The search is on in prostate cancer to identify predictive and prognostic biologic and genomic markers that go beyond traditional ones. Several groups are working in this area. One marker that has received much attention is a splice abnormality in the androgen receptor (AR) called AR-V7. Two...
Docetaxel was being widely used by patients with metastatic prostate cancer before phase III evidence that it was more effective than the standard of care for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to an analysis of Medicare claims from before and after the trial results and...
For patients who have confronted a diagnosis of cancer, then endured weeks of chemotherapy, it would seem that losing their hair would not be a big concern. But for many patients, it can be. “You have to spend a year either putting on wigs or announcing to the world that you’ve had chemotherapy,”...
Michael E. Jung, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Member at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center; Charles Sawyers, MD, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program Director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and Howard I. Scher, MD, Chief of the Genitourinary...
Girls who are overweight as young children and teens may face increased risk for colorectal cancer decades later, regardless of what they weigh as adults, suggests a new study published by Xuehong Zhang, MD, ScD, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues in Cancer Epidemiology,...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved ramucirumab (Cyramza) for use in combination with FOLFIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil, irinotecan) for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose disease has progressed on a first-line bevacizumab (Avastin)-,...
The nearly 900,000 people in the United States living with diagnosed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have an excess cancer risk of 50%, according to a joint analysis of data by the National Cancer Institute and the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention,...
“Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a neglected disease in patients with cancer,” Harrys A. Torres, MD, and colleagues from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston noted in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. To rectify that situation, the researchers...
There’s good news for those who recognize the benefits of exercise but feel they have neither the time nor energy for frequent workouts: A recent study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine1 has found that just performing “some” leisure time physical activity, even below the recommended minimum level, ...
The following essay by Kishore K. Dass, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org. Born in...
Multidisciplinary Cancer Management Courses (MCMCs) offered by ASCO International, in collaboration with other organizations, seek to improve cancer care globally through the promotion of interdisciplinary cancer management. Attendees of select MCMCs have the option to attend a 1- to 2-day training ...
The combination of docetaxel plus prednisone has been a standard therapy in advanced prostate cancer since 2004.1 Since then, there have been multiple randomized phase III trials comparing this standard of care with additional drug therapy. None has demonstrated improvement in outcome. Lenalidomide ...
In the phase III MAINSAIL trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, of Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues found that the addition of lenalidomide (Revlimid) to docetaxel-prednisone in chemotherapy-naive men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate...
Prostate cancer survivors currently approach 3 million in number and comprise 43% of all male cancer survivors in the United States.1 These men face myriad unique oncologic, functional, emotional, and psychological issues that require evaluation and management throughout the survivorship phase of...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Matthew J. Resnick, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed the 2014 American Cancer Society Prostate Cancer Survivorship Care Guidelines.1,2 The ASCO endorsement panel was co-chaired by Dr. Resnick and David...
More than 7,200 cases of anal cancer were diagnosed in 2014—approximately 2,600 in men and 4,600 in women—representing an increase of more than 4,000 from 8 years ago. In more than 90% of patients, infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause, tagging anal cancer as a largely...
The PARP enzyme functions in aiding cells as they repair DNA. Olaparib hits the target. The question is how best to use it,” said William Nelson, MD, Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Dr. Nelson moderated a press conference where these data were...
Olaparib (Lynparza) achieved encouraging response rates in men with metastatic prostate cancer, particularly those with mutations in genes involved in DNA repair (BRCA2 and ATM, most commonly).1 If validated, these results of the TOPARP-A trial will usher in the first drug targeted to somatic or...
For 2 decades, the NCCN Guidelines® have been recognized as the standard of cancer care in the United States, combining evidence, experience, and choice, so that multidisciplinary cancer treatment teams—including patients—are empowered to make informed decisions about cancer care,” said Robert W....
These latest results of STAMPEDE lend further support to the early use of chemotherapy in men with advanced prostate cancer. They confirm the CHAARTED trial results reported last year by Christopher J. Sweeney, MBBS, which were practice-changing. Men with newly diagnosed metastatic...
At the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting, the phase III E3805 (CHAARTED) trial presented at the Plenary Session showed that the addition of docetaxel to standard hormone therapy extended survival by more than 1 year in men with newly diagnosed, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.1 The survival benefit of...
Results from the STAMPEDE trial showed that the addition of docetaxel to standard hormone therapy improved overall survival by a median of 10 months over hormone therapy alone in men with newly diagnosed, advanced, hormone therapy–naive prostate cancer.1 The study also showed that zoledronic acid...
In 1971, then Surgeon General Jesse L. Steinfeld, MD, took Big Tobacco to task, stating, “Let me suggest that certain purveyors of cigarettes stop making remarks about how some young mothers in childbirth might welcome smaller babies. The mother who smokes is subjecting the unborn child to the...
At the end of the day, I’m still a kid from South Philly,” Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told The ASCO Post. Dr. von Eschenbach is the product of a closely knit yet culturally...
Due to childhood health issues, Sandra J. Horning, MD, formed an opinion about doctors at a young age: They were good people who helped other people. By her early teens, Dr. Horning began to ponder a career in medicine, which offered the possibility of blending her love of science with a career...
The incidence of fractures is “compellingly higher” after receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, according to a retrospective study of patients receiving transplants for treatment of multiple myeloma, other hematologic malignancies, and some solid tumors (mostly breast and ovarian) as...
