Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has announced Gwen Nichols, MD, as its new Chief Medical Officer. A physician and scientific researcher, Dr. Nichols has dedicated her career to advancing cures for cancers through a unique combination of clinical, academic, and pharmaceutical experience. She...
To reduce costs and improve quality of care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made reducing hospital readmission rates a priority, yet two research studies presented at the 2017 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer question the use...
In the phase III TOWER trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Kantarjian et al found that blinatumomab (Blincyto) treatment improved overall survival vs chemotherapy in heavily pretreated patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Blinatumomab received...
ASCO and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) have proudly announced the winners of ASCO's Special Awards, the Society's highest honors, and the CCF Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. The recipients of these awards include researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology leaders...
The importance of a strong federal investment in cancer research was front and center at ASCO’s congressional briefing this past month, where the Society presented Clinical Cancer Advances 2017: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer. In addition to announcing the top cancer advance of the ...
ASCO is working—through research, education, and promotion of the highest quality patient care—toward a world where cancer is prevented or cured, and every survivor is healthy. With the goal of ensuring that all patients receive the high-quality care they expect and deserve, ASCO is committed to...
ASCO’s Clinical Practice Committee (CPC) and State Affiliate Council (SAC) have a history of supporting the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) Young Investigator Award (YIA) program. Individual members of the Clinical Practice Committee and State Affiliate Council, as well as ASCO State...
CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO, has announced that the University of Virginia Cancer Center has signed an agreement to participate in the CancerLinQ ® platform. “As CancerLinQ ® continues to rapidly grow, we are thrilled to have the University of Virginia Cancer Center ...
Diffuse infiltrating low-grade gliomas include oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas and account for about 5% of all primary brain tumors. Treatment strategies for these low-grade gliomas in adults have recently changed, as detailed in a recent review in the Journal of Oncology Practice.1 The...
A pair of scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been awarded up to $3.3 million from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create the next generation of breast cancer treatments for the thousands of patients whose...
MARCH ESMO Symposium on Signaling Pathways in Cancer 2017March 17-18 • Barcelona, SpainFor more information: http://esmo.org/Conferences/Signalling-Pathways-2017 17th Multidisciplinary Management of Cancers: A Case-Based ApproachMarch 17-19 • Napa, CaliforniaFor more...
Immunotherapy has been a major advance in lung cancer, but it is not without its challenges, according to Sanjay Popat, PhD, FRCP, a consultant medical oncologist and reader in cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK. He reviewed some of the challenges pertaining to the use of...
Despite positive results in the phase II GALAXY-1 study, the addition of ganetespib to docetaxel in the phase III GALAXY-2 study did not improve overall survival or progression-free survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented by Rathi Pillai,...
To summarize the lessons learned from the development of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted therapy, one only has to go back about 10 years, according to Frances A. Shepherd, MD, Scott Taylor Chair in Lung Cancer Research at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Professor of Medicine at ...
In a rigorous study of tumor tissue collected from 125 patients with aggressive brain cancers, researchers at Johns Hopkins said they have found no evidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and concluded that a link between the two diseases, as claimed by earlier reports, likely does not exist. A ...
Three invited discussants explored the results of these recent immunotherapy studies in lung cancer as well as their potential clinical implications at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer. KEYNOTE-021 trial “Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is...
Combining immunotherapies with each other or with other agents such as chemotherapy and growth factor inhibitors holds promise for better tapping their benefit in patients with lung cancer, data from several studies suggest. Results show that strategic combinations can achieve higher response...
Although “treatment advances” and “precision medicine” are today’s buzz words in oncology, they don’t apply equally to all malignancies. For instance, median overall survival for newly diagnosed patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer has not improved much over the past 20 years, according to...
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. It affects 80% of individuals, with the initial infection usually occurring between the ages of 15 and 24. Persistent infection with oncogenic HPV genotypes, primarily 16 and 18, is the cause of virtually all...
In 1978, Charles A. “Mickey” LeMaistre, MD, was named President of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. During his 18-year tenure, MD Anderson became a world leader in outpatient care for cancer patients and the nation’s largest ambulatory treatment and surgery programs in cancers....
Stephen K. Carter, MD, a renowned oncologist who held a variety of executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry and played a major role in the research and development of many widely used cancer and AIDS drugs, died on November 14, 2016, after a long battle against multiple systems atrophy....
MARCH 2017 ASCO Oncology Practice ConferenceMarch 2 • Orlando, FloridaFor more information: www.asco.org/meetings/symposia-conferences/asco-oncology-practice-conference 23rd Annual Blood-Brain Barrier Consortium Meeting March 2-4 • Stevenson, WashingtonFor more information:...
Scientific Name: Glycine max Common Names: Soybean, soya, tofu, miso, tempeh Overview An annual herb indigenous to East Asia, soy was domesticated more than 3,000 years ago for its pods and edible seeds. It is now the world’s most important legume crop and is grown in diverse climates. Foods...
