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Showing 3651 - 3700Epigenome-wide Study of DNA Methylation in Breast Cancer Using Prospectively Collected Samples
Available data suggest that DNA methylation in blood is a potential epigenetic marker of cancer risk, but this has not been evaluated on a genome-wide scale in prospective studies of breast cancer. Xu and colleagues measured DNA methylation at 27,578 CpG sites (ie, DNA regions where cytosine and...
Circulating Tumor Cells with ALK Rearrangement in ALK-positive NSCLC
The diagnostic test for ALK rearrangement in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment currently uses biopsy or fine-needle aspiration. Pailler and colleagues assessed whether ALK rearrangement could be detected using circulating tumor cells. They analyzed circulating...
Living Without Fear
Even before I had a colonoscopy to determine the cause of abdominal pains I had been having, I instinctively knew that the news wouldn’t be good. A colonoscopy and subsequent pathology report confirmed stage IIIC colorectal cancer. Because I was just 47 years old at the time of my diagnosis and had ...
Partnership Seeks to Accelerate Development of Innovative Therapies
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to establish a network of sites for clinical trial testing of innovative blood cancer therapies in community oncology settings across the country. This Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP) will...
Improving Treatment and Care for Patients with Primary Brain Cancers
Despite advances in neuroimaging, the development of focused radiation therapy, and more effective chemotherapy, life expectancy for patients with primary malignant tumors of the brain and spinal cord remains stubbornly low at between 15 and 18 months. However, there are significant advances on the ...
Identification of Oncogenic Mutations in Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia and Atypical Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
Among the hematologic cancers for which molecular causes remain unclear are chronic neutrophilic leukemia and atypical (BCR-ABL1–negative) chronic myeloid leukemia. Both disorders currently are diagnosed on the basis of neoplastic expansion of granulocytic cells and exclusion of genetic factors...
Similar Short-term Outcomes with Laparoscopic vs Open Surgery for Rectal Cancer
As recently reported in Lancet Oncology by Martijn H.G.M. van der Pas, MD, of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and colleagues, the phase III COLOR II trial has shown that laparoscopic surgery can produce similar safety outcomes, resection margins, and completeness of resection compared with ...
Radiation-sparing Dose-adjusted EPOCH-Rituximab for Primary Mediastinal B-cell Lymphoma
Tumor control is frequently not achieved with standard immunochemotherapy in patients with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, requiring consolidation with mediastinal radiotherapy. However, radiotherapy is associated with serious late adverse effects and is still associated with disease...
Plasma Epstein-Barr Virus DNA a Potential Marker for Treatment Response in Advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma
Plasma Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) DNA has prognostic significance in Hodgkin lymphoma, both prior to therapy and at 6 months of follow-up, according to results of a study published in Blood. “Plasma EBV-DNA positivity at month 6 is associated with particularly poor outcomes and may serve as an...
Radium-223 Dichloride for Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer with Symptomatic Bone Metastases
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. Indication On May 15, 2013, radium Ra 223 dichloride (Xofigo) was...
Molecular Landscaping of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Are We Relearning the Past or Informing the Future?
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clinically and molecularly heterogeneous disease.1 This concept has been supported by more than 4 decades of studies showing distinct outcomes of subsets of patients that differ in age, disease type (primary vs secondary vs therapy-related), and cytogenetic and...
Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with Cancer: Real-world Challenges for the Practicing Oncologist
The close association between cancer and thrombosis has been recognized now for more than 150 years.1 Not only is it now known that patients with cancer are at substantially increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism, even prior to the diagnosis of cancer, but the association between...
Expert Point of View: Kanti R. Rai, MD
“These three excellent, encouraging, tantalizing studies show that we really are making progress in the treatment of chronic CLL, whereas 10 to 12 years ago, we had no real progress to report,” stated Kanti R. Rai, MD, Chief, CLL Research Program, North Shore-LIJ Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY. ...
Idelalisib, Obinutuzumab Show Encouraging Results in CLL Studies
A trio of presentations at the ASCO Annual Meeting focused on two promising investigational drugs for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). These two drugs—idelalisib and obinutuzumab—join a list of new approaches showing potential. Idelalisib Alone A phase I dose-ranging study of...
Lenalidomide Induces Long-lasting Responses in Elderly Patients
Treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid) as initial therapy induced long-lasting responses in a phase II study of 60 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). “Overall, 35 patients (58%) patients had responses lasting more than 36 months and were considered long-term responders,” the...
