In an analysis of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) cohort reported in The Lancet Oncology, Patz et al found that participants who had a negative low-dose computed tomography (CT) prevalence screen had a low incidence of lung cancer detected at first annual screen and exhibited reduced...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by N. Lynn Henry, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) guideline recommendations on the role of patient and disease factors in decisions on adjuvant systemic...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nyame et al found that lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH D) levels were associated with an increased likelihood of adverse pathology at radical prostatectomy in men with localized prostate cancer. Study Details The cross-sectional...
Rosenberg et al found that the proportion of women diagnosed with breast cancer at age ≤ 40 years who have undergone BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing has increased during recent years. These findings, which were reported in JAMA Oncology, were part of the ongoing prospective Helping Ourselves, Helping...
A prospective study examining a trimodality treatment approach in localized bladder cancer cases using adaptive image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy found that the bladder preservation rate at 3 years was 83%. These findings were published by Murthy et al in the International Journal ...
Using the latest advances in endoscopic resection techniques, more than 75% of patients with complex colon polyps could avoid surgery for their polyp removal, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings, published by Raju et al in Gastrointestinal ...
On March 30, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved defibrotide sodium (Defitelio) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with hepatic veno-occlusive disease, also known as sinusoidal obstructive syndrome, with renal or pulmonary dysfunction following hematopoietic...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Näslund-Koch et al found an increased risk for cancers in addition to breast cancer in individuals heterozygous for the CHEK2*1100delC germline mutation associated with an increased breast cancer risk. CHEK2 is a cell-cycle checkpoint...
Hoster et al found that Ki67 index had greater prognostic value than cytology or growth pattern in mantle cell lymphoma, based on data from European Mantle Cell Lymphoma Network randomized trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. A modified combination of Ki67 index and Mantle Cell...
Use of epoetin alfa (Epogen, Procrit) vs best standard of care to treat anemia did not achieve noninferiority for investigator-assessed progression-free survival in patients receiving chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer, reported Leyland-Jones et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology....
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Matthew I. Milowsky, MD, of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO has endorsed the European Association of Urology clinical practice guideline on muscle-invasive and metastatic bladder cancer. ...
A promising new discovery by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) scientists could lead to a new method of identifying cancer patients whose disease expresses high levels of an enzyme and who are more likely to respond to particular treatments. Their findings were published by Kim et al in...
In preclinical studies, breast cancer cells became resistant to therapeutics targeting CDK4/6, such as palbociclib (Ibrance), in multiple ways. According to the research published by Herrera-Abreu et al in Cancer Research, different combinations of therapeutics might prevent and overcome the...
Dignitana Inc. announced today that the DigniCap scalp cooling system, which was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2015 to effectively reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer, is now available at 10 cancer treatment...
Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage, when curative treatment is no longer possible. A team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) identified and validated an accurate five-gene classifier for discriminating early pancreatic cancer from nonmalignant...
Use of comprehensive geriatric assessment to guide therapy in elderly patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not improve treatment failure–free or overall survival but was associated with slightly reduced toxicity, based on the results of the phase III...
In a single-center retrospective study reported in JAMA Oncology, McDonald et al found that adding digital breast tomosynthesis to digital mammography reduced recall rates, increased cancer detection, and was associated with a numeric reduction in interval cancers. Study Details The analysis...
Survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer were at a greater than twofold increased risk for cardiovascular disease than their counterparts without cancer, according to a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Chao et al. Study Details The study involved data from a...
Healy et al found that greater use of positron-emission tomography (PET) for detection of recurrence of lung and esophageal cancers was not associated with improved survival, suggesting potential overuse of the modality in this setting. They reported their results in the Journal of the National...
The phase II portion of the Italian HD0801 study suggests that treatment based on positron-emission tomography (PET) performed early in first-line therapy for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma may improve outcome in patients at risk of first-line treatment failure. Zinzani et al reported their findings in...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Harris et al, ASCO released a clinical practice guideline on the use of biomarkers in addition to estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor and HER2 status to guide decisions on adjuvant systemic therapy in women with early-stage invasive breast...
Treatment with low-dose metformin reduced the risk of metachronous colorectal adenomas and polyps over 12 months in nondiabetic patients who had undergone endoscopic polypectomy, according to a report by Higurashi et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study Details In the double-blind phase III trial,...
A new radiotherapy technique could help doctors to focus treatment more precisely on tumors in the bladder and reduce damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Researchers showed that pretreatment imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was effective at guiding radiotherapy toward tumors in the...
In a small trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Mogil et al found that low-magnitude, high-frequency mechanical stimulation improved the whole-body bone mineral density score in childhood cancer survivors with low bone mineral density. Study Details In the double-blind trial, 65 survivors of...
Biomedical engineering researchers at North Carolina State University (NC State) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill) have developed a technique that uses a patch embedded with microneedles to deliver cancer immunotherapy treatment directly to the site of melanoma....
As summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, Ivey and colleagues demonstrated that assessing for NPM1-mutated gene transcripts by reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay is a feasible approach for measuring minimal residual disease after acute myeloid leukemia (AML)...
Two quality improvement projects described in the Journal of Oncology Practice resulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous (IV) and oral chemotherapy. A project at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types of...
Patients diagnosed with stage I to III rectal cancer at a younger age are at increased risk of having positive lymph nodes, according to an analysis of data published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “This finding merits further investigation and may ultimately impact treatment...
A retrospective review to evaluate the frequency of serum tumor marker testing “found a high rate of serum tumor marker testing overuse and extreme overuse in patients with advanced solid tumors,” Melissa K. Accordino, MD, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York,...
In a study using managed-care organization data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Armenian et al found that survivors of adult-onset multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, lung/bronchus cancer, and breast cancer had an increased risk for subsequent cardiovascular disease. Study...
In the phase III GeparSepto-GBG 69 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Untch et al, neoadjuvant nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) improved pathologic complete response rate vs conventional solvent-based paclitaxel in women with early-stage breast cancer. Study Details In the open-label trial, 1,206 ...
In collaboration with researchers from Ghent University, Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB) scientists from the University of Leuven have revealed a remarkable link between malignant melanoma and a noncoding RNA gene called SAMMSON. The SAMMSON gene is specifically expressed in human...
Overall survival differed according to the site of metastases in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Halabi et al. Study Details The study involved data from 8,820 men who received docetaxel chemotherapy in...
A new American Cancer Society guideline provides clinicians with recommendations on key areas of clinical follow-up care for survivors of head and neck cancer, a growing population numbering approximately 436,060 and accounting for 3% of all cancer survivors living in the United States. The...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Powles et al, the dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor apitolisib was inferior to the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) in progression-free survival in a phase II trial in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma progressing on or after...
Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service, Vice President for Government Relations, and Chief Advocacy Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, has been named the next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ...
Many low- and middle-income countries do not have a defined medical specialty in surgical oncology, and lack an educational infrastructure to respond to the local burden of cancer, but a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) fellowship is succeeding in addressing this problem by training...
Immunotherapy using anti–programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) antibodies has revolutionized the treatment of advanced melanoma and a growing list of other cancers. But 60% to 70% of melanoma tumors are resistant to anti–PD-1 antibodies, and there is an urgent need to understand how to...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Rosenberg et al found that use of estrogen with progestin is associated with an increased risk of estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer in postmenopausal African American women. Study Details The study involved data on...
Treatment with enzalutamide (Xtandi) tripled median progression-free survival vs bicalutamide in patients with nonmetastatic or metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to the phase II STRIVE trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Penson et al. Study Details In...
Increased surgeon experience was associated with markedly better short- and long-term survival in patients undergoing esophagectomy for esophageal cancer, according to a report by Markar et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study involved data from 1,821 patients who...
As reported by Hodi et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, use of conventional Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) to assess response may have underestimated the benefit of treatment with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the...
The State of Cancer Care in America: 2016, published online in the Journal of Oncology Practice1 and presented earlier this month at a Congressional briefing in Washington, DC, is ASCO’s third annual assessment of national trends in cancer care delivery. The report highlights many promising cancer...
Fascination with electricity reached its peak in the last decades of the 19th century. Thomas Edison’s invention in 1879 of a practical light bulb set the stage for thousands of new devices. When Edison and Westinghouse created direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) delivery plants,...
I have to disagree with some of the conclusions drawn by Drs. Hagop Kantarjian and Robert Chapman in their editorial on the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which appeared in the January 25 issue of The ASCO Post. Although I’m sure I’m not the best person to provide an alternate view, I do feel strongly...
Annual screening with the fecal immunochemical test is highly sensitive for detecting colorectal cancer and “is feasible and effective for population-level colorectal cancer screening,” according to a large-scale retrospective cohort study assessing this test over four rounds of annual screening....
I have a history of fibrocystic breasts, which required biopsies to make certain the cysts were benign, and for years they were. But in 2009, my mammogram screening picked up a suspicious lump in my right breast, which turned out to be stage III estrogen receptor–positive/progesterone...
In a one-story concrete industrial building across the street from a lumberyard in Austin, Texas, Greg Matthews and his computers are tracking everything that more than 500,000 U.S.-based physicians post publicly on social media. Every tweet. Every public blog, Facebook, or Instagram post. Every...
Recently released data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) showed that the rate of mastectomies increased between 2005 and 2013, with much of that increase attributed to bilateral mastectomies among women with early-stage cancer in one breast opting for bilateral...
The increased rate of bilateral mastectomies, as shown in recently released data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is “perplexing,” Ismail Jatoi, MD, PhD, told The ASCO Post. “We are seeing more and more women with unilateral breast cancer opt for bilateral mastectomy,...