The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will recognize Nancy Speck, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and Karl Welte, MD, of Hannover Medical School, with the 2015 Henry M. Stratton Medal for their seminal contributions in the areas of basic and...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor Alfred Goldberg, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, and Paul Richardson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with the 2015 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize for their significant research advances in the area of proteasome inhibitors and their...
The number of targeted therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the treatment of a variety of cancers, especially hematologic malignancies, continues to rise. In 2014 alone, 4 of the 10 new agents directed at discrete molecular targets approved by the FDA were for blood...
The genetic basis for inherited colorectal cancer is proving to be a much bigger and more complicated “pie” than was appreciated just a few years ago, according to Michael Hall, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Risk Assessment at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia. “With next-generation...
The final 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule released October 30, 2015, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included cuts to radiation oncology clinics that were slightly less severe than anticipated, according to a news release issued by the American Society for Radiation...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recently announced that Stephen S. Chung, MD, will receive the inaugural Jake Wetchler Foundation ASH Scholar Award for Pediatric Innovation for his research on the mechanisms of bone marrow failure syndromes. This work could ultimately lead to an improved...
Updated analysis of the STAMPEDE trial found no benefit for zoledronic acid in reducing deaths or skeletal-related events and confirmed the overall survival benefit of docetaxel in men with advanced hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. MDV3100, in advanced triple-negative breast cancer, found a...
The 2015 European Cancer Congress (ECC), held recently in Vienna, represented the combined efforts of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and other partner organisations, constituting the largest European platform for oncology education. At...
The International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology (ISGIO) has named Howard Hochster, MD, as President-Elect. Dr. Hochster, Professor of Medical Oncology; Associate Director for Clinical Sciences at Yale Cancer Center; and Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Program at Smilow Cancer...
Kara Kelly, MD, has been appointed as the new leader of the joint program in pediatric hematology/oncology, a partnership of Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), UBMD Pediatrics, and the University at Buffalo (UB). WCHOB, RPCI, and UB have...
In an interview with The ASCO Post, incoming ASTRO President David Beyer, MD, provided his perspective on the use of hypofractionation in prostate cancer. Dr. Beyer is Medical Director of the Cancer Centers of Northern Arizona in Sedona. “Fractionation has been an important topic over the past few...
The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke has received nearly $7 million in funding under the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award program for work on two novel immunotherapy approaches to treat brain tumors. The award recognizes the work of principal...
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...
Over 700 nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, clinical nurse specialists, and other oncology health-care professionals were convened in Phoenix, Arizona, earlier this month to participate in JADPRO Live at APSHO (Advanced Practitioner Society in Hematology and Oncology), the...
Small-molecule inhibitors, especially ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and idelalisib (Zydelig), have greatly changed the outlook for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, Professor and Center Medical Director in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD...
UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center member Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, has received a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award of $4.2 million in recognition of his research conducted in the development of new immunotherapies that utilize the human body’s own natural defenses ...
Discussant Clifford Hudis, MD, Chief of Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, highlighted neratinib’s benefits while also advocating caution in interpreting the results due to incomplete data, the serious side effect of diarrhea, and the potentially...
Patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer who received neratinib as extended adjuvant therapy demonstrated improved invasive disease–free survival, with an absolute benefit of 2.3% at 2 years.1 However, these results of the ExteNET trial, previously presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual...
There is a strong rationale for the use of accelerated partial-breast irradiation: The large majority of in-breast recurrences are at or near the primary site, limiting the radiation dose to the primary site has the potential to decrease side effects, and treatment can be delivered over a shorter...
Data from A-bomb survivors, persons with ankylosing spondylitis and neoplasms treated with radiation therapy, and many other sources show a strong association between exposure to ionizing radiation (particles or electromagnetic waves with sufficient energy to cause an ionization such as photons and ...
The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) has announced that Michael J. Bennett, PhD, has been elected to serve on the AACC Board as President-Elect beginning in January 2016, followed by successive terms as the Association’s 68th President in 2017 and Past President in 2018. The AACC...
Oncology nurse practitioner Mary Pazdur, RN, MSN, spent her professional life bettering the clinical care and outcomes of cancer patients, culminating in her career at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), in the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, working with patients on cancer vaccine...
Bookmark Title: The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives Author: Theresa Brown, RN Publisher: Algonquin Books Publication date: September 22, 2015 Price: $15.59; hardcover, 272 pages If health care were looked at through an architect’s eyes, nurses would be the girders holding the...
