More than 100 years after William B. Coley, MD, used bacterial toxins to goad the immune system into recognizing cancer cells as foreign to the body and mount an immune response to go after and kill them, the recognition of immunotherapy as a powerful anticancer therapy is finally being...
Is cancer really “curable,” and if so, how? For a “Cancer Dialogue” held during the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, half a dozen stellar participants from the research, industry, regulatory, and advocacy communities convened to debate the topic. The ASCO Post was ...
This is an exciting time to be an oncologist. I often say I wish I were 30 again and just starting out in my oncology career. Never before have we had such sophisticated technology for evaluation of the tumor or such a potent arsenal of targeted and effective therapies to treat cancer. Further, the ...
The Middle East is a vast region comprised largely of developing nations with complicated sociopolitical challenges, violent internecine disputes, and deeply fragmented health-care systems. Not surprisingly, the region’s suboptimal health care contributes to the late diagnosis and poor survival...
BookmarkTitle: Dying: A TransitionAuthor: Monika Renz, PhD; translated by Mark Kyburz and John PeckPublisher: Columbia University PressPublication date: October 2015Price: $38.00; hardcover, 176 pages The night before Julius Caesar was assassinated, he had dinner with his friend Marcus...
In March, ASCO announced that Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO, was stepping down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the end of June, ending his 10-year tenure as head of the Society and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, Chief of Breast Medicine Service and Vice...
Among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer harboring normal forms of the KRAS gene, only those who had two copies of a specific version of the FCGR2A gene (FCGR2A H/H) had a statistically significant increase in median overall survival when cetuximab (Erbitux) treatment was added to best...
On April 14, 2016, an 18-month-old patient with cancer named Baron Yerby flew home to Atlanta after receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. However, instead of flying on a crowded commercial plane with the potential for immune deficiency issues, he and his parents flew on a...
Imagine accidentally falling off an abyss. One simply cannot fully understand the gravity of the situation! You might skip a beat thinking about it while sitting in a chair in your living room, if you have tons of empathy, as you try to get into the shoes that are flailing for survival. But there...
In 2006, palliative care became a board-certified subspecialty of internal medicine, with specialized fellowships for physicians interested in the field. Despite its formal integration into best practices medical care, about 70% of Americans describe themselves as “not at all knowledgeable” about ...
Surveys indicate that cancer survivors have varying desires regarding the kind of support they want. Some patients find support groups very helpful as they deal with the host of issues in survivorship. Others want to distance themselves from the “world of cancer.” Studies also show that...
Press briefing moderator Julie Margenthaler, MD, of Washington University Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis, who is Communications Committee Chair for the American Society of Breast Surgeons, agreed that surveillance would be acceptable only within a clinical trial, and one is underway now....
Robert Weinberg, PhD, was honored for his seminal contributions to cancer research and cancer biology with the 13th annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research at the 2016 AACR Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, April 16–20. The AACR...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) honored Waun Ki Hong, MD, with the 10th annual Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research at the 2016 AACR Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, April 16–20. The Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and...
John Farrow, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, had not been able to sleep for days. A week ago, his primary care doctor at his local outpatient Veterans Administration (VA) clinic told him that his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood level was rapidly increasing, and his prostate was abnormal on...
Excitement was high on the last day of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in anticipation of Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s remarks related to the Moonshot Initiative to accelerate progress in cancer research. The Secret Service made elaborate...
Although the publication of results of clinical trials carried out in the United States within 12 months of their completion has been mandatory since 2007, a remarkably high number of phase III radiotherapy trials did not do so, according to new research presented at the European Society for...
A 5-year study published by Hannan et al in the European Journal of Cancer showed that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat prostate cancer offers a higher cure rate than more traditional approaches, according to researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center Harold C. Simmons...
“In order to take advantage of today’s advancements in science, drug development, and patient treatment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) structure needs reorganization to focus its resources and ensure the best outcomes for patients. Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) proposes...
Physician and scientist Larry W. Kwak, MD, PhD, Director of City of Hope’s Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center, has been awarded the 2016 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, which recognizes people of Korean heritage who have made impressive contributions in clinical and research areas that contributed to the...
I’m used to having bumps and cysts pop up on my body, so when I felt a lump on the front of my throat, just below my Adam’s apple, I brushed it off. But when it was still there 6 months later, I became concerned and decided to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He performed a fine-needle...
Immunotherapy is on its way. A few agents have already been approved: ipilimumab (Yervoy) in 2011 for melanoma; nivolumab (Opdivo) in 2015 for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and then later that year for renal cell carcinoma; and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for NSCLC. In addition, many clinical...
Researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology community leaders dedicated to enhancing cancer prevention, treatment, and patient care will be honored with ASCO’s highest honor, its Special Awards, during the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. Among this year’s awardees are a lung cancer luminary who...
On April 4, 2016, The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced a Blue Ribbon Panel of scientific experts, cancer leaders, and patient advocates that will inform the scientific direction and goals at NCI of Vice President Joe Biden’s National Cancer ...
Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD, has been named Chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He will also serve as Associate Chief of ...
