House and Senate Appropriations leaders, ASCO urged Congress to use spending levels in the recently passed budget to set the highest possible funding level for the National...
Serving the Underserved: Dr. Gina Villani and ASCO’s Health Disparities Committee Work to Minimize Cancer Care Gaps
It has been a little over a decade since the Institute of Medicine landmark report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care found overwhelming evidence of racial disparities in the U.S. health-care system. Since then, ASCO has been dedicated to minimizing these...
SABCS Highlights Include Findings in Triple-Negative Disease, Protective Effects of Exercise, and the Adherence-Copay Link
The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium brings together specialists from all over the world who focus on management of breast cancer. We have covered many of the important presentations in the pages of The ASCO Post and in our online Evening News. Below are summaries of additional noteworthy...
Cancer Pain: The Humbling Reality
As a medical oncologist and palliative care physician, I’ve had the privilege of caring for cancer patients and delivering primary palliative care and symptom control, as well as the chance to care for patients especially referred for complex pain and symptom problems (in secondary and even...
Leaders of ASCO, ASH, ASTRO, and NCCN Embrace Collaboration With Advanced Practitioners
Nearly 250 advanced practitioners assembled at the first annual JADPRO Live educational symposium in St. Petersburg, Florida, hosted by the Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology (JADPRO). Leaders from four prominent oncology organizations championed collaborative practice as not only...
HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patients With Small Tumors Benefit From Low-Toxicity Regimen
There may be a benefit for treating small HER2-positive tumors—a breast cancer subset for whom treatment recommendations have not been established but for whom there is still risk of recurrence—and this can be done with little toxicity, according to a multicenter study presented at the 2013 San...
The Author Replies
I read with interest the note from Jeff Boyd, PhD, Senior Vice-President for Molecular Medicine at Fox Chase Cancer Center, calling into question my recent commentary about the high costs of partly validated testing in the domain of molecular medicine. One of the oldest tricks in the book is to...
Neuro-Oncology Community Convenes in Workshop to Advance Imaging-Related Endpoints in Clinical Trials
Leaders from key cross-sections of the neuro-oncology community came together at a recent Brain Tumor Clinical Trial Endpoints Workshop to confront a critical challenge in developing and testing treatments for glioblastoma multiforme. Participants were able to adjourn the workshop with the...
Affordable Care Act to Cover Chemoprevention for Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer
On January 9, 2014, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, women at increased risk of breast cancer will be entitled to preventive medications without incurring out-of-pocket costs (with the...
ASCO Addresses Changes in Medicare for 2014
Medicare patients make up 61% of new cancer cases in the United States, and as the population ages, that proportion is expected to rise to 70% by 2030. Over the past decade, the oncology community has been financially challenged by alterations in the Medicare payment system. To address the changes...
Who Pays for Noncompliance? The Hidden Costs of Our Current System
The development of novel targeted therapies that capitalize on our growing understanding of the molecular underpinnings and vulnerabilities of specific malignancies has to rank among the most important advances we have seen in the 50 years since the American Society of Clinical Oncology was...
Colorectal Cancer Survivors Face Challenges With Bowel Regulation
The fight against colorectal cancer leaves many survivors with battle wounds, according to studies that show a high incidence of assorted morbidities that can affect quality of life. Clinicians, in fact, may be unaware of the struggles with bowel function that occur during survivorship, researchers ...
The Evolution of U.S. Cooperative Group Trials: Publicly Funded Cancer Research at a Crossroads
Over the past 5 decades, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups have played an enormous role in the fight against cancer, tackling a broad social agenda, including cancer prevention, quality-of-life issues for patients with cancer, and comparison of benefits among...
Greatly Frustrated by Congressional Failure to Act on Sustainable Growth Rate
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is deeply frustrated by the failure of Congress to permanently repeal the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula used to set Medicare physician payments and passage of the 17th patch to the system. ASCO and the entire physician community worked ...
Transition From Busy Oncologist to Retiree: Challenges and Opportunities
Oncology is a demanding field that requires special qualities to care for very sick patients, many of whom will die prematurely of their disease. Research indicates that years of facing life-and-death decisions in the clinic can be associated with oncology burnout syndrome, which effects physician...
Breast Reconstruction Has Increased Over Time but Varies Widely by Region
Analysis of data from 20,560 women undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer found that breast reconstruction use “increased from 46% in 1998 to 63% in 2007 (P< .001), with increased use of implants and decreased use of autologous techniques over time (P < .001),” according to a report...
