Long-term follow-up data on axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) in lymphoma, potential partners for nivolumab (Opdivo) in solid tumors, and a targeted agent for RET-altered cancers were featured during the developmental therapeutics program at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting. At the Best of ASCO...
My male colleagues sometimes broach the topic of #MeToo or sexual harassment in medicine by saying how uncomfortable it makes them. Ah, yes. How uncomfortable the sexual harassment I have faced for years makes you. I casually bring up microaggressions—subtle verbal or nonverbal slights against...
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centerhave shown how BRCA-associated protein 1 (BAP1) serves as a tumor suppressor gene in kidney, eye and bile duct cancers; mesothelioma; and other malignancies by regulating a form of cell death called...
Compared with placebo, cabozantinib (Cabometyx) significantly improved overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who were previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar), with no new safety signals, according to data from the phase III CELESTIAL ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a series of critical and historic enforcement actions related to the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes to children. In the largest coordinated enforcement effort in the its history, the agency issued more than 1,300 warning...
Survey results released by the Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) show that general awareness about lung cancer has improved significantly over the past decade, with 94% of the public reporting familiarity with lung cancer. Despite this change in overall perspective, findings also indicate that lung cancer ...
A group of men with especially aggressive prostate cancer may respond unusually well to immunotherapy, according to a study published by Rodrigues et al in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The research offers the possibility of effective treatment, with clinical trials already underway. An...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has released its annual Cancer Progress Report highlighting how federally funded research discoveries are fueling the development of new and even more effective ways to prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat cancer. Key advances outlined...
Recent research and genomic studies have revealed a number of genes that accumulate somatic mutations and alterations in estrogen receptor (ER)–positive breast cancer. However, while a few alterations are quite common and relatively well-understood, many genes are mutated in less than 5% of...
THE ASCO ANSWERS Palliative Care booklet shares how palliative care or supportive care is used to manage symptoms and side effects; help with practical concerns; address spiritual questions; and support caregivers, family, and friends. Your patients will find: Practical advice on how to access...
HOW DO patients really feel when they are in your care? What does it feel like to cure a cancer? How are the children of oncologists affected when grief is a parent’s occupational hazard? They are the personal topics explored in the candid and inspirational mini-podcast series, Your Stories:...
Research grants are vital to the success of academic research and researchers apply for these grants at all stages of their career. This makes writing stand-out grant applications an incredibly valuable skill for clinical investigators—and an intimidating task for first-time grant applicants....
Cory Wiegert has been named Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO. Mr. Wiegert, a proven expert in building and successfully launching innovative technology solutions, began his new role on August 13, 2018, and is overseeing the continued...
ASCO offers a portfolio of prestigious leadership training opportunities for those who are ready to take the next step in their careers. This includes the Leadership Development Program (LDP), a program that began in 2009 and was created to teach mid-career oncologists leadership skills and help...
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on targeted therapy in thyroid cancer. These trials are studying immunosuppressants, combination therapies, tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment, mitigation of treatment side...
The tumultuous history of modern South Africa has numerous stories that lie beneath the surface of the sociopolitical headlines, such as the story of lung cancer expert Leora Horn, MD. “I was born and reared in Johannesburg, South Africa, a second-generation African family. In 1987, because of the...
Male breast cancer is a rare and understudied malignancy when compared with female breast cancer, with conflicting literature on survival outcomes in men and women. The ASCO Post spoke recently with breast cancer expert Sharon Giordano, MD, MPH, FASCO, Professor at The University of Texas MD...
Patients with advanced cancer often get more aggressive treatment than they want because too few oncologists elicit their end-of-life treatment preferences.1,2 In response to this problem, leading associations, including ASCO3,4 and the Institute of Medicine,5 have called for more advance care...
USING THE National Cancer Database, Bhatt et al1 recently reported that of the 61,775 adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), those who received chemotherapy from 2003 to 2011 lived longer than those who, in those same years, did not; the study is reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post....
AS MORE is learned about the genomic landscape in non-Hodgkin lymphoma, clinicians are grappling with how to apply this information in the clinic. At the 2018 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference, Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, helped them understand this emerging area.1 Dr. Zelenetz is Professor of...
U.S. Senator from Arizona John McCain passed away on August 25, 2018. The cause of death was glioblastoma multiforme. A number of medical societies issued statements remembering Senator McCain, a few of which are reprinted below. The ASCO Post shares in remembering Senator McCain for his service to ...
I have always been plagued with nagging headaches, so when they intensified in late 2010, I wasn’t too concerned. But when my eyes began involuntarily moving rapidly back and forth as I was writing Christmas cards, I knew the symptoms were a sign of something serious. A magnetic resonance imaging...
A MAN in his early 70s sits in our office. His general health is good, and he is feeling well. Yet he is deeply worried. Four years ago, when his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level rapidly increased after radical prostatectomy and subsequent radiation therapy, he was started on...
“The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath.” —William Shakespeare THESE LINES from The Merchant of Venice suggest that mercy should be freely given. However, the metrics of quality is strained, pouring like a thunderous storm obscuring...
