Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ have a low risk of dying of breast cancer, according to an observational study looking at data from 108,196 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ between 1988 and 2011.1 The breast cancer–specific mortality rate for these women was 1.1% at 10...
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has named Todd Demmy, MD, FACS, FCCP, as its new Chief of Thoracic Oncology and Associate Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology. Dr. Demmy, who is leading Rutgers Cancer Institute’s Thoracic Oncology Program, is an international leader in minimally...
Rural cancer patients have long had to adjust to difficult geographic and financial barriers to access high-quality cancer care. These problems are exacerbated by today’s fiscal challenges, which have disrupted many of the small community practices that once served rural communities. In 2006, the...
A Century of Progress The text and photographs on this page are excerpted from a four-volume series of books titled Oncology Tumors & Treatment: A Photographic History, by Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS. The photos below are from the volume titled “The Anesthesia Era: 1916–1945.” To view...
Immunotherapy, once considered a niche treatment for a few specific cancers, has rapidly emerged as an additional pillar of cancer therapeutics. With the proliferation of promising results, clinical trials, and new drug approvals, one cannot help but be amazed that only 3 years have elapsed since...
In a randomized phase II trial (KEYNOTE-002) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Antoni Ribas, MD, of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, and colleagues found that treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) antibody pembrolizumab (Keytruda) prolonged...
A new study conducted by ASCO in collaboration with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology1 found that patients who have to travel farther to appointments are less likely to receive adjuvant...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Steven A. Narod, MD, FRCPC, of Women’s College Research Institute, Women’s College Hospital, and the University of Toronto, and colleagues found that the risk of breast cancer mortality was elevated in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ compared with the...
Bart Barlogie, MD, a myeloma expert who introduced the first curative therapy for multiple myeloma, a multidrug regimen known as Total Therapy 3, is joining the faculty of Tisch Cancer Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMM. Dr. Barlogie will serve as Director of Research in ...
Sweeney et al reported on the results of a seminal phase III trial (E3805) of chemohormonal therapy vs androgen-deprivation therapy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer in a recent issue of The New England Journal of Medicine,1 and the study is summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post....
In a phase III trial (E3805) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Christopher J. Sweeney, MBBS, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found that chemohormonal therapy with docetaxel plus androgen-deprivation therapy produced a significant 13.6-month increase in median...
Male breast cancer is an uncommon disease, although the incidence has increased over the past couple of decades. As with many other “orphan” diseases, male breast cancer is understudied, especially in randomized controlled trials. Although it shares similarities with female breast cancer, some...
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) continues its practice of being a lighthouse, shedding its beacon of light on the vast ocean of breast cancer research through the publication of two large, individual patient level–data meta-analyses on the management of women with...
The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) patient-level meta-analyses, concurrently reported in The Lancet, sought to clarify the effects of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor vs tamoxifen treatment and adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment in early breast cancer.1,2 The endocrine...
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), about 70,000 adolescents and young adults—defined by the NCI as those in the 15- to 39-year-old range—are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States, about six times the number of cases diagnosed in children aged 0 to 14.1 And, although...
At the third annual Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference, speakers described the prevalence and consequences of overdiagnosis in several medical specialties, including cancer. The Conference, which had the theme “Winding Back the Harms of Too Much Medicine,” was co-sponsored by the National Cancer...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have been previously treated with chemotherapy and biologic therapy and are no longer responding to treatment. Mechanism of Action The new oral agent is a...
Recent studies have yielded useful results that clinicians can put into practice, some right now, to help improve the quality of life for patients with cancer. Concerns addressed included cachexia, pain, “chemobrain,” and fertility preservation. At the Best of ASCO®/Chicago meeting, Arif Kamal,...
For the treatment of advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) continues to show results in key trials that now report 18-month data. The updates were reported at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver,...
Lung cancer is becoming an equal-opportunity malignancy—with rates rising among never-smokers, especially females, according to studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver. British investigators reported that in one large tertiary medical center, the proportion of...
At the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer, several studies showed consistent activity with the investigational third-generation inhibitor AZD9291 in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is resistant to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors....
Twenty years ago, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) began as a cooperative effort of 12 prestigious cancer centers, working to define and promote national guidelines for the care of patients with cancer. A major goal was to encourage uniformity in the management of malignant...
Robert Pirker, MD, Professor of Medicine and Program Director for Lung Cancer at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, discussed the findings at the “Top Abstracts” session of the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer. Based on these results and the findings of similar studies, Dr. Pirker...
Two studies presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer suggest that high expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), or gene copy number, may indicate potential benefit from EGFR antibodies in squamous cell non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The studies were presented by...
Renowned surgical neuro-oncologist Constantinos (Costas) G. Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, has been named Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. He has also been appointed as Director of Neurosurgical Oncology for the Mount Sinai Health System and Director of the ...
