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Showing 28151 - 28200Expert Point of View: Kjell Oberg, MD, PhD
Kjell Oberg, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Medical Sciences at the University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, discussed the CLARINET paper at the Presidential Session during the European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam. Dr. Oberg noted the curious observation that median progression-free...
Extended-Release Lanreotide Significantly Delays Disease Progression in Patients With Neuroendocrine Tumors in Large Phase III CLARINET Trial
A strong antiproliferative response was shown for the somatostatin analog lanreotide (subcutaneous, extended-release formulation, Somatuline Autogel [Somatuline Depot in the United States]) in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, in the large multinational prospective phase...
Expert Point of View: Sibylle Loibl, MD
Sibylle Loibl, MD, of the German Breast Group and the Klinikum Offenbach in Germany, discussed the NeoALTTO findings at the European Cancer Congress, noting that this trial is one of several studies that all point to one conclusion: Pathologic complete response rates are lower in HER2-positive...
PIK3CA-Mutant Tumors Not Likely to Respond to Neoadjuvant HER2 Blockade
In early breast cancer patients receiving anti-HER2 therapy in the NeoALTTO trial, mutations in PIK3CA were associated with lower rates of pathologic complete response, according to a study reported at the 2013 European Cancer Congress by José Baselga, MD, Physician-in-Chief at Memorial...
Erratum
In the November 15 issue of The ASCO Post, the article, “Strong Showing for Ado-Trastuzumab Emtansine in Advanced HER2-Positive Heavily Pretreated Breast Cancer,” contained the following errors in the reported outcomes data for the TH3RESA trial: The article incorrectly stated the median survival...
Global Oncology 2013: Disparities in Cancer Care
While much progress has been made against cancer over the last century, a new report1 presented at the 2013 European Cancer Congress brings together evidence that not every patient benefits from it, nor even has the opportunity to benefit. The economics of cancer are daunting and the current model...
Expert Point of View: Elzbieta Senkus-Konefka, MD, PhD
Elzbieta Senkus-Konefka, MD, PhD, of the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland, the formal discussant of the paper at the European Cancer Congress, took exception with the authors’ conclusion that radiotherapy may not be effective in all subtypes. “I don’t agree that luminal B and HER2-enriched...
Radiotherapy Benefit in Young Women With Node-Positive Breast Cancer May Vary by Intrinsic Subtypes
Radiation therapy appears to significantly decrease local recurrence in premenopausal women with node-positive and luminal A tumors, based on an analysis of two small but independent randomized series reported at the 2013 European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam.1 “Though not definitive, our study...
Transplant Now or Later for High-Risk Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
The use of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic blood or marrow transplantation for high-risk aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been extensively evaluated over the past few decades. This treatment was originally used only for patients with relapsed aggressive lymphoma. However, as...
S9704 Trial: Autologous Transplantation as Consolidation in Aggressive Lymphoma
Autologous bone marrow or stem cell transplantation has had an important role in the treatment of aggressive lymphoma for several decades. The important results of the PARMA study1 demonstrated that patients in first relapse who remained chemosensitive had improved progression-free and overall...
Autologous Transplantation as Consolidation Improves Progression-Free Survival in Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
The strategy of autologous stem-cell transplantation as consolidation in high-intermediate– or high-risk diffuse aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has not been specifically examined in the rituximab (Rituxan) era. In the phase III Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG)-led intergroup 9704 trial...
Consent Is Informed and Shared, But Is It Compassionate?
A 72-year-old, obese male patient and a poor operative candidate is diagnosed with esophageal carcinoma. He has multiple comorbidities and a past history of colon carcinoma. His staging workup, which included a colonoscopy, revealed recurrent colon carcinoma. Thus, we have a patient who we...
SIDEBAR: Shared Decisions: What Should We Expect?
There is growing interest by patients, policymakers, and clinicians in shared decision-making as a means to include patients in health decisions and translate patient evidence into clinical practice. Conceptually, sharing of information seems like a natural interplay between doctors and their...
Sharing Treatment Decision-Making With Patients: Where’s the Evidence of Value?
Though certainly not new to oncologists, “shared decision-making” between doctors and patients is receiving increased attention in the medical community today. While it’s an idea with merit, Steven J. Katz, MD, MPH, a specialist in quality care issues, maintains that expectations about the...
Expert Point of View: Howard Hochster, MD
Addressing a presentation by Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, at the 2013 Chemotherapy Foundation, Howard Hochster, MD, Yale University Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, said he agrees with Dr. Kopetz about the need for expanded RAS testing. “Now we have two studies suggesting that tumors with all the...
