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Showing 301 - 350New Laws Reduce Costs of Oral Cancer Drugs, but Not for All
The rising cost of anticancer drugs not only adds fiscal pressure to our overburdened health-care system, but also increases the stress on patients with cancer and their families. High out-of-pocket spending may cause significant financial toxicity, even for patients with good health insurance...
Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Mutation Matters
A RECENT article in The New England Journal of Medicine explored the nuances of minimal/measurable residual disease testing after induction treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML)1 and David P. Steensma, MD, and Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical...
Dispel Fears About Breast Cancer Radiotherapy With ‘Real Truth’ About Modern Techniques and Side Effects
Nearly 85% of patients surveyed 6 or more months after completing radiotherapy as part of their treatment for breast cancer reported the side effects were not as bad as they had feared or expected. Approximately 92% of the 269 patients treated with breast conservation and 81% of the 58 patients...
A Career Based on Service: Both Medical and Military
For this installment in the Living a Full Life series of articles, Edith Peterson Mitchell, MD, was interviewed by Guest Editor Jame Abraham, MD, FACP. Dr. Mitchell is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology in the Division of Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University as well as ...
Meeting the Challenges of Providing Long-Term Psychosocial Care for Cancer Survivors
Focusing on the first year after a cancer diagnosis is necessary, but not sufficient, for delivering care to cancer survivors, according to Deborah Mayer, PhD, RN, Director of Cancer Survivorship at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
Panitumumab-Based Contrast Agent May Enhance Head and Neck Cancer Surgery
AN OPTICAL CONTRAST agent composed of panitumumab (Vectibix), a humanized anti–epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody, conjugated to the near-infrared fluorescent dye IRDye800, may aid in the real-time detection and surgical resection of squamous cell carcinoma, according to...
When Is Active Surveillance Appropriate in the Treatment of DCIS?
In 2017, more than 63,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with in situ breast cancer. The overwhelming majority of those women, about 83%, were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a condition characterized by the presence of abnormal cells confined to the breast milk ducts;...
Advancing Cancer Research in Challenging Times
ON OCTOBER 17, 2017, Norman E. Sharpless, MD, became the 15th Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), succeeding Harold E. Varmus, MD, who stepped down as Director of the agency in March 2015, and replacing Douglas R. Lowy, MD, who had served as Acting Director for 2 years. The...
EXPERT POINT OF VIEW: Julie Gralow, MD, FASCO
JULIE GRALOW, MD, FASCO, Director of Breast Medical Oncology for the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, commented on the findings of the SUCCESS A trial in an interview with The ASCO Post. The Oxford meta-analysis...
The Telltale Heart: A Surgeon’s Memoir
We don’t feel our liver or pancreas working, but we all feel our hearts beating—the drumbeat of our mortality since we all have a finite number of heartbeats from birth to death. And unlike with most other organs, we are painfully aware of how fragile this mighty muscle can be. About 610,000 people ...
Diary of a Storm
FOR DAYS BEFORE HURRICANE HARVEY was expected to move toward Houston, Texas, on Sunday, August 27, 2017, after pummeling other cities in Texas and Louisiana, the leadership team at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) in Houston strategized on how to ensure the...
Mackenzi Pergolotti, PhD, OTR/L: A Leader in the Emerging Field of Occupational Therapy in Oncology
Oncology occupational therapist Mackenzi Pergolotti, PhD, OTR/L, was born in Buffalo, New York. “I lived there until I was 6,” she shared. “Then my family moved around the state a bit, finally settling in the small town of Bath, situated near the Finger Lakes—a beautiful area in central New ...
Preserving Sexual Function in Women Treated for Cancer
“There is huge potential to positively influence a patient’s experience and outcomes” by addressing concerns about sexual function after cancer treatment early in the course of treatment planning, Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MA, stated in her keynote address at the 11th Annual Oncofertility...
Celebrating the Life of Jimmie Holland, MD
The oncology community mourns the sudden passing of Jimmie C. Holland, MD, who died on December 24, 2017, at the age of 89. Dr. Holland’s achievements over her 40-year career are legend. They include the founding of the subspecialty of psycho-oncology, the establishment of a full-time Psychiatry...
Expert Point of View: Howard “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO and Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, FASCO
Howard “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer and President of Clinical Operations at Sarah Cannon Cancer Center, Nashville, said the antibody-drug conjugates are especially attractive in triple-negative breast cancer. “We know chemotherapy is still effective in a large...
Helping Patients With Head and Neck Cancer and Their Caregivers Face Treatment-Associated Challenges
Head and neck cancer remains one of the most challenging clinical presentations faced by the oncology community. Patients must not only face a potentially lethal disease, but must also cope with treatments that often result in significant side effects. To gain a better understanding on the...
Slovenia’s First Medical Oncology Resident Reflects on His Career in a Rapidly Changing Field
Bostjan Seruga, MD, PhD, is a medical oncology consultant at the Insitute of Oncology Ljubljana and Associate Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has published on barriers in global cancer research. The ASCO Post spoke with him recently about his career path, cancer care in...
