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Showing 3651 - 3700Fulminant, Fatal Myocarditis Reported in Two Patients After Starting Combined Immune Checkpoint Blockade Treatment
In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Johnson et al reported the occurrence of fulminant, fatal immune-related myocarditis in two patients who received combined ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) for metastatic melanoma. Patient Courses One patient was a 65-year-old woman...
Practices Provided Concrete Path Toward Alternative Payment System
Earlier this month, ASCO announced it has collaborated with Innovative Oncology Business Solutions, Inc (IOBS) to launch ASCO COME HOME, a patient-centered oncology medical home, to help transition community oncology practices from volume-based care to value-based care and to prepare oncologists to ...
Neoadjuvant Nivolumab Appears Safe and Feasible in Lung Cancer
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy with the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) is safe and feasible in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The results come from the first report of PD-1 blockade prior to surgery in this tumor, according to Patrick Forde, MD, of...
The Emergence of Philanthropy to Fund High-Risk, High-Reward Cancer Research
Earlier this year, Sean Parker, the cofounder of the music streaming service Napster and an early president of Facebook, joined a growing list of entrepreneurs who are committing large portions of their wealth to funding cancer research. In April, Mr. Parker announced he was donating $250 million...
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in High-Risk Soft-Tissue Sarcoma: A New Standard?
For the first time, a randomized trial has provided good evidence to support the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for treatment of high-risk soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities or trunk wall.1 But the findings of the study were surprising, because neoadjuvant chemotherapy with one-size-fits-all...
Optimizing Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation in Myelofibrosis
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only potentially curative treatment for myelofibrosis. The ASCO Post asked an expert in this field, Ayalew Tefferi, MD, how and when he uses stem cell transplant in myelofibrosis, which is a topic he outlined in greater detail in the...
Recent Progress and Concepts in Pancreatic Cancer
November is National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, the impetus for this article. Pancreatic cancer is a huge health challenge. It's the eighth most common cancer in the United States and the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths but is expected to become the second most common cause of...
Update on Neoplastic Hematology: Review of Recent Clinical Trials
Here is a brief look at the study findings and clinical implications of several recent and important clinical trials in neoplastic hematology. Attention is focused on myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Myelodysplastic Syndromes Clinical Trial:...
Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer Is Like Walking a Tightrope
I’ve always had fibrocystic breasts and was steadfast in performing monthly breast self-exams, so I could become familiar with the terrain of my breasts and spot any subtle changes. So, in November 2002, when I felt something in my left breast that seemed different from my usual lumps, I made a...
Expect Questions About Medical Marijuana
“Whether or not individual professionals support the clinical use of herbal cannabis, all clinicians will encounter patients who elect to use it and therefore need to be prepared to advise them on cannabis-related clinical issues despite limited evidence to guide care,” according to a recently...
When Marijuana Was Legal in the United States
Marijuana, or cannabis, used to be legal in the United States and was “actually listed in the U.S. formulary in 1854,” according to Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN, Director, Cancer Pain Program, Division of Hematology-Oncology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “Many of...
Medical Marijuana: The Topic You Can’t Escape
With reports about new marijuana dispensaries sprouting up as more states approve the legal use of medical marijuana, and patients and family members questioning how to get it, medical marijuana is a “topic you can’t escape,” noted Judith A. Paice, PhD, RN.1 Dr. Paice is Director of the Cancer...
David Cella, PhD, Receives Lienhard Award from National Academy of Medicine
David Cella, PhD, Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control Research at the Lurie Cancer Center of Northwestern University, was awarded the Gustav O. Lienhard Award for his pioneering work to measure and apply patient-reported outcomes in health care. The award was presented at the...
The Smartest Guys in the Room
The smartest guys in the room were never from the big energy companies, and they’re not running hedge funds on Wall Street or building the next Facebook. For me, the smartest guys in the room are the selfless men and women who’ve transformed cancer from what was all too often a death sentence to...
Resuscitation During Surgery
During the 1890s, aseptic principles were extended only to the operative area of the patient, not the surgeon, although some surgeons did advocate the use of special white or colored uniforms, and hand washing had already been established. In 1895, just 7 years after Arpad Gerster, MD, published...
Let’s Win: Innovative Online Community Offers Guidance to Patients With Pancreatic Cancer and Their Families
Let’s Win is an online community for persons with pancreatic cancer (www.letswinpc.org), but it is far more than a typical support group. Let’s Win propels interested users toward cutting-edge research, based on its founders’ commitment that no patient with pancreatic cancer should settle on the...
Development and Validation of a Quality Assurance Score for Robot-Assisted Radical Cystectomy
What are the factors that add up to the best outcomes for patients who have surgery to treat cancer? Looking for a better way to measure quality of care and share best practices in surgical oncology, a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute developed a quality assessment tool and validated it in a ...
