Active surveillance has been increasingly adopted as a standard approach for men with Gleason score ≤ 6 localized prostate cancer, with major guidelines and consensus statements encouraging this approach,1 including a recently published guideline from Cancer Care Ontario (CCO),2 and endorsement of...
The molecularly targeted therapeutic palbociclib (Ibrance) was effective in slowing the multiplication of cancer cells in patients diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer who received no prior therapy, according to data from a phase II clinical trial presented by Arnedos et al at the 2016 AACR...
Despite recent advances in assisted reproductive technology for women with breast cancer, documented fertility counseling at diagnosis remains low, while 89% of those made aware of their options sought specialized consultation for reproductive preservation. Almost 50% of these women chose one of...
The third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso) is effective in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a late-breaking abstract presented by Ramalingam et al (Abstract...
Merck today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), a monoclonal antibody and anti–programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) therapy, for the treatment of...
An analysis in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort reported by Liu et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology indicated that differences in risk for poor outcomes among black, Hispanic, and white survivors of childhood cancer were generally mediated by differences in socioeconomic status and...
Although nevi are considered among the strongest risk factors for melanoma, most patients with melanoma had few total nevi and no atypical nevi, according to an analysis of 566 patients with invasive cutaneous melanoma. “Three notable findings emerged from this case study,” Alan C. Geller, MPH, RN, ...
The 2016 edition of the Commission on Cancer’s accreditation standards manual clarifies and provides additional information in many areas and raises the bar for compliance in some, including psychosocial distress screening, survivorship care, data reporting, and activities in prevention and...
Vaccines for both secondary and primary prevention of breast cancer are showing potential in clinical trials, according to Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD, who is leading much of the vaccine research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Vaccine platforms being explored...
Session moderator Kathleen Moore, MD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, said that while the response rates are “not incredibly high,” trabectedin offers another line of therapy where there previously was none. “I think ...
In 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a recommendation against routine screening for prostate cancer.1,2 The grade D recommendation was considered controversial at the time, and remains so now, because many stakeholders have weighed the same body of evidence and come to...
In an analysis in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort reported in The Lancet Oncology, Chow et al found that increasing doses of several alkylating agents reduced the likelihood of fathering a pregnancy among male survivors of childhood cancer, with fewer drug associations with pregnancy...
A prospective study examining a trimodality treatment approach in localized bladder cancer cases using adaptive image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy found that the bladder preservation rate at 3 years was 83%. These findings were published by Murthy et al in the International Journal ...
As summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, Ivey and colleagues demonstrated that assessing for NPM1-mutated gene transcripts by reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay is a feasible approach for measuring minimal residual disease after acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...
Many low- and middle-income countries do not have a defined medical specialty in surgical oncology, and lack an educational infrastructure to respond to the local burden of cancer, but a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) fellowship is succeeding in addressing this problem by training...
My diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer at age 35 was a shock, also because I come from a family with no history of cancer. In disbelief, I was literally speechless—I lost my voice completely for several days. I grew up in the former Soviet Union and then in the newly independent Kyrgyzstan. My...
The ASCO Post recently spoke with nationally recognized surgical oncologist Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, Jerald L & Carolynn J. Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology & Global Health; Vice Chair of Education; and Program Director, General Surgery Residency, University of Nebraska ...
“New!” “Improved!” “Throw out that old [fill in the blank] and go buy a new [fill in the blank]!” Sound familiar? The key to marketing is to convince customers that they need a product without which they had previously been quite happy. All too often, this strategy is accompanied by a caveat emptor ...
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, did more than make it possible for millions of Americans to afford health care; it also established an abbreviated approval pathway for biologic products that are “biosimilar” to, or shown to be “interchangeable” with, a U.S....
Soon after effective therapies for some childhood malignancies were first identified, early leaders in our field had concerns about what would happen to surviving patients as they aged. In 1975, Giulio D’Angio, MD, one of the founders of modern pediatric radiation oncology, presciently called for...
Robert Seeger, MD, Division Head for Basic and Translational Research of the Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), has been selected for the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium (PBMTC). As the eighth...
Surgeons are clearly more comfortable in the operating room than the laboratory, but there is a place for them in translational cancer research as well, according to one surgeon who has led cutting-edge research in pancreatic cancer. “Translational studies require access to patients, to tissue, and ...
Venous thromboembolic events are more prevalent in patients with cancer than in persons without it. Cancer is associated with a high rate of venous thromboembolism recurrence, bleeding, requirement for long-term anticoagulation, and reduced quality of life. Moreover, thrombosis is the second most...
As reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, Burger and colleagues recently reported findings of the RESONATE-2 trial of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) vs chlorambucil (Leukeran) as initial therapy for elderly patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).1 The study met its primary endpoint of...
Latinas who eat processed meats such as bacon and sausage may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a new study that did not find the same association among white women. The study, published by Kim et al in Cancer Causes & Control, suggests that race, ethnicity, genetics,...
