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Showing 27551 - 27600Expert Point of View: Howard A. Fine, MD and Albert Lai, MD, PhD
Howard A. Fine, MD, Chief of Hematology/Oncology at New York University Langone Medical Center and Director of the NYU Brain Tumor Center, served as formal discussant of the RTOG 0825 study at the Plenary Session. He noted the strong rationale for studying bevacizumab in glioblastoma, which is a...
Studies Explore Role of Bevacizumab in Combination Therapies for Glioblastoma
At the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting, studies evaluating the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to standard therapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme patients did not meet their primary endpoints. When paired with irinotecan, however, bevacizumab showed activity in MGMT-unmethylated tumors....
Keith Amos, MD, Surgical Oncologist, Dies at 42
Keith Amos, MD, of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, died recently in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was on a Dr. Claude Organ, Jr., Travel Award from the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Amos is survived by his wife, Ahaji, and three young daughters....
Some Excess Cancer Risk in Men May Be Related to Greater Height
More than one-third of the excess risk for cancers among men may be due to factors associated with height, according to data from the Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study. As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, these factors include the “number of susceptible cells in a...
Lenalidomide Induces Long-lasting Responses in Elderly Patients
Treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid) as initial therapy induced long-lasting responses in a phase II study of 60 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). “Overall, 35 patients (58%) patients had responses lasting more than 36 months and were considered long-term responders,” the...
Two Studies Indicate Potential Predictors of Survival Benefit from Endocrine Therapy
Two studies published in Journal of Clinical Oncology indicate that treatment-related symptoms and mammographic density reduction may predict whether a woman with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer will benefit from adjuvant endocrine therapy. In one study, women who had specific adverse...
Pain Is More Prevalent and Severe in Men with Metastatic Disease and Use of Docetaxel
Men who have metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and have used docetaxel reported a higher prevalence and greater severity of pain than docetaxel-naive patients, according to results of an anonymous survey conducted at five comprehensive cancer centers in the Prostate Cancer Clinical...
Use of Advanced Technologies Has Increased in Men at Low Risk of Dying from Prostate Cancer
The use of advanced treatment technologies, such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy and robotic prostatectomy, has increased among men unlikely to die from prostate cancer, according to a retrospective analysis of data from almost 56,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2009....
Most Patients Receiving Radiotherapy for Incurable Lung Cancer Do Not Realize It Is Unlikely to Cure Them
Surveying a population-based and health system–based cohort of patients receiving radiation therapy for incurable lung cancer (defined as stage IV or stage IIIB with malignant effusion at diagnosis) revealed that “64% did not understand that [radiotherapy] was not at all likely to cure them.” These ...
Encourage Questions about Late Effects of Treatment
Melissa Hudson, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and lead author of a study finding that 98.2% of adult survivors of childhood cancer had a chronic health condition, told The ASCO Post that she hoped that survivors’ awareness of the need for ongoing health monitoring was...
More Than 98% of Childhood Cancer Survivors Have Chronic Health Conditions
More than 98% of adult survivors of childhood cancer in a large clinically evaluated cohort had a chronic health condition, including a substantial number of previously undiagnosed problems that are more likely to occur in an older population. “These findings underscore the importance of ongoing...
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Names 7-Year Survivor Chair of National Board of Directors
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network recently announced the appointment of Laurie MacCaskill to Chair of the National Board of Directors of the organization, effective July 1, 2013. Ms. MacCaskill is the first pancreatic cancer patient to hold this position. Since her diagnosis in 2006, Ms....
I Have No Fear
I found out that I had stage III pancreatic cancer on Valentine’s Day in 2011, but I think the disease may have been brewing for a long time. For 19 years, I had experienced intermittent pain in the right upper quadrant of my abdomen. I had gallbladder surgery to relieve a bile duct obstruction,...
‘Medicalizing’ Physician-assisted Suicide
It was with regret that I read the article and commentary on physician-assisted suicide in the June 10 issue of The ASCO Post (“Death with Dignity Program at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance,” by Matthew Stenger, and “One Cancer Center’s Approach to Death with Dignity,” by Frederick R. Appelbaum, MD)....
Clinical Trials for Patients in Africa
Thank you very much for The ASCO Post Evening News,* which ensures I don’t miss anything that happened at the ASCO 2013 meeting. Due to financial constraints I could not attend the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. My comment is that pharmaceutical companies should extend their oncology drug trials...
Conversations with Breast Cancer Patients
I am a retired oncologist, previously an attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, with a professional lifetime experience in caring for patients with all stages of breast cancer, and now I am a regular reader of The ASCO Post. In recent months there have been several articles...
