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Showing 301 - 350Showcasing 50 Years of Advances in Cancer Research and Treatment
The AACR Cancer Progress Report 2021, published on October 13, celebrates the gains made in cancer research since President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act into law on December 23, 1971, especially against such life-threatening cancers as metastatic melanoma and lung cancer.1 The...
The Worst Part of Having Cancer Was the Guilt
When I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 1992, at age 38, I remember thinking, “I wish I had breast cancer.” Breast cancer elicits such sympathy from people. A diagnosis of small cell lung cancer mainly gets you stern looks of disapproval and disappointment. There is so much stigma...
Study Finds Younger B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Survivors May Have a Higher Risk of Age-Related Diseases Than Older Survivors
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most common cancers diagnosed in the United States, accounting for nearly 4% of all cancers. This year, about 81,600 individuals will be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and nearly 21,000 will die from the cancer. A study by Ocier et al published in Cancer...
Having Stage IV Lung Cancer Has Refocused My Life
The first indication I had stage IV lung cancer was a persistent cough during the beginning of the cold-and-flu season in the fall of 2013. I was 35 years old, never smoked, and in otherwise excellent health, so I ignored the cough for several months until I noticed my breathing had also become...
AACR Cancer Progress Report 2021 Showcases 50 Years of Advances in Cancer Research and Treatment
The AACR Cancer Progress Report 2021 celebrates the gains made in cancer research since the National Cancer Act was signed into law on December 23, 1971. The report also recognizes the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on cancer research and patient care, the disproportionate toll both...
Study Finds Significant Variation in the Incidence of Nasopharyngeal Cancer Among Ethnic Subgroups of Asian Americans
Although nasopharyngeal cancer is quite rare in most parts of the world, including the United States, the cancer causes a significant health burden among Asian Americans, which is a fast-growing but understudied racial group. According to the results from a study by Lee et al presented at the...
Overcoming the Stigma of Small Cell Lung Cancer
Since my small cell lung cancer diagnosis in 2010, I’ve had to overcome not just the distress of having a life-threatening disease, but the stigma attached to it as well. I admit that I was a smoker. I was attracted to smoking when I was 16 and saw how “cool” people looked smoking in television and ...
How ASCO Is Expanding Its Commitment to Diversity and Equity in Cancer Care
Ensuring equitable cancer care for every patient, everywhere has been embedded into ASCO’s mission statement since the Society’s inception nearly 60 years ago. Nevertheless, events of the past year, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionally impacted minority communities, ...
Study Finds Some Pancreatic Cancer Trial Eligibility Criteria Disproportionately Exclude Black Patients
Although lack of clinical trial participation is associated with worse survival outcomes in some malignancies, data show that Black patients with cancer represent just 7.3% of participants—and only 4.5% for such cancers as multiple myeloma—in cancer clinical trials, compared with 84.2% for White...
Study Examines Benefits of Cervical Cancer Screening Program Tailored to Transgender Men and Nonbinary People
Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fifth most commonly occurring cancer in women, mostly due to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In 2020, globally, an estimated 604,237 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 341,843 died from the disease. In the United States, in 2021, it is...
Black Patients With Advanced NSCLC Receiving Immunotherapy May Have a Lower Risk of Death Than White Patients
Collectively, Black Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial/ethnic group in the United States for most cancers; Black men also have the highest cancer incidence rate. Despite improvements in survival disparities between Black and White Americans in specific cancers ...
Building a ‘Better Normal’ of Oncology Care to Strengthen Global Health Security After the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the opening session of the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, Julio Frenk, MD, PhD, MPH, President of the University of Miami, gave a riveting presentation in which he described the devastating effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on patients with cancer as well as on fragile and fragmented...
Patients First
By the time my non–small cell lung cancer was diagnosed in 2004, it had already reached stage IIIB, and I was told there was little that could be done for me. I was 56, a wife, the mother of 3 children, and at the peak of my career as president of Olympian Oil. Although my aunt, brother, and...
Overcoming the Disparities in Cancer Survival Among AYA Minority Patients
Although the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has identified adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer as a distinct patient population from children and older adults with the disease, research into the diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship specific to this patient population has not kept...
Study Finds Prior Authorization May Be Associated With Delayed Receipt of Oral Anticancer Drugs
Dozens of oral chemotherapy drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the past 2 decades and are now being prescribed in the treatment of many cancer types. However, most oral anticancer drug prescriptions require coordination between payers and providers, which can...
Integrating Community-Based Interventions Into Cancer Care for Low-Income and Minority Patients May Improve Quality of Life, Reduce Care Disparities
It has been well documented that a confluence of many factors, including low-socioeconomic status, contribute to health disparities and worse outcomes in minority patients with cancer. Strategies that partnered community-based health workers with low-income and minority patients with cancer...
Cancer Is Trying to Steal My Body, but I Will Not Allow It to Steal My Joy
Until I was diagnosed with HER2-positive, estrogen receptor–positive/progesterone receptor–positive de novo metastatic breast cancer in 2009, I didn’t realize that Black women could get the disease. Although my mother died of metastatic breast cancer 5 years earlier when she was 65, she was the...
