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Showing 24801 - 24850Cancer Care in India: Complex Challenges in a Populous Nation
With 1.22 billion people, India is the second most populous country in the world. Experts project that cancer incidence in India will increase by more than two-thirds over the next 20 years, to approximately 1.7 million new cases per year. Due to a range of economic and social issues, most of...
Study Shows Steady Increases in Survival for Children with ALL
A study by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) reported that 5-year survival for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) among children treated through COG clinical trials increased from 83.7% during the period 1990-1994 to 90.4% in the period 2000-2005. The improvements in survival were observed among...
Progress in Treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Has Led to Across-the-board Improvements in Survival
Four decades ago, Kanti R. Rai, MD, was determined to figure out why some of his patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) died within 2 years after their diagnosis, while others lived for 20 or even 30 years. At the time, Dr. Rai was a young scientist doing research in leukemia at...
Expert Point of View: Study Shows Continued Benefit of PSA Screening in Reducing Prostate Cancer Mortality
Many of the almost 100 reports in various journals and newspapers refer to the lack of effect on overall mortality with screening in ERSPC in a very critical fashion. Clarification is necessary. Our trial did not intend to and is not powered to study the effect of screening on overall mortality....
Study Shows Continued Benefit of PSA Screening in Reducing Prostate Cancer Mortality
Studies assessing the effect of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing on prostate cancer mortality have produced conflicting results, and recommendations regarding PSA screening vary among authorities. The recently published 11-year follow-up of the European Randomized Study of Screening for...
Inhibition of SFRP2 Found to Inhibit Growth of Triple-negative Breast Tumors
Secreted frizzled related protein 2 (SFRP2), a protein that modulates the Wnt signaling pathway and is involved in embryonic development, has been thought to exert a tumor-suppressive effect via inhibition of β-catenin activation. However, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel...
Regional Infusion of Designer T Cells to Treat Intrahepatic Metastases
Designer T cells are modified from normal T cells to express specific immune receptors that allow them, via antibody-directed recognition or other mechanisms, to kill malignant cells bearing particular antigens. The Surgical Immunotherapy Lab at the Roger Williams Medical Center, Providence, Rhode...
SIDEBAR: Learning from Advanced Disease
Current testing of immunotherapy approaches against cancer involves patients in whom standard therapies have failed. “That really puts us at a great disadvantage because a lot of the standard therapies are immunosuppressive, as is the tumor itself as it grows,” Olivera Finn, PhD, said at a press...
Immunotherapy Clinical Trials Show Benefits for Patients with Advanced Cancers
Immunotherapeutic approaches, including vaccines, a monoclonal antibody, and a combination of low-dose interleukin (IL)-2 (Proleukin) and retinoic acid, are showing some success in clinical trials investigating the prevention of breast cancer recurrence in women at high risk, the treatment of...
Managing Febrile Neutropenia: What Are the Best Antibiotic Regimens?
Management of patients with cancer who have fever and a low neutrophil count is one of the most common scenarios oncologists face today. “Physicians have to be keenly aware of the infection risks, diagnostic methods, and microbial therapies required for managing febrile neutropenic patients because ...
FDA Approves Pazopanib for Advanced Soft-tissue Sarcoma
The FDA has approved pazopanib (Votrient) to treat patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcoma who have previously received chemotherapy. Pazopanib is an oral agent that works by interfering with angiogenesis. Soft-tissue sarcoma occurs in about 10,000 cases annually in the United States. More than ...
Advances in Prostate Cancer Accompanied by Ongoing Debates
Scientific advances have markedly improved prostate cancer survival, but this clinical success story is not without its share of controversy. From screening through treatment, a growing array of options offer an admixture of promise and confusion for clinicians and patients. Moreover, today’s...
Maintenance of Certification in Medical Oncology
It is said that time is perhaps the most treasured asset we have. If you are a practicing oncologist, everyone wants more and more of your time, and I’m not referring to patients. Rather, there is an increasing proliferation of folks who want to make sure we’re doing a good job, and they are...
SIDEBAR: Obese Children with Cancer May Be at Greater Risk for Cancer Recurrence
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncologyin 2008 found that obesity is an important contributing factor to chemotherapy resistance and rising relapse rates in children with leukemia.1 According to the study, obese children diagnosed with leukemia have a 50% higher chance of relapsing...
ASCO Issues New Guideline on Chemotherapy Dosing for Obese Patients
In April, ASCO released a new clinical practice guideline on the appropriate dosing of chemotherapy drugs given to obese adult patients with cancer. The result of an analysis by a panel of experts assembled by ASCO, the guideline calls for the use of a patient's actual body weight when calculating...
New Breast Biopsy System with Vacuum Technology Approved
Devicor Medical Products, Inc, announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for the Mammotome elite Biopsy System, a tetherless single-insertion, multiple-sample, vacuum-assisted biopsy device featuring proprietary vacuum technology. Devicor also announced the commercial launch of...
