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Showing 2201 - 2250Reflections on the Evolution of Clinical Cancer Research and Turning Points in a Distinguished Career
Since May 1, 2005, Karen H. Antman, MD, has served as Dean of Boston University School of Medicine and Provost of the Boston University Medical Campus, located in the historic South End of Boston. Her road to this esteemed institution was paved with prominent positions, such as former ASCO...
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...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions from Your Patients
“We have already received several calls and requests from patients who desire to participate in our research or get the test done,” Anthony Lucci, MD, said about the response to a study published in The Lancet Oncology and media coverage of the findings. Dr. Lucci is lead author of the study, which ...
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 ...
Expert Point of View: Kathy Miller, MD
“Our old friends are sometimes worth keeping, and that is certainly true for weekly paclitaxel,” said the invited discussant of CALGB 40502, Kathy Miller, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, at the ASCO Annual Meeting. She noted that Dr. Rugo must “remain strict to the...
Expert Point of View: PD-1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Look Promising in Multiple Solid Tumors
Oncologists can expect to hear more about immune checkpoint blockade, according to two discussants of these abstracts. In fact, five PD-1 immune checkpoint compounds are already in the pipeline (Table 1), according to Giuseppe Giaccone, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. ...
MEK Inhibitor Reduces Progression of BRAF-mutated Melanoma and Might also Benefit Others
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. The MEK inhibitor trametinib...
My Breast Cancer Had Been Coming for Years
I’ve never had a normal mammogram screening. There was always something suspicious the test picked up: macrocalcifications in one breast 1 year and a cyst in the other breast the next year. Over a period of 3 years, I had six tissue biopsies, all benign for cancer. So when I flunked another...
New Study Examines Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Mortality
According to the first national study looking at racial disparity in breast cancer mortality rates at the city level in the United States, societal factors—especially poverty and residential segregation—are resulting in the unnecessary deaths of five black women every day—more than 1,700 deaths a...
ASCO Launches Oncology Practice Census
How many oncologists are in private practice and how many are employed by hospitals and academic medical centers in the United States? No one knows the answer for sure, but ASCO is undertaking an ambitious national effort to determine where oncologists are practicing these days. Online Survey...
New Study on Communicating Bad News, from the Patient’s Perspective
There is limited evidence in the literature about how oncologists should discuss bad or serious news with their patients. A recent study sought to understand what patients with cancer value when their doctors communicate news of recurrence.1 The ASCO Post spoke with the study’s lead author, Anthony ...
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...
The Affordable Care Act Stands: Now What?
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law—a hotly contested bill that enacted sweeping changes to the U.S. health-care system. The debate over the Affordable Care Act continued all the way to the Supreme Court, spearheaded by the case Florida...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions from Your Patients
For now, genomic sequencing seems to have a greater presence in the news than in the clinic. What can physicians tell their patients who ask about genetic testing to identify mutations driving cancer growth? “The real answer is that when you get down to it, genomics is like any other test,”...
Genomics vs Site of Cancer Origin as Basis for Treatment of Cancer Is ‘False Dichotomy’
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. Despite recent news reports...
Living with the Aftermath of Breast Cancer
My battle with breast cancer began 10 years ago, but the aftereffects of the disease and the treatment will be with me for the rest of my life. As a professional woman who has had several diverse careers, including one as a corporate controller and another as an art teacher, I’m driven to want to...
Symposium Focuses on Policy Issues in Personalized Cancer Care
“What is the biggest barrier to progress in personalized medicine?” asked moderator Anna Barker, PhD, leading a panel discussion at a recent meeting convened by the Washington-based advocacy group, the Personalized Medicine Coalition, with the American Association for Cancer Research and Feinstein...
SIDEBAR: Coalition Activities
The new Data Liquidity Coalition has identified five activity tracks. Marcia Kean, MBA, a leader of the coalition steering committee, described the tracks: 1. Intellectual Capital is a set of activities that would seek to identify and illuminate some of the key issues in the space, such as the...
