On January 26, 2017—prior to the official opening of the 2nd Annual Cancer Survivorship Symposium—cancer survivors, caregivers, patient advocates, family physicians, oncology providers, and others gathered in San Diego, California, to make connections, discuss survivorship issues, and get expert...
Be sure to check out new ASCO Answers fact sheets on myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and understanding bone marrow transplantation at Cancer.Net. These 1-page (front and back) introductions include an overview, illustrations, terms to know, and questions to ask the doctor. Find these and a library...
As part of ASCO’s efforts to support cancer researchers and research sites, the ASCO Research Community Forum was created in 2010 to help physician investigators and research staff overcome common barriers to conducting research and enhance their research-site operations. The Forum is a go-to...
On February 23, 2017, ASCO launched its newest online-only journal, JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics (JCO CCI). The first four articles published in JCO CCI are: 1) An editorial from JCO CCI Editor-in-Chief Debra A. Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, introducing the publication and laying out its objective of...
In a study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, H. Gilbert Welch, MD, of Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and colleagues found that screening mammography has resulted in a substantial increase in...
All patients with cancer experience some level of distress associated with their cancer diagnosis and the effects of the disease and its treatment—regardless of the stage of disease. Not only does distress affect a patient’s mental and psychosocial well-being, but because distress is a...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Oncology Research Program (ORP) has funded three studies in its first multi-industry collaborative research project in which Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly are collaborating with NCCN to study combination therapeutic agents in ...
The International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) has a workshop to educate young investigators in geriatric oncology research. The SIOG Advanced Course, which is held in Treviso, Italy (June 28–July 1, 2017), is our unique continuing medical education–accredited training program led by...
In the upcoming decades, the number of older adults with cancer will drastically increase due to aging of Western societies.1 The risk of cancer strongly increases with age. Consequently, all future oncologists will be exposed to the challenges of caring for this heterogeneous population. Older...
Ruben A. Mesa, MD, of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, discusses molecular abnormalities and their use in the diagnosis, risk stratification, and selection of treatment for myelofibrosis.
Suzanne George, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses current and emerging systemic therapies for soft-tissue sarcoma and the options for multimodality treatment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today granted accelerated approval to avelumab (Bavencio) for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma, including those who have not received prior chemotherapy. Avelumab is a programmed cell...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Thomas et al found that interruption of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer was more frequent and treatment outcomes were poorer among indigent populations vs commercially or Medicare-insured populations within a single academic health...
As reported by Mason et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, long-term survival results of the UK-based, multiarm, multistage platform–design STAMPEDE trial showed no survival benefit with the addition of celecoxib or celecoxib plus zoledronic acid in men initiating long-term hormone...
Anne Friedman Glauber, 63, co-founder of Let’s Win, an online community for persons affected by pancreatic cancer, recently passed away at her home in New York City, after a courageous battle with the disease. Ms. Glauber’s dedication to the organization (www.letswinpc.org) helped countless...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Chan Shen, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues found that more than three-quarters of patients receiving targeted oral therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) reached the catastrophic phase of the...
In a Dutch study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, van den Bogaard et al found that a model including the volume of the left ventricle receiving 5 Gy (LV-V5) might provide improved prediction of acute cardiac events in patients with breast cancer receiving radiotherapy. Prior findings...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Moshe C. Ornstein, MD, of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, and colleagues found that an intermittent schedule of sunitinib (Sutent) may be feasible in patients with previously untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma. In...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Trevor J. Royce, MD, of Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues found that a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir > 0.5 ng/mL may be a dominant risk factor for all-cause mortality after radiation therapy and...
In a phase III trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Tamas Hickish, MD, of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Dorset, England, and colleagues found that treatment with MABp1, an antibody that targets interleukin 1α and exhibits antitumor activity, was associated with improvement in the composite ...
Fox Chase Cancer Center is pleased to announce the results of its American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant Pilot Project Competition for Junior Investigators. The competition was open to eligible junior faculty at Fox Chase and Temple University Hospital. The awardees are Yibin Yang, ...
Despite the controversy surrounding “Death With Dignity” laws, which allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients, they have a long history of majority support from Americans. According to a Gallup poll taken in 2015, nearly 7 in 10 Americans (68%) agreed that...
I read with great interest Dr. Robert E. Montenegro’s comments in the The ASCO Post, January 25, 2017, where he felt “marginalized” when questioned about his country of origin or the quality of his English. As physicians, we constantly deal in a world of uncertainties and are required to address...
Geriatrician-oncologist Arti Hurria, MD, has been named Vice Provost for Clinical Faculty at City of Hope. “I spent most of my formative years at City of Hope and was very fortunate,” said Dr. Hurria, who’s been at the medical center for 10 years. “I had mentors who helped me along the way and...
A significant philanthropic gift from the Campbell family of Las Vegas, Nevada, will establish a new endowed Chair to honor City of Hope’s former Chief Medical Officer Alexandra M. Levine, MD, MACP. The recipient of the Deana and Steve Campbell Chief Clinical Officer’s Distinguished Chair, to be...
