Glioblastoma multiforme, colorectal cancer, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma represent some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers and collectively cause more than 114,000 deaths each year in the United States. A trio of recently published basic research studies in these cancers have found...
Although gene mutations are the primary drivers of carcinogenesis, an array of complex and tumor-specific molecular interaction networks determine cancer cell behavior. To learn more about this line of inquiry, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Andrea Califano, Dr., Professor of Chemical Biology...
The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and as adjuvant therapy increased the rates of pathologic complete response in patients with triple-negative breast cancer who had lymph node involvement, according to results from the KEYNOTE-522 trial, which were...
Data from the 6-year analysis of the APHINITY trial showed that adding pertuzumab to the previous standard treatment of trastuzumab plus chemotherapy after surgery continued to reduce the risk of recurrence and death in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer, according to findings...
In the pilot phase of an ongoing randomized trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Partha Basu, MD, and colleagues found that thermal ablation and cryotherapy produced similar treatment success rates in Zambian women positive for cervical precancer on visual inspection with acetic acid. The...
In the spring of 2005, I was launching a new career as a sales consultant for a startup graphics company and wanted to cross off a few essential things on my to-do list, including getting my annual mammogram and physical, before I started my new job. Although I was surprised when I got a call from ...
Earlier this month, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) published new state-of-the-art guidelines on the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia. The guidelines were published in the journal Blood Advances.1 The 2019 ASH Clinical Practice Guidelines on Immune Thrombocytopenia, developed in...
Despite the unprecedented improvement in clinical outcomes with the advent of immune checkpoint blockade for cancer,1,2 robust biomarkers for therapeutic success as well as novel strategies to increase their efficacy are urgently needed. In addition to exploring novel immune checkpoints and other...
Multiple myeloma expert Nina Shah, MD, was born and reared in the Northeast. During grade school, she developed a passion for science that would lead to an early decision to pursue a career in medicine. “My ninth-grade biology class really got me interested in human biology, and that’s when I...
Cancer.Net provides timely, comprehensive, oncologist-approved information for patients from ASCO with support from Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation. Cancer.Net brings the expertise and resources of ASCO to people living with cancer and those who care for them to help patients and families make ...
In January 2019, Linda D. Bosserman, MD, FACP, FASCO, began her tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP). An Assistant Clinical Professor and staff physician at City of Hope, Dr. Bosserman has served on the ASCO Board of Directors and was a founding member of the TAPUR...
For the country, and for me personally, 2001 was a watershed year. In May, my mother died; the following month my brother, Dom, then 57, called to tell me he had just been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Except for some fatigue Dom had complained about at our mother’s funeral, there were no...
At the recent 2019 Symposium on Clinical Interventional Oncology (CIO) in Miami, course directors Constantino Peña, MD, FSIR, and Ripal Gandhi, MD, FSIR, FSVM, had a lot to say about this burgeoning field of oncology. In particular, interventional oncology is making inroads in therapeutic...
Two studies reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019—ClarIDHy and FIGHT-202—demonstrated clinical benefits with novel molecularly targeted agents in the treatment of advanced cholangiocarcinoma. Currently, first-line treatment for locally advanced or metastatic...
About 4 decades ago, as a young physician, I observed that most surgeons were numerator doctors; they remembered their successes and their failures, but they did not remember the frequency of either. There was no denominator. Worse, the approach to any specific surgical problem was always the...
Patients with multiple myeloma who had received a median of five prior therapies with refractory disease had a high response rate when treated with the investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy JNJ-4528, which targets B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), a protein commonly found...
The investigational bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab is showing activity in preliminary studies of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including those who are refractory to or relapsed after third-line chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. If preliminary findings are validated by...
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that women who use permanent hair dye and chemical hair straighteners may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not use these products. The study, published by Eberle et al in the International Journal of Cancer, ...
Clinical trials continue to demonstrate that combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy and other targeted therapies can improve survival for patients with triple-negative breast cancer, according to results presented at the 21st Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium in Chicago. Nearly 700...
As the Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan wrote, “The times they are a-changin’.” Heather Cheng, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Washington, Associate Member, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Director, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Prostate Cancer Genetics Clinic, quoted this line in...
In the post-trastuzumab era, a number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved targeted agents for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer are available, but there is no preferred option for third-line treatment and beyond. At the 2019 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Shanu Modi, MD,...
In 2018, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute launched a large, ambitious screening study called (PROMISE; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03689595) to identify people with premalignant precursor conditions of multiple myeloma, to understand the molecular signs of progression to myeloma...
Researchers have identified a new genetic mutation that may cause a type of familial thyroid cancer. According to the researchers, DUOX2 is the first and only mutation associated with familial thyroid cancer to be identified in a gene that is primarily expressed in the thyroid gland. These findings ...