2012 Oncology Meetings
JUNE World Conference on Interventional OncologyJune 14-17 • Chicago, Illinois For more information: www.wcio2012.org Emerging Strategies in Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Head & Neck CancerJune 16 • Atlanta, Georgia For more information: http://cancernetus.com 8th Central European ...
Scoring System Based on DNA Repair Pathways Predicts Outcomes and Response to Platinum Therapy
A potentially important tool to identify patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer likely to benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy and redirect those with poor predicted outcomes to alternative treatments was developed using gene-expression data and validated in two independent datasets. While ...
Pediatric ALL with Induction Failure Is Highly Heterogeneous with Varying Outcomes
While failure of remission-induction therapy is rare in children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), when it does occur it is highly adverse and heterogeneous, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine. “Patients who have T-cell leukemia appear to have a...
Panobinostat Produces Objective Responses in Patients Refractory to Autologous Transplant
Panobinostat produced objective responses in 27% and tumor reductions in 74% of 129 patients enrolled in “the largest, prospective, multicenter, international trial conducted in heavily pretreated patients” with Hodgkin lymphoma who relapsed or were refractory to autologous stem cell...
Low-dose Radioiodine as Effective as High-dose in Thyroid Ablation
Two studies in The New England Journal of Medicine found that low-dose radioiodine is as effective as a high-dose strategy in treating patients with thyroid cancer and that recombinant human thyrotropin (thyrotropin alfa [Thyrogen]) and thyroid hormone withdrawal had similar efficacy in preparing...
Physicians Need to Be Involved in Reducing Costs
I am so proud of ASCO for participating in the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign (see The ASCO Post, May 1, page 19; and page 75 of this issue). I am the Associate Medical Director for a 280-physician multispecialty group in the Hudson Valley of New York,...
The Semantics of Palliative Care
The interview with Thomas J. Smith, MD (The ASCO Post, April 15, 2012), the lead author of the ASCO Palliative Care Provisional Clinical Opinion, was timely. However, it left many clinical terms and issues unclear. A significant percentage of modern medicine, including cancer care, is palliative....
Anti-EpCAM Antibody-Drug Conjugate Shows High Activity against Pancreatic Cancer
Human epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is overexpressed in many cancers. Although anti-EpCAM antibodies have shown promise in preclinical studies, early-phase clinical evaluation of these antibodies has been disappointing. To determine whether the antitumor activity of anti-EpCAM antibody...
Complex Relationship between Metformin and BRAF-mutant Tumors
The antidiabetic drug metformin appears to lower cancer risk in diabetic patients and has shown antitumor activity in preclinical studies. Suppression of mTOR signaling via AMP kinase (AMPK)-dependent TOR complex 1 (TORC1) inhibition is one of the proposed mechanisms by which metformin appears to...
Pretreatment Tumor Hypoxia Predicts Biochemical Failure after Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer
Hypoxia often occurs early in solid tumor development as a result of imbalances between oxygen supply and consumption and may lead to genetic and molecular signaling that influences the biology and clinical behavior of tumors and response to treatment. Milosevic and colleagues from Princess...
Surviving the Aftermath of Cancer
With medical information now just a click away, it’s difficult to imagine a time before the Internet existed, when finding answers to questions about serious diseases was nearly impossible. When I was diagnosed with liposarcoma 33 years ago, there was only one oncologist in my hometown of Tyler,...
Screening for Distress and Unmet Needs in Patients with Cancer
In the past decade, “screening for distress has been positioned as the sixth vital sign in cancer care, in addition to the first five, which are measurements of pulse, respiration, blood pressure, temperature, and pain,” according to a review article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Although...
Pain Remains Prevalent and Often Inadequately Treated among Cancer Outpatients
“Pain is as prevalent in ambulatory oncology patients with common solid tumors as it was more than 20 years ago, despite the fact that opioid prescribing in the United States has increased more than 10-fold since 1990,” according to results of a study among 3,023 ambulatory patients with cancer...
Acai Berry
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has risen significantly over the past 2 decades despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and the...
Studies Report Findings in Patient-centered Care
New studies highlighting findings that will lead to improvements in the patient experience and identifying potential risks for development of cancers in the future were reported at a press briefing held during the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. “In this era of sophisticated research advances, ...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions from Your Patients
“Our study provides critical interim companion data to awaited randomized trials and may help clinicians and patients quantify the risk-benefit ratio of brachytherapy compared with standard therapy,” Benjamin D. Smith, MD, said of a study comparing lumpectomy and either whole-breast irradiation or...
Will Study Showing Increased Complications Compared to Whole-breast Irradiation Put the Brakes on Brachytherapy?
