“President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget request includes $5 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), the proposed new biomedical research agency focused on high-risk, bold, translational research projects, which could help accelerate progress against diseases...
A retrospective analysis of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) by Pinsky et al, summarized in the April 25, 2022, issue of The ASCO Post, found high rates of incidental respiratory abnormalities on low-dose computed tomography (CT) examinations.1 Specifically, the findings of emphysema and...
ASCO recently presented Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO-1) and Fred Upton (R-MI-6) with the annual Congressional Champion for Cancer Care Award in recognition of their commitment to legislation that focuses on medical innovation. The award honors members of Congress who are leading champions...
New England Cancer Specialists has recently become an Affiliate Member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Affiliate Membership reflects a demonstrated commitment to excellence by meeting a wide array of standards and best practices in oncology care. Although New England Cancer Specialists is the...
As every patient diagnosed with cancer knows, the disease affects not just your physical well-being, but your emotional well-being, too. I was just 35 years old when I was diagnosed with early-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma this past summer, and the news came at a time when I was feeling in top...
The North Star of an organization is its mission statement. At ASCO, no initiative gets the green light unless it can fulfill the Society’s mission. ASCO updated its mission statement in 2020 specifically to reinforce our goal of reducing disparities, changing it to read: “Conquering cancer through ...
According to research in the literature, adults with cancer generate high rates of emergency department visits, leading to hospitalization roughly 60% of the time—nearly four times the rate of the general population. Although many of these visits could be prevented, this phenomenon offers numerable ...
Since the publication of the first draft of the human genome, genotyping and genomics have been integrated into standard clinical care for select cancers. But as precision medicine in oncology develops to comprise big data, proteomics, transcriptomics, molecular imaging, and more, there are...
“Progress in lung cancer happens by slow steps punctuated by quantum leaps. In the age of perioperative therapies, we are moving one step closer to curing more patients. Surgery is still the intervention most likely to cure patients with earlier-stage disease, but 50% of cases can recur,” said...
Lung cancer mortality rates have declined by more than 50% in men since 1990 and more than 30% in women since 2002. These declines in mortality are largely due to increases in smoking cessation. However, in recent years, clinical treatment advances, such as targeted therapies and immunotherapy,...
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) announced it has received a significant gift from Susan and Steve Kelly, local philanthropists and long-time supporters of CHOP, to establish the Susan S. and Stephen P. Kelly Center for Cancer Immunotherapy. The new Center, led by Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD,...
Esophageal cancer is associated with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, with more than 600,000 new cases and 540,000 deaths in 2020. The squamous cell histology comprises nearly 90% of cases globally, despite its steady decline in the United States over the past 40 years. Historically,...
Despite studies showing the benefits of early palliative care in improving the quality of life of patients with advanced cancer (including reducing symptoms of depression),1 a recent survey of oncologists found there is broad variation in the appropriate utilization of this care.2 Conducted by...
Although most oncology program directors and associate or assistant program directors consider themselves clinician-educators, they receive little to no formal medical education training to nurture trainees into clinician-educator careers and do not have a clinician-educator track for their...
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, ASCO, together with its partners the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health, began assembling resources to establish a network of oncology professionals to help Ukrainian patients with cancer find...
Several recent studies examining the global burden of cancer on adolescents and young adults (AYAs) show the growing magnitude of the disease’s impact on the lives of individuals between the ages of 15 and 39. Although considered a rare occurrence, cancer in this age group has risen by...
On March 21, 2022, pembrolizumab was approved for patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma that is microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR), as determined by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test, who have disease progression following prior...
On April 1, 2022, axicabtagene ciloleucel was approved for adults with large B-cell lymphoma that is refractory to first-line chemoimmunotherapy or relapses within 12 months of first-line chemoimmunotherapy.1 It is not indicated for the treatment of patients with primary central nervous system...
The toll of cancer on children, especially those living in low-resource countries, is staggering. Each year, an estimated 400,000 children and adolescents worldwide develop cancer,1 and despite improved survival rates, the global 5-year net childhood cancer survival rate is only 37.4%,2 making...
Invited discussant of the NeoCOAST trial, Edward B. Garon, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, praised the study: “NeoCOAST is an impressive study that showed numerical benefit when...
In this installment of Living a Full Life, Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH, a faculty member of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she is Chief of the Breast Cancer Program. Her current research focuses on the development of novel ...
A triplet regimen consisting of the PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) inhibitor olaparib, metronomic (the chronic administration of low, equally spaced doses of) cyclophosphamide, and metformin demonstrated activity in elderly, heavily pretreated patients with recurrent, advanced endometrial...
Radiation segmentectomy may be an effective treatment for very early– to early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that cannot be treated surgically or thermally. The findings from a multidisciplinary study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai were published by Kim et al...
Patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation therapy may be less likely to require opioids or a feeding tube if they received a higher dose of prophylactic gabapentin before their treatment, findings from a team of radiation oncologists showed. Their report, published by Ma et al in JAMA ...