Fiber Is Only One Component in Improving Outcomes in Cancer Survivors
SINCE 2003, every iteration of the American Cancer Society’s Nutrition Guidelines for Cancer Survivors has advocated for a plant-based diet with ample quantities of whole grains, as well as vegetables and fruits.1-3 This recommendation has been based primarily on data that such foods play in...
Lung Cancer in Never Smokers: A Complex Clinical Phenomenon
Despite advances in prevention, early detection, and treatments, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Although cigarette smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, about 10% of these patients are lifelong never smokers for whom the molecular...
Ribociclib Doubles Progression-Free Survival in Premenopausal Breast Cancer
PREMENOPAUSAL WOMEN with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer benefited substantially from the addition of ribociclib (Kisqali) to first-line endocrine therapy plus medical ovarian suppression, according to results from the MONALEESA-7 study.1 At the 2017 San Antonio...
Radiation Oncologist Gives Clear Advice to Patients With Cancer
BOOKMARK Title: Cancer: What You Need to Know: Overcome the 10 Common Mistakes Patients MakeAuthor: Stephen A. Rosenberg, MDPublisher: Stephen Rosenberg, MDYear Published: November 2017Price: $9.99, paperback, 248 pages Stephen A. Rosenberg, MD, is Chief Resident in Radiation Oncology at the...
Born in Chicago, Lymphoma Specialist Sonali M. Smith, MD, Never Left the Windy City
Nationally recognized lymphoma expert Sonali M. Smith, MD, was born and reared in Chicago to a mother who was a pediatrician and allergist, and a father who was an engineer. Her parents were first-generation immigrants from India who placed the value of education second to none. “I became used to...
Concurrent Palliative Care: Recommendations From the ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline
Updated in 2016, the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care provides evidence-based recommendations to oncology clinicians, patients, family and friend caregivers, and palliative care specialists about providing high-quality care for...
Preparing for Steep Increase in Breast Cancer Among the Elderly
“We are in the midst of a steep increase” in the incidence of breast cancer among women aged 65 years and older, Arti Hurria, MD, reported at the 19th Annual Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Symposium, Chicago.1 “Are we prepared as a health-care system and as providers to address this burgeoning need?” she...
Expert Point of View: Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD
Formal discussant of this trial, Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, a medical oncologist at Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, Australia, was enthusiastic about these results, with the caveat that overall survival data are needed. “Unresectable stage III non–small cell lung...
Tackling the High Cost of Cancer Care
AT THE 2017 ASCO ANNUAL MEETING, the leaders of the newly formed Value in Cancer Care Consortium (vi3c; vi3c.org) met to discuss the group’s plan to study how to improve the affordability of cancer drugs and make them more accessible to patients. The goal of the Value in Cancer Care Consortium is...
Fleeing a Revolution, Becoming an Oncologist
Nicaragua, situated between Costa Rica and Honduras, is the poorest country in Central America. Following the U.S. occupation in 1912, the Somoza family began a brutal political dynasty that would end in 1979 during the bloody Nicaraguan Revolution. Marcela G. del Carmen, MD, MPH, Chief Medical...
The Man in the Vest
It had been an uneventful Sunday morning, and I was writing my final note for the day, hopeful to make a stealth exit and perhaps join my family at church. But as I closed the chart and looked up, I saw Ruthie, my oncology fellow, approaching with a grim expression. “I just left the room of a...
A Pioneer in Bloodless Transplant Discusses Advances in Blood Management
Bloodless stem cell transplantation, performed without the transfusion of allogeneic blood or blood products, has numerous clinical advantages, especially among populations of patients who prefer, for religious or other reasons, no blood methods of medical and surgical treatment. Patricia A. Ford, ...
Life With Death in the Room
It began, as so many do, with what a doctor often calls “a small spot,” a vague description that makes a potentially fatal disease sound like something that, with a slight bit of attention, can be ridded, like erasing a misplaced comma. In 2015, during a routine mammogram, doctors found one “small ...
A Revolutionary Technology Offers Hope and Ethical Concern
Aldous Huxley’s classic 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World pictures an eerie future where humans are genetically bred, altered to create worthy citizens. Welcome back to the future. First there was the astounding feat of sequencing the entire human genome; now, thanks to a revolutionary...
EXPERT POINT OF VIEW: Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD
Invited discussant Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, commented that both ATTRACTION-02 and KEYNOTE-059 suggest that anti-PD [programmed cell death protein] antibodies have activity in advanced gastric cancer, but their findings differed with regard to the impact of ...
EXPERT POINT OF VIEW: Balazs Halmos, MD
The study’s invited discussant, Balazs Halmos, MD, Director of Thoracic Oncology and Clinical Cancer Genomics at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, called tumor mutation burden a “highly promising” biomarker of response to immune checkpoint inhibitors....