More Than 98% of Childhood Cancer Survivors Have Chronic Health Conditions
More than 98% of adult survivors of childhood cancer in a large clinically evaluated cohort had a chronic health condition, including a substantial number of previously undiagnosed problems that are more likely to occur in an older population. “These findings underscore the importance of ongoing...
Diagnosing and Treating Acute Graft-vs-Host Disease
Dermatologic Events in Oncology is guest edited by Mario E. Lacouture, MD, an Associate Member in the Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. He is a board-certified dermatologist with a special interest in dermatologic conditions that...
Barriers to Successful Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a combined research program of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. At the forefront of research to increase access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and improve outcomes, the ...
ACCC Institutes Network to Provide Assistance in Treating Uncommon Cancers
Among the more than 200 types of cancer are those called “forgotten” or “orphan” cancers, with fewer than 40,000 new cases each year. They present treatment challenges in community cancer centers. Because of the low incidence of these diseases, such as chronic myeloid leukemia, acute promyelocytic...
Just Say 'Know'
In 1989, Denardo and associates reported the results of intensive care unit (ICU) therapy in a series of patients who developed acute respiratory failure and required mechanical ventilation after bone marrow transplantation. Of those on mechanical ventilatory support longer than 4 days, not one...
ASCO Targets Health Disparities, Need for Research in Achieving Health Equity
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), and the Heart Failure Society of America (HSFA) recently held a Capitol Hill Briefing to draw attention to health disparities among minority and underserved patients and opportunities to achieve health...
Lenalidomide in Relapsed/Progressed Mantle Cell Lymphoma after Two Prior Therapies Including Bortezomib
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. Indication On June 5, 2013, lenalidomide (Revlimid) was approved...
Surveillance Sufficient Follow-up for Most Patients with Stage I Seminoma
Surveillance appears to be sufficient for men with stage I seminoma treated with orchiectomy, sparing patients from side effects of adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy. In a long-term study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting,1 99.5% of men followed by surveillance alone were disease-free and alive ...
New Research on Combination Chemotherapy, Prognostic Biomarkers, and PET-guided Radiation Therapy in B-cell Malignancies
The 12th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma was held June 19-22, 2013, in Lugano, Switzerland. Over 3,000 hematologists, clinical oncologists, pathologists, and leading researchers attended the meeting, which featured new research on B-cell malignancies, follicular lymphoma, as well as...
Head-to-Head Matchup Shows Adjuvant Taxane Schedules Equally Effective
In the treatment of early breast cancer, outcomes are equivalent whether paclitaxel is delivered weekly or every 2 weeks, though the weekly schedule may be better tolerated, according to the results of a phase III trial presented at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting.1 “The progression-free survival...
Why Is Stem Cell Transplant So Underused in Follicular Lymphoma?
Follicular lymphoma is the second most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the United States. Of the nearly 70,000 new cases of NHL anticipated in 2013,1 approximately 7,000 to 13,000 (10%–19%) will be follicular lymphoma, by recent estimates.2-5 For many years, the median overall...
Déjà Vu Redux: Lessons from the SWOG-8516 Study in Aggressive Lymphomas
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 ...
Living and Working with Cancer
The most recent figures from the National Cancer Institute put the number of cancer survivors in the United States at nearly 14 million—by 2022, that number is expected to top 18 million. And for the vast majority of those survivors—more than 80%—returning to work after treatment is a top priority...
Adolescents, Young Adults with Cancer Often Challenged By Unmet Needs Following Treatment
About 70,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) between the ages of 15 and 39 are diagnosed with cancer each year, and in the past 30 years, there has been little or no improvement in survival in this population. In addition to the disease itself, they face many other challenges: reentry into...
ASCO Studies Support Limited Use of 'Routine' Imaging
The overuse of imaging in oncology workup and surveillance is a timely concern, as health-care dollars shrink and the risk for second malignancies becomes clearer. At this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting, several studies showed that although many routine imaging studies may be unnecessary, physicians...
High Rate of Durable Remissions with Ibrutinib in Patients with Relapsed Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Durable remissions are uncommon with current treatments for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Bruton’s tyrosine kinase is an essential component of B cell–receptor signaling that mediates interactions with the tumor microenvironment and promotes survival and proliferation of CLL cells....
Oncologists Speak Out Against the High Cost of Cancer Drugs
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...
ASH Announces 2013 Honorific Award Recipients
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...
Dr. Julie Vose Finds the Best of Both Worlds—Patient Care and Cutting-Edge Research—in Academic Medicine
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,...
