Carolyn D. Runowicz, MD, FASCO, has worn just about every hat in the field of oncology—clinician, professor, researcher, administrator, and even cancer survivor. Currently the Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Herbert ...
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 ...
At the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) launched The Campaign to Conquer Cancer—a comprehensive, $150 million fundraising campaign supporting breakthrough research and sharing vital knowledge with physicians, patients, and families. In support of The Campaign, CCF Board ...
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 ...
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...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Mark E. Robson, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a policy statement update on genetic and genomic testing for cancer susceptibility.1 The statement, commissioned by ASCO’s Cancer Prevention and Ethics...
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: 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...
Radiation oncologists dream of a day when, faced with a new patient sitting in their office, they can quickly consult a computer database offering specific treatment recommendations based on accurate, freshly updated data from millions of previously treated patients with cancer. To hasten that day, ...
Are there patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) for whom chemotherapy can be omitted? Experts debated this question at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference in Sea Island, Georgia,...
BOOKMARK Title: Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion PatientsAuthor: Jeremy N. SmithPublisher: Harper WavePublication date: April 7, 2015Price: $26.99; hardcover, 352 pages Health measures are essential tools in assessing public health and safety. Collecting large amounts of data is a laborious ...
ASCO has called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider revisions to payment policies that could be administratively burdensome to oncology practices and result in reimbursement that inadequately supports optimal cancer patient care. In a comment letter to CMS on...
The United States—and much of the world—is experiencing unprecedented demographic shifts in the population of older people, defined as people age 65 and over. In 2012, the population of older people in the United States reached a never-before seen height of 43.1 million, a number that will more...
Ductal carcinoma in situ has been a recent topic of debate in the news because of a recent article by Narod et al1 and an accompanying editorial2 about the study in JAMA Oncology. This study, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, chronicled the long-term outcomes for women diagnosed with...
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,...
I've lived my adult life by three guiding principles I learned as an adventure racer: to set goals, to determine how to achieve them, and to persevere in the face of adversity. Those standards helped me complete more than 70 marathons and 7 Ironman competitions, and they helped me conquer breast...
Lung cancer is the most common, lethal, and costly cancer worldwide, accounting for at least 1.8 million new cases per year (12.9% of the total).1 Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially in adenocarcinoma, accompanied by...
The emphasis at this year’s Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium, held earlier this month in Boston, was on patient-centered care throughout the cancer continuum. The meeting attracted more than 650 attendees and included six general sessions featuring best practices in communication,...
The long-awaited first results are in from the TAILORx study, showing that patients with early breast cancer considered at low risk for recurrence can forgo chemotherapy and be treated with endocrine therapy alone.1 “Women with axillary node-negative, estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative...
Cancer.Net Mobile app offers your patients and their caregivers trusted, oncologist-approved cancer information and the tools and resources they need to help plan and manage cancer care. The newest version of Cancer.Net Mobile is optimized for the latest iOS versions, and offers an all-new visual...
S. Gail Eckhardt, MD, FASCO, is a tenured Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where she also holds the Stapp Harlow Chair in Cancer Research. She has been a faculty member at the institution since 1999 and was Division Head of Medical Oncology from 2006–2014. Currently, she...
ASCO recently called for comprehensive physician payment reform to support the full scope of services required by patients with cancer, rather than jeopardizing patient outcomes by reducing the available resources in a particular cancer care setting in an effort to achieve “site neutrality” in...
The Affordable Care Act established a 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to reduce Medicare spending growth using a target system and fast-track legislative approval process. By April 30 of each year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will project whether Medicare’s...
Although William Dameshek, MD, is renowned for his work in hematology, especially in advancing the understanding of myeloproliferative disorders and their interrelatedness, his early interest in medicine was instead focused on such diverse diseases as hyperthyroidism and typhus fever. Born on May...
The reactions to the updated breast cancer screening guideline from the American Cancer Society (ACS) have been many, varied, and not consistently favorable but not surprising to Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, who chaired the ACS panel that issued the guideline. Breast cancer screening “is an area that...
Two years ago, Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer of ASCO, proposed a unique clinical trial concept during an educational session on the challenges of delivering precision medicine services in a community setting at ASCO’s Annual Meeting. The idea was to design a clinical...
Bookmark Title: Shrinks: The Untold Story of PsychiatryAuthor: Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD, with Ogi OgasPublisher: Little, Brown and CompanyPublication date: March 10, 2015Price: $28.00, hardcover; 352 pages Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD, is the Lawrence C. Kolb Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry at...