Recommendations From ASCO for Discussing Patients’ Goals of Care Through Survivorship to End of Life
In 2017, ASCO published its consensus guideline to provide guidance on how oncologists can use effective communication to maximize the patient-clinician relationship, patient and clinician well-being, and family well-being as well as form a trusting relationship with patients through empathy and...
Improving End-of-Life Discussions With Patients Who Have Advanced Cancer
Although studies have shown that patients with advanced cancer want their oncologists to discuss their advance care plans with them, fewer than half of those patients have that conversation. The reasons are many, including the difficulty many oncologists have in initiating conversations about...
Study Finds Low-Poverty U.S. Counties May Eliminate Cervical Cancer 14 Years Earlier Than High-Poverty Counties
About 14,500 new cases of invasive cervical cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States and nearly 4,300 women die from the disease. Studies show that those living in higher-poverty areas experience higher rates of morbidity and mortality from many preventable cancers, including cervical...
How COVID-19 Is Spotlighting the Role of Palliative Medicine
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the tragedy of patients dying in isolation, separated from family and friends to limit infection in hospital settings. The process has altered the experience of serious illness for patients and their loved ones, including their ability to grieve, share important...
I’m a Two-Time Breast Cancer Survivor, and the Experience Has Been Life-Altering
Even before my breast cancer diagnosis in early 2002, the year was shaping up to be life-altering for me and my family. We had moved from Seattle to Houston for a new career opportunity for my husband and were just settling into our new home when I felt a pea-sized nodule in my left breast during a ...
Patients With Melanoma Previously Treated With PD-1 or MAPK Inhibitors May Be Less Likely to Respond to ACT-TIL Therapy
Patients with metastatic melanoma who were previously treated with PD-1 or MAPK inhibition are significantly less likely to develop durable objective responses to adoptive cell transfer of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (ACT-TIL) than patients naive to these treatments, according to a study...
Retrospective Study Compares Characteristics of Early-Onset vs Average-Onset Colorectal Cancer
A large retrospective study has found that early-onset colorectal cancers are clinically and genomically indistinguishable from average-onset colorectal cancers. In addition, the study found that more aggressive treatment based solely on the patient’s age at diagnosis is neither necessary nor...
Topical HDAC Inhibitor Remetinostat for Basal Cell Carcinoma
A small phase II study of the topical histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor remetinostat in patients with basal cell carcinoma found that the therapy was well tolerated and demonstrated clinical efficacy with no systemic side effects. The findings suggest that HDAC inhibitors are likely an effective ...
Facing the Trauma of Colorectal Cancer
I first noticed blood in my stool when I was in the 8th grade. My mom and I did an Internet search and were relieved to find that the cause was most likely nothing more serious than hemorrhoids, so I put the problem out of my mind. I played volleyball and had an active social life, and the...
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle May Decrease Cancer Incidence in High-Risk Individuals
Studies show that unhealthy lifestyles—including smoking, drinking alcohol, having obesity, being physically inactive, and eating a poor diet—are associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. Studies also show that practicing a healthy lifestyle is associated with an increase in total...
Study Examines Prevalence of Cancer Misinformation and Harmful Information on Social Media
Research shows that the majority of Americans—81%—are health-care information seekers, and that more than three-quarters of Americans get that information online. Unfortunately, much of that online information is inaccurate and could cause harm, according to a review of the most popular articles on ...
How Climate Change Is Impacting Cancer Care and What Can Be Done to Reduce Oncology’s Footprint on the Environment
Worldwide, the global average surface temperature has risen at a similar rate of 0.17°F per decade since 1901, with the warmest year on record occurring in 2016 and the second warmest occurring in 2020. However, according to NOAA, since the late 1970s, the United States has warmed faster than the...
I’m Alive by Sheer Force of Will—and a Lot of Luck
From the moment I felt a searing pain go through my right breast, I had a premonition that something was very wrong. Although I couldn’t feel anything unusual when I did a breast self-exam, I made an appointment with my gynecologist for a more thorough clinical breast exam and a mammogram. Because...
Bringing Palliative Care to Native American Patients With Cancer
Native Americans are among the most underserved minority populations in the United States and are disproportionately affected by cancer. They have the lowest survival rates for nearly all types of cancer of any minority population and much higher rates of certain types of cancer, including lung,...
Combination Ficlatuzumab and Cytarabine Show Clinical Activity in Relapsed/Refractory AML
Despite advances in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), only 29.5% of patients with the cancer are alive 5 years after diagnosis. Even with aggressive therapy, just 30% of patients achieve a complete remission with a median survival of 7.5 months, making it imperative to develop novel...
Initial Pandemic-Related Disruptions in Breast Cancer Care May Result in Increased Mortality Over the Next Decade
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, elective medical procedures, including screenings for breast cancer, were curtailed to prioritize urgent medical needs and reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus in health-care settings. A study showed that, as of May 2020, preventive...