In April 2014, I was so sick with uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea and severe abdominal and chest pain that I had to be hospitalized for 5 days. As I was in my late 20s and in otherwise good health, there was no easy explanation for my symptoms. After I was released from the hospital, my...
The ASCO Post’s Integrative Oncology series is intended to facilitate the availability of evidence-based information on integrative and complementary therapies commonly used by patients with cancer. In this installment, authors Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE, and Jyothirmai Gubili, MS, present a case study...
The treatment of multiple myeloma is becoming increasingly complicated. This is not only because of the complexity of the disease, but also because of the increasing number of effective combination treatments and continuous development of new drugs. This has resulted in an ever-increasing number ...
Suresh Vedantham, MD, FSIR, an interventional radiologist and Professor of Radiology and Surgery at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St. Louis, assumed the office of President of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) on March 7, 2017, during the Society’s ...
In the phase III SWOG S0777 trial reported in The Lancet, Brian G.M. Durie, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Cancer Center, and colleagues found that adding bortezomib (Velcade) to lenalidomide (Revlimid)/dexamethasone improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with newly...
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements define a subset of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients for whom ALK inhibitors are highly effective. In PROFILE 1014, the multitargeted ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) was shown to be superior to platinum/pemetrexed (Alimta) chemotherapy...
In the phase III ASCEND-4 trial reported in The Lancet, Jean-Charles Soria, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, and colleagues found that ceritinib (Zykadia) improved progression-free survival vs platinum-based chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase...
Eric M. Horwitz, MD, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been selected by the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) as an inaugural ABS Fellow. Dr. Horwitz is among 12 fellows in the inaugural class. He will be formally recognized at the ABS 2017 Annual...
An article in the March 10, 2017, issue of The ASCO Post reported on a presentation from the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, noting that the investigational drug pacritinib has been shown to reduce spleen volume in myelofibrosis. The article erroneously...
Building on their previous research focusing on intratumoral vaccination for the most common form of pancreatic cancer, investigators from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School have shown that in a mouse model of early-stage resected pancreatic...
In the February 25, 2017, issue of The ASCO Post, in the article “‘Watch-and-Wait’ Strategy Does Not Compromise Survival in Selected Patients With Rectal Cancer,” a photo labeled Maxime van der Valk, MD, was incorrect. A photo of Dr. van der Valk is shown here. Dr. van der Valk is a study...
Since the mid-2000s, medication and illicit drug abuse in the United Sates has steadily increased, creating what has now been termed an “opioid epidemic.” In response, Congress and the Bush and Obama Administrations have launched intervention and regulatory proposals to help turn the troubling...
Christian Taverna, MD, a lymphoma specialist at the Hospital Münsterlingen in Switzerland, commented on this patient series for The ASCO Post. He noted that the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) tried to address the question of the optimal duration of rituximab (Rituxan) maintenance...
Patients with follicular lymphoma are clearly living longer without disease progression, but what clinician has had no patients progress? Michael Auerbach, MD, a hematologist/oncologist in private practice in Baltimore and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, may have these...
Discussant Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Breast Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, called the plinabulin findings “provocative,” especially considering the substantial impact on durability of response. Specifically with the addition of plinabulin to docetaxel, ...
The investigational small-molecule plinabulin yielded some interesting benefits when added to docetaxel in previously treated patients with stage III/IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in a phase II study.1 Although the benefit of the doublet was modest in the overall study population, the...
Lung cancer specialist Benjamin Levy, MD, has been named the new Clinical Director of Medical Oncology and Medical Director of Thoracic Oncology for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital in northwest Washington, DC. Dr. Levy is Former Director of Thoracic Medical...
Sheldon M. Feldman, MD, has been named Chief of the Division of Breast Surgery and Surgical Oncology and Director of Breast Cancer Services at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, the clinical arm of the National Cancer Institute–designated Albert Einstein Cancer Center. He will also join...
Study discussant Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Breast Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, noted that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has been shown to prevent HPV-related malignancies and eradicate high-grade, HPV16-positive premalignant lesions....
When combined with chemotherapy, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 potentiated T-cell responsiveness and improved clinical outcomes in patients with advanced cervical cancer enrolled in the phase I/II CervISA study.1 The findings were reported at the 2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical...
Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, discussed the study by Cristescu et al at the 2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium. He noted that data from many sources have shown that point mutation burden correlates with response rate to checkpoint blockade....
A high mutational load and the presence of a T-cell–“inflamed” environment may independently predict for treatment response to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and progression-free survival, according to a study presented by Tanguy Seiwert, MD, of the University of Chicago, at the 2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical...
“These data are consistent with other studies we have conducted in advanced lung cancer, in which we similarly found that one-third of patients believed that their metastatic lung cancer was curable. These patients ostensibly already had conversations with their oncologists about their prognosis...
More than one-third of men with incurable metastatic prostate cancer mistakenly believe that their cancer may be curable, according to a survey of patient expectations at an academic cancer center. “This study is part of a larger survey of treatment decision-making among men with metastatic...
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has announced Gwen Nichols, MD, as its new Chief Medical Officer. A physician and scientific researcher, Dr. Nichols has dedicated her career to advancing cures for cancers through a unique combination of clinical, academic, and pharmaceutical experience. She...