Talking to Children With Cancer: Sometimes Less Is More
I still remember the day I met Kensie. It was Valentine’s Day. I had sneaked out of the hospital to get my wife a Valentine’s Day card, taking my place among scores of other husbands and boyfriends in front of the rapidly emptying rack of cards. As I started browsing, my beeper sounded. It was the ...
Forging Collaboration Between Children’s and Adult Oncology Groups in Designing Trials for Adolescents and Young Adults
Nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue sarcomas account for about 5% of all childhood malignancies and are also diagnosed in adolescents and young adults, as well as in older adults, and can require different approaches to treatment based on a patient’s age and stage of disease. These sarcomas comprise...
Interviews With ASCO’s President-Elect Candidates
ASCO Connection: Why do you want to serve as ASCO President? Monica Bertagnolli: Serving as ASCO President is a tremendous personal honor for anyone in the field of oncology. Much more importantly, it is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference by providing a strong voice in the health-care ...
Study Looks for Optimal Dosing of Single-Agent Ipilimumab in Metastatic Melanoma
There has been debate as to the optimal dose of single-agent ipilimumab (Yervoy) in metastatic melanoma. A phase III study presented at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress—the first to directly compare these doses—concluded that 10 mg/kg is more effective, but also more...
Is Observation Without Surgery a Viable Strategy for Managing Ductal Carcinoma in Situ?
In a spirited debate, abounding with citations of clinical trials and other evidence, but not without humor and mutual respect, E. Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, and Armando E. Giuliano, MD, reviewed the data and their clinical experience managing ductal carcinoma in situ and reached opposite...
Vaccines May Boost Immune Responsiveness of Pancreatic Tumors
Pancreatic cancer has been notably unresponsive to immunotherapeutic approaches, but a Stand Up 2 Cancer Dream Team believes their research can change that. Team co-leader Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, ...
Scientists Are Boosting Immune Responses in Pancreatic Tumors
The successes observed with various immune oncologic treatment approaches have largely bypassed pancreatic cancer, but this may be about to change, based on emerging insights into how and why these tumors evade attacks by T cells. At the 2nd International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, two...
Expert Point of View: Peter Schmid, MD, PhD
Several practice-changing studies have shown that adding a CDK4/6 inhibitor to an aromatase inhibitor improves survival in hormone receptor–positive advanced breast cancer, and those results should also be considered, said formal discussant Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of Bart’s Cancer Institute, Queen...
Distress Screening in Oncology Leads to Better Doctor-Patient Relationships and Improved Outcomes
As many as 60% of patients with cancer report distress following a cancer diagnosis, and this stress can have a significant impact on patients’ well-being, resulting in psychosocial problems, physical side effects, and dissatisfaction with their health care. To examine the impact of distress ...
Introduction
As expensive cancer biologics move off patent, biosimilar products are coming on board. These are highly similar versions of licensed biologics that demonstrate near-fingerprint identity to their reference products in terms of structure and potency. Biosimilars represent a major opportunity for...
Expert Point of View: Axel Bex, MD, PhD
The formal discussant of this trial, Axel Bex, MD, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, was cautious in interpreting these results to be practice-changing. “I congratulate the investigators for the first-ever positive trial for adjuvant treatment of renal cell carcinoma,” he...
Expert Point of View: Bernard Escudier, MD
Formal discussant of this trial, Bernard Escudier, MD, Chairman of the Renal Cancer Unit at Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, said: “The main question is whether this study will change practice.” He is not so sure it will and would like more data. Dr. Escudier told listeners that the...
Putting Patients First: My Journey in Advocacy
When I lost my only sister to breast cancer in 1986, patients like her had devastatingly few choices. Over the intervening decades, sustained commitment to biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and major technologic advances have led to transformative changes in cancer...
New Data Suggest Changes Needed to Guidelines for Determining Prognosis in Patients With Thyroid Cancer
A study from the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) has found a lack of statistical evidence to support the current practice of treating thyroid cancer patients under age 45 differently from those 45 and older. The study, published recently by Adam et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,...
How ASCO Is Preparing Members for MACRA
On October 14, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its final policy on what physicians need to do to begin implementing the Quality Payment Program outlined in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The Quality Payment Program is a...
Study Raises Concerns About Timely Follow-up to Positive Mammogram for the Uninsured
A study by University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers has found that younger, uninsured women in North Carolina had higher odds of missing a 60-day window for getting follow-up after an abnormal mammogram, even though research underscores the importance of ...
Prolonged Length of Stays, Readmissions, and Discharge to Care Facilities Among Postoperative Patients With Advanced Cancer
Patients with disseminated advanced cancer who undergo surgery are far more likely to endure long hospital stays and readmissions, referrals to extended care facilities, and death, University of California (UC) Davis researchers have found. Their study, published by Bateni et al in PLOS One,...
