Does nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer really exist? Although it is considered a disease category, it turns out that the definition depends on the type of imaging used. Many patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer who were categorized as “nonmetastatic” on conventional...
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors is now considered a standard of care for the front-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. Despite better outcomes with these agents, there is still room for improvement. At the 2019 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Robert J. Motzer, MD, of...
In 2018, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute launched a large, ambitious screening study called (PROMISE; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03689595) to identify people with premalignant precursor conditions of multiple myeloma, to understand the molecular signs of progression to myeloma...
More than one out of two patients with metastatic melanoma treated with the combination of nivolumab plus ipilimu-mab is still alive after 5 years, according to the longest follow-up of patients receiving this combination. In two additional studies, the immunotherapy duet also proved to be active...
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) has named three investigators as the recipients of this year’s Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award recognizes scientists for their accomplishments in the area of cancer research. The winners for 2019 are Nathanael S. Gray, PhD; Joshua...
Each year, we ask ASCO members to place their votes to select our Society’s leaders and Board Members. The ASCO Nominating Committee, which is itself elected by ASCO members, took on the challenge of selecting this year’s candidates for the open seats on the ASCO Board of Directors and Nominating...
Patrick J. Loehrer, MD, FASCO, of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, were selected by the ASCO Nominating Committee as candidates for President-Elect. Below, they discuss...
William G. Kaelin, Jr, MD, Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, admits that early in his research career, he and his late wife, Carolyn, would have fun...
Local therapy for stage IV breast cancer has not been proven to increase overall survival, yet there are some cases where local therapy could be considered outside a clinical trial. For patients with intact asymptomatic primary tumors, local therapy could be offered if distant disease is well...
New exercise guidelines for patients with cancer can “improve physical and psychological outcomes from cancer diagnosis and for the balance of life,” concluded representatives from 17 organizations participating in the Second Roundtable on Exercise and Cancer Prevention and Control.1 Attention...
In 1999, a team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College advocated the use of a then-novel practice: low-dose radiation CT screening for lung cancer. It captures a full thoracic image in a single breath hold, and can recognize a tumor in its earliest stages when the chance for cure is...
“There is clear evidence that patients are more likely to exercise if their oncologist tells them to do so,” reported representatives from 17 organizations participating in the Second Roundtable on Exercise and Cancer Prevention and Control. In an article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for...
Stanley L. Schrier, MD, Past President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH, 2004–2005) and Professor Emeritus of Hematology at Stanford Medicine in Palo Alto, died on August 16. He was 90 years old. Instrumental to Growth at Stanford Dr. Schrier was a 1954 graduate of Johns Hopkins...
Although many commentaries on studies featured in The ASCO Post call for scrutiny of the fine points, this is not the case for the recent report by Antonia et al in The Lancet Oncology (reviewed in the current issue of The ASCO Post).1 This article serves as a well-deserved victory lap for the...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has selected Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, to receive the 2019 ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology. The award is given in recognition of his groundbreaking work elucidating why some patients are resistant to immunotherapy and how to restore the anticancer...
Older adults are the fastest-growing segment of our population, and more than 65% of patients with newly diagnosed cancer are 65 years of age or older. Although we now recognize the special needs of older patients with cancer, the field of geriatric oncology emerged quietly, with early growing...
“I could not have written this book when I was 30 years old. It is not because of any great discoveries I have made or research papers I have published since. It is because of the experience the intervening decades have given me as I cared for thousands of cancer patients and accompanied many to...
American patients are suffering from an obesity crisis, where it is estimated that 300,000 deaths per year are due to obesity.1 The obesity trend is predicted to worsen, where it is projected that 85% of U.S. adults will be overweight or obese by 2030.2 Consequently, obesity-related illnesses are...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, spoke with Navneet S. Majhail, MD, MS, about his journey from India to the Cleveland Clinic, where he is Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. He is also President of the American Society for...
Earlier this year, ASCO published the results of its new study on oncologists’ perceptions and practice behaviors regarding obesity, weight management, and related lifestyle factors in their patients both during and after cancer treatment.1 The findings from the online survey of 971 oncology...
Richard T. Lee, MD, Associate Professor at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, discussed the abstract by Galloway et al at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium. He remarked that starting a new palliative care consultation can sometimes feel...
This year’s meeting of the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit: Cancer and Universal Health Coverage, held on October 15–17 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, brought together more than 350 global health leaders, including ministers of health, first ladies, and industry leaders, from 82 countries to discuss how...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
On October 16, 2019, an expert panel convened by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)released updated guidance and recommendations on the role of physical activity and exercise in cancer prevention and survivorship. The panel was co-chaired by Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, of the Department...
On November 20, 2019, Stephen Hahn, MD, President Trump’s nominee to be the next Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee and answered wide-ranging questions relating to the many important roles the...
“The majority of breast cancers are hormone receptor–positive, and treatments that target the estrogen receptors are very effective, but they also cause havoc in many tissues that are dependent on estrogen for normal functioning. As a result, breast cancer survivors suffer from ongoing symptoms and ...
