The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) awarded Lourdes A. Báezconde-Garbanati, PhD, the 2020 AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities. Dr. Báezconde-Garbanati presented her award lecture, “Optimizing Engagement to Reduce Disparities Among...
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has received a $1.6 million, 5-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to support the Rutgers Youth Enjoy Science (RUYES) Program. RUYES seeks to increase the diversity of the biomedical, cancer research workforce to reduce cancer disparities in New...
On October 7, 2020, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 would be awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD, and Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD, “for the development of a method for genome editing,” the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. “There is enormous power...
Invited discussant of the xevinapant study, Sjoukje Oosting, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, commented: “There is finally hope on the horizon that we can increase the cure rate of our patients with head and neck cancer, if these data are confirmed in a phase...
The encouraging results of the phase III ASCENT trial suggest that sacituzumab govitecan has clearly earned a place in the treatment algorithm for advanced triple-negative breast cancer, said the study’s invited discussant, Fatima Cardoso, MD, Director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud...
Lorlatinib was strategically designed to have activity against ALK and to be highly CNS-penetrant,” said formal discussant Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville. “We look forward to seeing more data from this trial. Alectinib had a progression-free survival of...
The Advanced Practitioner Society for Hematology and Oncology (APSHO) presented the third annual Mary Pazdur Award for Excellence in Advanced Practice in Oncology to Christina Cone, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, AOCNP®, of Duke Cancer Institute, at the JADPRO Live Virtual conference, an annual educational...
The value of adjuvant therapy for patients with resected stage III or IV melanoma—in the form of pembrolizumab and nivolumab—continues to be observed after approximately 4 years from the start of therapy, according to Rodabe N. Amaria, MD, Associate Professor of Melanoma Medical Oncology at The...
Limited English-language proficiency may be a risk factor for receiving screening mammograms less often, according to new study results using national data. These findings, concerning women age 40 and older living in the United States, were presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical...
“Breast cancer brain metastases are a clinical challenge that are only increasing in incidence and are a consequence of advanced breast cancers, largely HER2-positive and triple-negative,” according to Carey K. Anders, MD, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Duke Brain and Spine...
Automated analysis of the routine scans of patients with breast cancer may help to predict which women have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to research presented by Gal et al at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference (Abstract 7). Women who have been treated for...
The Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer, sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and held virtually this year, showcased cutting-edge discoveries and promising advances in the understanding and treatment of pancreatic cancer, reported by some of the world’s foremost...
The well-loved Art of Oncology section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and its pioneering podcast are both resonating as never before, as cancer specialists are prompted into deeper reflections about the poignant moments that give life meaning by the COVID-19 pandemic. JCO’s Art of...
Despite decades of research and clinical advances, the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer remain formidable challenges. Recently, enormous efforts have been made to develop new methods for the early diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer, such as those led by Diane M. Simeone, MD, a ...
In this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Patricia Keegan, MD, who served at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 30 years, most recently as Acting Associate Director of Medical Policy at the Oncology Center for Excellence (OCE)....
Changing from routinely prescribing opioids for patients who were having a lumpectomy or excisional biopsy to instead routinely prescribing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs] resulted in a sharply decreased opioid prescription rate with “no difference in the proportion of patients...
The overall survival benefit for PD-L1 CPS ≥ 5 tumors in CheckMate 649 is a game-changer. An oxaliplatin doublet plus chemotherapy should become a standard of care for these patients,” according to Elizabeth Smyth, MD, an oncology consultant at Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in...
Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, PhD, Vice Chair of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Department of Immunology, has received a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award to build on her discoveries related to the innate immune system, inflammation, and cell death in health and ...
The Lung ART trial was designed to demonstrate whether there is any benefit to the routine use of modern mediastinal postoperative radiotherapy in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) stage IIIA N2 (ie, patients with mediastinal nodal involvement) following complete resection and neo...
To accelerate progress in the survival rates of people with cancer in the United States and to reduce cancer disparities across the entire spectrum of cancer from diagnosis to survivorship, there needs to be increased access to cancer screening and prevention programs. To shed light on this...
Colorectal cancer is more prevalent among Black people, a group with the highest rates of death for an illness that is curable if caught early. “The unfortunate reality is that minorities, especially Black people, have a much lower chance of getting life-saving cancer treatment. Health care works...
Ruth O’Regan, MD, Chief of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care at the University of Wisconsin, has been named the next Charles A. Dewey Professor and Chair of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s (URMC) School of Medicine and Dentistry, pending approval by the...
In a news release issued earlier this month, Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, Director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles, welcomed several new researchers and physicians to the faculty of the institution. “I am very grateful to the institutional leadership that our efforts to expand the breadth ...
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the face of U.S. health-care services in such rapid fashion that many providers were caught off guard, learning and preparing on the fly. Patients with cancer, given their multiple physical and emotional challenges, were especially vulnerable. To get a sense of the...
Deirdre J. Cohen, MD, MS, an expert in pancreatic and other gastrointestinal cancers as well as an accomplished clinical trial leader, has joined Mount Sinai Health System as Director of the Gastrointestinal (GI) Oncology Program and Medical Director of the Cancer Clinical Trials Office at The...
