Adults with cancer are at high risk for functional limitations that would negatively affect their quality of life. Occupational therapy offers a range of supportive services, with the specific goal of helping these patients engage in life as independently as possible. To provide a better...
This year, an estimated 180,890 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer; about 21,120 men die of the disease each year. On top of these sobering statistics, from screening to diagnosis and treatment, prostate cancer is fraught with controversy, creating untoward anxiety...
Despite growing awareness and the existence of guidelines, undertreatment of cancer pain remains a persistent dilemma in the oncology community. Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that more than 33% of patients suffering from invasive cancer do not receive...
ASCO established a State Affiliate Council in 2012 consisting of representatives from each of the Society’s 48 state or regional oncology societies. The Council met on April 21–22 at ASCO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The ASCO Post talked with Paul Celano, MD, FACP, President, Maryland/DC...
After an extensive national search, Hartford HealthCare has appointed ASCO Past-President Peter Paul Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, as the first Physician-in-Chief of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. As Physician-in-Chief, Dr. Yu will be responsible for working closely and collaboratively with...
Sarcoma therapy is a challenge for oncologists. Soft-tissue sarcomas encompass more than 50 different histologies, resulting in limited familiarity of management for many treating physicians. In addition, there have been few available effective therapies. The phase III trial of eribulin (Halavan) ...
I like economies of scale, and thus it makes perfect sense that ASCO has set a formal process to allow potential endorsement of selected guidelines from other organizations, rather than redoing the whole process. Recently, we have seen the publication of a formal endorsement of the European...
Next month, more than 30,000 oncology professionals will gather in Chicago for the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. This year’s theme, “Collective Wisdom: The Future of Patient-Centered Care and Research,” highlights the value of the combined knowledge of the global oncology community, spanning across...
Neratinib is an oral anti-HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has shown promising activity in the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.1 It differs from monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab (Herceptin) because, as a small molecule, neratinib blocks the ATP binding site on the...
According to a new survey of more than 1,500 consumers and nearly 600 physicians conducted on behalf of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), only 35% of Americans indicated that they were “likely” to enroll in a clinical trial. Other studies have shown that only 4% of cancer...
Three and a half years ago, Oliver Bogler, PhD, a cancer biologist and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, saw his personal and professional worlds collide. He received a cancer diagnosis—one that mirrored his wife’s. “Some might say that ...
The “collateral damage” of cancer treatment is a topic that is familiar to Susan Love, MD, MBA. As a breast cancer surgeon and chief visionary officer of Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, she has learned much about the consequences of cancer treatment. But she came by an important aspect of her...
In the fall of 2015, Vice President Joe Biden called for a “moonshot” to cure cancer. In his final State of the Union Address on January 12, 2016, President Barack Obama reemphasized that goal, stating, “Let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” To achieve that goal, the...
A new rule extending U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight to all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), and banning the sale of these products to anyone under the age of 181 was hailed as a major advanced by many leaders of medical and health organizations....
The following essay by Maurie Markman, MD, is adapted from The Big Casino: America’s Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories, which was coedited by Stan Winokur, MD, and Vincent Coppola and published in May 2014. The book is available on Amazon.com and thebigcasino.org. What’s...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the “Art of Oncology” as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
When Waun Ki Hong, MD, and his pregnant wife, Mihwa, made the journey from Korea to Manhattan in 1970, he had just $451 in his wallet, and the only job he could get was as an intern in Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, a community hospital in the Bronx. The work was grueling—24-hour shifts every 2...
When Evelyn H. Lauder was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989, she became a vocal spokesperson for women’s health, and in 1993, along with Larry Norton, MD, now Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Breast Cancer Programs and Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan...
In this installment of Hematology Expert Review, I will summarize five studies from the recent literature addressing important questions about leukemias and their treatment, anticoagulant therapy with the new agent defibrotide (Defitelio), and the use of antilymphocyte globulin to prevent chronic...
More than 100 years after William B. Coley, MD, used bacterial toxins to goad the immune system into recognizing cancer cells as foreign to the body and mount an immune response to go after and kill them, the recognition of immunotherapy as a powerful anticancer therapy is finally being...
Is cancer really “curable,” and if so, how? For a “Cancer Dialogue” held during the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, half a dozen stellar participants from the research, industry, regulatory, and advocacy communities convened to debate the topic. The ASCO Post was ...
This is an exciting time to be an oncologist. I often say I wish I were 30 again and just starting out in my oncology career. Never before have we had such sophisticated technology for evaluation of the tumor or such a potent arsenal of targeted and effective therapies to treat cancer. Further, the ...
The Middle East is a vast region comprised largely of developing nations with complicated sociopolitical challenges, violent internecine disputes, and deeply fragmented health-care systems. Not surprisingly, the region’s suboptimal health care contributes to the late diagnosis and poor survival...
BookmarkTitle: Dying: A TransitionAuthor: Monika Renz, PhD; translated by Mark Kyburz and John PeckPublisher: Columbia University PressPublication date: October 2015Price: $38.00; hardcover, 176 pages The night before Julius Caesar was assassinated, he had dinner with his friend Marcus...
In March, ASCO announced that Allen S. Lichter, MD, FASCO, was stepping down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the end of June, ending his 10-year tenure as head of the Society and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, Chief of Breast Medicine Service and Vice...
