The University of Nebraska community mourns the loss of dedicated community leader and volunteer Nancy E. Armitage of Omaha. She died February 27, 2017, from complications associated with pancreatic cancer. Nancy is remembered for the support and encouragement she offered to others over the years...
Cervical cancer mortality rates were significantly higher, particularly among black women, when national data were corrected to exclude women who have had hysterectomies. For black women, the cervical cancer mortality rate rose from 5.7 to 10.1 per 100,000 when corrected for hysterectomy, an...
“This is a big deal. This is going to change all of oncology, not just head and neck cancer,”1 Tanguy Seiwert, MD, remarked following a summary by Jeffrey Sosman, MD, on advances in immunotherapy for treating cancer.2 Dr. Sosman, Director of the Melanoma Program and Clinical Director of Cancer...
MARCH ESMO Symposium on Signaling Pathways in Cancer 2017March 17-18 • Barcelona, SpainFor more information: http://esmo.org/Conferences/Signalling-Pathways-2017 17th Multidisciplinary Management of Cancers: A Case-Based ApproachMarch 17-19 • Napa, CaliforniaFor more...
Immunotherapy has been a major advance in lung cancer, but it is not without its challenges, according to Sanjay Popat, PhD, FRCP, a consultant medical oncologist and reader in cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK. He reviewed some of the challenges pertaining to the use of...
As reported by Elizabeth R. Plimack, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple Health, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown activity in patients in the locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma cohort included in the phase Ib KEYNOTE-012 trial. In the...
In a phase II trial (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group–American College of Radiology Imaging Network Cancer Research Group E3205) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Garg et al found that the addition of cetuximab (Erbitux) to definitive chemoradiotherapy appeared to reduce the rates of...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Pearlman et al found that 16% of patients with early-onset colorectal cancer had germline cancer susceptibility mutations, with a wide array of such mutations being identified. Heather Hampel, MS, CGC, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center,...
In a biomarker analysis of the CATCH trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alok A. Khorana, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues found that elevated circulating tissue factor levels were associated with an increased risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism in cancer patients on ...
“With the negative results of this phase III trial and the discontinuation of ganetespib development, is this the end for this once promising drug class in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or is there still an opportunity for heat shock protein (Hsp) inhibitors to make a meaningful impact?”...
On February 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the existing indication for lenalidomide (Revlimid) 10-mg capsules to include use for patients with multiple myeloma as maintenance therapy following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Clinical Trial Findings The...
The news that I had breast cancer came at an especially difficult time in my life and was quite shocking to hear. My father had died of lung cancer just 1 month before my diagnosis, and I was still grieving his death when I suddenly had to confront my own mortality. In retrospect, the diagnosis...
Despite positive results in the phase II GALAXY-1 study, the addition of ganetespib to docetaxel in the phase III GALAXY-2 study did not improve overall survival or progression-free survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented by Rathi Pillai,...
Eric D. Tetzlaff, MHS, PA-C, a physician assistant at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). He practices clinical care for patients with gastrointestinal cancers and sarcomas and has been at Fox Chase for most ...
If you Google the search term “breast cancer,” about 155,000,000 results will pop up in .83 seconds. Add to that pamphlets, journal articles, and library shelves bending under the weight of books written about breast cancer. That’s a mind-bending amount of information to parse through for the...
Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, Director of the Adult Long-Term Follow-up Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, highlighted the typical fat distribution of this population while noting the limitations of standard criteria for metabolic syndrome, which include waist circumference....
A multicenter study of North American testicular cancer survivors treated with platinum-based chemotherapy has found a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors that doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease.1 According to the results of this trial,...
Last year’s inaugural Cancer Survivorship Symposium stressed the importance of bringing together the fields of medical oncology and primary care to ensure a coordinated effort to help patients with cancer transition to long-term survivorship care. Building on that goal, the 2017 Cancer Survivorship ...
ASCO and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) have announced a joint collaboration to publish practical clinical guidance on the management of side effects caused by immunotherapy. This novel collaboration aims to rapidly support improved quality of care for the growing number of...
Speaking at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, before the hold on pacritinib was lifted (in January 2017), Selina Luger, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, commented, “I think the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to revisit ...
The investigational drug pacritinib met the primary endpoint of the phase III PERSIST-2 trial in high-risk patients with myelofibrosis and thrombocytopenia. Treatment with the Janus kinase (JAK)1/2 inhibitor pacritinib achieved a significant reduction in spleen volume compared with best available...
The new Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center began welcoming patients on March 6, 2017. The 377,000 square-foot facility houses all outpatient cancer treatment services in one location, with the center’s team of medical and radiation oncologists, surgeons, nurses, genetic counselors, social...
On February 1, 2017, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) issued the following statement: According to its own public reports, in 2016 Phillip Morris manufactured 800 billion cigarettes. Thus, [IASLC] views with some skepticism Philip Morris’ recent statement...
In a lecture at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Edward A. Stadtmauer, MD, Chief of the Hematologic Malignancies Section at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, summarized the advances in chimeric antigen receptor...
For patients with multiple myeloma, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is gaining ground in pilot studies. At the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, researchers presented their latest findings for this innovative therapy, which has proven...
Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, a rare subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, affects approximately 1,500 to 2,000 people in the United States each year. Although it is not curable, Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia is grow slowly, and in many patients, it is manageable as a chronic disease. To that end,...
In the international phase III FALCON trial, reported in The Lancet, John F.R. Robertson, MD, of the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, and colleagues found that progression-free survival was improved with intramuscular fulvestrant (Faslodex) vs oral anastrozole in endocrine therapy–naive...
The Fox Chase–Temple University Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Program has received internationally recognized accreditation by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. By demonstrating compliance with the FACT-JACIE...
Sandra J. Horning, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Global Development for Roche/Genentech, was named the 2017 recipient of the Duane Roth Memorial Award. The award was presented February 16 at the annual Industry/Academia Translational Oncology Symposium at the University ...
To summarize the lessons learned from the development of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted therapy, one only has to go back about 10 years, according to Frances A. Shepherd, MD, Scott Taylor Chair in Lung Cancer Research at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Professor of Medicine at ...
In a rigorous study of tumor tissue collected from 125 patients with aggressive brain cancers, researchers at Johns Hopkins said they have found no evidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and concluded that a link between the two diseases, as claimed by earlier reports, likely does not exist. A ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fung et al found that although adverse health outcomes were common among testicular cancer survivors, there did not appear to be differences in such outcomes according to chemotherapy regimens commonly used to treat favorable-risk disease....
In an analysis of German Hodgkin Study Group trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bröckelmann et al found that the cumulative incidence of late relapse in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma was 6.9% at 20 years and that late relapse was more common among those with...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Larissa Nekhlyudov, MD, MPH, of Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed the 2016 American Cancer Society (ACS) guideline on head and neck cancer survivorship care. The endorsement was based on ...
In a retrospective multicenter cohort study reported in JAMA, Turcotte et al found that the risk for subsequent neoplasms in 5-year survivors of childhood cancers decreased between those diagnosed in the 1970s vs the 1990s but nevertheless remained elevated vs expected incidence. The reduced risk...
Three invited discussants explored the results of these recent immunotherapy studies in lung cancer as well as their potential clinical implications at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer. KEYNOTE-021 trial “Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is...
Combining immunotherapies with each other or with other agents such as chemotherapy and growth factor inhibitors holds promise for better tapping their benefit in patients with lung cancer, data from several studies suggest. Results show that strategic combinations can achieve higher response...
Allyson J. Ocean, MD, a pancreatic cancer specialist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, commented on these study findings. “While I applaud the authors for the data presented, the...
Although “treatment advances” and “precision medicine” are today’s buzz words in oncology, they don’t apply equally to all malignancies. For instance, median overall survival for newly diagnosed patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer has not improved much over the past 20 years, according to...
Formal discussant for the presentation of SWOG S9921 results, Susan F. Slovin, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said there were some important points to understand about this “vintage” trial. “The trial was designed 20 years ago, and the view is...
An older trial designed to evaluate the benefits of adjuvant therapy following radical prostatectomy in patients with high-risk prostate cancer showed no difference in overall or disease-free survival between 2 years of androgen-deprivation therapy and 2 years of androgen-deprivation therapy plus...
A novel approach using intravesical gene therapy showed promising activity in a phase II trial that enrolled patients with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-refractory or -relapsed nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer.1 The rate of high-grade relapse-free survival at 12 months was 35% in patients treated ...
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. It affects 80% of individuals, with the initial infection usually occurring between the ages of 15 and 24. Persistent infection with oncogenic HPV genotypes, primarily 16 and 18, is the cause of virtually all...
In 1995, Matthew Zachary, an aspiring concert pianist and composer, was en route to graduate school to study film composition when he lost all fine-motor coordination in his left hand, was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer (medulloblastoma), told he would never play again, and was given 6...
Endocrine therapy for breast cancer has evolved over the years. Initial endocrine therapies consisted of ablative procedures (oophorectomy, adrenalectomy, and hypophysectomy). With the availability of pharmaceutical estrogens, progestins, and androgens, ablative procedure utilization begin to...
In a retrospective cohort study, Adeboyeje et al found that a utilization management tool that makes real-time care recommendations can help reduce overuse of substances that assist the bone marrow in producing blood cells, called colony-stimulating factors, in attempts to prevent fevers in...
In a study reported at the 2017 Quality Care Symposium by Zheng et al (Abstract 3) and published in the Journal of Oncology Practice by Jackman et al, researchers explored the use of clinical pathways to support clinical decision-making and manage resources for patients with late-stage...
In a single-institution study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, de Souza et al found that two-thirds of patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer had to use a financial coping strategy to help pay for care within the first 6 months of treatment. Study Details The study...
The majority of children with cancer are treated with complicated chemotherapy regimens that include multiple drugs, demanding monitoring schedules and complex dosing based on body surface area that often require changes in dose. Given this high risk for error in treating children with these highly ...
In a phase I study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Aggarwal et al found evidence that the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor abexinostat may act to reverse resistance to the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor pazopanib (Votrient) via epigenetic modulation of VEGF in ...