In the pilot phase of an ongoing randomized trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Pinder et al found that thermal ablation and cryotherapy produced similar treatment success rates in Zambian women positive for cervical precancer on visual inspection with acetic acid. The investigators noted that...
Patrick J. Loehrer, MD, FASCO, of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, were selected by the ASCO Nominating Committee as candidates for President-Elect. Below, they discuss...
William G. Kaelin, Jr, MD, Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, admits that early in his research career, he and his late wife, Carolyn, would have fun...
Discussant of the abstract by Rao et al, Oreofe Olukemi Odejide, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, underscored the issues associated with intense health-care utilization near the end of life. “Several studies have shown that intense health-care utilization...
The use of billed palliative care services among Medicare beneficiaries with hematologic malignancies has risen dramatically in recent years, but most encounters still occur within days of death, according to research presented at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium.1 The analysis of...
In 1999, a team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College advocated the use of a then-novel practice: low-dose radiation CT screening for lung cancer. It captures a full thoracic image in a single breath hold, and can recognize a tumor in its earliest stages when the chance for cure is...
“There is clear evidence that patients are more likely to exercise if their oncologist tells them to do so,” reported representatives from 17 organizations participating in the Second Roundtable on Exercise and Cancer Prevention and Control. In an article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for...
Although many commentaries on studies featured in The ASCO Post call for scrutiny of the fine points, this is not the case for the recent report by Antonia et al in The Lancet Oncology (reviewed in the current issue of The ASCO Post).1 This article serves as a well-deserved victory lap for the...
“This is currently the largest data set with information on retreatment,” said formal study discussant Marleen Kok, MD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She noted there was a partial response in 11% and stable disease in 60%. “Upon initial treatment, partial...
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors offers a proportion of patients a chance at long-term disease control, resembling cure in some patients. Among the many questions about immunotherapy that remain to be resolved is whether patients who discontinue therapy and develop progressive disease can...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Navneet S. Majhail, MD, MS, about his journey from India to the Cleveland Clinic, where he is Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. He is also President of the American Society for...
Earlier this year, ASCO published the results of its new study on oncologists’ perceptions and practice behaviors regarding obesity, weight management, and related lifestyle factors in their patients both during and after cancer treatment.1 The findings from the online survey of 971 oncology...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recognized Stanley L. Schrier, MD, a Past ASH President and formerly Professor Emeritus of Medicine in Hematology at Stanford School of Medicine, California, with the 2019 Exemplary Service Award for his years of service and dedication to ASH and to...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
On October 16, 2019, an expert panel convened by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)released updated guidance and recommendations on the role of physical activity and exercise in cancer prevention and survivorship. The panel was co-chaired by Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, of the Department...
“The majority of breast cancers are hormone receptor–positive, and treatments that target the estrogen receptors are very effective, but they also cause havoc in many tissues that are dependent on estrogen for normal functioning. As a result, breast cancer survivors suffer from ongoing symptoms and ...
The term “relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma” is often used to describe advanced myeloma that has progressed through primary or salvage therapy. The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) defined the term in 2011 as disease that is “nonresponsive while on salvage therapy or progresses...
“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.” –Orison Swett Marden I was informed that my patient, a 58-year-old man recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his wife were becoming impatient waiting for me in the exam...
For Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, ensuring that every patient with cancer receives high-quality care is not an abstract goal—it is personal. Princess Dina saw firsthand the life-and-death differences that access to state-of-the-art oncology care makes in a patient’s life when...
Patients with advanced lung cancer can experience burdensome symptoms at the end of life. Pulmonologists can alleviate some of this suffering, but it’s a balancing act between doing too much and not enough, according to specialists who spoke at CHEST 2019, the annual meeting of the American College ...
For the last decade, medical experts have known that voriconazole—an antifungal medication used to prevent infections in patients with compromised immune systems—is linked to the development of particularly aggressive squamous cell carcinoma in skin exposed to ultraviolet (UV) rays. However, the...
Many nonwhite minority cancer survivors place importance on seeing doctors who share or understand their culture, but are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to be able to see such physicians, according to a new study. The study, which is one of the first nationally-representative studies to...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
The ESMO Congress continues to grow as a pivotal platform for research in clinical oncology. At the ESMO Congress 2019, important findings were showcased in more than 2,200 studies, including 93 late-breaking abstracts. The ASCO Post summarized much of that news in separate articles over several...
For one of the rarest and most aggressive of tumors—cholangiocarcinoma—two novel molecularly targeted agents yielded encouraging outcomes in advanced disease in studies reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019. In the phase III ClarIDHy trial, the risk of disease...
In studies reported at the ESMO Congress 2019, immunotherapy yielded encouraging outcomes in two gynecologic cancer populations in need of new treatments, including patients with advanced cervical cancer that is microsatellite-stable and patients previously treated for advanced endometrial cancer. ...
The third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib extended overall survival compared with the older tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib in patients with EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to late-breaking final overall survival results of the ...