When Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD, FASCO, graduated from high school in 1970 and enrolled at the University of Illinois in Champaign, she was determined to seek a career in special education, because she wanted to “help people through difficult situations.” Although Dr. Von Roenn ultimately decided to...
Facing mortality can be a paralyzing experience for some people, but for others, it may ignite a passion to accelerate life. One such person is Kathy Giusti, cofounder of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), where she served as Chief Executive Officer and President for nearly 20 years....
Several years ago, a visit to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, so fascinated and inspired Mace L. Rothenberg, MD, FASCO, about the history of flight, he wondered why there was not a similar museum showcasing the past and present achievements in science and medicine. The result...
Miriam Mutebi, MD, MSc, FACS, was born and reared in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. “The suburb I grew up in (Langata), has seen a lot of development over the past couple of decades. When I was a child, it was a smaller community, where you would go and play at somebody else’s house and have...
Deputy Editor of The ASCO Post, Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, recently spoke with gynecologic cancer expert Sharmila K. Makhija, MD, MBA, about her journey to her current position as Founding Dean and Chief Executive Officer of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Bentonville, Arkansas. Raised by...
Like many young boys, David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, loved sports and dreamed about playing college football. He attained that dream, but along the way, family tragedy and a personal battle with a life-threatening disease reshaped his worldview and accelerated his ambitions as a...
Genitourinary cancer expert Toni K. Choueiri, MD, FASCO, was born in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon, the year a devastating civil war erupted, lasted for 15 years, and cost the lives of some 150,000 individuals and also led to the exodus of almost 1 million people from Lebanon. “People with the financial...
Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, was born and reared in Kerala, a tropical state in southwestern India. Situated on the Malabar Coast, Kerala was named as one of the ten paradises of the world by National Geographic Traveler. “Along with its natural beauty, Kerala is a true melting pot. Over centuries,...
ASCO President for the 2024–2025 term, Robin Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, was born and reared in Cheektowaga, a town in the western part of New York. “Cheektowaga is the Native American name for ‘land of the crabapple tree.’ Western New York was first settled by one of seven tribes belonging to the...
Lymphoma expert Jane N. Winter, MD, grew up on the south shore of Long Island in New York. “My dad sold cars in my great uncle’s dealership after a failed foray into business after World War II. My mom graduated high school at 16 to go to work to help support her family. When my younger brother...
Leukemia expert Eunice S. Wang, MD, is the daughter of first-generation immigrants, whose work ethos inspired in her a world without boundaries. “My parents were born in China during the communist era, and they immigrated to Taiwan when the communists took over in the 1940s and then subsequently...
I’m not prepared. It could be a few months, a few years, maybe longer. I don’t know how bad the verdict will be, but whatever it is, I’m not prepared. They always told us to be prepared. That was our motto. At age 7, I joined the Brownies, the beginning of 12 years of being molded by Girl Scout...
A ground breaking staging system for de novo metastatic breast cancer has been validated in an international cohort, perhaps paving the way for more personalized care and improved outcomes for patients diagnosed with this challenging disease. The staging system, developed by surgical oncologist...
Serving as ASCO’s 60th President over the past year has been an honor and a privilege, said Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, FASCO, who will end her Presidential term during ASCO’s Annual Meeting, being held from May 31 to June 4, 2024, in Chicago, and welcome incoming President Robin Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO,...
An ASCO volunteer for nearly 30 years, Robin T. Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, is humbled and honored to be elected ASCO’s 61st President, effective during the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, May 31 to June 4, 2024, in Chicago and online. Dr. Zon began her 4-year term in June 2023 as President-Elect and will...
Daniel M. Geynisman, MD, has been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief for JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Dr. Geynisman is Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology/Medical Oncology and Chief of the Division of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at Fox Chase...
This is Part 2 of Treatment Strategies for Transplant-Ineligible Relapsed/Refractory DLBCL, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this roundtable. In this video, Drs. Jason Westin, Dai Chihara, and Caron A. Jacobson discuss the treatment of late...
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) may often be overtreated in older women with limited life expectancy, according to research presented during the 2024 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Meeting.1 The retrospective analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare...
A recent survey by ASCO measuring postpandemic burnout among oncologists in the United States shows that professional satisfaction and work-life balance have significantly deteriorated over the past decade, with 59% of respondents reporting one or more symptoms of burnout, compared with 34% in...
In patients with ovarian cancer, second-look surgery may find a role again. The evaluation of measurable residual disease (MRD) using second-look laparoscopy identified more women who had detectable MRD after front-line treatment than did circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), according to a study...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety communication,1 which was updated2 on March 22, 2023, informing the public that there have been reports of squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and various lymphomas of the breast in the capsule or scar of breast implants. These lymphomas are ...
ASCO recently announced the upcoming launch of JCO Oncology Advances (JCO OA), a new open-access and interdisciplinary journal. Pamela Kunz, MD, will serve as the new Editor-in-Chief of this innovative journal, dedicated to accelerating progress in the global fight against cancer by providing a...
Natalie S. Callander, MD, of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, discusses advances in the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma, including her commentary on smoldering disease, the early use of CAR T-cell therapy, quadruplet therapy, and the use of multiple lines of treatment...
This is Part 3 of Later-Line Considerations in Relapsed/Refractory Renal Cell Carcinoma, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this roundtable. In this video, Drs. Rana McKay, Bradley McGregor, and Sumanta K. Pal discuss the management of metastatic...
This is Part 1 of Later-Line Considerations in Relapsed/Refractory Renal Cell Carcinoma, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this roundtable. In this video, Drs. Rana McKay, Bradley McGregor, and Sumanta K. Pal discuss the management of metastatic...
