Cardio-oncology represents the intersection of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Cancer therapies can result in cardiovascular complications, and some patients become less attentive to their chronic disease management after a diagnosis of cancer. As cancer patients are living longer, for some,...
Yale School of Medicine recently announced a gift to establish the Chênevert Family Brain Tumor Center at Yale Cancer Center. The Center will be a leading institution in worldwide neuro-oncology research, bringing groundbreaking solutions and hope to patients with brain tumors. The gift will...
John Marshall, MD, of the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University, and his wife, Liza Marshall, a breast cancer survivor, talk about the impact of her diagnosis, how it changed their view of cancer care and the way clinicians communicate, and why their memoir has an important message.
This week, The ASCO Post sat down with Dr. John Marshall, of the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University, and his wife, Liza Marshall, a former lawyer, active advocate for patients with cancer, and a breast cancer survivor. The Marshalls are the coauthors of a new book entitled Off Our...
Research recently published by Valencia et al in the journal Cancers found that advanced-stage kidney cancer is more common in Hispanic American and Native American patients than in non-Hispanic White patients. Using data from the National Cancer Database and the Arizona Cancer Registry,...
Loneliness and social isolation have been significant problems for the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for patients with cancer, these issues were particularly acute, likely due to isolation and social distancing, according to a recent study published by Miaskowski et al in the ...
A study designed to enroll an equal number of Black and White men with advanced prostate cancer confirmed key findings that have been evident in retrospective analyses and suggest potential new avenues for treating Black patients who disproportionately die of the disease. Researchers at Duke Cancer ...
In 1% to 2% of cancer cases, the primary site of tumor origin cannot be determined. Because many modern cancer therapeutics target primary tumors, the prognosis for a cancer of unknown primary (CUP) is poor, with a median overall survival of 2.7 to 16 months. In order to receive a more specific...
Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD, of Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, was recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society—the first female to head the organization in its 107-year history. Dr. Knudsen talks about the opportunities she sees ahead for the Society...
On May 5, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with trastuzumab plus fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic...
A commonly used risk prediction model does not accurately identify high-risk Black patients with lung cancer who could gain life-saving benefit from early screening—paving the way for improving screenings and guidelines. These findings were published in a research letter by Shusted et al in JAMA...
There is currently no consensus on what quality end-of-life care for children with cancer looks like, or how to measure and deliver it; however, investigators recently assembled an expert panel to help fill this void. In a study published by Emily Johnston, MD, MS, and colleagues in the journal...
The first study to use x-rays and computed tomography (CT) to detect evidence of cancer among the skeletal remains of a preindustrial population suggests that between 9% to 14% of adults in medieval Britain had the disease at the time of their death. These findings were published by Mitchell et al...
Researchers have demonstrated a possible connection between colorectal polyps in close relatives and the risk of developing colorectal cancer. The study, which was published by Song et al in the British Medical Journal, is of potential consequence for cancer screening procedures. Colorectal cancer...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review designation to treatments for surgically resected, high-risk, muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma and epidermal growth factor receptor exon 20 insertion mutation–positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)....
A phase II trial has found found that BK virus (BKV)-specific T cells from healthy donors were safe and effective as an off-the-shelf therapy for BKV-associated hemorrhagic cystitis, a painful complication that is common after allogeneic stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia or lymphoma. ...
More news has emerged from this week’s meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC). The group voted 8 to 0 in favor of continuing the accelerated approval for pembrolizumab in sorafenib-pretreated patients with hepatocellular carcinoma; 6 to 2...
Concerns about fertility often influence how young women with breast cancer approach treatment decisions and are a reason for forgoing or delaying hormone-blocking therapy, according to findings from a recent study published by Sella et al in the journal Cancer. The findings reinforce the need for...
Roche has announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 10 to 1 in favor of maintaining the accelerated approval of atezolizumab for the treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who are not eligible for...
Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act was associated with significant increases in breast reconstruction among non-Hispanic Black women, achieving parity at times with non-Hispanic White women, according to a new study presented by Sharon Lum, MD, and colleagues at the American Society...
Survivors of low-risk breast cancer may experience wide-ranging and significant physical and psychological symptoms after cancer treatment, according to a new study presented by Jessica Schumacher, PhD, and colleagues at the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) Annual Meeting. Researchers...
Nonsurgical breast cancer cryoablation, which destroys tumor cells by exposing them to subfreezing temperatures, is proving to be an effective alternative to surgery for small breast tumors with low-risk features in women older than age 60. These were the early findings from 3-year results of the...
The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly altered breast cancer treatment approaches, with a significant rise in neoadjuvant endocrine therapy for estrogen receptor–positive tumors, enabling immediate evidence-based treatment of women with an extremely common form of breast cancer, while delaying surgery and...
Amgen has announced that it agreed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed postmarketing requirement to conduct, as part of the ongoing development program, a multicenter randomized clinical trial to compare the safety and efficacy of sotorasib at 960 mg once daily vs a lower daily...
