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Showing 21251 - 21300Cancer Informatics: A Future Necessity, but Challenges Abound
The National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently convened a workshop on cancer informatics to examine and discuss needs and challenges facing biomedical researchers, which will in turn affect the way oncology is practiced in the future. “This is a time of huge scientific ...
Summary of ASCO Provisional Clinical Opinion on Palliative Care
The ASCO provisional clinical opinion on palliative care recently published1 was based largely on data from seven published randomized controlled trials, including a phase III lung cancer trial by Temel and colleagues, which was the trigger for the new recommendations.2 The trial’s principal...
An Expert Shares Insight into the Future of Lung Cancer Treatment
Despite growing national focus on early detection, prevention, and new molecular-based treatments, lung cancer persistently remains the number 1 cause of cancer death for men and women in the United States. The ASCO Post spoke to lung cancer specialist Paul A. Bunn, Jr, MD, Executive Director,...
Surgeon General Releases New Report on Youth Smoking
The fight against tobacco use among young people was accelerated recently by Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, with the release of the Surgeon General’s Report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults. This report details the scope, health consequences, and influences that...
Radiation Oncologists Are Discussing Infertility Risks with Young Patients
More than 80% of radiation oncologists discuss the impact of cancer treatments on fertility with their patients of childbearing age. This can lead to improved quality of life for young patients with cancer, according to a study in Practical Radiation Oncology.1 In the past, the clinical focus for...
SELECT Trial Update: Vitamin E Fails to Prevent Prostate Cancer in Healthy Men, Appears to Increase Risk
Supplements touted as preventing prostate cancer may turn out to be dangerous, as is evident from updated results of the largest long-term prevention trial, called the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Final analysis of SELECT showed that, compared to placebo, vitamin E alone ...
Expert Point of View: Short-term Hormone Therapy Did Not Increase Risk of Cardiovascular Death in Men with Localized Prostate Cancer, RTOG 94-08 Trial Finds
Oliver Sartor, MD, Medical Director of Tulane Cancer Center, New Orleans, said that in his opinion, RTOG 94-08 had some flaws because outdated radiotherapy doses were employed. “The utility of hormone therapy is questionable with today’s doses,” Dr. Sartor said. “Using standard radiation doses at...
Short-term Hormone Therapy Did Not Increase Risk of Cardiovascular Death in Men with Localized Prostate Cancer, RTOG 94-08 Trial Finds
Short-term androgen deprivation therapy does not appear to increase cardiovascular mortality in men with clinically localized prostate cancer, according to a post hoc analysis of a large Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)-sponsored clinical trial.1 “Our study analyzes data from a large...
Expert Point of View: Study Shows Concurrent Chemoradiation Therapy to be a Viable Strategy for Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer
According to Seth P. Lerner, MD, Professor in the Scott Department of Urology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and Co-chair of the session at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium where the study by Mak and colleagues was presented, the data clearly demonstrate proof of principle that the...
Study Shows Concurrent Chemoradiation Therapy to be a Viable Strategy for Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer
Combined-modality therapy provides a bladder-sparing alternative to radical cystectomy with comparable outcomes in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, according to a pooled analysis of six Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trials.1 The study included 468 patients and showed that...
George Kovach, MD, Named as President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers
George Kovach, MD, became President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) at its 38th Annual National Meeting in March 2012. Dr. Kovach is the medical director of the Genesis Cancer Center, Davenport, Iowa, and one of the founding members of the Iowa Oncology Society (IOS). “I am...
Expert Point of View: Controlled Study Links ‘Chemobrain’ to Longitudinal Changes in Brain
Commenting on the study by Deprez et al, Patricia Ganz, MD, noted the importance of the finding for clinicians. “This study tells us that self-reported complaints mapped onto the neuropsychologic tasks; this has not been shown very often,” said Dr. Ganz, who is Director of the Division of Cancer...
Controlled Study Links ‘Chemobrain’ to Longitudinal Changes in Brain
The phenomenon called “chemobrain”—impaired cognitive functioning following chemotherapy—correlates with longitudinal changes in the brain’s white matter, according a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 Structural changes in the white matter, measured by magnetic resonance diffusion...
Survival Analysis by Gastric Cancer Subtypes in AVAGAST Phase III Trial
Subset analysis of the AVAGAST trial, which evaluated the benefit of bevacizumab (Avastin) in advanced gastric cancer, has demonstrated distinct differences in outcomes according to disease subtype, reported Manish A. Shah, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital, at ...
Targeting KRAS in GI Cancers: The Hunt for the Holy Grail in Cancer Research
The RAS oncogenes are the most frequently mutated class of oncogenes in human cancers, and this has prompted a search for Ras inhibitors to effectively treat tumors with these mutations. Despite intensive efforts, however, none has materialized clinically because K-Ras is proving to be a very...
ASCO Releases Palliative Care Provisional Clinical Opinion
ASCO has released a provisional clinical opinion (PCO) addressing the integration of palliative care services into standard oncology care.1 The ASCO Post recently spoke with one of the PCO’s lead authors, Thomas J. Smith, MD, Director of Palliative Care for Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns...
‘We Need an Index of Biologic Aging’
As a retired elderly (soon to be 83-year-old) oncologist, I read the recent article on the subject of geriatric oncology, in the March 15 issue of The ASCO Post, with great interest ("Moving the Field of Geriatric Oncology Forward," by Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO.) This was particularly so...
ACCC Meeting Focuses on Affordable Care Act: Its Future, and What It Might Accomplish
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) mid-March Annual Meeting devoted several sessions to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Will it still be here after the Supreme Court decides its fate? If so, how much of it will survive, and how will it affect oncology practice? In...
Our Patients, Our Teachers
There is no greater professional satisfaction than the knowledge that you have cared for a patient and the care brought an improvement in the patient's health. Regardless of the level of appreciation, whether the patient is cured or not, and even if the patient's sense of well-being may be...
Neoadjuvant Aromatase Inhibitor Therapy Converts Many Patients to Candidates for Breast-conserving Surgery
The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z1031 trial examined the effect of neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy on clinical response and breast-conservation rates in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor (ER)-rich stage II or III breast cancer. An update of the surgical...
Adding Cetuximab to Adjuvant Therapy with Modified FOLFOX6 Does Not Improve Survival
Adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to adjuvant treatment with mFOLFOX6, the modified sixth version of FOLFOX (leucovorin, fluorouracil, oxaliplatin) did not improve disease-free survival among patients with resected stage III colon cancer, even those with wild-type KRAS, according to a phase III study in...
Quality of Life Is What’s Most Important to Me
For me, getting a cancer diagnosis has been more annoying than frightening. Mainly, I’m annoyed at myself for not taking care of an anal skin tag sooner. (I’d had it since birth.) The growth hadn’t been a problem until I got pregnant with my first child and it became temporarily engorged with...
New Guidelines Recommend Less Frequent Screening for Cervical Cancer, but That Doesn’t Mean Screening Is Less Important
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. In March 2012, the U.S. Preventive...
Dr. Ronald D. Alvarez Elected 44th President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology
Ronald D. Alvarez, MD, Professor and Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was elected the 44th President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology at the society’s 43rd Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer held March 24-27, 2012, in Austin, Texas....
Using Imatinib for Adjuvant Treatment after Resection of Kit (CD117)-positive Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. Indication In January 2012, imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) was granted ...
Changing the Course of Human Health through Bold Pursuits in Science
The synergy between industry, academic research, and regulatory bodies will play an increasingly important role in ensuring the future of a robust cancer drug pipeline. To gain insight on oncologic development trends, The ASCO Post recently spoke with Jean Pierre Bizzari, MD, Head of Global...
SMAC Mimetics Induce Proinflammatory Cancer Cell Death and Adaptive Antitumor Immune Response
SMAC/DIABLO (second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase/direct inhibitor of apoptosis-binding protein with low pI) is a proapoptotic mitochondrial protein that is released in response to various apoptotic stimuli. Molecular mimetics of SMAC are being investigated for use in cancer treatment,...
Bone Morphogenesis Protein 4 Pathway as Treatment Target in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Bone morphogenesis protein 4 (BMP4), which belongs to the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β family, is a multifunctional cytokine that is known to be involved in human carcinogenesis. The cytokine exerts its effects through pathways dependent on and independent of SMAD proteins, which are the...
Targeting Human Endogenous Retrovirus K Envelope Protein Inhibits Breast Cancer Growth
The human genome contains a large variety of endogenous retroviral sequences (approximately 8% of the genome). Although most of these are highly defective, the human endogenous retrovirus type K (HERV-K) family shows conservation of apparently intact retroviral genes and is transcriptionally active ...
PEDF Has Cytotoxic Effect on Breast Cancer Cells and Neuron-protective Effect
The cytokine pigment epithelium–derived factor (PEDF) is downregulated in brain metastases of breast cancer by approximately 14-fold compared with primary breast tumors, suggesting that promoting its expression might inhibit metastatic spread. Normal breast epithelial cells express high levels of...
Constructing a Top Five List in Oncology
The American Society of Clinical Oncology has joined the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation and eight other medical specialty societies to take a collective stand in improving patient care and addressing rising health-care costs. As part of the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely®...
JCO Presents New Training Seminar for Authors
Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) recently launched a training seminar for potential authors, entitled, “Publishing Your Research: A Seminar From the Editors of JCO.” The first seminar was held in January prior to the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco. Daniel G. Haller, MD,...