Information Service Provides Innovative Resource for Patients and Providers
Jennifer Levin Carter, MD, MPH is Founder and President of N-of-One. A board-certified internist and entrepreneur, she has more than 20 years of experience evaluating existing and emerging markets, new medical technologies, and early-stage companies in the health-care field. Formerly, Dr. Carter...
Supportive Care Experts Explore 30 Years of Progress in the Field
Thirty years ago, when the first supportive care meeting as a forerunner of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) Symposium was held in New York, supportive care was largely ignored, with little discussion at major cancer meetings, which focused primarily on...
ASCO University’s e-Seminars Offer a Stimulating Way to Stay on Top of Trends as Well as Meeting Highlights
Did you miss one of the symposia this year and need to quickly catch up on the highlights in small, digestible portions? No problem. ASCO University’s e-Seminar series now has you covered. Or, is there a new journal article that everyone’s talking about, and you need guidance on how to interpret...
As Conflicting Guidelines Evolve, Experts Continue to Debate the Merits of Cancer Screening
In the 1930s and 1940s, when the American Cancer Society [ACS] first brought forth the message that early cancer detection saves lives, it was a broad brushstroke and an appropriate message. The problem now is that new technology enables us to find [tumors that would never progress to invasive...
Maintenance of Certification: One Size Should Not Fit All
After a conference call and having returned several phone calls, I again opened my ASCO Medical Oncology Self Evaluation Program (SEP) book hoping to steal an hour to reread the chapter on multiple myeloma, and begin digging deeper into head and neck cancer. It was March 2011, and my Maintenance of ...
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 ...
Adolescent and Young Adult Patients Report Unmet Needs for Cancer Information and Psychosocial Support Services
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. Psychosocial care needs are not...
It’s Time to Get Ready for New Medicare Reporting Requirements
As if you didn’t already have enough to worry about, now add this: If your practice doesn’t meet the requirements of the Physicians Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive, you don’t just miss out on the bonuses the programs offered as incentive in recent years....
Conquer Cancer Foundation $10K Challenge: Multiply Your Donation’s Impact in September
The Foundation proudly announces its first-ever Conquer Cancer Foundation $10K Challenge. In September, a portion of online gifts to the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology will be matched by the generous support of Ariad Pharmaceuticals®. The Conquer Cancer...
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...
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...
Inaugural Quality Care Symposium Will Detail How to Pioneer Successful Quality Initiatives in Your Practice
Over the past 10 years, Wilshire Oncology Medical Group of La Verne, California, has reengineered itself so that all processes—from front-desk operations at all eight locations to the 10 oncologists’ interactions with patients and payers—capture quality data that can be used for robust benchmarking ...
Expert Point of View: Sergio Giralt, MD
Sergio Giralt, MD, Chief of Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the findings by Papanikolaou et al presented at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting. “To put this trial into context, in a recent study of 283 double-refractory multiple...
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 ...
Faculty Q&A Discussion: Anaplastic Large-cell Lymphoma
Dr. Armitage: For ALK-negative anaplastic large cell lymphoma, brentuximab vedotin is the best thing we have to deal with patients with recurrent disease, and who knows where it will end up in primary therapy. But if the patient is ALK-positive, there is a potential for crizotinib (Xalkori) to...
Faculty Q&A Discussion: Brentuximab Vedotin
Dr. Armitage: It is no surprise that brentuximab vedotin is really an exciting agent, and it gives us a new opportunity in treating classical Hodgkin lymphoma. What if this person Dr. Engert just presented was at the same point with nodular lymphocyte-predominant lymphoma and no CD30 positivity....
Faculty Q&A Discussion: Communicating with Patients
Dr. Armitage: As oncologists, we face many challenges. I think the most difficult is when you say to a patient with a disease everybody expects will be cured, and every patient expects to be cured, “It is not worth trying to do that. It is time to worry about keeping you as well as possible for as ...
