Despite its acceptance as standard of care for early-stage breast cancer almost 25 years ago, barriers still exist that preclude patients from receiving breast-conserving therapy, with some patients still opting for a mastectomy, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer ...
Inhibitors of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) look promising for the treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and have the advantage of not needing a specific mutation to target, said Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, Professor and Chief of Medical Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of...
For the treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), combinations of targeted agents are of great research interest but have not yet been shown to improve outcomes. Single-agent treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, therefore, remains the standard of care for patients with...
On September 11, 2001, the devastating terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center left in its wake a unique toxic site in both mass and quantity of hazardous materials. It took 9 months to remove approximately 2 million tons of wreckage from Ground Zero, during which thousands of...
Oncologists love jargon—a language peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group that facilitates communication among members. Our day-to-day communications, medical notes, and journal reports are filled with this type of jargon. Other definitions of jargon are less flattering, including...
Don’t expect metastatic lung cancer to be cured any time soon, says Paul A. Bunn, Jr, MD, Professor and James Dudley Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver. “You have to be disease-free for some length of time in order to be cured, which is our goal,” he...
1. Chemotherapy Cures Advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma In the first chemotherapy breakthrough for advanced cancer in adults, a four-drug combination chemotherapy regimen, called MOPP (mustargen/oncovin/procarbazine/prednisone), induced long-term remissions in over half of patients with aggressive Hodgkin ...
ASCO has announced the “Top 5 Advances in 50 Years of Modern Oncology,” based on results of worldwide voting on CancerProgress.Net—ASCO’s interactive website documenting the history of progress against cancer. The “Top 5 in 50” results identify pivotal discoveries in chemotherapy, prevention,...
Last month, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released its 2014 Cancer Progress Report: Transforming Lives Through Research, which highlights the quickening pace of drug development and approval, especially in molecularly targeted agents, that are leading to increased numbers of...
Although positron-emission tomography (PET) combined with 18F–fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is recommended for the noninvasive diagnosis of pulmonary nodules suspicious for lung cancer, in populations with endemic infectious lung disease, FDG-PET may not accurately identify malignant lesions. An...
Recent concerns about potential overdiagnosis and overtreatment of ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast (DCIS) led researchers in the Netherlands to study late effects of treatment, such as cardiovascular disease, morbidity, and mortality in a large population-based cohort of DCIS patients....
In the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 70103 study, comorbidity was associated with shorter overall survival among older women with early-stage breast cancer and good functional status receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. “The presence of four or more conditions appeared to be a threshold for...
The survival benefit demonstrated in the VELOUR study for FOLFIRI (irinotecan, fluorouracil [5-FU], leucovorin) plus ziv-aflibercept (Zaltrap) vs FOLFIRI plus placebo in metastatic colorectal cancer patients who progressed on oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy persisted beyond median survival times for ...
Analyses of data from 27,404 people aged 65 and older participating in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 2000 through 2010 suggest that overscreening for prostate, breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening “is common in both men and women, which not only increases health care ...
In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Patani and colleagues investigated whether distinct transcriptional responses were associated with the reported increased effectiveness of the estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist fulvestrant (Faslodex) over the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole in...
Resistance to temozolomide in glioblastoma has been thought to be largely mediated by expression of the DNA repair enzyme MGMT, although there are data suggesting a role for inactivation of MSH6 and other mismatch repair proteins. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Nguyen and...
The finding of extracranial metastases after organ transplantation from glioblastoma multiforme donors raised issues with the notion that disease spread is restricted to the brain. In a study reported in Science Translational Medicine, Müller and colleagues found that hematogenous spread of...
Studies in vitro have suggested that sub-millisecond pulses of radiation produce less genomic instability than continuous prolonged irradiation at the same total dose. In a study reported in Science Translational Medicine, Favaudon and colleagues assessed the effects of ultrahigh dose-rate...
CD44 is a gastric cancer stem cell marker, and the hedgehog signaling pathway can be dysregulated by cancer stem cells during tumorigenesis. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Yoon and colleagues found that high CD44 expression was associated with chemotherapy resistance and poorer...
In an analysis of molecular and clinical features associated with survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma reported in Nature Genetics, Gross and colleagues found that the TP53 mutation is frequently accompanied by loss of chromosome 3p; the combination of these alterations was associated...
Inhibition of the PD-1/PD-ligand1 (PD-L1) axis has shown considerable therapeutic promise in several cancers. Tumor PD-L1 protein expression may predict response to drugs targeting this pathway, but its measurement has been limited by the lack of standardized immunohistochemical methods and...
Patients with cancer and survivors of cancer are living longer than ever before as a result of significant advances made over the past decade. Importantly, however, cardiovascular complications of their cancer treatment may present a life-threatening issue after their cancer treatment has ended....
Newly launched in 2014 by LIVESTRONG, “The Big C” is a one-of-a-kind global competition to generate innovations that improve the daily quality of life for the 32.5 million people around the world living with cancer now. The competition was open to entrepreneurs, trailblazers, technology whizzes,...
The study finding1 that men with moderate pattern baldness on the front and the crown of the head at age 45 had a 40% increased risk, compared to men with no baldness at that age, of developing prostate cancer later in life has received coverage by diverse media, from USA Today2 to TIME3 to the...