Current guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) recommend that operable patients with clinical stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) should receive induction chemotherapy (with or without concurrent radiotherapy) ...
A new report assesses how the nation fared against the ambitious goal set by the American Cancer Society (ACS) to reduce cancer death rates by 50% over 25 years ending in 2015. The report finds areas where progress was substantial, and others where it was not. Published by Byers et al in CA: A ...
A new study has found there is no decline over time in the accuracy of medical staff who analyze mammogram scans for indications of breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Warwick investigated whether detection rates dropped toward the end of each batch of mammogram readings. The study...
Women with breast cancer who know the characteristics of their tumor are more likely to receive the treatment recommended for their type of cancer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators reported in a new study. The study, published by Freedman et al in the Journal of Oncology Practice, is...
ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, issued this statement on May 10. “In comments submitted yesterday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASCO underscored the urgent need to advance a more fair and responsible payment system for oncology than what is proposed ...
Men with low levels of the male sex hormone testosterone need not fear that testosterone replacement therapy will increase their risk of prostate cancer. This is the finding of an analysis of more than a quarter-million medical records of mostly white men in Sweden, research led by investigators at ...
In 1997, just 6 weeks after giving birth to my second child, I started having fevers and night sweats and my lymph nodes were swollen. I’m a physician, so I knew something was wrong and that my symptoms were unrelated to having just given birth. I had a blood test, and a biopsy was performed on one ...
Imagine accidentally falling off an abyss. One simply cannot fully understand the gravity of the situation! You might skip a beat thinking about it while sitting in a chair in your living room, if you have tons of empathy, as you try to get into the shoes that are flailing for survival. But there...
In 2006, palliative care became a board-certified subspecialty of internal medicine, with specialized fellowships for physicians interested in the field. Despite its formal integration into best practices medical care, about 70% of Americans describe themselves as “not at all knowledgeable” about ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it is expanding its award-winning “The Real Cost” campaign to educate rural white male teenagers about the negative health consequences associated with smokeless tobacco use. For the first time, messages on the dangers of smokeless tobacco...
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been working together for many years on an idea known as breakthrough therapy, and it has produced results beyond anyone’s hopes. Said Ellen Sigal, PhD, Friends Chair and Founder, “When we were first talking...
Phase I Study Title: A Phase I Study to Examine the Toxicity of Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for Relapsed or Therapy-Refractory Ewing Sarcoma Study Type: Interventional/nonrandomized/single-group assignment Study Sponsor and Collaborators: University of Louisville Purpose: To examine the...
ASCO launched a new and improved website in early April, with a focus on improving the user experience. The Society’s redesigned online home makes it easier than ever for members and visitors to find the oncology-related information and resources they trust and value. The site’s redesign is the...
The ASCO Annual Meeting, which will be held June 3–7, 2016, in Chicago, brings together more than 30,000 oncology professionals from around the world to learn about and discuss the latest therapies, treatment modalities, research, and controversies in the field. Attendees are able to personalize...
Not all men with prostate cancer benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy after radical prostatectomy; however, African American men and men with a higher tumor stage may, according to a new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) study (Abstract PI LBA 06) featured at the 111th Annual Scientific...
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO is collaborating with Gateway for Cancer Research (Gateway) to fund a 2016 and 2017 Young Investigator Award through the Conquer Cancer Foundation Grants and Awards program. “Conquer Cancer Foundation is grateful for the generous support from Gateway and...
As our understanding of the complexities of breast cancer expands, so does our treatment armamentarium—and along with it the range of factors that must be included in our treatment decisions. Gone is the simple algorithm of adjuvant chemotherapy for almost every patient with a ≥ 2-cm tumor, except...
It was over 2 decades ago that my colleagues and I reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a first-generation oral antiandrogen, flutamide, when added to a luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, improved survival by nearly 6 months compared to an LHRH agonist alone in...
At the 2016 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, The ASCO Post sat down with the SGO’s outgoing President, Robert L. Coleman, MD, and discussed the revolutionary potential of blood biomarkers, why enhanced recovery after surgery protocols is a significant...
At the 2016 Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SOG’s) Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, Thomas J. Herzog, MD, Clinical Director, University of Cincinnati (UC) Cancer Institute and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UC College of Medicine, provided commentary on several noteworthy ovarian...
The BMT Tandem Meetings are the combined annual meetings of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Held recently in Honolulu, Hawaii, this year’s BMT Tandem Meetings drew 3,000 attendees from 35 countries,...
The national nonprofit organization CancerCare has announced the publication of a comprehensive report on experiences, perceptions, and needs of people who are living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. The 2016 CancerCare Patient Access and Engagement Report is a compilation of results from six...
Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck that progresses after platinum-based therapy has a dismal prognosis, and there is no effective standard of care. No treatment has improved survival for this patient population, but that may be about to change. Nivolumab (Opdivo), an anti–PD-1 (programmed ...
Excitement was high on the last day of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in anticipation of Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s remarks related to the Moonshot Initiative to accelerate progress in cancer research. The Secret Service made elaborate...
Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have demonstrated that distinct types of glioblastoma tend to develop in different regions of the brain. This finding provides an explanation for how the same cancer-causing mutation can give rise to different types of brain...