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), was honored for her “dedication and commitment to solving cancer through research” and for her “passionate advocacy for increased federal funding for cancer research and biomedical science,” at Massachusetts...
Active surveillance has become a viable option for many men with low-risk prostate cancer who choose not to undergo active treatment such as surgery or radiotherapy. Four studies evaluating the effectiveness, trends, and other considerations for active surveillance in managing prostate cancer were...
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in American men, yet controversy over the utilization and frequency of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening methods remains, due to the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of men with low-grade, less-aggressive forms of the disease. At the 110th...
Patients’ preference for how they receive biopsy results “has shifted from face-to-face visit to discussion over the telephone because of a desire for rapid notification,” according to a survey of 301 patients recruited at three different melanoma clinics. Although 67.1% of the patients preferred...
Formal discussant of this trial Ian Tannock, MD, PhD, DSc, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University of Toronto, Canada, took issue with the design of RTOG 0521. He questioned the use of one-sided P values instead of conventional two-sided P values, noting that overall survival would have...
For the first time, a large randomized trial has suggested that overall survival is improved by the addition of adjuvant chemotherapy to androgen suppression and radiotherapy in men with localized, high-risk, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Docetaxel has been used to treat metastatic...
Finding agreement on high-value cancer screening among organizations publishing screening guidelines, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued advice listing the least-intensive screening strategies that all the organizations recommend—as well as strategies not recommended—for five common...
Brian E. Henderson, MD, began his medical path as a researcher in virology, and as a young scientist, he ventured to Africa as part of a Centers for Disease Control team to study yellow fever. The better part of his esteemed medical career, however, was as one of the world’s most respected...
Nearly 20% of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma “wait more than 3 months from presentation to diagnosis, which can contribute to interval tumor growth,” Nishant Patel, MD, and colleagues concluded in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. They based their conclusions on a...
When Emil J Freireich, MD, retires from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on September 1, he will have spent 50 years at the institution and a total of 60 years in the pursuit of curing childhood leukemia as well as other cancers and in the educational development of young...
“Between animal and human medicine there is no dividing line—nor should there be. The object is different but the experience obtained constitutes the basis of all medicine.” — Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) Everyone has seen photographs of people who look like their dogs: the young woman with long...
In a paper published in Annals of Internal Medicine1, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued advice for screening average risk adults without symptoms for five common cancers: breast, colorectal, ovarian, prostate, and cervical. In a companion piece also published in Annals2, ACP outlined...
BOOKMARK Title: Megalies: A Memoir Author: Lodovico Balducci, MD Publisher: Resource Publications Publication date: February 28, 2014 Price: $33.00; hardcover, 304 pages Reading a good book produces various sensory responses; a skilled author exerts his or her narrative power on each page,...
An elegant study by Siddiqui et al1—reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—offers compelling evidence for the diagnostic utility of “targeted” prostate biopsy using multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data fused with ultrasound images. The technique involves first performing a...
In a study reported in JAMA, M. Minhaj Siddiqui, MD, currently of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and colleagues found that targeted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/ultrasound fusion–guided prostate biopsy increased diagnosis of high-risk prostate cancer and reduced detection of...
Health-care experts are questioning whether proton-beam therapy is on the verge of an economic bubble—ie, a rapid surge in growth for the industry beyond its intrinsic value, inevitably leading to a drastic drop in earnings for proton centers when the “bubble bursts.” A proton-beam facility can...
Could too much citrus cause skin cancer?” was the lead-in of an NBC News item about a study linking consumption of grapefruits and oranges to an increased risk of melanoma.1 “Citrus consumption and skin cancer: How real is the link?” was the question posed by a headline in The Washington Post.2...
A study finding a link between citrus consumption and increased risk of melanoma1 may provide food for thought about the findings and implications as well as whet the appetite for more evidence, but according to several experts commenting on the study, it does not mean you should stop eating citrus ...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with genitourinary cancers—prostate, bladder, uterine, and testicular. The trials are investigating genetic biomarkers of cancer; proton beam therapy; allogeneic bone marrow...
Nearly 20% of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma “wait more than 3 months from presentation to diagnosis, which can contribute to interval tumor growth,” Nishant Patel, MD, and colleagues concluded in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. They based their conclusions on a...
Pasquale W. Benedetto, MD, the Leonard M. Miller Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, recently spoke at the 2015 New Orleans Summer Cancer Meeting about his approach to diagnosing and treating germ cell tumors in men.1 The ASCO Post was there to...
In the phase III COMPLEMENT 1 trial reported in The Lancet, Peter Hillmen, MB, ChB, of St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds, and colleagues found that the addition of the anti-CD20 antibody ofatumumab (Arzerra) to chlorambucil (Leukeran) increased progression-free survival among patients with...
The International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) announced four award winners at the 2015 World Congress of Psycho-Oncology, held July 28 to August 1 in Washington, DC. Arthur M. Sutherland Award: William H. Redd, PhD Dr. Redd is Professor of Oncological Sciences at the Mount Sinai Hospital. He is...
There is no consensus as to whether it is better to treat immediately or to delay androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with a rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level (“biochemical relapse”) after curative therapy for prostate cancer. A phase III study, selected for the Best of ASCO® 2015,...