Social media platforms are valuable tools for educating patients about serious health topics, but they can also spread false and biased information with potentially harmful results, according to recent research published by Stacy Loeb, MD, MSc, and colleagues in European Urology. Researchers...
Using data from the 2010–2018 National Health Interview Surveys, Chen et al found that just 16% of men who were 18 to 21 years old had received at least one dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at any age. In comparison, 42% of women in the same age bracket had gotten at least one shot of ...
Roche announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted seven to two in favor of maintaining accelerated approval of atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy (nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel, or nab-paclitaxel) for the treatment of ...
Editor’s note: Dr. Gale is an authority on medical response to nuclear and radiation accidents and participated in rescue efforts at the Chernobyl disaster, as well as at Goiania, Tokaimura, and Fukushima, among other radiation and nuclear accidents. Anyone reading the popular press or even...
On April 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to loncastuximab tesirine-lpyl (Zynlonta), a CD19-directed antibody and alkylating agent conjugate, for adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, ...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research recently announced five grants to support innovative research focused on understanding the influence of a patient’s biology on the genesis, development, treatment, and survivorship of cancer. Each...
On January 25, 2021, Susan R. Bailey, MD, President of the American Medical Association (AMA), issued the following statement: “The AMA welcomes the President’s decision to reverse the policy that largely barred transgender people from serving in the military, because there is no medically valid...
On March 2, 2021, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) issued the following statement: As one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the NIH [National Institutes of Health], the National Cancer Institute stands with [NIH Director] Dr. Francis Collins and the entire NIH in supporting UNITE. “I ...
Autism spectrum disorder refers to a group of conditions characterized by difficulty in navigating normal social situations and having all-absorbing repetitive behaviors or stereotyped interests. At the milder end of the spectrum is Asperger’s syndrome, generally confined to people with higher...
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will present Distinguished Public Service Awards to three individuals whose extraordinary work has exemplified the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy, advocacy,...
Patients with cancer expressed more interest in complementary and integrative medicine services when these services were recommended by an oncologist or other medical professional or were provided for free in a clinical trial, according to a survey reported in JCO Oncology Practice.1 The survey...
The top two barriers to accessing complementary and integrative therapies, according to a survey of 576 patients with cancer and caregivers, were cost, cited by 56%, and a lack of knowledge about the therapies, cited by 52.1%. “Other barriers included a lack of time (29.2%), location of the...
Everything about my breast cancer diagnosis, from my presentation to diagnosis, was strange. In the spring of 2006, I was performing my monthly breast self-exam when I felt a hard lump in the upper left quadrant of my left breast. Having lost a good friend to breast cancer 4 years earlier, I was...
The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) has begun a multiyear, multidisciplinary initiative, M-Power Charlotte, which is designed to promote the early diagnosis and treatment of myeloma in the Black community. The IMF is working with Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute’s Disparities &...
Randomized clinical trials are highly regulated initiatives that must comply with multiple requirements while maintaining high epistemic standards, a balance that becomes increasingly difficult as the research questions surrounding immunotherapy and targeted agents become more complex. To shed...
For this installment of the Living a Full Life series, guest editor Jame Abraham, MD, spoke with Griffin P. Rodgers, MD, MACP, Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Rodgers, a physician-scientist,...
Narjust Duma, MD, was recently named Associate Director of the Cancer Care Equity Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School. In her role at the Cancer Care Equity Program, Dr. Duma will develop strategies to diminish health-care disparities...
Leading cardiothoracic surgeon and researcher Brendon Stiles, MD, has been appointed Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery & Surgical Oncology in the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Stiles will also...
CancerCare, the leading national nonprofit organization providing free support services to anyone affected by cancer, recently welcomed Mark D. Peters II, PharmD, to its team as Vice President for New Business Development and Outreach. Dr. Peters, who has more than 30 years of clinical and...
Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) announced the appointment of Neeraj Agarwal, MD, physician-scientist at HCI and Professor of Internal Medicine at the U of U, as Senior Director of Clinical Research Innovation. In this role, Dr. Agarwal will oversee critical...
A study published by Small et al in the journal Brachytherapy found that the common procedure of interstitial or intracavitary radiotherapy may continue safely—potentially without delay or antibiotics—in patients with cervical cancer following uterine perforation. According to the World Health...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to bemarituzumab as first-line treatment for patients with fibroblast growth factor receptor 2b (FGFR2b)-overexpressing and HER2-negative metastatic and locally advanced gastric and gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma...
Introduction of immunotherapy has revealed a paradigm shift in the management of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that does not harbor a therapeutically targetable driver mutation. Over the past 5 years, several trials have informed treatment decisions, based on disease...
On April 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to dostarlimab-gxly (Jemperli) for adult patients with mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR) recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer, as determined by an FDA-approved test, that has progressed on or following a prior...