Clinical Findings and Consequences of Distributing Counterfeit Drugs for Hematology and Oncology
As introduced in our report on page 1 of this issue, counterfeit pharmaceuticals are an increasingly important safety concern, and three of the most prominent drug-counterfeiting episodes in recent years have involved hematology/oncology products. Counterfeit Erythropoietin Helen B., a 61-year-old...
Expert Point of View: ColoPrint Gene Assay Can Guide Treatment Decisions in Stage II Colon Cancer
Axel Grothey, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, told The ASCO Post that he finds the data “intriguing” and that the study exemplifies the value of developing molecular signatures for use in colon cancer. “It identifies patients with an excellent prognosis, who perhaps should not be...
ColoPrint Gene Assay Can Guide Treatment Decisions in Stage II Colon Cancer
ColoPrint, an 18-gene expression profile assay for patients with early-stage colon cancer, accurately stratifies patients by recurrence risk and identifies a subset who can be adequately treated by surgery alone, investigators reported at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 According to...
Novel Agents and Genomic Sequencing Show Promise in Improving Multiple Myeloma Management
For over 30 years, Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, has focused his translational research on B-cell ...
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines: Important Updates for 2012
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology have become the most widely used guidelines in oncology practice. The Guidelines cover 97% of all patients with cancer and are continually updated by expert panels. The 2012 Guidelines include some completely...
Defining Meaningful Benefit: The Debate Continues in Bevacizumab’s Wake
The events surrounding the labeling of bevacizumab (Avastin) have been well covered since last November when the FDA withdrew the drug’s accelerated approval as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer. However, the controversy initiated a debate over the value of endpoints in clinical trials in...
Expert Point of View: Novel Multikinase Inhibitor Improves Survival in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
The results of the CORRECT trial created some degree of “buzz” at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, with experts predicting that regorafenib will become FDA-approved and have strong clinical utility. While numerically, the benefit appeared small, “There is a real difference with this...
Novel Multikinase Inhibitor Improves Survival in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
The novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor regorafenib, given as a single agent to patients with treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer, significantly improved overall survival and delayed disease progression in an international phase III trial presented at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers...
I Refuse to Let Cancer Win
My battle with cancer started with a simple sore throat in June 2005. Despite two rounds of an antibiotic to clear up the problem, within 2 months my throat hurt so much I couldn’t swallow, and a mysterious lump had suddenly appeared on my tongue. By the end of August, I was diagnosed with stage...
Partial Nephrectomy Can Optimize Survival in Patients with Early-stage Disease
Following recent clinical trial data from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment (EORTC) showing a survival benefit for patients with small kidney cancers treated with radical vs partial nephrectomy, an analysis using linked Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) and...
Integrated Genetic Profiling Can Identify Predictors of Outcome and Improve Risk Stratification in AML Patients
A mutational analysis of 18 genes in 398 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) found at least one somatic alteration in 97.3% of the patients and identified genetic predictors of outcome that improved risk stratification among patients with AML, independent of age, white-cell count, induction...
Younger Patients Treated with Systemic Carboplatin at Higher Risk of Ototoxicity
Patients younger than 6 months at the start of systemic carboplatin treatment for retinoblastoma have a significant risk of developing hearing loss, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. A review of audiologic test results of 60 patients with retinoblastoma who received...
Women Treated with Breast-conserving Surgery More Likely to Have Diagnostic and Invasive Procedures over Time
Women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) treated with breast-conserving surgery “continue to have diagnostic and invasive breast procedures in the conserved breast over an extended period,” according to a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “The estimated 10-year...
Concepts about Effects of Menopausal Hormone Therapy on Breast Cancer Continue to Change
In 2002, it was thought that menopausal hormone therapy using estrogen alone increases breast cancer risk, although not as quickly as combined estrogen plus progestin. Current thinking about estrogen alone is that it reduces breast cancer risk. This is just one example of changing concepts about...
Two Cycles of Chemotherapy plus Involved-field Radiation Improves Tumor Control in Early Unfavorable Disease
Final analysis of the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) HD14 trial concluded that intensified chemotherapy with two cycles of escalated BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine [Matulane], and prednisone) followed by two cycles of ABVD (doxorubicin,...
SIDEBAR: Drug Development in the Era of Personalized Medicine
Advances in understanding cancer on a molecular level and the identification of subgroups of cancer patients with rare diseases are expected to have an effect on drug development and supply. “The vision of what cancer care will be like in the future is this very precise personalized care, where...
Update on Oncology Drug Shortage: Better for Now, But Permanent Solutions Must Address Underlying Issues
Over the past few years, drug shortages in the United States have been on the rise, involving hundreds of agents, many of which are lifesaving medications for patients with cancer. In recent months, the FDA has taken steps to alleviate some of the most critical oncology drug shortages. “We should...
Scott M. Lippman, MD, Named New Director of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
Scott M. Lippman, MD, has been named Director of Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, effective May 1, 2012. Dr. Lippman was previously Chair of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. “As the new...