A Danish study reported in the European Journal of Cancer by Donia et al indicates that more than half of patients with metastatic melanoma do not satisfy requirements for enrollment in phase III trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Study Details The study involved 276 unselected cases...
A new global initiative that includes founding partner University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was launched on January 17, 2017, at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. It signals a dramatic shift in the way international organizations help country and city leaders...
The AURA3 study—reported by Mok and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—confirms the dramatic activity of osimertinib (Tagrisso) in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and acquired resistance to prior EGFR...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present this special focus on the worldwide cancer burden. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the world. For the convenience of the reader, each issue will focus on one country from one of the six regions...
Three outstanding individuals have been honored with the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor Award. The Medal of Honor is awarded to those who have made the most valuable contributions and impact in saving more lives from cancer through basic research, clinical research, and cancer control....
The optimal treatment strategy for low-grade glioma has yet to be established, and practice patterns vary in regard to the timing of treatment, as well as the chosen treatment modality. It was against this backdrop, at a time when the benefits of radiation and chemotherapy remained uncertain but ...
Earlier this year, ASCO submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in response to a Request for Information on data-sharing and management (NOT-OD-17-015). In the comment letter, ASCO expressed support for the NIH’s efforts to develop a framework and strategies for data-sharing ...
The traditional three-phase clinical trial process for testing new drugs does not necessarily make sense when it comes to targeted therapies, according to many experts, including regulators, academic researchers, industry chief executive officers, and patient advocates alike. Instead of three...
This CE/CME/CU-accredited supplement is jointly provided by: To earn credit/contact hours, you must read all the articles in this supplement and then go to https://education.annenberg.net/IASLC Release date: February 25, 2017 Expiration date: February 25, 2018Annenberg Center for Health...
The traditional three-phase clinical trial process for testing new drugs does not necessarily make sense when it comes to targeted therapies, according to many experts, including regulators, academic researchers, industry chief executive officers, and patient advocates alike. Instead of three...
Researchers from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, have completed the first-ever systematic review of cancer survivors’ experience of online and telephone telehealth interventions in cancer care, according to a recent study reported by Anna Cox,...
Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression assessed by immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissues is currently the main predictive biomarker for the benefit of anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and anti–PD-L1 agents in patients with non–small cell lung ...
A revised tumor classification based on 70,967 evaluable patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 6,189 patients with small cell lung cancer is now available to lung cancer specialists around the world in the form of the 8th edition of the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM)...
The two main classes of immune checkpoint inhibitors used to treat non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have essentially the same efficacy and toxicity profiles, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 trials with a total of 5,899 patients.1 Results showed that about one-fifth of...
The programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown durable antitumor activity in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that expresses programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), according to an update of the KEYNOTE-028 trial.1 “Median overall ...
Increasing experience with immunotherapy for lung cancer in both the lab and the clinic is helping to refine treatment approaches and point the way forward, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, Director of both Thoracic Oncology and Immunotherapeutics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York....
Treating patients with head and neck cancer with hyperfractionated twice-daily radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy may potentially reduce mortality, according to new research presented by Claire Petit, PhD, and colleagues at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (ECCO).1 The study included...
Prognostic factors and tumor expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) predict early mortality among patients with previously treated nonsquamous advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive nivolumab instead of docetaxel. But these features are not reliable for excluding...
Pembrolizumab’s benefit in previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that expresses programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is long lasting, persisting even after therapy ends, suggests an update of the KEYNOTE-010 trial.1 Initial results of the randomized phase II/III trial,...
The immune checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab (also known as MEDI4736) is active and achieves durable responses in patients with heavily pretreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that does not have any epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)...
A wide range of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) see a survival advantage from second- or third-line atezolizumab (Tecentriq) as compared with docetaxel, according to new data from the OAK trial.1 The main results of the randomized phase III trial, previously reported,...
When used as first-line therapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pembrolizumab (Keytruda) yields better health-related quality of life than platinum-based chemotherapy, suggest new data from the randomized phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial.1 After 15 weeks of treatment, changes in scores...
In 2016, the KEYNOTE-024 trial set the bar for first-line immunotherapy in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Trial results showed that pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an antibody to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50% and the risk of death by...
Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States, with an estimated 224,390 new cases and 158,080 deaths from the disease in 2016.1 Despite improving survival rates in recent decades, only about 18% of patients are...
Researchers from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Surrey have completed the first-ever systematic review of cancer survivors’ experience of online and telephone telehealth interventions in cancer care, a new study by Cox et al in the Journal of Medical Internet...
FEBRUARY ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology SymposiumFebruary 23-25 • Orlando, Florida For more information: http://immunosym.org FACTOR (Funding, Awareness, Collaboration, Trials, Osteosarcoma Research) Miami Conference 2017February 24-25 • Coral Gables, Florida For more information:...
Compared to chemotherapy, the use of first-line ceritinib (Zykadia) resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in median progression-free survival, with an estimated 45% reduction in disease progression risk, as well as significant improvements in quality of...