Defining Cure in Multiple Myeloma
The past 2 decades have seen so many advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma; in addition, median patient survival has grown from just 3 years in the late 1990s to between 8 and 10 years today,1 with some patients exceeding that prognosis by many years. Although still considered a stubbornly...
Being Both a Cancer Provider and a Cancer Survivor Is a Rare Privilege
Perhaps my 35-year career as a surgical oncologist and researcher specializing in soft-tissue sarcomas should have prepared me to recognize the signs of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) when they first appeared a few days before Christmas in 2016, but it did not. In fact, my symptoms were so...
Predicting Global Cancer Trends in 2021
Although we are just halfway through 2021, the outlook for improvements in global cancer trends looks grim. According to new estimates by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Global Cancer Observatory, the global cancer burden rose to 19.3 million cases and 10 million deaths in 2020...
Reducing Prostate Cancer Disparity by Bringing Care to Underserved Populations
The dire cancer incidence and mortality statistics for Black patients compared with White patients are well known. Collectively, Black individuals have the highest mortality rate and shortest survival of any racial or ethnic group in the United States for most cancers. Black men also have the...
Despite Gains in Breast Cancer Survival, Black Women Continue to Experience Significant Mortality Disparities
Although breast cancer continues to be the most common cancer diagnosed in women in the United States, and remains the second-leading cause of cancer death, over the past several decades, the disease has affected Black and White women differently. According to the findings of a large retrospective...
Survey Finds COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Many Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors
Despite recommendations from ASCO and other national organizations that cancer survivors, as well as patients on active treatment, receive the COVID-19 vaccine if they have no contraindications, a survey of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors finds many have vaccine hesitancy. According to...
How to Talk With Teens and Young Adults About Their End-of-Life Goals
Although death rates for adolescent and young adults (AYAs) with cancer have been dropping 0.8% a year from 2009 to 2018, cancer remains a leading disease-related cause of death among this patient population. This year, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 88,260 AYAs, defined by the...
Breast Cancer Has Taught Me Many Life Lessons
In 2016, 2 years before I was diagnosed with stage III estrogen and progesterone receptor–positive, HER2-negative, invasive ductal carcinoma in situ in my left breast, I had felt a mass in my right breast that turned out to be a benign fibroid. When I felt a mass in my left breast one morning while ...
Do Community Oncologists Have Access to Geriatric Specialty Care for Older Patients?
As our population rapidly ages, the burden of cancer incidence increases accordingly, creating an urgent need for greater and more incisive research on the diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship issues for older adults with cancer. Given the numerous challenges faced by today’s busy oncologists, a...
Harnessing a Worldwide Effort to Combat COVID-19 and Cancer
This past October, in a virtually held ceremony of the General Assembly of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Anil K. D’Cruz, MBBS, MS, DNB, FRCS (Hon), Director of Oncology at Apollo Hospitals in Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, India, began his 2-year tenure as President of the global...
How RAS Mutations in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer May Impact Patient Survival
Although both incidence and mortality rates in colorectal cancer have been declining among people older than 65 by 3.3% and 3% annually, respectively, among individuals younger than age 50, the incidence rate has risen about 2% annually, and death rates have increased by 1.3% annually.1 Colorectal...
Survival of Patients With Colon Cancer Enrolled in the U.S. Military Health System
A study by Lin et al comparing patients with colon cancer enrolled in the U.S. Military Health System, which provides universal health-care to its beneficiaries, with those in the general population has found that patients in the Military Health System had an 18% lower risk of death compared with...
Alkylating Signature in Colorectal Cancer May Be Linked to High Red Meat Intake
The association between the consumption of red and processed meats and the development of colorectal cancer, as well as pancreatic and prostate cancers, has been known since 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified the consumption of red meat as probably...
Data Analysis on Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Sheds Light on the Rising Rates in Young Adults
In May 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced that it was updating its recommendation for when individuals at average risk of colorectal cancer should begin screening. Echoing the recommendation from the American Cancer Society in 2018, the USPSTF now recommends that those ...
I Was Given a ‘Death Sentence’ at Just 17
A minor car accident I had with my mother when I was 17 probably saved my life. We were taken to the hospital for a routine checkup, and a subsequent chest x-ray found multiple nodules on my lungs. I underwent dozens of other imaging and blood tests, and finally, my pediatrician suggested my...
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden Assures the NCI of the Administration’s Commitment to Advancing Cancer Research
In a virtual visit to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on February 3, 2021, just 2 weeks after her husband, Joe Biden, was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, First Lady Jill Biden, EdD, recounted that, in her many years of travel across the United States, she learned that...
Study Finds Need to Improve Knowledge About Palliative Care Among U.S. Adults
The use of palliative care in hospitals in the United States has steadily risen over the past decade, with almost universal access to services in large hospitals and academic medical centers. Despite this increased access and recommendations from ASCO that all patients with advanced cancer receive...
