The theme of the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, Illumination and Innovation, is especially appropriate as we consider the field of geriatric oncology. For too long, the elderly cancer patient has remained in the dark regarding treatment planning, clinical trial enrollment, and shared decision-making....
Valerae O. Lewis, MD, has been named Chair of Orthopaedic Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Lewis has been a faculty member at MD Anderson for 15 years, serving in a variety of roles. The unit she will lead, the Department of Orthopaedic Oncology, is a new...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Chlebowski and colleagues1 reported differing patterns of breast cancer risk during or after hormonal therapy with estrogen plus progestin2 or estrogen alone,3 in an analysis of two Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials. This recent update on risk...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and The UNM Cancer Center (UNMCC) at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center status. An NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center must demonstrate depth and breadth of...
Bristol-Myers Squibb and AbbVie recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for priority review the Biologics License Application for elotuzumab, an investigational signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAMF7)-directed immunostimulatory antibody, for the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) as post–autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation consolidation treatment for patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma at high risk of relapse or progression, Seattle Genetics has announced. The approval is...
The U.S. House of Representatives passed monumental legislation that will accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of promising new cancer treatments. The 21st Century Cures Act advances big data and precision medicine and strengthens the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug...
Cancer.Net and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service have collaborated on an infographic of food safety tips for people with cancer. This infographic is an excellent way to help your patients understand which foods are safe to eat, which foods to avoid,...
ASCO issued landmark recommendations in the Journal of Clinical Oncology calling for federal agencies and the cancer research community to broaden clinical trials to include older adults (age 65 and older) and to redefine trial eligibility. More than 60% of cancers in the United States occur in...
We’ll provide the resources. You provide the voice. The Campaign to Conquer Cancer is raising $150 million to support a world free from the fear of cancer. Our potential to raise money increases with every new person who learns about our work. We need the most trusted leaders in the oncology...
When Tucker Davis was diagnosed with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FL-HCC) in 2008, there was very little information about this very rare cancer and, as Tucker would soon discover, even fewer treatment options available. An annoying cough and sharp pain radiating down his back leg...
ASCO University has released an updated version of ASCO’s Curricula for Advanced Practice Providers (ACAPP™). This popular series assists with the orientation of advanced practice providers (APPs) into oncology practices—a growing need as increasing numbers of APPs are hired to meet the demand for...
Northwestern University has received a 5-year, $11.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to use nanotechnology to develop next-generation cancer treatments. With NCI support, the new Northwestern University Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (Northwestern CCNE) will use...
The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University announced the addition of medical oncologist Barbara Pro, MD. A leader in the research and treatment of lymphomas, Dr. Pro joined the Lurie Cancer Center in September 2015. She has been appointed Professor of Medicine in...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rolapitant (Varubi) to prevent delayed-phase chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Rolapitant is approved in adults in combination with other antiemetic agents that prevent nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected seven leading physician-researchers to receive a total of $675,000 in awards and grants to advance radiation oncology research. Together, the grants will support studies in cancer biology, radiation physics, translational research,...
Carl H. June, MD, an internationally recognized leader in the growing field of immunotherapy, was awarded the Watanabe Prize at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) on September 11 on the campus of Indiana University–Purdue University...
Chang Chang, PhD, a leader in proton therapy medical physics, has been named Director of Physics at Texas Center for Proton Therapy. Previously, as Senior Medical Physicist at ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Somerset, New Jersey, Dr. Chang was involved in the commissioning of new proton technology ...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has chosen three radiation oncology physicians and researchers to receive the 2015 ASTRO Gold Medal: Carl R. Bogardus, Jr, MD, FASTRO; Carl M. Mansfield, MD, ScD (Hon), FASTRO; and James B. Mitchell, PhD, FASTRO. Drs. Bogardus, Mansfield, and...
Tari King, MD, has been appointed Chief of Breast Surgery at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC). Dr. King will hold appointments at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. King will oversee breast surgery in the DF/BWCC, which...
St. Barnabas Hospital is located in the heart of Bronx, New York, and as such, it has a culturally diverse, largely poor, patient population. The backbone of successful palliative care services is the doctor-patient communication bonding process. However, many of the patients with late-stage cancer ...
James P. Allison, PhD, Chair of Immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has been named the 2015 winner of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The Lasker awards, in their 70th year, honor major achievements in basic...
In an interview with The ASCO Post, Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, Senior Director, Quality and Guidelines, ASCO, and Medical Director, CancerLinQ™, described how the system could work with data specific to radiation oncology. “The system is in the rapid build phase now, what we are calling the...
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,...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven a Specialized Program of Research Excellence, or SPORE, grant worth $11 million. The Yale SPORE will launch a new research program in non–small cell lung cancer. The new research...