In late August 2015, Gregory A. Masters, MD, and colleagues published an update to the ASCO guidelines for systemic therapy for stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post.1 This builds on the full guidelines published in 20092 and the additional switch...
According to recent national headlines, the American Cancer Society (ACS) now recommends that women at average risk of breast cancer should “screen later and less often.”1 While the new ACS recommendations (summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post) might initially be taken as casting doubt on the...
Prostate cancer has been slow to catch up with breast cancer in terms of using biomarkers, but a new study represents progress in this regard. A genomic classifier called Decipher® provides important information that can be used to make treatment decisions for men with prostate cancer and a rising...
BookmarkTitle: Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and MedicineAuthor: Damon Tweedy, MDPublisher: Picador, Macmillan PublishingPublication date: September 8, 2015Price: $26.00; hardcover, 304 pages Strained race relations over issues whose foundation is based on inequality...
A clinical dilemma that is receiving a great deal of attention in the oncology community is the undue financial burden some patients face during their treatment and into survivorship. While much emphasis is put on methods to reduce and help patients navigate the complex payment system, little is...
Two recent studies1,2 found that the rates of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening have declined since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against PSA screening in 2012. One of those studies additionally found that the incidence of early-stage prostate cancer also...
Bookmark Title: The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes From an Uncertain Science Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee Publisher: TED Books/Simon & Schuster Publication date: October 13, 2015 Price: $16.99; hardcover, 96 pages The Emperor of All Maladies, written by the Indian-born American oncologist...
Although formal mentoring programs in medical education were not launched in the United States until the late 1990s,1 today they are regarded as playing an essential role in the career development of medical trainees and have been associated with improvements in research, teaching, and patient...
The first class of National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award recipients showcases the cutting edge of oncologic research and the 43 investigators behind it. NCI’s Outstanding Investigator Award supports accomplished leaders in cancer research, who are providing significant...
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), passed earlier this year, repealed the fundamentally flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula and introduced significant changes in how Medicare will pay oncologists for the care they provide in the coming years. The new law will be...
Over 10 years ago, we welcomed a new approach to cancer surgery when the 2004 COST trial demonstrated the benefits of laparoscopic compared with open surgery for colon cancer. This randomized trial of 872 patients showed improved perioperative recovery with laparoscopic colectomy without...
A new template published by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) standardizes and streamlines the creation of patient-focused plans for long-term cancer survivor care following radiation therapy. As the number of cancer patients and survivors in the United States continues to...
On November 17, Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR) released a white paper report, Enhancing Use of Patient-Centered Data in Regulatory Decision Making.1 The contents of that paper are summarized below. Improving Patient Input Many stakeholders agree that to ensure truly transformational therapies,...
Partnering endocrine therapy with new targeted agents for women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer “changes the nature of endocrine therapy from something easily tolerated, with not a lot that you have to do as physicians to monitor it,” William J. Gradishar, MD, of the Robert H. Lurie...
A new guidance statement from ASCO and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) could potentially lead to more standardized primary palliative care delivery across oncology settings, according to Kathleen E. Bickel, MD, MPhil, who presented the study findings at the 2015...
As health-care providers, we have an obligation and a responsibility not only to care for our patients, but also to educate them—and the general public—about their cancer risk and ways to reduce or prevent it. We are living in the golden era of cancer prevention and treatment, made possible by...
Kieron Dunleavy, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses a multi-center trial that set out to validate the effectiveness of DA-EPOCH-R-based therapy and whether a risk-adapted approach using the regimen is beneficial for patients with Burkitt lymphoma (Abstract 342).
Among patients undergoing major cancer operations, the preoperative use of blood-thinning drugs such as heparin does not increase rates of major bleeding or transfusions, and is associated with a decreased risk of blood clots, according to new study results published by Selby et al in the Journal...
Depression is a significant predictor of 5-year survival and recurrence in head and neck cancer patients, according to a new study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. These findings, published by Shinn et al in Psychosomatic Medicine, represent one of the largest reported...
In a retrospective analysis of data from 130 patients with pancreatic cysts, scientists at Johns Hopkins have used gene-based tests and a fixed set of clinical criteria to more accurately distinguish precancerous cysts from those less likely to do harm. The findings may eventually help some...
ASCO has called for comprehensive physician payment reform to support the full scope of services required by patients with cancer, rather than jeopardizing patient outcomes by reducing the available resources in a particular cancer care setting in an effort to achieve "site neutrality" in...
The potential risks and harms of low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening in current 20 to 29 pack-year smokers needs to be assessed before recommending such screening to this group, according to a study published by Pinsky and Kramer in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute....