Two quality improvement projects described in the Journal of Oncology Practice resulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous (IV) and oral chemotherapy. A project at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types of...
A study from Lund University in Sweden has shown that commonly used chemotherapy toxins impair the eyesight in childhood cancer survivors in a way that indicates an impact on the central nervous system. The results were published by Einarsson et al in PLOS One. It was not the former patients' ...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Ivey et al found that a leukemia-specific marker consisting of a mutation in the gene encoding nucleophosmin (NPM1) can be used to identify minimal residual disease in peripheral blood in standard-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML), with...
Every so often, a memoir comes along in which the story speaks to universal themes. For that magic to occur, the author must step aside at times and let others tell their story, too. Moreover, the writing must be clear, vibrant, and above all else honest to the core. The recently published memoir...
The 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans1 have generated comments and controversy, with some organizations expressing concern that the guidelines did not recommend limiting the consumption of red and processed meat. These organizations include the American Institute for Cancer Research...
“A missed opportunity” is how Susan Higginbotham, PhD, RD, Vice President for Research, American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), described the “failure” of updated dietary guidelines to recommend limiting consumption of red and processed meat. Doing so would have “the potential to save...
The use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has led to a dramatic rise in the number of men diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancer. Active surveillance is recommended to manage patients with favorable-risk, low-grade prostate cancer, with the goal of avoiding overtreatment of these...
A randomized clinical trial examining the effect of a 15-week healthy living program on weight loss in cancer survivors showed a 5.3% decrease in baseline body weight in those participating in the program.1 “Cancer survivors randomized to a 15-week clinic-based weight-loss intervention lost an...
The United Kingdom’s phase II NEOSCOPE trial compared the toxicity and efficacy of two preoperative chemoradiation regimens—carboplatin/paclitaxel and oxaliplatin/capecitabine—and judged one to be the winner. “CarPacRT passed the prespecified efficacy criteria for taking forward to phase III, but...
Patients with throat cancer exposed to both human papillomavirus (HPV) and tobacco smoke demonstrate a pattern of mutations along several key cancer genes, according to research presented by Zevallos et al at the 2016 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium (Abstract 1). These distinct...
Claus Rödel, MD, Director and Chair of the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, University of Frankfurt, Germany, and invited discussant of the study, pointed out that these investigators found “the opposite” of what most previous studies have shown: Others have found an increased risk for...
Second malignancies were not more common among patients who underwent radiotherapy for rectal cancer. In fact, radiotherapy appeared to offer some degree of protection against subsequent cancers, according to the findings of a study from the Netherlands reported at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers ...
A retrospective review to evaluate the frequency of serum tumor marker testing “found a high rate of serum tumor marker testing overuse and extreme overuse in patients with advanced solid tumors,” Melissa K. Accordino, MD, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New...
Patients with pancreatic cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy at a high-volume center had superior median and 5-year overall survival than did patients who were treated in a community setting, according to the results of a study presented at the 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.1 This...
An international research team has determined how inherited gene variations lead to severe drug toxicity that may threaten chances for a cure in children with leukemia. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study, results of which set the stage to expand the use of a...
In a Dutch study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Schaapveld et al found that survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma treated between 1965 and 2000 were at a 4.6-fold greater risk of second cancer vs the general population during long-term follow-up. There was no significant difference in the ...
Cancer patients who miss two or more radiation therapy sessions (except for planned treatment breaks) have a worse outcome than fully compliant patients, investigators at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care (MECCC) and Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Albert Einstein Cancer Center have...
Use of the androgen receptor–inhibitor enzalutamide (Xtandi) more than doubled progression-free survival vs the nonsteroidal antiandrogen bicalutamide in patients with metastatic prostate cancer progressing on androgen-deprivation therapy, according to the randomized phase II TERRAIN trial...
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and ASCO have issued a Breast Cancer Survivorship Care guideline, published jointly in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The guideline recommendations were formulated by a multidisciplinary expert work group and are based on...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Armstrong et al found that late mortality decreased over time among 5-year survivors of childhood cancer in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort. The reduction is consistent with efforts during recent decades to modify treatment with ...
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 December 11, 2015, alectinib (Alecensa) was granted...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Harrington et al found that the addition of concurrent adjuvant lapatinib (Tykerb) to chemoradiation therapy and the use of maintenance lapatinib did not improve disease-free or overall survival in high-risk patients with resected...
Addressing disparities of cancer care that result in poorer outcomes among certain populations remains a persistent challenge in the oncology community and in the health-care system at large. It is, to a large degree, a medical story of haves and have-nots. Richard “Buz” Cooper, MD, a preeminent...
In a study reported in JAMA Dermatology,1 Neel Maria Helvind, MD, of the University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues analyzed the increases in melanoma incidence seen in Denmark between 1985 and 2012. Over that time, the incidence of malignant melanoma doubled to rates...
Cancer will kill more than 8 million people worldwide this year, which is equivalent to the entire population of New York. Half of these will be people of working age (30–69 years old). It has been estimated that the cost implications on world economies caused by cancer and the other...