Integrative oncology had a long road to acceptance by the mainstream medical community; the field is now widely accepted for its healthful benefits, especially in assuaging the more troublesome side effects of cancer treatments. Many well-known oncologists have adapted integrative oncology into...
Researchers on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus have been awarded a $13.3 million, 5-year federal grant to test a vaccine designed to prevent the recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer. This Breakthrough Award from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program will fund a...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors in real-world clinical practice tend to be older and sicker than the patients enrolled in pivotal clinical trials of these agents. In addition, patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with the mTOR...
A study among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with carboplatin-paclitaxel or carboplatin-paclitaxel-bevacizumab (Avastin) found that those receiving the triplet were more likely to experience a toxicity event but less likely to be hospitalized within 180 days after ...
A University of California, Davis research team has been awarded $15.5 million to build the world’s first total-body positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, which could fundamentally change the way cancers are tracked and treated. The Transformative Research Award, part of the National...
The use of low-dose aspirin by most adults aged 50 to 59 for the primary prevention of colorectal cancer is now included in the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updated draft recommendation statement, “Aspirin to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer.”1 The release of the statement...
I've lived my adult life by three guiding principles I learned as an adventure racer: to set goals, to determine how to achieve them, and to persevere in the face of adversity. Those standards helped me complete more than 70 marathons and 7 Ironman competitions, and they helped me conquer breast...
The American Cancer Society has bestowed its highest honor on four individuals and one foundation during the Society’s 2015 Medal of Honor ceremony and celebration dinner in Washington, DC. The Medal of Honor is awarded to those who have made the most valuable contributions and impact in the fight...
Over the past several years, immunotherapy has had a renaissance of sorts, emerging as one of the most active areas in cancer research. For instance, we have seen the therapeutic promise of disrupting the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) immune checkpoints in cancer,...
Hematology Expert Review is an occasional feature that includes a case report followed by questions,answers, and expert commentary. In this issue of The ASCO Post, Drs. Abutalib and Lukas present part 1 of a case report on primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Part 2 will be published in an...
When David G. Nathan, MD, was admitted to Harvard University in 1947, he had every intention of becoming an English professor. It was only his lack of writing talent that dissuaded him from a life in the classroom and propelled him into a medical career that has spanned more than 5 decades and has...
BookmarkTitle: Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain SurgeryAuthor: Henry Marsh, CBE, FRCSPublisher: Thomas Dunne BooksPublication date: May 26, 2015Price: $25.99, hardcover; 288 pages “I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing. With a pair of diathermy forceps I ...
BookmarkTitle: On the Move: A LifeAuthor: Oliver Sacks, MDPublisher: Alfred A. KnopfPublication date: April 28, 2015Price: $27.95, hardcover; 416 pages Our ability to detect cancer has grown markedly over the past several decades, with the advent of more sensitive screening methods, new...
BookmarkTitle: A View From the Inside: A Collection of Medically Oriented Short StoriesAuthor: Augustine L. Perrotta, DOPublisher: Keith Publications, LLCPublication date: March 31, 2015Price: $14.95, paperback; 246 pages The field of medicine, ripe with dramatic tension, offers an endless array...
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. On September 22, 2015, trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) was...
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 recipients were recently announced. They are Tomas Lindahl, PhD, Paul Modrich, PhD, and Aziz Sancar, PhD, for having mapped, at a molecular level, how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information. Their work has provided fundamental knowledge of...
California’s Stem Cell Agency (CIRM) has awarded $19.9 million to ImmunoCellular Therapeutics to carry out a phase III clinical trial in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma using an immunotherapeutic vaccine. “This kind of deadly disease is precisely why we created CIRM 2.0, our new...
Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, the General Director of Gustave Roussy since 2010, has had his appointment at the Head of the Institute renewed by the French Minister of Health for 5 years, with this term beginning October 1, 2015. Success of 2010–2015 Period The 2010–2015 period was primarily one in ...
Based on preclinical (in vitro and in vivo) data, there is a strong biologic rationale for the addition of an antiangiogenic drug strategy in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.1 Single-agent trials have confirmed both the biologic and clinical activity of bevacizumab (Avastin) in the...
Final overall survival results of the phase III ICON7 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Amit M. Oza, MD, and colleagues indicate no significant improvement with the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard chemotherapy in women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.1 However, an overall...
Lung cancer is the most common, lethal, and costly cancer worldwide, accounting for at least 1.8 million new cases per year (12.9% of the total).1 Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially in adenocarcinoma, accompanied by...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an expanded indication for the Optune tumor-treating fields device to treat patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. It is given along with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide following standard treatments that include surgery,...
In the phase III SQUIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nick Thatcher, PhD, FRCP, of The Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester, UK, and colleagues found that the addition of the second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody necitumumab to first-line...
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. On October 2, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted...