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Showing 2101 - 2150Geriatric Oncologists: A Small but Passionate Group
Although age is the major risk factor for developing cancer, geriatric oncology is still a relatively new discipline within the oncology community. To gain insight into this evolving component of cancer care, The ASCO Post recently spoke with a leader in the field, Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP,...
Chemoradiation with Fluorouracil and Mitomycin Reduces Recurrence of Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer
Radiotherapy is an alternative to surgery in muscle-invasive bladder cancer, particularly in less-fit patients. However, it is associated with high rates of incomplete response or recurrence, with salvage surgery often being required. Although synchronous chemoradiotherapy has improved local...
FDA Strengthens Monitoring of Postapproval Drug Safety
A strengthened and modernized postmarket drug safety program has resulted in a substantial improvement in the FDA’s oversight of drugs once they reach the American public, according to a new report released by the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). The report, Advances in...
Untreated Cancer Pain Remains a Significant Global Problem
“Physicians are afraid of morphine … Doctors [in Kenya] are so used to patients dying in pain … they think that this is how you must die. They are suspicious if you don’t die this way — [and feel] that you died prematurely.” —Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. John Weru of Nairobi Hospice,...
Progress in Treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Has Led to Across-the-board Improvements in Survival
Four decades ago, Kanti R. Rai, MD, was determined to figure out why some of his patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) died within 2 years after their diagnosis, while others lived for 20 or even 30 years. At the time, Dr. Rai was a young scientist doing research in leukemia at...
Managing Febrile Neutropenia: What Are the Best Antibiotic Regimens?
Management of patients with cancer who have fever and a low neutrophil count is one of the most common scenarios oncologists face today. “Physicians have to be keenly aware of the infection risks, diagnostic methods, and microbial therapies required for managing febrile neutropenic patients because ...
Maintenance of Certification in Medical Oncology
It is said that time is perhaps the most treasured asset we have. If you are a practicing oncologist, everyone wants more and more of your time, and I’m not referring to patients. Rather, there is an increasing proliferation of folks who want to make sure we’re doing a good job, and they are...
Acai Berry
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has risen significantly over the past 2 decades 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 the...
Will Study Showing Increased Complications Compared to Whole-breast Irradiation Put the Brakes on Brachytherapy?
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Older women treated for invasive...
ASCO Reexamines the Oncology Workforce Shortage
A study commissioned by ASCO in 2006 predicted a significant shortage of medical and gynecologic oncologists in the United States by 2020. As a result, the organization created the Workforce Implementation Group to develop recommendations to stem the projected workforce shortfall and ensure ongoing ...
International Photodynamic Medicine Symposium: Shedding New Light on an Old Therapy
This past May, a collaborative think tank of researchers was convened at The Ohio State University, Columbus, to share their expertise in a somewhat older treatment that is reemerging on many fronts: photodynamic therapy. Participants from the United States, Great Britain, and Japan took part in...
Markers in Cancer 2012, to be Held October 11–13, Will Seek to Move the Field of Biomarkers to the Next Phase
There are hundreds and hundreds of papers published on biomarkers in cancer each year, but very few make it over the hurdles necessary to be used in actual patient care, said James L. Abbruzzese, MD, Chair of the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson ...
Cancer Survivors Stand Up, Give Thanks, and Give Back
“I have me back,” is how breast cancer survivor Jeanette Daniel of Memphis described her life after being treated on a clinical trial at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. Being conducted by the Stand Up To Cancer P13K Dream Team, whose leader discovered the PI3K pathway, the trial...
Risk Stratification and Targeted Therapy, Abetted by Collaboration, Improve Outcomes for Children with Cancer
Outcomes for children with cancer have “improved over the course of the years incrementally, mostly not from the development of new drugs, because virtually all the drugs that we use now in leukemia were available in the 1970s. It is really through better understanding of the heterogeneity of the...
At More than a Century Old, American Association for Cancer Research Continues to Evolve
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), has been Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) since 1982, and has been instrumental in launching some of the most seminal efforts of the cancer research organization. Over the past 4 years, she has helped spearhead the AACR’s...
Radiotherapy in Early-stage Hodgkin Lymphoma
The treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the major success stories in medical oncology. Depending on clinical stage, clinical risk factors, and the treatment given, 60% to 90% of all patients can be cured of their malignancy long-term. Hodgkin lymphoma survivors represent one of...
Decoding the Genetic Blueprint of Cancer Cells: Findings in Multiple Myeloma and Breast Cancer
Advances in next-generation DNA sequencing technologies are allowing scientists to decipher the whole genome or whole exome (ie, the coding region of the genome) of cancer specimens more quickly and inexpensively than ever before. And the results are revealing genes that had not previously been...