Long-Term Survivors of Childhood Cancer Prone to ‘Job Lock’ due to Worries About Losing Health Insurance
The results of a national cancer survey reveal a significant number of childhood cancer survivors are worried about keeping their health insurance, to the point of letting it affect their career decisions. The findings were published by Kirchhoff et al in JAMA Oncology. Anne Kirchhoff, PhD,...
Stalked by BRCA1: A Women Struggles to Survive the Same Disease That Killed Her Mother
No matter what a person does in life, for good and bad, his or her inherited genetic makeup follows along the way. Such was the case with British journalist Sarah Gabriel, who inherited the BRCA1 mutation from her mother, who died of ovarian cancer when Ms. Gabriel was in college. Much of her...
Adjuvant BRAF/MEK Inhibition Improves Survival in Resectable Melanoma
FOR PATIENTS with locally advanced, resectable melanoma harboring BRAF mutations, adjuvant treatment with BRAF/ MEK inhibition significantly improves overall survival, results of the COMBI-AD trial have shown. The study was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017...
Treating Breast Cancer During Pregnancy Calls for Careful Timing of Therapies and Sensitive Discussions With Patients
Breast cancer during pregnancy is relatively uncommon; however, it poses a significant clinical challenge to the patient and her multidisciplinary care team. To shed light on this difficult issue, The ASCO Post spoke with Carey K. Anders, MD, a medical oncologist and researcher at the University...
The Dark Side of Medicine: Physician Suicide
The statistics on physician suicide are stark: Physicians are more than twice as likely to take their own lives as nonphysicians, and more than 400 physicians commit suicide each year in the United States. Moreover, young physicians at the early part of their training are reported to be...
Stemming the Growing Cancer Crisis in Rural Appalachia
A pair of recent studies show a troubling trend: Despite a 20% decrease in cancer mortality rates nationwide over the past 2 decades,1 Americans living in rural regions of the United States are more likely to die of cancer than persons living in metropolitan areas of the country. An analysis of...
Are You Ready for October 2? Plan Ahead for Key QPP Deadline
AS PRACTICES across the country implement the Quality Payment Program (QPP), it’s important to remember that 2017 is a transition year. Practices only have to report one measure for one patient (including at least one Medicare patient) in order to receive a neutral payment adjustment and avoid...
Expert Point of View: Reinhard Dummer, MD, and Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD
ASSUMING THE regimens evaluated in COMBI-AD and CheckMate 238 are both approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of high-risk resected melanoma, clinicians may be faced with a tough choice. ESMO experts and the study’s investigators weighed in on this issue in a lively...
Significant Improvement in Outcomes Reported With Adjuvant Therapy for Melanoma
FOR PATIENTS with malignant melanoma, the significant improvement in outcomes with targeted agents and antibodies against the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) has now been observed in the adjuvant setting. Two landmark studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 ...
Addressing the Challenges of Intimacy After Cancer
The literature has documented the stress and damage that intimacy problems cause among women undergoing cancer treatment and during survivorship. A new book, Sex and Cancer: Intimacy, Romance, and Love After Diagnosis and Treatment, by Saketh R. Guntupalli, MD, and Maryann Karinch tackles the...
The Rising Incidence of Thyroid Cancer Reconsidered
Despite a significant rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a panel of independent experts in primary care and screening, has given thyroid cancer screening a D recommendation, which is a recommendation against screening. To shed light on this...
A Deep and Incisive Look Into the Health-Care System
The seemingly impossible-to-cure maladies of our $3 trillion per year health-care system have been hyperanalyzed, fiercely debated, and voluminously written about by the country’s leading public health experts, opinionated doctors, and policymakers on Capitol Hill. The Affordable Care Act extended ...
Breast Cancer and Brain Metastases: Whole-Brain Radiotherapy May Not Be the Answer
FOR PATIENTS WITH BREAST CANCER who have metastases to the central nervous system (CNS), clinicians should think twice before administering whole-brain radiotherapy, according to Kimberly Blackwell, MD, Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Duke University Medical...
Educating Young People on Sun-Safe Behaviors and Reducing the Risk of Melanoma
“If minors don’t tan, then they may never become adult tanners,” Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, MD, said in explaining the emphasis on teaching sun safety behaviors to young children as part of the Melanoma Moon Shot Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Dr. Gershenwald is ...
A Frank Memoir About Doctors, Patients, and the Health-Care System
“In 1981, 2 days after my older brother Matthew was born, my father sawed off the tip of his index finger.” So begins No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming of Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine, a memoir by Rachel Pearson, MD, who is currently a resident at Seattle Children’s Hospital. ...
The Immune System: Deciphering Recent Advances
Over the past decade, there has been renewed interest in developing immunologic therapies in cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several new biologic agents that target a patient’s immune system, some of which have produced profound clinical responses. However, the...
What About Sharing Clinical Data?
IN RESPONSE to a question during the Lurie Cancer Center OncoSET Symposium about sharing clinical data, Warren Kibbe, PhD, Acting Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute, acknowledged “it is still very problematic,” but “there is an opportunity for meaningful use.” He said that the...
