The beginning of a new year is an opportunity for a fresh start for many, including people with cancer. To help your patients set and achieve their health and wellness goals, direct them to Cancer.Net (www.cancer.net), ASCO’s patient website, where they can learn about seven steps for a healthier...
Plans call for the first James B. Nachman ASCO Junior Faculty Award in Pediatric Oncology to be awarded at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting. The award will be given each year to a junior faculty member who submits the highest-scoring abstract in pediatric oncology for the ASCO Annual Meeting, as...
As an active member of ASCO, and as a leader of the Society in recent years, ASCO President Michael P. Link, MD, has a long history of giving to the Society-affiliated Conquer Cancer Foundation. “Our family has always felt that it’s a good thing to support,” he said. “The Foundation supports...
At the 2011 Annual Meeting, the Conquer Cancer Foundation renamed one of its annual awards to honor the legacy of one of ASCO’s groundbreaking founders. The Jane C. Wright, MD, Young Investigator Award (YIA) recognizes Dr. Wright’s leadership at ASCO, her contributions to the field of oncology, and ...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation funds two programs, the Medical Student Rotation (MSR) and the Resident Travel Award (RTA), to facilitate the recruitment and retention of individuals from populations underrepresented in medicine to cancer careers, with a special focus on the development of clinical...
Michael C. Perry, MD, a renowned cancer clinician, educator, researcher, and administrator at the University of Missouri, Columbia, for more than 35 years, passed away October 23, 2011, after a long and courageous battle with polycystic kidney disease and cancer. He was 66. Dr. Perry served as...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. Cetuximab (Erbitux) was recently approved by the FDA for use in...
In April 2008, Debbie Zelman was 40 years old. The mother of three young children, married to a physician, and a practicing attorney with her own firm, she began to experience a strange sensation upon swallowing food. She was told that this was due to stress, but a few months later, she became very ...
Gastric cancer is diagnosed in nearly 1 million people globally each year and is responsible for 740,000 deaths, making it the second leading cause of cancer death in the world. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 21,000 people in the United States were diagnosed with gastric...
At the recent Pan-Pacific Lymphoma Conference in Kauai, Hawaii, Julie M. Vose, MD, from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, discussed novel treatments for peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). PTCL is a heterogeneous group of aggressive T-cell/natural killer (NK) cell non-Hodgkin...
Newer therapies for the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) were discussed at the Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium. More inroads have been made in improving outcomes for patients with NSCLC than for those with SCLC, but there is still room for...
Although bladder cancer is among the most chemosensitive of the solid tumors, and a large proportion of patients will achieve objective tumor regressions on first-line therapy with conventional chemotherapeutic regimens, response durations are relatively short and outcomes with existing second-line ...
It is an exciting time for researchers involved in developing new therapies for bladder cancer. More agents are in clinical development, drugs with novel mechanisms and novel trial designs are being implemented, and functional collaboration is occurring in the field, according to Noah Hahn, MD,...
Women with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer are much less likely to have disease progression or die when two agents are used instead of one to target the HER2 signaling pathway, investigators for the international phase III CLEOPATRA trial found. The 808 women studied were randomly assigned to...
Preoperative gemcitabine plus cisplatin had a statistically significant impact on outcomes among patients with stage IIB/IIIA non–small-cell lung cancer in a phase III randomized study comparing surgery alone or surgery plus preoperative chemotherapy. The 3-year progression-free survival rates were ...
During the 1960s and 1970s, the concept of an expanded approach to oncologic treatment encompassing “body, mind, and spirit” grew in patient popularity and morphed into two basic categories: “alternative” and “complementary” therapies. Together, these later became known by the acronym CAM, for...
Following a priority review process for orphan diseases, ruxolitinb (Jakafi) recently became the first drug to receive FDA approval for the treatment of intermediate- and high-risk myelofibrosis. Discovery in 2004 of the JAK2V617F mutation in a significant proportion of patients with...
Adding an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) to hormonal therapy for advanced breast cancer effectively circumvents resistance, suggest updated results of the randomized BOLERO-2 trial. With a median follow-up of 12.5 months, the likelihood of disease progression or death among...
After experiencing the loss of my wife Dina’s first pregnancy during her second trimester, we naturally worried that something would go wrong when she became pregnant again. But when our son Will was delivered at full term, we thought we could finally relax. Born at a whopping 10 lb, Will seemed...
Adding chemotherapy to radiotherapy resulted in statistically significantly higher 5‑year overall, progression-free, and distant metastasis-free survival among patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma in a phase III randomized trial. Adding cisplatin-based chemotherapy to radiotherapy...
The combination of everolimus (Afinitor) plus octreotide (Sandostatin) long-acting repeatable (LAR) formulation improved progression-free survival by 23% over placebo plus octreotide LAR in a randomized phase III study of patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors associated with carcinoid...
In a randomized phase III trial among previously treated patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the combination of alemtuzumab (Campath) plus fludarabine resulted in significant improvements in progression-free survival, complete response rate, and overall survival ...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Merit Awards will be presented to 20 leading oncology trainees for their important contributions to gastrointestinal cancer research. This year’s recipients will be recognized at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, which takes place January 19-21 in...
The current lack of awareness about the high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among people being treated for cancer as outpatients means “there’s a great role for provider education,” Alok Khorana, MD, told The ASCO Post. Here are Dr. Khorana’s answers to some likely questions from patients....