When It Comes to Scientific Exploration, Renowned Clinical Investigator Lets the Work Guide His Path
Internationally renowned clinical investigator Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse on the rural outskirts of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Polio was a scourge at the time, and Dr. Von Hoff recalled lining up with his skittish classmates to get the newly developed...
New ASCO President Reflects on Value of Mentorship and Addressing Health-care Disparities
Sandra M. Swain, MD, Medical Director of the Washington Cancer Institute at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, and ASCO President for the 2012 to 2013 term, is a leading authority on breast cancer treatment with a global reputation in cutting-edge clinical research. The...
After 3 Decades at MD Anderson, Leukemia Researcher Shows No Sign of Slowing Down
Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, Chair of the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was born in Lebanon. The only member of his family to have pursued a career in medicine, he received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB), which was founded...
Tracing Breast Cancer Luminary’s Path to Oncology, from Hungary to Houston
Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, ASCO Past President (2006-2007), grew up under the oppressive regime of communist Hungary during the Cold War. “As college-educated intellectuals, my family was among the ‘politically undesirables,’ and if we had not escaped Hungary, neither my two sisters nor I...
From Small-town House Calls to Bone Marrow Transplants, Nobel Laureate Continues Father’s Legacy
“I echo the sentiments of many previous Nobel laureates when I say that the success we celebrate today was made possible by the work of many others in this and in related fields.” So ended the Nobel Lecture by E. Donnall Thomas, MD, the famed investigator and 1990 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or...
To Scan or Not to Scan for Colon Cancer Recurrence?
Over the past 2 decades, we have seen a substantial increase in the 5-year survival of patients with stage II and III colon cancer, marking an evolving oncologic success story. However, in the postoperative setting, the value of regular CT screening to monitor for recurrence has been greeted with...
Too Soon to Know How Circulating Tumor Cells Might Be Used to Guide Treatment of Breast Cancer
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. “A simple blood test.” These were...
Medical Ethicists Reflect on Their Personal Cancer Experiences
The recently published book, Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, takes a personal look at the cancer experience from the perspective of seven medical ethicists who were also patients with cancer or cared for spouses with cancer.1 The book’s editor, Rebecca Dresser, JD, MS, who teaches law ...
New PSA Recommendations: The Debate over Prostate Cancer Screening Continues
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently issued a recommendation statement advising against the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based testing for prostate cancer,1 leaving many in the oncology community concerned that decades of clinical progress will be stalled, and setting ...
Adjuvant Chemotherapy May Confer Survival Benefit in Patients Older than 75 with Stage III Disease
Because few people over 75 participate in clinical trials, it is unknown whether adjuvant chemotherapy could benefit this population. Faced with this gap in clinical trial evidence, researchers reviewed data from 5,489 patients ≥ 75 years with stage III colon cancer. The review suggests that...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions from Your Patients
Promising results announced at the recent ASCO Annual Meeting from studies with BRAF and MEK inhibitors have made headlines, but only one of these agents—the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf)—has been approved by the FDA. The others are still investigational. Patients interested in gaining...
Early Access to Palliative/Supportive Care vs Usual Care Improves Pain Management
Many cancer patients remain undertreated for pain despite availability of guidelines and educational efforts to improve pain treatment. In a recent Annals of Oncology article, Bandieri and colleagues from the Italian Epidemiologia Clinico-Assistenziale del Dolore in Ospedale (ECAD-O) group report a ...
Soy Phytoestrogens and Breast Cancer: An Enduring Dilemma
The impact of soy consumption on breast cancer diagnosis and outcome has remained of concern to clinicians and researchers for the past 20 years. Although studied extensively in epidemiologic studies as well as lab and animal research, no medical consensus on soy’s effects has emerged. Many studies ...
Mitotane-containing Regimens Explored for a Rare Tumor
Response rates and progression-free survival rates were significantly better among patients with advanced adrenocortical carcinoma receiving mitotane (Lysodren) plus EDP (etoposide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin) than in patients receiving mitotane with streptozocin (Zanosar), according to results of...
Prognostic Value of Integrated Cytogenetic and Mutational Risk Classification in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Jay P. Patel, BS, and colleagues from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York recently performed mutational analysis of 18 genes in a subgroup of newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients who had been randomized to receive cytarabine plus high-dose or standard-dose...
Increased Adjuvant Therapy Use and Improved Survival in Dutch Elderly Patients with Stage III Colon Cancer: A Direct Correlation?
A survival benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy has been reported for select elderly patients with stage III colon cancer, but many elderly patients are not candidates for or are not given adjuvant therapy due to comorbidities and fear of toxicity. In a recent Annals of Oncology article, van...