Men with moderate pattern baldness on the front and the crown of the head at age 45 had a 40% increased risk, compared to men with no baldness at that age, of developing prostate cancer later in life, according to a study led by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and published in...
Because nine human papillomavirus (HPV) subtypes were found to cause the majority of cervical precancers, a nine-valent HPV vaccine currently being investigated may be able to prevent more cervical cancers than current vaccines, according to research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers...
ASCO Answers: Managing the Cost of Cancer Care explains the various costs associated with cancer treatment, including health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. It also provides a list of financial resources available to help offset expenses related to care and tips for organizing...
Despite a diagnosis in August 2013 of stage III high-grade spindle cell sarcoma and subsequent disease recurrence, I’m mindful of how fortunate I am that my cancer was found before widespread metastases could take hold, making treatment futile. It was just happenstance, 2 months before, on a long...
The following essay by Michael Feinstein, MD, is excerpted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was co-edited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org....
Several faculty members at Roswell Park Cancer Institute have been awarded nearly $5 million in grant funding from public and private organizations to further their efforts to find new and better ways to detect and treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. The 13 awards, including two for ...
We have toolsWe have ghoulsBut nowhere are there more foolsThan in the rulesfrom those who govern the tools! In the bias That climbs on the shoulders To bring plausibility Through implied causality,Where is ignorance?Where is reality?Where are all the tools of Reason? ...
Bookmark Title: Integrative Oncology (Second Edition)Editors: Donald I. Abrams, MD, and Andrew T. Weil, MDPublisher: Oxford University PressPublication date: September 3, 2014Price: $65.00; Paperback, 848 pages In 1990, David Eisenberg, MD, from the Harvard School of Public Health, conducted a...
The use of dietary supplements by patients with cancer has increased 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...
Ketan K. Badani, MD, Professor of Urology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, has been named Vice Chairman of Urology and Robotic Operations and Director of the Comprehensive Kidney Cancer Program for the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Badani will also serve as Director of Robotic ...
Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute have been awarded three of four grants by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Oncology Research Program to evaluate and define the clinical effectiveness of the investigational compound nintedanib. Nintedanib is an investigational...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for people with breast cancer. The studies include phase I and II, interventional, and observational trials evaluating new therapies; diagnostic tools; genetic counseling; the association ...
A leader in the field of epigenetics whose work has led to important discoveries into how cancer develops and progresses has been named the co-leader of the Lung Cancer Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter. James Herman, MD, comes to...
Primary androgen-deprivation therapy has been widely used in localized prostate cancer, despite the absence of definitive evidence of benefit in early-stage disease. In a large population-based cohort study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, Grace L. Lu-Yao, MPH, PhD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute...
Parents of twins often tell them apart through subtle differences such as facial expression, moles, voice tone, and gait. Similarly, physicians treating women with endometrial cancer must be able to distinguish between different versions of this disease form that, on the surface, appear the same....
Devices to accurately deliver high-dose radium therapy became extremely sophisticated during the late 1920s. In this photograph, the patient is being treated for a carcinoma of the back by a Sluys-Kessler machine. This apparatus could also accurately deliver therapy for a wide variety of internal...
One of the miracles produced by the x-ray was the relatively easy treatment of inoperable or disfiguring tumors. If not a cure, the results frequently gave the patients at least some time to look and feel normal. The young patient shown in these photographs had a remarkable response. Images such as ...
Antiseptic principles delivered the promise of safe surgery, while asepsis allowed safe major dissections and invasion of body cavities. The physicians who were using these techniques recognized the amazing difference in their surgical results and corresponding mortality rates and proselytized to...
In June 1851, Philip J. Bruckner, MD, hired a daguerreotypist to photograph this 275-pound, 33-year-old woman, who had borne five children while developing this massive tumor. Dr. Bruckner learned of this patient when Charles Breech, MD, of Wellington, Ohio, presented her case at a medical meeting. ...
In his powerful 2010 best-seller, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Scribner), Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, chronicles the evolution of cancer from the oldest known description of the disease written on a papyrus from about 1600 BC to the present day’s understanding of the biology of ...
Researchers in Germany report that nearly a third of more than 2,100 patients with cancer interviewed at inpatient and outpatient care centers experienced a clinically meaningful level of mental or emotional distress that meets the strict diagnostic criteria for mental disorders including anxiety...
Often, the children of patients with cancer are the invisible sufferers of the disease and its aftermath. These online resources can help patients talk with their children about a cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, and their potential impact on the children. American Cancer Society:...
Although the focus of an oncologist’s attention is understandably attuned to the needs of the patient, when a patient is a parent, quality oncology care should also include attention to the patient’s role as a parent and to the needs of the patient’s children, according to Paula K. Rauch, MD,...
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) reported a second list of five radiation oncology treatments that should not be used routinely in clinical practice on day 1 of the Society’s 56th Annual Meeting.1 These five treatments should be discussed in depth with patients prior to being...
ASCO has called for increased education, research, and advocacy to reduce the toll of obesity, both as a leading cause of cancer and a complication in the care of patients with cancer. The Society’s recommendations outline four critical priorities, including increased education and awareness about...
Eleven days before Patricia J. Goldsmith, joined CancerCare as its CEO last May, she received the unexpected news that she had early-stage colorectal cancer. While the diagnosis was shocking, Ms. Goldsmith said it gave her a unique perspective on what it means to have this serious disease and a...