As a high school student growing up in St Petersburg, Russia, I was so obsessed with chemistry that I begged my professor for extra problems to complete after school. When I rode the bus home on cold winter evenings, I traced chemical reactions with my finger in the frost on the window. By the...
“One of the most challenging oncologic situations is the diagnosis of breast cancer in a young pregnant patient,” Jacqueline Jeruss, MD, PhD, Associate Dean, Regulatory Affairs; Director of the Breast Care Center; and Professor of Surgery, Pathology, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of...
Although most patients with breast cancer are considered to have an overall excellent prognosis, 600,000 people still die annually of the disease around the world. Even in HER2-positive breast cancer, a subtype that has seen a transformation of outcomes in the past 2 decades, there’s still room for ...
Born in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1900, Mary Woodard Lasker was introduced to the ravages of cancer when she was just 3 or 4 years old and went with her mother to visit the family’s laundress, Mrs. Belter, who had just undergone surgery for breast cancer. On the way over to Mrs. Belter’s home, Ms....
Robert Knoerl, PhD, RN, Instructor in Medicine and Nurse-Scientist at the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has been awarded the 2020 Oncology Nursing Society’s Victoria Mock New Investigator Award. This prestigious award is ...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that occasionally quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, the authors highlight the most common type of systemic amyloidosis in the United States: immunoglobulin light chain [or amyloid light...
On October 7, 2020, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 would be awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD, and Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD, “for the development of a method for genome editing,” the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. “There is enormous power...
Benign breast disease is known to increase the chances of subsequent breast cancer. According to Spanish researchers, the way benign breast disease is detected may be an indication of how likely it is to become cancerous. The findings from the team led by Xavier Castells, MD, PhD, Head of the...
In the post-trastuzumab era, a number of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved targeted agents for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer are available, but there is no preferred option for third-line treatment and beyond. At the 2019 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, Shanu Modi, MD,...
New agents for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer should be coming soon to your clinic, according to Sara A. Hurvitz, MD, Director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program and Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of...
The second interim analysis of the phase III SOPHIA trial demonstrated a significant, though modest, improvement in progression-free survival, response rate, and clinical benefit with the addition of margetuximab to chemotherapy vs trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-positive...
Invited study discussant Lisa A. Carey, MD, the Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research and Deputy Director of Clinical Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, framed her remarks as a tale of two trials. Dr. Carey asked these...
Based on some unexpected negative results, oncologists using atezolizumab for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer should pair it with nab-paclitaxel, not paclitaxel. In contrast to the overall survival benefit shown for atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel in the previous IMpassion130...
For patients with rectal adenocarcinoma treated with neoadjuvant therapy followed by operative resection, “achieving a pathologic complete response is associated with excellent long-term disease-free and overall survival,” according to the results of a study reported by Naomi M. Sell, MD, MHS, of...
Residents of counties that experience persistent poverty face a disproportionately high risk of cancer mortality, according to a study published by Jennifer L. Moss, PhD, and colleagues in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Persistent Poverty Areas of persistent poverty are defined...
Five years ago, as Rachel B. Issaka, MD, MAS, was beginning her second year as a gastroenterology fellow and feeling proud of the progress she was making in her training, she was suddenly confronted with an all-too-familiar slight that underrepresented minority providers may often experience. As...
Before Judith Kaur, MD, the self-proclaimed “Mother of the YIA” became Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation’s first grant recipient more than 35 years ago, she was a wife, a teacher, and then a stay-at-home mom. Going to medical school and becoming a research pioneer was just a daydream. “When I...
Most of the newer systemic treatments for breast cancer can be safely and effectively paired with radiation therapy—although there are some exceptions, according to Mylin A. Torres, MD, the Louisa and Rand Glenn Family Chair in Breast Cancer Research and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at ...
The first half of 2016 was arguably the most exciting of my life. My wife, Jaione, and I had decided to leave the United Kingdom and move with our two children, Andrew, then 14, and Alba, then 10, to Denver, where I was taking on a leadership role in corporate affairs for a brewery company. By the...
She was elderly, slightly confused, and very, very worried. I was not quite sure why. It was a minor procedure—a routine angiogram, one of a dozen to be performed that morning. The risks were so small that the job of admitting her had been handed to me, then a final-year medical student, with a...
In September 2020, Eric P. Winer, MD, was honored with the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, presented by the Office for Diversity, Inclusion & Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Winer is Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the...
As a young girl growing up in central New Jersey, Joyce F. Liu, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist specializing in gynecologic cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, dreamed of becoming an astronaut. However, she realized her fear of heights and propensity for motion sickness didn’t jive with...
Findings from a study among patients with melanoma randomly assigned to observation following removal of a positive sentinel lymph node “strongly support the therapeutic effect of the sentinel lymph node biopsy in providing long-term regional nodal disease control in the large majority of...
Findings from a retrospective cohort study could fuel the debate over the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II colon cancer, according to data presented during the virtual edition of the 2020 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) International Conference on Surgical Cancer Care.1 Results of the...
The late effects of adolescent and young adults (AYA) with lymphomas are considerable and have not been given much attention, according to Theresa Keegan, MD, of the University of California at Davis. “Lymphoma is one of the most commonly occurring malignancies in AYAs,” she stated. “The 5-year...