Currently, one of the most challenging problems in oncology is to accurately predict whether neoplastic lesions detected by screening tests will progress. The focus on developing ever-more sensitive cancer screening tests has produced the clinical dilemma of overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis occurs when ...
If a randomized, controlled trial of therapy for breast cancer was submitted for publication in which 1. The drug being tested was old and ineffective, and 2. prior to randomization, the women underwent a clinical breast examination and the study coordinators knew who had the largest cancers, and...
The recent report from the Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS)—published in BMJ and reviewed in The ASCO Post, early release online—concluded that annual mammography in women aged 40 to 59 does not result in a reduction in mortality from breast cancer beyond that of physical...
As reported in BMJ by Anthony B. Miller, MD, Professor Emeritus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and colleagues, the 25-year follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study has shown no mortality benefit of annual mammography screening for breast cancer...
At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, press briefing moderator C. Kent Osborne, MD, Director of the Dan Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, predicted the findings of the study by Badwe et al could be practice-changing. “This is not to say that we shouldn’t perform...
Amid studies of novel targeted therapies, genetic analyses of tumors, and new ways to approach the treatment of breast cancer, a low-tech study presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium found that a yearlong exercise program reduced joint pain associated with aromatase inhibitors in ...
More than 650 studies were presented at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, which attracted a multidisciplinary group of more than 3,500 medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists and gastroenterologists. The following briefs highlight a handful of noteworthy studies from the meeting....
Prior to the advent of targeted therapy, cytoreductive nephrectomy was associated with a 6-month improvement in overall survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. With new and better targeted therapies for the disease, the appropriate use of cytoreductive nephrectomy has been...
Ketogenic (or very-low-carbohydrate) diets have been employed since the 1920s as nonpharmacologic therapies for epilepsy and, in some instances, have obviated the need for medication for that disease. Since the 1960s, the ketogenic diet has become better known as a means of managing obesity. This...
The optimal time interval between surgery and initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer is not well established. Although most physicians aim to initiate adjuvant chemotherapy within a few weeks of surgery, clinical factors may cause delay. The influence of delay on relapse...
In a study reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Kokolusa and colleagues showed that fundamental aspects of antitumor immunity are significantly affected by ambient housing temperature for lab mice. Standard ambient temperature in research facility lab mice housing is...
Neoplasms originating from skin keratinocytes are increasing in frequency in the United States and include a spectrum of diseases culminating in the development of invasive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Although most cases of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma can be treated conservatively with ...
Laura Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN®, moderator: Lead Advanced Practice Provider, Inpatient Hematology/Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California, and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California, San Francisco Jeannine M....
The professional paths of advanced practitioners (APs) in oncology are as varied as the locations in which they work. The first annual JADPRO Live 2014 educational symposium was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, and hosted by JADPRO, the Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology. A...
Crizotinib (Xalkori) produced promising results in patients with ALK-positive lymphoma in two small studies presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. Crizotinib exerted potent antitumor activity in advanced ALK-positive lymphoma and achieved durable responses in...
The addition of bevacizumab (Avastin) to adjuvant chemotherapy did not improve invasive disease-free survival or overall survival in patients with high-risk HER2-positive breast cancer in the large randomized phase III BETH trial. Although not specifically designed to answer this question, BETH...
There may be an immunogenic phenotype in breast cancer that could benefit from immune modulation as part of treatment, according to results from studies that correlated high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes with both pathologic complete responses and long-term outcomes. Studies presented at ...
Targeted biologic agents have improved long-term outcomes in metastatic colorectal cancer, but debate continues as to their relative efficacy and proper sequencing. At the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, a number of studies attempted to answer these questions by interrogating the clinical...
City of Hope recently announced the appointment of two new chairs in the Department of Surgery and for the Board of Directors. Yuman Fong, MD, has been named Chair of the Department of Surgery at City of Hope. Dr. Fong comes to City of Hope from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York,...
Scientific name: Ganoderma lucidum Common names: Ling zhi, lin zi, mushroom of immortality Overview A fungus, reishi mushroom is an important component of the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries. It is used to increase energy, stimulate the immune system,...
ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT CHILDHOOD CANCER SURVIVORS Study Type: Randomized/interventional Study Title: A Randomized Web-Based Physical Activity Intervention in Adolescent Survivors of Childhood Cancer Study Sponsor and Collaborators: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Purpose: Five-year...
For decades, dedicated members of the oncology community have fought to increase the nation’s focus on lung cancer prevention and treatment. Although smoking cessation initiatives have reduced cigarette consumption, lung cancer 5-year survival has remained stagnant at 15%, lagging far below most...
The goal of effective adjuvant therapy is to increase overall survival. It has been suggested cynically that all we need to accomplish, actually, is to delay recurrence until after the time the patients die from another cause. However, patients want to hear from us that “it’s never coming back,”...
In recognition of his dedication to cancer research and education, and for promoting the goals of cancer prevention, early detection, and quality cancer treatment, John Powderly II, MD, Certified Physician Investigator, President and Founder of Carolina BioOncology Institute, Huntersville, North...
Men with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer face a decision between prostatectomy and radiotherapy, treatments deemed similarly effective but with well-established trade-offs in terms of treatment-related morbidity. Numerous clinical trials and other prospective studies, from both academic...
Studies of complications of surgery or radiotherapy for prostate cancer generally focus on incontinence and erectile dysfunction. In a population-based cohort study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Robert Nam, MD, MSc, FRCS(C), Professor of Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of...
