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Showing 4251 - 4300Just Engaging in ‘Some’ Leisure Time Physical Activity Reduces Overall and Cancer-Specific Mortality
There’s good news for those who recognize the benefits of exercise but feel they have neither the time nor energy for frequent workouts: A recent study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine1 has found that just performing “some” leisure time physical activity, even below the recommended minimum level, ...
Remembering Multiple Myeloma Patient Advocate Michael S. Katz, MBA
I first met Michael Katz, MBA, in 2004, 3 years after my brother, Dom, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and we were at a crossroads in his care and needed advice. Although an experimental regimen of thalidomide (Thalomid) and dexamethasone had successfully put Dom in remission for a year (the...
Learning to Communicate Science More Effectively
Alan Alda’s passion and appreciation for science extend nearly as far back to his early life as his love of acting. The son of actor Robert Alda, Mr. Alda began his acting career at the age of 16. Although he has appeared in such widely acclaimed films as The Seduction of Joe Tynan, Crimes and...
Living With a Rare Cancer—My Dr. Seuss World
No one ever expects to hear the words “you have cancer,” but over the course of the day, over 5,000 people in the United States are given that news.1 I first heard those words in the summer of 2007 and have been living with cancer ever since. At the time of my diagnosis, I knew this would forever...
Courage Under Fire
The following essay by Kishore K. Dass, 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. Born in...
A Less Is More View of Medicine
BOOKMARKTitle: Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical CareAuthor: H. Gilbert Welch, MDPublisher: Beacon PressPublication date: March 3, 2015Price: $24.95; hardcover, 241 pages He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of most medicines. —Benjamin Franklin...
Building a Better Federal Oncology Workforce
The process of delivering novel treatments for patients with cancer involves a multifaceted and long-term interaction between three distinct entities: clinical researchers, who conduct the trials which test treatments; drug developers, including the pharmaceutical industry, which takes cancer drugs ...
8 Steps to Help Children Cope With Cancer and Its Treatment
Here are several steps for helping pediatric and adolescent patients to cope with cancer and its treatment. Give young patients control whenever possible, suggests Shawna Grissom, MS, CCLS, CEIM, Director of the Child Life Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and offer them realistic...
Taking the Trauma Out of Cancer Care for Children and Adolescents
Getting a cancer diagnosis and going through treatment are difficult for patients of any age, but the experience can be especially traumatizing for the nearly 16,000 infants, children, and adolescents diagnosed each year with cancer,1 especially during the early days of treatment. Young cancer...
In Search of Meaning: A Personal Journey
A famous Talmudic question asks: “What is truer than the truth?” The answer: “The story.” This is the story of my personal journey in search of meaning and the development of an approach to care for patients with advanced cancer, which I came to call “meaning-centered psychotherapy.” In terms of...
Potential Power of Meaning-Centered Group Psychotherapy in Patients With Advanced Cancer
The recent publication of the results of our National Cancer Institute (NCI) RO1-funded randomized controlled trial of meaning-centered group psychotherapy for advanced cancer patients in the Journal of Clinical Oncology,1 and the accompanying summary published in this issue of The ASCO Post,...
A Closer Look at the Disparities in Breast Cancer Outcome by Race and Ethnicity
The report from Dr. Steven Narod and colleagues recently published in JAMA1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post adds to the growing evidence regarding observed disparities in breast cancer outcomes by race and ethnicity among women in the United States. Since 1990, breast cancer death rates ...
June McKoy Named to NCI Council of Research Advocates
June McKoy, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, MBA, Associate Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Director of Geriatric Oncology for the Lurie Cancer Center, has been selected by National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director, Douglas Lowy, MD, to join ...
Taking the Next Step in a Storied Career
On March 31, 2015, Harold Varmus, MD, left his position as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to join the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York as its Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine. Dr. Varmus was also named Senior Associate Core Member of the New York...
MAINSAIL Trial: Worse Outcomes With Addition of Lenalidomide to Docetaxel-Prednisone in Prostate Cancer
The combination of docetaxel plus prednisone has been a standard therapy in advanced prostate cancer since 2004.1 Since then, there have been multiple randomized phase III trials comparing this standard of care with additional drug therapy. None has demonstrated improvement in outcome. Lenalidomide ...
Managing Breast Cancer in 2015
Since 1990, we have seen an approximate 35% reduction in breast cancer mortality among women in the United States. Three protagonists can share this clinical success story: prevention, early detection, and better therapies. To shed light on the current state of breast cancer research and therapy,...
Prostate Tumors With Genetic Abnormalities Respond to Olaparib
Olaparib (Lynparza) achieved encouraging response rates in men with metastatic prostate cancer, particularly those with mutations in genes involved in DNA repair (BRCA2 and ATM, most commonly).1 If validated, these results of the TOPARP-A trial will usher in the first drug targeted to somatic or...
