Mansoor Mirza, MD, of Copenhagen University Hospital, discusses quality of life in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer treated with niraparib (Abstract 930O).
In a single-center experience reported in JAMA Surgery, Eng et al found that an increased intraoperative fluid rate was associated with increased perioperative morbidity in patients with peritoneal cancer undergoing cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Study...
A phase II study has shown that cabozantinib (Cometriq) produces responses in patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitor–refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. The findings were reported by Cabanillas et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. MET plays a role in vascular endothelial growth...
The optimal follow-up protocol for patients with completely resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains elusive after results of the IFCT-0302 trial, presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid, did not show a difference in overall survival...
Even small tumors in the breast can be aggressive, according to a study in patients with early-stage breast cancer presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid (Abstract 150O_PR). Researchers found that 24% of small tumors were aggressive, and patients...
The vast majority of tumor marker tests in primary and secondary care are not necessary, according to a study presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid (Abstract 1410P_PR). The tests assisted with a cancer diagnosis in just 2% of patients....
The results of a phase II trial have shown high activity of guadecitabine, a next-generation hypomethylating drug, in treatment-naive older patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by Kantarjian et al. Guadecitabine has a longer half-life and exposure...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Pavel et al, no significant difference in deterioration of health-related quality of life was observed with everolimus (Afinitor) vs placebo in the phase III RADIANT-4 trial, which included patients with advanced nonfunctional well-differentiated...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Brasky et al found that the use of individual source supplemental vitamins B6 and B12 was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer among men in the Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort. Several B vitamins, including B6, B9 (folate),...
A phase I/IIa study investigating the safety and effectiveness of a third-generation CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in patients with lymphoma or leukemia has found that the treatment led to a complete response in 6 of the 15 patients in the study and that overall...
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cancer-related cause of death worldwide, accounting for 774,000 deaths in 2015, according to the World Health Organization. Now, a study presented at the third CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science Into Survival, ...
When I was in high school, I spent summers working as a restaurant dishwasher, grocery store stock boy, and gardener in northwest Indiana. The idea of spending those weeks learning about science and medicine would not have been an option for me at that time. Yet it is precisely those students who...
Applications Being Accepted Through October 31, 2017 THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION AWARD (IDEA) provides support for early-career oncologists in low-and middle-income countries and facilitates the sharing of knowledge between these oncologists and ASCO members. The program pairs IDEA ...
In 2014, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project discovered there are four molecular subtypes of gastric cancer: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), microsatellite instability, genomically stable, and chromosomal instability. However, their clinical significance is unknown. Now, a study by Bo Hwa Sohn, PhD,...
A phase III trial has shown no significant difference in overall survival with first-line cetuximab (Erbitux) vs bevacizumab (Avastin) plus chemotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic KRAS wild-type colorectal cancer. These study findings were reported by Alan Venook, MD, of University of ...
A randomized phase II trial (Children’s Oncology Group [COG] ANBL1221) has resulted in the selection of dinutuximab (Unituxin) plus irinotecan/temozolomide as a regimen to be further evaluated in the treatment of pediatric patients with refractory or relapsed neuroblastoma. Study results were...
Two scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will receive the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their significant research leading to the development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The award is the country’s most prestigious biomedical research prize,...
Although Zika virus causes devastating damage to the brains of developing fetuses, it someday may prove to be an effective treatment for glioblastoma. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine showed that...
Findings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Nipp et al, indicate that childhood cancer survivors are more likely than unaffected siblings to spend a higher percentage of income on out-of-pocket medical costs, potentially leading to reduced use...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exceptions under certain Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs without having to submit an extraordinary circumstances exception request if they are located in one of the Texas counties or...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Shoushtari et al, a single-center experience has shown a very high rate of clinically significant immune-related adverse events with nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) for advanced melanoma. Their findings suggest that the full course of four doses of...
The phase III ACT IV study has shown no survival benefit of adding rindopepimut, a vaccine targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) deletion mutation EGFRvIII, to temozolomide in patients with newly diagnosed EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma. These findings were reported by Weller et al...
The phase III UK TACT2 trial has shown no efficacy benefit of accelerated vs standard epirubicin and a potential quality-of-life benefit of capecitabine vs CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, fluorouracil) as adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. The findings were reported in The Lancet Oncology by ...
THE MEMBERS of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) have elected three new officers to ASTRO’s Board of Directors and three members to serve on the medical society’s Nominating Committee. The newly elected President-Elect, Health Policy Council Vice-Chair, Science Council Vice-Chair, ...
WITH THE MANY NEWS REPORTS about Senator John McCain being diagnosed with glioblastoma, patients may be asking if symptoms such as headaches and vision or speech problems should signal the need for screening or diagnostic tests. “There has never been any suggestion that doing routine screening,...
NEWS ARTICLES about Senator John McCain’s diagnosis of glioblastoma accurately describe glioblastoma as aggressive and having a poor prognosis. But as Walter J. Curran, Jr, MD, pointed out in one of those reports, “substantial improvements in surgical approaches” have enabled more patients to...