In the FACS trial, reported in JAMA, John N. Primrose, MD, FRCS, of University of Southampton, England, and colleagues compared outcomes with intensive follow-up with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) measurement, computed tomography (CT), both, or minimum follow-up after curative surgery for primary...
Currently, one of the most challenging problems in oncology is to accurately predict whether neoplastic lesions detected by screening tests will progress. The focus on developing ever-more sensitive cancer screening tests has produced the clinical dilemma of overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis occurs when ...
If a randomized, controlled trial of therapy for breast cancer was submitted for publication in which 1. The drug being tested was old and ineffective, and 2. prior to randomization, the women underwent a clinical breast examination and the study coordinators knew who had the largest cancers, and...
The recent report from the Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS)—published in BMJ and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—concluded that annual mammography in women aged 40 to 59 does not result in a reduction in mortality from breast cancer beyond that of physical examination alone...
As reported in BMJ by Anthony B. Miller, MD, Professor Emeritus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and colleagues, the 25-year follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study has shown no mortality benefit of annual mammography screening for breast cancer...
Cancer Immunotherapy What is the role of immunotherapy in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma? The harnessing of the immune system as an effective treatment for cancer was recently selected by the journal Science as the top scientific Breakthrough of the Year for 2013.1 With this...
Although breast-conserving therapy has been a standard practice for more than 20 years, controversy still exists over what constitutes the appropriate margin of normal breast tissue around a tumor that minimizes local recurrence while maintaining a good cosmetic outcome. Surveys of surgeons1 and...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) inducted the 2014 class of elected Fellows of the AACR Academy at the Association’s Annual Meeting, held recently in San Diego. The AACR Academy is an entity within the AACR that recognizes those individuals who have made exceptional contributions ...
Veliparib, an oral poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, appears to be of value in treating women with BRCA-mutated gynecologic cancers that are resistant to other therapies. These preliminary findings of a phase II study support the concept that BRCA-associated ovarian cancers are...
A recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine has provoked conversation about the management of smoldering multiple myeloma.1 At the recent National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Annual Conference, Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, shared his thoughts ...
The term “novel agents” has been used for the past decade to describe proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs that are now conventionally used for multiple myeloma. However, even newer agents in development will be considered truly novel when they hit the market, as they represent new...
Sentinel node status is “the most powerful predictor” of melanoma-specific survival in patients with thin melanoma, according to a presentation at the 2014 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Cancer Symposium in Phoenix.1 As a result, sentinel lymph node biopsy should be considered in patients with...
Although most patients want to know about the potential outcome of their disease and whether treatment is likely to have a significant impact on it, the information needs of patients and how best to fulfill those needs are very variable, Walter F. Baile, MD, told The ASCO Post. Dr. Baile is...
When the prognosis is poor, breaking the bad news badly can exacerbate the distress experienced by cancer patients and their families. A lack of sensitivity to patient and family emotions and not being attuned to how individual patients would prefer to be informed about their prognoses can result...
When Jane Cooke Wright, MD, met with six other oncologists at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago on April 9, 1964, to discuss the creation of American Society of Clinical Oncology, the first medical society dedicated to bringing patient-oriented issues to clinical oncology, the Civil Rights Act...
On April 9, 1964, seven physicians—Jane Cooke Wright, MD, FASCO; Arnoldus Goudsmit, MD, PhD; Fred J. Ansfield, MD, FASCO; Harry F. Bisel, MD, FASCO; Herman H. Freckman, MD, FASCO; Robert W. Talley, MD, FASCO; and William Wilson, MD, FASCO—met for lunch at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. They...
On April 21, 2014, ramucirumab (Cyramza) was approved for use as a single agent in the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma with disease progression on or after prior treatment with fluoropyrimidine- or platinum-containing...
The number of cancer survivors has been steadily increasing in recent years. According to the Ministry of Health National Cancer Registry, in 2010 there were 254,000 cancer survivors in Israel (3.3% of the population) compared with 15,700 (0.4% of the population, P < .005) in 1975.1 Forty years...
The neurosurgeon is often the gateway provider when patients present with what on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appears to be a new glioblastoma. Because histology-based diagnosis is a prerequisite for initiating standard therapy with radiation and chemotherapy, the first question that the...
Many nonpharmacologic therapies increase both physical and emotional strength during cancer treatment as well as throughout survivorship. These therapies include the mind-body practices of meditation, self-hypnosis, guided imagery, and breath awareness, touch therapies including massage and...
Most recent advances in the management of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are in the area of genetics, according to Steven Gore, MD, of Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven. “New genomics research is leading to a better understanding of MDS heterogeneity and disease biology, and may...
Data from trials conducted mostly in the 1970s and 1980s established the paradigm that optimal treatment of rectal cancer requires a combination of radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery.1 Virtually all of these trials, however, demonstrated that radiotherapy added only to the local control...
I have spent my career working with urologists. Over a long period of time, I have concluded that they are fine and interesting people who work hard, live well, support interesting hobbies, generally take good care of their families, and are very enjoyable company at parties. The recent discussion...
ASCO has taken the field of psychosocial oncology a step forward in the right direction by providing guidelines for oncologists to direct care of the two most common emotional symptoms that patients experience: anxiety and depression.1 It is fair to say that all patients experience these...