UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA (UCLA) researchers Leonard Marks, MD, and Shyam Natarajan, PhD, will lead a $3.1 million research project grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health to advance the adoption of a promising new technology to treat men with prostate cancer. By helping to increase the ...
Kathleen M. Schmeler, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, was given the “Heroes in Medicine” award from Physician’s Weekly in May 2016. Her primary work is in cervical cancer...
PRIYANKA SHARMA, MD, a breast cancer medical oncologist at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, has been named Vice Chair of SWOG’s Breast Committee. SWOG, formerly the Southwest Oncology Group, is a global cancer research community that designs and conducts publicly funded clinical trials. It ...
PAUL E. OBSERSTEIN, MD, will join New York University (NYU) Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center as Director of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology and Assistant Director of the institution’s recently established Pancreatic Cancer Center. Prior to his new post at NYU Langone, Dr....
THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT has been awarded the 2017 Prince Mahidol Award, a Thai Royal Family annual award for groundbreaking advances in the fields of medicine and public health. The award was received on behalf of the project by Eric Green, MD, PhD, Director of the National Human Genome Research...
MADHAV V. DHODAPKAR, MBBS, a world-renowned expert in cancer immunology and translational immunotherapy, joined Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University as Director of the new Winship Center for Cancer Immunology. He has been appointed as the Anise McDaniel Brock Chair, Georgia Research...
ON FEBRUARY 7, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) tablets in combination with prednisone for metastatic high-risk castration-sensitive prostate cancer. The FDA initially approved abiraterone acetate with prednisone in 2011 for patients with...
It is well established that adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer—defined by the National Cancer Institute as those between the ages of 15 and 39 years—have not reaped a comparable survival benefit as either younger or older adult cancer survivors over the past 4 decades, despite...
Law and Ethics in Oncology explores the legal and ethical issues oncologists must be aware of in this era of precision medicine and changing health-care policy, both to protect patients’ rights and to safeguard against potential legal jeopardy. Increasingly, across the United States, hospitals are...
TOPLINE RESULTS of the phase III ARROW trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02412878) were recently announced by Amgen. The study showed carfilzomib (Kyprolis) administered once weekly at 70 mg/m2 with dexamethasone allowed patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma to live 3.6 months ...
OBESE PATIENTS with metastatic melanoma who are treated with targeted or immune therapies live significantly longer than those with a normal body mass index (BMI), according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology of 1,918 patients in 6 independent clinical cohorts.1 This effect—referred to as ...
AS REPORTED in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Arlene A. Forastiere, MD, of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline update on the use of larynx-preservation strategies in the treatment of laryngeal cancer.1...
A DETAILED quality-of-life analysis of the phase III EF-14 trial of tumor-treating fields (Optune) in combination with temozolomide for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma was published by Taphoorn et al in JAMA Oncology.1 This secondary endpoint analysis showed the addition of...
“THE RESULTS of these two trials are more similar than different. I think the best conclusion would be that we now have two trials with consistent results and can probably, in most cases, replace low–molecular-weight heparin with direct oral anticoagulants,” said Dr. Raskob, lead investigator of...
THE FIRST TWO randomized trials to directly compare direct oral anticoagulants vs low–molecular-weight heparin for management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer suggest that direct oral anticoagulants may become the new standard of care.1,2 Direct oral anticoagulants appear to...
SINCE SEPTEMBER 2017, the national nonprofit organization CancerCare has raised nearly $665,000 to provide direct financial assistance for people with cancer who have been impacted by hurricanes. The majority of this support has been allocated to people with cancer in Puerto Rico, many of whom are...
FEBRUARY 4 was World Cancer Day, which raises awareness for the millions of people worldwide facing unequal access to cancer detection, treatment, and care services. Oncology leaders, health-care professionals, and supporters across the world are pushing for urgent action to reduce the rate of...
As reported by Petrylak et al in JAMA Oncology, long-term follow-up of patients in a phase I study expansion cohort indicated enduring clinical benefit and maintained tolerability of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Study Details The study involved...
In a study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kleppe et al found that a novel marker for chromatin organization in tumor cell nuclei was associated with outcome in a variety of cancer types. Study Details In the study, machine learning algorithms analyzed chromatin organization in 461,000 images of ...
In a European phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dimopoulos et al found that pomalidomide (Pomalyst) plus low-dose dexamethasone produced responses in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and renal impairment. Study Details In the study, 81 patients with ...
Combining ultrasound imaging with a blood test for high alpha fetoprotein levels may improve detection of early-stage liver cancer by as much as 40%, researchers at UT Southwestern’s Simmons Cancer Center found. Their findings were presented by Tzartzeva et al in Gastroenterology....
A family history of breast cancer continues to significantly increase chances of developing invasive breast tumors in women aged 65 years and older, according to research published by Braithwaite et al in JAMA Internal Medicine. The findings could impact mammography screening decisions later in...
David Baraghoshi, of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, discusses an assessment of cardiovascular risk more than 10 years after diagnosis for colorectal cancer survivors compared with a cancer-free general population cohort (Abstract 113).