In the News focuses on media reports that your patients may have questions about at their next visit. This continuing column will provide summaries of articles in the popular press that may prompt such questions, as well as comments from colleagues in the field. Older women treated for invasive...
What You Need to Know About Glucarpidase Injection for Toxic Methotrexate Levels in Renal Impairment
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. Indication In January 2012, glucarpidase injection (Voraxaze) was...
Newest Indication for Rituximab as Maintenance Treatment in Non‑Hodgkin Lymphoma
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. Indication The CD20-directed monoclonal antibody rituximab...
Choosing Wisely® Campaign
ASCO recently published a detailed review of the “Top Five” opportunities to improve the quality and value of cancer care by curbing use of common tests and treatments that are not supported by clinical evidence. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 the article coincided with the...
ASCO Reexamines the Oncology Workforce Shortage
A study commissioned by ASCO in 2006 predicted a significant shortage of medical and gynecologic oncologists in the United States by 2020. As a result, the organization created the Workforce Implementation Group to develop recommendations to stem the projected workforce shortfall and ensure ongoing ...
New Drug Application Submitted for Regorafenib for the Treatment of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Bayer HealthCare announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA seeking approval for the oral multikinase inhibitor regorafenib for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. The submission is based on the results of the pivotal, global phase III CORRECT...
Denosumab Delays Time to First Bone Metastasis in Men with Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer
Denosumab (Xgeva) significantly delayed time to first bone metastases among men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer enrolled in a phase III randomized, placebo-controlled trial. The time to first bone metastasis was 33.2 months among the 716 patients randomly assigned to receive ...
FDA-led Research Team Discovers Autoimmune Mechanism for Drug-induced Adverse Reactions
A team of researchers led by the FDA has discovered a new mechanism for identifying and understanding drug-related autoimmune reactions. In an article available online in the journal AIDS, the team reported that in certain at-risk patients, the anti-HIV drug abacavir (Ziagen) causes the immune...
Aflibercept Granted Priority Review for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc, recently announced that the FDA has granted Priority Review of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for the investigational agent aflibercept (Zaltrap) concentrate for solution for infusion in combination with irinotecan/fluoropyrimidine–based...
FDA Approves Drugs Faster than Canadian and European Counterparts
According to a study published online in The New England Journal of Medicine (May 16, 2012), the FDA approved more new drugs in less time—about 15% faster—than the European Medicines Agency and Health Canada. The analysis compared drug review performance for the three agencies from 2001 to 2010....
Drug Safety Communication Issued Regarding Lenalidomide and Risk of New Malignancies
The FDA recently released a safety announcement about an increased risk of second primary malignancies in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who received treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid). Clinical trials conducted after lenalidomide was approved showed that newly diagnosed...
SIDEBAR: Photodynamic Therapy for Cancer
Photodynamic therapy is a two-step treatment that includes a photosensitizing agent and a light source. In the first step, the photosensitizing agent (porfimer sodium) is injected into the bloodstream and absorbed by all cells. Over 24 to 48 hours, the drug is concentrated in cancer cells. In the...
International Photodynamic Medicine Symposium: Shedding New Light on an Old Therapy
This past May, a collaborative think tank of researchers was convened at The Ohio State University, Columbus, to share their expertise in a somewhat older treatment that is reemerging on many fronts: photodynamic therapy. Participants from the United States, Great Britain, and Japan took part in...
Strong Biomarker Candidates for Predicting Clinical Response to Bevacizumab
Plasma vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) and tumor neuropilin-1 “are strong biomarker candidates for predicting clinical outcome in patients with advanced gastric cancer” after treatment with bevacizumab (Avastin). This was the conclusion of a mandatory biomarker program following up on ...
SIDEBAR: Success of the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium
Since its founding in 2004, the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC) has grown from a handful of member institutions to 16 such academic centers and has launched 38 phase I and phase II clinical trials. Six of the drugs studied in those investigations are currently in phase III trials. And...
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Initiatives Are Leading to More Effective Targeted Treatment
In 1996, at just 37, the last thing Kathy Giusti expected to hear was that she had the fatal blood cancer multiple myeloma. An executive at Searle Pharmaceuticals and the mother of an 18-month-old daughter, Giusti was told she probably had 3 years to live. At the time, treatments for the disease...
ASCO Participates in Two FDA Meetings on Improving Clinical Trials
ASCO recently took part in two public meetings at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that had the broad goal of improving clinical trials and, ultimately, treatment for cancer patients. Then ASCO President Michael P. Link, MD, served as a panelist on a workshop sponsored by FDA and ASCO,...
Markers in Cancer 2012, to be Held October 11–13, Will Seek to Move the Field of Biomarkers to the Next Phase
There are hundreds and hundreds of papers published on biomarkers in cancer each year, but very few make it over the hurdles necessary to be used in actual patient care, said James L. Abbruzzese, MD, Chair of the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson ...
