The importance of achieving a certain level of response with imatinib (Gleevec) by 3 months in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) had previously been established in the IRIS (International Randomized Study of Interferon and STI571) trial.1 Analysis of data from this trial showed that...
Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma who received nucleoside analogs after curative liver resection had an associated lower risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in a nationwide cohort study using data from the Taiwan National Health Research Data Base. The study was...
Margaret I. Cuomo, MD, is a board-certified radiologist who served for many years as an attending physician in diagnostic radiology at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York. Dr. Cuomo is the daughter of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and sister to Governor Andrew Cuomo. She is...
While few patients receive radiation for cancer treatment in the last 30 days of life, almost 1 in 5 patients who do spend more than 10 of those days in treatment and more than half spend more than 5 days, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 The investigators used...
As an oncologist in private practice, I usually read with great interest the many articles in The ASCO Post on issues regarding the politics of oncology practice. These articles deal with the major topics of the day, ranging from the high cost of oncologic care to shortages of generic drugs, to...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has announced the creation of the ASH Foundation dedicated to curing blood diseases. The new foundation will complement and build on the work of the Society by harnessing the generosity of donors to expand the reach of successful ASH programs and develop new ...
The addition of aggressively dosed ifosfamide to doxorubicin in the treatment of advanced soft-tissue sarcomas significantly delayed disease progression but did not improve survival in the randomized phase III EORTC 62012 trial conducted by the Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group of the European...
A combined-modality approach of androgen-deprivation therapy plus radiation therapy achieves a substantial survival benefit over androgen-deprivation therapy alone in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer according to final analysis of an intergroup randomized phase III study conducted by...
Should cost be a consideration when deciding on treatment for patients with cancer, and if so, what kind of ethical dilemma does that pose for oncologists? With U.S. spending on oncology drugs expected to climb more than 20% annually over the next decade—reaching $173 billion by 2020, according to...
Clinical research is continuously delivering new treatments that lengthen and improve the lives of patients with cancer. The abundance of advances reported in the past year illustrates our steady progress in cancer treatment and care. Clinical Cancer Advances 2012: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress...
Doxepin oral rinse significantly improved oral mucositis in patients treated with radiation therapy for head and neck cancer according to results of a phase III trial presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in Boston. However, the improvement was...
Large-scale trials over the past several years have shown a general lack of effect of single vitamins or small numbers of vitamins given at high doses in preventing cancer. However, as recently reported in JAMA by Gaziano and colleagues, the Physicians’ Health Study II has found a modest but...
At press time, the FDA had granted approval for the following new agents and indications for cancer treatment in 2012. Cabozantinib (Cometriq) for the treatment of progressive metastatic medullary thyroid cancer. Cabozantinib is a small molecule that inhibits the activity of multiple tyrosine...
On August 29, 2012, everolimus in a tablet for oral suspension form (Afinitor Disperz) was given accelerated approval for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with tuberous sclerosis complex who have subependymal giant cell astrocytoma (SEGA) that requires therapeutic intervention but...
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 In August 2012, vinCRIStine sulfate LIPOSOME injection...
Many patients with colorectal liver metastases can undergo surgical resection with curative intent. Who are these patients and how are they best managed? In an interview with The ASCO Post, Steven A. Curley, MD, Professor of Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,...
None of three combination therapies tested among patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma in the BeST trial came close to achieving the primary objective of a 67% improvement in median progression-free survival compared to single-agent bevacizumab (Avastin), Keith T. Flaherty, MD, reported at...
This memantine study is a critical first step in understanding and delaying cognitive deterioration in brain metastasis patients, noted formal discussant Vinai Gondi, MD, Associate Director of Research at the CDH Proton Center in Warrenville, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor at the...
Memantine, a drug used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, slowed cognitive decline in patients with brain cancer treated with whole-brain radiation therapy in a phase III trial reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), held recently in Boston. Cognitive...
Consuming four or more cups per day of caffeinated coffee could almost halve the risk of dying from oral/pharyngeal cancer compared to drinking no coffee or drinking it only occasionally, researchers reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology. “A dose-related decline in relative risk was...
The use of dietary supplements by cancer patients has risen significantly over the past 2 decades despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and the...
Oncology fellows represent the future of cancer care, bringing the best and brightest young doctors into a rigorous training environment that molds their future career paths. Due to an impending workforce shortage in cancer care, the public health-care demands placed on today’s oncology fellows...
Whole-genome DNA analysis prospectively identified alterations in metastatic tumors that could be individually targeted with molecular agents, in a study presented at the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress by Fabrice André, MD, of Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France....
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 October 26, 2012, the FDA granted accelerated...
Support for the oral immunomodulatory agent pomalidomide for multiple myeloma took a step forward when the phase III MM-003 trial showed a survival advantage in patients with advanced disease, in addition to a doubling in progression-free survival, when pomalidomide was given with low-dose...
Five key biologic pathways have become evident in triple-negative breast cancer tumors, and these pathways may be targetable with agents that are currently available or in development, results from an international genetic analysis revealed at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Justin M. ...
