Low-dose oral cyclophosphamide plus methotrexate maintenance therapy yielded no disease-free survival benefit in women with hormone receptor–negative early breast cancer, according to the phase III International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) 22-00 trial. Some evidence of benefit was observed in ...
According to the American Cancer Society’s 2016 Cancer Facts & Figures, behaviors such as poor diet choices, physical inactivity, excess alcohol consumption, and unhealthy body weight account for about 20% of all cancers diagnosed in the United States and likely could be prevented with...
The National Cancer Institute–designated Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine has formed a new multispecialty group to provide expert, state-of-the-art esophageal cancer care, from assessing risk, screening, and prevention to diagnosis, treatment, and...
Fox Chase Cancer Center recently announced two new appointments in its Department of Medicine. Christopher J. Manley, MD Christopher J. Manley, MD, has joined Fox Chase Cancer Center as the Director of Interventional Pulmonology in the Department of Medicine. “Dr. Manley’s expertise in pulmonary...
Some patients who ask about immunotherapy do so because they don’t want to get chemotherapy. Immunotherapy “is not a replacement yet, especially for chemotherapy, which has a track record of curing cancer,” Anas Younes, MD, medical oncologist and Chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting women about the risks associated with the use of tests being marketed as ovarian cancer screening tests. The agency is especially concerned about delaying effective preventive treatments for women who show no symptoms but who are still at...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vose et al have provided a summary of the groundwork of an initiative by ASCO and the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) to identify and reduce administrative and regulatory burdens in the conduct of cancer clinical trials. The...
Immunotherapy has received “a lot of attention, mainly because of the media coverage,” Anas Younes, MD, medical oncologist and Chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said in an interview with The ASCO Post. “Many patients inquire, not about a specific...
Although diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a curable disease in most patients aged 65 years or older, these patients are also at higher risk of chemotherapy-related death within the first 30 days of treatment. To quantify the risk of early fatality and identify risk factors, researchers led ...
In an analysis of National Cancer Data Base data reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Bhatia et al found that adjuvant radiotherapy was associated with a survival benefit in patients with stage I and II but not stage III Merkel cell carcinoma, with no benefit of adjuvant...
In 2012, my husband, Robert, and I were looking forward to starting the next phase of our lives and were feeling excited about the future. Although only in our 50s, we had decided to retire early from our full-time careers, move to our cabin in Hayward, Wisconsin, and find less stressful part-time ...
While a majority of states are still missing important opportunities to pass and implement legislative solutions proven to prevent and fight cancer, progress is being made to move the nation closer to ending cancer as we know it, according to a report recently released by the American Cancer...
The best part of my day is hearing that little voice yell, “It’s Momma!” as my son rushes to greet me with a hug. It is humbling, and sometimes terrifying, to realize that I brought a little person into the world who is completely dependent on my husband and me for survival. Few would argue...
I was 2 months into my first-year fellowship at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC, when I learned the best oncology lesson of my career. I owned a copy of DeVita, Hellman, and Rosenberg’s Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology and had read Cancer Treatment...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor Laurence Boxer, MD, and Ralph Nachman, MD, with 2016 Mentor Awards at the 58th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, California, for their sustained, outstanding commitment to the training and career development of early-career...
George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, a leader in stem cell science and cancer biology whose work spans the fields of basic science and clinical medicine, will become the next Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He will begin his duties on January 1, 2017. Dr. Daley is currently...
Three leading national cancer organizations have issued a consensus guideline for physicians treating women who have ductal carcinoma in situ treated with breast-conserving surgery with whole-breast irradiation. The new guideline has the potential to save many women from unnecessary surgeries,...
A major new study has found substantial differences in the formulary availability, out-of-pocket costs, and actual availability of anticancer medicines across Europe. The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) European Consortium Study on the Availability of Antineoplastic Medicines was...
The moderator of the press briefing, Julie Margenthaler, MD, of Washington University, St. Louis, maintained there are few contraindications for nipple-sparing mastectomy. “I reiterate Dr. Jakub’s view. I agree it’s absolutely safe for BRCA-positive patients,” she declared. The contraindications, ...
Prophylactic mastectomy that preserves a woman’s nipple is oncologically safe in patients with deleterious BRCA mutations, according to the largest study yet to evaluate this approach in this high-risk population. “In more than 500 risk-reducing nipple-sparing mastectomies in 348 deleterious...
SEPTEMBER 19th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Clinical OncologySeptember 21-25 • Xiamen, ChinaFor more information:www.csco.ac.cn IASLC Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic OncologySeptember 22-24 • Chicago, IllinoisFor more...
According to William C. McGaghie, PhD, Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, the principles of today’s clinical medical education are rooted in a 19th century model that is no longer useful in a...
CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO, has announced an exciting new benefit for practices participating in CancerLinQ™. Current and future early adopters of CancerLinQ who sign up before ASCO’s 2017 Annual Meeting will receive a complimentary subscription to ASCO University...
