The Menopause Rating Scale is a questionnaire evaluating the severity of 11 symptom categories related to menopause on a scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (extremely severe). These include such symptoms as hot flashes, heart discomfort, trouble sleeping, depressive feelings, irritability, sexual...
Subcutaneous implants containing testosterone in combination with a low dose of anastrozole can relieve menopausal symptoms in breast cancer survivors, according to research presented at the 2014 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “Menopausal symptoms can be quite severe in breast cancer survivors in...
In a chart review of 754 early-stage breast cancer patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery, margin status did not impact risk of locoregional recurrence or breast cancer-specific survival, though it did predict for overall survival, as did numerous other factors. Tumor biology remained the...
A study of 252 patients with ductal carcinoma in situ raises questions regarding the need to reexcise close margins.1 The findings were presented at a poster session during the 2014 Breast Cancer Symposium by Rachel Gentile, BS, of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The researchers evaluated data...
Harold Burstein, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, spoke to The ASCO Post about the multidisciplinary discussion of margin assessment during the 2014 Breast Cancer Symposium. Should Oncologists Be Concerned? “There is a real art to being a good...
The pathologic evaluation of lumpectomy margins is “fraught with problems and pitfalls,” said Stuart J. Schnitt, MD, Director of Anatomic Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, who was part of a multidisciplinary discussion of ...
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), received the Ellen V. Sigal Advocacy Leadership Award from the national advocacy organization Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) at its 18th Annual Cancer Leadership Awards Reception held...
In the neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer, the importance of achieving a pathologic complete response (pCR) varies substantially by breast cancer subtype. Patients are increasingly interested in this outcome, but it means different things to different patients, according to two breast cancer...
Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, FASCO, Assistant Professor of Oncology and Oncology Medical Information Officer at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, has been named Medical Director of the Institute for Quality (iQ) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr....
The bane of treating non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with druggable mutations has been the development of resistance to targeted agents. New compounds are meeting the challenge of treating resistant disease, according to Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, FACP, Professor and Chair of Hematology and...
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, recently announced that technetium 99m tilmanocept (Lymphoseek Injection) has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for use in sentinel lymph node detection in patients with cancer of the head and neck. The designation ...
Antibody-drug conjugates are being tested against several types of lymphomas and for some of these agents, “activity is quite impressive,” Andrew M. Evens, DO, MSc, reported at the recent Best of ASCO meeting in Chicago. Dr. Evens, Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, and...
This year’s Best of ASCO meeting held in Seattle featured topics that both riveted attendees and pushed their buttons, according to program chair Alan P. Venook, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco. “I am extremely pleased with the quality of the presentations from the faculty, but...
Survivors of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who never smoked or who are former smokers at the time of diagnosis have a lower risk of developing secondary primary lung cancers compared to those who are current smokers, suggesting that increased tobacco exposure is associated with a higher risk...
Determining an appropriate course of androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with prostate cancer is complex. For patients with high-risk features, 4 to 6 months of androgen-deprivation therapy helps, but 28 to 36 months is better in terms of disease control and overall survival. In the study by...
Optimal duration of androgen-deprivation therapy as part of primary therapy for prostate cancer continues to be an important question. Two well-conducted studies reported recently at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provide data that can help inform...
Tracy Balboni, MD, moderated the press conference where data from the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) 03.01 and National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) CTG ES.2 trial were discussed during ASTRO’s Annual Meeting.1 Dr. Balboni, a Radiation Oncologist at Harvard Medical School and...
Radiation therapy alone was found to be as effective as chemoradiation in reducing dysphagia associated with advanced esophageal cancer in the palliative setting and was less toxic, according to results of a multinational phase III trial called the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) 03.01 ...
This is a provocative study, showing unexpected differences in acute skin reactions with conventional fractionation vs hypofractionation. Some studies have failed to show differences in acute toxicities between these two types of radiation therapy,” said Kenneth B. Roberts, MD, Professor of...
Hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation was associated with much less acute toxicity during radiation therapy compared with conventionally fractionated whole-breast irradiation and also led to improved physical well-being and less physician-reported and patient-reported fatigue 6 months later,...
Adding consolidation radiation therapy to chemotherapy significantly improves 10-year survival in patients with stage I and II Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a large observational study based on the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Yet over that same 10-year period, radiation therapy use declined...
Benjamin Movsas, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, served as moderator at a press conference where the two SBRT studies by Timmerman et al and Ashworth et al were reported.1,2 Dr. Movsas said that SBRT is a promising approach, noting that the therapy facilitates...
The door is open for expanded use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with inoperable early-stage lung cancer and for patients with oligometastatic stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results of two studies presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the...
Although diverse stakeholders agree that health reform is needed, there is little consensus on the specifics of that reform. Best of ASCO Seattle attendees put a number of pointed questions to health economist Rena Conti, PhD, of the University of Chicago, asking about thorny issues such as cost...
Value-based health-care reform is happening. We have to get on board,” Rena Conti, PhD, a health economist at the University of Chicago, advised attendees of the Best of ASCO Seattle meeting. She discussed highlights from Annual Meeting sessions that addressed the impact of the Affordable Care Act...
I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asclepius, and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses as my witnesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this contract: To hold him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to be a partner in life...
