Palliative care provided soon after a patient is diagnosed with incurable cancer not only helps improve the patient’s overall quality of life but also improves communication about the patient’s wishes for end-of-life care, according to a study by Jennifer S. Temel, MD, Clinical Director of Thoracic ...
ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Bevacizumab-awwb is the first biosimilar approved in the United States for the treatment of cancer....
The ASCO Post is pleased to introduce “At Microphone 1,” an occasional column written by Steven E. Vogl, MD, of Bronx, New York. When he’s not in his clinic, Dr. Vogl can generally be found at major oncology meetings, and often at the microphone where he stands ready with important questions for...
THE BACKBONE treatment for soft-tissue sarcomas has long been anthracycline-based, but new approaches are coming. These novel strategies were discussed at the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference in Sea Island, Georgia, by Melinda L. Yushak, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor ...
SOME RECENT ADVANCES in the treatment of brain tumors are promising, but others are less so, according to Jeffrey J. Olson, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory University, Atlanta. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference, held in Sea Island, Georgia, and...
DOES COMPLETE lymph node dissection for sentinel node–positive melanoma still have a role in the management of this disease? That’s debatable. Although it does not improve overall survival over observation alone, complete lymphadenectomy may have other benefits, according to a dialogue at the...
AMYLOIDOSIS REMAINS a challenging and nuanced diagnosis. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference, held in Sea Island, Georgia, Jonathan L. Kaufman, MD, discussed his approach to diagnosing amyloid light-chain amyloidosis. Dr. Kaufman is Associate Professor of...
AT THE 12TH ANNUAL New Orleans Summer Cancer Meeting, Thomas Herzog, MD, Deputy Director of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Institute and Professor of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, delivered an update on nonimmunotherapy advances in...
THE PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) improved progression-free survival by 11.2 months compared with placebo in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease did not progress following standard treatment ...
Despite the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation that women between the ages of 50 and 74 undergo mammography every 2 years, only about 50% of American Muslim women do so, compared with 67% of all American women. A study by Padela et al investigating the mammography-related barrier...
ON AUGUST 30, 2017, the first genetically engineered T-cell therapy (tisagenlecleucel [Kymriah]) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory or in second or...
Federally funded research that provides a deep understanding of cancer is spurring advances against many types of the disease. With a strong bipartisan commitment from Congress to keep investment in biomedical research a national priority, we can accelerate our pace of progress and save more lives...
The University of Texas System Board of Regents has selected Peter W.T. Pisters, MD, MHCM, as sole finalist for the position of president at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The regents voted unanimously to select Dr. Pisters at a special board meeting on Friday,...
Clinical trials are fundamental to the development of new treatments for cancer, yet the annual accrual to cancer clinical trials worldwide is low, estimated at 3%–5%. A nationwide study in Ireland, the preliminary results of which were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to copanlisib (Aliqopa) for the treatment of adults with relapsed follicular lymphoma who have received at least two prior systemic therapies. “For patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma, the cancer often...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Bevacizumab-awwb is the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment of cancer. “Bringing new biosimilars to...
A 14-year randomized trial in more than 600 patients has concluded that chemoradiation should remain the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. The findings were reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract 928O_PR). ...
Cancers caused by mismatch repair (MMR)-deficiency involve gene mutations that affect the ability of the cell to repair the mistakes that may occur during the DNA replication process. MMR-deficient tumors have 10 to 100 times more mutations than tumors with intact MMR pathways. A study...
Due to DNA sequencing, patients with rare cancers for which no standard treatment is available could receive existing therapies that work in patients treated for different cancers but who carry the same genetic mutations. The first results of a multidrug and multitumor clinical trial (Abstract...
Adjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) is superior to standard-of-care ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with surgically resected stage III/IV melanoma who are at high risk of relapse, according to late-breaking results from the CheckMate 238 trial presented on September 11 at the European Society for Medical...
When I was in high school, I spent summers working as a restaurant dishwasher, grocery store stock boy, and gardener in northwest Indiana. The idea of spending those weeks learning about science and medicine would not have been an option for me at that time. Yet it is precisely those students who...
Two scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will receive the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their significant research leading to the development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The award is the country’s most prestigious biomedical research prize,...
THE MEMBERS of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) have elected three new officers to ASTRO’s Board of Directors and three members to serve on the medical society’s Nominating Committee. The newly elected President-Elect, Health Policy Council Vice-Chair, Science Council Vice-Chair, ...
WITH THE MANY NEWS REPORTS about Senator John McCain being diagnosed with glioblastoma, patients may be asking if symptoms such as headaches and vision or speech problems should signal the need for screening or diagnostic tests. “There has never been any suggestion that doing routine screening,...
NEWS ARTICLES about Senator John McCain’s diagnosis of glioblastoma accurately describe glioblastoma as aggressive and having a poor prognosis. But as Walter J. Curran, Jr, MD, pointed out in one of those reports, “substantial improvements in surgical approaches” have enabled more patients to...