Flora E. van Leeuwen, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, discusses cardiovascular disease risk after treatment-induced primary ovarian insufficiency in female survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 114).
Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, of Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the Commission on Cancer’s efforts to promote robust survivorship care and how its new recommendations will affect clinical practice and patients.
Christopher J. Recklitis, PhD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses a study investigating the availability of supportive care sexual aids and resources for cancer survivors at U.S. cancer centers (Abstract 134).
Christopher J. Recklitis, PhD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, summarizes two key papers on mental health: suicide risk among survivors of head and neck cancer vs other types of cancer; and the fear of cancer recurrence—its associations with mental health status and individual characteristics ...
Electra D. Paskett, PhD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses study findings on whether exercise helps women with breast cancer regain arm mobility after lymph node surgery (Abstract 123).
Paul B. Jacobsen, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses his evaluation of whether survivorship care plans have a positive impact on health outcomes and health-care delivery for cancer survivors, in both the long and short term (Abstract 2).
Arti Hurria, MD, of the City of Hope, discusses ways to incorporate the principles of geriatrics into oncology care and offer targeted interventions for older survivors.
Carrie R. Howell, PhD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discusses study findings on a web-based exercise intervention for adolescent survivors, who are at increased risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome. The program was designed to improve fitness, cognition, and quality of life...
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and this year’s recipient of the Ellen Stovall Award for Advancement of Cancer Survivorship Care, discusses her 30-year-long career researching and advocating for survivors and quality care.
Genevieve Chaput, MD, of McGill University Health Centre, discusses an accredited workshop that increased primary care providers’ confidence and knowledge about cancer survivorship, which is key to supporting their growing role in post-treatment care (Abstract 20).
Lynda M. Beaupin, MD, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, discusses her findings on the factors contributing to adolescent and young adult cancer survivors not seeking follow-up care (Abstract 29).
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roemer et al found that programmed death cell ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II positivity on Hodgkin Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells may predict favorable outcome with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Grill et al found that the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to radiotherapy plus temozolomide (RT + TMZ) did not improve event-free survival in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma. Study Details In the...
On February 15, updated results were made available from the phase III JAVELIN Lung 200 trial comparing avelumab (Bavencio) to docetaxel in patients with unresectable, recurrent, or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after treatment with a...
On February 14, Amgen announced that the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will review data supporting the supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for blinatumomab (Blincyto) for the treatment of patients with minimal residual disease...
On February 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with stage III unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose cancer has not progressed after treatment with chemoradiation. “This is the first treatment...
At the heart of every ASCO program—every clinical practice guideline, every policy statement, every scientific meeting—is evidence. What do the data say? Evidence informs decision-making across the spectrum of cancer care, from the question a bench researcher will investigate to the treatment a...
Nominations are now being accepted for the William L. McGuire Award and Lectureship. The award is given annually at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in recognition of an investigator whose extraordinary and sustained achievements in translational and/or clinical research have made an impact ...
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah has been awarded a $2.4 million 2-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to help continue its research in breast cancer. Alana Welm, PhD, and Bryan Welm, PhD, investigators at Huntsman Cancer Institute, along with Michael Lewis, PhD, a...
When Yelak Biru was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1995, he and his physicians had one main posttreatment goal: to detect and treat any relapse early and to prolong survival as long as possible with the limited drugs available. Then, in the early 2000s, came newer treatments. Myeloma survival...
On January 30, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals announced it has received notice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that U.S. studies of BPX-501—an agent being studied to improve outcomes for patients undergoing stem cell transplant who lack a matched donor—have been placed on a clinical hold ...
“The simple questions are whether ovarian function suppression adds clinical benefit in premenopausal women, and is ovarian function suppression better with an aromatase inhibitor or tamoxifen,” said formal discussant of these trials, Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, FASCO, Professor of Medicine at...
Temporary ovarian suppression during chemotherapy as a means of preserving ovarian function and fertility in young women with early breast cancer is controversial. An eagerly awaited meta-analysis including individual patient data from five randomized controlled trials found that the use of...
Matthew J. Ellis, MB, PhD, Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, commented on the POETIC trial for The ASCO Post. “This is a wonderful study that validates a point that our research team has also made over the years—that Ki67 is much more...
Updated analysis from the United Kingdom’s POETIC trial found no evidence that perioperative aromatase inhibitor therapy slows or prevents time to recurrence of breast cancer. However, the study did show that tumor Ki67 levels after 2 weeks of perioperative aromatase inhibitor therapy are...
We have covered many of the important presentations from the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in the pages of The ASCO Post and in our online Evening News. Here are summaries of additional noteworthy studies presented at the meeting. We hope you will find them of interest. Predicting...
“To what extent do treatments for prostate cancer impact sexual functioning? To a great extent,” Christian Nelson, PhD, Chief, Psychiatry Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, told participants at the 11th Annual Oncofertility Consortium Conference in Chicago.1 Most men with...