The illness memoir’s appeal proves enduring in a very crowded genre, perhaps because illness is a tie that binds us all. As Susan Sontag wrote in her classic work, Illness as a Metaphor, “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in...
The use of dietary supplements by cancer patients has risen significantly over the past 2 decades despite insufficient evidence of safety and effectiveness. Finding reliable sources of information about dietary supplements can be daunting. Patients typically rely on family, friends, and the...
Subcutaneous administration of trastuzumab might offer improvements in patient convenience and resource use compared with conventional intravenous administration (Herceptin). A new subcutaneous trastuzumab formulation containing a fixed dose of 600 mg and recombinant human hyaluronidase PH-20...
From the initial discovery of the HER2 family of receptors in the mid-1980s to the present, a “wealth of riches” has been uncovered in terms of agents that can target pathways relevant to this aggressive breast cancer type, notes Hope S. Rugo, MD, Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials...
The 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium featured more than 2,500 abstracts and lectures, including timely research in the field and discussions for scientists and clinicians alike. In addition to nearly two dozen in-depth reports from the meeting, The ASCO Post brings readers the following...
The 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) featured about 5,000 abstracts, including oral sessions and posters, as well as named lectures and symposia. In addition to our regular news coverage from the meeting, below are capsule summaries of a few news highlights that we...
In the treatment of postmenopausal estrogen receptor–positive women with lobular carcinoma, letrozole appears to have a greater benefit than tamoxifen, according to an analysis of this subset of patients in the Breast International Group (BIG) 1-98 trial reported at the 35th Annual San Antonio...
In a commentary accompanying reporting of the phase II study of the MEK inhibitor selumetinib by Dr. Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, and colleagues, Sarah B. Goldberg, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and colleagues at Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Connecticut, noted that KRAS, a member of the...
The word “revival” signifies a renewed use or acceptance after a period of inactivity; similarly, the word “resurrection” refers to the concept of an entity coming back to life after death. In the past year, these terms have been used frequently by us (and others) in articles calling for the return ...
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 January 23, 2013, bevacizumab (Avastin) was approved...
The take-home message from this study is that in this large group of patients, we have found that beta-blocker intake during radiation therapy for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with improved survival and reduced rates of tumor spread, even when controlling for a large number of...
At the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held in Atlanta, nearly 5,000 abstracts were presented in oral sessions and posters. As part of our ongoing comprehensive coverage from the meeting, here are several more studies of note. New Targets in Acute Myeloid Leukemia...
Breast cancer patients who achieve a pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant therapy have more favorable outcomes than those who do not, according to a meta-analysis of neoadjuvant trials presented at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.1 Patients who achieved a pathologic complete...
Sandra Swain, MD, FACP, Medical Director of the Washington Cancer Institute, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, moderated the San Antonio session where the dose-dense chemotherapy studies were presented, and commented on the findings of the two studies. iddETC Trial With regard...
In the final planned joint analysis of overall survival from the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-31 and North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) N9831 trials, the addition of trastuzumab (Herceptin) to paclitaxel following doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (AC) reduced...
Despite the extremely difficult clinical challenges posed by brain tumors, mortality rates in this disease have decreased somewhat over the past several decades due, in part, to advances in surgical techniques and therapies. The ASCO Post recently discussed contemporary issues in neuro-oncology...
In patients with KRAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer, outcomes were comparable whether patients received the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor panitumumab (Vectibix) or the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin). This was shown both in the...
Athough the majority of the more than 69,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer each year will survive their disease, many of them will experience interruptions in their education and a derailment in their career tract, curtailing their lifetime earning potential and reducing ...
“Smokers lose at least one decade of life expectancy, as compared with those who have never smoked,” and the increased risk of death from cigarettes smoking “are now nearly identical for men and women,” according to two separate studies published online by TheNew England Journal of Medicine. One...
Patients ≥ 50 years old with leukemia/lymphoma are increasingly undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplants, raising questions about whether they might have better outcomes with transplants from younger allele-level 8/8 human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched unrelated donors than from...
After being diagnosed with stage II invasive ductal carcinoma in my right breast in 2004, I did an Internet search to learn more about my treatment options so I could be prepared when I met with my oncologist to discuss my treatment plan. I was especially interested in therapies that would be...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) reported with sadness the loss of Zora Brown, a trustee for the AACR Foundation for the Prevention and Cure of Cancer, a breast and ovarian cancer survivor, and a pioneering advocate for cancer research and breast cancer awareness among...
People are more optimistic today about their chances of surviving cancer, according to findings from a new international survey commissioned by Lilly Oncology. The phone survey of 4,341 individuals (including people in the general population, cancer survivors, and caregivers) in six countries (the...
Several studies have suggested that short-term overall survival for women with ovarian cancer and BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations is better than that in patients without such mutations. Indeed, a recent report by Kelly L. Bolton, PhD, and colleagues indicated that 5-year overall survival was 36% for...