Evaluating the FDA’s Approach to Cancer Clinical Trials
Since the announcement of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) on June 29, 2016, as part of the White House’s Cancer Moonshot, we’ve been working to further the FDA’s efforts to get new oncology products into the hands of patients. We are committed to...
My Catch-22 Predicament
In the spring of 2011, I was feeling so fatigued I needed to rest after walking just a few steps to the kitchen and not doing anything more strenuous than making a cup of coffee. Fortunately, I have a wonderful primary care physician who takes me seriously when I have a complaint about my health,...
Lombardi’s Ruesch Center Policy Briefing Features Strategies to Reduce Costs
Two major developments in oncology—the dramatic success of some immunotherapies and targeted drugs and an equally dramatic rise in the cost of care—have created policy issues, more serious than ever, regarding access to care. It is a time “of extraordinary opportunities combined with inequities in ...
A Cancer Diagnosis Brings Two Sisters Back Together
Elizabeth Lesser is an award-winning writer and co-founder of the Omega Institute, the largest adult education center in the United States focusing on health, wellness, spirituality, and creativity. She is the author of several acclaimed books including Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help...
Dexamethasone Mouth Rinse Should Be Routine Part of Everolimus Treatment
Dexamethasone mouth rinse should be given prophylactically to prevent stomatitis associated with everolimus (Afinitor)/exemestane in metastatic breast cancer, according to Hope S. Rugo, MD, principal investigator of the SWISH trial and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at...
Palliative Care Still in Its Infancy in Hematologic Malignancies
Palliative care is slowly but surely being integrated into the treatment of patients with solid tumors, but its role in the hematopoietic stem cell transplant setting is still lagging, speakers said at the 2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium. “There is a huge symptom burden among patients...
Using Pharmacogenetics to Predict Cancer Prognosis, Response to Treatment, and Toxicity
Although clinical trials are helpful in determining the effectiveness of a specific drug across a patient population, they are not as reliable at pinpointing how well a particular patient will respond to the drug or dosing regimen or how the drug may impact the patient’s quality of life from...
Barriers and Opportunities Reported in the Study of Human Papillomavirus Education and Immunization Efforts
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates remain low across the United States, with fewer than 40% of girls and just over 21% of boys receiving the recommended vaccine series. Research from Roswell Park Cancer Institute has identified barriers that need to be overcome to improve vaccination...
Personalized Vaccines May Protect Patients With High-Risk Melanoma
The field of cancer vaccines may be reinvigorated by a new understanding, and the therapeutic leveraging, of neoantigens. Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are exploring this novel approach as a means of protecting patients with high-risk melanoma from recurrence. Early...
When Breath Becomes Air: Dr. Lucy Kalanithi Reflects on Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s Life and Writing
Perhaps more than any other book in recent memory, When Breath Becomes Air has struck a chord among readers, both inside the medical community and among the public, desiring an honest and philosophical consideration of death. The autobiographical account of Paul Kalanithi, MD, a physician diagnosed ...
Arti Hurria, MD: From Leadership Development Program to Board of Directors
Arti Hurria, MD, a geriatric oncologist at City of Hope in Duarte, California, is the first graduate of ASCO’s Leadership Development Program to be elected to ASCO’s Board of Directors. Within 5 years of completing the program, Dr. Hurria went from learning leadership skills to applying them to...
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Sanger Institute, UK Agree to Full Exchange of Cancer Data
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK, have agreed to a full exchange of cancer mutation data to support the discovery and understanding of genetic mutations causing cancers. The agreement will provide regular updates and exchanges of data between both...
What We Know and What We Need to Know About Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Advanced Ovarian Cancer
Ever since the landmark studies of Griffiths and colleagues in the 1970s,1 primary cytoreductive surgery followed by chemotherapy with the objective of achieving minimal residual disease has been the standard approach for women with advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer. However, what is...
SGO and ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline on Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Newly Diagnosed Advanced Ovarian Cancer
As reported by Alexi A. Wright, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO and the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) have released a clinical practice guideline on neoadjuvant therapy for patients with newly diagnosed stage IIIC or IV...
Expert Point of View: Olivier Michielin, MS, MD, PhD
The paper’s invited discussant was Olivier Michielin, MS, MD, PhD, Head of Personalized Analytical Oncology and the Melanoma Clinic at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland. He called the findings of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment (EORTC) 18071 trial a “new landmark in...
Quality Science at ESMO 2016
Andrés Cervantes, MD, PhD, Scientific Chair of the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, concluded the meeting earlier this month by recognizing a number of important take-home messages. At a closing press conference, Dr. Cervantes noted that the “ESMO 2016 Congress has...