Co-discoverer of DNA Double Helix, James Watson, PhD, Offers a New Theory on Cancer Progression
Despite his fame as co-discoverer—along with Francis Crick, PhD—of the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, that accomplishment is not what James Dewey Watson, PhD, came to talk about during a recent presentation he gave at the World Science Festival in New York. Instead,...
Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and St. Anthony Hospital Complete Affiliation for a Comprehensive Oncology Center
Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, with 20 centers throughout the state, and St. Anthony Hospital have completed an agreement to provide comprehensive inpatient and outpatient cancer services to patients on the St. Anthony Hospital campus in Lakewood, Colorado. Expanded radiation therapy...
Oncology Meetings
July 14th International Lung Cancer CongressJuly 25-27 • Huntington Beach, CaliforniaFor more information: www.gotoper.com/conferences Up Close and Personalized: The 2nd International Congress on Personalized MedicineJuly 25-28 • Paris, FranceFor more information: www.upcp.org Multidisciplinary...
Diagnosing and Treating Acute Graft-vs-Host Disease
Dermatologic Events in Oncology is guest edited by Mario E. Lacouture, MD, an Associate Member in the Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. He is a board-certified dermatologist with a special interest in dermatologic conditions that...
University of Michigan Cancer Center Names New Medical Director
The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has named Alon Weizer, MD, MS, as Medical Director. In this new role Dr. Weizer will be responsible for managing the day-to-day clinical outpatient operations at the Cancer Center. Dr. Weizer is Associate Professor of Urology at the University...
Management of Anaplastic Oligodendroglial Tumors
Pearls in Neuro-oncology is guest edited by Tracy Batchelor, MD, Director, Division of Neuro-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston. The series is intended to provide the practicing oncologist with guidance in managing...
FDA Approves Afatinib for Late-stage Lung Cancer
On July 12, 2013, the FDA approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations...
New Guidelines Issued in the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma-Related Bone Disease
The International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) has developed clinical practice recommendations for the management of multiple myeloma-related bone disease based on published study data through August 2012. Consensus of the interdisciplinary panel of clinical experts on the plasma-cell cancer was...
Barriers to Successful Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a combined research program of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. At the forefront of research to increase access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and improve outcomes, the ...
Denosumab in Adults and Skeletally Mature Adolescents with Giant Cell Tumor of Bone
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 On June 13, 2013, denosumab (Xgeva) was approved for the ...
ACCC Institutes Network to Provide Assistance in Treating Uncommon Cancers
Among the more than 200 types of cancer are those called “forgotten” or “orphan” cancers, with fewer than 40,000 new cases each year. They present treatment challenges in community cancer centers. Because of the low incidence of these diseases, such as chronic myeloid leukemia, acute promyelocytic...
FDA Announces Decisions on New Tobacco Products
For the first time since the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, the agency has authorized the marketing of two new tobacco products and denied the marketing of four others through the substantial equivalence pathway....
FDA Grants Priority Review to Obinutuzumab in CLL and Pertuzumab in Neoadjuvant Therapy for HER2-positive Early-stage Breast Cancer
Two drugs were recently given Priority Review designation by FDA. Obinutuzumab (GA101) was granted Priority Review for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, based on final stage 1 data from the pivotal CLL11 trial. The FDA confirmed the action date is December 20, 2013. FDA also granted...
Just Say 'Know'
In 1989, Denardo and associates reported the results of intensive care unit (ICU) therapy in a series of patients who developed acute respiratory failure and required mechanical ventilation after bone marrow transplantation. Of those on mechanical ventilatory support longer than 4 days, not one...
Critically Ill Hematology Patients Admitted to ICU Have Good Survival, Disease Control, and Quality of Life
A large prospective multicenter cohort study in France and Belgium, reported by Elie Azoulay, MD, of Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris, and colleagues from the Groupe de Recherche Respiratoire en Réanimation Onco-Hématologique,1 has shown that critically ill patients with hematologic malignancies...
Nearly Half of Sarcoma Surgeries Performed by Non-oncology Surgeons
Nearly half the surgical procedures for sarcoma done at 85 academic medical centers were performed by surgeons untrained in oncology, according to national data analyzed by researchers from the University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento. Orthopedic oncologists and surgical...
Looking for Drivers in the Rearview Mirror
The latest clinical trial looking at combining vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibition in metastatic colorectal cancer adds little to our overall understanding of the mechanisms for optimizing selection of patients to receive such therapies....
Addition of Brivanib to Cetuximab in Chemotherapy-refractory Metastatic Wild-type KRAS Colorectal Cancer: Key Results
The addition of a combination of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors to chemotherapy has not improved outcome in first-line treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. However, in early-phase evaluation, the addition of the investigational...