An evaluation of national treatment trends for ductal carcinoma in situ from 1991 to 2010 and their impact on survival revealed “a substantial shift in locoregional treatment patterns for ductal carcinoma in situ,” Mathias Worni, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and...
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 Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees named Bobbie Gostout, MD, Vice President of the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Gostout will be the physician leader for Mayo’s community practice in the Midwest, including Mayo Clinic Health System in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and Mayo Clinic’s Minnesota-based community...
Bookmark Title: Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book Author: Susan M. Love, MD Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books Publication date: September 8, 2015 Price: $24.00; paperback, 704 pages For more than 25 years, Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book has been the best source of information for women with breast...
Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, has been named President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Dr. Blackburn will join the Salk Institute from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she is Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. She will assume her new role...
Over the past couple of decades, the oncology community has made great strides in mediating the psychosocial needs of our patients. However, a patient’s spirituality is a subjective and uncomfortable issue for many oncologists, which leaves a gap in the continuum of care. To reach a better...
A novel interventional approach to treating liver metastases associated with colorectal cancer improved control of liver metastases, according to the SIRFLOX study presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 The addition of selective internal radiation therapy to first-line chemotherapy extended...
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,...
BookmarkTitle: Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer CuresAuthor: Arlene WeintraubPublisher: ECW PressPublication date: October 13, 2015Price: $16.95; paperback, 240 pages Comparative oncology, a fairly recent addition to the ever-evolving world of cancer research, studies the...
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...
Bookmark Title: Last Night in the OR: A Transplant Surgeon’s OdysseyAuthor: Bud Shaw, MDPublisher: Plume, division of Penguin GroupPublication date: September 15, 2015Price: $16.00; paperback, 304 pages Surgery has a distinct place in medicine. Surgeons cut deep into our bodies amid clusters of...
DECEMBER American Society for Cell Biology Annual MeetingDecember 12-16 • San Diego, California For more information: http://ascb.org/2015meeting/ ESMO Asia 2015 CongressDecember 18-21 • Singapore For more information: www.esmo.org/Conferences/ESMO-Asia-2015-Congress JANUARY 2016 4th AACR-IASLC...
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 Anesthesia Era 1845-1875.” To view additional...
Valerie W. Rusch, MD, FACS, was elected Chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) during the College’s Annual Clinical Congress, held October 4–8 in Chicago. In her role as Chair of the Board of Regents, Dr. Rusch will work closely with the ACS Executive Director and...
Over the past few decades, the oncology community has incorporated new evidence-based therapies to address the psychosocial needs of patients with cancer, especially those with advanced disease. To bring a global perspective to this evolving discipline, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Monika...
The Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) awarded the Hospital Physician Leadership Award to Alexandra M. Levine, MD, MACP, Chief Medical Officer of City of Hope. Dr. Levine received the award in recognition of her exemplary contributions to the medical profession, including her leadership ...
Steven T. Rosen, MD, Provost and Chief Scientific Officer for City of Hope, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF). The award recognizes Dr. Rosen’s longstanding commitment to advancing science and medicine and providing extraordinary patient care. Dr. ...
In 1990, when Bruce (B.J.) Miller, MD, was an undergraduate at Princeton University, the practice of medicine was far from his mind. Then a student in Chinese and Asian studies and later an art history major, Dr. Miller would come to pursue a career specializing in palliative medicine after an...
Philip W. Kantoff, MD, has been named the new Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). An accomplished leader, physician, researcher, and mentor, Dr. Kantoff served the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (HMS) since 1987 in a...
Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care (MECCC) and the Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC) announced receipt of a $3.93 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for the prestigious Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for...
Dario Marchetti, PhD, recently joined Houston Methodist Hospital as the new Director of the Center for Biomarkers. Over the past 7 years, Dr. Marchetti’s laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine has made key discoveries in the biology and clinical use of circulating tumor cells. Dr. Marchetti’s...
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...
Christopher J. Kane, MD, a specialist in prostate cancer and an expert in robotic and other minimally invasive procedures for urologic surgery at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Joseph D. Schmidt, MD, Presidential Chair in Urology in...
Low- and middle-income countries bear a larger share of the global cancer burden than does the developed world,” said Greta Massetti, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and Co-Chair of the National Cancer...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this special feature on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Argentina. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the world. For ...
Could the manipulation of bacteria in the gut pack the same punch in melanoma as antibodies targeting the programmed cell death protein and its ligand (PD-1/PD-L1)? It’s possible, at least in mice, according to research from the University of Chicago, recently published in Science.1 The researchers ...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was awarded more than $22 million in research grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Thirty-six percent of funds awarded for Individual Investigator Awards went to MD Anderson faculty, as well as nearly 40% of...