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Showing 2801 - 2850Cost of Cancer Drugs: What Price for What Benefit?
In 2011, national health-care spending in the United States was about $2.7 trillion, larger than the entire French national budget.1 U.S. national health-care spending is about 17% of the national gross domestic product. Total Medicare expenditures in 2011 were $549 million.2 In the debate about...
Patient Expectations of Benefit in Early-phase Trials: Ethics Issues in Informed Consent
It has been found that many patients in early-phase oncology trials believe their chance of benefit to be much higher than estimates derived from historical data.1-3 In a recently reported study in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kevin P. Weinfurt, PhD, of Duke Clinical Research Institute, and...
Turmeric
The use of dietary supplements by cancer patients has risen 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 the...
Research Roundup from San Antonio: New Data on Triple-negative, HER2-positive, Local, and Advanced Breast Cancer
The 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium featured more than 2,500 abstracts and lectures, including timely research in the field and discussions for scientists and clinicians alike. In addition to nearly two dozen in-depth reports from the meeting, The ASCO Post brings readers the following...
Expert Point of View: C. Kent Osborne, MD
C. Kent Osborne, MD, Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine and Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor told The ASCO Post that this is “brand new” data that “looks very interesting.” He noted that groups for whom letrozole is the ...
Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Carries a Small, but Concerning, Risk for Leukemia
The risk for developing a secondary malignancy after chemotherapy for breast cancer is very small, but it is statistically significantly higher than for the general population, a review of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) database revealed in a study presented at the 2012 San...
We Need Gemtuzumab Available Again to Treat AML
The word “revival” signifies a renewed use or acceptance after a period of inactivity; similarly, the word “resurrection” refers to the concept of an entity coming back to life after death. In the past year, these terms have been used frequently by us (and others) in articles calling for the return ...
More Brief Reports from ASH, Including New Data in Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myelodysplastic Syndrome
At the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held in Atlanta, nearly 5,000 abstracts were presented in oral sessions and posters. As part of our ongoing comprehensive coverage from the meeting, here are several more studies of note. New Targets in Acute Myeloid Leukemia...
Study Finds Young Cancer Survivors Often Skip Checkups
Athough the majority of the more than 69,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer each year will survive their disease, many of them will experience interruptions in their education and a derailment in their career tract, curtailing their lifetime earning potential and reducing ...
FOLFOXIRI Plus Bevacizumab Is Superior to FOLFIRI Plus Bevacizumab in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
For the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, better outcomes were achieved when bevacizumab (Avastin) was added to FOLFOXIRI (leucovorin, fluorouracil [5-FU], oxaliplatin, irinotecan), rather than FOLFIRI (leucovorin, 5-FU, irinotecan), in the phase III TRIBE trial conducted at 35 Italian...
Fitness: Can Exercise Lengthen Survival in Patients with Cancer?
Regular physical activity has long been associated with decreased risk of disease, including many types of cancer. Such benefits may translate into increased life expectancy of up to 4.5 years, with even the lowest levels of activity providing some survival advantage.1 Most strikingly, however,...
Jane Cooke Wright, MD, ASCO Cofounder, Dies at 93
The practice of oncology advances incrementally; each step forward, no matter how painfully small at times, leads to the next. The oncology community readily offers tribute to predecessors in the field who took those first steps into the uncharted regions of cancer care, without which today’s...
Analysis Shows No 10-year Survival Advantage in Patients with Ovarian Cancer and BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutations
Several studies have suggested that short-term overall survival for women with ovarian cancer and BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations is better than that in patients without such mutations. Indeed, a recent report by Kelly L. Bolton, PhD, and colleagues indicated that 5-year overall survival was 36% for...
High Infection Rates Found in Multiple Myeloma Patients, With High Mortality
A large Swedish study using population-based data to estimate the risk of bacterial and viral infections among 9,610 patients with multiple myeloma (9,253 eligible for analysis) found that the myeloma patients had a 7-fold risk of developing any infection compared to 34,931 matched controls from...
Inaugural Winners of $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Announced
Art Levinson, Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, and Yuri Milner recently announced the launch of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, recognizing excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life. The prize will be administered by...
FOXP3 Expression Linked to Better Survival with Adjuvant Anthracycline Not Followed by Taxane in Breast Cancer
The French UNICANCER-PACS 01 trial compared six cycles of anthracycline-based adjuvant therapy with FEC (epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, fluorouracil; FEC6) vs three cycles of FEC followed by three cycles of docetaxel (FEC/docetaxel) in patients with node-positive primary breast cancer. After...
Role of Sentinel Node Surgery Explored in Node-positive Breast Cancer
Sentinel lymph node surgery performed after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women presenting with node-positive disease could spare many patients with breast cancer needless axillary lymph node dissection, according to a study of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group presented at the 2012 San ...
