In the 20-plus years I have spent in hematologic oncology, I have been fortunate to have a ringside seat to watch “game-changing” advances come into our field—all-trans retinoic acid for acute promyelocytic leukemia, tyrosine kinase inhibitors starting with imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia,...
For more than 3 decades, the American Skin Association (ASA) and its affiliates have funded more than $50 million in grants to address the causes and treatments of melanoma, vitiligo, and psoriasis, as well as other skin diseases, and to search for cures. Recently, the American Skin Association...
In 2015, ASCO and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) introduced value frameworks that utilize algorithmic scales to evaluate the clinical benefit of cancer therapies and provide an objective assessment of outcomes and treatment toxicities experienced by patients.1,2 Although the two...
In the past week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a companion diagnostic assay, granted Breakthrough Device and Breakthrough Therapy designations, and extended the review period of a proposed treatment. The agency also published four draft guidances and one final guidance...
ASCO and ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation proudly recognize the winners of ASCO’s Special Awards, the Society's highest honors, and Conquer Cancer's Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Awards. The recipients of these awards have worked to transform cancer care around the world. ASCO...
ASCO President Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, issued the following statement earlier this week: We strongly oppose the White House budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2020, which would stall our nation's progress against cancer and impede access to needed care for the millions of...
A new survey of radiation oncologists points to a sharp decline in the use of prophylactic cranial irradiation for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), indicating a rapid change in standard practice for the disease following the 2017 publication of a major clinical trial by...
In the phase IIIb/IV CheckMate 511 study reported by Lebbé et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a regimen of nivolumab at 3 mg/kg plus ipilimumab at 1 mg/kg (NIVO3+IPI1) was found to significantly reduce the incidence of treatment-related grade 3 to 5 adverse events compared with...
There is a plethora of educational books for patients with cancer and their families; advocates and patients themselves write most. Books in this genre often have a difficult time distilling the hard science of oncology into a lay-friendly narrative that keeps the reader engaged from cover to...
MY BREAST CANCER was probably a decade in the making, although I only became aware that there might be a problem in 2014, when I noticed some slight pain in my left breast. A routine mammogram and ultrasound found benign cysts in my dense breasts, which most likely explained the pain, I was told,...
AS PART of The ASCO Post’s continued coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here is an update on several different studies on new therapeutics in non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), including follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), ...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-paclitaxel (Abraxane) for the treatment of adults with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive ...
JUST 2 MONTHS before Congress passed what to this day is America’s most sweeping anticancer legislation, President Richard Nixon came to Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to declare his administration’s historic commitment to the fight. “I have come here today for the purpose of making an...
Prosecuting health-care fraud is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal government agencies.1,2 After all, the government earns a $6 return for every $1 that it spends on enforcement. In December 2018, the DOJ announced that it had obtained more than $2.5 billion...
RECENTLY, THE American Society of Hematology (ASH) submitted feedback on draft recommendations for reforming Maintenance of Certification (MOC) to a commission appointed by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and other entities. The “Vision Commission” released a report of its draft...
The findings of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), reported in 2011, revealed that participants who received low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) scans had a 20% lower risk of dying of lung cancer than participants who received standard chest x-rays. Despite these results,...
MICHIANA HEMATOLOGY Oncology has announced that Robin Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, has been elected President by its shareholders. In her new role as President, Dr. Zon will oversee and maintain leadership of the practice. Dr. Zon is a member of ASCO and was awarded Fellow status; with ASCO, she served...
The FDA recently issued announcements on a Fast Track designation, a Priority Review, two supplemental new drug applications, an investigational new drug application, and a marketing clearance. The agency also released a safety communication on cancer-related surgery. Fast Track Designation for...
Kentucky has been one of the most successful states in reducing its uninsured rate, which happened in part through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion that took effect on January 1, 2014. In the past, Kentucky has reported low rates of colorectal cancer screening, and has ranked ...
While artificial intelligence (AI) systems for skin cancer detection have shown promise in research settings, there is still a lot of work to be done before the technology is appropriate for real-world use. This was the topic of a scientific session at the 2019 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) ...
All homes and all families have or have had their own cancer experiences. Speaking about it dissolves the taboo and allows for earlier diagnosis, less discrimination, increased awareness, and higher commitment by authorities. It also helps those struggling with the disease feel like part of a...
First launched in 2014, the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium introduced a nascent interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of both the physical and psychological symptoms of cancer to improve disease outcome and quality of life for patients. Today, it has evolved into a leading forum for...
Researchers hypothesized that targeting some genetic alterations in plasma cell–free DNA—along with early monitoring—could be an effective, noninvasive method for predicting response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Findings...
NYU Langone Health’s Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center recently announced a philanthropic gift to establish a Center for Blood Cancers. The center will house a new program for multiple myeloma care and research, along with NYU Langone Health’s other blood cancer programs. It will also...
Darolutamide—an investigational androgen receptor inhibitor—significantly improved metastasis-free survival in men with high-risk nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer vs placebo in the large phase III ARAMIS trial.1 Men treated with darolutamide had a median metastasis-free survival...