Success stories in research, advocacy, and education from low- and middle-income countries deserve international recognition to motivate the next generation of researchers and practitioners and enrich global oncology. I recently had the privilege to speak with Ouissam Al Jarroudi, MD, about her...
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) elected a new 2024 to 2025 President and President-Elect at the AACR’s Annual Business Meeting of Members during the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego. New President The AACR welcomed Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), FAACR, as ...
The combination of the antibody-drug conjugate mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx and the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab showed notable activity in patients with recurrent or persistent microsatellite-stable endometrial cancer, according to new findings presented by Porter et al at the...
This is Part 2 of Addressing Unmet Needs in Myelofibrosis, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this roundtable. In this video, Drs. John Mascarenhas, Gabriela Hobbs, and Abdulraheem Yacoub discuss role of hematopoietic stem cell transplant in patients...
ASCO and Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, will recognize researchers, patient advocates, philanthropists, teachers, and global oncology leaders who have reshaped cancer care around the world with the Society’s highest honors at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. The 2024 Special Award Recipients...
In Kathy Giusti’s empowering and deeply personal book Fatal to Fearless: 12 Steps to Beating Cancer in a Broken Medical System (HarperCollins, 2024), she details the shock of being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, in 1996, at the age of 37. Told she had 3 years to live, the book recounts how Ms....
In 1996, at the age of 37, Kathy Giusti was diagnosed with the incurable blood cancer multiple myeloma and told she had about 3 years to live. In the mid-1990s, effective therapies for this second most common blood cancer were nearly nonexistent. Standard of care for myeloma consisted of oral...
W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, took the helm as the 17th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on December 18, 2023. A renowned kidney cancer expert and influential leader in cancer research and patient care, Dr. Rathmell was selected by...
With a 5-year overall survival of close to 90% in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), there have been large treatment shifts over the past decade in this disease, which now includes “more disciplines than it did before,” commented medical oncologist Danielle Shafer, DO, of Inova Schar Cancer...
Managing patients with lung cancer in the current era of an increasing array of systemic treatments has become a complex balancing act of trying to improve outcomes and survival from a cancer perspective while taking the necessary treatment and monitoring steps for cardioprotection. With few...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) announced that its members have elected Lillian L. Siu, MD, FRCPC, FASCO, FAACR, as the 2024–2025 President-Elect of the AACR. Professional and Research Background Dr. Siu currently serves as Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto; as ...
Philip A. Salem, MD, Director Emeritus of Cancer Research at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston, was born and reared in Bterram, a village that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. “I had the most beautiful and blessed childhood, as I lived in a household dominated by a father who believed in the...
Patricia LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), an internationally recognized expert in drug development and early-phase clinical investigation of novel cancer therapies, was recently appointed the Amy and Joseph Perella Professor of Medicine (medical oncology). The appointment is for a term of 10 years,...
Except for my right thigh being bigger than my left thigh, there was no hint that I was harboring advanced alveolar soft-part sarcoma when I was diagnosed with the cancer in 2019. I initially chocked up the discrepancy in my legs to the vigorous workouts I had received during my cheerleading days,...
This is Part 3 of Targeting Endocrine Resistance in HR-Positive/HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Kevin Kalinsky, Manali Bhave, and Ruth O’Regan discuss the treatment of...
This is Part 2 of Targeting Endocrine Resistance in HR-Positive/HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer, a three-part video roundtable series. Scroll down to watch the other videos from this Roundtable. In this video, Drs. Kevin Kalinsky, Manali Bhave, and Ruth O’Regan discuss the treatment of...
Invited discussant Laura Huppert, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, Comprehensive Cancer Center, focused her remarks on the need for biomarkers for selection of immunotherapy as part of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. “Hormone...
ASCO is deeply saddened by the death of oncology luminary, health equity champion, and ASCO Humanitarian Award honoree Edith P. Mitchell, MD, MACP, FCCP, FRCP (London), on January 21, 2024. At the time of her passing, Dr. Mitchell was Director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities,...
About 4 years ago, I [Jo Cavallo] wrote about the death of my brother Dom from multiple myeloma in 2011 and my subsequent enrollment in the PROMISE trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03689595). My goal for enrolling in the study was twofold: to honor Dom and others with the cancer and to make ...
Session co-moderator Carla Casulo, MD, offered her thoughts on the response-adapted use of ultra-low–dose radiotherapy in gastric MALT (mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue) lymphoma, as reported by the investigators from MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Casulo is Associate Professor of Medicine and...
In a press briefing at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Cynthia E. Dunbar, MD, ASH Secretary and Chief of the Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch, Intramural Research Program of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, offered her thoughts on...
Peter Voorhees, MD, a multiple myeloma specialist at Levine Cancer Institute and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, Durham, North Carolina, introduced the plenary presentation of the phase III IsKia trial by Gay et al and further commented on the study for The ASCO...
Patients with multiple myeloma treated in the “real world” had worse outcomes than patients who received the same treatment on clinical trials, according to research presented at the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 In a pooled analysis of clinical trial...
Research shows that about half of adults near the end of life in the United States are too ill to participate in decisions about whether to accept life-prolonging treatment,1 requiring family members and other proxies to serve as surrogate decision-makers for their critically ill loved ones....
Over the past 2 years, my family and I have experienced firsthand the challenges of cancer. In the spring of 2021, my mother was diagnosed with stage IIB pancreatic cancer. She died in mid-2023 after developing metastatic disease, including peritoneal carcinomatosis. The experience has caused me to ...