I found out that I had stage III pancreatic cancer on Valentine’s Day in 2011, but I think the disease may have been brewing for a long time. For 19 years, I had experienced intermittent pain in the right upper quadrant of my abdomen. I had gallbladder surgery to relieve a bile duct obstruction,...
Despite his fame as co-discoverer—along with Francis Crick, PhD—of the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, that accomplishment is not what James Dewey Watson, PhD, came to talk about during a recent presentation he gave at the World Science Festival in New York. Instead,...
The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has named Alon Weizer, MD, MS, as Medical Director. In this new role Dr. Weizer will be responsible for managing the day-to-day clinical outpatient operations at the Cancer Center. Dr. Weizer is Associate Professor of Urology at the University...
Genomic heterogeneity within tumors and among lesions varies widely, and “discordance among lesions could lead to the selection of the ‘incorrect’ targeted inhibitor,” according to David B. Solit, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who spoke at the ASCO/American Association for Cancer...
Joseph M. Connors, MD, authored a commentary in the June 25 issue of The ASCO Post inspired by a recent New England Journal of Medicine publication on dose-adjusted EPOCH-R chemotherapy (etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and rituximab) for primary mediastinal B-cell ...
My feature interview in the August 15, 2012, issue of The ASCO Post, entitled “Rethinking the Role of PSA Screening in Public Health”1 drew swift reaction from well-known figures in the prostate cancer field. The subsequent Letters to the Editor, three in all, constituted a two-pronged attack. They ...
Doctors at Cornell University Hospital for Animals in Ithaca, New York, reported what they believe may be the first case of a pig being treated for lymphoma. The animal was described as a 730-pound black-and-white Hampshire pig that was diagnosed with presumptive B-cell lymphoma. The 4-year-old...
Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California, recently named Christine R. Carico the 2013 recipient of the Medical Center’s Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Gifted Scholars Program in Neuroscience award. Ms. Carico will spend the next year researching brain disorders like the one that took the life ...
Looking over his 5 decades in clinical oncology and research, Joseph R. Bertino, MD, says his greatest professional satisfaction comes from seeing his former students and oncology fellows go on to achieve great success in their own medical and research careers. It is a fitting sentiment since Dr....
Benedick Fraass, PhD, FAAPM, FASTRO, FACR, has received the William D. Coolidge Award from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine for his distinguished career achievements in medical physics, including his pioneering work in radiation oncology. “The William D. Coolidge Award credits...
Richard I. Fisher, MD, has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Dr. Fisher will also hold the title of Cancer Center Director of Fox Chase, serving as the Principal Investigator on the Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer...
Michael A. Carducci, MD, Professor of Oncology and Urology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore was recently selected as Associate Director for Clinical Research. In this role, Dr. Carducci will facilitate clinical research activities as well as oversee...
Michael J. Stamos, MD, Orange, California, was elected President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) at the Society’s Annual Meeting in Phoenix, succeeding Alan G. Thorson, MD, Omaha. Dr. Stamos is the John E. Connolly Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the ...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recently announced the appointment of Mitchell R. Stoller as Executive Director of the AACR Foundation for the Prevention and Cure of Cancer. In his role, Mr. Stoller will lead strategy and work closely with the AACR Foundation Board of Trustees...
The NCI-60 cell lines, which represent cancers of the lung, colon, brain, ovary, breast, prostate, and kidney, as well as leukemia and melanoma, are the most frequently studied human tumor cell lines in cancer research and have generated the most extensive cancer pharmacology database worldwide. As ...
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. —Helen Keller, Optimism, 1903 Shortly past 8:00 AM on July 1977, Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, began the first day of her medical internship. Within minutes she would experience another first: the death of a patient...
In a phase III trial reported by Alice T. Shaw, MD, PhD, a thoracic oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues in The New England Journal of Medicine, crizotinib (Xalkori) improved progression-free survival compared with standard chemotherapy in previously treated patients ...
That the United States spends twice as much on health care than other industrialized countries—about $2.8 trillion in 2012—without reaping appreciably better outcomes1 is not news. The topic has been dissected on the front pages of leading newspapers for years and was the subject of the entire...
While National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) practice guidelines for prostate cancer advise that active surveillance is usually appropriate for men with very low-risk prostate cancer and a life expectancy ≤ 20 years, a Johns Hopkins study suggests that outcomes for African American men...
I’ve been the caretaker for my husband Will since he suffered three strokes in March 2011, followed by a diagnosis of leukemia a few months later. Now, our roles have reversed, and Will is taking care of me as I go through treatment for stage III follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). It’s been a...
Guest Editor Integrative Oncology is guest edited by Barrie R. Cassileth, MS, PhD, Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service and Laurance S. Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. The Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announced the seven scientists who have received 2013 Honorific Awards for their significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of hematologic diseases. The Honorific Awards are the Society’s most prestigious awards. This year’s awards will be...
ASCO has appointed Daniel G. Haller, MD, as the first Editor-in-Chief of ASCO University®, an eLearning center designed to serve as the educational home for physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, and patient educators at every stage of their careers. As head of the editorial board, Dr....
Oncology care professionals answer hundreds of questions from patients and their families every day. Over the course of months and years doctors and nurses address everything from medical questions about drug regimens and side effects, to personal questions about how cancer may affect work or...
Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, is the Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professor and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, a small town nestled on the banks of the James River. Mitchell is home to the Corn Palace,...
Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare but aggressive skin cancer with poor outcomes and suboptimal therapeutic options. With a 46% mortality rate, it is three times more lethal than melanoma, and its reported incidence is rising. “Merkel cell carcinoma is a nasty cancer and we have zero FDA-approved...
Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have identified four inherited genetic variants in patients with non–small cell lung cancer that can help predict survival and treatment response. Their findings, published in Carcinogenesis,1 could help lead to more personalized treatment options and...
The treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is rapidly evolving as molecular targets are being refined and targeted drugs are designed to combat acquired resistance. In his State of the Art Lecture at the 14th International Lung Cancer Congress, Dr. Bunn, Professor of Medicine and the James ...
Despite a relatively high rate of depression among patients with head and neck cancer following radiation therapy, mental health services were severely underutilized in this group, concluded researchers who analyzed questionnaire results from 211 patients. The patients had been previously treated...
Physicians and patients should engage in open discussion” about the complex issues of cancer screening, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment, according to a report from the chairs of a National Cancer Institute working group tasked with developing a strategy to improve the current approach to cancer...
Reminiscing about his 65 years in medicine, LaSalle Doheny Leffall, Jr, MD, FACS, cites three events in his early childhood that would ultimately lead him to his position today as the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. First, he was...
Walter M. Stadler, MD, an authority on prostate, kidney, bladder, and testicular cancers, has been named Chief of the Section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago Medicine. This position became effective August 15, 2013. Dr. Stadler, the Fred C. Buffet Professor of Medicine and...
When Tumor Is the Rumor and Cancer Is the Answer is the guidebook to cancer that Kevin P. Ryan, MD, FACP, COL, USAF (ret) wished his patients had during his 30 years of practicing oncology. The book, recently published by AuthorHouse, is an authoritative, inspiring, and even philosophical guide for ...
A modest brass plaque above a booth in the Eagle Pub in Cambridge, notes, “On this spot, on February 28, 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson declared the discovery of DNA with these words: ‘We have discoverewd the secret of life.’” Announcing a major scientific advance over a pint of ale is a far...
ASCO President Clifford Hudis, MD, FACP, will be serving during a particularly notable year: 2014, the Society’s 50th anniversary. This occasion brings with it much to reflect on, from the advances in the field of oncology to the growth of ASCO’s influence, but Dr. Hudis takes a moment to simply...
Robert S. Miller, MD, FACP, a medical oncologist and recognized authority in breast cancer, survivorship care, and consumer health informatics, has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of ASCO’s patient information website, Cancer.Net (www.cancer.net). He assumed this role at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting ...
Following the recent recommendation by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) that individuals most at risk for lung cancer be screened, Lung Cancer Alliance has launched a national multimedia public education campaign urging individuals to assess their risk for lung cancer. The “Moments” ...
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, recently announced that Charles and Daneen Stiefel, of Raleigh, North Carolina, have pledged $10 million to the Head and Neck Cancer Center at MD Anderson. In honor of their generosity, the institution will name the Charles and...
Data indicate that for more than 2 decades, cancer pain has been undertreated in the United States. The paradox of this stubborn clinical problem is that oncology has the ability to manage the great majority of cancer pain. To clarify this issue, The ASCO Post recently spoke with nationally...
With exciting targeted and immunotherapeutic agents now part of the arsenal for metastatic melanoma, which drug should move to the head of the line? Mario Sznol, MD, Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, has been involved in key clinical trials of the...
A study from the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery finds that advances in imaging technologies, including ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, are fueling an epidemic in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancers that are unlikely to ever...
It was 1:00 AM, and my beeping pager awakened me. When you’re a surgical oncologist, you know that a page from your chief resident at this hour of the morning usually means someone may need to go to the operating room. And, yes, it was the chief resident about a patient in crisis. Except in this...
Over the past few decades, economic and political factors have reshaped oncology, especially in the community setting. To defray risk, we’ve seen a trend toward oncology practices partnering with hospitals or aggregating into larger networks. Moreover, the Internet and the advent of telemedicine...
I read the essay by Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, FRCS, FACS, published recently in The ASCO Post and found it both thoughtful and compelling (“A Great Privilege to Die Beneath an Open Sky,” The ASCO Post, September 15, 2013, page 1). Dr. Are made one statement with which I take exception, however, and...
I applaud The ASCO Post for continuing to raise awareness about futile medical care at the close of life with the recent publication of a commentary by Dr. Chandrakanth Are (“A Great Privilege to Die Beneath an Open Sky,” The ASCO Post, September 15, 2013, page 1). I would suggest, however, that we ...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital recently announced that William E. Evans, MD, Director and CEO, has decided to retire from his executive post in July of 2014. Dr. Evans has been with the organization for more than 40 years and has served as CEO for the past 10 years. Indelible Mark on History ...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital officials have named Larry Kun, MD, as Clinical Director and Executive Vice President. Dr. Kun will guide all aspects of clinical care and oversee clinical operations, clinical effectiveness practices and patient care quality programs for the 7,800 patients who ...
“Surely again, to heal men’s wounds by music’s spell.” —Euripides, Medea (480-406 BC) Commonly defined as organized sound, music has a unique power to stir human emotions, moods, and impressions. The salutary effect of music on the sick has been reported since antiquity. Aristotle and Plato wrote...
The Wisconsin Association of Hematology & Oncology (WAHO) is among the youngest of ASCO’s State Affiliates. Formerly known as the Wisconsin Association of Medical Oncologists, WAHO was officially formed just 2 years ago and is already having an impact on oncologists and patients with cancer...
Recently the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) and the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) held a fundraising event, Cruise for a Cause: Improving Psychosocial and Supportive Cancer Care, to raise money to advance the science and practice of psychosocial care for patients with...