Evidence Is Changing Colorectal Cancer Treatment Landscape
Key colorectal cancer studies presented at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting are changing the treatment landscape in this disease, according to Michael Overman, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who reviewed the data at the Best of ASCO San Diego meeting. The mix included...
SIDEBAR: Does Lapatinib Prevent CNS Metastases in HER2-positive Breast Cancer?
Lapatinib has shown some efficacy against existing brain metastases in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer but not in preventing them in the first place, according to Hope S. Rugo, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director, Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the UCSF Helen Diller...
Best of ASCO® Meetings Offer Data, Commentary, and Interaction with the Experts
Three Best of ASCO meetings were held over the summer in Chicago, Boston, and San Diego. The faculty distilled the most interesting and immediately applicable data from the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting, provided personal perspectives, and interacted with attendees for an educational experience that was ...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Individualism in Clinical Decision-making
I found a statement by Dr. Peter Bach in the August 15, 2012, issue of The ASCO Post (in the article, “As Conflicting Guidelines Evolve, Experts Continue to Debate the Merits of Cancer Screening”) very troubling. To wit: There’s a cognitive dissonance between the practice of evidence-based medicine ...
2012 Is ‘Banner Year’ for Research on Symptom Management
The year 2012 was “a banner year for symptom management,” according to Debra L. Barton, RN, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, who presented data on patient and survivor care at the Best of ASCO San Diego meeting. “I have been doing symptom management for about 20 years, and it seems...
Starting Over after Cancer Treatment
When bloody discharge started oozing from the nipple on my left breast, I knew instinctively that it was serious. Although I was just 43, having lost two aunts to breast cancer, I knew my family history increased my risk for developing the disease. So when I saw my gynecologist for an exam, I was...
The Language of Cancer
For more than a year, Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, has been blogging at ASCO Connection (connection.asco.org) about such diverse topics as cancer survivorship, the redesign of clinical studies based on patients’ molecular characteristics, and the power of laughter. Last May, Dr. Dizon tackled the impact ...
Pivotal Trials in Head and Neck Cancers Yield Mixed Results
The latest research in head and neck cancer reported at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting presents a mixed picture, according to George R. Blumenschein, Jr, MD, Associate Professor at The Unviersity of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, who presented the data at the Best of ASCO San Diego...
Stay Up to Date on New Patient Materials from Cancer.Net
Encourage your patients to use social media to stay up to date with the new resources available on Cancer.Net, such as the latest booklet on tobacco discussed on page 57. It is easier than ever for patients to get the latest cancer information on their computer or mobile device by subscribing to...
Successful Use of Cytoreduction and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy May Hinge on Prior Experience
A review of 60 consecutive patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis who underwent cytoreductive surgery plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC)—sometimes called “hot chemotherapy”—found 0% mortality and 33% morbidity, with “a significant reduction of grade III/IV morbidity,...
Noncolorectal GI Cancer Evidence Incorporated into Guidelines
The noncolorectal gastrointestinal cancer studies selected for this year’s Best of ASCO meetings include some whose results are being folded into practice guidelines or are good candidates for incorporation, according to Alexandria T. Phan, MD, Associate Professor at The University of Texas MD...
SIDEBAR: Don’t Expect Direct Questions from Patients about Pain
Just asking patients “Is there something else you want to address in the visit,” rather than “Is there anything else you want to address in the visit today,” dramatically reduced patients’ unmet concerns during a primary care visit, according to a 2007 study.1 That learning can be applied to...
Pain Remains Prevalent among Oncology Outpatients, with Odds of Undertreatment Twice as High among Minority Patients
In 1994, a landmark study of pain among oncology outpatients prompted a host of pain management initiatives.1 More than 18 years later, a recent study among more than 2,000 cancer outpatients has found that “one-third of the patients who had pain or used analgesics received inadequate treatment for ...
A Series of Medical Missteps
Since the beginning of my symptoms—occasional pain on the upper left side of my abdomen, accompanied at times by nausea—which started nearly 20 years ago, my condition, pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, either remained undetected or was completely misdiagnosed until just recently. A series of...