Adoptive T-Cell Therapy Successfully Treats Devastating Complication of Stem Cell Transplantation
A new “off-the-shelf” treatment promises to induce remission in rituximab (Rituxan)-refractory Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphoproliferative disorder, a potentially fatal complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Historically, this complication has been difficult to treat...
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®): 2015 Updates
For 2 decades, the NCCN Guidelines® have been recognized as the standard of cancer care in the United States, combining evidence, experience, and choice, so that multidisciplinary cancer treatment teams—including patients—are empowered to make informed decisions about cancer care,” said Robert W....
Simple Means of Preventing Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Reported
Two daily doses of nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, significantly reduced the occurrence of nonmelanoma skin cancers by 23% in individuals considered at high risk for these lesions in an Australian study. Results of the phase III ONTRAC trial, which will be presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual...
Novel Agent Elotuzumab Added to Lenalidomide/Dexamethasone Extends Progression-Free Survival in Multiple Myeloma
The monoclonal antibody elotuzumab, given with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone, extended progression-free survival by a median of 5 months, compared with lenalidomide/dexamethasone alone, in the eagerly awaited phase III ELOQUENT-2 trial, which will be presented at the 2015 ASCO Annual...
Docetaxel Combined With Hormone Therapy Extends Survival in Advanced Prostate Cancer
Results from the STAMPEDE trial showed that the addition of docetaxel to standard hormone therapy improved overall survival by a median of 10 months over hormone therapy alone in men with newly diagnosed, advanced, hormone therapy–naive prostate cancer.1 The study also showed that zoledronic acid...
A Tribute to James F. Holland, MD, in Celebration of His 90th Birthday
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. —Theodore Roosevelt Longevity, in and of itself, is not an accomplishment. Luck and good genes are just human lottery tickets. Most people fortunate enough to live long lives have a productive sweet ...
After a Long and Distinguished Career, Robert C. Young, MD, Shows No Sign of Slowing Down
Robert C. Young, MD, ASCO Past President, longtime leader of Fox Chase Cancer Center, and an internationally recognized expert in lymphoma and ovarian cancer, is a forward-looking doctor who is confident about something not in his future: retirement. “I’ll never quit working; I’m just not wired...
Wyndham H. Wilson, MD, PhD: Shedding Light on the Complexity of Lymphoma Through a Lifetime of Illuminating Research
Dear Dr. Wilson: I am writing to express our family’s deepest and heartfelt appreciation for the lifesaving care you and your team provided for our son, Patrick…. I don’t know how widely it is known that you save lives at the National Cancer Institute—offering hope to people like Patrick, who have...
Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, Went From the Front Lines of Cancer Care to a Bird’s-Eye View of the Changing Oncology Landscape
At the end of the day, I’m still a kid from South Philly,” Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told The ASCO Post. Dr. von Eschenbach is the product of a closely knit yet culturally...
Global Leader in Drug Development John L. Marshall, MD, Calls for a Smarter War on Cancer
John L. Marshall, MD, a global leader in the research and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, in a family that put high value on education. As a young boy, science was already on his mind; he enjoyed the explorative nature that chemistry and biology offered....
Bruce A. Chabner, MD, and His Innovative Pharmacology Research Led to the Development of Practice-Changing Therapies
Numerous challenges and milestones mark the course of an oncology career. Community doctors remember special patients, often speaking about a singular bond that is unique among a profession that deals with life and death daily. Researchers recount long hours of seeming futility and then the...
Carolyn R. ‘Bo’ Aldigé Reflects on 30 Years of Cancer Prevention
In 1985, Carolyn R. “Bo” Aldigé founded the Prevent Cancer Foundation in honor of her father, who had died the previous year of head and neck cancer. She started the Foundation in her kitchen with a typewriter, a sheath of carbon copy paper, and a telephone. “I quickly rented an office because a...
Cancer Will Always Be Part of My Life
My first experience with cancer was when I was just 9 years old, and a lump the size of an egg popped out on the right side of my neck. A biopsy of the tumor found that it was Hodgkin lymphoma, and I was given huge doses of external-beam radiotherapy applied to my neck, chest, and underarm lymph...
How and When to Give Professional Feedback
Providing students and residents with feedback on their medical performance is a key element in their learning and development and ensures that high standards are met, according to Charlene M. Dewey, MD, MEd, FACP, Assistant Dean of Educator Development; Associate Professor of Medical Education and ...
Fulfilling NCI’s Commitment to Supporting the Best Science
On April 1, 2015, Douglas R. Lowy, MD, became Acting Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), succeeding Harold Varmus, MD, who left NCI to join the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. (See “The Next Step in a Storied Career,” in the May 25, 2015 issue of The ASCO Post.)...
Anti–PD-L1 Agent Shows Activity in Early Study of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
An investigational immunotherapy called MPDL3280A showed encouraging and durable clinical activity in heavily pretreated patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, in an early study presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR).1 Responses...