Subsets of Young Patients Have Higher Pathologic Complete Response Rates
In achieving a pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, it seems that age matters, according to a study reported at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Patients with breast cancer aged 35 and younger were more likely to achieve a pathologic complete response than their...
Cytarabine in Conditioning Regimen for Younger Patients with MCL
High-dose cytarabine should be incorporated into the induction regimen of younger patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) before autologous stem cell transplantation, according to final results of the MCL Younger Trial of the European Mantle Cell Lymphoma Network, presented at the ASH Annual...
Colorectal Cancer: A Decade of Progress
The 2013 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium marked the 10th anniversary of the meeting. Richard M. Goldberg, MD, the Klotz Family Chair in Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine, and James Cancer Hospital Physician-in-Chief at The Ohio State University, looked back over the decade to highlight the...
Expert Point of View: Johanna C. Bendell, MD
The study’s formal discussant, Johanna C. Bendell, MD, Director of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research and at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, said COUGAR02 had “good and appropriate stratification factors” and “importantly, included quality-of-life studies.” This is critical, she said, ...
Expert Point of View: Neal J. Meropol, MD and Johanna C. Bendell, MD
Neal J. Meropol, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, commented that the quality of the data on ramucirumab is “very high,” and therefore, “we can believe these results.” The magnitude of the benefit,...
Flaxseed
Dietary supplement use 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 the...
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Introduces Centers of Excellence Program to Further Childhood Cancer Research
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a registered 501(c)(3) charity, is furthering its commitment to finding cures for all children with cancer by introducing the ALSF Centers of Excellence program. The Centers of Excellence program aims to fund the research of leading childhood cancer...
Effects of siRNA Combining TGF-β1 Silencing and RIG-I Activation in Pancreas Cancer
Dysregulation of TGF-β signaling promotes tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and a potent immunosuppressive network in pancreas cancer. A strategy for disrupting the tumor-promoting pathway is the silencing of TGF-β by use of small-interfering (si) RNA. Ellermeier and colleagues found that the...
Jonathan Friedberg, MD, Named Director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center
Jonathan Friedberg, MD, MMSc, has been appointed Director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. Dr. Friedberg joined the Medical Center in 2002 and was named Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine in 2009. ...
New ACCC Officers and Trustees
Results of the election of new officers and trustees (2013–2014) for the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) were announced recently at the ACCC Annual National Meeting. First Nonphysician ACCC President Elected Virginia Vaitones, MSW, became ACCC President at the 39th Annual National...
Pilot Study Seeks to Offer Social Support to Patients with Mesothelioma
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) reported that group therapy sessions may help patients cope with mesothelioma. Their two-part pilot study, which began recruitment in May 2011, is examining the emotional burden of the cancer and offers discussion groups as a source of...
AACR Briefs Congressional Staffers on Importance of Continued Funding for Research
As we all now know, the start of the sequestration prescribed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 was delayed until March 1, 2013, by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. With Congress unable to strike a deal, the mandatory reductions in Federal spending were triggered on March 1. Those...
SIDEBAR: Achievement Award
Jimmie C. Holland, MD, Wayne E. Chapman Chair in Psychiatric Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, received ACCC’s Annual Achievement Award for excellence in advocacy, dedication, and commitment to the care and treatment of patients with cancer. In her acceptance speech, Dr. Holland...
Highlights of ACCC Annual Meeting Include Discussion of Trends Shaping the Future of Health Care
The 39th Annual National Meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) was held in Washington, DC, in March. With a focus on business, economics, and policy, the program included the inauguration of a new ACCC President (see page 102), a keynote speech on the future of health care,...
C. Everett Koop, MD, Surgeon General Under Ronald Reagan, Dies at 96
Appointed by the President and called “America’s Doctor,” the Surgeon General’s chief task is to protect and advance the health of the nation. Most of our Surgeon Generals have tiptoed around hot-button public health issues that might bruise political sensibilities and their own careers. C....
American Association for Cancer Research Inaugurates the First Class of Fellows of the AACR Academy
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) inaugurated the first class of Fellows of the AACR Academy at the association’s annual meeting held this month in Washington, DC. The AACR Academy has been created to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose major scientific...
CT Colonography Reconsidered
The parallel SIGGAR trials recently published in Lancet add to the growing body of literature regarding the utility of computed tomographic (CT) colonography in the detection of colorectal polyps and cancers. These papers reinforce the results seen in other large multicenter trials1-3 and echo the...