New Research Presented in Breast, Gastric, Esophageal Cancers, Melanoma, and Multiple Myeloma, plus Supportive Care
Attendees at the ASCO Annual Meeting are faced with a major challenge of trying to attend as many important sessions as they can over a 4-day period. Our challenge is to feature the major news in The ASCO Post. In addition to our regular comprehensive coverage of key presentations, the following...
SIDEBAR: Societies Call for Protection of Patient Access to Clinical Trials
American Academy of NeurologyAmerican Association for Cancer ResearchAmerican Cancer Society Cancer Action NetworkAmerican Childhood Cancer FoundationAmerican Diabetes AssociationAmerican Epilepsy SocietyAmerican Heart Association/American Stroke AssociationAmerican Lung AssociationAmerican Society ...
ASCO Urges Administration to Provide Clear Affordable Care Act Guidance on Protecting Patient Access to Clinical Trials
ASCO has joined more than 50 other organizations in urging the Administration to issue regulations or guidance before January 2014 to ensure health plans implement an important provision of the Affordable Care Act that would remove a critical obstacle to patients interested in participating in...
ASCO Targets Health Disparities, Need for Research in Achieving Health Equity
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), and the Heart Failure Society of America (HSFA) recently held a Capitol Hill Briefing to draw attention to health disparities among minority and underserved patients and opportunities to achieve health...
Young Investigator Awards and Career Development Awards Build a Pipeline of Cancer Researchers
Behind the scenes, researchers are working to unlock the secrets of cancer in its many forms—researchers who are well acquainted with the human cost of this disease and who see the vast scientific and clinical opportunities for conquering it. Some are well established in their careers and have been ...
Cancer.Net Mobile App: Now in Spanish
Cancer.Net’s award-winning app for patients is now available in Spanish. If your patients are using a Spanish-language enabled iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, they can use the app to access Cancer.Net’s Spanish content, as well as use interactive tools in Spanish to help track side effects and manage...
ASCO Completes Electronic Data Sharing Standard for Breast Cancer Treatment
ASCO has completed the first phase in developing several sets of interoperability standards for cancer care data and overcoming the widespread inconsistencies that currently limit secure sharing of information between providers, patients, and researchers. The first standard, the Breast Cancer...
Lenalidomide in Relapsed/Progressed Mantle Cell Lymphoma after Two Prior Therapies Including Bortezomib
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 On June 5, 2013, lenalidomide (Revlimid) was approved...
ASCO Releases Updated Guideline on Interventions for Women at Increased Risk for Breast Cancer
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently issued a newly updated clinical practice guideline on pharmacologic prevention interventions for premenopausal and postmenopausal women who are at increased risk for breast cancer. Compared to the previous version of the guideline, this...
Examining the Role Genetics Plays in Breast Cancer Onset
Internationally known for her research in the molecular genetics of cancer, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, MD, FACP, first became interested in oncology during medical school in Nigeria, where she cared for patients with Burkitt’s lymphoma. After moving to Chicago in 1983 to continue her medical...
Expert Point of View: Clifford A. Hudis, MD
These patients are mainly young men,” stated Clifford A. Hudis, MD, ASCO President, commenting on a cohort study of surveillance for stage I seminoma at a press conference held before the Annual Meeting. “For these selected patients, neither chemotherapy nor radiation therapy is necessary, sparing...
Surveillance Sufficient Follow-up for Most Patients with Stage I Seminoma
Surveillance appears to be sufficient for men with stage I seminoma treated with orchiectomy, sparing patients from side effects of adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy. In a long-term study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting,1 99.5% of men followed by surveillance alone were disease-free and alive ...
Genomic Heterogeneity Can Lead to the Selection of 'Incorrect' Targeted Inhibitors
Genomic heterogeneity within tumors and among lesions varies widely, and “discordance among lesions could lead to the selection of the ‘incorrect’ targeted inhibitor,” according to David B. Solit, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who spoke at the ASCO/American Association for Cancer...
New Research on Combination Chemotherapy, Prognostic Biomarkers, and PET-guided Radiation Therapy in B-cell Malignancies
The 12th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma was held June 19-22, 2013, in Lugano, Switzerland. Over 3,000 hematologists, clinical oncologists, pathologists, and leading researchers attended the meeting, which featured new research on B-cell malignancies, follicular lymphoma, as well as...
Roche Files for Cervical Cancer Primary Screening Indication for cobas HPV Test
Roche recently announced it has submitted a Premarket Approval (PMA) supplement to the FDA seeking the addition of a cervical cancer primary screening indication for the cobas HPV Test. Approval of the expanded indication would mean the cobas HPV Test could be used as the first-line test rather...
New Drug Application Submitted for Ibrutinib in the Treatment of Two B-cell Malignancies
Pharmacyclics, Inc, recently announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the investigational oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib, for two relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancy indications: mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)...