A study published by Beyaz et al in Nature reveals how a high-fat diet makes the cells of the intestinal lining more likely to become cancerous. It joins a growing body of research that finds obesity and eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet are significant risk factors for many types of cancer....
According to a study led by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) researchers, a majority of patients diagnosed with breast cancer go on to develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and in most of these cases, symptoms persist for at least a year. These findings were published by Voigt et ...
Ado-trastuzumab emtansine (formerly T-DM1; Kadcyla) improved overall survival compared with treatment of physician’s choice of therapy for patients with pretreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, according to the phase III TH3RESA trial.1 Patients enrolled in the trial had previously been...
A new study suggests that one approach to watching for a cancer's return is being inappropriately used at many hospitals and isn't helping patients survive longer. The findings are published by Healy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study looked at how often survivors ...
Most young women diagnosed with breast cancer are not physically active in the months after a cancer diagnosis, but physical activity increased over time. According to data presented at the 2016 Cancer Survivorship Symposium, higher levels of physical activity were seen among women whose oncology...
Although nevi are considered among the strongest risk factors for melanoma, most patients with melanoma had few total and no atypical nevi, according to a study of 566 patients with invasive cutaneous melanoma. “Three notable findings emerged from this case study,” Alan C. Geller, MPH, ...
The number of men smoking tobacco in India rose by more than one third to 108 million between 1998 and 2015, according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Global Health. The study also found that cigarettes were replacing the traditional bidi, a small, inexpensive Indian cigarette,...
A study from Lund University in Sweden has shown that commonly used chemotherapy toxins impair the eyesight in childhood cancer survivors in a way that indicates an impact on the central nervous system. The results were published by Einarsson et al in PLOS One. It was not the former patients' ...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Burstein et al, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline update on ovarian suppression as part of the extant guideline on adjuvant endocrine therapy in hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The update is based on an update panel...
Patients who received chemotherapy after surgical resection of pancreatic cancer have fewer distant disease recurrences and longer overall survival than those who also had adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. While a course of radiotherapy in addition to chemotherapy and a cancer operation reduced the...
Head and neck cancer patients who receive induction chemotherapy rather than the standard treatment of concurrent chemoradiation do not benefit from increased survival rates and are less likely to receive a full course of radiation, according to research presented by Stokes et al at the 2016...
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased significantly over the past 20 years despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and...
Like many men, it never occurred to me that I could get breast cancer. But it turns out it is more common—and deadly—than I thought, with about 2,600 men diagnosed each year with invasive breast cancer and nearly 440 dying of the disease.1 In 2010, I became one of those men, and the diagnosis was...
Every so often, a memoir comes along in which the story speaks to universal themes. For that magic to occur, the author must step aside at times and let others tell their story, too. Moreover, the writing must be clear, vibrant, and above all else honest to the core. The recently published memoir...
A randomized clinical trial examining the effect of a 15-week healthy living program on weight loss in cancer survivors showed a 5.3% decrease in baseline body weight in those participating in the program.1 “Cancer survivors randomized to a 15-week clinic-based weight-loss intervention lost an...
Bringing new cancer therapies through the discovery and development process entails considerable risk and many years of study. It also requires substantial investment and incentives from the public and private sectors to fuel future investment and discovery. A system that rewards advances in cancer ...
According to the most recent estimates, 55% to 65% of women who inherit the BRCA1 mutation and about 45% of women who inherit the BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer by the time they are 70 years old. There is also a substantial increase in the probability of developing ovarian cancers in...
Investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have found that significant bone loss occurs during the first month of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is far earlier than previously assumed. Results of the study were published by Orgel et al in the...
Patients with multiple myeloma now have access to an all-oral regimen, with the recent approval of the oral proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (Ninlaro) in previously treated patients. New pairings for the drug in relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed patients are being studied, with investigators...
Although patients with poor-risk metastatic testicular germ cell tumors continue to have less favorable outcomes, the bar has been raised by contemporary treatment. There is still room for improvement in managing metastatic testicular germ cell tumors, especially in poor-risk patients, but if...
During hysterectomies for noncancerous conditions, removing both fallopian tubes while keeping the ovaries may help protect against ovarian cancer and preserve hormonal levels, but few women receive this surgical option, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers. Published by ...
Women who eat more high-fiber foods during adolescence and young adulthood—especially fruits and vegetables—may have significantly lower breast cancer risk than those who eat less dietary fiber when young, according to a new large-scale study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan...
Thomas A. D’Amico, MD, of Duke Cancer Institute, discusses the superior efficacy of thoracoscopic lobectomy. This minimally invasive procedure is used in only 50% of lung cancer surgeries in the United States, in 30% of procedures in Asia, and in as few as 10% to 20% of procedures in Europe.
The recently updated U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation once again confirmed the value of screening mammography, concluding that the benefit of mammography outweighs the harms of screening in all age groups from age 40 through age 74. It emphasizes that both women and...
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,...