Call for Expanded Genetic Profiling in Colorectal Cancer
Testing for codons 12 and 13 on the KRAS gene and BRAF testing can predict whether patients with colorectal cancer will respond to anti–epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapies. However, genetic alterations not captured by testing for KRAS codon 12 and 13 mutations may play an important...
Praise for The ASCO Post
There is so much “stuff” to read and remember—just to get through a day or a week—that it can be difficult to find time to surf the Web and search information sites, even if you select only a few to review routinely. For those of us who focus on one oncology specialty, The ASCO Post is an...
Role of Autologous Stem Cell Transplant in High-Risk NHL
As described in the December 15 issue of The ASCO Post, Stiff and colleagues treated patients with high-intermediate– or high-risk diffuse, aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma with five cycles of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) or CHOP plus rituximab (Rituxan)....
Janet L. Rowley, MD, Matriarch of Modern Cancer Genetics, Dies at Age 88
Dr. Janet L. Rowley’s groundbreaking research in the translocation of genetic material bucked scientific convention and heralded a new understanding that cancer is indeed a genetic disease. Her research was largely responsible for the discoveries that led to the development of the targeted cancer...
African Americans Report Receiving Few Positive Recommendations by Physicians About Joining Clinical Trial
A study among African American patients with cancer who had declined to participate in a therapeutic clinical trial found that few patients reported receiving a positive recommendation from their physician to participate in the trial. “Patients gave multiple refusal reasons,” researchers led by...
Increased Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure May Protect Against HL, Particularly in Those With EBV-Positive Disease
Increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation may offer protection against Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), particularly against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive HL, according to a pooled analysis of studies involving 1,320 HL patients and 6.381 controls. “Our pooled analysis of 7,701 participants from 4...
Effects of Oral Contraceptives on Breast/Ovarian Cancer Risks Are Similar Regardless of BRCA Mutation Status
The effects of oral contraceptives on breast and ovarian risks are similar for women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and for women in the general population, according to analyses of observational studies. Oral contraceptive use “is inversely associated with ovarian cancer risk, whereas a modest but...
No Significant Improvement With Decongestive Therapy vs More Conservative Approach to Treating Arm Lymphedema
Daily manual lymphatic drainage and bandaging followed by compression garments did not result in significant improvement in lymphedema compared to a more conservative approach with compression garments only, according to a study evaluating 95 women previously treated for breast cancer with...
January Is National Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trials Awareness Month
January marks the annual observance of National Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trials Awareness Month. The 5-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is just 6%. In the effort to highlight the urgent need to improve the survival rate for this disease, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is educating...
SIDEBAR: Expect Questions From Your Patients About Hyperthermia
Most but not all cancer treatment with hyperthermia is still being done in clinical trials. The exception is using hyperthermia for superficial cancers, most commonly chest wall recurrences in the breast. Using hyperthermia for superficial cancer “is approved and reimbursable by Medicare,” Mark W....
Using Hyperthermia for Cancer Treatment: Proofs, Promises, and Uncertainties
With the headline, “Rare Cancer Treatments, Cleared by F.D.A. but Not Subject to Scrutiny,” a recent article in The New York Times reported that several medical centers were treating patients with cancer using a hyperthermia system that had received a Humanitarian Use Device approval from the U.S....
Cell Mechanism Discovery Key to Stopping Breast Cancer Metastasis
Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah discovered a cellular mechanism that drives breast cancer metastasis, as well as a therapy which blocks that mechanism. The research results were recently published online in the journal Cell Reports.1 “Genetic mutations do not...
Pamela M. McInnes Named Deputy Director of National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Pamela M. McInnes, DDS, has been named deputy director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health. McInnes currently serves as director of the Division of Extramural Research at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial...
Bernard J. Tyson Assumes Role of Chairman of Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente has announced that Bernard J. Tyson officially assumed the role of Chairman of the Boards of Directors of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. Mr. Tyson was originally named by the boards in November 2012 to be the organization’s next chairman and...
Scientist/Entrepreneur Selected to Lead Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute
Michael A. Foley, PhD, has been selected to lead the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, Inc. (Tri-I TDI), a collaboration of Weill Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center that is designed to expedite early-stage drug discovery ...
Oncology Meetings
January 2014 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers SymposiumJanuary 16-18 • San Francisco, CaliforniaFor more information: www.gicasym.org 10th Annual Clinical Breakthroughs and Challenges in Hematologic MalignanciesJanuary 18 • Orlando, FloridaFor more information:...
Ludwig Cancer Research Contributes One-Half Billion in New Funding to Six U.S. Research Institutions
On behalf of its founder, Daniel K. Ludwig, Ludwig Cancer Research has awarded $540 million across six Ludwig Centers, including those at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University, and the...