Shaw T. Chen, MD, PhD, Joins Polaris Pharmaceuticals
Shaw T. Chen, MD, PhD, has been appointed Executive Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs at Polaris Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Polaris Group. Dr. Chen had previously been with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for over 26 years in new drug development. Most recently he served as...
Determining Why Younger Women With Breast Cancer Are Less Likely to Survive Than Their Older Counterparts
Although cancer survival rates among pediatric and older adult patients continue to rise, survival rates for adolescents and young adults (AYAs), defined by the National Cancer Institute as those between the ages of 15 and 39, have remained stagnant for decades. In breast cancer especially, AYAs...
NIH Opens Its Doors to Research for Extramural/Intramural Collaboration
Ten projects that will enable nongovernment researchers to conduct clinical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, were announced recently. Through these 3-year, renewable awards of up to $500,000 per year, scientists from institutions across the...
Targeting Cancer Stem Cells in Breast Cancer: A Potential Clinical Strategy
Preclinical models have suggested that cancer stem cells play a role in tumor recurrence and metastasis following adjuvant therapy, and Max S. Wicha, MD, and his research team are deciphering the mechanisms by which this might happen. A true understanding of cancer stem cells will have important...
PD-L1 Studied as Biomarker for Anti–PD-1 Immunotherapy
The anti–PD-1 inhibitor MK-3475 (formerly lambrolizumab) is in late-stage trials for advanced melanoma and is also being studied in other malignancies, including non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). An important aspect of Merck’s development program for MK-3475, as well as for other anti–PD-1 agents ...
SIDEBAR: Statement From ASH President Linda J. Burns, MD, on Release of Medicare Physician Payment Data
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a large and complex set of data about the number and type of health-care services that individual physicians and certain other health-care professionals delivered in 2012, and the amount Medicare paid them for those services. The data,...
Collaborative Exchange: The Expanded Access Program and Uridine Triacetate
The panel discussed the various aspects of obtaining a drug such as uridine triacetate through the expanded access program. Ms. Vogel: The expanded access program allows companies to provide patients access to their medicines while the drugs are still in preapproval process, but it is strictly...
Breaking Bad News Badly Can Add to Upset
When the prognosis is poor, breaking the bad news badly can exacerbate the distress experienced by cancer patients and their families. A lack of sensitivity to patient and family emotions and not being attuned to how individual patients would prefer to be informed about their prognoses can result...
ASCO Cofounder Jane Cooke Wright, MD, Defied Racial/Gender Barriers and Helped Usher in the Modern Age of Chemotherapy
When Jane Cooke Wright, MD, met with six other oncologists at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago on April 9, 1964, to discuss the creation of American Society of Clinical Oncology, the first medical society dedicated to bringing patient-oriented issues to clinical oncology, the Civil Rights Act...
AACR–ASCO Transition
My Presidency was a transitional year; it was the first time that ASCO had a meeting separate from the American Association for Cancer Research. Since ASCO was thought to be simply a science-light organization that focused solely on clinical trials, the pressure was on to establish an independent...
Cancer Prevention
One highlight of serving as ASCO President is working with the outstanding staff—to name just a few, Executive Vice President Charles M. Balch, MD; Chief Operating Officer Ron Beller, PhD; Jean Colvard; Roseanna Thoman; and all the Department heads. During my Presidency, we undertook some very...
Personalizing Cancer Care
Durng my Presidency we completely revamped the way the ASCO Board of Directors works by creating various subcommittees and a much more deliberate strategic planning process. In effect, the Board members took more ownership of ASCO’s agenda, planning the future of the Society rather than dealing...
SIDEBAR: Research Groups in South America
Although cancer research in South America has been largely led by the pharmaceutical industry, a number of independent research groups are active in the region. Peru: GECOPERU and INEN The Peruvian Oncology Clinical Studies Group (Grupo de Estudios Clínicos Oncológicos Peruano, or GECOPERU...
ASCO Committee Defines Clinically Meaningful Goals for Clinical Trials in Pancreas, Breast, Lung, and Colorectal Cancers
The ASCO Cancer Research Committee recently convened four disease-specific working groups—in pancreas, breast, lung, and colon cancers—to “consider the design of future clinical trials that would produce results that are clinically meaningful to patients.” An ASCO perspective statement, reported in ...
ASCO Launches New Resources for Providers and Patients to Address Link Between Obesity and Cancer
As the obesity epidemic takes its toll on the nation’s health, ASCO is making strides to address this growing concern as it relates to cancer. ASCO has developed a suite of educational resources designed to help oncology providers educate their patients about the negative effects of obesity on...