Fever therapy became firmly established as a significant therapeutic modality during the first decades of the 20th century. Physicians in this era believed the heat of a fever assisted in the control of numerous infections by killing the infective organism as it traveled through the bloodstream....
THE NCCN Foundation has granted its fifth Young Investigator Award for the 2017 cycle to Liqin Zhu, PhD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/ University of Tennessee Health Science Center, for the study titled, “Patient-Derived Tumor Spheroids for High-Risk Hepatoblastoma Drug Discovery.”...
Many Type A personalities deal with problems by controlling all aspects of the problem. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it works for a while. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all. The health-care system—hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices—have policies (specific office hours and strict...
I always knew cancer was a real possibility for me. Both my mother and father died of the disease—my mother of lung cancer and my father of bone cancer—so when I started having chronic throat and chest infections, I was diligent about seeking immediate medical attention and felt relieved each time ...
THE INFORMATION contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on patients with prostate cancer. These studies highlight noninvasive imaging, gene therapy, allogeneic bone marrow transplant, selective androgen receptor modulators, Vitamin D3...
It was 2:15 PM, and my afternoon clinic had not yet begun. The morning had been particularly trying as a result of disastrous clinical developments for two of my long-standing patients. Jessica had metastatic breast cancer, and I had been taking care of her for 7 years. Multiple lines of...
The literature has documented the stress and damage that intimacy problems cause among women undergoing cancer treatment and during survivorship. A new book, Sex and Cancer: Intimacy, Romance, and Love After Diagnosis and Treatment, by Saketh R. Guntupalli, MD, and Maryann Karinch tackles the...
CARING FOR sick children brings with it a set of emotional and physical challeneges that differ from those with the adult patient population. In a new book, Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories From the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine, Kurt Newman, MD, draws on more than 30 years of his...
On September 3, 1928, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming returned to London from a vacation and sorted through some petri dishes containing colonies of Staphylococcus. He noticed something unusual in one dish: It was dotted with colonies except for one area where a patch of mold grew....
The first hematopoietic stem cell transplant was pioneered by E. Donnall Thomas, MD, and published in The New England Journal of Medicine in September 12, 1957. Although the six patients on his trial all died by 100 days post transplantation, Dr. Thomas remained undaunted, continuing his...
Despite a significant rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a panel of independent experts in primary care and screening, has given thyroid cancer screening a D recommendation, which is a recommendation against screening. To shed light on this...
SIMILAR CELLULAR immunotherapies are currently being developed and tested by other National Cancer Institute–designated cancer centers, including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. David Maloney, MD, Medical Director of Cellular Immunotherapy at Fred Hutchinson and Medical Director of the...
ON AUGUST 30, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for pediatric and young adult patients up to 25 years with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory to initial treatment or in second or later relapse. Tisagenlecleucel ...
ON JUNE 23, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved betrixaban (Bevyxxa) for the prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism in adult patients hospitalized for an acute medical illness who are at risk for thromboembolic complications due to moderate or severe restricted mobility and...
ON APRIL 28, 2017, midostaurin (Rydapt) was approved for treatment of adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who have FLT3 mutation–positive disease, as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test, in combination with standard cytarabine and daunorubicin...
On March 14, 2017, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma or those who have relapsed after three or more prior lines of therapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS BASED on...
On November 6, 2017, ASCO and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a joint Geriatric Oncology Workshop aimed at improving the evidence base for treating the geriatric oncology population. While more than 60% of cancers in the United States occur in people aged 65 and older, the...
GLOBAL CANCER INSTITUTE (GCI), focused on survival and quality of underserved patients with cancer worldwide, has announced it is launching a new Patient Navigation Program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The program went live in early August 2017 and is intended to help promote adherence to Brazil’s...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new strategy to address tobacco-related disease and death. The agency seeks to develop a plan to reduce the nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes to nonaddictive levels. However, as part of the strategy, the FDA also announced it ...
Help your patients manage the financial impact of a cancer diagnosis with Cancer.Net’s Managing the Cost of Cancer Care booklet. This booklet provides information on key financial categories for cancer care, an easy-to-understand explanation of health insurance coverage, tips for organizing...
Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FASCO, a long-time member and volunteer, began her term as ASCO President-Elect in June 2017; she will serve as 2018–2019 ASCO President. An active ASCO member since 1995, Dr. Bertagnolli is Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s...
Although thyroid cancer is among the five most common carcinomas diagnosed in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) between the ages of 15 and 39—thyroid cancer is more common in young women than young men and is the most common cancer diagnosed in females between the ages of 15 and 29 and the second ...
By contributing a monthly gift to the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF), you can make a dramatic difference as we work to build a world free from the fear of cancer. An automatic charge to your credit card each month is the easiest way to complete your monthly donation. Secure and convenient, a...
Institution: Postgraduate trainee and PhD candidate in medical oncology, Department of Clinical Oncology and Chemotherapy, Nagoya University Graduate School of MedicineMember since: 2014ASCO activities: Virtual Mentors, Journal of Global Oncology editorial fellow Of the many activities ASCO...