Momentum around immunotherapies for cancer continues to build, but the high cost of these therapies places them at the center of debate about how best to define and measure value in cancer care. As these therapies are increasingly integrated into practice, all stakeholders—providers, patients,...
ASCO has announced that Alexander Chin, MD, MBA, and Joanna C. Yang, MD, have been selected for the 2017–2018 ASCO Health Policy Fellowship program, now entering its second year. The fellowship, aimed at early career oncologists, provides the skills necessary to monitor and shape the regulatory and ...
Scientific Name: Vaccinium macrocarpon Common Names: Mossberry, sassamanash, bounceberry Case Study M.C. is a 55-year-old woman with a history of stage I endometrial cancer, diagnosed and curatively treated 5 years ago. Since then, she has been having urinary tract infections from time to time....
Three clinical trials of the immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) have shown that it is active against a rare subtype of skin cancer, mucosal melanoma. The findings were presented by Butler et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (ECCO).1 Mucosal melanoma has often been excluded from...
In this new booklet, patients and their caregivers explore the topic of cancer-related pain relief, including its causes, how it is diagnosed, and types of relief strategies. Pain medications are covered extensively, including: Types of medications Safe handling Common concerns Managing...
A test that measures the levels of five chemicals in the breath has shown promising results for the detection of cancers of the esophagus and stomach, in a large patient trial presented by Markar et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 6LBA).1 Together, stomach and esophageal cancers...
The onset of diabetes, or a rapid deterioration in existing diabetes that requires more aggressive treatment, could be a sign of early, hidden pancreatic cancer, according to research presented by Autier et al at the 2017 European Cancer Congress (Abstract 540).1 Study Design and Key Findings...
ASCO and the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) proudly announce the winners of ASCO’s Special Awards, the Society’s highest honors, and the CCF Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. The recipients of these awards include researchers, patient advocates, and global oncology leaders who have worked ...
At this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Neeraj K. Arora, PhD, Associate Director at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, opened his presentation by stressing that integrating the patient’s voice and experience into the clinical setting produces better health outcomes.1 Dr. Arora,...
A Web-based decision aid that allows women with early breast cancer to easily compare surgical treatment options helps them make more informed decisions, suggests a randomized trial reported at the 2017 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium.1 “Having knowledge of surgical...
At this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium, Blase N. Polite, MD, MPP, Associate Professor of Medicine at The University of Chicago Medical Center, examined his practice’s experience with the Oncology Care Model, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services test payment and delivery program...
A machine learning model that uses a set or ensemble of algorithms has good accuracy for predicting colorectal cancer recurrence, investigators reported during a plenary session at the 2017 Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Annual Cancer Symposium.1 Persistent key questions in managing early...
“The status quo for HPV [human papillomavirus]-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma is not sufficient.… Our treatment is effective, but the toxicity associated with it is not tolerable.” And HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer “is a cancer of relatively younger patients,” said Nishant...
Mark S. Soberman, MD, MBA, FACS, was elected as the 2017–2018 President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) during its 43rd Annual Meeting on March 31, 2017, in Washington, DC. Dr. Soberman brings a wealth of experience in thoracic surgery, thoracic oncology, and value-based...
Twenty-five of the nation’s leading medical groups issued this statement on April 17: As the world's leading organizations representing clinicians, laboratory researchers, and physician-scientists committed to improving patient care, we support the March for Science and its nonpartisan call...
High attrition but positive trends such as increased “benefit finding” were observed with a Web-based intervention designed to address the psychosocial burden on informal caregivers, according to Allison J. Applebaum, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center...
This past November, ASCO announced the launch of CancerLinQ Discovery™, a big data learning platform physicians and researchers can use to analyze highly curated, de-identified, real-world cancer care data sets to broaden their clinical knowledge about specific cancers and eventually improve...
The combination of trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus lapatinib (Tykerb) achieved positive results in patients with heavily pretreated, HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer, according to the final results of the phase II HERACLES-A trial. This two-pronged, HER2-directed approach achieved clinical...
A new analysis of patients who have undergone treatment for prostate cancer shows a connection between androgen-deprivation therapy and dementia, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Previous studies from Penn have shown men who undergo...
On April 11, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) posted for public comment a draft recommendation statement and three draft evidence reviews on screening for prostate cancer. Through this draft recommendation, the Task Force is providing clinicians and their patients with...
Using state-of-the-art gene-editing technology, scientists from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago have discovered a promising target to treat atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor, a highly aggressive and therapy-resistant brain tumor that mostly occurs in infants. They found...
The incidence of colorectal cancer continues to increase among young adults, with the sharpest increase among those aged 20 to 29, according to a recent article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.1 This trend has been called disturbing and ominous, but the widely reported results of...
For more than 3 decades, Nancy E. Davidson, MD, has dedicated her clinical and research career to better understanding the molecular mechanisms driving the development of breast cancer and to the discovery of more effective therapies to treat the disease. The recipient of an ASCO Young...
With its recently issued clinical practice guideline update, reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, ASCO has spoken: Interdisciplinary palliative care teams improve the outcomes of cancer care; patients live longer and feel better.1 There is no doubt. Multiple well-designed studies show the...
The Applied Proteogenomics Organizational Learning and Outcomes (APOLLO) network, which represents a partnership among the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, has tapped the Paulovich Laboratory at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research...