New Data Reported on Melanoma, Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma, Basal Cell Carcinoma, and Cancer Treatment Side Effects
At the recent American Academy of Dermatology 71st Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, researchers presented interesting findings regarding melanoma and other skin cancers. The ASCO Post brings you the following news briefs on these topics. Melanoma Incidence Decreases among Adolescents and Children An...
Expert Point of View: Axel Grothey, MD and Paula R. Pohlmann, MD, PhD
Axel Grothey, MD, Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said that classifying colorectal cancer by intrinsic subtypes is “the right route forward,” especially if subtypes can be reliably linked to therapeutic response and survival. “We will not be treating all colorectal...
Three Molecular Subtypes of Colorectal Cancer Identified
Intrinsic molecular subtyping in breast cancer has become clinically applicable, and the same could be happening for gastrointestinal tumors, according to an international study reported at the 2013 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco.1 While recent efforts have yielded prognostic...
BRAF Mutations in Colorectal Cancer: The Next Frontier
Some 5% to 10% of patients with colorectal cancer harbor the BRAF mutation, placing them at risk for poor treatment response and worse outcomes. The ASCO Post interviewed S. Gail Eckhardt, MD, an expert in this area who is Professor and Head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of...
Society of Surgical Oncology Fellow Receives Colorectal Cancer Research Scholar Award
The Colon Cancer Challenge Foundation (CCCF) and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) named Karen Lo, MD, a surgical resident at the University of Colorado, as recipient of third annual Colorectal Cancer Research Scholar Award. The award was presented at the SSO Annual Cancer Symposium held...
Important Data and Treatment Advances Reported in GIST and in Pancreatic and Liver Cancers
The 10th annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, held recently in San Francisco, was jointly sponsored by ASCO, the AGA (American Gastroenterological Association), ASTRO (American Society for Radiation Oncology), and the SSO (Society of Surgical Oncology). “We seek to present the newest...
New Findings in Prostate and Kidney Cancers Clarify the Roles of Abiraterone, Finasteride, Bevacizumab, and Surveillance
Attendees at the 2013 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, Florida, were brought up to date with the latest news on cancers of the prostate, testes, bladder, and kidney. Below are selected highlights from the meeting describing findings of noteworthy abstracts to extend our regular news...
Homoharringtonine/Omacetaxine: The Little Drug that Could
First, a clarification: Homoharringtonine is a natural plant alkaloid derived from Cephalotaxus fortunei; from the 1970s until the present, it was the subject of intensive research efforts by Chinese investigators to clarify its role as an antileukemic agent.1-3 Omacetaxine mepesuccinate (Synribo)...
Sexual Health after Cancer: Communicating with Your Patients
Studies show virtually all cancer survivors will experience some form of sexual dysfunction following a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Yet few cancer survivors seek help for physical problems they may be experiencing, such as vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, chemically induced menopause, reduced...
Sentinel Node Biopsy in Melanoma: Essential or Optional?
Is sentinel node biopsy in melanoma an essential component of care? Despite a large multinational trial and recently published or updated guidelines, the question is still a thorny one according to experts who debated the issue at the recent meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology in...
Expect Questions about Experience and Outcomes
“Patients are becoming more sophisticated in their ability and willingness to interrogate the health-care system about their care,” according to Robert E. Bristow, MD, MBA, lead author of the study finding that many women with ovarian cancer are not receiving care consistent with National...
Symptom Management with Complementary Therapies for Patients Receiving Radiation Therapy
The supportive care of patients with cancer receiving radiotherapy is an important responsibility for the radiation oncologist, and complementary therapies are an integral component of many patients’ treatment strategy.A recent prospective study suggests that 54% of patients with breast cancer...
Society of Interventional Radiology 2013–2014 Officers and Executive Council Members Assume New Roles
Scott C. Goodwin, MD, FSIR, an interventional radiologist and Hasso Brothers Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, assumed office as the 2013–2014 President of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) during the Society’s 38th...
C-Reactive Protein Downregulates TRAIL, a Cytokine with Key Role in Cancer Immune Surveillance
C-reactive protein is a biomarker of acute and chronic inflammation that is frequently elevated in patients with cancer. In a study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Secchiero and colleagues found that increased levels of C-reactive protein were associated with downregulation of TRAIL, a...
Drug Approvals in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Can We Do Better?
Forty years ago, President Richard Nixon announced a “war on cancer.” Some of that war’s first battles were won in the field of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with two agents, cytarabine and daunorubicin, receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval based on their ability to produce...
Oral S-1 Noninferior to Gemcitabine in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer in Japan and Taiwan
As reported by Hideki Ueno, MD, PhD, of National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, and colleagues in Journal of Clinical Oncology, treatment with the oral fluoropyrimidine derivative S-1 was associated with noninferior overall survival and reduced hematologic toxicity compared with gemcitabine...
