The pathologic evaluation of lumpectomy margins is “fraught with problems and pitfalls,” said Stuart J. Schnitt, MD, Director of Anatomic Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, who was part of a multidisciplinary discussion of ...
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), received the Ellen V. Sigal Advocacy Leadership Award from the national advocacy organization Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) at its 18th Annual Cancer Leadership Awards Reception held...
In the neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer, the importance of achieving a pathologic complete response (pCR) varies substantially by breast cancer subtype. Patients are increasingly interested in this outcome, but it means different things to different patients, according to two breast cancer...
The bane of treating non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with druggable mutations has been the development of resistance to targeted agents. New compounds are meeting the challenge of treating resistant disease, according to Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, FACP, Professor and Chair of Hematology and...
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, recently announced that technetium 99m tilmanocept (Lymphoseek Injection) has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for use in sentinel lymph node detection in patients with cancer of the head and neck. The designation ...
Antibody-drug conjugates are being tested against several types of lymphomas and for some of these agents, “activity is quite impressive,” Andrew M. Evens, DO, MSc, reported at the recent Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago. Dr. Evens, Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, and...
This year’s Best of ASCO meeting held in Seattle featured topics that both riveted attendees and pushed their buttons, according to program chair Alan P. Venook, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco. “I am extremely pleased with the quality of the presentations from the faculty, but...
Optimal duration of androgen-deprivation therapy as part of primary therapy for prostate cancer continues to be an important question. Two well-conducted studies reported recently at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provide data that can help inform...
Tracy Balboni, MD, moderated the press conference where data from the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) 03.01 and National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) CTG ES.2 trial were discussed during ASTRO’s Annual Meeting.1 Dr. Balboni, a Radiation Oncologist at Harvard Medical School and...
Radiation therapy alone was found to be as effective as chemoradiation in reducing dysphagia associated with advanced esophageal cancer in the palliative setting and was less toxic, according to results of a multinational phase III trial called the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) 03.01 ...
This is a provocative study, showing unexpected differences in acute skin reactions with conventional fractionation vs hypofractionation. Some studies have failed to show differences in acute toxicities between these two types of radiation therapy,” said Kenneth B. Roberts, MD, Professor of...
Hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation was associated with much less acute toxicity during radiation therapy compared with conventionally fractionated whole-breast irradiation and also led to improved physical well-being and less physician-reported and patient-reported fatigue 6 months later,...
The goal of therapy is to maximize cure. Limiting radiation therapy and other types of cancer therapies is reasonable to minimize side effects, but at times this path might lead to increased risk of cancer recurrence,” said Theodore DeWeese, MD, Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology and...
Adding consolidation radiation therapy to chemotherapy significantly improves 10-year survival in patients with stage I and II Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a large observational study based on the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Yet over that same 10-year period, radiation therapy use declined...
Benjamin Movsas, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, served as moderator at a press conference where the two SBRT studies by Timmerman et al and Ashworth et al were reported.1,2 Dr. Movsas said that SBRT is a promising approach, noting that the therapy facilitates...
The door is open for expanded use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with inoperable early-stage lung cancer and for patients with oligometastatic stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results of two studies presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the...
Although diverse stakeholders agree that health reform is needed, there is little consensus on the specifics of that reform. Best of ASCO Seattle attendees put a number of pointed questions to health economist Rena Conti, PhD, of the University of Chicago, asking about thorny issues such as cost...
Value-based health-care reform is happening. We have to get on board,” Rena Conti, PhD, a health economist at the University of Chicago, advised attendees of the Best of ASCO Seattle meeting. She discussed highlights from Annual Meeting sessions that addressed the impact of the Affordable Care Act...
I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asclepius, and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses as my witnesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this contract: To hold him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to be a partner in life...
On the face of it, the idea that a code of professional conduct dating to the ancient Iron Age could possibly retain any relevance in the current era of “Big Data,” religious and cultural pluralism, trillion-dollar government budgets, and nanotechnology seems preposterous. Yet the well-publicized...
Benjamin Movsas, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, served as moderator at a press conference where the two SBRT studies by Timmerman et al and Ashworth et al were reported.1,2 Dr. Movsas said that SBRT is a promising approach, noting that the therapy facilitates...
Melphalan in combination with bortezomib (Velcade) should be maintained as one of the standards of care for the treatment of elderly patients with multiple myeloma, concluded Spanish trialists reporting updated results from the GEM2005 study comparing bortezomib/melphalan/prednisone with...
Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent among patients newly diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, and black patients had statistically significantly lower levels than white patients, according to a recent study reported by Katherine Van Loon, MD, MPH, of the UCSF Helen Diller Family...
Three-year risks for cervical cancer and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or worse (CIN3+) were lower following a negative test for human papillomavirus (HPV) than following a negative Pap test, according to a large study comparing three cervical cancer screening strategies, HPV or Pap...
Polymorphisms in FcγR (receptor for the constant region of immunoglobulin G) have been reported to be associated with improved immune-mediated effects of cetuximab (Erbitux) in metastatic colorectal cancer. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Sclafani and colleagues analyzed the...
In a study reported in Cancer Research, Ding and colleagues identified mechanisms by which cyclophosphamide induces suppressor cells that inhibit immune response and predispose to loss of tumor control. They found that cyclophosphamide treatment induces expansion of inflammatory monocytic myeloid...