Patients with breast cancer who perceive having enough and the right kinds of social support tend to be less stressed, although a paucity of research exists on the social support needs of young women with metastatic breast cancer, according to Amanda Ginter, PhD. Dr. Ginter, Assistant Professor in ...
Elderly patients with cancer are far less likely to be diagnosed with depression than patients in any other age group for two primary reasons: There is an overlap between cancer symptoms/treatment side effects and the diagnostic criteria for depression, and older adults are more likely to present...
At this year’s ASCO Quality Care Symposium, CancerLinQ’s Vice President and Medical Director, Robert S. Miller, MD, shed light on CancerLinQ’s current and future value in the oncology community.1 Dr. Miller opened by explaining to the audience that CancerLinQ™ is an instrument for quality...
Tumors with mutations in the proteins isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 or -2 (IDH1/2) exhibited features similar to BRCA-mutant tumors and were more likely to respond better to PARP inhibitors than to IDH inhibitors, according to preclinical data presented by Sulkowski et al at the 2017 American...
Adoptive T-cell therapy using “non-engineered” T cells has been showing activity in hematologic malignancies, according to a presentation by Ann M. Leen, PhD, at the 2017 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium.1 Dr. Leen is an immunologist and works at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy,...
The day after I told Nell she had seven metastases to her brain, she sent me flowers. She was my patient; I was her oncologist. I had met her 1 year prior, when she was well into her cancer journey, stage IV breast cancer at diagnosis. I took over from her current oncologist, who was moving. At...
Despite advances in cancer risk assessment, prevention, disease detection, drug development, and health-care delivery, which have led to unparalleled reductions in cancer incidence and mortality, access to affordable health care and increased administrative burdens placed on oncology practices...
Treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) yielded durable responses in some patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with a 5-year survival rate of 16%, according to data from a phase I clinical trial presented by Brahmer et al at the American...
Patients with glioblastoma who wore a medical device that delivers alternating electrical fields in addition to being treated with the chemotherapeutic temozolomide had significantly improved median overall survival compared with those treated with temozolomide only, according to final results from ...
For a proportion of patients, including women with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, gene-expression profiling has a substantial impact on treatment decision-making by determining which patients might—or might not—respond to particular treatment options. Gene-expression...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Bardia et al, the anti–Trop-2 antibody drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan has been found to produce durable responses in patients with heavily pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Trop-2, a glycoprotein initially identified ...
A first-in-human clinical trial examining the investigational small-molecule drug ONC201 in patients with advanced solid tumors showed the oral agent to be well tolerated at the recommended phase II dose, according to Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey investigators whose research also showed...
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists report data from a new study providing evidence that random, unpredictable DNA copying “mistakes” account for nearly two-thirds of the mutations that cause cancer. Their research is grounded on a novel mathematic model based on DNA...
Given the pace of advances in immunotherapy in recent years and physicians’ need to keep up with these developments, ASCO and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) have announced a joint collaboration to publish practical clinical guidance on the management of side effects caused by...
All patients with cancer experience some level of distress associated with their cancer diagnosis and the effects of the disease and its treatment—regardless of the stage of disease. Not only does distress affect a patient’s mental and psychosocial well-being, but because distress is a...
Anne Friedman Glauber, 63, co-founder of Let’s Win, an online community for persons affected by pancreatic cancer, recently passed away at her home in New York City, after a courageous battle with the disease. Ms. Glauber’s dedication to the organization (www.letswinpc.org) helped countless...
Fox Chase Cancer Center is pleased to announce the results of its American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant Pilot Project Competition for Junior Investigators. The competition was open to eligible junior faculty at Fox Chase and Temple University Hospital. The awardees are Yibin Yang, ...
Despite the controversy surrounding “Death With Dignity” laws, which allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients, they have a long history of majority support from Americans. According to a Gallup poll taken in 2015, nearly 7 in 10 Americans (68%) agreed that...
Building on their previous research focusing on intratumoral vaccination for the most common form of pancreatic cancer, investigators from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School have shown that in a mouse model of early-stage resected pancreatic...
Since the mid-2000s, medication and illicit drug abuse in the United Sates has steadily increased, creating what has now been termed an “opioid epidemic.” In response, Congress and the Bush and Obama Administrations have launched intervention and regulatory proposals to help turn the troubling...
Patients with follicular lymphoma are clearly living longer without disease progression, but what clinician has had no patients progress? Michael Auerbach, MD, a hematologist/oncologist in private practice in Baltimore and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, may have these...
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has announced Gwen Nichols, MD, as its new Chief Medical Officer. A physician and scientific researcher, Dr. Nichols has dedicated her career to advancing cures for cancers through a unique combination of clinical, academic, and pharmaceutical experience. She...
“The majority of patients with oral cavity cancers will undergo an unnecessary operation,” Sandeep Samant, MD, stated at a session on managing N0 neck cancer at the 2016 Lurie Cancer Center Multidisciplinary Head & Neck Symposium in Chicago.1 That operation is elective neck dissection, and it ...
In patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) resulted in responses and long-term survival in patients who were either previously treated or naive to sorafenib (Nexavar), CheckMate 040 has shown.1 Altogether 19% of patients responded to the antibody...
A new study offers hope for patients with recurrent lung cancer, who historically have been considered ineligible for curative treatment. In the largest analysis to date of reirradiation using intensity-modulated proton therapy for lung and other thoracic tumors, more than three-fourths of patients ...