There is as yet no clinical or research focus on foot complications that result from cancer therapies. Foot conditions, however, are common and have a considerable negative impact on patients’ ambulation, quality of life, and consistent dosing of antineoplastic agents.1-4 There are currently no...
In 1990, when Bruce (B.J.) Miller, MD, was an undergraduate at Princeton University, the practice of medicine was far from his mind. Then a student in Chinese and Asian studies and later an art history major, Dr. Miller would come to pursue a career specializing in palliative medicine after an...
Philip W. Kantoff, MD, has been named the new Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). An accomplished leader, physician, researcher, and mentor, Dr. Kantoff served the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (HMS) since 1987 in a...
Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care (MECCC) and the Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC) announced receipt of a $3.93 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for the prestigious Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for...
Dario Marchetti, PhD, recently joined Houston Methodist Hospital as the new Director of the Center for Biomarkers. Over the past 7 years, Dr. Marchetti’s laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine has made key discoveries in the biology and clinical use of circulating tumor cells. Dr. Marchetti’s...
A clinical dilemma that is receiving a great deal of attention in the oncology community is the undue financial burden some patients face during their treatment and into survivorship. While much emphasis is put on methods to reduce and help patients navigate the complex payment system, little is...
Christopher J. Kane, MD, a specialist in prostate cancer and an expert in robotic and other minimally invasive procedures for urologic surgery at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Joseph D. Schmidt, MD, Presidential Chair in Urology in...
Low- and middle-income countries bear a larger share of the global cancer burden than does the developed world,” said Greta Massetti, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and Co-Chair of the National Cancer...
The ASCO Post is pleased to continue this special feature on the worldwide cancer burden. In this issue, we feature a close look at the cancer incidence and mortality rates in Argentina. The aim of this special feature is to highlight the global cancer burden for various countries of the world. For ...
Could the manipulation of bacteria in the gut pack the same punch in melanoma as antibodies targeting the programmed cell death protein and its ligand (PD-1/PD-L1)? It’s possible, at least in mice, according to research from the University of Chicago, recently published in Science.1 The researchers ...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was awarded more than $22 million in research grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Thirty-six percent of funds awarded for Individual Investigator Awards went to MD Anderson faculty, as well as nearly 40% of...
Help your patients manage the financial impact of a cancer diagnosis with Cancer.Net’s Managing the Cost of Cancer Care booklet. This booklet provides information on the main financial categories for cancer care; an easy-to-understand explanation of health insurance benefits; information about the...
The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program promotes lifelong learning and the enhancement of the clinical judgment and skills essential for high-quality patient care. ASCO supports these principles by providing a variety of opportunities for oncology...
A new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) on the barriers facing oncology professionals to a career focus in cancer prevention found that a lack of mentors and exposure during training, unclear career path, and uncertainty regarding reimbursement caused reluctance to incorporate...
Earlier this year, Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) Board Member Raj Mantena, RPh, announced his intention to match individual donations to CCF dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million, throughout the month of September. His generous support of The Campaign to Conquer Cancer—a comprehensive, $150 million ...
Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, began his term as ASCO President-Elect this past June, and will serve as President in 2016–2017. A breast cancer specialist, he is Professor of Internal Medicine, the Stuart B. Padnos Professor in Breast Cancer, and the Clinical Director of the Breast Oncology Program at ...
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Council elected 347 fellows for 2015, in recognition of their contributions to innovation, education, and scientific leadership. The tradition of electing AAAS fellows began in 1874 to recognize members for their scientifically or...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Foundation has appointed three new representatives to its Board of Directors: Heather Kopecky, PhD, MBA; Marc Samuels, JD, MPH; and Susan Stein, MPH. There are currently 15 members of the Board of Directors, responsible for the strategic direction...
Management of the regional nodes in breast cancer has evolved from the era of the extended radical mastectomy to exclusion of axillary dissection in appropriately selected patients. Throughout this evolution, studies of nodal irradiation have been shown to improve locoregional control, usually...
Two phase III trials recently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine indicated that the addition of regional nodal irradiation was associated with no or marginal overall survival benefit but significantly improved disease-free survival in patients with early-stage breast cancer.1,2 NCIC...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Catherine Van Poznak, MD, and colleagues, ASCO has issued a clinical practice guideline on the use of biomarkers to guide decisions on systemic therapy in women with metastatic breast cancer.1 The statement is based on an ASCO expert panel review...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Julie Brahmer, MD, of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, and colleagues found that treatment with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor antibody nivolumab...
Evidence-based oncology practice is a systematic approach to problem solving for cancer care providers, characterized by the use of the best evidence currently available for clinical decision-making. Over the past several decades, the oncology community, led by its major organizations such as ASCO...
A new study examining the health-care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual patients has found myriad disparities in access to cancer care.1 The researchers reviewed nearly 170 papers published over the past 15 years on the health-care needs among this population. Although...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $2.2 million grant to help City of Hope researchers explore the underlying mechanisms of graft-vs-host disease, the leading cause of long-term sickness and death following...
It has long been said that white women of European ancestry are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but African American women are more likely to die of it. This statement has introduced multiple articles on the topic of the racial survival disparity in breast cancer, including our own...
A recent report by DeSantis and colleagues from the American Cancer Society, summarized in this issue of The ASCO Post, presented breast cancer incidence and mortality data from an extensive analysis of the U.S. system of state-based tumor registries.1 The data showed that the incidence of breast...
In an article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Carol E. DeSantis, MPH, and colleagues from the American Cancer Society reported that the incidence of breast cancer in black women has caught up to that in white women, whereas the risk of mortality continues to be higher in black...
Amy K. Hara, MD, has been named Chair of Diagnostic Radiology at Mayo Clinic’s Arizona campus. Dr. Hara, Professor of Radiology, joined Mayo Clinic in 2001. Her main research interests include computed tomography (CT) colonography, also known as virtual colonoscopy; CT enterography; CT radiation...
The FDA approved necitumumab (Portrazza) in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin for first-line treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Necitumumab is not indicated for treatment of nonsquamous NSCLC. Necitumumab is a recombinant human IgG1...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has appointed Robert C. Young, MD, as Interim Vice President of the NCCN Oncology Research Program. Dr. Young brings to NCCN more than 45 years of oncology experience. He is President of RCY Medicine, a consulting service focused on cancer center...
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 On November 10, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
Led by George Demetri, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, expert medical oncology investigators from leading academic sarcoma centers and Janssen Pharmaceuticals employees performed a phase III trial in order to provide evidence for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, George D. Demetri, MD, of Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues found that treatment with trabectedin (Yondelis) significantly improved progression-free survival vs dacarbazine in patients...
The treatment of hairy cell leukemia is one of the great success stories in hematologic malignancies, with patients now having a survival that is only slightly inferior to an age-matched normal population. Purine analogs, such as cladribine, are the mainstay of first-line therapy, with...
Nivolumab (Opdivo) is a monoclonal antibody that binds to the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) receptor and blocks its interaction with its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2, releasing PD-1 pathway–mediated inhibition of the immune response. Late last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...
In two phase II studies reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Enrico Tiacci, MD, of the University of Perugia, Italy, and colleagues found that the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) produced responses in nearly all patients with BRAF V600E–positive hairy cell leukemia that relapsed...
Geriatrics for the Oncologist is guest edited by Stuart Lichtman, MD, FACP, FASCO, and developed in collaboration with the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Visit SIOG.org for more on geriatric oncology. Increasing age is directly associated with an increasing risk of cancer,...
The following five abstracts were chosen as the best studies presented at the 12th International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) because of their quality and the impact they will have on the field of integrative medicine, according to Suzanna Zick, ND, MPH, Immediate Past...
Among the highlights at the 12th International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) was a 1-day joint meeting on acupuncture, oncology, and fascia cosponsored by SIO, the Society for Acupuncture Research, the Fascia Research Society, and the Osher Center for Integrative...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for elotuzumab (Empliciti) in combination with two other therapies to treat patients with multiple myeloma who have received one to three prior medications. “We are continuing to learn about the ways the immune system interacts with...
Over the past year or so, a host of new agents were approved for the treatment of patients with various types of cancer (see related article on page 1). Patrick Medina, PharmD, of the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, Oklahoma City, and Monique Giordana, PharmD, BCOP, of Regions...
Tough initial treatment decisions have “long-lasting ramifications and affect the entire treatment paradigm” for women with ovarian cancer, according to Bradley J. Monk, MD, FACS, FACOG, of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, Phoenix. In a true collaborative presentation at the Annual JADPRO...
Discussant Charles E. Geyer, Jr, MD, FACP, Associate Director for Clinical Research at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, Virginia, singled out the power of this study’s dataset. “In 2002,” he said, “the Institute of Medicine named NSQIP [National Surgical Quality...
Patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy within 30 days prior to breast cancer surgery did not appear to be at increased risk for overall postoperative complications, according to a study presented at the 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium.1 “Although on unadjusted analysis there were more...
Although the study clearly showed statistically significant differences, discussant Charles E. Geyer, Jr, MD, FACP, Associate Director of Clinical Research at the Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, Virginia, indicated that it’s unclear whether these are “clinically relevant differences,” adding...
Using multiplatform profiling, researchers have identified potentially targetable biomarker aberrations in a large cohort of geriatric breast tumors.1 According to the study, presented at the 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium, these data may help researchers to design clinical trials focusing on...
The University of Michigan (U-M) Comprehensive Cancer Center has appointed Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD, as Associate Director for Population Science Research. Dr. Mukherjee is John D. Kalbfleisch Collegiate Professor of Biostatistics and Professor of Epidemiology at the U-M School of Public Health. She...
Nonpharmacologic approaches to managing pain have a fairly robust base of science and research supporting their use but are not as widely accepted and understood as drug therapy in the realm of cancer care. In a breakout session at the 2015 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium in Boston, experts...
Charles Loprinzi, MD, Regis Professor of Breast Cancer Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, commented on these study findings to The ASCO Post: “This is a clinical application of the ghrelin agonist story that’s been brewing for maybe a decade. Is it better than megestrol acetate, the drug...