A new method may predict the course of human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative head and neck cancer after radiochemotherapy. According to findings published by Hess et al in Clinical Cancer Research, five microRNAs (miRNAs) may be able to provide the decisive data. Squamous cell carcinomas of the head ...
Blood tests could predict how long it takes until colorectal cancer becomes resistant to treatment based on the same principle used in forecasting the weather, a new study by Khan et al in Cancer Discovery has found. The liquid biopsies could also predict patients that are unlikely to initially...
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 July 18, 2018, the indication for ribociclib (Kisqali) ...
Cheryl Lyn Walker, PhD, Director of the Center for Precision Environmental Health and Professor in the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Medicine, and Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, has been awarded an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has released new treatment guidelines for a group of rare cancers that impact women during pregnancy. Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, also known as gestational trophoblastic disease, may occur when tumors develop in the cells that would...
BOOKMARK Title: White Hot Grief Parade: A Memoir Author: Alexandra Silber Publisher: Pegasus Books Publication date: July 2018 Price: $25.95, hardcover; 288 pages The sudden death of a loved one produces a different type of trauma for family and friends than the protracted fading away of cancer. ...
On July 10, 2018, ipilimumab (Yervoy) was granted accelerated approval for use in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients at least 12 years of age with microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer progressing...
In 2009, as Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, was preparing his Presidential Address for that year’s ASCO Annual Meeting, he came across his 6th grade essay titled “My Ambition,” which foretold with eerie specificity the career path he would follow over the next 6 decades. In the paper,...
In 2016, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) launched the Drug Research Collaborative, a program the foundation developed to bridge the gap between academic investigators and their access to therapies under investigation and to encourage greater academia-driven research in breast cancer....
Many patients with the rare skin disease recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB)—commonly called butterfly syndrome—also develop squamous cell carcinoma early in life. Now an international team of scientists led by researchers at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer...
Scott Gottlieb, MD, Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, recently issued the following statement: “Ensuring that food is safe and truthfully labeled is one of our fundamental responsibilities at the FDA. Consumers deserve accurate information about the food they eat and how ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Karim et al found that a quality improvement initiative at a single cancer center improved documentation of goals-of-care discussions and referral to palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. Study Details In the study,...
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has released an evidence report assessing the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of antiandrogen therapies for the treatment of nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The report focuses on three antiandrogen...
United States Senator from Arizona John McCain passed away on August 25 of the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Numerous medical societies issued statements in light of his death, reprinted below. ASCO ASCO President Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, issued the following...
New computer software may be used to predict how cancers may respond to a new drug—before it has ever been given to patients. Researchers hope that this new tool could transform the discovery of cancer drugs by predicting how tumors become resistant to treatment before it first becomes...
Children with certain types of brain tumors who undergo radiation treatment are less likely to recall the specifics of events they experienced after radiation than to remember pretreatment happenings, according to a Baylor University study comparing them to children with healthy brains. These...
The ASCO Post is pleased to reproduce installments of the Art of Oncology as published previously in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These articles focus on the experience of suffering from cancer or of caring for people diagnosed with cancer, and they include narratives, topical essays,...
Two years ago, when I began having pain and bloody discharge in my left breast, I thought it was the return of a solitary intraductal papilloma I had had in that breast when I was a college student 6 years earlier, so the symptoms didn’t initially alarm me. It wasn’t until I noticed that the mass...
The Empire State Hematology & Oncology Society (ESHOS), a State Affiliate of ASCO, was formed in January 2017 as a merger of three separate hematology and oncology professional organizations in New York. Stuart P. Feldman, MD, of the New York State Society of Medical Oncologists &...
The American Cancer Society estimated that in 2015 in the United States, more than 86,000 women younger than age 45 were diagnosed with cancer. Many of them face reproduction and fertility concerns, which could lead to long-term distress and impaired quality of life in survivorship. To shed light...
EARLY IN 2018, blinatumomab (Blincyto) was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in first or second complete remission with minimal residual disease ≥ 0.1%.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data APPROVAL WAS...
ON JULY 20, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ivosidenib (Tibsovo) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation, as detected by an FDA-approved test.1,2 The FDA...
As the field of psycho-oncology continues to mature, new studies are being conducted to evaluate ways to better address the needs of patients with cancer and their families. The ASCO Post recently spoke with Michael Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Oncology at ...
AN ONGOING educational initiative, the Study to Measure Advanced Practitioner Retention of Targeted Information and Education (SMARTIE), measures oncology learning and how it is used with advanced practitioners and their patients with cancer. The initiative, conducted by Harborside Medical...
THE NATIONAL Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has released new treatment guidelines for a group of rare cancers that impact women during pregnancy. Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, also known as gestational trophoblastic disease, can occur when tumors develop in the cells that would...
A new scale for tumor DNA mutations called ESCAT (European Society for Medical Oncology [ESMO] Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets) is aiming to simplify and standardize choices for targeted cancer treatment. Information about the development and use of the scale in practice was...