The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, as their President-Elect for 2016–2017. He officially became President-Elect at the AACR Annual Meeting 2016, held in New Orleans, April 16–20, and will assume the presidency in April 2017 at...
Steven J. Cohen, MD, Chief of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been elected by his peers to serve as Vice Chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Pancreas Task Force of the Gastrointestinal Steering Committee (GISC). “I am honored to be elected to serve as the ...
Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy in the management of breast cancer is woefully underutilized by U.S. clinicians, according to advocates of this approach who made their case at the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference.1 In postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–rich tumors, neoadjuvant endocrine...
Although high-dose chemotherapy plus autologous transplantation has been a standard of care in the treatment of younger patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the advent of effective novel agents for the cancer over the past 15 years has raised the question of whether transplantation, with ...
More than a third of metastatic melanoma patients (34%) who received the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) immunotherapeutic nivolumab (Opdivo) in a phase I clinical trial are still alive 5 years after starting treatment, according to research presented by Hodi et al at the 2016...
Among patients with early-stage breast cancer who were considered at high risk for disease recurrence based on clinical and biologic criteria, the MammaPrint genetic test identified a large group of patients for whom 5-year distant metastasis–free survival was equally good whether or not they ...
I was the last one on the oncology team to meet Mel. He was 36 years old, and by then Mel had been living with metastatic colon cancer for several years. During that time, his clinicians had never referred him to our psycho-oncology team because of his strong attitude and outlook. Mel’s outward...
David B. Roth, MD, PhD, has been appointed Director of the new Penn Center for Precision Medicine. In his new role, he will lead efforts to accelerate the implementation of precision medicine into clinical care. Dr. Roth is an expert in DNA repair and mechanisms of programmed gene rearrangements...
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), was recognized during the plenary session at the 69th Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium with the James Ewing Layperson’s Award for her dedication to the prevention and cure of cancer;...
Sadik Esener, PhD, has been recruited to the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute to lead the first large-scale early cancer detection program of its kind. Dr. Esener will be the Director of the Institute’s Center for Early Detection Research and has been awarded...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) primary concern in the drug approval process is to ensure that the drug is safe and effective. For the past several decades, the advocacy groups have vociferously painted the agency as a stodgy bureaucracy that prevents desperate patients access to...
The adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” is true, but authors still need to be aware of the importance of first impressions. The title of science writer Travis Christofferson’s book Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Illuminates a New and Hopeful Path to ...
The Claudia Cohen Research Foundation and the Foundation for Women’s Cancer announced Michael J. Birrer, MD, PhD, as the 2016 recipient of the Claudia Cohen Research Foundation Prize for Outstanding Gynecologic Cancer Researcher. The $50,000 prize was presented at the Society of Gynecologic...
The 2016 Pezcoller Foundation-American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) International Award for Cancer Research will be presented to Joan Massagué, PhD, Director of the Sloan Kettering Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, at the AACR...
Itai Yanai, PhD, whose in-depth study of how embryos develop has led to breakthroughs in the analysis of gene composition and expression, has been named the inaugural Director of the newly created Institute for Computational Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. He officially takes his new...
The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) announced the addition of cancer researcher Robert Hromas, MD, Chair of Medicine at University of Florida Health, to its scientific advisory board (SAB). Dr. Hromas, who continues his position at the University of Florida Health, will join his...
Hartford HealthCare has named Past ASCO President Peter Paul Yu, MD, FASCO, the first Physician-in-Chief of Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. As Physician-in-Chief, Dr. Yu will be responsible for working closely and collaboratively with physicians and nurses who practice within the Hartford...
Patrick Moore, MD, MPH, has received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award, and was awarded $6.4 million to further his work into the link between viruses and cancer. This NCI grant provides 7 years of secured support, giving the investigator freedom from the pressure...
On April 4, 2016, The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced a Blue Ribbon Panel of scientific experts, cancer leaders, and patient advocates that will inform the scientific direction and goals at NCI of Vice President Joe Biden’s National...
At this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Craig Earle, MD, MSc, of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, used Donabedian’s Triad—structure, process, and outcome—to set the stage for his presentation on the science of quality. “The theory behind Donabedian’s Triad is that structure...
Precision medicine is judged according to different values across the multiple stakeholders involved in cancer care. At this year’s Quality Care Symposium, presenters from different sectors of oncology addressed a central question: How do we assess quality in the age of precision medicine?1,2 Right ...
In more than 25 years of viewing posters at oncology meetings, I’ve met researchers from virtually all professional walks of life, but it was not until the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference, that the author’s affiliation turned my head: It was a business school. “Utilizing Metastatic Tumor...
In a small retrospective series, patients with metastatic breast cancer treated according to the receptor status of the primary tumor, not the metastatic one, had significantly longer median overall survival. The study was reported at the 2016 Miami Breast Cancer Conference by T. Allen Pannell, Jr, ...
Jeffrey Fowler, MD, John G. Boutselis Chair in Gynecologic Oncology and Professor and Vice-Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, started his 1-year term as the 48th President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) at the conclusion of the...
Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, Chief of the Breast Medicine Service, Vice President for Government Relations, and Chief Advocacy Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, has been named the next Chief Executive Officer...