A team of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center scientists has been awarded a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in multiple myeloma from the National Cancer Institute. The Center is one of only three cancer centers to receive a SPORE grant for multiple myeloma cancer research. “With...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has named Jinghui Zhang, PhD, as the first Chair of the Department of Computational Biology. She will hold the St. Jude Endowed Chair in Bioinformatics. Computational biology applies mathematics and computer science to the study of genomics, systems biology,...
The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (ALCF) honored Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, with the 2015 Addario Lectureship Award for his continued leadership and expertise in lung cancer treatment and research. Dr. Hirsch, CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC),...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will present the 2015 William Dameshek Prize to John C. Byrd, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC–James) for his contributions to the development of...
Autologous stem cell transplantation has played a critical role in the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, but in the age of novel treatments, is it always warranted? Two experts in the field explored the question at the 2015 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference sponsored by...
The research summit was part of the ASCO Obesity Initiative, which sought to increase awareness of the links between obesity and cancer and to foster research in this area that evaluated the impact of weight loss and increased activity on cancer outcomes. There have been hundreds of observational...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a statement providing recommendations for obesity clinical trials in cancer survivors.1 ASCO convened the Research Summit on Advancing Obesity Clinical...
In a bold move to shed light on the ramifications of the ever-increasing cost of cancer drugs for patients with cancer and for the health-care system, 118 prominent oncologists came together to write a commentary in Mayo Clinic Proceedings detailing their concerns.1 To learn more about these...
Cancer prevention is a child-care issue. With many of cancer’s instigators planting their seeds during childhood, we—as a profession and as a nation—must seize this important window of opportunity to protect the health and well-being of future generations. Current estimates suggest that up to...
For advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), first-line treatment with combined immune checkpoint blockade—in novel doses and schedules—was associated with deep and durable responses, encouraging progression-free survival, and much better tolerability than has been previously observed with...
Over 80% of the 15 million people diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2015 will need surgery, but less than one-quarter of them will have access to proper, safe, affordable surgical care when they need it, according to a major new Commission examining the state of global cancer surgery. The...
As discussed in the new series “Global Oncology Burden”, analysis of the cancer burden based on the regions as divided by the World Health Organization (WHO) (ie, Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific), reveals the marked differences (see Table...
Thomas A. Stamey, MD, Professor Emeritus of Urology at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a leader in the study and treatment of prostate cancer, died of Alzheimer’s disease September 4. He was 87. A True Pioneer in the Field Dr. Stamey helped lay the groundwork for the...
Sidney Mirvish, PhD, Professor Emeritus in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), whose pioneering research into nitrosamines and carcinogenesis led to changes in the way lunch meats, hot dogs, and sausages were made,...
A study of screening mammography across U.S. counties found that “the clearest result of mammography screening is the diagnosis of additional small cancers” but without a “concomitant decline in the detection of larger cancers, which might explain the absence of any significant difference in the...
BOOKMARK Title: Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives, and Where to Draw the LineAuthor: Sharon R. KaufmanPublisher: Duke University PressPublication date: May 29, 2015Price: $26.95 paperback, 336 pages Medicine has changed radically over the past 15 years. Who doesn’t welcome...
The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) announced the appointment of Robin L. Davisson, PhD, as President and CEO-Elect, effective October 1, 2015. Dr. Davisson, The Andrew Dickson White Professor of Molecular Physiology at Cornell University, brings to MRA more than 25 years of internationally...
Lisa Kachnic, MD, former Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology and Associate Director of Multidisciplinary Cancer Research at Boston University School of Medicine, and Chief of Radiation Oncology at Boston Medical Center, has been named Professor and Chair of the Vanderbilt University Medical...
The recent study findings that women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ had a low breast cancer–specific mortality and that preventing ipsilateral recurrences did not prevent breast cancer mortality1 might lead some women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ to question the need for...
Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ have a low risk of dying of breast cancer, according to an observational study looking at data from 108,196 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ between 1988 and 2011.1 The breast cancer–specific mortality rate for these women was 1.1% at 10...
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has named Todd Demmy, MD, FACS, FCCP, as its new Chief of Thoracic Oncology and Associate Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology. Dr. Demmy, who is leading Rutgers Cancer Institute’s Thoracic Oncology Program, is an international leader in minimally...
Nina Wagner-Johnston, MD, has been appointed Associate Professor of Oncology in the Hematologic Malignancies Division, and will lead the Lymphoma Drug Development Program. At the Siteman Cancer Center at the Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Wagner-Johnston made several important...
OCTOBER ASTRO’s 57th Annual MeetingOctober 18-21 • San Antonio, Texas For more information: www.astro.org/Meetings-and-Events/2015-Annual-Meeting/Index.aspx 2015 International Cancer Education ConferenceOctober 21-23 • Tucson, Arizona For more information: http://2015.attendicec.org ACCC 32nd...
Five research centers will focus on the safety of natural products, how they work within the body, and the development of cutting-edge research technologies. The centers, jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the National Center for...