It was 2:15 PM, and my afternoon clinic had not yet begun. The morning had been particularly trying as a result of disastrous clinical developments for two of my long-standing patients. Jessica had metastatic breast cancer, and I had been taking care of her for 7 years. Multiple lines of...
CARING FOR sick children brings with it a set of emotional and physical challeneges that differ from those with the adult patient population. In a new book, Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories From the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine, Kurt Newman, MD, draws on more than 30 years of his...
On September 3, 1928, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming returned to London from a vacation and sorted through some petri dishes containing colonies of Staphylococcus. He noticed something unusual in one dish: It was dotted with colonies except for one area where a patch of mold grew....
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...
ON AUGUST 30, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for pediatric and young adult patients up to 25 years with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory to initial treatment or in second or later relapse. Tisagenlecleucel ...
Although thyroid cancer is among the five most common carcinomas diagnosed in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) between the ages of 15 and 39—thyroid cancer is more common in young women than young men and is the most common cancer diagnosed in females between the ages of 15 and 29 and the second ...
Institution: Postgraduate trainee and PhD candidate in medical oncology, Department of Clinical Oncology and Chemotherapy, Nagoya University Graduate School of MedicineMember since: 2014ASCO activities: Virtual Mentors, Journal of Global Oncology editorial fellow Of the many activities ASCO...
BIOLOGICS PLAY A KEY ROLE in cancer treatment and are the principal components of many therapeutic regimens.1 However, they require complex manufacturing processes, resulting in high cost and occasional shortages in supply, limiting the accessibility of cancer treatment for many patients, more so ...
The results of the phase III NETTER-1 trial, recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine,1 have been met with great interest by clinicians who treat neuroendocrine tumors. In patients with advanced midgut lesions, treatment with the radiopharmaceutical lutetium Lu-177 dotatate...
Rates of obesity have been steadily rising over the past 3 decades in both adults and children. Today, more than one-third of American adults and about 17% of children and adolescents, ages 6 to 19, have obesity.1 Cancer rates have risen in tandem with obesity rates, making obesity the second...
Despite a flurry of treatment advances in multiple myeloma over the past decade that have increased overall survival from just 2 to 3 years in the 1990s to between 5 and 7 years today—with some data suggesting an extended life expectancy of between 7 and 10 years1—the cancer remains stubbornly...
Internationally recognized genitourinary oncologist Maha Hussain, MD, FACP, FASCO, was born and reared in Baghdad, Iraq. “I came from a family that stressed the value of higher education and especially medicine. I have three uncles who are physicians, and my father encouraged my three siblings and...
The University of Texas System Board of Regents has selected Peter W.T. Pisters, MD, MHCM, as sole finalist for the position of President at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The regents voted unanimously to select Dr. Pisters at a special board meeting on Friday,...
The evidence from clinical trials has established that “side matters” when it comes to colorectal cancer outcomes. How do clinicians use this information in their practices? Christina Wu, MD, of Emory University, shared her thoughts with attendees at the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and ...
Researchers are tackling multiple myeloma from many angles, and the result could be a flood of novel approaches soon within the oncologist’s reach, according to Kenneth C. Anderson, MD. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference at Sea Island, Georgia, Dr. Anderson...
Novel targeted treatment strategies and new trial endpoints in recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer were highlighted in a gynecologic cancer session at the Best of ASCO New Orleans. At the meeting, Karen McLean, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, presented...
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and the global burden is on an inexorably upward trajectory. For the year 2012, there were 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths worldwide.1 It is predicted that by the year 2035, there will be 23.9 million new...
New hematology research, presented at the Best of ASCO New Orleans meeting, may help to guide the use of stem cell transplant in hematologic malignancies. At the meeting, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and Tycel Phillips, MD, of the...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued what it has called a “historic action,” making the first gene therapy available in the United States. The FDA approved tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for certain pediatric and young adult patients with a form of acute lymphoblastic...
Female patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery are more likely to have a favorable response to the treatment than male patients are, and women are less likely to experience cancer recurrence, according to a study published by...
UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS (UH) has announced the appointment of Theodoros N. Teknos, MD, as the new President and Scientific Officer of UH Seidman Cancer Center, effective October 1. He will take over from current UH Seidman President Nathan Levitan, MD, who has been in the position since 2008 and...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (CCF) presented more than $6.3 million in grants and awards to 247 promising oncology researchers at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting. CCF and ASCO congratulate the recipients on their contributions to the field of oncology and offer their profound thanks to the...
PRIMARY LIVER CANCER is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for 90% of liver cancer, with around 800,000 new cases diagnosed globally each year.1 In contrast to the stable or declining trends observed for most neoplasms, the incidence and...
ALTHOUGH THE National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) strongly influence the management of advanced prostate cancer, they do not always reflect actual clinical practice. It turns out that in the real world, there are multiple areas ...
ALEX’S LEMONADE STAND FOUNDATION (ALSF) has announced the opening of the first-of-its-kind Childhood Cancer Data Lab (CCDL) with the mission of accelerating cures. ALSF first announced the CCDL at the National Cancer Moonshot Summit in Washington, DC, hosted by former Vice President Joe Biden and...