On the face of it, the idea that a code of professional conduct dating to the ancient Iron Age could possibly retain any relevance in the current era of “Big Data,” religious and cultural pluralism, trillion-dollar government budgets, and nanotechnology seems preposterous. Yet the well-publicized...
Benjamin Movsas, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, served as moderator at a press conference where the two SBRT studies by Timmerman et al and Ashworth et al were reported.1,2 Dr. Movsas said that SBRT is a promising approach, noting that the therapy facilitates...
Thoracic radiotherapy extended progression-free survival, reduced intrathoracic recurrences, and improved overall survival at 2 years when added to prophylactic cranial irradiation in patients with extended-stage small cell lung cancer in an international randomized controlled trial.1 “Thoracic...
Final results from the phase I/II GAUGUIN study showed that obinutuzumab (Gazyva) monotherapy was active in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, European researchers reported in Blood. In phase II, median progression-free survival was 10.7 months and ...
Melphalan in combination with bortezomib (Velcade) should be maintained as one of the standards of care for the treatment of elderly patients with multiple myeloma, concluded Spanish trialists reporting updated results from the GEM2005 study comparing bortezomib/melphalan/prednisone with...
Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent among patients newly diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, and black patients had statistically significantly lower levels than white patients, according to a recent study reported by Katherine Van Loon, MD, MPH, of the UCSF Helen Diller Family...
Three-year risks for cervical cancer and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or worse (CIN3+) were lower following a negative test for human papillomavirus (HPV) than following a negative Pap test, according to a large study comparing three cervical cancer screening strategies, HPV or Pap...
Polymorphisms in FcγR (receptor for the constant region of immunoglobulin G) have been reported to be associated with improved immune-mediated effects of cetuximab (Erbitux) in metastatic colorectal cancer. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Sclafani and colleagues analyzed the...
In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Fujimura and colleagues developed and tested models to predict prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence and cancer-specific survival in patients with treatment-naive prostate cancer and bone metastases using mRNA expression of genes involved in...
In a study reported in Cancer Research, Ding and colleagues identified mechanisms by which cyclophosphamide induces suppressor cells that inhibit immune response and predispose to loss of tumor control. They found that cyclophosphamide treatment induces expansion of inflammatory monocytic myeloid...
There is limited evidence of mutation-specific T-cell response to epithelial cancers. In a study reported in Science, Tran and colleagues used whole-exome sequencing to show that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes included CD4-positive Th1 cells that recognized a mutation in erbb2 interacting protein...
Although available data indicate an association among pretransplantation conditioning intensity, intestinal barrier loss, and severity of graft-vs-host disease, the multiple effects of irradiation and other types of conditioning have made it difficult to precisely identify the role of intestinal...
As reported by Rebouissou and colleagues in Science Translational Medicine, a subset of muscle-invasive bladder cancers that present with a basal-like phenotype is associated with poorer survival, EGFR pathway activation, and sensitivity to EGFR inhibition. Assessment of data from 383 tumors...
With a $2 million, 5-year grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine will examine the molecular mechanisms that allow certain cancers, particularly multiple myeloma, to spread to the bone. The project could lead to new...
Regretfully, The ASCO Post has learned that Kelly Traw, 49, passed away on September 2, 2014, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. While her obituary did not mention a cause of death, it said that, “She will be greatly missed by her extended family and by the many friends who supported her...
For a year before I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in December 2011, I had what I thought were the lingering remnants of a bad case of bronchitis. My breathing was labored, I had a chronic cough, and occasionally my voice would give out. Every time I saw my pulmonologist, I would...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Zhu Chen, MD, PhD, with the 2014 AACR Award for Distinguished Public Service and Global Impact in Cancer Research in Biomedical Science at the AACR’s inaugural meeting in China, called New Horizons in Cancer Research: Harnessing...
BOOKMARK Title: Therapeutic Revolution: The History of Medical Oncology From Early Days to the Creation of the SubspecialtyAuthor: Pierre R. BandPublisher: Bentham SciencePublication date: 2014Price: $39.00 (eBook); $78.00 (print on demand); 213 pagesAvailable at: eurekaselect.com According to...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies of people with lung neoplasms, including stage I and II small cell and non–small cell lung cancers. The studies include phase Ib, II, III, observational, and interventional trials...
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) are partnering to launch and support a national registry for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatments. The partnership was announced recently at the ASTRO Annual Meeting. The SRS...
America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are currently developing nearly 800 new medicines and vaccines for cancer, according to a report released recently by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).1 Perseverance Needed “In recent decades, we have seen great progress ...
Gifts totaling $1 million in honor of the 40th anniversary of the cure for testicular cancer were recently announced at a celebration for the physician scientist who developed the treatment. Family, friends, colleagues, and men grateful for their lives gathered at the Indianapolis Museum of Art to...
Testicular cancer is one of oncology’s true success stories. It is a highly treatable disease, usually curable, that most often develops in young and middle-aged men. Despite the success in testicular cancer, there are still clinical challenges ranging from staging to optimum therapeutic...
Two landmark randomized studies demonstrated improved survival of patients with head and neck cancer receiving the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody cetuximab (Erbitux) concurrent with radiotherapy compared with radiotherapy alone,1 and similar improvement in patients with...