In screening for breast cancer, results from a study in the United Kingdom suggest that the use of “synthetic” two-dimensional (2D) mammography, rather than 2D/three-dimensional (3D) combinations, could save radiologists’ time and patients’ exposure to radiation as well as result in many fewer...
Vice President Joe Biden's “moonshot” initiative to defeat cancer earned support for a tax increase to fund cancer research among half of respondents (50%) in a new national public opinion survey commissioned by Research!America. Thirty-eight percent disagree and an additional 12% are...
ASCO applauds President Obama for his bold vision to launch a national effort on cancer, which he described during his State of the Union address on January 12, 2016. We also join him in recognizing Vice President Biden’s leadership in calling for a “moonshot” that will reduce the cancer-related...
Ten years ago, ASCO created the Journal of Oncology Practice to address a gap in the literature; there were no peer-reviewed journals dedicated to the practical issues of delivering quality oncology care. The original research and editorials published in JOP focus on care delivery topics such as...
"A solid triple but not a home run” is how Karen H. Lu, MD, characterized a study in The Lancet reporting a reduction in deaths from ovarian cancer with the use of multimodal ovarian cancer screening.1 Dr. Lu’s remark was one of several, mostly but not universally, favorable and optimistic comments ...
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 December 11, 2015, uridine triacetate (Vistogard) was approved...
Studies presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium built upon an increasing body of data in support of the neoadjuvant use of carboplatin in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Overall, however, the studies fell short of establishing carboplatin’s role in this malignancy and ...
Mercaptopurine is critical for maintaining remission in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, a study has shown that overreporting of intake is common, and self-reports of intake are not as reliable as electronic reporting.1 About 86% of parents and children overreported the number ...
Overall survival in patients with surgically resected early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not improve with the addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to chemotherapy, according to the findings of a study researchers have called a “top abstract” from the 16th World Conference on Lung...
In a UK retrospective population-based study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Duffy et al found a significant inverse association between the detection of ductal carcinoma in situ in breast cancer screening and the incidence of invasive interval cancers diagnosed within 3 years after screening....
Although little controversy exists regarding the indication for urologic evaluation for patients with gross hematuria, the evaluation of patients with the much more common finding of microscopic hematuria is complicated by a lack of clarity regarding indications for clinical referral, according to...
Two quality improvement projects described by Bryant-Bova in the Journal of Oncology Practiceresulted in reduced errors in prescribing intravenous and oral chemotherapy. A project at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston outpatient infusion centers first identified 15 different types ...
Radiation-induced breast cancer risk from digital mammography is low for the majority of women, but the risk is higher in women with large breasts, who received 2.3 times more radiation and required more views per examination to image as much of the breast as possible compared to those with small...
More than a decade after lung cancer incidence and death rates began to decline in men, a statistically significant decrease in the rates are occurring among women. The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975 to 2007, is the first to document these decreases, the report’s authors...
The first identification of potential genetic biomarkers for taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy was reported at the 2011 ASCO Annual Meeting by researchers from Indiana University in Indianapolis.1 The presence of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or common genetic variations, residing...
A large, “real-world” study has validated current recommendations from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American Cancer Society (ACS), and American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) endorsing a 3-year cervical cancer screening interval for women...
The 11th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma was held June 15–18 in Lugano, Switzerland. More than 3,000 hematologists, clinical oncologists, pathologists, and researchers attended the meeting, which was first convened in 1981. Topics of discussion included lymphoma staging in the new...
A substudy of the large prospective National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Breast Cancer Prevention Trial revealed both expected and surprising findings related to the association between lifestyle factors (cigarette smoking, alcohol, and exercise) and cancer risk. As might be...
Given the intricate nature of oncology workflow, terminology, cancer staging, and the high risk associated with chemotherapy administration, an oncology electronic medical record (EMR) system needs to be much more than a storehouse of patient information. According to David Henry, MD, Clinical...
Cabozantinib, a dual inhibitor of MET kinase and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor, exhibits high, early single-agent activity in men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer, according to Maha Hussain, MD, FACP, who presented these findings at the 2011 ASCO Annual...
Last year’s health-care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was designed to incrementally roll out major new bureaucratic entities, oversight, and mandates for the practice of medicine between its enactment and 2013, after the next presidential election. A new...
ASCO’s Oncology Slide Library—which allows ASCO meeting attendees to upload and share their ASCO meeting presentation slides with slide-library subscribers—may only be a year old, but participation is already very high. This year’s Annual Meeting in June marked the first time ASCO gave each speaker ...
Men with prostate cancer who receive intermittent courses of androgen-suppressing therapy can live as long as those who are treated with continuous therapy, according to results of a recently concluded study. Until now, standard treatment has consisted of continuous therapy, but this is expected to ...
Formal discussant, Anil Sood, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, said that both studies presented important information, but several issues should be considered, including the best combination with bevacizumab, whether the benefits accrue from bevacizumab alone or...
All parties—the government, payers, and consumers—agree that, left unchecked, rising health-care costs will eventually hamstring vital portions of our delivery system. For example, Medicare, which covers more than 50% of the nation’s patients with cancer, is marching headlong toward insolvency....