Several studies are investigating low-molecular-weight heparins to reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among patients with cancer. “I enrolled patients in SAVE-ONCO,” Alok Khorana, MD, said, “but that trial used drug called semuloparin, which is not currently available in the United...
Most patients who develop venous thromboembolisms (VTE) while being treated for cancer, do so as outpatients, according to results of a retrospective, observational study comparing the incidence of VTE among inpatients and outpatients with cancer. Yet many outpatients do not even realize that they...
In an effort to understand lung cancer risk factors and develop prevention strategies for the disease, Christina S. Baik, MD, MPH, thoracic oncologist and staff scientist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has examined epidemiologic trends in lung...
JANUARY 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers SymposiumJanuary 19-21 • San Francisco, California For more information: www.asco.org Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer SymposiumJanuary 26-28 • Phoenia, Arizona For more information: http://headandnecksymposium.org FEBRUARY American Society for Blood...
Last November, Dell announced it was donating an initial $4 million including cloud-computing technology to speed up development of personalized medicine trials for children with neuroblastoma and other pediatric cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, about 650 children under the age of ...
If we are able to harness the full potential of digital technologies, computerized registries, databases, and the Web, could we solve many of the current woes of our sluggish and costly health-care system? Yes, according to Lynn Etheredge, a consultant with the Rapid Learning Project at the George...
Elderly Hodgkin lymphoma, typically defined as affecting individuals ≥ 60 years of age, remains a disease for which no standard treatment recommendation exists. This population is underrepresented in clinical studies, and survival rates in older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma are significantly and ...
At the 2011 Pan-Pacific Lymphoma Conference held recently in Kauai, Hawaii, Andrew M. Evens, DO, MSc, Director of the Lymphoma Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, discussed Hodgkin lymphoma in elderly patients. Event-free survival and overall survival rates in...
Over the past several decades, advances in chemotherapy and surgery have begun to translate into improved survival in gynecologic malignancies. The ASCO Post recently spoke with Ginger Gardner, MD, a surgical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who specializes in the management...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. Indications In September 2011, the monoclonal antibody RANKL...
ECCO President Michael Baumann, MD, said that the findings on changes in receptor status throughout breast cancer progression were of major importance, “because many patients do not receive optimal treatment for their disease. The price of regular biopsies may seem high, but in the long run they...
Oncologists should be aware that common clinical tumor markers (denoting hormonal and HER2 status) change as breast cancer progresses, because these changes can affect treatment selection. Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2 receptor status was changed from the time of the...
The Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization (ALTTO) study, which is evaluating various anti-HER2 therapy approaches in breast cancer, has discontinued the single-agent lapatinib (Tykerb) arm, according to study sponsor GlaxoSmithKline. Following a preplanned interim analysis...
Chemotherapy can be delivered before breast-conserving therapy or after surgery, without influencing long-term local-regional recurrence, a large study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center confirmed. The data were presented at the 2011 Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco.1 “A ...
Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP) recently began publishing the majority of its articles online ahead of print. This exciting initiative benefits both JOP’s authors and readers by making practice-changing content readily available online in a timely manner. With the launch of the...
Each year, the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO funds Young Investigator Awards (YIAs) and Career Development Awards (CDAs). These research grants provide start-up funding for young physician-scientists as they embark on cancer research careers. Clearly, the programs are working: Six of the top...
Congress passed a resolution in December recognizing the 40th anniversary of the National Cancer Act of 1971 and the more than 12 million cancer survivors who are alive as a result of the nation’s commitment to cancer research and advances in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment....
Are you looking for ways to discuss the issues that impact the oncology community with members of Congress? Doing so is easier than you think. ASCO’s ACT Network provides many different opportunities to contact your policymakers, including the ability to draft your own message to your member of...
ASCO has announced the designation of Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, otherwise known as FASCO. Formerly called the ASCO Statesman Award and launched in 2007, the distinction is designed to honor ASCO’s most active volunteer members. “The FASCO status represents recognition for ...
More than 14 years after an NIH Consensus Panel finding of “efficacy of acupuncture in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting,” an informal show-of-hands poll at the Eighth International Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) Conference indicated acupuncture was not yet fully...
“Many new frontiers exist in integrative medicine,” NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, stated in his keynote address at the Eighth International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) in Cleveland. “The evidence is overwhelming that these approaches are being used by many...
“Innovating Integrative Oncology: New Science, New Solutions” was the title of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) Eighth International Conference. Topics ranged from molecular biology to mitigation of treatment toxicity to mind-body medicine. A total of 505 people attended the conference,...
Vulvovaginal atrophy is a concern for the majority of patients with breast cancer, not only because of its physical and psychosexual consequences, but because the optimal treatment—estrogen replacement—is controversial. Patients and physicians alike remain concerned that external estradiol may...
“The main message [from Dr. Hall’s presentation at the 2011 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium] is that we need to think about using sipuleucel-T early in men with prostate cancer who are asymptomatic but are castration-resistant and metastatic. “If there is going to be a benefit [of the vaccine],...
When sipuleucel-T (Provenge) was approved by FDA in April 2010, it was the first vaccine to be approved as a treatment for prostate cancer and was hailed as a major advance. Although sipuleucel-T is now reimbursable by Medicare, some physicians are not clear about when to use it, and patients who...
Surgery did not increase survival rates compared to watchful waiting in men with clinically localized prostate cancer. Results were particularly strong for men with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels of 10 ng/dL and under, and those who have low-risk disease, according to data from the Prostate ...