Mismatch Repair Deficiency Predicts Benefit With Pembrolizumab in Colorectal Cancer
A genetic marker to predict response to anti–PD-1 (anti-programmed cell death protein 1) antibodies may have emerged in colorectal cancer, a tumor type that is a newcomer to the anti–PD-1 ballgame. In a phase II study of colorectal cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab (Keytruda), the presence ...
CheckMate 067: Dual Checkpoint Blockade Proves Effective in Advanced Melanoma
In advanced melanoma, combination treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) more than doubled the median progression-free survival time over ipilimumab alone in the CheckMate 067 trial. That said, single-agent nivolumab proved almost as powerful in patients expressing the programmed ...
Carpe Diem
My life as a cancer survivor and an oncologist has taught me the importance of living every day to the fullest. Sometimes we all need a little reminding to appreciate life to the fullest. When I think of my former patient, Marc, that is what comes to mind. When I was a senior in high school, I was...
Redefining Cancer
The ability to interrogate cancer cells at the genomic, proteomic, immunologic, and metabolomic levels will transform oncology care from one that relies mainly on trial-and-error treatment strategies based on the anatomy of the tumor to one that is more precisely based on the tumor’s molecular...
Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Oral Cavity and Oropharyngeal Cancers
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers. The trials are investigating combination therapies, treatment toxicity, specialized adjuvant therapies, and proton therapy. All of ...
New Resources Developed by ASCO’s Community Research Forum
The ASCO Community Research Forum (CRF) is a solution-oriented venue for community research sites to overcome barriers to conducting clinical trials. Each year, the CRF council, comprising ASCO member volunteers, selects topic areas and specific solution-oriented projects for working groups to make ...
Expert Point of View: Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD
Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD, Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Amyloidosis Program, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York Presbyterian Hospital, served as the study’s discussant. She called the 29% response rate in this heavily pretreated or refractory population...
ASCO Releases Details of Its Conceptual Framework for Assessing Value in Cancer Care
Defining and ensuring the delivery of high-value oncology care has been one of ASCO’s major goals for more than a decade. In 2007, ASCO formed the Task Force on the Cost of Cancer Care, now called the Value in Cancer Care Task Force, to identify the drivers of the increasing costs of oncology care...
Building and Adjusting to My Life After Cancer
I had been watching a lump in my left breast for signs of cancer for 10 years, from around the time I was 21. Screening tests had failed to find any tissue abnormality, and my doctor said I was too young to have cancer, so I wasn’t overly concerned. But when I noticed the lump getting bigger in...
Expect and Encourage Questions About the Benefits and Harms of Cancer Screening
Issuing advice for high-value care in screening for five common cancers, the High Value Care Task Force of the American College of Physicians (ACP) stated: “The target audience for this paper is all clinicians. The target patient population is average-risk, asymptomatic patients.” “What we tried...
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, FASCO: Never One to Back Down From a Challenge
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, FASCO, always sat in the front row at school. She grew up during a rigidly paternalist period in American society, and her early feminist leanings were brushed aside as grade-school adventures. The medical school lecture room of the 1960s was a male-dominated culture, and...
ASCO Members, Public Working Together to ‘Take Down’ Cancer
From Wrigley Field to McCormick Place, Chicago residents and visitors felt the energy surrounding the launch of The Campaign to Conquer Cancer during the ASCO 2015 Annual Meeting. The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (CCF) threw out the ceremonial first pitch...
Oncolytic Immunotherapy in Melanoma: It’s Not All About PD-1
The benefit from immune-directed therapies in patients with advanced melanoma is not limited to the exploding field of checkpoint inhibitors. According to Robert Andtbacka, MD, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology, at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City,...
How CancerLinQ™ Can Benefit People Living With Cancer
As a regular readers of The ASCO Post know, ASCO is developing an exciting new health information learning system called CancerLinQ™, which will exponentially enlarge our understanding of cancer therapy far beyond what we’ve achieved with our system of clinical trials. Cancer clinical trials have...
My Faith Helped Me Choose a Way Forward With Cancer
I've been fortunate to be strong and healthy for most of my life. In fact, there is no history of any serious illness in my family, which is why I was so unprepared to hear the words “You have breast cancer” 5 years ago. Not only was the diagnosis foreign to me, I had no idea what chemotherapy and...
Capitalizing on Increased Interest in Skin Cancer During Summer to Reeducate People About Sunscreens and ‘Smart Sun Strategies’
Amid the encouraging studies reported at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting about advances in the treatment of melanoma was a troubling finding about the incidence of melanoma increasing. An analysis of data from nine Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries found that the incidence...
Clinical Trials Actively Recruiting Patients With Melanoma
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies for patients with melanoma. The trials are investigating immune response; vaccine therapy; ipilimumab in conjunction with numerous therapies; and chemotherapy regimens. All of the studies ...