A sizable proportion of patients with advanced melanoma will experience disease progression on anti–PD-1 therapy, and the optimal treatment of such patients represents an unmet need. Two studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 explored separate...
Researchers have found a way to identify lung cancer at the cellular level in real time during a biopsy, which may enable detection of the disease earlier and with more confidence. The findings, published by Kennedy et al in Nature Communications, demonstrated that an imaging agent detected via...
Two oncologists who are now heads of oncology development for pharmaceutical companies discussed the future of cancer drugs at the Community Oncology Alliance’s 2022 Community Oncology Conference. They were Johanna Bendell, MD, Global Head of Oncology, Pharma Research, and Early Development at...
Tumors send out signals that impair normal blood flow, which makes them hard to treat with multiple therapies, including radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy. Impaired blood supply creates an environment low in oxygen levels, which causes the tumors to take on aggressive...
In 1996, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published its first set of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® covering eight tumor types. Guidelines are now published for more than 60 tumor types, subtypes, and topics. During the NCCN’s 27th Annual Conference, which was again...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Debu Tripathy, MD, and colleagues, the phase III ATTAIN trial has shown no difference in overall survival with etirinotecan pegol vs physician’s choice of chemotherapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer and brain metastases. As noted by the investigators,...
New findings from researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published by Shukla et al in Nature Communications reported the results of using a comprehensive sequencing approach on 114 pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients with solid tumors. The researchers found that their...
A large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society showed that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with an increase in 2-year overall survival rates among patients newly diagnosed with cancer, especially among non-Hispanic Black people and people...
Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings that suggest the variation in frequency of EGFR and KRAS mutations in lung cancer may be associated with genetic ancestry in patients from Latin America. The results indicate it may be possible to identify...
Although community oncology practice may have been changing before the COVID-19 pandemic, it amplified industry trends. At the 2022 Community Oncology Alliance’s Community Oncology Conference, a panel of experts discussed issues related to the future of community cancer care, including...
The risk of invasive breast cancer in men may be associated with self-reported infertility, according to a study published by Swerdlow et al in the journal Breast Cancer Research. The authors interviewed 1,998 males in England and Wales diagnosed with breast cancer, with 112 (5.6%) also...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Singleton et al found that electronic health interventions were associated with improved quality of life, distress, self-efficacy, and fatigue vs usual care during or after treatment in patients with breast...
The first bladder cancer drug targeting a cancer-driving gene mutation has been used relatively little despite its clear efficacy in a clinical trial, suggests a report published as a research letter by Nimgaonkar et al in JAMA Oncology. Researchers analyzed a large, nationwide database of cancer...
The first-in-human, first-in-class trial of the next-generation PARP (poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase) 1–selective inhibitor AZD5305 suggests this drug may be a welcome advance over its U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved predecessors in the treatment of solid tumors with alterations in...
Delays in surgery for esophageal cancer did not appear to have much impact on patients’ relative survival for early-stage cancer compared with patients who had surgery early, but they did reduce the relative survival rate by almost half for patients with more advanced disease, according to an...
A study published by Jackson et al in Cancer Discovery investigated the reasons for decreased remission rates for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. "CAR T-cell therapy is a promising treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, especially for...
Although considered a rare occurrence in adolescents and young adults (AYAs), aged 15 to 39 years, the incidence of cancer in this age group has been increasing by approximately 30% since the 1970s. This year, it is estimated that nearly 90,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in this...
The use of a polygenic score incorporating variations in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values that are not due to cancer may allow for more precise PSA screening, according to findings of a large genome-wide association study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Timmerman et al found that chromosome 3p25.3 gain was present in all cisplatin-resistant germ cell tumor (GCT) lines in vitro; was more common in patients with relapsed or cisplatin-resistant male type II GCTs; and was associated with poorer...
In women aged 70 and older with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, low-risk breast cancers, sentinel lymph node biopsy may not be a reliable indicator of the need for adjuvant chemotherapy, researchers reported at the 2022 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting.1 “We found that...
New research published by Ramsey et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network has found that the inclusion of the smoking cessation tool Electronic Health Record–Enabled Evidence-Based Smoking Cessation Treatment (ELEVATE) into electronic health records may increase...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a novel strategy to reduce immune-related adverse events caused by immunotherapy by targeting the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). The study, published by Hailemichael et al in Cancer Cell, establishes a proof of concept ...
The advent of PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors has changed the treatment landscape of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but only approximately 20% of patients treated with immunotherapy will be alive at 5 years. According to Melissa L. Johnson, MD, Director, Lung Cancer Research,...
A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides guidance on the use of radiation therapy to treat patients with brain metastases. Evidence-based recommendations guide the multidisciplinary planning and delivery of advanced radiation therapy techniques to...
What is so dismaying to me is that the statistic on survival for Black women with breast cancer has not changed since I was diagnosed with breast cancer 17 years ago. In 2005, Black women were 41% more likely to die of the disease than White women, even though Black women are less likely to be...
Food insecurity, particularly as it affects cancer survivors, is a serious problem, according to a survey of oncology registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.1 “Despite these concerns, most oncology RDNs interviewed are not using...