Landscape for Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma Is Expanding
Metastatic melanoma was long considered untreatable and incurable. The FDA approval of ipilimumab (Yervoy) and vemurafenib (Zelboraf) ushered in a new era for this disease, and now additional treatment options are in late stages of clinical development. Dabrafenib, a novel oral BRAF inhibitor, and...
Reflections from the Old World
A few years ago, I was a key witness for a patent dispute at a trial in Delaware. Acting for the complainant, I was briefed that the opening gambit of the opposition lawyer would be to discredit my CV and, therefore, the value of my testimony. “So you are a full Professor at the University of...
Data Liquidity Coalition Takes Shape
A coalition to promote and implement data sharing in cancer by facilitating data ‘liquidity,’ first proposed in February at an Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop, is taking shape with the formation of a steering committee and action plans that include a demonstration project. For several years,...
New Assessment Tools in Development to Guide Care for Older Patients
More than 1,400 people from 62 countries attended the 2012 Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society of Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) International Symposium on Supportive Care in Cancer, held in New York last June. One of the featured sessions, which was jointly...
Trailblazer in Argentinean Oncology Remains Optimistic about War on Cancer
Eduardo Cazap, MD, PhD, is founder and first President of the Latin American and Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology (SLACOM). In 2008, he was elected to a 2-year term as President of the International Union against Cancer (UICC). The ASCO Post recently spoke with Dr. Cazap about his roots in...
Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: Who, When, and How to Treat?
Differentiated thyroid cancer—papillary, follicular, and Hürthle cell carcinomas—has historically been managed by endocrinologists, surgeons, and radiation oncologists, but recent progress in the field has led to greater involvement by medical oncologists, especially in the care of patients with...
Supportive Care Research Runs the Gamut from Genetic Markers of Treatment Side Effects to Neuropathic Pain Therapies
Attendees from around the world gathered for the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society of Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) International Symposium on Supportive Care in Cancer, held June 28–30 in New York. Below are highlights from the meeting, representing...
Rethinking the Role of PSA Screening in Public Health
Population screening to identify preclinical disease is considered a central factor in the decades-long decrease in mortality seen in certain cancers. However, hope in the face of deadly disease can sometimes blind us to the scientific evidence. According to the recent U.S. Preventive Services Task ...
New Agents That Improve Efficacy Can Also Increase Morbidity and Treatment-related Mortality
Newly approved anticancer drugs that lead to improvements in efficacy can also lead to increased morbidity and treatment-related mortality, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The investigators conducted a meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials evaluating agents...
The 2013 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium Will Observe the Meeting’s 10-Year Anniversary
A decade after its start in 2003 with a few hundred attendees, the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium now boasts more than 3,000 participants from all over the world. The next implementation marks the meeting’s 10th anniversary. The 3-day meeting—to be held January 24–26 in San Francisco—is...
Despite Challenges, Initiatives Bring Gradual Improvements to Cancer Care in Lebanon
Nagi S. El Saghir, MD, FACP, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Hematology-Oncology at the American University of Beirut, is the founding President of the Lebanese Society of Medical Oncology (LSMO). Dr. El Saghir has focused much of his research on the early detection, prevention, and treatment of ...
Ongoing and Future Directions in Pancreatic Cancer Research
Margaret A. Tempero, MD, is a pioneer in pancreatic cancer treatment and research. She has long been a leader in the research and development of therapeutics for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, particularly in studying investigational antibody-based therapies, developing the fixed-dose-rate...
The Science of Resilience: Exploring the Process of Grieving from a New Perspective
How human beings cope with bereavement, loss, extreme adversity, and life-threatening illness has dominated the research interests of George A. Bonanno, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Teachers College at Columbia University, New York, for more than 20 years. In his book, The Other Side of...
Letter to the Editor: More Thoughts on PSA
An article that appeared in the August 15 issue of The ASCO Post (“Rethinking the Role of PSA Screening in Public Health”) contains false statements about the discovery of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and its effectiveness as a test for early detection of prostate cancer. Contrary to what’s...
High-cost Imaging Used Frequently in Elderly with Stage IV Cancer
Patients with stage IV breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers undergo frequent high-cost imaging procedures throughout the continuum of their care, and rates of imaging have steadily increased, according to an analysis of claims from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results...
Being Well Informed Helped Me Cope with Breast Cancer
I had been putting off getting a screening mammogram for a few years. When I finally made an appointment in March 2011 and was told that I needed a follow-up sonogram because the test had picked up a suspicious-looking mass in my right breast, I knew I was in trouble. A biopsy of the tumor showed...
Sexual Dysfunction in Female Cancer Survivors Is Prevalent
Although medical experts put the proportion of female survivors facing some form of sexual dysfunction following a cancer diagnosis and treatment at nearly 100%, very few women raise sexual health concerns with their oncologist. In a study of 261 patients with gynecologic or breast cancer published ...