Advances in the field of immuno-oncology are revolutionizing cancer care. Ongoing progress with immune checkpoint agents, immune system boosts, cancer vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies continues to yield new and exciting results. However, with the benefits of rapid expansion comes the challenge...
Take advantage of the new online version of the ASCO Research Program Quality Assessment Tool, which was developed by the ASCO Research Community Forum to help research sites establish or enhance their internal quality assessment program. The online tool makes it easier than ever for users to gauge ...
Join fellow physician investigators for the ASCO Research Community Forum 2016 Annual Meeting, to be held September 25–26 at ASCO Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. This will be the Research Community Forum’s 5th Annual Meeting, held each year to bring researchers and research staff from across...
On July 14, ASCO announced the 14 practices participating in the 2016 Quality Training Program. The program is designed to train oncology health-care providers to investigate and implement data-driven quality improvement and manage clinical and administrative processes and outcomes. “One of the...
On August 25, 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) posted a final research plan on screening for intimate partner violence, elder abuse, and abuse of vulnerable adults. The draft research plan for this topic was posted for public comment from May 26 to June 22, 2016. The Task...
In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its landmark report “The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding,” which recognized the scarcity of research in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and the...
In a pivotal phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Stephan Stilgenbauer, MD, of Ulm University, Germany, and colleagues found that the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax (ABT-199) produced a high response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with the 17p ...
Ronald McDonald House New York has announced that Ruth C. Browne, SD, MPP, MPH, has been selected as President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization. Dr. Browne joins Ronald McDonald House New York from the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, where she served as CEO since 2004. She...
Deaths from ovarian cancer fell worldwide between 2002 and 2012, and are predicted to continue to decline in the United States, European Union (EU) and Japan by 2020, according to new research published by Malvezzi et al in Annals of Oncology. The main reason is the use of oral contraceptives and...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for Priority Review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) therapy, for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small...
The presence of extramedullary disease at acute myeloid leukemia (AML) diagnosis was not an independent prognostic factor for worse survival, based on an analysis of data from the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group–American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ECOG-ACRIN) reported by Ganzel...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, Moran et al developed a classifier of cancer type based on microarray DNA methylation signatures (EPICUP assay), which has showed promise in diagnosing cancers of an unknown primary. Study Details The tumor type classifier was developed in a training set of...
It is commonly said that if something is too good to be true, it usually is. It is therefore quite refreshing when really good results are replicated in a subsequent study. As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Younes et al1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, a phase II trial of...
ASCO commended the Cancer Moonshot Initiative Blue Ribbon Panel for its ambitious recommendations to accelerate progress against cancer. “We applaud the Blue Ribbon Panel for its work and the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) National Cancer Advisory Board for convening the panel,”...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Anas Younes, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced response in two-thirds of patients with...
Weight Watchers International, Inc, has launched Project LIFT—Live Inspired, Fight Together—a new movement, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, to inspire and guide breast cancer survivors with free resources focused on tackling the unexpected weight gain that can follow breast...
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, has had a longer career in oncology than many other colleagues his age. Perhaps the reason for that may center on his starting college at the age 13 and medical school at the age of 17. Today this internationally recognized leader in genitourinary cancers is Assistant Professor ...
Study Title: Long-Pulsed 1064 nm Nd:YAG Laser Treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) Study Type: Interventional/single-group assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: University of California, San Diego; Massachusetts General Hospital Purpose: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of laser...
A recent report regarding pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for advanced Merkel cell carcinoma ushered in a more optimistic era in the treatment of this rare but often lethal skin cancer.1 The ASCO Post spoke with one of the field’s leaders, Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD—the first author of the study—about the...
On August 5, 2016, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was granted accelerated approval for treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy.1,2 As a condition of the accelerated approval, Merck is...
At the 2016 Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society of Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) International Symposium on Supportive Care in Cancer in Adelaide, Australia, a new President of the organization was announced, and numerous awards were given to outstanding...
Physicians from Carolinas HealthCare System’s Neurosciences Institute and Levine Cancer Institute are among the authors of a recent study published by Brown et al in JAMA.1 The study showed how among patients with one to three brain metastases, the use of stereotactic radiosurgery alone, compared...
As reported by Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, MBA, FRCS, FACS, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, and colleagues at the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), the rising global burden of cancer and inequalities in surgical oncology education ...
Margaret Spitz, MPH, Professor in the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, has been appointed by President Barack Obama as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB). A renowned expert in molecular...
Matti Aapro, MD, has been selected as the recipient of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer’s (MASCC) 2016 Distinguished Service Award. The Award recognizes meritorious achievement and outstanding contributions to the Society and its mission. Candidates are nominated by their ...
Clinical trials focused on older adults with cancer were featured prominently at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. There was a plenary session in glioblastoma, a clinical symposium on immunotherapy, and multiple educational lectures highlighting the growing literature and unique challenges in the...
The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) has announced the election of Karen E. Knudsen, PhD; Norman Sharpless, MD; and Eduardo Sotomayor, MD, to the AACI Board of Directors. The new Directors’ 3-year terms will start on October 23, 2016, during the AACI/ Cancer Center Administrators...