The term “relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma” is often used to describe advanced myeloma that has progressed through primary or salvage therapy. The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) defined the term in 2011 as disease that is “nonresponsive while on salvage therapy or progresses...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients (PICP) program by launching new resources that provide continued and improved support to patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. The new...
“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.” –Orison Swett Marden I was informed that my patient, a 58-year-old man recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his wife were becoming impatient waiting for me in the exam...
For Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, ensuring that every patient with cancer receives high-quality care is not an abstract goal—it is personal. Princess Dina saw firsthand the life-and-death differences that access to state-of-the-art oncology care makes in a patient’s life when...
Question 1 Which of the following statements about cytokine-release syndrome and neurotoxicity after tisagenlecleucel infusion is correct? Correct answer: B. The median time to onset of cytokine-release syndrome is 3 days. Expert Perspective Following tisagenlecleucel infusion, cytokine-release...
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” —Marie Curie The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology ...
OCE Insights is an occasional department developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Jennifer J. Gao, MD, Acting Associate Director of Education in the OCE, and Richard Pazdur, MD, Director of ...
More Americans than ever are surviving lung cancer. While the disease remains the leading cause of cancer deaths among both women and men, over the past decade, the survival rate has increased. A new report from the American Lung Association—the 2019 State of Lung Cancer—examines this promising...
Patients with advanced lung cancer can experience burdensome symptoms at the end of life. Pulmonologists can alleviate some of this suffering, but it’s a balancing act between doing too much and not enough, according to specialists who spoke at CHEST 2019, the annual meeting of the American College ...
Endocrine therapy has been a lifesaver for women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, but decreases in recurrence and cancer-related mortality have come with substantial side effects, according to data presented at the 2019 Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium.1 The results of a...
For the last decade, medical experts have known that voriconazole—an antifungal medication used to prevent infections in patients with compromised immune systems—is linked to the development of particularly aggressive squamous cell carcinoma in skin exposed to ultraviolet (UV) rays. However, the...
Immune-related colitis is the second most common toxicity associated with checkpoint inhibitors, affecting up to 40% of patients. The ASCO Post interviewed Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Medication-Induced Colitis and Enteritis, Director of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and Associate...
The invited discussant of the two trials in cervical and endometrial cancers presented at the ESMO Congress 2019 was Nicoletta Colombo, MD, of the University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy, who commented on what she called “exciting results in cancers with unmet needs.” Dr. Colombo noted: “The studies...
The invited discussant of the two trials in cervical and endometrial cancers presented at the ESMO Congress 2019 was Nicoletta Colombo, MD, of the University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy, who commented on what she called “exciting results in cancers with unmet needs.” Dr. Colombo noted: “The studies...
At the ESMO Congress 2019, ovarian cancer was a topic of heightened interest, particularly due to findings reported in several important phase III studies of PARP inhibitors in front-line maintenance therapy for patients with newly diagnosed advanced disease—and not just those with BRCA mutations....
CDK4/6 inhibitors improve overall survival in advanced breast cancer, according to results of two important phase III trials reported at the ESMO Congress 2019. Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles Women’s Cancer Research Program, presented the findings from the...
Receiving a cancer diagnosis is a disorienting moment for our patients who are then faced with making difficult decisions regarding their treatment. In order to improve shared decision-making and to increase patient involvement in their care, it is essential to provide patients and their families...
Although stem cells throughout the body acquire genetic mutations over time, usually these alterations do not affect how the stem cells function or cause disease. However, recent research in clonal hematopoiesis and aging has found an association between clonal expansion of hematopoietic cells with ...
In September 2019, Dr. Claire Harrison and colleagues, myself among them, presented two new analyses regarding the use of the JAK2 and FLT3 inhibitor fedratinib in myelofibrosis at the Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) Annual Meeting, with resulting publication in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma...
Lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer, leading to about 150,000 deaths per year in the United States and accounting for approximately 25% of all cancer deaths in the nation. Early detection has improved survival in other malignancies such as breast, colon, and cervical cancers, but...
The Oncology Care Model was instituted in 2016 by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation as a move away from the fee-for-service payment model and toward value-based care. It has sparked discussion ever since. How should quality be defined? Whose and what values should it reflect? How...
It is with great sadness that we report Craig Alguire, MD, 42, died on October 11, 2019, at his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme in 2015, Dr. Alguire chronicled the effects the cancer was having on his life in his Patient’s Corner column, published in...
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Chief of Breast Surgery, Kazuaki Takabe, MD, PhD, FACS, delivered the keynote address on immunotherapy for breast cancer at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology (JSCO) in Fukuoka. During the meeting, Dr. Takabe also led a...
The time has come to offer all patients a PARP [poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitor,” said Mansoor R. Mirza, MD, Chief Oncologist at Copenhagen University Hospital and the invited discussant of the VELIA trial at the ESMO Presidential Symposium. He noted, however, that he wasn’t sure veliparib...