Fertility Rates in Childhood Cancer Survivors Suggest Strategies for Follow-up Care
Childhood cancer survivors with clinical infertility have a good chance of achieving pregnancy, according to new findings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS). Study Background As a group, women who survive childhood cancer are known to have lower fertility rates. This study, however,...
FDA Approves First Rapid Diagnostic Test to Detect Both HIV-1 Antigen and HIV-1/2 Antibodies
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first rapid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test for the simultaneous detection of HIV-1 p24 antigen as well as antibodies to both HIV-1 and HIV-2 in human serum, plasma, and venous or fingerstick whole blood specimens. Approved for use as ...
Ongoing Progress in Treatment of Medulloblastoma
Brain tumors are the second most frequent pediatric malignancy. Medulloblastoma, a primitive cerebellar tumor of neuroectodermal origin, is the second most common brain tumor, accounting for 20% of childhood tumors of the central nervous system. Craniospinal radiotherapy has been the main curative...
Can Obinutuzumab Benefit Patients With Rituximab-Refractory Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?
Obinutuzumab is a glycoengineered type II antibody that differs from type I anti-CD20 antibodies by being associated with actin reorganization and adhesion followed by direct cell death.1 Obinutuzumab has been glycoengineered by reduction in fucose content of the Fc region, which increases its...
Cord Blood Transplantation Benefits Some Children With Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
A retrospective analysis of 110 patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia found that single-unit, unrelated donor umbilical cord blood transplantation resulted in a 5-year disease-free survival rate of 44%. “Our data document that a significant proportion of children with this disease,...
Panobinostat Combined With Bortezomib and Dexamethasone Can Recapture Responses in Heavily Pretreated Patients
The combination of the investigational histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (Faridak) with bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone was able to recapture responses in 34.5% of heavily pretreated, bortezomib-refractory patients with multiple myeloma in the phase II PANORAMA 2 trial. The 55...
Prominent Surgeon and Teacher LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr, MD, Promotes Hard Work and Education to Overcome Boundaries
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...
The Direction of Immunotherapy Over the Next Decade
The use of immunotherapy to target malignant cells in a variety of cancers—especially the PD-1 inhibitors lambrolizumab and nivolumab in the treatment of metastatic melanoma and the anti–PD-L1 agent MPDL3280A in the treatment of melanoma and lung, kidney, colorectal, and gastric cancers—made...
ASCO Congratulates QOPI-Certified Practices
QCP™: Recognizing Excellence The QOPI® Certification Program (QCP™) recognizes medical oncology and hematology/oncology practices that are committed to delivering the highest quality of cancer care. QCP evaluates an individual practice’s performance in areas that affect patient care and safety. The ...
Potential Prognostic Significance Shown for Interaction of Follicular Lymphoma Cells with Immune Microenvironment
It has been shown that CD4 and CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in follicular lymphoma have impaired function and suppressed recruitment of critical signaling proteins to the immunologic synapse, and a number of studies have indicated the prognostic importance of the immune microenvironment in...
No Benefit/Detriment of Donor Change in Second Stem Cell Transplant for Leukemia Relapse
Minimal data are available on outcomes of second allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from unrelated donors after a first transplant in patients with hematologic relapse of acute leukemia. In a study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Maximilian Christopeit, MD, of University...
A Great Privilege to Die Beneath an Open Sky
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...
Pomalidomide In Patients With Disease Progression Who Are Refractory to Bortezomib and Lenalidomide
The second-generation immunomodulatory drug pomalidomide (Pomalyst) “has shown impressive results in patients with multiple myeloma who are refractory to lenalidomide [Revlimid] and bortezomib [Velcade],” according to a review of clinical data leading to the drug’s approval by the FDA. In February, ...
Herb-Drug Interactions in Oncology
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...
ALSYMPCA Trial: Updated Analysis of Survival With Radium-223 Treatment in Metastatic Prostate Cancer
In a trial (ALSYMPCA trial) reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Chris Parker, MD, from Royal Marsden Hospital in Surrey, UK, and colleagues compared the alpha emitter radium-223 dichloride (Xofigo) with best standard of care in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer and bone...
Myeloma Foundation Launches Open Access Gateways to Accelerate Drug Development
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) has announced two open access gateways, the MMRF Researcher Gateway, which will upload genomic data as it becomes available and make it accessible to all researchers, and the MMRF CoMMunity Gateway, which will aggregate subtypes of myeloma patients...