Although diagnostic errors date back to antiquity, in recent years, they have begun to receive attention as an important patient safety issue. This culminated in the National Academy of Medicine’s 2015 landmark report, which concluded that most people in the United States would experience at...
The proportion of early-stage drug trials tackling the most common tumor types has declined sharply since the early 1990s, as less common cancers receive increasing attention in trials, according to new research presented by Sato et al at the TAT 2019–International Congress on Targeted...
A recent study by the American Cancer Society (ACS) has found that while colorectal cancer incidence in the United States is rapidly declining overall, colorectal cancer rates are increasing among young adults. According to the study, compared with adults born in the 1950s, those born in the 1990s...
INVESTIGATORS FROM Australia have identified a genetic mutation that causes resistance to the targeted drug venetoclax in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to research presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition1 and...
THE LARGEST PROSPECTIVE trial of hydroxyurea for sickle cell anemia has shown that this treatment is feasible, accepted, well tolerated, and safe for children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Hydroxyurea has long been the standard of care for treating children with sickle cell anemia in developed...
Mrinal S. Patnaik, MBBS, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Oncology and a consultant in hematology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, commented on the MEDALIST trial for The ASCO Post. “Given its unique mode of action, relative ease of administration, and excellent tolerability,...
IN A PHASE III TRIAL reported during the Plenary Session at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, single-agent ibrutinib and ibrutinib/rituximab were associated with superior progression-free survival vs...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. On October 30, 2018, pembrolizumab in combination with...
IN A COMMENT letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASCO urged the agency to ensure that every Medicaid enrollee with cancer can access the high-quality care needed to treat his or her disease. The comments were submitted in response to a proposed rule on Medicaid and the ...
AT MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING Cancer Center, Mrinal M. Gounder, MD, led the first randomized, global trial for patients with desmoid tumors, a rare type of sarcoma. The trial: Patients with unresectable progressive desmoid tumors randomly received either a placebo or sorafenib. The results: Tumors...
Jeffrey M. Drazen, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, wrote in a 2016 editorial, “Data Sharing and the Journal,” that “[W]e believe there is a moral obligation to the people who volunteer to participate in these trials to ensure that their data are widely and responsibly...
AXICABTAGENE CILOLEUCEL (also known as CAR19) is an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat selected hematologic malignancies.1 To appreciate the clinical trial findings summarized here, from selected abstracts presented at the ...
TISAGENLECLEUCEL IS an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat selected hematologic malignancies.1,2 To appreciate the clinical trial findings summarized here, from selected abstracts presented at the 2018 American Society of...
TO ADD to our ongoing coverage of the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, we bring readers of The ASCO Post these summaries of an assortment of interesting studies. They focus on novel therapies under investigation in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic...
IN THE PADDY TRIAL, involving more than 10,000 women with early invasive breast cancer, the presence of disseminated tumor cells at diagnosis or primary surgery was an independent prognostic factor for overall, disease-free, and distant disease–free survival. The study findings were presented at...
REPORTERS FOR The ASCO Post captured the following summaries of noteworthy studies presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. In HER2-Negative Metastatic Disease, CTCs Frequently HER2-Positive ALMOST HALF of all patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer have circulating...
IN 2017, ASCO issued its recommendations for addressing the oncology care needs of sexual and gender minority cancer survivors and the unique challenges they face.1 There are myriad reasons for cancer disparities in this population compared to heterosexual cisgender cancer survivors, including...
THERE IS little doubt that the U.S. health-care system is under assault from many directions.1 It is clear that the costs of health management are no longer sustainable, and the United States has one of the highest per capita health costs among the 36 member nations of the Organisation for...
For the first time in more than 20 years, patients with sickle cell disease may have another treatment option to reduce painful vaso-occlusive crises, according to data presented at the 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition.1 Results of the phase II, randomized,...
Over the past week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted multiple Priority Reviews and accepted a supplemental new drug application: Priority Review for Entrectinib in NTRK Fusion–Positive Solid Tumors and Metastatic, ROS1-Positive NSCLC This week, the FDA accepted new drug...
A new report indicates that without a national effort to transform health-care delivery in the United States, many people will not benefit from the ongoing improvements in cancer care. These findings were published by Yabroff et al in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The article is the fifth...
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified estradiol as a potential new treatment for a subset of women with triple-negative breast cancer. Their findings were published by Reese et al in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. “Triple-negative breast...
Northwestern Medicine has received a $10 million gift to fund the creation of a new multidisciplinary institute dedicated to urologic cancers. The Polsky Urologic Cancer Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Polsky ...
On November 27, 2018, the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) dedicated the conference room on its oncology floor in the name of faculty member Nagi El Saghir, MD, FACP, FASCO, Head of the Hematology/Oncology Division and Director of the Breast Center of Excellence at AUBMC. Dr....
Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO, ASCO Chief Executive Officer, on the effects of lower drug costs on people with cancer: While ASCO supports efforts to control drug prices, we are keenly aware that optimal cancer care requires patient access to the most medically appropriate drug, at the most...