With the Goal of Curing Cancer, Ezra M. Greenspan, MD, Helped Usher in the Modern Era of Chemotherapy
Two events in Ezra M. Greenspan’s early adult life convinced him to pursue a career in medicine: the death of a college friend from pneumonia when the two were students at Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences and his own bout with the disease soon after. Saved by a local physician who...
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center Names Gary Schwartz, MD, New Chief of Hematology/Oncology
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center has named Gary Schwartz, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine and Associate Director for Research of its Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Schwartz assumed his new role on January 1,...
Making Progress in Survivorship Care Planning
The recommendation that a survivorship care plan be provided to patients and their primary care providers was first presented in the 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition. The IOM committee proposed that this document include two parts—a ...
Improvements Needed in Use of Survivorship Care Plans
Survivorship care plans, consisting of treatment summaries and follow-up plans, are intended to promote coordination of post-treatment cancer care, but little is known about how survivorship care plans are being used in routine oncology practice. In a study reported in the Journal of the National...
Science Magazine Names Cancer Immunotherapy as Scientific Breakthrough of the Year
While acknowledging that the full potential of cancer immunotherapy remains unclear, the editors of the journal Science said that the approach of using the immune system to attack tumors marks a turning point in the treatment of cancer.1 The successes of cancer immunotherapy in clinical trials in...
Assessing Patients for Palliative Care
In 2012, ASCO issued a provisional clinical opinion addressing the integration of palliative care services into standard oncology practice at the time a patient is diagnosed with metastatic or advanced cancer and for patients with uncontrolled symptoms.1 However, despite ASCO’s provisional clinical ...
Stress and Tumor Biology: Insights Into Managing Stress to Help Improve Cancer Care
Stress is ubiquitous in our society, especially for people diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. There is a common misconception that stress is derived from a particular negative event. However, the event itself (the stressors, such as cancer diagnoses and treatment) does not causes stress....
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Names Susan Desmond-Hellman New CEO
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has selected Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, as its next Chief Executive Officer. Currently the Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Dr. Desmond-Hellmann will assume her role on May 1, 2014. “We chose Sue because of her...
Donor KIRDL1-R245 Allele Predicts Improved Survival and Reduced Progression in Pediatric Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant
Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) that regulate natural-killer cells are highly polymorphic, and some KIR2DL1 alleles (ie, KIR2DL1-R245) encode receptors characterized by stronger signaling function than others (ie, KIR2DL1-C245). In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical...
Cancer Is in My Soul
The threat of getting cancer began for me before I was born. In 1950, when my mother was pregnant with me, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and refused treatment until after she gave birth, so I have always felt that cancer was woven into my soul. For the first year of my life, I was raised by...
Friends of Cancer Research Launches New Online Forum: Engaging Innovation
Friends of Cancer Research recently announced the launch of the online forum Engaging Innovation (www.focr.org/EngagingInnovation). With this site, the group will host leaders from regulation, research, drug development, treatment, and advocacy, encouraging them to share insights and innovations in ...
Developing Intermediate Endpoints in Immunotherapy
“The immune system holds tremendous potential for long-term sustained antitumor activity,” said James P. Allison, PhD, Immunology Chair, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, as he opened a panel discussion at a meeting cosponsored by the Friends of Cancer Research and the...
Activation of Innovative Lung Cancer Master Protocol Officially Announced, Enrollment to Begin in March
At a recent meeting in Washington, DC, Friends of Cancer Research and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution officially announced activation of the Lung Cancer Master Protocol, a new research strategy that has the potential to hurdle or bypass known clinical trial...
Diagnosing and Treating Chronic Mucocutaneous Graft-vs-Host Disease
Chronic graft-vs-host disease is a major cause of late, nonrelapse death following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In addition, chronic graft-vs-host disease results in significant functional impairment and decreased quality of life for long-term survivors of stem cell...
ASCO Announces Election Results for Terms Beginning June 2014
In addition to the election of Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, as President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for a 1-year term beginning in June 2015 (see page 85), ASCO has announced four new members who were recently elected to the ASCO Board of Directors and two new members...
Adjuvant Gefitinib in Patients With NSCLC: Bad Idea or Wrong Patient Selection?
Despite optimal surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin-based doublets, the 5-year overall survival for patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains suboptimal. In the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) staging project, the...
IOM Makes Clinical Data Available for Research
In 1979, Congress mandated that an epidemiologic study be launched to evaluate the frequency and type of adverse health conditions experienced by military personal as a result of their exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War. Called the Air Force Health Study...
Statement by ASCO President Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, on ACS Report
“The American Cancer Society [recently] issued a report showing a 20% decline in cancer death rates between 1991 and 2010, and estimating that 1.3 million deaths have been averted as a result of the decline. “This is tremendous progress and a direct result of our nation’s commitment to cancer...