With a $2 million, 5-year grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine will examine the molecular mechanisms that allow certain cancers, particularly multiple myeloma, to spread to the bone. The project could lead to new...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Zhu Chen, MD, PhD, with the 2014 AACR Award for Distinguished Public Service and Global Impact in Cancer Research in Biomedical Science at the AACR’s inaugural meeting in China, called New Horizons in Cancer Research: Harnessing...
BOOKMARK Title: Therapeutic Revolution: The History of Medical Oncology From Early Days to the Creation of the SubspecialtyAuthor: Pierre R. BandPublisher: Bentham SciencePublication date: 2014Price: $39.00 (eBook); $78.00 (print on demand); 213 pagesAvailable at: eurekaselect.com According to...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies of people with lung neoplasms, including stage I and II small cell and non–small cell lung cancers. The studies include phase Ib, II, III, observational, and interventional trials...
America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are currently developing nearly 800 new medicines and vaccines for cancer, according to a report released recently by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).1 Perseverance Needed “In recent decades, we have seen great progress ...
Gifts totaling $1 million in honor of the 40th anniversary of the cure for testicular cancer were recently announced at a celebration for the physician scientist who developed the treatment. Family, friends, colleagues, and men grateful for their lives gathered at the Indianapolis Museum of Art to...
Testicular cancer is one of oncology’s true success stories. It is a highly treatable disease, usually curable, that most often develops in young and middle-aged men. Despite the success in testicular cancer, there are still clinical challenges ranging from staging to optimum therapeutic...
Two landmark randomized studies demonstrated improved survival of patients with head and neck cancer receiving the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody cetuximab (Erbitux) concurrent with radiotherapy compared with radiotherapy alone,1 and similar improvement in patients with...
Use of cisplatin or cetuximab (Erbitux) with radiotherapy improves overall survival in stage III or IV head and neck carcinoma, and adding cetuximab to platinum therapy improves overall survival in metastatic disease. In the phase III Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0522 trial reported in...
I am a believer in intriguing preliminary data that suggests we can modify the poor outcome associated with non–[germinal center B-cell] lymphoma—for example, using R2-CHOP (lenalidomide [Revlimid] and rituximab [Rituxan] plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone), ibrutinib...
The R-CHOP regimen (rituximab [Rituxan] plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) was a major advance in treating diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but experts are seeking to up the ante and identify ways to continue to improve outcomes beyond that achieved with R-CHOP. “We are...
The Broach Foundation for Brain Cancer Research has made a $5 million commitment to support glioblastoma multiforme research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. James and Jamie Broach established the Broach Foundation in 2011, just months after Mr. Broach was diagnosed...
With powerful new drugs capable of achieving sustained and deep remissions in multiple myeloma, the role of upfront stem cell transplantation is being questioned by experts, who debated the pros and cons at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 9th Annual Congress on Hematologic...
Adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin) was shown to be effective in patients with breast cancers ≤ 2 cm, regardless of estrogen receptor status, in a meta-analysis1 of five chemotherapy trials, but a “pressing question” remaining is whether T1a/b, N0 tumors warrant the use of adjuvant trastuzumab, Andrew ...
Combination chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer is anthracycline- and taxane-based and has not really changed much in the past 10 years, but “we are starting to see emerging data with selective activity of platinum agents,” Priyanka Sharma, MD, told participants at the Best of ASCO...
ASCO Answer’s new Palliative Care booklet teaches patients and their families about this specialized area of medicine, explaining the difference between palliative care and hospice care and how palliative care is more than receiving a drug to ease physical symptoms. The booklet also includes...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO has received a major commitment of support for the development of CancerLinQ™ from Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Inc (CTCA), a national network of five cancer hospitals. The donation is the largest received to date in support of CancerLinQ, a...
"Illumination” is a provocative word, evoking as it does the banishment of the darkness of ignorance by the light of new knowledge. Today, we are benefiting from a steady stream of new knowledge about the molecular basis of cancer and the interaction between host and tumor immunology. The concept...
The age of the Internet and worldwide connectivity has made it easier than ever to send out surveys to a wide audience quickly and easily. This ease of access can make surveys an affordable and readily available research tool for independent investigators, but it can also make surveys an...
The formal discussant of the study presented by James et al at the ESMO 2014 Congress was Bertrand Tombal, MD, PhD, Chairman of the Division of Urology and Associated Professor of Physiology at Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels. He praised the STAMPEDE trial as “wonderful, because it...
Node-positive prostate cancer has typically been excluded from clinical trials, leaving oncologists with little evidence to guide management for this group of patients. A study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress sheds light on this issue, providing the...
Regarding this confirmatory analysis presented by Ryan et al at the ESMO 2014 Congress, formal discussant Bertrand Tombal, MD, PhD, Chairman of the Division of Urology and Associated Professor of Physiology at Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, said, “COU-AA-302 profoundly impacted the way ...
Final results of the COU-AA-302 trial continue to support the survival benefit of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) in men with chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, often referred to as the “predocetaxel space.” “The study met the overall survival endpoint and all...
The ZERO Cancer Research Fund has awarded the Jim Lafferty Memorial Research Grant in the amount of $45,000 to Peter Carroll, MD, MPH, of the University of California San Francisco, for the purpose of researching new and improved methods for early detection of prostate cancer. The grant is part of...